Hello, I’m Margaret MacMillan.
Without the ability to persuade others, a leader is not going to be able to lead and
he’s not going to be able or she’s not going to be able to get what it is he or she
wants.
Chapter two: persuasion, or bending others to your will.
If you look at someone like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for example, or our own Mackenzie
King, where they were extremely good with keeping enough people on side – they knew
they couldn’t persuade everyone, but they had enough people coming with them. They didn’t
go beyond what their people would tolerate, but they moved them gradually. Bit by bit
by bit, very carefully.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the American president for an unprecedented four terms.
>> ROOSEVELT: I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days.
>> MARGARET: If you want to understand just how persuasive Roosevelt could be, get one
of his fireside chats.
>> ROOSEVELT: My friends…
>> MARGARET: Roosevelt had a capacity to talk directly to the American people and he used
radio very effectively. And so although Americans saw their political leaders, they were often
remote figures. And what the fireside chat did is bring the voice of the American president
into your living room.
And so you’d be sitting there with your family, just two or three of you, and here
was this man apparently talking directly to you
>> ROOSEVELT: I want to talk with you about a number of subjects that greatly affect the
future of the United States.
>> MARGARET: He wasn’t making a speech. He would say hello, you know, how are you
doing. You felt that he was talking to you, not to millions of other people.
>> ROOSEVELT: I think it is right that on this Sabbath evening that I should say a word
on behalf of women and children, and old men who need help. Immediate help in their present
distress.
>> MARGARET: Roosevelt was facing a big political problem with Congress. France had been defeated
in the summer of 1940 and the British were running very short of resources. They had
been buying from the United States but they were now running out of money.
And so what Roosevelt had to try and persuade the American people, that it was in their
best interest to lend the British the things they needed to defend themselves. And so Roosevelt
said look, your neighbour’s house is on fire and he comes to you and he says, I need
a hose. Will you lend me your hose? Well Roosevelt said, of course you would. And you’re not
going to say to your neighbour, I’m not going to lend you my hose unless you pay cash
on the barrel right now. Because the important thing is to get the fire out. And actually,
if he doesn’t get his fire out, my house could catch on fire as well.
That was such a brilliant way of explaining why it was important for Britain to get the
war material it needed, why it couldn’t pay. But why eventually it was going to benefit
the United States.
And so what had been perhaps a rather superficial charm, a kind of charm that would, you know,
be very good at social events, now became a tool that he used to win over support.
Mackenzie King I think is undervalued in Canadian history. What I think we miss about Mackenzie
King is just how successful he was. He was and is Canada’s longest serving prime minister.
He was extremely good at keeping the country together. And if you look at his correspondence,
he was constantly writing letters. He would remember people’s birthdays. He kept in
touch with people right across the country and he kept people onside.
Not everyone found him charming. The wife of one of the British diplomats in Ottawa
said, whenever I meet him he overdoes it. She said I feel like I’ve been licked all
over by a cat. So not everyone liked Mackenzie King but many people found him charming. He
had good friends. He could be very amusing. Apparently he was a very good ballroom dancer.
Possibly the greatest crisis William Lyon Mackenzie King faced was the conscription
crisis in the Second World War. Conscription was a very sensitive issue in Canada, partly
because of what had happened in the First World War when there had been a division in
the country between the English speakers and the French speakers over the issue of conscription.
By 1943 the number of volunteers had become a trickle. And the army was saying that we
really need more men. We’ve got to have more men, we’ve got to have conscription.
And Mackenzie King was very reluctant to do it. And had made this famous statement where
he said: conscription if necessary but not necessarily conscription.
>> ANNOUNCER: In a compromise to meet overseas army needs the prime minister in Ottawa yields
on the conscription issue.
>> MARGARET: And what he did eventually was bring in a conscription bill with support
in Quebec, which said that young men would be conscripted. Initially they would only
serve in Canada but this would free up other soldiers and sailors to go abroad.
And so he managed to move Canada in the direction of conscription in the Second World War without
splitting the country. And I think that’s one of his greatest achievements.
If I’m thinking about the characteristic of persuasion among world leaders today, I
think there are a number who you can say have that.
I think President Obama has a great gift of persuasion. He has a tremendous eloquence.
>> OBAMA: I have no more campaigns to run.,
>> MARGARET: Of course what he’s trying to do is persuade the unpersuadable in Congress.
>> OBAMA: I know because I won both of them.
>> MARGARET: You have Angela Merkel who’s not nearly as eloquent as Obama but has managed
to instill in the German people the sense that she will tell them the truth, that she’s
upfront with them, that she will do her best for them and she has managed to bring them
along. And I think you see her recently using her political capital on the refugee crisis.
But I think she’s managed through her career to inspire a confidence which has
served her very well.
Thanks for watching. To view the next video in The Art of Leading series, click here.
Go on, it’s good stuff.
Pat Nixon, who was advised not to wear red. Because red traditionally in China had been
the colour that prostitutes wore.