The Business Coach

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About What Coaching Can and Cannot Do For You, but Didn’t Know You Could Ask.

Dr. Steven Berglas is an executive coach and management consultant who as a faculty member of Harvard Medical School's department of Psychiatry for over 30 years, specialized in the treatment of narcissistic disorders. See full bio

September 29, 2008, Media

In Terms Of Impression-management, Team Obama Is Kicking Team McCain's Butt

Team Obama's impression-management strategy was incredible.

I believe McCain must go on the offensive, gently, to tap into the sense of justice that protected Senator Obama from having any of the mud flung at him from sticking. Actually, I say this from experience: Many of the executives I coached felt a need to “shake-off” reputations wrongly attributed to them. Fact-based protestations didn’t work, but when I helped my clients generate appropriate appeals for fairness, these tactics did. McCain can mount a campaign of this sort effectively, but only by attending to these provisos:

1. McCain must appeal for justice, not demand it. Saying, “I feel it unfair that I am yoked to the policies of an administration that I often opposed. Would it be just, Senator Obama, if the electorate came to believe that you as endorsed all of the policies and position statements that emanated from the Trinity United Church of Christ during the 20 years you prayed there? Is it just, simply because you often professed affection for Reverend Jeremiah Wright, to say that all of the people he honored –particularly Louis Farrakhan—you, too, hold in high esteem?”

2. McCain should avoid, “My record speaks for itself” when attempting to distance himself from Bush. Voters do not “read records.” Most voters have only the most superficial sense of a candidate’s policies. Sound bites, images, and “big picture” associations (“the party of the rich vs. the party of the people”) are what stick.

3. McCain must act in an empathic manner. Were McCain, in debate #2, to say (when addressing Obama), “Senator, I understand how you come by your belief that I would continue the policies of the Bush administration. I regret this, but I understand how easily a prejudice like that forms in otherwise just and caring people. Regrettably, in the Senate we are all guilty of categorizing people on the basis of surface attributes –He’s a Democrat; she’s a Liberal; etc.— and, having done so, never getting to know that person for who they are. Please stop stereotyping me and I promise to never stereotype you.”

Are these “appeals for justice” too little, too late? Who knows? I fear, particularly with regard to strategy #3 –trying to turn the tables on a man who so adroitly preempted being stereotyped— that these strategies may be seen for what they are. But hey, I don’t have a crystal ball. What do you think?