An Innovative Leader

“It is easy to run a series of multimillion-euro campaign meetings in front of the TV cameras. It takes guts to listen. Bravo, Ségolène.”
- News Reporter at the Grenoble meeting (Le Monde)

Ségolène Royal’s main rival: Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy’s campaign is one of traditional “show-off” politics, straightforward ideas, strategic placements, and endless sound bites. Sarkozy, while a persuasive and eloquent speaker, seems predictable and uninspiring – almost redundant. On the other hand, Ségolène has revolutionized French campaigns. She is representing the Parti Socialiste in an unprecedented way: she has created a “listening” experiment through what she has deemed “participative democracy.” Ségolène has evaluated the societal condition and general sentiment to recognize the same thing that I found through many interviews and cultural immersion: the French are ready for change. Now. Ségolène has clear motives and she has based them on the situation around her. By aligning her campaign to specific initiatives that are different from all other politicians, she has given herself leverage to understand the public, and simultaneously for the public to feel understood. Ségolène has created an “I don’t have all the answers” approach to politics, giving people a forum to express their concerns.

Ségolène Royal, an impeccable leader, is not all talk. She has organized a series of four participative debates, the Grenoble meeting being the last of them. In these debates there is no set “boss” or political party influence, and the audience is situated in a casual participative setting. Ségolène’s role is to listen. At the end of the debates, Ségolène gives 60-minute speeches expressing what she has learned and what she plans to do with this information. She ensures the main focus of these meetings is on the audience, not on her. By summarizing her findings, she reaffirms her commitment to responding to prevalent concerns and making the people feel they are actually being listened to. She is not necessarily speaking to a new audience, yet Ségolène is preaching in an unconventional way. This tactic seems brilliant.

In addition to these four, very advertised, debates, Ségolène has organized over 5,000 smaller meetings on her behalf with other delegates of the Parti Socialiste. She delegates effectively, making sure people everywhere feel they have the opportunity to reach her. Ségolène has removed the elusive expectation the public has of French politicians, and turned her role into a person that can be related to.

Ségolène advocates for involvement on her campaign by all types of people – young, old, experienced, inexperienced. While it is crucial that her campaign manager, and representatives across France are well versed on her specific policy initiatives as well as on general election strategies, by offering these public meetings, Ségolène has introduced a way to include the public in her efforts – supporting the skills and interests of the French people.

While running a political campaign is clearly different from a standard CEO type role, Ségolène must embody the same characteristics of impeccable organizational skills, persuasiveness, understanding competition, creating relevance, and mastering a way to articulate her vision. While normal CEO’s must be transparent to a certain extent in their particular industry, Ségolène must be transparent in every capacity to the entire world – this definitely turns the pressure up.

While Ségolène’s polls have yet to skyrocket, she is still neck and neck with Sarkozy. Her unique strategy to running her “company/campaign” has been criticized, yet ultimately, I am confidant, her innovative approach will prove worthwhile.

More Information/Resources:
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,36-863424,0.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,36-863225,0.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/sequence/0,2-823448,1-0,0.html
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=7862