Image by Marcel Strauß from Unsplash
I’ve been thinking about the US presidential election.
Now, before I go any further I must clarify that I am no political expert, not by any stretch of the imagination, these are simply my observations as a (UK) laywoman. But I’ve been thinking about the US presidential election. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about Trump’s vapid comment about Kamala Harris being a ‘low IQ individual’ and the addition of Tim Walz as Kamala’s running mate.
Kamala Harris is clearly not an individual of low IQ. She’s a graduate of Howard University and the University of California College of the Law and was previously Attorney General of California, so I think we can give Trump another eye-roll and assign his lame comment to the growing landfill of nonsensical Trumpisms.
But it did get me thinking about how we value intelligence in our leaders and why the Walz-approach is such a breath of fresh.
For one thing, Walz smiles. This might seem like an irrelevant observation, but these smiles appear to be genuine and in response to a genuine emotion, possibly a feeling of joy - ‘Hey! I’m happy to be here!’ - not that Kamala is a party pooper, quite the opposite, but in comparison to what the other team are giving us, Tim’s authentic optimism feel real, relatable and well, just good.
Walz demonstrates compassion. The word Compassion crops up quite often in reference to Walz and for good reason. At a recent and very hot Wisconsin rally, an audience member began to feel unwell, so Walz paused his speech, called for water then waited to ensure the attendee was OK before continuing. It was a simple, compassionate response to a situation which called for a little compassion. Nice one Tim!
As an ex-teacher and girl dad* he feels approachable. When he greeted a group of Girl Scouts recently (along with Kamala Harris(, he squatted down to eye-level, possibly an automatic response for someone who’s worked with children for many years, but still this simple, respectful gesture demonstrated an awareness of his audience, literally meeting them on their level. Also, he listened and engaged. Legend.
Now, I think there’s something more to Walz’s appeal than simply optimism and a few acts of kindness, (although I do think kindness is a hugely underrated quality), I think the secret sauce is his emotional intelligence.
Kamala and her team chose a guy who knows how to connect with people. Low IQ? I don’t think so. Soft skills appear to be winning!
But why does it feel so alien to have an emotionally intelligent individual at the (almost) helm? And why is Tim’s approach to leadership resonating?
“…Self-serving competition, arrogance and focus on individual wins over the collective good are sadly too prevalent in the behaviour of many of our leaders today.” - Mary Portas (OBE) Founder of @weareportas , brand & retail expert, broadcaster, and author. In her book ‘Work Like A Women’ Mary talks about an ‘alpha working culture’, “that respects (and over-rewards) so-called ‘masculine’ qualities, like risk-taking, competition and single-minded, myopic focus. Meanwhile, more ‘feminine’ traits like collaboration, resilience, empathy and compassion are constantly devalued.”
Obviously, this is not to say that all ‘masculine qualities’ are bad, or that ‘feminine’ traits are only displayed by women - of course not, but it’s the more ‘feminine’ traits which show up more often when we talk about soft skills such as emotional intelligence, communication, teamwork and adaptability, to name but a few.
I think the Harris/Walz collaboration is working because it feels like the antidote to an ‘alpha working culture’ and people are connecting with this vibe.
Where Trump relies on fear to connect with his audience, Harris/Walz have emotional intelligence on their side. In an anxious world of virtual everything and fakery, Walz is cutting through the BS with some football coach realism, basic manners, kindness and compassion. And it looks like it might be working.
*On the subject of girl dads you must read post Girl Dads, it’s beautiful.
Honoured to be high fived, comrade. *Thank you*. Funnily enough we were talking about exactly this topic on Times Radio last week, immediately after TW was selected. I was saying how much I liked “weird” as a response to Trump. There are so many more extreme terms one could deploy here. But “weird” refuses to escalate matters, just hits the nail on the head. I also really like KH’s “unburdened”. Next to the hyperbole and all the Trumpery, it just sounds so relaxing, like a great sigh.