I just saw Frost/Nixon. It’s a brilliant, chilling insight into power and ambition. What struck me was the degree of self-awareness Nixon had. Albeit, this is a fictionalized account; who knows exactly what went on in Nixon’s mind. But in the film, he’s portrayed as a worthy opponent, a crafty guy who is keenly aware of his own ambition and thirst for power and knows what he needs to do to win. And yet he’s trumped by Frost, an unlikely winner, a breezy, somewhat superficial talk show host. But what Frost has going for him is his likeability. He’s affable, charming, and easy going. At first, it appears he’s easy prey for the cunning Nixon, but in the end, we have the ultimate story of a nice guy finishing first.
Likeability in my view is underestimated as a form of power, and yet, I think the ability to get along with people trumps just about every form of power. Friends, connections and being able to get along well with others is the ultimate affirmative action. In a Harvard Business Review article, (June 2005) called Competent Jerks, Loveable Fools and the Formation of Social Networks, a study found that likeability is so key, that people are more likely to ask for help from someone who may not know the answer but is likeable, than from someone who is more likely to know the answer but isn’t likeable. In Frost/Nixon the power of likeability is maginified by its contrast to the opposite: Nixon’s tragic flaw of not being able to manage social interaction, of creating conflict rather than smoothing ruffled feathers, as Frost did so brilliantly.
2 Comments
April 8, 2009 at 11:40 am
I was just cleaning up my desk and came across something from your blog I
printed and routed around last spring. It made me want to visit your blog
again. So, I did.
I wanted to respond to your comments about Nixon’s awareness (I could not
sign in for some reason, so here are my thoughts, memories really). I was 16
years old and in the Canadian wilderness having the time of my life at
Outward Bound, when Nixon resigned. When i came home, it wasn’t just small
changes i saw in my personal world that marked my absense but a big change
in the biggest entity I was connected to, the US govenment.
I have not really been a very political sort but I do recall when Nixon
wrote his autobiography years after he resigned, i read a review of it or an
interview with him. I remember being completely taken by his humility and
sense of contrition. I had very simplistic views of politics and little
appreciation for partisan politics or how they might have impacted my
opinion of him which was condemning in an adolescent sort of way. But in
just reading that article, I felt a huge sense of compassion for him and
respect for his ability to come forward in public and acknowledge his sense
of responsibility and the impact his action had had on the country.
It opened my eyes to what it meant to be a public servants and gave me
compassion for their vulnerability and culpability. It gave me a sense of
respect for them as human beings with short-comings, imperfect judgement and
also incredible courage to stand for so much and to be part of such a huge
and complex organization, finding their way through it, one career step at a
time, propelled by some mix of motives for power and for good, I think.
It is interesting, I will have to see the movie to see what other memories
it stirs. Thanks for your blog and the stroll down memory lane. Hope this
falls within the scope of what people do when they respond to a blog. It’s
my first time!
CT
June 25, 2009 at 4:46 am
Thanks Cindy. The sense of humanness in public servants, and what you call a ‘mix of motives for power and good’ is one of the things I’m aiming to explore in this blog. Getting past the deification of leaders, whether it means we elevate them unrealistically or criticize them for failing our expectations, the flip side of their humanness is our empowerment.