No matter how effectively a president might craft and sell his message, however, it is only as good as his ability to deliver results. In the end, that is how all leaders are judged. The public would immediately sense whether a message was just a veneer papering over policies moving in opposite directions—or in too many different tracks at once. This is as true for a president as it is for a manager or a company executive. Message is key, but it is only one piece of the leadership jigsaw puzzle.
For Team Bush, the message was the outside layer of the onion. The inside layer was discipline. The president insisted that his aides not only keep to the message, but also move that message consistently to products. That’s how Team Bush scored so many victories against such long odds.
Bush Lessons
- The medium really is the message. Marshall McLuhan’s famous work has become a cliché. But for executives, it could not be truer. Bush has mastered the art of using the media to communicate his message.
- Use the hunger of reporters for a good story to hone the message. Bush’s media team has mastered the art of feeding the media beast. Reporters constantly bristle at the control that Team Bush exerts over what they do and how they do it, but that control produced unusual clarity of message.
- The whole package makes the message. The administration has used all the tools at its disposal to package the message and how it looks. That lessens the chance that the media can mediate or alter the message, and it improves the direct tie from Bush to the American people.
- Focus the message by repeating it. And repeating it. Team Bush proved remarkably successful at keeping the message focused—and in getting debate back on message—by a simple technique. Whenever the president or his aides speak, it’s news. Repeating a message over and over again constantly reinforces what they have to say and provides little chance for the agenda to slide off message.