Secretary of State Hilary Clinton lashed out at a Republican Congressman during testimony about the attack on the U.S. mission in Bengazhi, Libya. She flashed her temper, produced a memorable sound bite for the media and won the day.
Anger doesn’t always succeed as a communication tactic. But here are four rules for making it work.
Secretary Clinton’s heated exchange with Congressman Ron Johnson was riveting television. After Johnson accused Obama Administration officials of misleading people in the days immediately after the attack – a charge leveled earlier and denied by Clinton – she shouted him down.
“We had four dead Americans!” she thundered, fists clenched for emphasis. “Whether it was attack preplanned by terrorists or it because of a guy out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill Americans … What difference does it make?!”
Reactions to her performance were mixed at first. Some applauded her frankness, while others felt it could undermine her future political aspirations. But a week afterwards, it’s clear she won. Benghazi is no longer a news story, and her popularity is as strong as ever.
Expressing anger so often backfires. Why did it work for Clinton? She followed four simple rules:
1. It’s ok to finish angry, but don’t start there. There’s an important difference between being an angry person and being a reasonable person who is pushed into anger. Angry people aren’t very sympathetic or pleasant, and we’re disinclined to listen to or agree with them. Clinton, by contrast, was poised and measured in her testimony before reacting angrily to what she regarded as pointless and provocative questioning. She showed she is human, and there are limits to anyone’s patience.
2. Pick the right reason to get mad. Anger is a signal pointing to something else – a mistake or a failure of some kind. Here, it was the failure to acknowledge the importance of understanding why four lives were lost. What was said on Sunday talk shows just days after the attack was far less important.
Getting mad is an implicit call to others, like sounding an alarm. It’s a way to gather a crowd behind you, and its designed to force your adversary to back down. If you pick the right issue, you’ll get the crowd on your side and win.
3. Never make it about you. If you’re a public figure, expect to take some heat from time to time. That’s just the way it is. Hilary Clinton knows that. Getting mad about facing tough questions or having to sit before posturing Congressmen only makes you look like a whiner. No one likes a whiner. (This is where most Wall Street executives fail miserably during any kind of public testimony.)
When you are in the hot seat, be gracious and be brief. Find an issue to get mad about, but don’t get mad simply for being questioned.
4. Be spontaneous. We like seeing anger in unexpected places. It’s a human emotion. It enlivens otherwise dull or predictable events. And when it’s unplanned, it is so much more effective. Secretary Clinton’s words were unplanned, genuine and credible.
That’s why you rarely see anger work in a presidential debate. The attacks are too rehearsed, the phrases worked over endlessly. The candidates can manage to look angry when delivering the attack line, but true eruptions of anger are rare. And when they happen – like Ronald Reagan’s “I am paying for this microphone” moment – they are remembered for a very long time.