Obama and Hilary have been a dominant force in the news since they started campaigning. This is saying something, as I am not even American. Their long battle has taught me a couple of related lessons that I wanted to share with you.
Attacks and Negativity Damage All
While attacks are one way to get attention, and also serve to position yourself relative to your competitor, in the end the damage is not localized and you end up soiling your own reputation.
Think about it, what do we say about someone who campaigns this way?
“They stooped to a new low”
“She is fighting dirty”
“Smearing the other candidate”
“Sowing the seeds of discord and dissent”
Is this the kind of thing candidates want to be associated with?
What has this to do with writing?
- How many blogs do you see that go on the attack, as a content strategy or as a means of self promotion?
- When you see someone ragging on someone or something popular to make a point, how do you feel?
- Do you see community leaders saying “you are with us or against us”? (eg. why shouldn’t an Apple fan respect Bill Gates? Why is it not OK for an open source advocate to recommend a piece of proprietary software if it’s the best for the job?)
- The whole “we don’t like these people, we are better than them, because”, does that work with you or make you think the worst of the writer?
Sometimes we do have to criticize to make a serious point, but that does not mean we should label the person. Always, if you must criticize, try to criticize behavior.
Positivity and Solutions are Persuasive
When I see two people argue like Obama and Hilary, I look for the person who is offering ideas and solutions, and I do the same in my reading and learning.
It’s impossible to make a good decision long term based on fear-mongering and negative attacks. Hate and bashing only serves to remove choices, not help make the right one. Positivity and inventive solutions provide you something to get behind, something motivating and enabling.
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Ideas Bind, Attacks Divide
When you write you can say what you don’t like or you can offer ideas for a better way. I try to do the latter, though of course being only human it doesn’t always come through like that. My idea of something better today is to try to spin a criticism into an offer of positive advice and see how different the reaction and results can be.
Summary
The main point is, what do you want to achieve with your piece of writing? If you want to make someone or a whole group feel bad, then go on the attack. If on the other hand you want to help, provide answers, then you are far better giving real advice and ideas. Offer something constructive, it is best all round.
What do you think? Have I mis-read the situation, have I just alienated half my readers? Am I being unfair? Do you agree with me about my point of being positive and offering solutions? Please share your thoughts in the comments …