How business leaders can be more like James Cameron

Everywhere I looked today, I saw the story of a guy who rode a small submarine to the deepest point of the sea, explored for two hours, then returned to the surface. It was the first manned expedition to this part of the sea since 1960.

While this is truly a remarkable journey, it’s not the sort of story that would normally catch my attention. But it did - and I’ll bet it caught yours too.

The reason of course is that the guy is film director James Cameron, who gave us two of the biggest films of all time – Titanic and Avatar. A story that would be newsworthy no matter who piloted the craft, now takes on a life of its own because of its celebrity star.

George Clooney’s recent arrest at a protest over the Sudan crisis became front page news not because we care so deeply about the issue, but because it’s George Clooney. If he had instead picketed a Baskin-Robbins location over the increase in the price of vanilla ice cream, there would have been media coverage. You would have heard about it.

Celebrities like Cameron and Clooney understand that they are constantly watched and use their celebrity to gain media coverage for issues that are important to them. As an aside, we need to be aware, as media consumers, that sometimes the issues of greatest “importance” (what is covered by the media) have been determined by entertainers and other famous people, but that’s another blog post.

How business leaders are different from celebrities

Business leaders are not celebrities and we don’t obsess over their every move. However, as employees, customers, partners, stakeholders or simply interested observers, we care very much what they have to say about the organizations that matter to us.

We want them to be vocal when there is change. We want them to tell us that things will be okay in times of crisis. We want them to tell us that we should be excited about the future of their organization, that what they’re doing still matters, to keep watching.

We don’t want to see pictures of you walking down the street with your children, but we expect regular communication from you. We expect greater interaction with you, more transparency and sharing than ever before. And we expect this not just from your organization, but specifically, from you.

We won’t ask you who you’re wearing, but we’ll notice when you don’t come to the party at all. We won’t chase you down the street to take your picture, but we’ll show up when you have something to say. We expect you to be the voice we hear when we turn in your direction. You might have to work harder than Justin Beiber or Angelina Jolie to get our attention, but we are watching and we notice when you’re silent.

And let’s not stop at business leaders. Community leaders, teachers, coaches, parents and many others have people counting on them to speak up and be heard. In so many ways, what you have to say is more important to us than anything we’ll ever hear from James Cameron or George Clooney.

Of course, leaders don’t live under the microscope of celebrity and the choice to say nothing is always there.

Just because you can though doesn’t mean you should.