For years, companies have been talking (almost) only about " soft skills ". A notion that echoes that of " soft power ", the art of convincing, influencing, taking positions in a gentle way, without threat or coercion.

Inherited from the lexicon of international relations, the notion of " soft power " is now infusing the world of management : would the leader with soft skills be able to exercise a quiet strength? The editorial staff of the EVE web magazine investigated.

The origins of " soft power " : power without war

It was just after the end of the Cold War, in 1990, that the concept of " soft power " appeared in the pen of the analyst Joseph Nye in his book Bound to lead. At that time, the end of the bipolar world was noted and what this meant for the United States : some saw the collapse of the Soviet Union as an undisputed victory for American power, others wondered whether the Western giant was not on the contrary weakened by the loss of its opponent, in particular because however strong the country may be militarily or economically, it is not in a position to control the entire planet (this is the fate of empires without rivals, as the historian Duroselle told us in 1981).

No, Nye replies, because the real power of the United States is not just a nuclear button, massive resources and a strong currency, but also and above all the influence and desirability of its culture and its " way of life ", carried of course by a language that has imposed itself as international. The British, moreover, invented soft power before the letter by infusing throughout the Commonwealth, a " partnership " model of decolonization, a whole range of cultural codes, ranging from the common language to the spirit of " fair play " in sport , including a charter of values enshrining republican principles.

The Power of Aspirational Storytelling

Soft power is largely based on the aspiration to belong, to share values, to get as close as possible to a desirable ideal. As a result, he is closely dependent on the power to present his way of being and his way of life as an attractive model. It is therefore largely a matter of narration.

Numerous writings underline the role of Hollywood studios in American soft power: flooding the market with the " available brain" (60% of audiovisual productions broadcast in the world are made in the US...

And it was more than 80% 30 years ago) of the vision of an honest middle class, enjoying a certain material comfort and exuding family harmony, where youth flourishes in sports and where adults become better by performing good deeds, American cinema would thus offer the whole world a morality of good existence, made up of the right balance between work and family life, consumption and attachment to intangible values, conquering individualism and charitable solidarity. But soft power also conveys the messages of hard power : the action film or the war film remind us that America is strong and that if we look for it, we will find it!

In short, the whole theory of soft power is based on the idea that the history that is proposed to the collective imagination is much more persuasive or dissuasive than the promise or threat directly formulated.

This art of storytelling is not only expressed through the cultural industries: it is also found in communication about technology (yesterday, at the time of the Cold War, we spoke of " star wars" to refer to a space program; a few years ago, with the development of the Internet, we talk about the " communication highways" ; Today, at a time when tech applications are exploding, the possibilities offered by the use of data are called " intelligence " ; It can also be observed in the field of " purposes" of companies that emphasize " business for good " or humanitarian organizations that contribute to the dissemination of values...

Soft power and big washing?

Considered by some critics as neo-imperialism when it is exercised at the level of a state, soft power certainly aims to take positions of influence by playing on the whole range of emotions.

This is what makes it powerful, since it is to the heart before the brain that it addresses, to fantasy more than to the lucid gaze that it appeals, to desire more than to reason that it responds. It is also its vulnerability : the betrayals of the ideal, the contradictions between announced values and less glorious reality, are unforgiving in terms of deteriorating image !

For example, the researcher Jack Thompson, an expert in international relations, was able to assess the effects on American soft power of a series of recent facts highlighting the contrast between the image the country wants to project and its less glamorous reality (endemic inequality and poverty, acts of racism, restrictive immigration policy and breaches of multilateralism that break the image of a country open to the world):  the attractiveness of American universities for students from all over the world has been affected, companies have been concerned both to attract quality labor and to ensure international opportunities for their activities, NGOs have shown less loyalty to promote America through their actions...

In short, those who rely on their positive image to exert power of influence have an interest in considering this image as one of their most precious resources; and to do so to make his narrative, his action and his results coherent.

From soft power to smart leadership: the responsible manager

What applies to states also applies to companies that know that today, their reputation is no longer just a matter of skillful communication, but of alignment between their values, their ways of doing business (from the treatment reserved for employees to relations with suppliers, including transparency on the production conditions that consumers and users expect) and their impacts. A mission that is part of the strategic vision of managers but which calls for the involvement of managers for its implementation.

And the responsible manager is born ! Far removed from his ancestor the foreman who only had to guarantee the proper execution of the processed tasks by an army of executors, this manager of the new modern times is in charge of contributing to the power of influence of the organization...

And to do this, he/she must also be influential in his/her practice : able to produce an engaging and unifying narrative for employees, to give clarity to the objectives and to facilitate dialogue in the teams so that everyone takes ownership of the messages and becomes an ambassador in his/her daily action; coherence between speeches, postures and actions ;  empathetic and concerned with symmetry of attention ; gifted with emotional and relational intelligence;  agile and open to the world and all the transformations that are going through it...