2. Obama and You: The Most Persuasive Word

In 2006, Time magazine picked “You” as the Person of the Year and published that issue with a Mylar patch on the cover that served as a mirror for readers to see themselves.^F2.1 The main theme of that issue was the personal power enabled by the World Wide Web, but it also drew attention to the power of the word you. If you search the Internet, you’ll find tens of thousands of references to a Yale University study (unsubstantiated by Yale) ranking the 12 most persuasive words in the English language. You leads the list. (The others, in descending order, are Easy, Money, Save, Love, New, Discovery, Results, Proven, and Guarantee.)^F2.2 Unsubstantiated or not, President Barack Obama, an excellent speaker by any standard, fully understands and leverages the power of you.

Early in his campaign for the presidency, the New Yorker magazine ran a story about his campaign strategy:

Obama now tries to make a more personal connection with voters. In the past, he has been accused of making his campaign more about himself than about those who come to his rallies. Now the word you is mentioned as much as the word I. “You’re not heard. They’re not listening to what you need,” he told a crowd assembled at a rodeo site in Fort Madison on a recent evening. “You deserve a president who is thinking about you.”^F2.3

During his campaign, Mr. Obama’s web site displayed a headline banner that read, “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington ... I’m asking you to believe in yours.”

Following his victory, Mr. Obama delivered his inaugural address, in which he used you or your 15 times, addressing the you of his audience, the “Americans of every race and region and station.” He also used us, our, and we, pronouns that involve you. His speech included 23 instances of us, 62 instances of we, and a whopping 70 instances of our, which, when combined with the 15 instances of you, represent more than 7 percent of the total 2,388 words in his speech.^F2.4

Although the historic day was his to celebrate, Mr. Obama kept his audience in mind. Flash-forward a year into his presidency. In a prime-time address to the nation from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Mr. Obama committed 30,000 more troops to fight the war in Afghanistan. The serious speech marked a significant change in his rhetorical style—from an audience-focused to a self-focused point of view. He used you only ten times, with four of them in the closing, “Thank you. God bless you. May God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. Thank you.” That left only six instances of the powerful word in the body of the speech. In sharp contrast, he used I 41 times.

The shift prompted Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal political columnist—and former republican presidential speechwriter—to exclaim, “I, I—ay yi yi. This is a man badly in need of an I-ectomy.” She went on to explain:

George H.W. Bush famously took the word “I” out of his speeches—we called them “I-ectomies”—because of a horror of appearing to be calling attention to himself. Mr. Obama is plagued with no such fears. “When I took office ... I approved a long-standing request .... After consultations with our allies, ... I set a goal.” That’s all from one paragraph. He then used the word I in three paragraphs an impressive 15 times. “I believe I know,” “I have signed,” “I have read,” “I have visited.”^F2.5

Granted, any senior executive—from the President of the United States to a midlevel manager in business—must take full responsibility for all decisions and actions, but Mr. Obama should not abandon the technique that helped get him elected.

The lesson for you is to involve your audiences by finding as many opportunities as you can to incorporate you in your presentations. In fact, adding you enhances any form of communication, from the soaring rhetoric of presidential addresses to the mundane routine of email. Try this simple practice: Before clicking Send on any message, make one final review to see where you can insert additional instances of you. Every time you do, you will heighten the impact of your message. Do the same throughout your presentations, and you will connect more often with your audiences and heighten your chances for success.

It is all about you, not hubris.