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After almost three years of President Obama's leadership, the economy is still dismal and Americans are angry. In a speech on unemployment and the national debt delivered from the Rose Garden last week, the president seemed fired up too.
奧巴馬總統上任三年以來，美國經濟一直增長乏力，美國民眾對此很是惱火。上周，在玫瑰花園就失業問題和國家赤字問題發表的演說中，奧巴馬總統似乎也難以抑制自己的怒火。
The president's tone was a marked departure from his usual, cool-headed demeanor. He sounded combative, and people noticed. The Huffington Post even recapped the speech in an article entitled "Obama Finally Grows a Pair."
人們發現，在此次演說中，奧巴馬總統一反常態，他的語氣聽起來并不像往常一樣冷靜，反而顯得咄咄逼人。《郝芬頓郵報》(The Huffington Post)簡要報道了此次演講，更是將報道的標題命名為《奧巴馬終于成熟了》(Obama Finally Grows a Pair)。
Anger, it turns out, can be a very useful emotion for leaders. But expressing anger during an event such as a public speech is a tricky tactic that, when executed poorly, can cause a backlash.
事實證明，對于領導者而言，憤怒是一種非常有用的情緒。但在公開演說這樣的活動中表達自己的憤怒，卻是一門“技術活”，一旦搞砸了，就會引火燒身。
But the worst-case response to a tone change like this one is to hear crickets, says Virginia Healy-Tangney, a lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management. After all, there's nothing more frustrating than getting no response when you're angry.
麻省理工學院斯隆商學院(MIT's Sloan School of Management)講師維吉尼亞-海利-湯尼表示，最糟糕的情況是，演講者改變了語氣，卻沒有得到相應的回應。言者怒火中燒，聽者無動于衷，沒有比這更令人沮喪的事了。
Strong language can function as an effective wake-up call. Earlier this year, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop got the world to pay attention to his company again by the way he framed its current crisis. Elop said Nokia (NOK) was like a person standing on a burning platform and would have to jump into icy water to save itself.
強硬的措辭能夠起到警醒的作用。今年早些時候，諾基亞(Nokia)CEO史蒂芬-埃洛普坦言公司當前所面臨的危機，成功喚回了外界對公司的關注。埃洛普稱，諾基亞公司就像一個人，站在熊熊燃燒的平臺上，為了自救，唯一的選擇就是跳進刺骨的冰水中。
Leaders in crisis mode sometimes have to convey anger or aggressiveness to appear relevant, says Healy-Tangney. She remembers when Ronald Logue, then-CEO of State Street, her previous employer, spoke to the company about the massive layoffs he was forced to make because of the financial crisis. He was angry about the situation, and he conveyed it. Despite hearing tough news, employees responded well to the speech, Healy-Tangney says.
海利-湯尼稱，有時候，身處危機中的領導者需要通過傳達自己的憤怒或表現得咄咄逼人，讓自己看起來與聽眾感同身受。她想起自己之前的老板、時任道富集團(State Street)CEO的羅納德-羅格。當時，道富集團要進行大規模裁員，羅格稱由于金融危機的影響，自己也是被逼無奈。他對當時的情況憤怒不已，并且毫不掩飾自己的情緒。結果，海利?湯尼說，雖然裁員并不是好消息，但員工對羅格的話卻反響很好。
In a way, we are hard-wired to respect an angry leader, even if we don't admit it. In a 2001 study published by Stanford organizational behavior professor Larissa Tiedens, participants watched videos of Bill Clinton responding to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. One group viewed a video of a remorseful Clinton and the other saw a clip of the former president responding angrily. Then, researchers measured how the viewers rated Clinton's leadership ability. People who saw video clips of Clinton expressing anger rated him better fit to lead, Tiedens observed.
不論我們承認與否，對于憤怒的領導者，我們通常都會給予更多尊重。2001年，斯坦福大學(Stanford)組織行為學教授拉里薩-蒂登斯組織了一項研究，參與者分別觀看了比爾?克林頓對莫妮卡-萊溫斯基丑聞的反應。其中一組觀看的是克林頓懺悔的視頻，而另一組觀看的視頻則是這位美國前總統對此事大發雷霆。之后，研究人員要求參與者對克林頓的領導能力進行評分。結果蒂登斯發現，觀看克林頓發怒視頻的參與者對他的領導能力給予了更高的評價。
Of course, after you get people's attention or respect with an outburst, then comes the hard part: backing up what you say. Elop needs to deliver results after shifting strategy at Nokia, and a CEO making massive layoffs like Logue needs to actually turn the company around.
當然，作為領導者，通過發怒獲得聽眾的關注或尊重之后所要做的事，才是最重要的：用行動為自己的話提供支持。埃洛普在調整諾基亞的策略之后，需要給大家一個交代;而像羅格那樣的CEO，在宣布大規模裁員之后，則要真正讓公司有所好轉。
"In order to have dominance, there must be a tacit threat," says Robert Livingston, a professor of management at Northwestern's Kellogg management school. "If you're a bully and people don't think that you can beat them up, they're not going to give you the lunch money."
西北大學凱洛格管理學院(Northwestern's Kellogg management school)管理學教授羅伯特-利文斯頓表示：“要想獲得支配地位，必然會面臨隱性威脅。如果你是‘惡霸’，但人們認為你根本無力擺平他們，那你就別想從他們那里得到保護費。”
And staying angry for too long has its risks. For one, people can only stomach so much negativity. Secondly, when an audience listens to an emotional leader speak, they tend to interpret the message as personal, more about the leader's ego than the people they're addressing, says Healy-Tangney. While sharp words can be an effective call for attention, perceived selfishness is a huge turn-off.
此外，怒火保持太長時間也存在風險。海利·湯尼認為，首先，人們只能消化一定數量的負面情緒。其次，當聽眾在聽一位帶有情緒的領導者演說時，他們會把演說中的信息解讀為領導者個人的信息，更多的是關于領導者的自我意識，而不是他所面對的聽眾。雖然激烈的話語能夠引起聽眾的注意，但如果這被認為是以自我為中心的表現，那就得不償失了。
Of course, the president's tone has changed in the context of a complicated political balance. We're coming up on election time, and he has been repeatedly stymied by congress. Every move the president makes is extremely calculated, and a tone change is no different. This recent speech was a chess move, says Tom Davis, former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and a pretty predictable one. Obama will oscillate between his stately, presidential self and a politician angered by the issues, Davis says. "It's easy to criticize him, sitting on the sidelines, but this is straight from a playbook."
當然，奧巴馬總統之所以改變演說的語氣，是因為目前美國的政治局勢處于一種復雜的均勢之中。選舉季即將來臨，但奧巴馬總統卻一直受到國會掣肘。他的一舉一動都經過精心設計，此次突然變調也不例外。美國共和黨眾議院全國委員會(National Republican Congressional Committee)前任主席湯姆-戴維斯認為，這次演講只不過是奧巴馬總統的一步棋而已，并且也在外界的意料之中。戴維斯表示，奧巴馬會兼顧莊重的、身為總統的自我與對各種問題憤怒不已的政治家這兩種身份。“作為旁觀者，批評他很容易，但實際上，他也只是在‘照本宣科’。”
Now that people are listening, getting angry may look like a good move, but it will only pay off in the long run if he can execute.
奧巴馬總統的“沖冠一怒”引起了人們的注意，看起來確實是一步好棋，但要想收到長期的效果，還要看他他接下來的行動。
