Since I've been hearing complaints by candidates, officeholders and campaign staffers as the 2010 elections draw near I thought this was a good post to share. I figured since I was a part of some relatively successful political operations over an 11 1/2 year timeframe and, more importantly, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night I could offer a tiny bit of advice.
This blog post is my gift to every person (Republican, democrat or otherwise) who will ever work on a political campaign in some senior capacity from this day on.
I am sorry it is not much of a gift, but if you can get the candidate/officeholder you work for to sit down and read it then you can use this blog post to either avoid having what could be a very uncomfortable conversation OR you could use it as the lead-in/icebreaker to starting this uncomfortable conversation.
I would say it is pretty safe to say that 90% of candidates for public office are not very good at doing both micro (day-to-day) and macro (big picture) strategy for their own campaign.
Now don’t get me wrong. A chunk of that 90% (probably 40% of that 90%) is decent (or better) at strategy for other candidates/officeholders, but when it comes to doing strategy for themselves they are just too close to the subject, take things way too personally, cannot take a step back and remove the emotions from the situation…basically speaking…they lose all (or nearly all) objectivity.
Now my guess is that any candidate/officeholder who is reading this right now is probably thinking to themselves, “Oh, well, gosh…that must mean I am in the other 10% because I am great at doing this sort of strategy thing…” Dear Candidate: Get over yourself.
This leads us to the second big hurdle: hubris. Most candidates have a level of hubris unmatched by the average voter. This just ends up making the situation worse because you start out with one problem (i.e. 90% of candidates stink at political strategy when it comes to their own campaign) and then that first problem gets exacerbated by the second problem (i.e. the candidate’s huge ego and overconfidence re: their own abilities for running their own campaign and making objective strategy decisions).
If you are a candidate then I hope and pray at this point in this blog post that you will assume just for the remainder of this blog post that you are in fact a part of the 90% majority.
I ask you to do that because if you do then there is real hope for you, your campaign and your political future.
If you are married you already know that your spouse is not perfect. Also, please close your eyes and think of the person on this planet who you think is the smartest person you know (I hope you are not picturing yourself or we have a bigger problem than I thought). I asked you to do this so you would realize for a second that both of these people are not perfect and neither of them have a monopoly on great ideas. Newsflash: You are the same way. You are not perfect. You do not have a monopoly on great ideas. No one does.
The most effective & successful campaigns I have been a part of have been collaborative efforts.
Let me say that again in case you were only halfway paying attention to reading this blog post:
The most effective & successful campaigns I have been a part of have been collaborative efforts.
Now when I say collaborative effort I do not mean that the candidate meets with their trusted inner circle, listens to everything that is said in the closed door meeting and then makes decisions based on whatever they alone think is the best course of action to take on each topic. That is not collaboration.
A real collaborative effort is when the candidate and the trusted inner circle get in a room, close the door and really brainstorm and gnash things out in detail over what specific courses of action each person in the room is specifically advocating (or even shouting…sometimes shouting is good) for. After everyone argues their positions then the candidate lets the group of advisors know what courses of action they are leaning towards taking. The inner circle chimes in again, fighting for large-scale changes, a 180 degree turn altogether, movement to take no action, minor “fine tuning” changes, etc. and then after that round of input is done the candidate again puts forth to the inner circle the specific course of action they are going to likely take and either more discussion ensues or the discussion is done…at the end of the meeting/end of the day since the candidate is the one with their name on the ballot the buck stops there and they ultimately make the final decision based on the aforementioned process. That said, taking this approach will yield way better courses of action over the short & long haul than any other method I have witnessed or taken part in. And, it goes without saying that whatever is agreed to in the room (no matter how heated the debate was) is kept confidential and is portrayed to the world as the 100% agreed upon by everyone in the room as the best course of action (i.e. everyone is singing off the same hymnal page) once it is taken (and for you shifty candidates…you know who you are…no changes to what was agreed upon after the fact…if you said “X” was what you were going to do when you left the room then make sure that “X” is what you in fact do when you leave the room).
Not seeking outside counsel (or only bouncing things off of sycophants) might get you as far as City Council, County Commissioner or even State Representative, but getting beyond that is extremely hard to do on your brainpower alone. Most of the ideas you come up with and end up implementing will probably be about 40-60% as good as they could/would have been with the input of two to four smart, seasoned, trusted advisors. You may get away with operating at 40-60% of your potential for awhile, but at some point it will catch up with you. It is like playing Russian Roulette with your political career.
Being the smartest person in the room should not mean you are in the room by yourself. Being the smartest person in the room should mean that you are smart enough to know that you do not know everything and you need the help and advice of others to operate at your full capacity and reach your full potential. Do that and you very well might end up truly being the smartest person in the room.
(This post was submitted by the not-yet-vanquished-still-kickin' fan of candidate John Kasich's candidacy for Governor of the State of Ohio).
