|
Positioning Yourself to Become Your Organization’s Political Involvement Guru
Part One
Recently, I sent one of my subscriber lists my “day one deviations” that can wreck political involvement programs. I received several hearty “Amen’s!” for one of the items on the list: “Allowing non-government relations staff to set unrealistic PAC and grassroots program goals.” To be inclusive, let’s also add lobbying goals in that deviation.
Obviously, many political involvement professionals are struggling with this – the unwanted interference in our work by colleagues who don’t have government relations expertise or experience. I believe this is partly due to our lack of “guru–ship” within our organizations.
We all want our function to be integrated into the organizational mission. It’s an asset to have colleagues who understand our function and to collaborate with them on organizational goals. However, I do become distressed when I witness people who have never talked to a grassroots volunteer, never had to raise a single penny for a PAC, or never had to talk to a legislator, who, suddenly and without warning, exhibits a childlike fascination with government relations work. In its typical form, the input delays projects and creates team dissension. The fascination typically shows itself after excessive socializing with their peers at a 45-minute breakout session on political trends at their annual IT, communications or PR confab.
This is especially nefarious in non profit organizations, where lots of names on a database are acquainted with donor potential, and thus, grassroots potential. Unfortunately, they are not equated with political power because usually about a third of the people on those lists don’t even know they are on the list. I’m not making this up; I hear it from clients all the time.
The lack of guru-ship is in part due to well-meaning government relations professionals who simply regurgitate what other groups do relative to political involvement, versus explaining what we know, with laser like precision, what will influence and motivate our members. (You do know this, don’t you?) I’ve seen smart government relations professionals repeat data findings without sourcing them, or knowing the research methodology. That’s important because methodology impacts the research veracity.
There should be no one, absolutely no one, inside our organization who knows what rattles and / or energizes our grassroots members and PAC prospects more than we do. If they do, that’s a real problem that will impact our long-term credibility and internal brand.
Why Internal Guru-ship?
Years ago, Tom Peters’ Brand You book was one of my recommended reads for political involvement professionals. It still is today.
As Tom Peters stated, “In days gone by, a company worker could be obscure yet secure. Today, you cannot. You have got to have a personality. You have got to have a specialty; you have got to be a brand.” In other words, he says “You have got to be a guru.”
Plus, one of the great benefits of internal guru-ship is that for those of you who abhor self-promotion, guru-ship impels people to come to you. Your “guru gravity” brings them in.
Guru-ship is important for your career trajectory, and it’s also important for your livelihood. Fortunately for you readers, I will tell you how to accomplish this. It requires being disciplined (My definition of discipline? Doing what you don’t feel like doing. That’s it.) by developing and applying your expertise, plus having some PR along the way.
Getting Started on Internal Guru-Ship
1. Specialize
A “know it all” simply is not an expert. Ideally, in guru nirvana, when an issue comes up about political involvement, those around the table should say:”Hey, you need to see Bob on the 12th floor about that.” So, it helps to be narrow rather than wide in your focus.
Michael Goldhaber, in Wired magazine, captured it best: “If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself, you won’t get noticed and that increasingly means you won’t get promoted and paid much, either.”
So, what are you good at? What are you passionate about?
2. Get Around
I have a few clients who are phenomenally good at working around and over internal obstacles to get what they need. They get what they want because they take time to build internal relationships via eyeball to eyeball contact. They don’t tell everybody what they do and how great they are, but ask their colleagues how they can help them, what exasperates them, and share how they can be of help.
One of the most solid studies that validate this approach was conducted with workers at Bell Labs in the ‘80’s (Kelly & Caplan). Researchers wanted to find out why some star performers were routinely promoted and others were not. When they looked at all the variables, the one constant was the internal networks of the promoted individuals --- they enjoyed a more extensive internal network, chiefly characterized by reciprocity, than those who only reached out when they needed help from colleagues in other departments.
Networking outside of your organization is vital, also. And I don’t mean attending an endless number of receptions and passing out your business card, although I admit that’s a start. But it’s not true networking. You really want to contribute something of value to an organization. Volunteer for the hard assignments that nobody else wants. (Membership committee, anyone?) Contribute to the committees and sub-committees that require real measurable outcomes.
3. Bring Something to the Table
At our annual Innovate to Motivate conference last year, author Scott Eblin http://www.eblingroup.com/ was our keynote speaker. His book (The Next Level) reveals what it takes to move your career to the next level and why many executives don’t move beyond their first big promotion.
In his interviews with over 30 recently promoted executives from Fortune 500 organizations, the executives reported that, “Once you are promoted, you are expected to bring something to the table. You cannot sit there and let everyone else do the talking.”
I witnessed this recently at a meeting with about 12 government affairs professionals, all from the same organization. We had a lively discussion, and it was terrific because everyone was contributing, except one person. As human beings, we typically direct our energy and attention to people who are contributing. Now, I’m not advocating being one of those obnoxious, know-it-all, interrupting others types who repeat themselves and don’t contribute anything.
Many people are simply very deliberative, and when they speak up, it counts for something. However, one person out of the entire group said nothing for 90 minutes, and this included time for their questions, as well as me asking the group for general input. I could not help but wonder how that impacted his brand among his colleagues.
In Part Two, I’ll reveal six more practices to master as you take the journey towards internal guru-ship.
Copyright 2007, The Showalter Group, Inc.
Reproduction is prohibited without written permission.
|
