As many of you know, at the end of each year, I usually produce my list of the “All Showalter Team.” I thought I’d change it up this year and cite the very specific behaviors that encouraged and energized me in 2010, as well as a couple on the dark side that should be avoided as career-limiting moves.   

On the bright side. . . . . .

Show You Know

For several years, I have heard political involvement professionals lament the lack of understanding among their executives about the need for quality vs. quantity in grassroots participation. Rather than ringing your hands about it, get out there and call the game. Meet with your senior executives and demonstrate the value of quality engagement. Politically involved professionals know that quality grassroots involvement is what will set them apart from the mass grassroots hysteria.

Rather, why not make a face to face, compelling case with evidence and anecdotes about quality grassroots and how it gets results?  Amber Stoner of HCA Healthcare did this and now has her senior executives on board.

Relentless Focus on ROI

Betsy Vetter of The American Heart Association, Roger Limoges of the U. S.  Green Building Council, and Ken Hiscoe  of Pfizer are all phenomenal at this. They don’t spend money or do things because they can, they look at what provides the biggest return and invest there.  Plus, they make their goals consistent with the entire organization’s strategy.

Taking the Good with the Bad

In a more earthy sense, this is known as “taking the s&%$ with the sugar.”  A lot of times we just want to hear the good comments about our grassroots programs and political action committees.  One of my clients reminded me at one of his PAC events: “As you are walking around talking to our PAC contributors, I don’t want to hear the good stuff.  Tell me the bad stuff people are saying.”  Gladly, I didn’t have any bad things to tell him, but he wasn’t afraid to hear that news and work forward from it.

What Works and Why

In the midst of a tough economic climate, Meaghan Killion Joyce of International Paper had a goal to add 300 PAC members.  She more than doubled that, adding 640 new members. Her receipts are up 80%. 

Many of us are unconsciously competent.  Meaghan has decided to be consciously competent and find out why her PAC contributors increased their PAC commitments,  and why new members signed up in the midst of an economic downturn.  Smart, smart, smart.  We don’t know the answers unless we ask.  This creates an automatic focus on what works, which accelerates results. 

Know When to Say No

Many of you are genetically possessed of a high energy level. You are biochemically incapable of switching speeds, like a ferret on a double espresso. This allows you to do lots of things, but maybe not the right things.

To go to the next level, you have to “know when to say no.” One of my restaurant industry clients has  created a system to help him determine what to say “yes” and “no” to regarding government relations concerns / requests from his franchisees and managers at the local, state and federal levels.  For those of you who wear several hats in the government relations world, you know this is a challenge.  You want to be seen as a team player and help everybody, but some things are just not as important and don’t provide the ROI that others do.  

Do you have a system to quantify how you say “yes” to some requests and “no” to others?  Not a bad idea for a staff retreat to come up with such a system and make sure all team members and internal stakeholders are aware of the process.

On the Dark Side. . . . .

The Seeds of Mediocrity

One of my prominent national trade association clients wanted to help her state chapters improve their government relations effectiveness. The state chapter leaders  expressed concern that they were not considered politically credible in their state legislatures. We recommended that the best way to improve would be to survey the customer—state legislators --- and find out how the state chapters ranked in terms of influence and political credibility vs. other state associations—to find out what they do well, and what can be improved.   

Wouldn’t you love to know that about your organization?  That’s valuable stuff.  

When she presented it to her state chapters for consideration, they responded: “We don’t want to do this because we’re afraid if we don’t rank well our board members will ask us to change things.”  (The thud she heard through the phone line was me falling off my chair in amazement)  Do I need to say more here? It’s kind of like running with the glaciers.  

So, they will never know how good they are, or how good they could be. However, we were able to survey the state chapters’ top corporate members to find out what the state chapters did well and poorly regarding grassroots and PAC influence, and revealed best practices from there.

Sure enough, we found a pattern among very diverse states as to the practices that result in active, engaged corporate members vs. those chapters who can’t engage their grassroots. The answers are there, but you have to dig for them.

Listen and Learn

I was reminded of the need to continually upgrade our learning when I witnessed a new PAC professional at a recent conference. He was new to his job with no prior PAC experience. But, he was surrounded by experienced, award winning PAC professionals, who, as the workshop progressed, were providing great insights from their extensive experience.

Halfway through the seminar he was on his Blackberry updating his Facebook page. And the experienced people noticed. What a wasted learning opportunity.

Remember that you need to develop beyond just reading books and articles on social networking sites.  You need to engage in development beyond your own world and peer group. Here are some indicators:

• If your leaning has been internal over the past few years, you are probably not developing.

• If you have not been attending workshops, or participating in mastermind groups (in which you are not the most successful person) you could be in a state of mental inertia.

Even if these activities validate what you are doing, you need them to determine your progress.

You’ve all seen the people who loiter in the halls during a conference. They feel they know too much to actually sit in a workshop, and instead share war stories over coffee or drinks, lying to each other about how great they are doing. If they sit in a session, they are tracking email, or in the most egregious example above, updating their Facebook page.

I am always amazed at how stupid I was two weeks ago. But every day I’m still leaning forward in my seat taking notes.