Seven Success Strategies for Elected Officials in First 100 Days
Posted by Robert Hargrove
What do FDR, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, the Tea Party all have in common?
These former Presidents were all elected by a significant majority as a result of taking a strong stand on issues, but had difficulty governing in their early days in office because they didn’t know how to reach across the aisle to collaborate. The same is true for the Tea Party.
Yesterday I received an email from Nancy Andriuk who works with retired Congressman, Marty Russo, at Russo Capitol Strategies, a Washington DC company whose Impossible Future is to make collaboration a way of life in Washington.
The winning strategy that got you elected won't necessarily lead to legislative victories. Nancy referred me to an article in the Washington Post. GOP Freshman Get A Tough Lesson In Politics, which pointed out that at least some Tea Party members are starting to recognize that unless they start to break the grip and excel beyond the winning strategy that got them elected, they are not going to achieve much in Congress.
It’s not just that their habit of targeting their opponents (liberal democrats) and then seeking to defeat them with public heckling or bullying isn’t working in Congress, it’s that it’s backfiring. “On Capitol Hill, the Democrats have responded in kind with derogatory tactics. They have turned the Congress into a black hole for Tea Party members and GOP ideas. So the freshmen Congressman are left with political theater and voting for bills the Senate will ignore.” Freshman players have grown despondent: “We’re here, but are we solving any problems?”
The great Harvard Professor, Samuel Elliot Morrison, wrote that history teaches us how to behave. Taking a strong stand on issues and appealing to a narrow, but passionate base might get you elected, but it won’t allow you to get anything significant done once in office. Further, as the Tea Party is starting to figure out, all that an anti-collaborative, anti-coalition building, anti-learning attitude will do for you is make you irrelevant.
One of the first steps might be to recognize that “what got you here, won’t get you there.” It takes mastering the art of war to win elections, but mastering the art of creative collaboration to win legislative victories. Violate this principle at your peril.
One leader who learned this lesson was our 32nd President, FDR, who was elected in 1932 by a huge majority in the midst of the Great Depression. FDR bashed his opponents during his campaign saying, “I welcomed their hatred.” Once elected, he continued to use strong arm tactics and deal making to reach his goals. He was able to pass some transactional legislation (make work programs) in his first term, but was roadblocked in his transformational agenda. He then put together the great electoral coalition of 1936 and proceeded to pass a torrent of transformational legislation that amounted to an economic bill of rights for all Americans.
As I usually make my way in the world not as a columnist blogger, but under the Twitter nom de plume Masterful Coach (of executives in their first 100 days), I would like to offer a few guidelines to elected officials on all sides.
Seven Critical Success Strategies for Elected Officials in Their First 100 Days
1) Reset your mindset from “I won the election” to “what can we create together?” President Obama made a mistake when he said, “We won the election” (do what I say). Now it's time to set shared goals, look for a win/win, and recognize that a clash of opinions often lights creative sparks.
2) Set a “Big Goal” that both political parties can subordinate their egos to. Come up with some big goals—like job creation and full employment—that the White House and Congressional leaders on all sides can subordinate their egos too and which the different factions realize can’t be achieved alone.
3) Build a virtuous circle of increasing personal credibility, political capital and forward momentum by securing early wins. A quick win doesn’t have to mean a legislative triumph. It can be something as simple as putting aside pretenses and defenses and having a conversation with an opponent that usually would never happen.
4) Collaboration is a social activity, so spend time socializing proposals in informal environments like bars, restaurants, or clubs to determine the “art of the possible” in bringing them to the floor of Congress.
5) Spend lots of time in dialogue; treat everyone—Democrat, Republican, freshman or senior—like a colleague.
6) Use disagreement as a resource for building shared understanding that perhaps leads to new ideas, fresh approaches, innovative solutions.
7) Drive out self-righteous, anti-collaborative, anti-learning attitudes. The first step may involve holding up a mirror and “seeing something ugly.”