To really make things happen as a leader, especially in complex environments, you have to invest heavily in winning the hearts and minds of important stakeholders. Adopting a campaign approach will help you to step up from tactical influencing into the realms of the strategist or, dare I say it, the politician.
By doing this, you will achieve far greater influence and get others doing the influencing for you. It will take less time and less effort to get the result. In order to do this, you have to put a serious amount of time into considering seven key aspects of political campaign planning, suitably adapted to the scale of your ambition and the nature of your setting.
- Strategic Objectives. Before you do anything, you need to return to the key objectives you have set for yourself and make sure these are robust (see Strategic Direction Setting).
- Identify and Attract Sponsors. Once you have your objectives clear, think widely about possible sponsors. They may not be the obvious ones, but they do need to have a strong vested interest in what you are doing. Make sure and meet with them to sound them out on what you have in mind and listen very carefully to their needs, problems and issues.
- Analyse Your Communities. Segment your organisation, or arena, into different groups, demographics or communities. These may be based on reporting lines, functions or any other feature. What you need to do is break them into groups with common features, needs or problems.
- Create Your Manifesto. By combining your objectives with what you have heard from your potential sponsors and communities, carefully construct a detailed set of policy principles which will become the substance of your campaign. These need to talk directly to your sponsors as well as your various communities.
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- Craft Your Communications. All political parties have leaflets explaining their manifesto; you do too, or the corporate equivalent. You’ll need to have an overall (brief) summary of what you want to achieve. Most important of all, you’ll need to have bespoke materials that talk to each major community within the population. These have to be in their language and link closely to their concerns.
- Recruit the Party Faithful. Especially on big campaigns, you cannot do it all. These are the people who are going to do the hard work of knocking on doors and looking for opportunities to roll out the big guns (you) when significant influencing opportunities are uncovered. Your team are obvious contenders, but look wider, especially in your target communities for people who have a strong interest in what you are doing and will be prepared to put themselves out on your (and their) behalf. In reality, this will be an ongoing task for you, and they may be extremely helpful in the earlier elements of campaign planning too.
- Strategic Planning. Don’t do this on your own, form a committee of your most loyal and influential party workers. They will have different insights and intelligence into what is going on elsewhere in the organisation, and their contribution is likely to be essential in planning a smooth and successful campaign. They will also be more committed to the plan if they have been a part of its creations.
The order of some of these steps is important. Don’t create your manifesto too early. You might think that you have to have all of the answers before you go out to find your sponsors, but you would be wrong. You need to have your high-level objectives fixed, but there are a million little ways they could be adjusted, and the idea here is to maximise your appeal to your various audiences. It also needs to be created using language and terminology that they will readily understand.
You may be forgiven for reacting strongly to the parallels I have drawn with natural/party politics. Your reaction doesn’t change the reality that in large complex organisations, making big things happen necessitates the political approach.
The Gautrey Influence Blog
Ever felt overlooked, unheard, or stuck in office politics? You’re not alone. The Gautrey Influence Blog breaks down the real-world strategies behind leadership, influence, and power—giving you the tools to be heard, respected, and successful. Join 35,000+ professionals getting ahead the smart way—subscribe now..
💡 Benchmark your Influence: Take the Master of Influence Assessment (Free for Subscribers!)
👉 [Subscribe & Take the Assessment]