How to build your political reputation?
“Political reputation is an untamed beast. It’s complicated. It’s tenuous. It moves rapidly. It rises. It falls. And no one in the history of the world has mastered it” Ken Campbell
As a political junkie, I have always been obsessed with how politicians build their reputation. I once had a chat with the former President of Vietnam — Tran Duc Luong. I remember asking him “how should young people like me start building our political reputation?”, to which he responded: “I probably have to write a book to give you a decent answer.”
Last week, my professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Allison Kluger, invited Josh Becker, a Stanford GSB alumnus and a California State Senator Nominee to our Reputation Management class to discuss political reputation. Political reputation: Take two. Needless to say, I was beyond excited.
Our class discussed at length a range of topics including what makes a “strong” political reputation, how should we understand Trump’s political reputation, how political reputation is established (or ruined) in times of crisis, and how we can start building our political reputation if we want to run for public office. Josh was candid throughout the discussion. He offered insightful answers to many difficult questions that we posed to him. There were some moments I caught myself in awe. Here are the top three:
Personality may help your political reputation: Having an interesting personality (e.g. charismatic) or being a personality (e.g. Trump) does help one build his or her political reputation. However, it’s not the be all end all. The most important thing, to Josh, is to stay true to your purpose and values. Josh said people have a “trust radar” — they know when your authenticity (or the lack of it) doesn’t pass the “sniff test.” To best connect to the people you want to serve, you, first and foremost, need to be authentic.
Reaching out to the people: Running for public office is about reaching out to the people you want to serve, show them who you are, what you stand for, and how you can help them. Josh said a successful election campaign needs to master three things. First, a message about who you are and why you run. Second, the mechanics of fund raising, field plan, etc. And third, communication — the what, when and how best to communicate to your people. Here is an example of how Josh communicates with his voters:
“You can do it (too)!” Josh shared he never thought he would run for public office when he was in sitting at where we are today. Never did it occur to him that it was his “calling” even though he always wanted to serve the people around him. A classmate of mine asked what was the one thing that he wished he had known earlier, Josh said running for office is never easy but if we have a strong conviction for serving our people and country, we can do it.
The beauty of every discussion at Stanford GSB is that there is always someone who has direct experience with the topic. This discussion was not an exception. Clay, our classmate, ran for Governor of Rhode Islands in 2014. Clay shared with us the challenges he faced when he was running (e.g. people scrutinized what car he was driving) and what he learned from it. Clay said the current crop of politicians are not a fair representation of what politics is about. As young leaders, we can choose to be either cynical about the system or do something about it. He hoped we would choose the latter.
Josh wrapped up the discussion by sharing with us the six lessons he has learned through his campaign. They are:
1. Be authentic. Always
2. Know your audience
3. Be ready to deal with rejections. There will be a lot of “no’s”
4. Running for public office is a rare experience. Embrace it
5. Humility is key
6. A strong support group is very much needed
To follow Josh’s campaign, please visit www.joshbecker2020.com. As an international student, I can’t vote for Josh. However, I will certainly be rooting for him.
