Political adversity is the only way we can increase our strength. To develop a muscle, you need to subject the muscle to resistance in the form of a heavy weight. Political adversity is the way you can develop your strength. The best way forward is to embrace the pain.
Most lobbyists, and their clients, like to live in a “comfort zone”. It is nice to think that all is okay, there are no really tough issues, no skeletons in the closet, everybody likes you, and you are trusted and respected. Many people like to live here. This warm glow of well-meaning nothingness will harm you in the long term. It is a form of immediate gratification that makes you less resilient to the political winds that always flow.
Don’t Avoid the Pain
Most people like to avoid pain. It is easier to pretend all is fine. It appears in many ways:
- An issue you deny is out there even when it is staring at you in the front page of the FT.
- A refusal to accept that the laws of voting arithmetic are against you and that you are not going to win the vote next week from a standing start.
- A report by an MEP, Committee, Commission, Member State, an international organisation against your position.
- Key people on your issue don’t return your calls or put the phone down on you if you manage to get hold of them.
- A new study by a leading expert against you.
Benefits of embracing the pain
If you embrace the pain, listen to the signals, your political resilience and capital will grow.
The good lobbyist will go through the small bursts of pain required for the personal discipline of keeping up relationships, maintaining and growing trust and respect, and following up.
You’ll commission an in-depth peer review study, ahead of time, to examine the findings of others. You’ll publish the findings and subject them to the rigours of peer review. If there is an issue, you’ll take steps to resolve it.
You’ll engage in a civil and informed way with those voices that seem to be against you. Only two things can come from this. You may find out that why someone seems to be against your interests is not what is driving them. This happens a lot. You then find out that you are barking up the wrong tree. The very worst that can happen is that they tell you why they are against your interests, and give the in-depth reasons for that. That’s not a bad thing. Maybe what is driving them can be cleared up in an instant, or you know the real reasons.
At the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in N.Ireland, representatives of the Unionist business community met with representatives of the Civil Rights movement. The Civil Rights representatives learned that these representatives of the Unionist community thought the campaign for equal rights in N.Ireland was a pretext to reclaim the land confiscated from Catholics during the Plantation of Ulster (1609- 1690). They were shocked to learn it was not.
A good rule of thumb is, if you dread it, do it. You are only going to find out two things. One, there is not an issue, or second, there is an issue, and now you have time to do something about it.
Don’t Avoid the Political Pain
Don’t drop a political Xanax. It will dull your political senses.
It is common to avoid political reality. I’ve been shouted at and accused of lying when informing people a proposal was about to be published, a vote would not be won, or a decision would not go their way. The pain of letting others know this was too much.
My own view is that when you deny reality, you are refusing to accept that’s already happened. The more you complain the more stuck you become. Acting the victim may be natural but it comes offs as looking like political insanity. There is nothing that can be achieved. It is like politicians who are found crying and yelling in their offices after their constituents vote them out at the general election.
You need political courage to face the fear. It is the only way you’ll get to where you need to be.