Category Archives: Advocacy

Making Sense of, And Moving On From, the 2022 Midterm Elections

By a bit of good luck, I’ve been reading Originals by Adam Grant in the last few days. As a book about original thinking, personal development and change-making, it might not immediately strike you as a relevant read at election time. But here I am, finding myself gleaning important reminders at a time when soContinue reading “Making Sense of, And Moving On From, the 2022 Midterm Elections”

Keeping Your Head on Election Day

But Election Day isn’t a finish line – it’s a starting block. It’s the anticipation of the starting gun for a foot race. It’s getting into position to act. Successful advocates distinguish themselves by realizing that, and visualizing how they’ll react when the starting gun fires.

Become a Better Advocate: Have Hard Conversations

“How do we get our leaders to stop fighting and start working?” I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve been asked that question. Even working for centrist members of Congress, that sentiment came up nearly every week I was on the job. For almost a decade. I can tell you since IContinue reading “Become a Better Advocate: Have Hard Conversations”

Success in Advocacy: The Power Behind Your Personal Brand

Focus on serving your issue in a genuine way, with warmth and purpose and you will find your audience.

Success in Advocacy: Clear is Greater than Clever

Being too clever can shut the conversation down long before we ever finish talking

Success in Advocacy: “Just be Human”

These are the basics, the fundamentals, any advocate needs to find long term success. Basically, just be human.

Success in Advocacy: Right-sizing your wins

… no matter what happens on the battlegrounds of politics, successful advocates have to bring their causes forward in the reality of governance.

Success in Advocacy: Balancing the Three P’s

Getting advocacy right looks a lot more like flowing between each of these three pillars and finding where we are lacking in a given moment. It looks a lot more like surrounding ourselves with people who think differently than we do. And it looks a lot more like adjusting our strategies in real time as we continually receive feedback from the process…

Let me tell you about Sue

Much of what it takes to be a successful advocate is learning just how to reassess and move to the next mission when your efforts come to a halt. That’s probably also the most frustrating lesson to learn. And I have to talk about it a lot. In fact, I have a case study inContinue reading “Let me tell you about Sue”