Networking

Networking: Ignition for Your Career in Politics

• The Basic Tools
• Where to Start
• Three Tips on Introducing Yourself
• People
• Communities of Interest
• Terms of Trade
• Work at Networking Constantly

Nothing could be more important to your career in politics than the ability to network. Granted, politics has become much more technical and managerial in the last 50 years, but it still remains a business of human connections. Who you know is as important as what you know.

Networking is more than just building a circle of friends. It involves meeting and staying in more or less continuous contact with a group of individuals who give mutual support and help to each other's careers.

While many who are just starting out in politics recognize the need to network, often they have little idea how to go about it. This memo is intended to give you some ideas and suggestions about how you can build a personal network that will fuel your political career. A warning is appropriate at the outset, however: networking isn't easy and it doesn't occur without attention and systematic work on your part.

The Basic Tools:
1.0 You will need business cards, thank you notes and a professional e-mail address.

1.1 The most fundamental piece of equipment you will need is an up-to-date business card.* At all occasions, you want to be able to give out your contact information easily. But for your purposes, the ritual exchange of give-and-get is more important. You want to collect business cards like flypaper catches flies.

1.2 You will then need some system of filing and accessing information. Tape/paste them into a rolodex; photocopy them onto sheets in a 3-ring binder; or take the time to enter the information into an address book of professional contacts. You could buy a card reader that scans information into a database, but their accuracy is questionable.

1.3 Next and most critically important, follow up on the contact. Collection alone is useless; you will need to invent some reason to contact them again. Thinking back on your conversation with the person, try to come up with some little favor that you can do for him/her. Maybe it's sending on a relevant newspaper article or a restaurant suggestion or another contact she/he might need. Or maybe he/she had not heard of GSPM and you can send them a brochure. If you can't think of anything, write a card to say, "Nice to have met you, let's stay in touch." However you do it, follow-up contact is absolutely essential to get you beyond the meaningless "let's-do-lunch" phase.

1.4 It is said that George H.W. Bush got to be president (#41) by writing thank you notes. Wherever he went, he spent his spare time writing out brief notes to people he came in contact with. He made friends everywhere. He was elected to Congress, but after that, until he was elected President in 1988, he was appointed to one job after another (ambassador, national party chair, director of the CIA, etc.). Thank you notes played a significant role in his career path. Follow his example: a good bit of the personal side of politics is ingratiating yourself to others in the field. Saying "thank you" in writing can be critical [and is significantly more impressive than e-mail]. Personal, hand written notes are the most effective way of saying "I care about you" to another person.

1.5 Obviously, e-mail can be useful for staying in close touch with a group of contacts. Start by creating a professional-sounding address. Addresses like partyman@yahoo.com or bikerbabe@gwu.edu may make a personal statement but will not set the professional tone you want.

1.6 Except for communications with your very closest work associates or with friends and family, you should recognize that the more frequent the e-mail messages, the more likely they are to be ignored. And, given the glut of messages in everyone's inbox, a hard-copy letter or hand-written note sent by "snail-mail" is still more effective than email.* On the other hand, you don't want to let too much time elapse between contacts. When it comes to e-mailing your contacts, make the content relevant to them as individuals. In general, the larger the distribution list, the less useful the communication is as a networking builder.

1.7 If you really want to go overboard on this stuff, you could acquire some "contact management software" developed for sales personnel. [You are, after all, selling yourself!] These programs will allow you to keep all the contact information of a normal database program, but also to keep flexible records of other information (spouse's name, favorite bars, the last time you had any interaction with him/her, etc.) You can even set a function to remind you that you haven't had any contact with a given individual in two or three months.

Where to Start:
2.0 The next step is figuring out where and how to meet people who could be relevant to your career.

2.1 Start with the GSPM community. Your fellow students constitute the most obvious group; they, like you, will be working politics. Don't limit yourself to members of your own political party or philosophy. Think of it this way: professionally you'll be working against students in the other party, but individually, you're more likely to be in competition for jobs with members of your own party. Inside information, background perspective, and actual job leads are as likely to come from across the aisle as in your own party. But, in any case, your fellow students will be a life support if you can develop the necessary connections over the next 18 months.

2.2 The alumni community is the next obvious place to start gathering a network. When you go to GSPM social hours, try to talk to people other than those you already know from your classes. Most alums recognize that, as the GSPM network builds, its reputation will grow and this developing network can only increase the value of their degree and assist their careers.

2.3 Faculty and particularly guest lecturers are next. After class, introduce yourself to a guest lecturer who appears to be relevant to your future. Have your business card ready! Write a thank you note mentioning some point from his/her lecture.

2.4 Each day, numerous events take place all over Washington, events which draw people working in politics.* For example, many states have a society which organizes an annual community-building event that you could attend. How would you find out about this? Suppose you're from Texas. You could "google" the Texas State Society and, sure enough, you would learn who runs the society, when the next event is and how to become a member ($20/year). But, if you do that, you haven't really caught the networking spirit. Call (or better yet, drop by) your local Congressional office and introduce yourself to the Staff Assistant. Ask about the society. Are they fun? Do 20-somethings feel welcome? Get the name or the person you're talking to; perhaps you'll meet at the next event.

2.5 Volunteer, charitable work is big in Washington, especially among Congressional staffers. You can get involved through DC Cares (www.dc-cares.org). The trick is, rather than just attending an event, to volunteer to work on putting together an upcoming event, usually a dinner but it might be a 10K race. In the process of planning, organizing and preparing for the event, you'll come into repeated contact with a lot of other people who's day jobs are in politics. Then you can work on broadening that relationship.

People:
3.0 Make no mistake, beneath a veneer of surface cordiality, this is a competitive town. The depth of that veneer varies from person-to-person. In general, those who are genuinely people friendly tend to do better, but you will meet some arrogant and competitive types. Usually they will be in the middle ranks of power, status and access to information. In climbing the ladder of success, they don't want anyone to pass them (but they are very likely to be highly deferential to those higher on the ladder).

3.1 Assume that everyone you meet is going to succeed. Today's Staff Assistant answering phones in a Congressional office is likely to be Chief of Staff in ten years. So don't ignore them now. One way or the other, they will remember you, and you want those memories to be positive. Almost every important player has a special assistant who can help you or hurt you in getting access to the boss. Learn that person's name and treat him/her as a person as important to you as the boss.

3.2 As one moves up the ladder -- gaining access, information and influence -- it is hard to resist using your power to exclude those who are seeking the same things. Remember that at some point in your career, you'll probably make a mistake, maybe even a bad one. The difference between those who survive and those who crash in this town is often made by the number of enemies he/she has accumulated. Players who are especially self-regarding and competitive usually have generated a group just waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Or, better stated, they don't have a large reservoir of friends who will come to their defense when they need it.

Communities of Interest:
4.0 All work and no play makes Jack a lonely boy! Beyond politics, a great way to network with those who work in politics is to find a community of interest. You may like duck hunting, fishing, motorcycles, golf, skiing, poker, etc. Plugging into a group engaged by one of these interests will expand your circle of connections. When you meet someone at a political event, find out what they do with their free time. You could ask a Congressional staffer what she/he plans to do during the coming recess or what they did on their last vacation. Once you have zeroed in on a leisure activity that interests you, you might even take the lead in organizing events built around that recreation, events to which you could invite people with similar interests. The conversations that take place during recreation work to cement friendships.

Terms of Trade:
5.0 Favors are the basic coinage of political networks. One GSPM faculty member says, "I like it when somebody asks me for a favor. It means we are connected and working together. I can ask for a return favor and on it goes." Don't be hesitant to ask those with whom you have established a firm connection to do you a favor. It might be to make a call on your behalf, to find out an important piece of information, to spend a day going door-to-door on a campaign, to attend an event to fill up a room, or to put a line in a House bill. Remember, however, that by asking for a favor, you will be obligating yourself for a return favor.

5.1 In some circumstances involving large favors, the exchange may be an immediate quid pro quo. "I'll do that, if you can do this for me." Now you're into bargaining.

5.2 If you make a commitment to do a favor, keep it. There is nothing more detrimental to your career in politics than getting a reputation for not keeping your word. Conversely, those of whom it is said "her word is her bond," are highly valued as network partners, and their careers flourish.

5.3 If it turns out that you can't deliver on your commitment, -- say, for example, you've tried, but can't find out that crucial piece of information -- then get back to your contact and tell him/her that you can't deliver. Don't just let the contact languish; you'll be burning up your network and destroying your political capital.

5.4 Be careful what you agree to do. At some point, you will probably wind up doing something that you would rather not do, simply because of who has asked you to do it. That's part of the game. But, watch your ethics. A good rule: don't do something that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of The Washington Post. But also, if you pay attention to 5.2 above, you won't agree to do that favor in the first place. Saying "I can't do that" may weaken a network connection, but it won't break it as surely as will agreeing to do something and then not delivering.

5.5 Perhaps you could make your networking more formal. In the late 1970's, group of 12 Democratic women decided to create an informal organization. They called themselves, "Women United." The deal was that they would work explicitly to help each other's careers. When one was in a position to hire someone as a consultant, she would take on one of the 12. Whenever someone from outside of the group asked one of them who she would recommend for a job or a position, the answer would always be one of the Women United. By the 1990's, they had all become very successful. One ultimately became the Director of Communications in Bill Clinton's White House. They didn't, incidentally, advertise the fact that they were all working together, but neither did they try to keep "Women United" a big secret. [It's not known whether they had a secret handshake!] Here's another case: in the early 1980's, the national chairman of the Young Republicans, was Jack Abramoff. His campaign manager in running for that post was Karl Rove and his two advisors were Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist. The four have been working together for 20 years; their careers have flourished; and in Abramoff's case, the trading of favors and influence has gotten him into real trouble.

Work at Networking Constantly:*
6.0 Networking is not easy and it doesn't just happen. But start now and it will become a habit. It also needs to be continual. If you are not regularly in touch with your network partners, you are likely to be forgotten. And remember, success breeds success; the larger the network, the more others will want to join it and soon you'll discover that people are courting you. Networking leads to influence and influence leads to power and you know what they say about power. So, keep your head about you and keep your ethical standards high.