Why Investing in Good Management is Essential for Your Political Organization to Thrive

In politics, time and people are two of our most valuable assets. And whether we’re talking about the inner workings of a candidate campaign or a political consulting firm, where there is dysfunction you are sure to find a misallocation of both of those assets. 

Putting the right people in place and then equipping them with strong management skills is absolutely essential for political organizations and firms to thrive. But given the frantic nature of political work, campaigns and organizations often find themselves unable to devote the time and resources to get this right. 

Empower Strategies was founded specifically to address this problem. To retain talent and create capacity within your organization, you need to set up your team with essential management structures and train your managers to obtain and master essential skills. Here are three steps your political org or firm should take this cycle to ensure your team is getting this right.

1. Perform An Honest Evaluation of Your Team and Invest in Them 

One undeniable reality in the political campaign industry is that managers are often promoted into their roles because they’ve excelled at a specific technical skill or area of expertise, not because of their ability to manage people. In one sense, this is a positive. Unlike some other industries, “middle management” in politics is typically not staffed with individuals whose primary job it is to just manage without a connection to the day-to-day work.

The downside? Managers in politics are also often responsible for managing large teams and sizable budgets. They also are typically thrust into high-level management responsibilities early in their career — largely without the proper training on how to best utilize, motivate, lead, and retain employees.