By Douglas Castle Political Editor
President-elect Barack Obama is inheriting some tremendous problems from his predecessor administration, some of which include a ravaged, volatile, but macroscopically slumping economy (built upon a foundation of excessive leverage, fiscal gambling, dis-saving, and systemic and encouraged inefficiencies), and a severely diminished view of the United States in the eyes of the G-8 nations and all of our sovereign counterparts, many of whom we have routinely bullied or ignored during the past eight years.
Mr. Obama appears to be a reasonably intelligent and thoughtful man, who carries the torch of leadership but understands the need for the special quiet brands of networking skill which require pre-emptive salesmanship and reaching quiet consensus prior to coming out with policies or political pronouncements. An integral part of networking requires that we be cognizant of the egos, opinions, vested interests and positions of others -- if we simply choose the traditional one-sided approach of preaching and selling, we will fail to develop vitally-important relationships through our networking efforts. A quiet consensus is a means of 1) obtaining market-research intelligence, and 2) personalizing and strengthening our relationships.
In selecting his cabinet members and executive-level appointees, Mr. Obama is not taking the risk of alienating the many Washington "regulars" whose cooperation and support he will need in order to accomplish positive things during the term of his presidency. He and his representatives are going to many key network contacts (each of whom is a part of the Washington governance machinery, and each of them who is an individual) and doing some psychological networking magic:- He is asking for their opinions on important issues, and giving them credit and gratitude for their responses;
- He is giving them "ownership" in endorsing any personnel decisions;
- He is giving them the gift of inclusion;
- He is setting a precedent of asking what others think, and in taking their opinions and comments into consideration (very much the opposite of what George W. Bush had done while waving a U.S. flag as he drove a bulldozer over any opposition "noise");
- He is converting contacts into bilateral, functional relationships, by humanizing and humbling himself in front of these largely egocentric characters who line the Washington, D.C. Landscape.
I suspect that he is becoming increasingly popular with a great many people who were his party-bound political opponents or doubters previously. I also suspect that he has a subscription to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER -- if not, he is looking over a constituent's shoulder who happens to have a free subscription. After all, every intelligent political or business aspirant should have a subscription.
Mr. Obama networked his way into the presidency...and now he is converting strangers into friends. He is converting liabilities and inert parties into assets through personal alchemy. Many had underestimated this proponent of change. I was one of them.
Let's watch Mr. Obama and see what we can learn, politics notwithstanding.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
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Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newletter, go to http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free RSS feed, go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/.
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