I was doing a bit of research online and came across a report by Alvarez & Marsal titled “What Makes an Exceptional Chairman? Required Qualities for Challenging Times.” The report is based on the collective insights of 22 Chairmen from FTSE 10 and 250 companies who drew their experiences working with over 120 Chairmen in their careers. According to the research, there are eight characteristics that exceptional Chairmen demonstrate throughout their tenure. This got me thinking about my time as Chairman of a local political group in Didcot. As March 31st marked my last day in office, I’d like to share my experiences on what I considered to be one of the most reflective times of my life.
I’ll write about how I got into politics in my forthcoming blog, though in short, an unforgettable (and maybe death defying) experience changed my perspective and gave me the strength to seize every opportunity that came my way. May 2014 was when I joined the group as Deputy Chairman for Fundraising and Membership upon meeting like-minded individuals that also wanted to make a positive impact on the upcoming general election the following year. Besides the need to increase membership for the party, one of the most challenging aspects of my role was to field sufficient candidates for the local elections – all 21 of them on the Town Council. I was told that the group has always had this difficulty and seeing the stronghold that the opposition party had at both Town and District levels at the time, I definitely had my work cut out for me.
With a stagnant membership and only a handful of candidates willing to stand for election, I needed a strategy, and I needed it fast. I took to social media which many thought was a risky strategy at the time and started asking questions. Treading the waters on Facebook turned out to be one of the best things we could have done. Of course, we weren’t immune to backlash and criticism – after all, political posts always divide the crowd. On the whole, though, the reception was positive and engaging. Month after month we saw more faces through the door of our meeting room, and our meetings became energetic, lively and, well, full! It was rewarding to see such renewed enthusiasm and the growing optimism allowed us to increase our membership level substantially.
During this period of growth and transition, we began to witness an evolving culture where members were aligned in terms of attitude, values and beliefs. There was a feeling of anticipation, of good things to come. By March 2015, I was fortunate enough to be promoted to the role of Chairman, supported by two deputy Chairmen who were not only incredibly supportive but also very talented in their respective professions. We had an intelligence officer in the Royal Air Force who oversaw election strategy. We also had an academically gifted researcher who took over from me as the driving force for membership. We began what we called Project Delta, an initiative to field the full set of candidates for all elections. Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Most definitely. Having the support of such capable deputies certainly made the role of Chairman a lot easier and it’s something that I’ll always be very grateful for.
Before too long the elections were upon us and the Conservative Party were the only political group in Didcot to put forward the full 21 candidates for election at town level and 8 candidates for election at district level. The end results surpassed all expectations – even the Oxfordshire Guardian said so! It was jubilant, exciting and for myself, relief that Project Delta was a massive success.
http://www.oxfordshireguardian.co.uk/tories-devastate-labour-in-town-council-elections/
Reflecting on the successes we had and drawing connections to the aforementioned article, the realisation is that hard work is only half the battle. The key to our success was how smart we worked to make our resources go further. It was about understanding people and the organisation, and how I can get the best out of everyone. It wasn’t always easy – not everyone saw the light at the end of the tunnel at the beginning. But we did it, and we did it with style and intelligence. I learned a huge amount from this ordeal, and whilst at times it was bittersweet and uncertain, I can walk away confidently knowing that I conducted myself with integrity, dignity, and professionalism. I hope to take this experience to better myself, to grow, to stumble, to get up and to do it all over again. I’d like to close in the words of Winston Churchill, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” Ditto.
