What defines a successful public affairs professional

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These are the longer remarks I was due to  share this evening at the 25th Anniversary of Maastricht University’s MA in European Public Affairs.
However, reading the room, I cut things short. This is the full talk.
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I am going to share my personal view on what I think defines a successful public affairs professional.
What I think it takes
A deep understanding of the process and the dynamics in the preparation, adoption, and implementation of the laws, regulations and political decisions – for the area(s) you are working on.
Possesses three superpowers:
  1. The ability to communicate clearly and concisely in writing.
  2. The ability to communicate clearly and concisely when speaking.
  3. Do what you say you will do.
You need to:
  1. Help their client/members/colleagues get the public policy, legislative, or regulatory change they want; to do so with honesty and integrity, and have the decency to let them know sometimes that what they want can’t happen.
  2. The ability to think clearly and objectively, when emotions are strained. You’ll need to be able to step back and bring reason to the table. If not, people will do silly things they’ll regret.
  3. Find creative solutions, harnessing different disciplines: law, media, politics, process, public policy, and pyschology. No-one pathway will get you what you want.
  4. Be political without being partisan. You’ll work across many Party lines. You need to get winning thresholds of votes.
  5. Be comfortable with uncertainty.
  6. Don’t confine yourself to your nationality or Party Card.
  7. Your schooling – many people will have no idea where you did your 3rd Masters.
  8. Realise it is a business, and not a vocation.
  9. If you can only work for those interests with whom you 100% agree with, you have either taken a vow of poverty, or have a generous trust fund.
  10. Deal with loss and rejection. You will will deal with loss and failure. Learn from the falling down. Keep a journal and note down the lessons you learn from falling down.
  11. Be able to deal with your colleagues, clients, officials and politicians rejecting your ‘brilant’ ideas.
  12. Be comfortable with people rejecting your ‘solutions’. It is going to happen a lot. Don’t take it personally.
  13. People will do strange things, things that upset you. Just deal with it. Things you take as a personal challenge to your identity usually have nothing to do with you.
  14. Sometimes clients and decision makers are not going to like you. Take yourself out of the picture and replace yourself.
  15. Keep re-learning. The rules of the game keep evolving. You need to keep up to date. One of the most useful skills is the ability to learn new things deeply and quickly. I believe this requires reading on your own time.
  16. Stay healthy. There is a tendency for isms to contaminate lobbyists’ lives – acholicism, neurism and workaholicism. Try and avoid them. I kidded myself that I found out anything useful at 2 am in a nightclub, other than hangover wrecks the next day.
  17. Have a hinterland. Your political party or employer is not your life.
Being a Professional
I would recommend you read Steven Pressfield’s Turning Pro.
Avoid distractions:
  1. Focus on a few things and go for depth, and don’t be superficial.
  2. Deep work can’t be done in noise-filled offices.
  3. Minimise internal meetings. Only agendas, pre-reads, and an objective.
Plus
1. You need to park your ego at the door. Be comfortable with fear. Pick up the phone and call total strangers.
2. Have a learning programme to grow and improve. Do one thing at a time.
3. Avoid drama. It is draining and pointless.
4. To grow, you need to learn. And to learn, find a coach/mentor to help you understand how to get to where you want to be, with as few unnecessary diversions and accidents as possible.
4. The most useful thing I was told at 24 was to try and work for the best person in the area that I thought I wanted to work in. You’ll learn that what you thought looked great from the outside was unpleasant up close – 3rd divorce, etc – or you like it, and then learn as much as you can. There seems to be an 18-month learning gradient. Become an apprentice. Work for the best person in the field who’ll give you direct and immediate feedback.
5. Learn to deal with reality. How you see things is unlikely to be true. It is better to understand reality, warts and all, than to deceive yourself.
Personal Observation
It is, most of the time, a great way to make a living. I’ve worked with men and women who have moved political mountains. Master craftsman who have ensured that decisions, laws and regulations that are put in place have made the lives of many are far better place.
These are the people who help those who want to bring about change get their ideas into political reality. Without them, great ideas are just ideas.
Your role, as a Public Affairs professional, is to bring solutions to the table and help bring about change.
There are few better ways to make a living.