Political Leaders Agree on Core Attributes Needed to Reach Across the Aisle

Madison McGuire
Madison McGuire

Dec 22, 2021, 3:04 PM

SUMMARY

Unifying Theme: Hope for Consensus Across Party Lines: A Student Project


While political partisans may not agree on much these days, 40 current and former elected officials interviewed by Vanderbilt students in the spring of 2021 agreed on leadership competencies to successfully work across the aisle, build coalitions and foster unity.


by: Kim Davenport, PhD, Director, Leadership and Organization Performance Program; co-author of Global Business Citizenship and Focused Quality: Managing for Results.


"What if humans just can't get along anymore?" It's a timely question asked by New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo in a recent editorial.[i]

Leadership is a highly sought after and highly valued commodity.[ii] Scholars have studied great leaders for decades to learn what competencies they have in common, how to develop leaders, etc.  Corporations have long sought/selected employees for their leadership skills. Why shouldn't we do the same for political leaders?

Political polarization stifles effective policymaking on issues ranging from addressing climate change to containing the Covid virus. Yet, solving these and similar grand challenges requires some level of consensus among the officials charged with formulating legislation.

Having been a human resources leader for much of my corporate career, I know businesses hire, develop and reward leaders for competencies that drive high performance and achieve results. The ability to reach across the political aisle to develop consensus seems key to achieving results in a democracy. But what competencies[iii] do political leaders need to forge common ground?

To start to discover the answer, 42 students enrolled in my spring semester 2021, Leadership Theory and Practice class at Vanderbilt University were assigned a research project. They were tasked with interviewing an elected or appointed public official to determine how consensus can be achieved in today's polarized political environment.

The five interview questions are listed in Figure 1

Figure 1 - Interview Questions


  1. Describe a situation you saw, or were directly involved in, where something was accomplished through collaboration. What do you remember most about the situation?

  2. Out of the 16 leadership competencies provided, what are the top 5 that you think contribute most to helping political leaders work across the aisle to collaborate, build coalitions and foster unity?

  3. Are there any additional competencies not included on the list that you think would be important to consider?

  4. What do you think the biggest barrier is to elected officials using these competencies?

  5. If there was one thing you think would encourage political leaders to work across the aisle to collaborate, build coalitions and foster unity, what would it be?


Of the 40 officials ultimately interviewed, seven identified themselves as Republican, 18 as Democrat, and 15 as either independent or non-partisan. They represented 17 states (AZ, CA, CT, FL, IL, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TN, TX, VA & WA) and the District of Columbia. Positions included state, county, city and community roles, from mayors to a former governor, to members of Congress and a former Presidential cabinet member.[iv]

The following competencies were identified as the five most important, out of a list of 16, for building consensus. The 16 competencies were based upon the research of presidential historians and leadership development experts. Figure 2 includes the respective number of votes for all 16 competencies.

figure2
  1. Collaborates (25 responses): Builds partnerships and works collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives; effectively builds networks inside and outside the organization.
  2. Integrity of Character (24 responses): Gains the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity.
  3. Empathy (19 responses): Understands feelings and experiences of others.
  4. Courage (19 responses): Steps up to address difficult issues, saying what needs to be said.
  5. Balances Principles and Pragmatism (18 responses): Adapts approach and demeanor to match shifting demands of different situations.

As shown in Figure 3, there was more disagreement about the barriers to effective collaboration. Self-interest was the most identified barrier to collaboration. The other most commonly selected barriers included Party Partisanship, Political Opportunism/Extremism, Re-election Pressure, and Perceived as Weak.

figure3

  1. Self-interest (12 responses): Those who do not collaborate think they're the smartest people in the room and that their thoughts are the only ones that are relevant and correct. They let their egos impede consensus.

  2. Party Partisanship (10 responses): Rigid politics and ideologies can get in the way of the greater good.

  3. Political Opportunism/Extremism (6 responses): The current political environment rewards "hot takes" and "sound bites" and not genuine work. For example, some responding officials had 15 bills passed, but they were for trivial pieces of legislation such as renaming post offices. Both parties have extremes, and those extremes get all the attention.

  4. Re-election Pressure (5 responses): Campaigning is constant; elected officials are concerned with pleasing their supporters and can easily neglect voters/communities as a whole.

  5. Perceived as a Weakness (5 responses): In our society right now, some people see working with another party as a sign of weakness.


Advice to Overcome Barriers


Students then asked interviewees an open-ended question: "What one thing do you think would encourage political leaders to work across the aisle to build coalitions and foster unity - and why?" Of the four recommendations shown in Figure 4, the first three were about self-behaviors and actions when interacting with colleagues. The fourth focused on systemic issues within the political sphere, constituents, and the notion of followership. But the majority of leaders agreed the single most important thing was building genuine relationships.


figure4
  1. Build Genuine Relationships (27 of 40 responses or 57%): Helps political leaders find common ground more quickly and solve problems for the good of all. Examples they provided included a willingness to compromise, being patient, giving credit to others, respecting and valuing differences (more similar than different), civility (humanize not demonize), being open-minded (seeking common ground), seeking to understand (genuinely talk and listen), and trusting and being trustworthy (most everyone trying to do what's best for their constituents).[v]
  2. Balance Principles & Pragmatism (8 of 40 responses or 20%): Simply put, get things done in a practical and ethical manner. Their advice was very practical: build on commonalities (start small…with things you mostly agree on); be willing to fail and adjust mid-stream; do your homework and be thorough -- understand the long-term consequences of proposals. It reminds me of the great philosopher Kenny Rogers (and country music singer from Nashville) when he said, "know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run."
  3. Systemic Changes (7 of 40 responses or 18%): Several participants noted that in spite of good intentions and effective leadership issues like campaign finance reform and term limits, practices such as gerrymandering of districts and systemic racism impact individual leaders' willingness to cooperate and compromise to get things done.
  4. Followership (2 of 40 responses or 5%): Voters incentivize the actions of political leaders. From Congress to city councils, many political leaders are a microcosm of the constituents they represent. The message was that the public needs to demand mature, balanced leadership.

Conclusion

While the result of this research is not statistically viable, it does demonstrate that many political leaders recognize the value of these competencies as a means of creating collaboration and increasing productivity regardless of partisanship.  The sampling of interviewees offered a significant selection of perspectives that appeared mostly in alignment when it comes to the fundamental skills needed for collaboration and building unity among those with varying interests and perspectives. These same skills are sought by corporate recruiters and touted by management gurus. Voters may also consider seeking these key competencies in their elected officials in order to have the most mature, collaborative, unified and non-polarized representation in office.

Further Reading & Viewing:

  1. Goodwin, D.K. (2018). Leadership in Turbulent Times. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
  2. Salon 615 Jon Meacham interview Doris Kearns Goodwin: https://www.youtube.com/watch=7EaAsDkJ15Q

References:

i Manjoo, Farhad. "What if humans just can't get along anymore?" New York Times, 4 Aug. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/opinion/technology-internet-cooperation.html. Accessed 13 October 2021.

ii Northouse, P.G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and Practice, ninth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

iii Competencies: A set of knowledge, skills and abilities obtained through formal or non-formal education, work experience, or other means required to perform a job. A list of 16 competencies was identified and defined by Kim Davenport and Ariane Willson based on research conducted by presidential historians and leadership development experts.

iv Student Researchers/Participants: A special thank you to the students who participated in this research project. You persevered in pursuing political leaders to interview while being professional brand ambassadors for Vanderbilt University. Alexa Marcus, Alexia Anleu, Angelique Dalesandro, Annie Gallagher, Anshul Nayar, Beca Ramón, Ben Brody, Caroline Conrod, Caroline Rintoul, Celia Goldfarb, Colin Walsh, Daniel Kang, David Jones, Edward Demonbreun, Elissa Koh, Emma Furst, Eric Suh, Fay Zhang, George Dimitratos, Hannah Morgan, Jiayu Kang, Justin Hershey, KC Pruitt, Lilah Blond, Madison Hitchcock, Margaux Vitols, Matt Stanton, Penina Jeter, Peyton Cutshall, Saboor Malik, Samantha Merrick, Sam Sussman, Sam Vaughn, Sebastian Baca, Shelly McCallion, Tyler Steen, Urshi Vaishnav, Vincent Lin, Will Clark, Will Gonzales, Will Rippeto, Yiyang Chen

v Interviewees represented 17 states and the District of Columbia. Positions included:

  • Local: 2 City Commissioners; 11 City Councilmen/women; 1 County Clerk; 8 Mayors; 2 Vice Mayors.
  • State: 1 former Governor; 1 State Delegates; 4 State Representatives; 5 State Senators.
  • US/Federal: 5 Congressmen/women; 1 former Trump Cabinet Member

vi Lombardo, Michael M, and Robert W. Eichinger. FYI For Your Improvement. Korn-Ferry, 2014, p. 63.

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