Ryan Meili has posted his concession speech from the day after the Leadership Convention and it didn’t make my Top 10 list of reasons I was supporting Ryan Meili but the fact that I’ve always found Ryan to be beyond classy, in good times and bad, was another reason I supported his candidacy. Truly a rarity in today’s political culture…
There were dozens of reasons I supported Ryan. Another one that didn’t make my list happened way back in October. At that early point in the campaign, Ryan made a passing reference to Servant Leadership in a longer essay he wrote about his own philosophy of leadership:
Coming back to the question before us – electing the next leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party – this understanding of a shift in leadership style is an important consideration. The task before us is to choose someone who will demonstrate the kind of servant leadership that will set the tone for the party – not just for the next election, but for the next generation. The world is changing rapidly, and the challenges we face as a party and a province are greater than any one person’s skills and abilities. We need to do more than change the leader, we need to change the conversation.
…and I thought it was yet another indication he was the perfect person for the job.
The basic essence of the concept is that when you’re the boss, that doesn’t mean you have to *be* a boss. Instead, your goal should be to *serve* the people you work with – whether as subordinates, colleagues or superiors – by ensuring they have what they need to maximize their success (which in turn, guarantees your success.)
(A related element of Servant Leadership is that you really shouldn’t even see people in terms of power relationships and try, as much as possible, to view everyone you interact with as someone you are an equal colleague with, to maximize effectiveness of this technique.)
Dangerous Trust – Humility always demands a certain level of trust. A humble leader is willing to take a risk on others, trusting them with the sacredness of the vision, even at the chance they may be disappointed with the outcome.
Sincere Investment – Humble leaders know the vision is bigger and will last longer than they will, so they willingly invest in others, raising up and maturing new leaders.
Gentle, but Strong – One can’t be a leader and be weak. Every position of leadership will provide a challenge to the leader, but humble leaders have learned the balance between being gentle and remaining strong. (Think Jesus!)
Readily Admits Mistakes – Everyone makes mistakes. In fact, we often learn more through failure than through success. The humble leader is quick to admit when he or she has done wrong and deals with the fault-out without casting blame or making excuses.
Forgives easily – Leadership is filled with disappointment; often at the expense of other’s mistakes. A humble leader forgives easily, remembering how many times he or she has been forgiven.
Quickly diverts attention – We all like to be recognized for accomplishments, but a humble leader is quick to divert attention to others, sharing the limelight for successes with those, who many times, may have even had more to do with the success than the leader did. They celebrate the success of others louder than personal success
Remains thankful – A humble leader is appreciative of the input of others into his or her leadership. So much so, that a humble leader naturally praises the actions of others far more than the time spent patting themselves on the back for personal accomplishments. Humble leaders recognize that all good gifts come from above.
Recognizes Limitations – No one can do everything. A humble has the ability to say, “I can’t do that or I’m not the one who should”.
Shares authority – Humble leaders don’t take all the key assignments for themselves, but gives out prime responsibility and authority to people he or she is leading.
Invites feedback – A humble leader wants to learn from his or her mistakes and wants to continually see improvement. Humble leaders initiate other’s suggestions and feedback, not waiting until complaints come, but personally asking for the input.
Why is this concept a perfect match for the political world? Two big reasons – one general and one specific to politics.
The general reason is that the nature of leadership is changing and numerous organizations – private, public and other – are shifting from having traditional command-and-control, autocratic, hierarchical leaders to organizational leaders that empower people, decentralize authority and invert pyramids.
The more specific reason that applies to politics is that, unlike a traditional workplace, the majority of people involved in politics (eg. the members rather than those limited few who work for the party in some capacity) have the ability to walk away if they don’t feel that the party leadership is serving them in the way that they expect.
This was very clearly the case when Dwain Lingenfelter was elected Leader in 2009. He brought a very old-school approach to leadership that clearly turned people off – within the membership and beyond. When I was door-knocking and calling during the last provincial election, it quickly became clear that many members – new and long-term – were choosing to either minimize their involvement or even to leave the party rather than work for a leader who clearly didn’t see his role as one of serving the membership (or to be fair, if he did, it didn’t translate well – indicating that making sure people understand your intentions and approach is as important as the actions you take.)
I have to admit I had the same thoughts about leaving the party myself when Link was elected. I mean, I’d only bought a membership to support Ryan and other than a previous leadership race in 2001, had never held a membership any other time.
But for a variety of reasons – belief in the party, belief in my local candidate (who, like Ryan, took a classy, positive approach to politics), belief in so many of the people I’d met in the party who opened up to me with their knowledge, ideas and opportunities – I stayed involved. In fact, I consider myself as someone who has transitioned from an uncertain, uncommitted member to a PAC-holding, constituency association-serving, election-working member.
Not everyone who joins the party will get as involved as I have (and with the Leadership Race over and a baby on the way in two months, I expect that my own level of involvement will drop off significantly).
But for the party’s greatest long-term success, transitioning people from “toe in the water” involvement to “doing laps in the deep end” involvement is vital. And servant leadership is an ideal way to make that happen!
Spending time with my family – I think Pace was starting to suspect daddy had gotten married to his computer since I was spending more time with it than him and mommy the past few months! 😉
Finishing getting ready for the addition to our family – apparently we’re having a baby in two months or less. Also, holy shit!
Getting My E-mail Under Control – even with filters and other tricks, dozens and dozens of messages a day is still a lot of messages to deal with.
Seeing my tweeting drop down significantly – I’m actually not a huge user of Twitter most of the time
Reading A Book – I’ve written about how I tend to read about a book a week on average, sometimes more, sometimes less. That means I should have read about 10 books so far this year. The number I’ve actually read so far this year could be counted on one hand with a couple fingers left over! 😉
Staying in Touch With All The New Friends I’ve Made – it was pretty cool to show up in Saskatoon and feel instantly at ease and comfortable with a huge group of people you’d never met in person. Much of this was due to common cause of course but much was also because of the online forum we’d created which was filled with warmth, humour and humility throughout the race
Watching a Hockey Game or Two – the NHL is back this year, right? Somebody better tell the Flames – as I type this, they’re last place in the Western Conference and only a couple points ahead of Washington and Florida for worst in the league!
All Kinds of Neglected Little Projects – which have been neglected worse than usual during this leadership campaign (including sleep as there were way too many nights when I’d stay up way past my bedtime thinking “I’ll just reply to that Facebook thread one more time” or “Hey, I’ve got an idea I should type up right now before I forget it!” then slide back into bed two hours later.)
My Next Obsession – whether at work, home or in my personal life, I tend to get very interested in a single overriding project/interest for awhile and then when that’s over, find something else. After being “All Meili all the time”, I’m interested to see what my next obsession (beyond one with ten little fingers and ten little toes)might be?
Seeing What The Future Will Bring For Politics, in Saskatchewan and Beyond – although I don’t see myself going “all in” for anything like I did during the past six months (see #1 & #2 for the big reasons that won’t happen, even if opportunities arose) but I will be watching developments with great interest in the coming days, weeks and months.
At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages makes good sense for business. We pay a starting hourly wage of $11.50 in all states where we do business, and we are still able to keep our overhead costs low. An important reason for the success of Costco’s business model is the attraction and retention of great employees. Instead of minimizing wages, we know it’s a lot more profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty.
As I continue the transition from a blog that was “all politics, all the time” for much of the last six months to one that’s back to being a bit more balanced between the posts about libraries, technology, family and yes, still the occasional political post, I thought I’d start by resurrecting one of my recurring theme days – Music Monday.
And is there any more perfect song for this transition than the video that Ryan used during his showcase entrance at the Leadership convention?
It was incredibly close – Broten won by 44 votes out of 8284 cast – meaning the margin of victory was 50.3% to 49.7%. (I will never again refer to Ryan’s 55% – 45% loss to Dwain Lingenfelter in 2009 as “close”!) 😉
The first thing to do is send a hearty and sincere congratulations to Cam Broten, not just for winning but also for *how* he won. During the weekend, somebody told me that it is extremely rare for a candidate who comes in first on a first ballot (as Ryan did) to be caught on a subsequent ballot. That Cam did this speaks to his team’s incredible focus and performance through the entire race and especially during the day of convention.
I also want to congratulate Trent Wotherspoon and his team for the campaign they ran which was classy and dignified right until his final concession speech. Near the start of the race, I said that Trent had I saw elements of Dwain Lingenfelter in him and of all the things I’ve said on this blog, that’s probably one of the comments I regret the most. That’s because, upon reflection, it came as much from who Trent had supported in 2009 and who was supporting him this time around rather than anything about Trent’s personal character. So if he happens to read this, I apologize for that.
The flip side of that mis-characterization is that Trent was the candidate who grew on me the most as the race went on. I never blogged about it but one recurring thought I had was that, although I was most attracted to Ryan’s vision and idealism, I also often thought that if I was ever to run for politics (god forbid!), Trent woud likely be the candidate I’d most be like – the outgoing personality, the extreme pleasure he obviously takes in talking and listening to people – are also characteristics I see in myself. (The rugged outdoorsmanship – not so much!) 😉
Erin Weir was another candidate whose final result doesn’t come close to reflecting what he brought to the race in terms of asking the tough questions, demanding accountability from not only the other candidates but the Sask Party and giving Ryan Meili a good run for best quips/most humourous candidate. (There was another “tie” on convention day – Erin’s line introducing Ryan about “I dropped out of the race to endorse Ryan and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” was equalled for funniest line of the day when Ryan, during his speech, had a dry mouth moment just as he began to mention the Sask Party and nimbly recovered by joking “I can’t even bear to say their name in this room!” Erin’s dropping out to support Ryan was perhaps the most courageous, brave decision of the entire race and he needs to be commended for taking that action too – a true show of leadership and conviction.
And then there’s Ryan.
What else can I say about a candidate who was able to raise the most money, sign up the most new members, do the most online outreach (I’ll have more thoughts on that aspect in a future post!) and inspire people around the province and indeed, across the country so that he came within a city bus full of people of becoming the new leader of the NDP against two sitting MLA’s and all the advantages (real and perceived) that status confers?
It was never ever going to be a sure thing no matter how successful Ryan was in the other aspects of the campaign and I feel like I nailed it in a post back in November when I looked at how much change/renewal each candidate represented and how people’s natural bias towards the status quo would be a huge hurdle to overcome…
You’re probably reading this and thinking I’m dismissing the other three and holding up Ryan as some perfect choice for the party. In a weird way, I think it may be the opposite.
In my view, Ryan’s the right choice. But he’s got probably the biggest hurdle in front of him to make this case to others who will be voting for leader. Even with the debacle of the last provincial election, studies have repeatedly shown that people are naturally resistant to major change – even when they should know better – and this leadership race could end up being another example of that.
“Well, if there’s no natural cabinet spot for him like the other three, the only thing left for Cam is to be Leader.”
Anyhow, that’s a quick run through of some of my thoughts coming out of an amazing weekend.
I started this post by mentioning how the 2009 race doesn’t seem “close” now that I’ve seen what that word really means. For that reason, you think I’d be a lot more disappointed to have come this close and fallen a whisker short (wouldn’t it be ironic that, after all the fun we had with the fact that Ryan kept his beard throughout the campaign that there were 44 people who didn’t like it and voted against him? People voted for and against Jack Layton based on his mustache so weirder things have happened!) 😉 but actually, I’m feeling pretty good about this overall even though it wasn’t the outcome I wanted.
No matter how many times the media brings it up, I don’t think this reflects a divided party (at least not in the same way that it was in 2009 where the division was one of fairly open and ugly hostility) but it does reflect a near-perfect division between people who are want a little bit of change and those who wanted a whole new way of doing politics. Cam is clearly smart enough to recognize that a victory by < 1% is not a massive mandate and there’s a huge amount of work to be done to balance the interests of these two separate but intertwined constituencies.
After Ryan lost in 2009, I did a blog post speculating on how things might have been different if he’d won. Perhaps I’ve become more stoic in my old age but I feel no need to write a similar post this time around. The reality we have is the reality we have. The sun came up today, my son ran and jumped in my arms when I got home, my wife is reading him a story as I type this. In summary, life goes on.
I was planning to do this anyhow, win or lose, but now that the race is over, I’m pretty sure this will be the last post I tag with #skndpldr and push out to Twitter although I’m also fairly sure I will write more about the race on this blog in the days, weeks and months to come.
But by stopping my active engagement with the people who follow #skndpldr, I feel like I’m providing closure for myself and also allowing myself to once again be a bit more open with my thoughts and opinions about not only the leadership race but all aspects of Saskatchewan politics.
I started the race back in September with a disclaimer that I was going to be working on Ryan’s campaign but that I still saw my blog as a separate, independent platform for my thoughts and opinions. But as the race went on, it was quickly clear that my involvement was going to be at a much higher level than I anticipated (I have a post drafted where I try to summarize exactly what I’ve put into this campaign that I’ll likely publish – perhaps tomorrow as a final Meili Monday post?) and, as a member of the “positive” campaign, I would have to be a bit more guarded with what I was writing here than I might otherwise be, even compared to 2009. (This was never requested by anybody in the campaign and to their credit, I never once got a hand slap for anything I wrote on this blog during the campaign even though I’m sure there were times when I crossed the line as to what they were comfortable with.)
Oh, okay, I’ll share one final prescient comment I made. This one wasn’t public but on one of our team’s private forums, I predicted that Ryan’s percentage of the first ballot would be 39%. It was 38.9%.
