"Personality" is NOT a POLICY

Likeability is crucial in politics as a core component of electability, often acting as an initial filter for voters

That quote is an adaptation of a phrase often associated with Stanford professor Robert Sutton's book The No Asshole Rule. Its idea is that poor behavior is not a substitute for sound policy.

In today's upside-down world, it seems like people focus on how good (or bad) a person is -- as opposed to the policy that person espouses. It's this intentional effort of focusing on personality (whether we think somebody is good or bad) that leads us to become disenchanted with the political process. It shouldn't be this way, and we can fix it easily.

Why Do We Fall Victim to "Personality" and Ignore Policy?

Many smart people realize that almost all decision-making is made through emotion. Facts and figures are only used to support and justify a person's emotional decision. The more emotional you are as an individual, the easier it is to manipulate you. Political candidates know this and they use this tactic against you.

That's why you see so many vicious attacks on political candidates, because the other side wants you to focus on the emotion of personality and not their policies. But what if we could forget about whether candidates are "good" or not and just focused on their policies and ability to achieve them.

Imagine if every elected official were supported by people who focused on specific policies like: responsible growth, numbers-based decision making and sound public safety service levels? No longer would people wonder why so many developments are happening that are outpacing service levels. Instead, sound growth policies would restrict irresponsible growth.

No longer would people feel like elected officials are making decisions in a vacuum, because you get to see the same numbers they used to make their decisions. And no longer would you wonder why so much of your tax dollars go toward public safety when you can see the exact cost of personnel to achieve established service levels you want. Instead, you will see regular crime stats, desired compared to actual response times for fire and police, and what it means to you when fire and police add or reduce staff levels.

That is why finding solid, capable people for elected office with sound policies should be the chief concern for anyone involved in the political process.

How To Identify the Right Person for the Right Job

Let's first ask: Where do you want to go?

It begins by establishing a destination where you want your community to go. Do you want it to grow faster, slower or stay the same? Do you want people stacked on top of each other or to give everyone space?

The common issues I hear from people (in priority) are as follows:

1. Slower growth

2. Strong public safety

3. Lower taxes.

The good news is you can achieve those goals (or any other goal you want), but it begins with developing policies and avoiding the candidate personality trap. We need to move away from the likeability factors a candidate might have and start examining the policies that need to be implemented to achieve the goals we want.

As a business owner, interviewing and identifying the right people to hire is one of the most important functions you can perform. Hire the wrong people you fail. Hire the right ones and your odds of success skyrocket. This same principle holds true for elected officials.

So let's determine our destination and then figure out how to get there.

Doesn't Politician Mean "Make Policy"?

Yes it does, which means we need to think about identifying the people who can implement the policies we want to achieve the desired outcome we want. But let's first look at the policies that we want and then try to find the "right" person who can implement them.

If we want to have lower taxes, then what are the policies within government to achieve this. These are the important questions that few people ever discuss. That's why I say we need to change the way we think.

I would propose that we develop a policy platform reflective of what "our" group wants. Then, we should look for candidates who can develop and implement these policies in local government. This same approach should apply at the state and national levels, too. (But I digress.)

In an effort to start this conversation, I've put together a list of policies (in order of priority) that I believe represent conservative values and the goals we should all strive for. In part 2 of this series I will share with you those policy initiatives and invite you to submit feedback and comments about these policies.

There are so many of you who care and put forth immense effort to get the "right" people into office. Shouldn't those people you worked hard to get into office be implementing the policies to achieve the outcomes you want?

Stay tuned for Part 2.

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