Author Mark Dober, Managing Director of Ellwood Atfield's Brussel's, office shares his latest research entitled: ‘Key Success Factors for Advocacy and Advocacy Teams’

1. Key Success Factors
for Advocates and
Advocacy Teams

2. Ellwood Atfield
Brussels • London • Geneva • Washington • Sydney
The Specialist Communication and Advocacy Headhunters
“Ellwood Atfield is the only
specialist executive search firm
focused on communications and
public affairs to have a dedicated
office in Brussels”

3. Today’s agenda
Key Success Factors for Advocacy
Key Success Factors for Advocates
Key Success Factors for Advocacy Teams

4. 1. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ADVOCACY

5. Advocacy according to Wikipedia
•Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group which
aims to influence decisions within political, economic,
and social systems and institutions.
•Advocacy can include many activities that a person or
organization undertakes including media campaigns,
public speaking, commissioning and publishing research.
•Lobbying is a form of advocacy where a direct approach
is made to legislators on an issue which plays a
significant role in modern politics.

6. Which would you consider as the most effective
way for an Association/NGO to measure its public
policy activities and objectives?
Being consulted on policies
before they are drafted
34%
Achievements versus
planned/agreed actions 28%
Reputation among high-level
decision-makers 17%
Return on Investment (ROI)
Impact measurement of lobbying
through analysis of cost savings
9%
7%
Feedback from members 4%
Other (please specify) 4%
Impact measurement of lobbying through
analysis of additional revenues for the industry
1%

7. The professionalization of Advocacy globally
“The business value at stake from government and
regulatory intervention is huge: about 30 percent of
earnings for companies in most industries, we estimate,
and higher still in the banking sector, where the figure
tops 50 percent. Translating those percentages into
euros, dollars, or yen can yield eye-popping results: one
European utility found that the ongoing value at stake
from regulation was €1.5 billion, or about €30 million
for every employee involved in handling the company’s
regulatory affairs”.

8. Source – “MEASURING AND COMMUNICATING
THE VALUE OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS”,
Public Affairs Council

10. Which of the following poor lobbying practices
are most frequently carried out by Secretariats?
Being too late in the process
44%
Taking a lowest common denominator
consensus position 40%
Restricted stakeholder outreach and
failure to create alliance partnerships
Conveying contradictory messages
with their members
34%
30%
Poor briefing materials 30%
Too aggressive
22%
Failing to understand process and
procedure
21%
Basing a position on too many facts rather than
integrating an emotional element 14%
Basing a position on too much
emotion rather than facts 8%
Other
6%

11. Internal Success Factors

12. Key Success Factors for Advocacy
BUILDING THE INTERNAL TEAM
1. Recruiting and Retaining top people
2. Building a High Performance Advocacy Team
3. Measuring and Demonstrating Value
4. Defining clear Advocacy goals and strategies
5. Connecting with other management functions
6. Aligning internal and external communications

13. External Success Factors

14. Key Success Factors for Advocacy
INFLUENCING EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
1. Analysing the external environment
2. Creating messaging to win hearts and minds
3. Producing Advocacy tools and toolkit
4. Building relationships, trust and reputation
5. Forming coalitions with external stakeholders
6. Dealing with adversaries
7. Gaining support in political institutions

15. Personal Case-Studies
• Analysing the external environment
• Creating messaging to win hearts and minds

16. Personal Case-Studies
• Analysing the external environment
• Creating messaging to win hearts and minds

17. 2. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ADVOCATES

18. The Perfect Advocate
Personality Knowledge Skills

19. The Big 5 Personality Traits

20. Top advocates are usually
•TRUSTWORTHY (& AGREEABLE)
• Individuals who score high on trust generally believe others' intentions to
be benevolent. Those scoring low on this facet tend to be cynical and
view others as suspicious, dishonest, or dangerous.
•PROACTIVE (& CONSCIENTIOUS)
• People with a proactive personality have a tendency to take action to
change things, show initiative, and persevere until the desired change
has occurred.
•RESILIENT (& CONSCIENTIOUS)
• Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to successfully
cope with adversity.

21. Resilience #1 Desired Trait for some advocacy teams ….

22. Good advocates
according to politicians ….
•“I need to know I can trust a lobbyist and that I am not
being set-up for a fall.”
•“The best lobbyists are respectful of an MEPs limited
time and let MEPs talk first.”
•“The ability to deliver a coherent message in under 5
minutes is critical for politicians.”

23. The cost of poor advocates
If they stay….
•The opportunity cost of poor policy outcomes
• Potentially € millions/billions.
•The negative impact on team performance.
•Upset internal and external stakeholders.
If they are fired….
•Disruption to ongoing/incomplete projects.
•Notice periods, legal fees and outplacement services.
•Recruitment fees, advertising and staff time.
•On-boarding time and expenses for replacement hires.

24. Recruiting top advocates
“If the meeting is going well and you believe that the
candidate is worth wooing, spend time during the
second half of the interview selling the role and the
organization. If you focus too much on selling at the
beginning, it’s hard to be objective but once you’re
confident in the candidate, tell the person why you think
he or she is a good fit. Bear in mind that the interview is
a mutual screening process.“

25. Why advocates leave their jobs
1. Absence of framework where they perceive they can succeed
2. Not learning and growing in their careers, knowledge and skill
3. Poor leadership or supervision
4. Lack of clarity about expectations for the job
5. Feeling ignored and not able to use their talent and skills properly
6. Perception of unfairness (e.g. pay gap)
7. Lack of clarity about earning potential
8. Lack of feedback about performance
9. Inability (or feeling thereof) to speak his or her mind freely
10. Feeling threatened or harassed by bosses or colleagues

27. Some international comparisons

28. 3. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ADVOCACY TEAMS

29. Attributes of a
High Performance Advocacy Team

30. •Individual accountability.
• “We used to have a very hierarchical leader who barely let the
staff engage with the outside world but our new leader has given
everybody a sense of responsibility and power over the success of
the association.”
•Shared responsibility.
• “Even our receptionist could recite our association’s mission to
you.”
•Open communication
• “I like to say to there are no bad ideas or stupid questions…which
is (mostly) true!”

31. •Participative leadership
• "Our secretariat encourages lively discussion in our Monday staff
meetings and we get to know what everybody is up to."

32. •Mutual trust
• “Although our corporate members would probably eat each other
for breakfast, we have to trust our colleagues in the secretariat -
our issues are too big to fail.”
•Proactive and responsive
• “You cannot be a good lobbyist or communicator if you are only
reactive. Success comes down to quick thinking and
engagement.”
•Aligned on strategy
• “We are only six people but seek the whole team’s input into the
annual strategy – we buy into it and go for it together.”

33. ellwoodatfield.com
@ellwoodatfield.com
ellwoodatfield.com
For more information please contact:
Mark Dober
M: +32 (0)477 950 466
E: mark@ellwoodatfield.com