As Cain Promotes His Management Skills, Ex-Aides Tell of Campaign in Chaos (NYT)

If Herman Cain feels his management skills are up to any challenge, some of his former staff members think he should have started with the disorder in his own campaign.

Mr. Cain has hardly shown up in New Hampshire and Iowa, they said, spending the bulk of his time on a book tour through the South. He occasionally mishandled potential big donors or ignored real voters. His campaign churned through the small staff; last week, his campaign announced the appointment of the veteran campaigner Steve Grubbs, his third Iowa leader in four months.

And then there was that e-mail to the staff about traveling in a car with Mr. Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to,” the memo said.

“I found it odd,” said a former staff member who liked to prep Mr. Cain for appearances while driving. The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, quit not long afterward, citing the e-mail as one of the deciding factors.

Mr. Cain’s campaign has generated much promise since it began over the summer. A former business executive rises improbably from anonymity to the top of the polls, using the strength of his speechmaking, folksy charm and catchy policy plans.

But Mr. Cain’s campaign may have undermined itself with questionable decisions and a series of missteps, which have led to the impression that the candidate lacks focus and preparation.

Mr. Cain has made several contradictory, and sometimes befuddling, remarks on abortion and foreign policy, which have forced him to spend days clarifying and defending himself.

I found this amusing:

And then there was that e-mail to the staff about traveling in a car with Mr. Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to,” the memo said.
“I found it odd,” said a former staff member who [lol] liked to prep Mr. Cain for appearances while driving. The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, quit not long afterward, citing the e-mail as one of the deciding factors.

"Frankly, it sounds as if Mr. Cain is an executive who doesn’t really care how the professional political insiders think it should be done. It’s obvious these “anonymous insiders” have never worked in business or they’d recognise the behavior."

Your point made also in the article, but NYT doesn't quite get it: "Several former workers interviewed for this article said they were directed by the campaign not to speak with reporters. (Two said they had signed nondisclosure agreements, a rare demand within political campaigns, and they had been reminded, they said, by the campaign not to speak with the news media.)"

Still, and email is not the way to pass on this sort of information. A phone call would be better and some personal word to the wise face time would be best.

This is clutzy, especially since Cain is selling himself as a folksy, charming guy.

Think of all the CEO's and entrepreneurs out there who actually wildly successfully, e.g., Steve Jobs, etc.

"Steve, you shouldn't have yelled at that manager and trashed the work his team did, even if it stunk. You should have taken him aside in private and had a warm fuzzy private converstation with him so as to not damage his all-important self esteem."

IMHO, I see private-sector style management here. In government, NOBODY gets fired, people are rarely repremanded; it's la-la land.

Very often - very often - in the real world (oops, I mean private sector) an executive or business owner will issue and "edict" in writing because there is stupid behavior going on, originating from a few individuals. This provides all that's needed to get it to stop in most cases, it uses very little of the exec's time, and it provides a solid basis for action to be taken against those who commit the infraction in the future.

Personal face time is at a premium for a Presidential candidate; there are thousands of things that the candidate would like to do but can't because of both time and money limitations. While many political campaigns are undboubtedly loaded with personality issues and squabbling, a more private-sector style of management will seek to avoid those things becoming a campaign drain.

One side of Herman Cain's "sales pitch" is "folksy and charming". The other sides include private-sector, entrepreneurial-style management, private-sector style math and logic-driven solutions, etc. Being a "nice-guy" does not mean that Herman will let people who report to him to chatter at him constantly in an attempt by those people to gain political power, curry favor, manipulate, etc.

Another post talked about non-disclosure agreements like it was odd for a political campaign. Well, they're certainly not odd in the private sector, and they certainly make sense.

I've heard so much from disgruntled campaign staffers in general this election cycle that it seems to me wisest to completely ignore what they say about their prior employers. Completely.

All of this really gets at why Cain is steadly climbing. IMHO, the American people, by and large have had it with DC politicians and Cain is just the tip of the iceberg that Washington, DC is about to start running into.

IMHO.

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