Lessons from Hillary: It Doesn't Hurt to Prepare and Micromanage

In less than two weeks, the United States will know who its next president will be.  

With just over 10 days left of the general election campaign, the window is closing for the candidates to significantly alter the state of the race. Since the first presidential debate, Clinton has managed to open up a considerable lead over her political rival, maintaining a consistent 6-7 point national lead. If nothing changes, most polls indict a decisive Electoral College victory. 

This election has seen the clash of two of the most dominant and polarizing personalities in United States political history. While both Clinton and Trump maintain larger-than-life personas, when it comes to campaigning, their styles could not be more different. While Trump enjoys controlling the spotlight through his braggadocious and boisterous personality, Clinton has remained largely in the shadows whenever possible. Although many have touted Trump’s spontaneity and genuine character as political assets (and a large reason why he easily won the nomination), they have proven to be unsuccessful in the general election. 

In contrast to Trump, most people often consider Clinton too robotic and manufactured. Lacking the natural charisma and charm of her GOP rival, President Obama, and President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton has a difficult time connecting with audiences. While many view this as a political liability, her caution and foresight during this election season have not only proven to be effective – but are largely why she is favored to win this election.

Master Micromanagement

Social Media has played a significant role in this year’s election, with Twitter being a major platform for both presidential candidates. In addition to its role as a political mega-horn, Twitter illustrates a fundamental difference between Clinton and Trump when it comes to the management of their respective campaigns and political messaging.     

Trump’s use of social media is more spontaneous when compared to that of Clinton – his tweets perfectly utilize the medium, focusing on impulse rather than calculation. While this can effectively galvanize an audience and attract a considerable following, it is highly unpredictable. Multiple times, Trump’s unfiltered response has resulted in the alienation of key voting groups and self-inflicted damage to his campaign. 

Trump’s early-morning tweet storm was seen as uncontrolled and reckless in terms of political strategy (Source: Twitter) 

In contrast to Trump’s flashy and off-the-cuff Twitter style, Clinton’s use of the social media platform is considerably more calculated and measured. While Trump personally tweets often, Clinton herself rarely tweets, leaving her campaign to control a majority of the content on the account. Because of this, the campaign carefully crafts each tweet rather than allow one individual to impulsively construct them, in order to maintain a consistent and focused message. This results in tweets that may not be as exciting as those from Trump, but tweets that are clearly written so that every component serves a purpose.

(Source: Twitter)

For example, the tweet above begins with a direct reference to Trump’s slogan, ‘Make America Great Again’ in order to address the central issue of creating growth while subtly undermining Trump’s key catchphrase. The tweet then offers a specific goal of widening the ‘circle of opportunity’ through including more people in the political process. This not only offers a potential solution, but also creates a sense of inclusivity – which is further reinforced by the image featuring Clinton and a diverse audience. The tweet is then capped off with a call to action through the link to her campaign website. 

Clinton’s approach to the platform, while counterintuitive to its spontaneous nature, is able to clearly target specific demographics and reach different audiences through manufactured tweets. This method is not only more effective in the political landscape, but also from a marketing standpoint. Clinton segments her audience and proceeds to micro-target each group – each tweet serves a difference purpose and is strategically placed. In terms of political campaigning, the purpose of Clinton’s tweets is to specifically target potential voters and maximize turnout. This requires a clear understanding of an audience and consumer base – which is developed by analyzing demographics and constructing media to maximize efficiency. In contrast, Trump’s spontaneous and impulsive use of Twitter is the equivalent of employing a random target strategy, one without a specific audience in mind beyond his already loyal base. While it does consolidate his support, it does little to expand to new audiences and reach out to potential undecided voters. 

While acting instinctively and extemporaneously is often effective at connecting with an audience on an emotional level, carefully calculating activity is often more effective and capitalizes on a potential audience. Clinton utilizes this method through social media platforms and has been successful in appealing to a wider audience than her rival by using a detail-oriented approach. 

Create Organizational Structure

Political campaigns are dependent on strong internal structure in order to effectively and efficiently manage funds, organize events, and create consistent political messages. 

Over the last year, Trump has seen multiple campaign shakeups that not only illustrate a lack of organization, but also a lack of communication. His decision to change his campaign manager three times over the course of 8 months indicates misalignment within the campaign and the absence of a clear leadership system outside of Trump himself. Due to the lack of centralized leadership within the Trump campaign, the creation of a unified vision and consistent message is virtually nonexistent. This is evident on social media, where data analysts figured out that Trump tweets from an entirely different phone than his social media team, creating messages that often conflict in purpose and seem drastically independent of one another. This lack of a centralized structural is also displayed by the political misalignment between Trump and Pence on policy as well as the internal conflict between advisor Steve Bannon and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. The decentralized command in terms of political campaigning reduces the effectiveness of the campaign and makes it very difficult to construct a clear and consistent message. 

In contrast, Clinton has run a very traditional campaign, which includes maintaining a highly structured internal hierarchy. Instead of a division in leadership, Clinton’s campaign is centralized and coordinated. In addition to having experienced political managers such as John Podesta and Robby Mook, the campaign also maintains a structurally sound ground game. By clearly assigning responsibilities and maintaining an organized leadership system, Clinton is able to construct clear campaign messages that are consistent across all platforms and operations. In addition to consistent messaging, the presence of a large ground game allows for greater opportunities for outreach and targeting of potential voters in battleground states. 

Starting in September, Clinton held a considerable advantage when it came to field operations and ground game (Source: PBS)

Clinton’s structured organization illustrates the effectiveness and efficiency when organizations, even outside of politics, focus on establishing centralized leadership. By maintaining a core structure, this allows for a consistent and uniform message that remains true to a brand or political message. Establishing a unified vision and clear leadership reduces confusion both with inside and outside operations and crystalizes key messages for a potential audience. 

Prioritize Preparation

The differences between Trump and Clinton extend beyond personality traits and campaign management – there exists a fundamental difference in the way they problem-solve. 

Trump trusts his instincts, and often relies on his charisma and his business experience to navigate through the political landscape. In contrast, Clinton is often considered over-prepared and a policy wonk, and is essentially a walking encyclopedia of United States policies and politics. While many consider this a reason why people see her as robotic and mechanical, Clinton’s studious nature and approach have proven to be highly effective during the general election campaign. 

After three highly contentious presidential debates, it became clear that preparation was a large reason for Clinton’s dominate performance and overwhelming victories in all three events. 

(Source: FiveThirtyEight)

Clinton’s dominance was not solely due to her knowledge of policy, but her preparation on debate strategy and tactics. She even went as far as to invite psychology experts to analyze how to provoke her opponent in order to gain an advantage. This became evident throughout the debates. Not only was Clinton able to utilize this knowledge to subtly unravel Trump (by consistently referring to him as ‘Donald’), but she was also able to carefully lay out every single landmine that she wanted her opponent to step on. For instance, Clinton’s forced, but effective, last minute mention of Alicia Machado in the first debate was a clear display of her foresight: raising the question of Trump’s comments about women with a barrage of ads already prepared for the week following the debate. 

Preparation is essential not only for potential debate questions, but also for directing conversation and controlling dialogue. In most professions, having the ability to steer the conversation and tactfully maneuver toward favorable topics is the key to maintaining control during an exchange. This reduces the chance of being ‘caught off guard’ and accounts for risk and uncertainty. Clinton demonstrated this ability once again during the third presidential debate. When presented with a damaging question regarding her hacked speeches, she very obviously pivoted toward the topic of Russian intervention in the U.S. election. Clinton’s understanding of how to provoke her opponent was on full display when all she did was imply at Trump's affiliation with Russia and was able to redirect him to a topic more favorable to her. She relied on Trump’s own hubris to redirect the flow of the debate to her liking and effectively dodged potentially damaging questions while criticizing her opponent.  

(Source: YouTube)

Being able to prepare for potential results and mitigate risk and uncertainty is imperative for controlling a situation and maximizing the chance for a desired outcome.

Final Thoughts

In an era of social media and rapid communication, spontaneity and sensationalism dominate headlines and control the attention of media. While an electric personality can generate immense interest, it can only carry one so far. 

The 2016 Presidential Election has witnessed the clash of two fundamentally different approaches to problem solving and preparation. It has resulted in Clinton gaining a significant edge over Trump and positioning herself to be the next president of the United States. In a time when precaution and preparedness can seem overrated and excessive, Clinton demonstrates not only why it is important to micromanage and create organizational structure, but the effect of preparation in the process of achieving success.

The current state of the election is both the result of Trump’s hubris as well as Clinton’s vision. While many tout charisma and personality as essential traits in a year of outsider politics, it may ultimately be the traditional mentality of hard work and preparation that yields the greatest reward. 

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Erwen (Alex) Zhu is an intended Business Major at the University of California Berkeley and writes as a millennial voice for marketing, social media, entertainment, politics, and cultural impact.

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