The Eight Personalities You’ll Encounter When Building Coalitions

By Jennifer Wagner

“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”

This famously funny Will Rogers quote applies far beyond partisan politics. Every issue — political or not — has a coalition, and every coalition has its members — for better or worse.

We’ve done a lot of coalition work over the years, and we thought it might be fun — and maybe a little therapeutic — to write down the different types of folks who are drawn to join a group that’s advocating for something.

Bear in mind that not every coalition includes all of these caricatures, but all of these caricatures have existed in a coalition at some point. Did we miss someone? Give us a shout on the @edchoice social platforms or email us at media@edchoice.org.

The Leader: Kind of self-explanatory, except this person isn’t always the person who’s “in charge” of the coalition. Sometimes you’ll find a different personality type — The Meddler — operating as a self-proclaimed Leader, but the actual Leader is the person playing peacemaker among coalition members, workshopping new approaches and making the trains run on time behind the scenes.

The Worker Bees: Asking someone to phone bank for hours or tie hundreds of ribbons on petitions or make rally signs until 3 a.m.? These bee your people. They are the loyal foot soldiers who showed up when the coalition was just a loose gathering in someone’s living room, and they will always be there for you when you need them. That said, they also need to be told they’re doing a great job and kept in the communication loop. It’s no fun to bust your bee-hind working toward a common goal if you don’t know what’s happening.