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# 6 What makes a changemaker?

Making change can be tough. You may have immediate success or you may have to campaign and lobby for a long time. You may make some progress but then face a setback.

With this in mind, what qualities does a changemaker need?

- Emotional awareness and empathy: make an effort to understand how others feel – this will help when communicating with people in your own team and outside it. Placing yourself in the position of others can also help to strengthen your argument. Also, be aware of how you feel and how this impacts on your own performance.
- Optimism: stay positive, but…
- Realism: …be realistic. Understand what is achievable and set reachable goals.
- Listening skills: listen to other members of your team and other campaigning groups – including people who disagree with you. Listening to people with different views may help you to strengthen your argument, or to come up with solutions acceptable to both sides.
- Communication skills: you may need to communicate ‘formally’ (writing to a politician or submitting evidence to a committee) as well as ‘informally’ (campaigning on social media). You need to consider different ‘modes’ of communication (written, visual) and how to communicate with different groups of people (politicians, the public etc).
- Assertiveness: stand up for what you believe in, but in a calm and positive manner.
- Strategic mind: identify your long term goals and how you plan to achieve them.
- Focus: have a clear outcome in mind and try not to get distracted by side-issues.
- Resilience: if you face a setback, re-focus and re-strategise.
- Self-motivation: the ability to drive yourself to take action, even in the face of setbacks. Keep your end goal in mind.
- Organisation: be clear in what you want to achieve, with good planning and record keeping.
- Flexibility: have an openness to change and an ability to react to changed circumstances.
- Ability to work with others: it is possible to achieve change working on your own, although it’s often easier in a team. This will involve working with people who may have different views to you (even if they share your end goal and/or are part of your team).
- Creativity: be imaginative when campaigning. Think of the different ways you can engage with the public and how you can publicise your campaign as widely as possible using different methods.

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OpenLearn - Introduction to making political and social change
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