Managing and leadership … White House style

I worked for a Fortune 500 company for nearly fifty years. Like all large public corporations it had a board of directors, an executive team and a group of officers. The Board met at least monthly, the executive officers met weekly and they in turn met with their officers, usually weekly.

They did that to plan strategy, to report on results, to discuss problems and issues, to build consensus and to assure proper governance and oversight. Failure to do all this could have serious consequences, sometimes legal consequences. In other words, they were exercising leadership responsibility.

From the White House Blog, March 4, 2013:

President Obama today welcomed two new members to his Cabinet, as he held the 17th Cabinet meeting of his Presidency, and the first in 2013.

That’s an average of one such meeting every three months. In addition, it has been reported that some cabinet members have not had individual contact, even by phone, with the President in two years.

Frankly, I’m shocked. In my naive way I just assumed every president met regularly with his management team and less regularly on an individual basis with each cabinet officer. How else can you know what is going on and, well, manage?

Clearly the federal government is so massive and complex no human being can know or control all that goes on. Any chief executive must focus at the high level issues and rely on subordinates to report on more detailed matters. But that is all the more reason for direct and regular contact with the Cabinet, individually and collectively. Instead the President receives information filtered by a cadre to White House staffers with minimal contact with the people he has selected to run our massive bureaucracy.

Obama is not alone in employing this strategy, but it appears he is more detached than his near term predecessors. Perhaps some of the time he spends campaigning for this or that would be better spent doing the job of managing.

Rather than leadership, our Presidency continues to deteriorate into a political game. It seems the main goal is for a political party to gain and then keep control … wow, what a startling revelation! This is all the more reason for a one term presidency, perhaps six years, and for term limits for Congress.

P.S. George W. Bush had one cabinet meeting every 1.95 months. Another source said monthly. Bill Clinton reportedly had 24 cabinet meetings during his presidency. In Ronald Reagan’s first year as president, he held 36 cabinet meetings.

2 comments

  1. The information you have provided is unfortunately not too surprising. President Obama is not a good manager. His lack of experience in managing people before he entered the White House was ignored by those who were swept up in his undeniable ability to give impassioned speeches. His presidency will be judged harshly by history.

    Like

    1. I tend to agree with you, history will judge this presidency as a non event like sticking ones hand in a bucket of water, stirring it about vigorously and withdrawing it; soon nobody knows your hand was in the water.

      Like

Leave a Reply