Week 8: The Federal Bureaucracy Leadership

The FBI is housed in the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s Director reports to the Attorney General, but he is so important that he or she is nominated by the President and must be confirmed by the Senate; the Director is limited to a 10-year term (a reaction against FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s 48-year tenure). By tradition, the FBI and Justice Department personnel are politically neutral and just follow the law and the facts; indeed, to ensure such neutrality, President Obama’s attorney general requested that the FBI chief make the recommendation in 2016 regarding whether Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should be charged for a federal crime regarding her handling as former Secretary of State of her e-mails. The following leadership lessons are taken from former FBI Director James Comey's book, A Higher Loyalty, Flatiron Books, 2018. The U.S. has 94 federal districts, each headed by a U.S. Attorney. Comey served as Assistant Attorney General, "a nonpolitical career lawyer position" representing the U.S. in civil or criminal cases in two districts (p. 18), and then as a U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. He then served as Deputy Attorney General and as FBI Director. Some suggestions regarding leadership:

• Your organization's integrity, credibility, trust, independence, fairness, and impartiality is essential, especially in the FBI and Justice Department. (p. 71) When Obama nominated Comey for FBI Director, he told him that he needed "competence and independence", an organization "well run" to protect the American people (p. 119). Comey said that the "FBI should be independent and totally divorced from politics." (p. 120) Comey regretted being in the middle of the divisive presidential election and just sighed: "I'm just trying to do the right thing." (p. 210). Comey found that his FBI employees had a "palpable sense of mission" and that they knew they existed to "protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States." (P. 128) Even when Comey was criticized by Democrats for announcing the reopening of the Clinton e-mail case right before the election, in a later two-person meeting with President Obama, Obama stated: "I picked you to be FBI director because of your integrity and your ability... I want you to know that nothing-nothing-has happened in the last year to change my view." (p. 210)
• Keep your head, be calm, especially when everyone else is losing theirs. Comey successfully got President Bush to reign in the NSA surveillance program Stellar Wind (by executive order), which was exceeding congressional authorization. When he heard that two top White House aides were visiting Attorney General Ashcroft in the hospital to try to get him to approve the program, Comey showed up and got then FBI Director Mueller to order his FBI agents guarding Ashcroft to prevent the White House aides from having their Secret Service agents remove Comey from the room. Ashcroft said he had been misled about the program, that he had serious concerns about it, and then pointed to Comey and said, "There is the attorney general." (Acting AG; p. 90) On another occasion Comey had a 2-person dispute with President Bush with Bush saying, "But I say what the law is for the executive branch," and Comey replying, "You do, sir. But only I can say what the Justice Department can certify as lawful. And we can't here." (p. 96) "FBI Director Mueller stood waiting for me in the West Wing lower level." (p. 97) The terrorist interrogation program accused of being torture was another conflict, but Comey was resigning by this time, and he lost on that issue under the new Attorney General Gonzales.
• Comey showed only limited loyalty to his boss, President Trump. Some loyalty is important, but so is honesty. When President Trump in a two-person meeting said to FBI Director Comey, "I need loyalty," Comey responded, "You will always get honesty from me," so Trump concluded, "That's what I want, honest loyalty." (p. 243) Such honest loyalty may eventually cost a subordinate their job. In another 2-person meeting when Trump was going on a monologue, Comey disagreed with Trump's TV interview statement that the U.S. had a lot of killers when asked about Putin being a killer, and Trump immediately ended the meeting.
• Show some compassion, understanding, and mercy when good workers under you make mistakes. Two examples of a shop owner where Comey worked as a kid, who forgave Comey of his young mistakes.
• Give credit to your subordinates' achievements, since your job is important, and you should work as a team. Don't just care about yourself.
• Do not lie. The more you lie, the easier it is. About two thousand people are indicted for lying to federal investigators each year. (p. 61) Examples are Martha Stewart, and V.P. Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby.
• Stand up to powerful people and do not be cowed, in order to do the right thing. Examples of Comey's pledge to stand up to Bush's Attorney General Ashcroft, and him standing up to the White House over surveillance issue.
• Learn the job. Shadow your predecessor before they quit, meet all of your agency heads. Comey visited all 56 FBI offices in the U.S. and over a dozen offices overseas to "listen and learn." (p. 128)
• Don't yell, speak softly. Guilt and affection motivated people; they like and respect the coach, and don't want to let him or her down.
• Being humble shows your self-confidence. You can then ask the hard question, "What am I missing?" (p. 219) It helps you make better decisions.
• Back up your workers. Comey stood up to President Obama when Obama showed a greater emphasis on African American mistreatment by police, as Comey expressed greater concern for the police and crime victims. Both listened to each other, and at least came to understand both sides of the issue.
• Be transparent.
• Work hard, but also seek a balance in your life.
• Document your interactions with important people by sending an e-mail to yourself. Comey would write up memos to himself. Don't send them to anyone. Just keep them for possible future legal cases.
• Diversity in the workforce is important. Comey worried that 83% of the special agents were white. He had FBI workers learn from Martin Luther King and how he had been unfairly investigated by the FBI. Ironically, he learned of his firing by Trump when attending a Diversity Agent Recruiting event in Los Angeles.

The U.S. Department of State is the most important and one of the first cabinet positions (executive agencies), the Secretary of State in the first cabinet official in line for the Presidency after the President, Vice President, and the two top congressional leaders. Leadership lessons from Colin Powell, Bush's first Secretary of State, and the first African American to hold that position. He was previously, National Security Advisor under Reagan, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush1 (where he led the successful Gulf War against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein). He grew up in New York City in a troubled school district. Quotes are drawn from the book Colin Powell, a biography, by Howard Means.

• Powell's "very close family" and their "expectations for the children" helped him avoid early life failure, as did his "desire to get off the block." (p. 47)
• Work hard, even at menial jobs. At a summer plant job, as an African American Powell was given a mop, while white kids worked the equipment. He was determined "to be the best mop wielder there ever was" because "whatever you do, someone is always watching." (p. 48) As such, he rose to deputy foreman two summers later over all workers.
• ROTC gave him discipline and meaning in his average school and college work. It was a melting pot. In ROTC he had "stamina," was "very stern, very disciplined" and rose to company commander. (p. 72) He helped other students stay in school.
• Had a military career. At that time and for socially disadvantaged people today, the military "was a route out, a route up." (p. 79)
• Had mentors, usually Republicans. Served a White House Fellowship under Nixon, was Defense Secretary Weinberger's military aide in mid-1980s. Then, he was Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Advisor under Reagan's last years. Powell was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and the first African American) under Bush 1.
• As a presidential advisor, he was "an honest broker" and made sure decisionmakers "have all the information on which to make a good decision..." (p. 237).
• Well prepared. "God is in the details and in planning." (p. 253) Powell described the successful Gulf War plan against the Iraqi army as: 'First we are going to cut if off, and then we are going to kill it." (p. 253)
• Be cautious going to war, but if you have to, go to win. He learned from his Vietnam service and the Panama invasion. "war is a terrible thing" so if you have to go to war, "make sure you go in with your eyes open" and "play to win." (p. 265)
• As Bush 2's Secretary of State, Powell is most known for warning the President about going to war in Iraq using "the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it." "The Iraqis have never had a democracy... this is not going to be a walk in the woods... You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people... You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You'll own it all." (Quotes as Secretary of State are from book Plan of Attack, by Bob Woodward, p. 150.)
• Presidential potential. Mentioned as presidential timber in 1996 and 2000, but he declined to run citing a lack of passion for the job. In 2016 electoral college vote, 3 faithless electors in Washington state voted for him instead of Clinton.
• A speech that Colin Powell gave at the Powell Center at City College of New York spoke about other important leadership traits. Be optimistic, “always be up,” and look to the future. Always ask what the mission, purpose, and goals of your organization are. Take care of your workers, and make sure that they have the tools, equipment, and training that they need. Discipline and even fire unsatisfactory workers, as they hurt other workers and the organization.

Leadership lessons from Condi Rice, George Walker Bush's second Secretary of State, and first African American female in that top post. As a National Security staff member for Bush’s father specializing in the Soviet Union, she wisely counseled him during the period that the Soviet Union lost its European empire and even disintegrated itself. Quotes are from the book, Condi, The Life of a Steel Magnolia, by Mary Beth Brown.

• Learned self-confidence, assertiveness without rudeness when facing discrimination growing up in Birmingham. Her mother demanded that her daughter be permitted to use the dressing room in a segregated store.
• Source of her Republican Party allegiance. Republicans but not Democrats let her father register to vote. She was for the Second Amendment due to her father "patrolling and guarding their neighborhood armed with shotguns" during the civil rights era (p. 71). She disliked President Carter's naivete about Soviet communism.
• Be positive, taught by parents. See glass as half full, be grateful for what you have compared to others. Her church bombing friends rested "with God" and were remembered for "what they did for each and every one of us" as the bombing ushered in the Civil Rights Act (p. 77).
• Overcome challenges rather than be defeated by them. Use setbacks to make you stronger. Discrimination example- appeal to Founders’ principles so that America would be true to itself by eliminating discrimination. Just be twice as good as a white. (p. 50)
• Assimilation to dominant culture. Rice was a Renaissance gal, she learned the arts, loved music, took piano lessons and played the piano as a Bush family guest during holidays.
• Remember your heritage. Experienced bomb threats at segregated school. Birmingham church bombing killed 4 kids, including her neighborhood friend; she "heard the bomb,... and she felt the vibration of the floor" at her church. (p. 75) Her heroes are Rosa Parks and the sole woman major civil rights leader (Dr. Dorothy Height). She met Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi civil rights activist whose testimony regarding discrimination and police brutality at the 1964 national Democratic convention prompted the national party to outlaw racial discrimination at all future conventions.
• Read a lot as child. Book club member. Vacations were visits to colleges.
• Be an individual, not a tribe member. Height said: "People need to see each other as people, not as races." (p. 80)
• Individual action matters. Heroes are made, not born. Hamer meeting shows that "a single, determined individual" can "bring profound change." (p. 91)
• Professors made a difference. A lecture by Sovietologist caused her to major in political science at University of Denver (p. 95). She was a Phi Beta Kappa. A professor at Notre Dame led her to the Realism school, and she got a Master's in international relations and economics. A professor urged her to become one herself, and she got a PhD in International Studies at the University of Denver.
• Take the initiative in college of making opportunities for yourself. Condi learned Russian, did summer internships as a PhD student at the State Department and at RAND (think tank work on military issues), wrote a dissertation on Czechoslovakia-Soviet military force.
• As college student, she was smart, quick, energetic (p. 105). She was independent and worked hard. She had "a sense of presentation... was very well-prepared, well-dressed" (p. 108).
• As a college professor at Stanford, she published two books, was a "national fellow at the Hoover Institute," and won a teaching award. (p. 121)
• Assertive-confident. She met soon to be Bush 1 National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft at a seminar dinner and "She dared to challenge him on something he had said." (p. 138) He visited her class the next day and was impressed with her absolute mastery of the MX missile topic. She was named Bush1's special assistant for national security affairs and senior director for Soviet Affairs.
• Preparation-hard work-personable-firm. In NSA position, she got "along with people", could make "a strong point without being disagreeable to those who differed," and "she knows what she is talking about." (p. 152)
• Making hard decisions. As Stanford Provost, she balanced the budget partly by "firing people", but she didn't brood about it. "Get over it, and move on," was her motto (p. 164).
• Be prepared for long workdays. As Bush 2's National Security Advisor, she exercised at 4:30 AM, was in the office at 6:30 reading six newspapers. She worked and had meetings until 7 PM. She became Bush 2's Secretary of State for his second term. Her 766-page memoirs are entitled: No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington.

Leadership lessons from Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State under Obama.

• She was assertive as a law student, even socially. She took the initiative to introduce herself to Bill Clinton in the law library.
• Be well prepared. Chaired Arkansas governor Bill Clinton's education task force, was so impressive in testifying before a legislative committee that a Republican lawmaker quipped: "We elected the wrong Clinton."
• Loyalty. Stood by her man during Monicagate scandal.
• Good listener- empathy. Had town meetings across New York in her successful U.S. senate race.
• Workhorse, not a showhorse in U.S. senate. Impressed senators of both parties by actually doing her homework, learning about issues affecting New York; didn't seek publicity.
• Gracious loser, country comes first. Accepted Secretary of State position from winner Obama.
• Pursued bipartisanship. Got New START Treaty with Russia regarding nuclear weapons ratified by Senate, 71-26 vote. Spoke with 18 senators, nearly all Republicans. Worked with ranking GOP committee member Lugar. Worked the phones, visited Capitol Hill. (p. 235 of Memoir, Hard Choices)
• Competent, gutsy. Benghazi everts detailed in her memoir were accurate, she weathered long hours of grilling by GOP-controlled congressional committees. When asked why failed State Department workers weren't fired, she rebutted that federal law did not permit such quick action, and pointed out that she had proposed changing that federal law, but that congress had not acted. Her memoir is 635 pages.
• Overconfidence- failure of leadership. She lost the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination because she thought she'd have the nomination wrapped up after Super Tuesday and failed to fully staff delegate positions in western caucus states. She took Trump too lightly, and failed to campaign as much as he did in critical Rust Belt states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.
• Arrogance- failure of leadership. She confidently and casually referred to Trump's rally supporters as a "basket of deplorables- racists, sexists, homophobic, Islamophobic". This showed her elitism, and inability to connect with many common people.

Leadership lessons from Michelle Obama, FLOTUS, First Lady of the United States (quotes are from Becoming book, by Michelle Obama):

• Ignore negative peer pressure. In school, she used "proper diction" as her parents had bought her a dictionary and encyclopedia, and she ignored an accusation from a classmate that: "you talk like a white girl." (p. 40)
• Overcome those trying to tear you down. When a high school counselor told Michelle that "I'm not sure ... that you're Princeton material," Obama's only thought was "I'll show you," she wrote her college essay, and she got in (p. 67)
• Don't let the past hold you down. She said, "We didn't talk about our ancestry. Why should we? We were young, focused only on the future." (p. 87)
• Honestly analyze people surrounding you. Michelle depended on her brother's ability to "read people," and after his basketball game with Barack, her brother reported that Barack "knew when to make the right pass," was not a "ball hog," and "he's got guts." (p. 131)
• Admit mistakes, immediately adjust your life. In her "blinding desire to excel," Michelle found herself working in a big Chicago law firm. She wanted to help people and make a difference, so she admitted that she had "taken the wrong road" and needed to find "a new profession." (p. 132) She then worked for the city and for non-profits.
• When seeking a job, do your homework, learn about the company, and then "reverse the standard interview process" and grill the interviewer (in a nice respectful way). (p. 150) That's how Ms. Obama got her Chicago city job.
• Physical fitness gave her energy and health. She had a 5 AM workout.
• Be yourself. That's how Michelle campaigned for Barack for President.
• Focus on what unites everyone. Campaigning in overwhelmingly white Iowa, Michelle found that the people "reminded me of my family." (p. 237) Basically, blue collar workers.
• Be aware of your body language and facial expressions. Obama's campaign team filmed her speeches, and she found that she came across as too intense, "too serious, too severe." (p. 267) Michelle then received more campaign staff and funds, and she played to her strengths and talked about her family, "my connection with working moms, and my proud Chicago roots." (p. 269)
• Find causes based on your personal experience. Michelle's White House vegetable garden and advocacy of fresh foods in schools and stores grew out of her young daughter Malia's being overweight (p. 240). She also started a Let's Move program, and promoted a 60 Minutes of Play a Day campaign (p. 338). Her meetings with military spouses, a subject she knew nothing about, made clear that "Their sacrifices were far greater than mine," so Michelle championed their cause (p. 270). As an injured soldier in a hospital struggled to stand on his feet to salute her, Michelle observed that, "I'd never encountered the kind of fortitude and loyalty that I found in those rooms." (p. 345) Her campaign was called Joining Forces (p. 348). Another initiative was Reach Higher, with the theme "you matter," reflecting the message she repeatedly got from parents, teachers, mentors (p. 383). Yet another initiative was Let Girls Learn, encouraging world-wide female education (p. 401).
• Be understanding about people's stereotypes. Commenting on Reverend Wright's fiery sermons, Michelle wrote about how she had "lived for years with the narrow-mindedness of some of our elders, having accepted that no one is perfect..." She also admitted that "our country's distortions about race could be two-sided- that the suspicion and stereotyping ran both ways." (p. 263)
• Mentoring is important. As you benefit from it, "pay it forward." (p. 356)
• Michelle was very protective of her family, fearing that someone would try to assassinate the first black President. As such, she was angered when Trump accused Barack of not being born in the United States. In her book, she refers to Trump as "a bully", who used "hateful language," and who bragged "about sexually assaulting women..." (p. 407)

One important book about the federal bureaucracy is True Green: Executive Effectiveness in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, edited by retired MSU professor Gerald Andrews Emison and former MSU professor John Charles Morris. Published by Lexington Books, Lanham Maryland, 2012. The book is highly regarded by top political scientists, providing "lessons of executive effectiveness in the principal government institution essential to national environmental progress," with Keith Gaddie concluding that it "needs to rest on the desk of every senior executive in the public service." (Quotes are from the book's back cover) Each chapter is written by an SES (Senior Executive Service) federal employee at EPA. Full information about this book is on my website under Complete Class Notes. Some important points follow:

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 established the SES, the Senior Executive Service, and unlike the spoils system of Andrew Jackson, it stresses qualifications and performance. Emison helped write the Clean Air Act of 1990, and he advises federal SES to: delegate responsibilities (Emison wasn’t good at selling, explaining, or persuading for his projects.); manage stress (Emison worked 66 hours a week, so he became a triathlete; self-improvement thru reading and reflection; compromise, don’t take extreme positions, live to fight another day; improve your interpersonal skills (“jerks don’t get ahead”, p. 36). Other chapter authors point out that: the public is your boss, so respect them (be respectful in congressional hearings, have informative websites); respect and work with state environmental officials and affected farmers and businesses, so you can usually come to a settlement without a trial; conduct surveys of affected groups, which can rebut congressional criticism of your agency (private property v. wetlands issue, permit system worked); streamline bureaucracy, use plain English, avoid unnecessary forms, try innovative approaches without explicit permission; highlight your issue with a slogan and a separate office or center in the organizational chart (Indoor Air: It’s as Big as All Outdoors, p. 138); meaningful performance measurement is more important than mere bean counting which measures too many things; simple solutions and pragmatism is best; seek multiple sources of information, and change direction when anomalies occur.