Page 107 - Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton

LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF HILLARY CLINTON

of community among women in the company, which has
dramatically improved the retention rates of women in
leadership positions and in the leadership pipeline. This is
what I mean by the power of being connected. While each
of these women benefited individually from this strategic
alliance, the organization also reaped the reward.
Hillary is a master at building networks and alliances for
the greater good. She began to expand her own circle of rela-
tionships many years ago. Dee Dee Myers, press secretary
for the Clinton administration, shared with me that early in
Hillary’s career, her inner circle was much smaller and con-
sisted mainly of very supportive friends and family members.
But as first lady in Arkansas and then in the White House,
Hillary learned that she needed a broader and more diverse
network of people whom she could use as a sounding board
on important issues and who could actively help her have
greater influence by gaining support from people who might
normally be considered part of the opposition. Relationships
of this kind are critical for gaining access to information
rather than waiting for it to come to you or for tapping into
people who have a high degree of knowledge, credibility, and
respect on a certain issue and who can give you the advice
you need and help you move that issue along. Dee Dee said,
“Now, because Hillary’s friends and colleagues are six
degrees of separation with so many other people in the
world, she has successfully created an incredibly broad and
diverse sphere of relationships all around her.”

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