Page 114 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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GREAT COMMUNICATION SECRETS OF GREAT LEADERS
MAXIMIZING EFFICIENCY
There is an efficiency to Powell’s communications that stems from his military
background. For example, he has a formula for making decisions; after gath-
ering as much information as possible, much of it by making calls and asking
questions himself, he assigns a numeric value to the intelligence he has gath-
ered. Rarely do commanders have the luxury of 100 percent conviction; but
when Powell gets to somewhere between P = 40 and P = 70, he applies his gut
instinct. 23
He also has developed what he calls “Powell’s Rules for Picking People.”
Among the characteristics he values are loyalty, integrity, passion, energy,
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and—perhaps most of all—“the drive to get things done.” Those character-
istics all apply to Powell himself, especially the ability to make things happen.
And that is precisely what he brings to his position as secretary of state.
“TOWER OF STRENGTH”
When President-elect Bush introduced Powell as his secretary of state, he
made reference to another former Army man: “I would say of General Powell
what Harry Truman said of General Marshall: ‘He is a tower of strength and
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common sense.’” Marshall was chief of staff of the army during the Second
World War and later served as Truman’s secretary of state, where he was the
architect of the European Recovery Act (later called the Marshall Plan), which
helped rebuild Europe’s social and industrial infrastructure. And there is
something of Marshall in Powell, apart from their military pedigree. Both gen-
erals made the transition to statecraft by understanding both the advantages
of power and its limitations.
And it is with regard to its limitations that Powell is sometimes criticized.
“Caution is not a vice. I think it’s a virtue. I know when to act. And if caution
is such a terrible vice, then I’m sure various people I have worked for over the
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years probably would not have hired me.” One subject about which Powell is
cautious is the use of troops. When he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, he irked the Clinton administration with his sense of hesitancy about
committing troops. That reluctance is born of his experience in Vietnam. Like
many of his generation who served there, he knows war firsthand and he
knows what happens when soldiers are thrown into battle without clearly
defined goals.
As a lifelong army man, Powell knows from whence his soldiers come.
He speaks of “Kmart parents”—those people of modest means who are the
mothers and fathers of men and women in the armed forces. He insists that
parents need to know why their sons and daughters are going to war, and that
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the reasons must be compelling. In contrast to the situation in Vietnam, the
goals of Operation Desert Storm were well defined, and the military, led by