Page 127 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

people know where he was going to be spending his time that day, and so
it had a double effect of ensuring that the organization was focused on pri-
orities. He was quite aware of the ripple effect of his words. He wanted his
direct reports to go out and speak with their people and say, ‘I heard X
message or X words directly from the secretary this morning.’ So he was
very successful in using those meetings to communicate, and people really
had a sense that they were part of the process and understood the direc-
tion he was trying to take the department.”
Through the daily staff meetings, Conde saw firsthand how a world-
class communicator such as Colin Powell was able to reach down into his
extremely complex organization and quickly and efficiently get a firm grip
on the information he needed. With the input he received each morning
from his people on the front lines, Powell created a cache of information
that he could use later to make better, more informed decisions. Conde
often sensed that when Secretary Powell asked someone a question during
a meeting, he wasn’t asking the question just to get an answer for his own
benefit. “My belief was that he was trying to ensure that the other people
in the room were hearing certain information in addition to himself,”
Conde explained. “General Powell had a very good eye for what the rest
of his team needed to know, and he was essentially just getting all the infor-
mation out there so everyone else could have access to it. He was great at
getting everyone on the same page.”
Powell was also great at making sure the people on his team understood
that they mattered to his department’s mission and to him personally. Louis
O’Neill (WHF 04–05) was Secretary Powell’s special assistant for Russian
affairs during his Fellowship. He traveled with Powell to Japan, Korea, and
China and also sat in on many of his daily staff meetings. “I’ll never for-
get the first time I went to one of his staff meetings. He warmly welcomed
me and introduced me to everyone. It immediately made me feel like part
of the team and not simply a spectator,” O’Neill recalled. “It’s those little
things I saw him do that carried over when I became a leader myself. Those
lessons will stay with me forever. General Powell once told me, ‘Take care
of the people, and the people will take care of you.’ So after my Fellowship
when I was ambassador and head of mission to Moldova, I had a staff of
sixty, and I saw to it that everyone’s birthday was remembered. Or if some-
one was having a particular problem, I made sure they got the training or
the help they needed. Another thing he told me was that it doesn’t matter

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