Page 163 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

As the pressure mounted and fatigue set in, Floyd recalled the positive
energy with which Vice President Gore and Greg Simon motivated their
teams during her White House Fellowship year. In the same way, she was
determined to inspire and energize her young crew members to do their
best work despite the incredible stress and round-the-clock toil associated
with covering the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “The news business is a young
person’s game. At thirty-six years of age, I was not only an accomplished
news correspondent but was also one of the oldest people in our unit. I had
a staff of much younger people working with and for me,” Floyd recalled.
“When those young people confided to me their fears or, as happened on
more than one occasion, they began to cry, it was my job as a leader to be
compassionate. But it was also for me to gently remind them of our duty
to the network, the public, the victims, and the truth. Using that positive
leadership approach renewed their energy and gave us the strength to
fulfill the awesome responsibility of reporting the events of 9/11 accurately
and dispassionately.”
Like Jami Floyd, Robert “Bob” Joss (WHF 68–69) learned great
leadership lessons during his White House Fellowship. Currently serving
as professor and dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Joss
was assigned to the Treasury Department for his Fellowship. It was the
transition year between the Johnson and Nixon administrations, and when
Richard Nixon took office, he appointed David Kennedy, chairman of the
Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust, to be Secretary of the
Treasury. “Kennedy was a wonderful, kind banker from Chicago,” Joss
said. “He had no ambition to be a politician, and in some ways he seemed
almost uncomfortable in a public role. So he was happy for others in his
staff to get the public credit.”
Joss became such a valued member of the Treasury team that he was
asked to stay on for two more years at the end of his Fellowship. “I was the
luckiest of all the White House Fellows,” Joss remarked. “It was like having
a three-year Fellowship.” Joss traveled the country giving speeches on
legislation relating to the Treasury and also spent time alongside Treasury
administrators lobbying legislators on Capitol Hill. For such a young man,
Joss tackled one weighty economic issue after another and earned the
respect of his supervisors, but his supervisors earned his respect too.
“I learned so much in that environment, just realizing how great it is
to work for positive people who will give you lots to do, as much as you

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