Page 165 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

Secretary of Defense Bill Brehm. Benson called Brehm “the greatest
mentor I’ve ever had,” and the two became such close friends that more
than thirty years after the Fellowship they still talk to each other weekly.
“From Bill I learned this: Speak softly, give people a lot of room, give
them general guidance, and make sure they have the resources to do what
you’ve asked them to do,” Benson said. “He was running against incredible
opposition from the services about getting women into West Point, and he
just knew how to deal with every person on their level to get to the right
outcome. His motto was: ‘Do what’s right.’ He was once threatened by a
member of Congress who said, ‘If you don’t do what I want you to do, I’ll
get you fired,’ and Bill didn’t even answer the letter—he just said, ‘Let him
try.’ He had incredible strength, and his ethics were impeccable. I never
once heard him raise his voice. He taught me that you’ve got to take care
of your people.”

Years later, when Benson was running his own office as vice president for
federal and international affairs at the Weyerhaeuser Company, he prac-
ticed the positive approach he had learned from Brehm. “I had that posi-
tion at Weyerhaeuser for eighteen years, and several of the people I
hired early on stayed the entire time I was there. I created a ‘no-risk envi-
ronment’ in which I encouraged everybody to step in to do whatever they
thought was right to help the company, without fear of making a mis-
take,” Benson said. “I told them to come up with new ideas and new pro-
grams, and I would give them bonuses if they came up with something
that worked. If something went wrong, I simply asked, ‘Okay, what did
we learn? What can we do differently next time?’ It reaped dividends. A
twenty-nine-year-old secretary I hired in my first couple of years in the
company is now the president of her own trade association in Washington.
I mean, if you let people go and grow and give them the resources and help
them when they stumble, they will dearly respect your leadership and want
to break through barriers for you. I’ve seen it happen in both military and
civilian life, and I truly believe that creating a bubble of positive energy, a
no-risk environment, is the way to go.”
Benson’s energy helped him and his employees become a productive
and happy team. Lincoln Caplan II (WHF 79–80) became part of a
similar winning team during his Fellowship, largely as a result of former
White House Fellow Colin Powell’s humorous brand of leadership. Caplan,

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