Page 171 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

Secretary Thompson was an attorney who had been governor of
Wisconsin and a state assemblyman for twenty-five years before that. He
did not have a background in medicine, and so he counted on Aristeiguieta
to put health-related issues into context for him. Aristeiguieta had nearly
total access to Secretary Thompson’s schedule and often attended meetings
with him. It wasn’t long before the young White House Fellow noticed
an important leadership trait in his principal that he hoped to nurture in
himself: Secretary Thompson was an outstanding listener. Aristeiguieta
confessed that at that point in his life, he was rather impatient when it
came to conversational give-and-take. By watching the secretary in action,
Aristeiguieta saw for himself how listening made Thompson a more
effective leader.
“Childhood obesity was a hot topic at the time I was a Fellow, and
one part of that debate centered on what responsibility the food indus-
try may or may not have with that. So the secretary brought in all these
food industry executives to begin a dialogue on childhood obesity,” Aris-
teiguieta explained. “From the start of the meeting it was clear that the
food industry people were concerned that they were going to be regu-
lated, and it progressed to the point where I was starting to feel uncom-
fortable with how aggressive some of those folks were. They were
addressing some comments toward the secretary about how this wasn’t
the government’s role and the government really should stay out of their
business. But the secretary just sat there patiently and listened to them.
He didn’t say a word. He didn’t try to defend himself—not once—for
almost an hour. Then, after all those executives from the food industry
had spoken, the secretary said, ‘I’ve heard you. I understand your con-
cerns. Now I need you to tell me how you, as an industry, can help
address this public health issue.’ Then he just sat back and listened again.
Pretty soon they were talking about how they could step up and partic-
ipate without being forced into it—how they could begin putting more
healthy food choices on their menus and those kinds of things—and by
the end of the meeting the tone had changed dramatically. They weren’t
attacking the secretary anymore. They were actually pleased, and they
felt that they were part of the dialogue, and in fact, they probably went
further than the secretary really expected them to go at that point. From
that meeting I learned the value of listening. I’ve tried to incorporate that
into my own leadership style in my work as director of emergency

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