Page 172 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

LEADERS ARE GREAT LISTENERS

medical services and disaster preparedness for Emergent Medical Associ-
ates and also in my role as an assistant professor in emergency medicine
at the University of California–Davis.”
Aristeiguieta saw how Secretary Thompson’s listening skills helped him
earn the trust of those on the opposite side of the table during a conflict.
In contrast, Ron Quincy (WHF 85–86) learned the flip side of that lesson
during his Fellowship. As a result of being a White House Fellow, Quincy
got to know and work with the South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Mandela often reminded Quincy to listen carefully to people to determine
whether they were trustworthy, because one of the greatest tools a leader
possesses is the ability to identify those on whose judgment he or she
can rely. Mandela told Quincy that when he was in prison, he cultivated
relationships with certain prison guards by establishing a dialogue with
them. He would speak to the guards, but more important, he would
listen. “Mandela would listen to the guards and, from doing that, decide
which ones he could count on to relay important messages to his family,
friends, and comrades on the outside,” Quincy said. “Even in prison there
were guards he was able to actually trust versus those who sent signals
showing they were not trustworthy. He never attempted to engage with
the latter. Just imagine what would have happened if he had made a mistake.
The listening part of being a leader is so very important.”

Quincy recalled a Chinese fable in which a teaching master is ordered to
prepare a young prince for his future leadership role as king. The first thing
the master does is to send the prince out alone into the forest. The master
tells the prince he is to stay there for one year, and then he is to return to
the master and describe what he heard. “After a year has passed, the prince
comes back and starts talking about how he heard the birds singing and
the leaves rustling and the wind whispering,” Quincy said. “And the mas-
ter orders him to go back into the forest again and listen some more—there
was more to be heard. The prince went back into the forest and after sit-
ting there for a very long time, one morning he actually did hear something
different. He returned to the master and said he had heard the ‘unheard’—
the sound of flowers blooming and the sun warming the ground. And the
master nodded and told him that he was finally ready for the throne,
because the ability to hear the unheard—to go deeper than the obvious—
is necessary to being a great leader.”

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