Page 177 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

Whereas Rick Northern’s principal exhibited a consistent, laid-back
leadership style during his Fellowship, Alexander Rodriguez (WHF 80–81)
dealt with two starkly contrasting principals during his year in Washington.
Rodriguez, a psychiatrist who earned his medical degree from Emory
University School of Medicine, was assigned to work in the Department
of Health and Human Services, where he dealt predominantly with the
settlement of thousands of Cuban refugees who had sailed to the United
States in what was known as the Mariel boat lift. His principal was Secre-
tary Patricia Harris. The first African-American woman to hold a cabinet
position, the diminutive Harris had learned leadership techniques from her
onetime mentor Lyndon Johnson, whose forceful, commandeering style
was well known.
“While Patricia Harris was physically petite, she stood upright and
absolutely took over any room she entered. She dominated any gathering
not just because she was the secretary but because of her leadership ‘presence,’
including her upright posture, purposeful stride, and stentorian voice.
When she spoke, she always articulated her ideas clearly and forcefully,
often hands on hips,” said Rodriguez. “Her body language said, ‘I’m a
leader, so everybody listen up.’ She was the personification of a field
commanding general such as George Patton. She would walk in with a
clear agenda and a clear strategy of exactly what she wanted to accomplish
in each and every meeting.”
Like the skilled attorney and law school dean she was, Patricia Harris
was always organized, plainly stated her thoughts, and was adroit at getting
others both to see her logic and to agree with her action plan. She was effec-
tive because she scared people into action and then inspired them with her
brilliance. The most important lesson she taught Rodriguez came by way
of a tactic she utilized repeatedly whenever a power position had to be
established through discussion and negotiation.
“As the individual or group of individuals would initiate greetings and
socially typical warm-up exchanges, she would unleash from her four-foot
ten-inch frame a torrent of vitriolic verbiage that would invariably leave
the perceived adversary reeling in defense,” Rodriguez recalled. “Following
her greeting, she would then calmly offer a cup of tea or coffee and then
proceed to dominate the discussion to achieve her alpha-female objectives
for the meeting. The first time I witnessed this, I almost literally ducked
behind the curtains in her office. I had never seen anything quite like it

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