Page 20 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

OPENING THE DOOR TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Pustay sat with President Johnson, reflecting on the private thoughts
of the man who dominated public life with the historic passage of sweep-
ing Great Society legislation aimed at eliminating poverty and racial injus-
tice. President Johnson continued to talk about some of the burdens of that
great office. Starting to feel self-conscious because he was taking up too
much of the president’s valuable time, Pustay said, “Sir, I think it’s proba-
bly time for me to leave.”
“Yeah, young man,” Johnson said. “You know, thanks for listening.”
That experience taught Pustay early on that even the most powerful
leaders are human and that at the core, it is emotion that drives human
behavior. He has recalled that lesson often throughout his distinguished
military career. It undoubtedly helped guide him as he rose to the rank of
three-star general, served as the lead advisor to the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and led the National Defense University as its president.
Forty-two years later, Pustay counts his experience as a White House
Fellow—especially that extraordinary hour as President Johnson’s confi-
dant over a glass of bourbon and branch water—as one of his most cher-
ished memories.
President Johnson had opened the door to the White House with the
new Fellowship program. Whether or not he intended it, he also had
opened a window for Fellows to witness firsthand how the nation’s top lead-
ers personally cope with the burdens of immense responsibility, impossi-
ble expectations, and brutal public criticism, a side of their essential
humanity the general public rarely gets to see.

A “RHODES SCHOLARSHIP” FOR PUBLIC SERVICE
Each year since 1965, the White House Fellows program has granted
exclusive access to the Oval Office and other Washington power cham-
bers to some of the nation’s most promising young leaders. Similar to the
Rhodes Scholarship competition in which thirty-two of the nation’s
brightest college graduates are selected each year to study in Oxford,
England, the White House Fellowships are offered to a handful of young
Americans from all walks of life, who spend a year working at the high-
est levels of government, learning the process of leading a nation. Out
of the thousands of applications submitted for Fellowships each year,
fewer than twenty outstanding people—mostly in their late twenties and
early thirties—are chosen to work in the executive branch with cabinet

5