Page 215 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

Another former Fellow, James “Jim” Padilla (WHF 78–79), also knows
the value of getting out and mingling with his people. When Padilla was
a teenager, he was determined to attend a prestigious Catholic high
school in his hometown of Detroit. Tuition was expensive, but Padilla was
resolute. The youngster worked at a variety of odd jobs to pay his own way
and within a matter of weeks was at the top of his class. An Eagle Scout
who would earn the Boy Scouts of America’s Distinguished Eagle Scout
Award years later, Padilla graduated from the University of Detroit with
degrees in chemical engineering and economics. He went to work for Ford
Motor Company and was a thirty-two-year-old manager responsible for
fuel economy planning when he was selected to be a White House Fellow
and assigned to work as a special assistant to Commerce Secretary Juanita
Kreps.
Kreps was a wonderful principal for Padilla. She was the first woman
ever named a James B. Duke Professor, and she had served as vice president
of Duke University. Kreps served on some of the nation’s most prestigious
boards, including Eastman Kodak, J.C. Penney, R.J. Reynolds, and AT&T,
and was the first female director of the New York Stock Exchange. Kreps
set a wonderful example for her young White House Fellow, who returned
to Ford at the end of his Fellowship year and moved steadily up the ranks.
He retired in 2006 after forty years at Ford, where he ultimately became
the company’s president and chief operating officer.
Padilla’s leadership style was one of high visibility among Ford’s
300,000 employees: He was rarely at his desk. “You’ve got to lead from
the front,” he said. “I had a strong belief that people needed to see their
leadership, especially in a diverse operation like Ford. What’s happening in
the United States has little or no bearing on what’s happening in São Paulo,
Brazil, or China. So you get out and go meet people. I spent probably half
of my time on the road.”
One of the trademarks of Padilla’s leadership approach was the town
hall meetings he hosted frequently with Ford employees around the world.
Padilla began each meeting by giving the attendees a ten-minute overview
of his thoughts on the current state of the business, and he then opened
up the meeting for a question and answer session. Since he had such a
strong manufacturing background, Padilla particularly enjoyed visiting the
shop floor and engaging with the employees there. No matter where he was
in the world, Padilla made sure to spend time with Ford dealers to seek

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