Page 58 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

CHAPTER 4

LEADERS KNOW THERE’S

MORE TO LIFE

THAN WORK

In preparing to write this book, I interviewed 220 former White House
Fellows and asked each of them to name the most important traits that
great leaders possess. Just as I expected, integrity, vision, judgment, stam-
ina, and the ability to inspire and communicate effectively were among the
characteristics cited most often as leadership essentials. However, I was
struck by how many told me that the greatest leaders insist on establishing
a proper balance between their work and their lives outside the office. One
such source was presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, and
NBC news analyst Doris Kearns Goodwin (WHF 67–68).
When her telephone rang at 6 a.m. on that bitterly cold January morn-
ing in 1973, Goodwin knew exactly who would be on the other end of the
line. Former president Lyndon Baines Johnson had wakened her often for
early-morning chats since leaving the White House for his Texas ranch. His
dependence on Goodwin to assist him with his memoirs had deepened, and
over the years the young woman had become his trusted confidante.
“He was speaking very softly when he called that morning, and he
sounded incredibly sad,” Goodwin recalled. “He had read Sandburg’s biog-
raphy of President Lincoln, which made him think about how he was going
to be remembered, and he was afraid that ordinary people in the future
would forget him. I tried to cheer him up by promising to put a question

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