Page 75 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

CHAPTER 6

LEADERS HAVE

A LASERLIKE FOCUS

ON THEIR PEOPLE

I think many people believe that the U.S. military is an autocratic,
Pattonesque system in which leaders simply bark orders without regard
for their subordinates’ opinions or feelings. However, as I interviewed
White House Fellows for this book, a pattern began to emerge that chal-
lenges that belief. In one interview after another, former White House Fel-
lows who had been in the military or had worked alongside principals who
had been in the military said time and again that the greatest leaders are
those who focus on the needs of their people in a thoughtful and com-
passionate way.
Thus, it’s no accident that the stories included in this chapter all have
a military slant. I wanted to send the clear message that if there is room for
kindness and consideration in the military, where people’s lives are at stake,
there ought to be room for kindness and consideration in the boardroom,
the locker room, the classroom, and the office.
One who absorbed and practiced that lesson in all those settings is Pete
Dawkins (WHF 73–74). Throughout his lifetime, Dawkins has amassed
one of the most impressive lists of leadership credentials I have ever seen.
From the time he was a young boy, he was determined to be a winner.
When he was eleven years old, Dawkins was diagnosed with polio, a disease
that often left its victims paralyzed. In the 1940s and 1950s, before Jonas

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