Page 79 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

Affairs Office when she received a telephone call with the happy news that
she had just been selected for early promotion to lieutenant colonel. Melvan
was shocked. She did not know she was being considered for promotion.
When she hung up the phone, one of the secretaries sitting nearby asked
her if everything was okay. “I told her what had just happened, and she
looked kind of glazed, so I just walked back to my desk and worked the
rest of the day thinking that these civilian people didn’t have any idea what
a big deal this was to me. I was excited about the promotion, but I didn’t
tell anybody else,” Melvan said. “At four o’clock that day Rich called me
over to do some work. He said, ‘Now bring your notes on this and that,’
and I went across the hall to the big conference room. The whole staff was
in there, and they had champagne and roses for me, and they had a big
American flag tacked up on the wall. One of my coworkers had a big helmet
on his head, like he was Patton, and he put me in a chair in front of the
flag and did a little skit about why I was going to be promoted. Rich knew;
he had known weeks before that I had been selected but he didn’t tell, and
he arranged for the party so everyone could share in a celebration with me.
I just thought that was wonderful.”

Years later as chief nurse at three of the nation’s leading army hospitals,
Melvan put into practice what she learned from her White House Fellows
principal. She personally met with every new nurse reporting for duty at
her facility and asked them all about their personal and professional goals.
She made daily rounds to make sure they had everything they needed to
do their jobs and followed up to ensure that they were achieving their goals.
She sent personal letters to staff selected for promotion and to those cele-
brating birthdays, anniversaries, and births. “The bottom line was they
knew they could always call me to help them if they needed it,” Melvan
said. “At their exit briefings when they were changing duty stations, many
staff members shared that they knew I cared about them and that I made
a difference in their lives.”
Just as Colonel Melvan learned significant leadership lessons from a
civilian she met during her White House Fellowship, so did U.S. Army
Colonel John Tien WHF (98–99). Tien, a former Rhodes Scholar and West
Point graduate who was a major at the time of his Fellowship, was assigned
to work with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Susan
Esserman. Esserman allowed Tien to help her prepare for and attend her

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