Page 80 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

LEADERS HAVE A LASERLIKE FOCUS ON THEIR PEOPLE

meetings with foreign trade representatives, and he witnessed firsthand how
dedicated she was to establishing a personal relationship with those on the
other side of the table. Before meeting with a foreign trade representative,
Esserman would write a note thanking that person for agreeing to meet
with her. She also would call the representative in the days before the
meeting to say how much she was looking forward to getting together with
him or her and to break down a bit of the formality that often accompa-
nies such high-level gatherings. Finally, Esserman would do her homework,
not only studying the negotiation points but also learning about what made
that person—and the people in his or her country—tick. “From Ambas-
sador Esserman, I learned the importance of establishing a personal
relationship with a foreign policy counterpart first and then establishing
the professional relationship after that,” Tien explained.

Ten years later, Tien and a thousand of his soldiers were sent to Tal Afar,
Iraq, to secure and stabilize the city, and he channeled Esserman’s easygo-
ing approach when dealing with his Iraqi counterpart, Mayor Najim Abdul-
lah Al Jabouri. After almost a year in Tal Afar living fifty yards from Mayor
Najim’s office in the center of the city, enduring mortar and suicide bomber
attacks together, and spending many late-night hours talking about local
and global policy, the two became lifelong friends and trusting colleagues.
“Iraq may or may not succeed as a country, but between my soldiers, Mayor
Najim, and me, we helped transform Tal Afar from a battle-weary com-
bat zone into an independent city,” Tien said. “On October 18, 2006, 100
percent of the U.S. forces left Tal Afar and I personally handed the ‘keys’
back to Mayor Najim and the Iraqi Army, and the city has remained sta-
ble and secure ever since. I owe an incredible debt to Ambassador Esser-
man, who taught me how to be a true global citizen.”
Tien learned another valuable lesson during his Fellowship year from
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Richard Fisher, who is now
the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. The list of
Fisher’s accomplishments is impressive: He graduated from the U.S. Naval
Academy, Harvard, and Stanford and studied Latin American politics at
Oxford. He was an investment banker and the CEO of a capital manage-
ment funds company and served as assistant to the secretary of the treas-
ury during the Carter administration. In his role as deputy U.S. trade
representative, Fisher managed the implementation of the North American

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