Page 95 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

mentors and friends from those days remained close allies and followed her
career, cheering her on as she shattered one glass ceiling after another. One
fervent supporter was former LBJ press secretary Bill Moyers, who said he
was always delighted to work with Pfeiffer because “she was so honest,
candid and enthusiastic. Her word was her bond.” Another who looked on
with great pride was program cocreator John Gardner, who was delighted
with the way Pfeiffer had fulfilled her end of the Fellowship bargain. Her
accomplishments since completing the program were impressive. She had
returned to her former company, IBM, after her Fellowship to work as
executive assistant to CEO Thomas Watson, Jr., a demanding but highly
regarded executive whose foresight and able leadership continued IBM’s
journey toward becoming an industry powerhouse.
Pfeiffer’s respect for her boss was immense. “Tom was a man who
believed so deeply in the customer, and he expected us to move heaven and
earth to help the customer. No task was too daunting,” she remarked. “IBM
had very simple guiding principles and the greatest of attitudes about what
a company should be. A company should treat all of its people and its cus-
tomers with the utmost respect and support. Integrity should be the hall-
mark of everything the company does. Finally, Tom expected that we should
be a vital good neighbor in every community in which we operated. There
was a strong core of corporate responsibility at IBM that was started by
Tom’s father and great respect for people and fairness and integrity. Tom
followed the same principles, and they were the fabric of what IBM was.”
Watson’s dedication to putting people first had strongly influenced
Pfeiffer, who ably displayed her problem-solving capabilities to him in the
late 1950s during a stint as site manager of a missile tracking station in
Bermuda. Once, when her staff’s paychecks were late arriving, Pfeiffer took
out a loan from a local bank so she could pay the employees. She then fired
off a blunt letter to her supervisors at IBM headquarters advising them to
“get with it” because the loan would soon be due. Watson was impressed
19
by Pfeiffer’s initiative and boldness and called her one of the ablest exec-
utives he has ever known. 20

19 “Pfeiffer, Jane Cahill – Overview,” [encyclopedia], (accessed online 1 December 2008),
available from http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6331/Pfeiffer-Jane-Cahill.html.
20 “Jane Pfeiffer: NBC lassos its own wonder woman,” Chicago Tribune, 12 November 1978,
p. K1.

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