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The White House Fellowship Program's Diversity Lesson
June 23, 2009
It's no secret diversity in leadership made a giant leap forward when Barack Obama assumed the presidency. What's less known are the other strides made under the White House's auspices by participants in the White House Fellowship Program.
"The creators of the White House Fellowship Program knew that to be a great country, America could not be led by one or two groups," says Charles Garcia, former White House Fellow and author of "Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows: Learn How to Inspire Others, Achieve Greatness, and Find Success in Any Organization."
"The program was created behind the idea that there is potential for greatness in all of America. And with that mission in place, for decades it has been turning Americans, from all walks of life, into some of the nation's great leaders," says Garcia.
Using first-hand accounts from past program participants—including the first African-American Fellow—the book explores leadership lessons that are a part of every Fellow's experience. Created more than forty years ago by President Lyndon B. Johnson and John W. Gardner, former president of the Carnegie Corporation, the White House Fellowship Program provides participants with a look at the behind-the-scenes workings of the U.S. political system. It was important to Gardner and Johnson that excellence be the focus of the program, so despite the racial divide in the country, they made a point of recruiting young Americans of all races, genders, and economic backgrounds.
"There is something life-changing about being immersed in the world of our nation's top decision makers," says Garcia. "And perhaps because our nation has had such a struggle with racial and gender equality, it's especially gratifying to learn so many great leaders from so many different backgrounds have come through the Fellows program. No matter who you are, these outstanding men and women have a lot to teach you about leadership."
"Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows" includes twenty tenets of successful leadership, each illustrated by true stories. Here are two key lessons from the book, along with anecdotes that inspired them:
Leadership Lesson #1: Root out prejudice. Great leaders recognize talent and leadership abilities are distributed randomly. Therefore, they don't form judgments about a person based on ethnicity, gender, religion, age, or any other factor. They root out prejudice and biases in themselves and others, and ensure there is equal opportunity for everyone to rise to a position of leadership in his or her organization on the basis of merit and character.
A story behind the lesson: Ron Lee was the first African-American White House Fellow. In 1966, the U.S. Post Office was the biggest civilian agency in the government, with 600,000 employees total, and yet out of 44,000 postmasters nationwide, only two were African-Americans. "It was disgraceful, and Larry O'Brien [Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service at the time] and I agreed it was something worse than that—it was segregation because about 30 percent of the postal service employees were minorities at that time," Lee explained. "So O'Brien gave me the go-ahead to find people to promote."
Within months, Lee hired minority postmasters to run the nation's four largest postal responsibilities in the country. During his Fellowship, Lee identified ten people for O'Brien to recommend to President Johnson for postmaster appointments, and helped increase the number of African-Americans in senior management ranks at headquarters from 5 percent to 12 percent. During the thirty-one months he served as an aide to Postmaster General O'Brien, and then as one of the six assistant postmasters general, Lee helped to hire an additional 50,000 African-American employees for a total of 110,000, and raised their average pay level by 40 percent. He also helped direct some of the postal service's $25 million in daily postal revenue to African-American-owned banks, which until then had been overlooked.
Leadership lesson #2: Not every battle is the end of the war. Too often leaders allow themselves to be sidetracked by other people's prejudices and personal attacks. They focus too much of their attention on counterattacking those individuals and wasting energy and time on irrelevant issues. Leaders who demonstrate grace under fire with a laser-like focus on their mission are the ones who will achieve greatness one day.
A story behind the lesson: Jane Cahill Pfeiffer was assigned to work as administrative assistant to the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Robert Weaver. It meant she would be the first female White House Fellow working directly with the nation's first African-American appointed to a presidential cabinet post. Despite these advances in race and gender relations in Washington that year, it wasn't all smooth sailing; discrimination was still rampant in the nation's capital. Weaver—the coordinator of the Model Cities Program created to channel federal, state, and local resources for urban renewal of slums in sixty-three inner cities—asked Pfeiffer to find a place where task force members and President Johnson could convene for an off-site meeting. She called up a country club in Bethesda, Maryland, to be told they couldn't come because black members weren't allowed. Pfeiffer decided not to tell Weaver he was unwelcome at the club; she would quietly book another facility for the Model Cities meeting and move on.
But when Weaver asked her directly why she had changed venues, she broke down and told him the truth. "He did not brood over it, and that was the end of that. He was such a dear man—he never said anything more about it," Pfeiffer said. "That's what Weaver could always do. He could rise above the slights."
It was a good lesson for a young woman trying to function in a male-dominated workplace. Pfeiffer learned that becoming angry or resentful makes you bitter, and if you allow that to happen, you contaminate everyone around you with a negative attitude, especially your subordinates, who quickly lose respect for you and make it difficult for you to lead.
Great leaders, the book concludes, treat everyone with respect, and ensure what matters most is competence and character.
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