Leadership for Intelligence Professionals   

President Eisenhower’s Use of

 a Leadership Team and a Staff Meeting

“He told his cabinet members he didn’t expect them to come to the cabinet room to tell him what their departments wanted.  They were to advise him on what the country needed….You….he told them, are my operating lieutenants….he expected cabinet members to present him with options and to argue with one another in his presence, about the superiority of one course of action over another.  The cabinet was as slow to catch on as the staff.  Eisenhower persisted nonetheless.  He used these meetings for various purposes—coordinating policies, stimulating discussion, team building, but most of all for decision making…..

As a rule, he didn’t have a lot to say.  He sat in silence much of the time, head down, doodling on a piece of White House stationary….After a while he’d look up and point his pencil at someone...Well, what do you think?

When he’d had enough, he might say, “I’d like to take a vote on this.”  Within minutes a decision was made, arrived at openly and democratically.  Most of the time, however—and always on key issues—he simply thanked everyone for their contribution, then announced his decision.”

Extracted from Eisenhower by Geoffrey Perrett.