Avoiding a Government of Lawyers and Former Congressional Staffers

The next president must look beyond the usual suspects to put together a truly diverse administration.

The two presumptive presidential candidates are now vetting vice presidential candidates. Putting together an entire administration is not too far off. Based on our experience over the last seven years in interviewing 65 top level political executives in the Obama Administration, we gained insights about the professional experiences of those we interviewed. We discussed how their prior positions prepared them for their current position. In particular, we looked for management experience that would prepare them to be effective political executives managing large government organizations.

Based on our interviews and observations over the years, we found that the political positions are often filled by people with little relevant managerial experience:

Campaign staff. A major challenge facing all campaigns is placing their loyal workers after the campaign ends. Some campaign staff members end up – appropriately for the most part – in the White House. Many campaign skills are indeed applicable to the “perpetual campaign” of the White House today with its ongoing outreach to the public. For many jobs, there is a problem, however, in transferring the skills of campaigning to the skills of governing. Managing in government requires managerial skills, which potential appointees may not have gained on the campaign trial. Thus, many campaign personnel have had a difficult time in making the transition from campaign to governing. The challenge of a presidential campaign is to keep expectations low among staff that they will be moving into a management position in Washington as part of a new administration.

Congressional staff. Another traditional “feeder” group into a new administration has been congressional staff members, usually from the ranks of committee staff who have expertise about the agencies in which they either had authorization, appropriation, or oversight responsibility. In many ways, it makes sense to recruit these staff members (they have indeed proved their loyalty to the party in power) to serve in the agency in which they are most familiar. While their skills are indeed transferable on an expertise basis, many congressional staff often lack managerial experience.  Serving as majority or minority staff director does build some management experience but that experience may not be adequate preparation for the challenges of managing in a large organization. The scope and size of a government organization are much larger than those of a committee staff. In managing a congressional committee, one can rely on one-to-one managerial skills—something not easily done in a large government organization. The challenge of a new administration is matching the experience of former congressional staffs to an appropriate job in an agency, such as placing them in offices of congressional relations where their professional contacts and experience can be invaluable. For the most part, placing them in managerial positions is a riskier proposition.

A major advantage of the legal profession is that lawyers can relatively easily move in and out of government. They can leave and return to the legal professional without much disruption to their career. In fact, time in government will generally enhance the professional credibility of a lawyer. The caution here is where to place these very smart “in and outers.” While their professional career has indeed prepared them to serve in legal positions in government, problems often arise when they are placed in senior managerial positions. Unless one has been the managing partner of a large law firm, lawyers usually work in small teams with colleagues and have little or no organizational management responsibility. In contrast, managing in government requires working in large, hierarchical, bureaucratic organizations for which their legal careers have usually not prepared them. Placing lawyers in significant management positions can also be risky.

Beyond the Usual Suspects: Achieving Diversity

By diversity, we mean putting together an administration of different career experiences and background, including relevant managerial experience. One does not want a government comprised overwhelmingly of lawyers or former congressional staffers. This diversity of experiences would include managerial experience at different levels of government and in different sectors. Based on our observations and experience over the years, we believe that following sources of talent have been underrepresented in previous administrations. The next administration can change that.

State government. While every administration has some political executives, including cabinet secretaries, from state government, the numbers of high-level executives with state government experience continues to be small. State government experience, however, clearly provides transferable skills and knowledge of best public sector practices. During his tenure as head of the Arizona Department of Transportation, Victor Mendez (now Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary) received much praise for overseeing the building of a Regional Freeway System in the Phoenix area six years ahead of schedule. As Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, Mendez developed the Every Day Counts program, which emphasized innovation in dramatically speeding up the completion of transportation projects. In addition to the transfer of knowledge, state government officials also can bring highly relevant managerial experience to the federal government.

Private sector. While there are often calls for government to be “more like business,” the number of political executives from the private sector varies from administration to administration. In many ways, managing in a large business is very much like managing in a large government organization – hierarchical and bureaucratic as noted earlier. (The transition for an individual from a small entrepreneurial start-up is likely to be more difficult than from a large business.) Individuals who have served in both large government organizations and large businesses bring a unique perspective to their positions, including the ability to compare organizations. After assuming his position as Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid, James Runcie observed, “I thought the agency did not compare well to the private sector in regard to customer service. I had come from the private sector . . . Things are moving fast in the private sector, especially in areas like call centers.”

Career service and military. Another overlooked sector is the government itself. On the civilian side of government, there are many outstanding career Deputy Administrators who have also served as Acting Administrators. In 2009, the Obama Administration nominated Patrick Gallagher to serve as director of the National Institutes of Standard and Technology after he served for 13 months as acting director. Gallagher subsequently served as acting deputy secretary of the Commerce Department.

There are also many talented individuals in law enforcement agencies whose skills are transferable to other agencies. In 2010, the Obama Administration selected John Pistole, former career number two at the FBI, to serve as administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. On the military side, there are many talented flag officers with much relevant experience. The George W. Bush Administration selected Adm. James Loy to serve as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security after he retired as commandant of the Coast Guard. Gallagher, Pistole and Loy all had managerial experience in large organizations that fully equipped them to take on challenging positions in other agencies.

There are clearly many talented people all over the United States who can contribute to the success of the next administration. The challenge will be to look beyond the usual suspects to find individuals from sectors traditionally underrepresented among senior political appointees.

Paul R. Lawrence is a principal in the Government and Public Sector practice of Ernst & Young LLP. His e-mail: paul.lawrence@ey.com. Mark A. Abramson is president of Leadership Inc. His email: mark.abramson@thoughtleadershipinc.com. They are authors of the forthcoming book Succeeding as a Political Executive: 50 Insights from Experience (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016).

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.