President as COO: In Your Face Execution

 “He’ll sit [in the Oval Office], and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.”

That sentiment expressed by Harry Truman about his successor Dwight Eisenhower gets to the heart of what President Obama is facing with oil spill in the Gulf.

By no means is the oil spillage the fault of the President but it has becomes his responsibility, under provisions of the 1990 Clean Water Act, to mobilize a response. BP has proven repeatedly to be untrustworthy, and so a coordinated response between government and private enterprise has been less than successful. The oil is still spewing, oil slicks at sea have not been vacuumed, and the wetlands and shoreline continue to become polluted.

Now the President must function less as a head of state and more as a chief operating officer. The plans are in place so now is the time for the president to push hard for timely execution. Here’s how.

Get in people’s faces. Urgency is paramount. The president is good on television, now he must be good with those responsible for getting things done. By nature Obama is cool and non confrontational; now he should up his game and make it known that if results are not forthcoming people will be replaced sooner than later. This is not showmanship; it’s urgent statecraft. Getting BP to commit to a $20 billion escrow fund for reparations is a good first step.

Tap the network. Find out who the experts in every function are. Call on them regularly for updates. It is hard for the president to make personal visits but his personal delegates can do it for him. The purpose of such visits is not to reprimand but to ensure that things are being done on time and on schedule. If not, then ask what the experts need in terms of more resources to do their job.

Inspect the details. Execution is not fun; it is hard work. Franklin Roosevelt used wife Eleanor to be his “legs” on inspection tours. He taught her to go behind the public relations façade and talk to people responsible for results. As a result, Eleanor inspected government-sponsored  kitchens and dormitories and visited war production factories, even climbing into half-built bomber fuselages to see work firsthand. Detail is critical to execution; missed details lead to failed execution.

Follow up. Flex the chain of command. If those in charge cannot get the job done for one reason or another, make it safe for people to escalate their concerns up the management ladder, even to the president if need be. This crisis is only growing bigger; mitigating its effects on our society and our environment will require not only out of the box thinking but out of the box actions, like going outside traditional channels.

Now the President must function less as a head of state and more as a chief operating officer. Because the problem has escalated so dramatically and BP has been so unresponsive, the President has had to play a hands-on role in running the government response to remedy the effects of an ecological, economic and humanitarian disaster.

Granted presidential response to such disasters should be a rarity. Our government has the resources and materiel to handle future natural and man-made disasters. What can be learned from this crisis is that in extraordinary circumstances executive leadership requires full participation in execution. 

John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership development consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. In 2010 Top Leadership Gurus named John one of the world's top 25 leadership experts. John's new book is Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up (Amacom 2009). Readers are welcome to visit John's website, www.johnbaldoni.com