Quillnews can’t let the testimony of former Asst Sec State Carl Ford pass without comment. I gave a cheer to Bush 43’s nomination of Bolton, the neo-con iron man, to the UN post. (Quillnews) What I didn’t know is that Bolton apparently has just the personality for it! (LAT, NYT, WP; opinions from Brooks, Kristol K2 and IHT/NYT)
When I was an oil industry soldier, it would occasionally find myself in DC briefings when Ford spoke. A former army guy, State’s intel chief was concise, honest and wise about the limits of the product of spook craft; it was clear his military training gave him unique insight into the need for intel officers to “speak truth to power,” to use the phrase he uttered at the Senate hearing Tuesday.
I found Ford’s description of Bolton in the work place at State completely believable. Bolton is a 7-year Yalie, white shoe DC law firm smartie, legal counsel to bureaucracy, and political appointee at State of both Bush 41 and Bush 43. Which is fine, but it’s clear this is a guy who has a hard time, as they say at Day Care, playing well with others. His management style is not one of collegial team building. It is what oil company human resources guys call a “pacesetter” – my way or the highway. Add to this management style legal training from Yale and you’ve got quite a package. Unlike a squad leader or company commander who must nurture a diverse array of personalities to perform as a common unit, this kind of guy could be a strong, even brilliant staff guy and earn lots of points from senior executives, but when assigned management duties of his own would predicatably be a tyrant as a boss. Bullying, muscling, shouting, ranting at lower rank staff who are unable to respond because of bureaucratic discipline – are all the hallmarks of a pacesetter with an “authoritative” style.
What an authoritative pacesetter does in a work place is predictable. A wise CEO, say one with the kind of training and experience offered at Harvard Business School (like Bush 43), employs a manager with this “style” very rarely and only very deliberately, preferring to keep smart guys like this on a very short staff leash. A manager with an authoritative pacesettler style can successfully be used only when a work team or department is dysfunctional and needs to be shaken up and changed – shocked into reform or new behavior or performance - quickly. This management style will usually be very successful in the short term – as a new broom sweeps clean. But within a matter of months, a pacesettler will poison a work place, cause morale problems, engender transfers, retirements or resignations – often of perfectly good performers but who are disenchanted that senior management would go along with a jerk like this.
So the real problem with Bolton is not Bolton – who has learned now that there is a personal cost to his behavior. A stand-up guy like Ford would find it perfectly in keeping with his code to tell the truth to power about how a jerk behaved in the work place – no matter that the jerk is the choice of his general officers at HQ.
The real issue remains at Bush 43’s table. In using a guy like Bolton, Bush 43 as CEO knows that Bolton only has a brief time to be effective in Turtle Bay before he begins to poison the well within the UN mission, and perhaps beyond. Bolton still is a favorite of the neo-con intelligencia, but Chairman Lugar is no fan and refused to let him get the #2 job at State. There is no reason to cause Bush 43 to loose face over this particular assignment because of management style alone. Bolton’s limits are well known. Bush 43 and Bolton's policy supporters can say all the nice things they want about Bolton, but wise CEOs assign guys like this only to do short-term jobs, not get along well with others. So perhaps Bolton is just what the doctor ordered at the massively dysfunctional UN – for a little while. (Update: NYT) As a lawyer, Bolton will no doubt quickly do as he is assigned by his “clients” in the White House. But his bosses know that Bolton's usefulness has a time limit. In no time Bush 43 will see, as Ford said: "The personal hurt that he caused is not worth the price that had to be paid."
Good points all, but I'm not so sure, given what I've seen in the press, that the guy is all that scream-y. Abrasive, I'll easily grant you, but he could hold his tongue in the hearings pretty well. Good point about using a confrontational manager for a turnaround, though.
The reason for my slight disagreement is the lack of substantive guys coming out of the woodwork like they would be for a guy like Hyman Rickover. Maybe they're being more sneaky about it.
What are your thoughts now that there's been a little time to see the Bolton confirmation shenanigans for a while? Any changes?
Posted by: Chap | 28 April 2005 at 05:13 PM