Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were rivals, but Obama
still selected her to be his Secretary of State. (Photo by
Salvador García Bardón (CC))
Sometime this week, President Obama will probably meet with his Cabinet for the first time. Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall for that meeting?
Much has been made of Obama’s selections, and regardless of what you think of each one, it is definitely reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln’s Cabinet, which was made up of several of his political rivals. Of course, Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote a best-seller in 2005 about how that worked out for Lincoln (pretty well, it turns out).
Now we’ll see how much teamwork and collaboration Obama can generate from his own “team of rivals”.
Anyway, all of this got me to thinking. What if I told you that you were being promoted to lead an important new initiative for the company, and that you were being given a headcount of 15 people that you needed to staff in the next two weeks. Oh, and you can pick anyone you want to be on your team, from the entire company (at your level or below). Let’s also pretend that this is a really big deal, so they’re likely to feel obligated to serve – the project is that important. Who would you choose?
You might choose a few of your current direct reports. They’re probably very good performers, and you already know you can trust them. You might choose a few stars that you don’t know that well, based on recommendations from others. But the question is – how many of your “rivals” would you select? Isn’t this an interesting question? How many of us would seriously pick our biggest adversary to be on the team?
Think about it for a minute – and go through your network. Would you pick a peer or colleague that you’ve had a few run-ins with? I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have a perfect track record with colleagues. I got along with most everyone, but there were always a few people that I liked a little less than others. I’m not sure I could have done with Obama did – heck, he battled Hillary Clinton right down to the wire, and turns around and gives her the most important Cabinet position there is!
The next time you have an opportunity to add to your staff, think about Obama and his “team of rivals”. It takes a pretty self-assured leader to pick people you’ve had a few battles with to serve on your team. Good for Obama. Here’s hoping we’d all have the self-confidence to pick the best people for the job, regardless of our past history with them.
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