September 18, 2017

Jack Yoest, assistant professor, management, analyzed the management style of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in the Stream.

“One must be a good butcher,” said William Gladstone, who served as Great Britain’s Prime Minister in the late 1800s. Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Sherman Adams, was known as The Abominable “No” Man.

And President Trump’s new Chief of Staff, four-star Marine General John Kelly, is taking fire for cutting off access to the Oval Office. For saying, “No.”

He’s also drawn attention for vetting all the materials and proposals that reach the President’s desk. That may make him unpopular, but every president needs this if he’s going to get anything done.

Business guru Peter Drucker wrote that this information-refining process. “[A leader’s] most important role,” he noted, “is to say no to proposals … that are not completely … worked out.”

General Kelly’s management style has been honed through a lifetime military career. Will it make the White House more effective? ...

Continue reading in the Stream.