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Anticipate the Boss’s Thinking and Decisions

There are numerous ways to determine what the boss is thinking or saying about what is happening in the life of the company. The most obvious approach to knowing is to ask him or her a relevant question. The next best is to be in the same room as the boss when that thinking comes to life so that you have a view from above.

Bearing witness to those words may come in the form of a one-on-one session, or the call to a staff meeting, or even a happenstance moment when you’re in the same place as the boss. No matter how it happens, it’s wise to pay attention to what’s being said. If the meaning is unclear, definitely ask for further clarification.

Unless you’re being told something in confidence, share the boss’s thinking if asked or if it’s helpful with others on the team. It helps if everyone knows the play that’s been called so that a cause can be advanced successfully.

As I moved up in rank and position, such interactions were more commonplace. Always invited to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs’ daily 8:30 a.m. meeting, I knew simply by listening and absorbing what was being planned, managed, or executed. This was most helpful in putting in context the answers to reporters’ questions.

Never once did I cross the lines of classification, yet I didn’t have to go running to the chairman for an answer to every one of the questions. Since there were dozens a day, that would have been a bit awkward and probably would have led to my getting fired.

Knowing my boss’s thinking and decisions became especially important to me on February 9, 1993, around 7:30 p.m., when at home I received a call from a New York Times defense reporter. He asked if I’d comment on the rumor that General Powell planned to resign prematurely in anger over President Clinton’s decision early in his presidency to allow gays and lesbians to join the military.

Not true, I told him. Having spoken to the chairman numerous times and having heard his view in many meetings, I knew he intended to work cooperatively with the executive branch, in particular the president, to resolve this question in the best interest of the armed forces of the United States. I knew too that he intended to serve out his term, which would normally end on September 30, 1993.

The reporter advised me that he had his information from three reliable sources. I told him that in the interest of his editors and readers he owed it to them to go back to his sources and not only question them about their views but tell them my response to those views. Two of those sources were out of the country, he said. My response was that the one available needed to be challenged.

I hung up the phone, drew a breath, and did a bit of work before hitting the sack around 10:00 p.m. It didn’t take long for the phone to ring. At 10:30 p.m. a Washington Post reporter called to ask if there was any truth to the New York Times story, which had come out as part of the New York Times news service, an advance version released each night describing what would appear in print the next day. The phone rang incessantly until about 2:30 a.m., when I took the last call from Bernard Shaw of CNN. Dozens of reporters representing print, broadcast, and the wire services had called to ask the same thing: Was Powell retiring early over the gay issue? My answer to each was an emphatic “No!”

I knew the next day was not going to be an ordinary affair. I rose extra early and was at my desk in the Pentagon at 5:45 a.m. Sure enough, in the February 10 first edition of the New York Times there appeared on the front page, above the fold, a story with the headline that screamed out, “Joint Chiefs’ Head Is Said to Request Early Retirement.”

After reading the story, I called the chairman at his home and explained what had occurred. I told him I would send a copy of the newspaper with his driver who was going to pick him up at his quarters around 6:30 a.m. He said we would discuss it when he arrived.

A bell tolled mindfully in my brain. I asked one of my deputies to go out to the front steps of the Pentagon to see if anyone was lurking in the cool, early morning darkness. The navy commander I had dispatched returned breathlessly in a few minutes to tell me that a CBS reporter and cameraman were awaiting the chairman’s arrival.

Another call was made to the chairman to tell him what to expect when he drove up to the Pentagon’s River Entrance, which was his custom. “We need to take this head on,” I told him. “Stop and tell the reporter the truth.” Upon arrival, he did that at the top of the steps.

I asked if he was ready to do more of the same. He nodded yes. I hustled down the corridor to the small designated rooms where reporters from ABC and NBC were getting ready to tell this breaking news story to their television audiences. I asked if they would like to talk to the chairman in person. But of course, was their answer. General Powell visited them within the half hour and did remote interviews for the Today Show and Good Morning America. Later that morning we went over to the CNN studios in Washington, where he sat down with Bernard Shaw for an interview.

In the business, they call it a grand slam when you do all the networks. We had effectively killed the story in one fell swoop. The story died, normalcy was restored, and the reporter paid a penalty for getting it wrong. He was temporarily removed from the defense beat.

If I hadn’t known the chairman’s intentions, I might have gotten this wrong. An incendiary story like this could have razed the Washington forest. It also could have burned a bridge to the White House. We had enough going on in life in normal circumstances not to need extra drama. I was also fortunate to have in place the trust factor that is so important between superior and subordinate. Just another day in paradise.