Takeaway from Eyewitness to Power by David Gergen

One of the major themes that struck me while reading this book was how important it is for leaders to understand themselves. My favorite part was the analysis Gergen performs on President Clinton’s regime and how he went astray. He describes how Bill Clinton lacked an Inner Compass and gauged himself by the way he was perceived by others (Page328). I think it is very important for a leader to be at ease with herself for that enables her to focus on the job at hand and how to inspire others in getting it done. This is the primary insight that I drew from this book.

Gergen praises Ronald Reagan’s emotional intelligence and how he used it to his advantage. Three (self-regulation, self-awareness and personal motivation) of the constituents of emotional intelligence deal with knowledge and control of one’s own aspirations, emotions and feelings. A very interesting quote attributed to Winston Churchill acknowledged the perpetual internal struggle of light and darkness which prevails in all political leaders. And that good leaders are effective in overcoming their dark sides. I believe this is true for every individual. If a person in a position of power is at peace within, then she would feel secure about her being in that designation. My impression from working with some corporate managers and supervisors was that they still had not come to terms with the fact that they held a position of higher responsibility. They felt a need to assert their power and prove a point. We can compare that with Gergen’s analysis of President Clinton and how he drew attention to himself as opposed to Ronald Reagan, who diverted attention away from himself. It is thus easy to imagine how the latter could have inspired the people around him.

Another interesting aspect of the book was the preference of management and reporting amongst the US presidents. From the spokes-of-the-wheel concept adopted by Gerald Ford to the triple-headed structure during the Clinton Presidency, Gergen was very effective in identifying the shortcomings. The idea that an organization cannot afford to have multiple decision makers at the top resonated with my beliefs. At the same time it is important for a manager to have a flat organizational set-up with effective delegation and empowerment at play. It is important for a leader to recognize that the position of responsibility requires taking blame for wrong decisions and ultimately she needs to be the one endorsing everything. The leader should ensure that his organization is inclusive and process flows are smooth without being overwhelmed by unnecessary information. This was one of the major shortfalls of President Ford’s earlier years in office. The best structure is one of inclusion and delegation but contains a hierarchy placing information filters in the form of reliable aides which pass on the relevant information to the leader who ultimately takes sole responsibility of the decision made.

Lastly, I would like to discuss a good quality common in most of the US Presidents analyzed by Gergen in his book. Almost everyone realized the importance of learning from history and having historical figures as their idols. I was most impressed by President Nixon’s extensive reading of history and developing a foresight by reading about the past. I believe this applies to people leading corporations as well as to those who lead countries. Historical events bear a tremendous amount of insight to be taken away and the lessons learnt can help tackle complex situations in the present and future. A classic example is the financial crisis that we are witnessing now. If the present financial and economic leadership had learnt the lessons from the US financial crises in the 1980s and the Asian ones of the 1990s, we might not have been in as deep a pit as we find ourselves presently.