Article based on popular TV show.

1. July/August 2003 The EMA Reporter™ 5
Management Lessons
From ‘The West Wing’
Don’t you wish your workplace were as exciting as the West Wing of the White House?
The dialogue on the NBC television drama ‘The West Wing’ provides some good examples
of how to manage in a fast-paced, deadline-driven 21st century society.
BY MICHAEL J. SLADE
One reason “The West Wing” is so
popular is that it portrays an envi-
ronment that we’d all like to work in.
It’s exciting, challenging and creative.
Employees are passionate about their
work and their support for their boss,
the president. Effective employee feed-
back is continually delivered, with a
touch of humor.
Each week, the show demonstrates
effective uses of relationship building,
power and authority, performance
feedback, employee communication,
and empathetic leadership.
It’s a place where people work
around the clock but don’t seem to
mind. It’s full of worthwhile problems
to solve and causes to fight for. It’s a
hierarchical, political environment and
at the same time it’s a workplace
where it’s OK to speak what’s on your
mind. In a nutshell, it’s what work
should feel like.
“The West Wing” provides a num-
ber of great management lessons,
including examples that show the right
and wrong way to manage.
Sometimes the bosses are insightful,
intuitive and effective in their leader-
ship and other times there are human
relations mishaps, which are always
worked out by the end of the show.
Here are some lessons from past
episodes of “The West Wing.”
Management Lesson 1: Take
10 minutes to show you care.
President Bartlet: Excuse me
Charlie. Can I see you inside please?
C’mon, it’s OK … I’m Jed Bartlet.
Charlie: I’m Charles Young.
Bartlet: But you prefer Charlie, right?
…Your mother was killed by a western
.38 revolver firing KTWs, or what are
known as ‘cop killer bullets.’ Now we
have not had a whole lot of success
banning that weapon and those bullets
off the streets, but we’re planning on
taking a big whack at it when
Congress gets back from recess. So,
what do you say, you wanna come
help us out?
Charlie: Yes sir, I do.
Bartlet: Thanks.
In the scene described above,
President Bartlet is able to emotionally
connect with new recruit Charlie
Young. With just a few words he is
able to inspire Charlie and motivate
him to join the Bartlet team.
In another episode, President Bartlet
is in the midst of running his campaign
to win the White House. He has
assembled a team, but comes across
to them as uncaring and self-centered.
He barks out orders to his staff and
many times doesn’t even remember
people’s names. However, when new-
comer Josh Lyman’s father dies,
President Bartlet takes a detour from
the campaign trail and shows up at
the airport to wait with Josh and con-
sole him.
It’s the little things that matter. The
10 minutes when you said the right
thing, the 10 minutes when you just
PHOTO: NBC.COM

2. 6 The EMA Reporter™ July/August 2003
showed up. People will follow a
leader who demonstrates that he
cares. It only takes a little time to make
a big impression.
Management Lesson 2: Give
people another chance.
When Leo McGarry, White House
chief of staff, finds out that a junior staff
member leaked the story of his past
troubles with alcohol, he fires her. But
he is interested in learning more about
why it happened and calls her to his
office. He finds out that her father was
an alcoholic and she is troubled by her
difficult upbringing. Leo decides to give
her another chance.
When a staff member admits to
“dropping the ball” on an important
assignment, the president listens care-
fully to him and then says, “Pick it up
again.” No lengthy chewing out, no
excuses, just move on and get it right
next time.
People don’t feel safe to be their
best if they know they only get one
chance.
Management Lesson 3: Listen
to your staff and don’t
undermine their authority.
Against press secretary C.J. Cregg’s
wishes, communications director Toby
Ziegler agrees to move a press confer-
ence from the White House to the
Senate. At that press conference, the
White House’s spokesperson is thrown
a curve ball by a reporter who quotes
a senior aide (later revealed to be
Toby Ziegler) saying something the
White House would rather not have
repeated. The situation turns ugly, and
C.J. has to do some quick thinking to
address the crisis.
C.J. expressed concern about mov-
ing the session to the Hill. Toby
assured her there was nothing to
worry about. C.J. said, “It’s a bad
idea and will create a bad visual. It
suggests that Congress is the seat of
power and that the president is irrele-
vant. Not only that, but you just took
my legs out from under me with Ann
Stark (Senate majority leader chief of
staff).” This scene beautifully demon-
strates what can happen when you
don’t listen to your employees and you
take away their authority to approve
or veto decisions.
On another occasion, President
Bartlet brings in Bruno Gianello, a sen-
ior public relations strategist, to better
manage public perception. Bruno has
some demands, one being unfettered
access to the president. Leo tells him
that won’t happen but that he is wel-
come to discuss the matter directly with
the president. President Bartlet tells
Bruno, “Leo runs the show. Everything
goes through him—it’s a deal
breaker.” The president and Leo have
clearly defined roles, and the president
does not undermine Leo’s authority.
If not given a chance to flex their
muscles and the authority to do so,
people will lose their motivation. Keep
in mind that they know their job better
than you do.
Management Lesson 4: Praise
your staff. Often.
President Bartlet to Toby
Ziegler: I couldn’t live without you,
Toby. I’d be in the tall grass. I’d be in
the weeds. I know I disappoint you
sometimes. I mean, I sense your disap-
pointment and I get mad ’cause I
know a lot of times you’re right. You’re
not a kid in the class with his hand
raised and, whatever it was you said
to C.J., you’re a wise and brilliant
man. Toby, don’t ever wait for me to
call on you.
President Bartlet to Sam
Seaborn: You have a lot of help. You
listen to everybody and then you call
the play. Sam, you’re gonna run for
president one day. Don’t be scared.
You can do it. I believe in you.
Don’t just say “Good job.” People
need to build confidence to excel in
their careers. Employees need to hear
the specifics on why you think they are
doing a good job. Give some thought
to what you say and how you say it.
The right choice of words can go a
long way toward building a committed
and motivated workforce.
Management Lesson 5: Admit
it when you are wrong.
When vice president John Hoynes con-
vinces Leo McGarry that the president
is supporting a bill that should not be
supported, Leo confronts the president.
“I got to tell you something and you’re
not going to like it, but he’s right and
we’re wrong.” He and other staff

3. July/August 2003 The EMA Reporter™ 7
members convince the president to let
the bill die.
Last season, President Bartlet admit-
ted to his staff and to the viewers that
he has multiple sclerosis (MS), for
which he has been receiving treatment
for a number of years while serving as
president. His staff immediately devel-
oped a master communications plan to
justify his keeping this from the public.
After much debate and planning, the
president agrees to a congressional
censure.
When explaining his decision to
Leo, he says, “I was wrong, I’m to
blame. Come on, you know that! Lots
of times we don’t know what right and
wrong is, but lots of times we do, and
come on, this is one. I may not have
had sinister intent at the outset, but
there were plenty of opportunities for
me to make it right. No one in govern-
ment takes responsibility for anything
anymore. We foster, we obfuscate, we
rationalize: ‘Everybody does it.’ That’s
what we say. So we come to occupy a
moral safe house where everyone’s to
blame so no one’s guilty.”
This seems like a no-brainer, but it
is amazing how many managers and
leaders will not stand up and say they
made a mistake. Because it is so rare,
it is easy for great leaders to stand out
by admitting their mistakes.
Management Lesson 6:
Be honest and direct with
feedback.
When President Bartlet speaks with a
Supreme Court judge nominee, he
does not try to hide the fact that the
man was not his first choice. “You
were not my first choice, but you were
the right choice.” Rather than taking
the risk that Judge Mendoza would
eventually find out the truth, the presi-
dent addresses it straight on.
In another episode, Leo has to con-
vince the Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development, Deborah
O’Leary, to apologize for calling a
Republican congressman a racist. She
feels strongly about her position, but
the president has already suggested to
the press corps that an apology would
be appropriate. After a lengthy
exchange, Leo says to Ms. O’Leary,
“You’re doing great work, Deb. The
president’s nuts about you, always has
been. He’ll cry for three minutes after
he fires your ass, and then he’ll say,
‘What’s next?’ ”
All of us would benefit from a little
more direct, honest feedback. People
respect leaders who tell it like it is.
Some managers are not candid
enough with their employees.
Leaders also need feedback,
according to Daniel Goleman, author
of Emotional Intelligence and Primal
Leadership. “People in power live in
an information vacuum,” says
Goleman. “The higher you go in an
organization, the less people you have
to tell you you’re screwing up if you
are.”
Management Lesson 7:
Encourage open exchange of
opinions.
President Bartlet (practicing): We
will cure cancer by the end of this
decade…
Bartlet (to his staff): Why shouldn’t
I do it?
Sam Seaborn: I think you should. I
think ambition is good. I think over-
reaching is good. I think giving people
a vision of government that is more
than Social Security checks and debt
reduction is good. I think government
should be optimistic.
Bartlet: I’m sorry, I know it is late but
I want to start seeing drafts of a new
section in the next few hours. C.J., I
want a sense of the media overview,
too. Now!
In the above scene, President Bartlet
is contemplating including in his State
of the Union address a bold statement
that would focus attention on finding a
cure for cancer by the end of the
decade. He eventually agrees that it is
premature to make such a proclama-
tion. However, Sam feels comfortable
taking the opposing viewpoint of all
other senior staff members.
People will continue to share differ-
ent perspectives if they feel comfort-
able doing so.
Most managers know this stuff. It’s
not the knowing that’s the problem, it’s
the doing. The actual human interac-
tion is where most managers fail.
Training managers is hard. Many
who attend seminars forget the mate-
rial and the behaviors before they
arrive back at the office. Goleman
says training videos and seminars sim-
ply educate people about the need to
change or to get better. They don’t
help them get better. Leadership train-
ing developed in the classroom is
always a challenge. Even role-playing
is tough because it often is not experi-
enced as real.
I think “The West Wing” works
better than a training video to help
people see the impact of good man-
agement from both the employees’
and the managers’ perspectives. As
Aaron Sorkin, the show’s creator, told
a New York magazine interviewer,
“It’s a show about workforce issues,
not political issues.”
Note: Dialogue was gleaned from var-
ious fan web sites.
Michael J. Slade is human resources director
for Eric Mower and Associates, a top 100
marketing communications agency with
offices in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and
Albany, N.Y., Portsmouth, N.H., and
Atlanta. Slade is a member of the human
resource committee for the American
Association of Advertising Agencies
(AAAAs).
‘The higher you go in an organization, the less people
you have to tell you you’re screwing up if you are.’