The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency

by Chris Whipple

“The executive branch of the United States is the largest corporation in the world,” the adviser, H. R. Haldeman, would reflect years later. “It has the most awesome responsibilities of any corporation in the world, the largest budget of any corporation in the world, and the largest number of employees. Yet the entire senior management structure and team have to be formed in a period of seventy-five days.”

Deadlines should be set. • People who don’t perform well should be told so or fired. • There should be some pain for screwing up; not rewards. • When people bring minutia to you, you should say it is crap and shove it away.

The most successful managers are those that are secure enough to surround themselves with extremely strong-willed, talented people.”

“You do not serve your president well if you are just a yes man,” explains Baker. “That’s not what presidents need; that’s not what presidents want. One of the things I am most proud of is that all of the presidents I have worked for have said, ‘Jim Baker was able to tell me what he really thought, whether I wanted to hear it or not.’ You have to be willing to do that. You have to be willing to speak truth to power.”