TEN RULES FOR NEW CABINET SECRETARIES:



1.) You work for the Governor.

You serve at his pleasure. Remember that. The Governor sets your policy, principle, and politics. Don't ever disagree with him publicly while working for him. (Cabinet meetings may be generally be considered "public".) If you find that you can not agree and follow his course, shut up, and find a new job. Once you are again a free agent you may speak your own mind.


2.) The agency works for you.

The career staff often believe that they run the agency. This should not and need not be true. If you do not disabuse them of that notion early on, you will be failing both the Governor and the voters who elected him. You must gather your agency's senior and midlevel staff and lay out the fact that there is a new administration, and with the new administration comes a new direction. Invite them to join in helping the administration achieve the goals it was elected to deliver. Suggest that changes will be made and reorganization is likely. Make it clear that you respect the staff but that you will be ultimately directing the agency. Do not let the staff make key decisions without your approval. Don't let them set the timetable, or withhold information that is critical to your decsion making. Don't let them recommend a single action in writing: always demand multiple options. Find an agency legal counsel who will aid you in your adminisrtative activities within the agency, who will search for a "yes" rather than one who tells you "it can't be done".


3.) Make the Chief of Staff your friend.

The Chief of Staff is the voice and right hand of the Governor. Don't try to bypass or backdoor the Chief of Staff, for that way lies doom. Meet or speak with the Chief of Staff frequently. The Chief of Staff either knows what the Governor's mind is on a policy area or can find it out more quickly and accurately than you. (Yes, Of course you are old friends and allies of the Governor, check with the Chief of Staff anyway.) The Chief of Staff has more frequent contact and a better view of the big picture.


4.) Your first job is to get the Governor re-elected.

This is the big picture. Many new members of an administration wrongly believe that they must achieve mighty deeds and darn fast too. Remember this: speed kills. If you work hard to make sure your boss is re-elected he will have the necessary time to achieve great things. Policy changes are often difficult in our system of government, increase the likelyhood of re-election and you increase the probability of achieving lasting change. In practice this means actively seeking out ways to be participatory and helpful to the campaign staff and the Chief of Staff.


5.) Your second job is to achieve the Governor's policy aims.

See rule number four.


6.) Return your phone calls.

This seems like a small thing, it is not. Upon this small item will much of your reputation for success and professionalism as a cabinet secretary be founded. This does not mean only your friends, treat your former opponents with professionalism and you disarm them and may even make them allies. Hold your friends close and your enemies closer.


7.) Shine a light on your problems.

If there is a problem or crisis that involves your agency tell the Chief of Staff immediately. Yes, if that means a call at three in the morning on Christmas Eve so be it. You have a job that now has you on call 24/7. If the first time that the Governor learns of a problem in your agency is in the paper or on the TV news, you will be looking for another job.


8.) Don't become a media hound.

The next worse thing to not telling the Governor of bad news, is for the Governor to see news going out under a cabinet member's name.
It is hard to over-estimate the importance of this. Never just put out a press release, call a press conference, or return a reporter's call. ALWAYS contact the Governor's office with the news first. If you have good news, consider offering to build an event for the Governor related to it. Every press release should mention your boss three times before mentioning your own. Don't work the media without first clearing it with at least the press secretary and probably the Chief of Staff as well. You exist to make the Governor look good not to indulge your own ego.


9.) Make your boss' life easier.

Your boss will need a variety of help that is not immediately obvious. Offer to help. He must attend events and fundraisers at which many people will be attending for the sole purpose of complaining. He will be chewed on incessently. If you attend with him you can save him from some of that suffering. He will be able to direct troubled people to "a member of my cabinet". You will suffer some as a result but will save him a bit of his enormous burden. Shared suffering the the lot of a good cabinet member. He may also need to hire more people than his immediate office can place, once you master the technique of hiring good people within your domain, offer to fill your opennings with his choices first. Everyone likes to master of their own domain but remember your boss first and you will both profit by it.


10.) Don't leak (and the corollary: Don't be caught leaking.)

You owe loyalty to the Governor and the press is not your friend. Leaking may well allow you to win a budget or policy battle within the administration. It will also truly hurt your boss. An administration that leaks is perceived to be ill-run and undisciplined. A cabinet member who is thought to have leaked is at best seen as a free-lancer and at worst a traitor. If you must betray your boss in that fashion make sure that you are "off the record" or "on background", and ask the reporter explicitly what he understands those terms to mean before speaking.