Leadership Lessons from a Republican Governor in a Blue State

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Underperforming state agencies, a natural disaster, and a pandemic are among the many challenges that faced Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and his former Chief of Staff Steve Kadish. Looking back during the final year of the Baker Administration, they say running a government is very different and often much harder than leading a private-sector company. And they share their four-part framework for breaking down complicated problems with many stakeholders to get results. It’s valuable for anyone in public service, as well as for leaders and managers in large organizations hamstrung by bureaucracy and politics. Baker and Kadish wrote the new book "Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done."

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New
0:08.1	Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for
0:13.8	free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!
0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR IDA cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickiff.
0:42.8	When a politician is running for public office, it's common to hear them tout their experience
0:54.4	in the private sector. Especially if they've been a corporate executive. Being a mayor
0:59.2	of a city, or a governor of a province, they say, is basically being the CEO of a workforce
1:04.8	with X number of employees in a charge of a budget of Y number of dollars. The message
1:11.2	is that government should run more like a business, or at least at the speed of business,
1:16.0	that public sector lifers should have the same effectiveness of a private sector employee.
1:21.6	Today's guests say that argument is grossly simplified and exaggerated, that in many ways
1:27.5	public sector leadership is severely more difficult than being the CEO of a company. And
1:32.9	at the same time, turning around a company can serve as a great practice run for solving
1:37.8	problems in government. They say that because they've done both. Joining me now is Massachusetts
1:44.2	governor Charlie Baker, along with his first chief of staff, Steve Kedish, who's now a senior
1:49.4	research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. Together, they wrote a playbook for governmental
1:54.4	leaders and public sector executives. It's called results, getting beyond politics to
2:00.1	get important work done. Governor Baker, thanks so much for coming on the show.
2:05.3	Thank you Kurt, we're glad to be here. And Steve, thank you.
2:08.5	I'm real pleasure. Thank you, Kurt.
2:20.8	You two have worked together for many years. Before you were governor, Governor Baker, you had been
2:26.2	the CEO of a medical insurer, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare. And Steve was on your team, a senior vice
	...

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