i was watching charlie rose earlier with rahm emanuel as his guest. sounds like a snore, i know... but i don't know much substantive about rahm. sure, he's missing half of one of his middle fingers. they call him "rahmbo" because of his aggressive nature. and he's a yeller. he used to be a ballet dancer. his brother is the inspiration for ari gold of entourage. but there's gotta be more to the guy if he's been appointed to Obama's chief of staff, right?
the role of chief of staff is a big deal. wikipedia describes the job duties as being part advisory, part managerial including responsibilities such as selecting key White House staff and supervising them, structuring the White House staff system and controlling the flow of people into the Oval Office. isn't that a helluva job description? and those are just a partial list of duties. he's got some big people management responsibilities on his hands but making the job even bigger, i think, are the specific people he's going to be having to manage, even if indirectly.
i've heard people talk about the cat fights that will ensue given Obama's cabinet is an impressive cast of characters... you've got Hillary, and Daschle, Axelrod and Gates for starters... and Charlie Rose asked about how he plans to manage that crew, inferring the large egos and whatnot... and his answer stuck with me. he said whether you considered it to be a team of rivals or all-star team, either way, it's a team and the team is what is most important. good stuff, don't you think? learn more about your new chief of staff and what makes him an effective leader here.
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