Leadership Insights from a High-Stakes Career in Public Affairs

As a current student in leadership, I was given the opportunity to interview a leader that is making a real impact in the world. Immediately, my mother Jayne Millerick came to mind. She was the founder and president of Marcucci Consulting, specializing in evaluating and completing public affairs campaigns from start to finish. Her consulting practice involved public speaking and media consulting for corporations, trade associations, elected officials, candidates, and political parties. Her extensive background in the field rendered her a qualified candidate for the role of Chief of Staff to Governor Chris Sununu, the incoming governor of New Hampshire in 2016. Accepting the role thrust her into a high-stakes leadership role that required the highest amount of tact and focus to master. The Chief of Staff role requires Jayne to coordinate and work with many different state departments, as well as the employees that work in the Governor’s office. In order for her leadership to add value to the collective groups, she needed to learn to set proper standards and reasonable expectations for those that she works with. For this interview, I analyzed her role closely and created four questions that I believed would extract the most knowledge from her, providing value to my classmates. Jayne’s answers to these questions display her expertise in leadership within her role and highlight skills that are useful for all leaders, regardless of field.

Have you ever dealt with a situation where one person’s sentiment regarding a task or ideology, whether that be positive or negative, influenced others and required intervention from you as a leader to either reshape or capitalize on those sentiments? 

According to Jayne, it is important to highlight what the members of the office are doing well before immediately jumping into the drawbacks of the idea that they presented. She starts by pointing out what the employee did well to display her appreciation of their work. It is important for her to keep those positive qualities in mind and try to incorporate some of what they brought up moving forward. She then will discuss some of the reasons that she may not want to move forward with that idea and always give an explanation as to why. This demonstrates that she is analyzing the different options as opposed to ignoring the person presenting the idea. If the idea is something that she would like to move forward with, she will then make sure that the person receives credit. It conveys to the people in her office that she has confidence in their abilities and will always make sure that those who come up with ideas will be recognized. As said by Jayne, “Staff meetings are a great example where one person’s sentiment, positive or negative, can greatly influence the whole team. It is important to create an atmosphere of respect where ideas are welcome.” Meetings are a time for her to hear these ideas and address them accordingly. 

What do you feel is the most impactful way to reward positive behaviors without showing favoritism or neglecting the achievements of other employees? 

When it comes to rewarding employees for good work, Jayne believes that the best way to do so is to give more responsibility to that person. When there is increased opportunity to take on more responsibility, it promotes an environment of continuous improvement and career progression. According to Jayne, “Although it can be rewarding to hear ‘nice job’ from your boss, the best motivator can often be empowering team members with greater autonomy.” Even though it can be challenging, more responsibility allows the person to progress in their career in a way that is meaningful and can bring out the best in people. She also makes sure that these achievements do not go unrecognized by putting that person in more important roles and conversations. This allows other leaders to recognize what her team can bring to the table instead of just her.

How do you deal with tunnel vision regarding certain tasks while managing other individuals and keep a wholistic perspective on the goals of the state? 

One of the most important skills required for Jayne’s job is delegation. When working on such important projects with high stakes, she needs to make sure that none of them get less attention than the others. When delegation is required, she gives these projects to individuals that she feels confident in and trusts that they will be completed in a reasonable amount of time and of a high quality. In reference to question two, this is how hard workers are recognized within the office. Receiving more involved projects will progress the person’s career and enhance their work experience. Regarding tunnel vision, her response was that she does not even have enough time to get tunnel vision on one specific topic or problem. She must address them as they come up, either take over or delegate the task, then follow up with the involved party that completed said task.

How did your leadership style shift, if at all, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and did the added pressure illicit any leadership behaviors from yourself that you view as unfavorable? 

Jayne talked a lot about the strengths that were reinforced by the complexity of leading during a national emergency. One of the most important skills reinforced was trust. This was something that she was starting to become better at, but before the pandemic she did not believe that it was to the caliber it is today. This was strengthened due to how many different directions she was being pulled in, requiring her to delegate a task and fully trust others to do their best work without checking up on the task currently in process as much. This workflow helped her see exactly what her team was capable of and why they were put into their positions in the first place. Jayne also shifted to attempting to allow everyone to help as much as they could. In her experience, “In an emergency, your team wants to help. Let them. Design timelines, define metrics of success, and hold them accountable. But if you have done the work to build a strong team before the emergency, you will be there for each other and deliver results.” This didn’t involve creating meaningless tasks for people wanting to help. It involved recognizing every person’s strength and assigning tasks accordingly. She did this because there was a general sentiment that everyone wanted to help as much as they could to help the people of New Hampshire. In stressful situations, she also looked out for the people that were quiet. She has learned that some of the quietest people have some of the greatest ideas.

My biggest takeaways were the themes that my mother brought up at the end of the interview on her own accord. The first point she brought up was that high quality leaders tend to notice the people who are doing the hard work, and if you work hard, you do not need to be as concerned with whether your boss knows you did the work or not. They will notice what you are doing. This was very impactful to me because as an intern in college, it is hard to tell whether your direct superior is taking note of my accomplishments or not. It can be stressful to get others to notice the work being done with my career still being in an early stage. The knowledge I gained from my mother is that if I focus more on applying myself as much as possible to tasks delegated to me, the hard work will be noticed. Another point she brought up relates back to the idea of trust she discussed earlier in the interview. As she grew as a leader, she learned to trust others to finish the task without her keeping an eye on them while they are completing it. Instead, she found that the better alternative is to provide feedback afterwards and help the person learn where they could do better. This increases the confidence of the individual delegated to the task and allows them to showcase their skill on their own.