Something Herman said on the radio show today got me thinking about a conversation he and I had back in 2009 - before he was thinking about running for president, at least as far as I knew at the time. It spoke to President Obama's complete ineptness in the area of executive management, and returned to light today because of the latest nonsense coming from Kathleen Sebelius concerning ObamaCare.
I doubt many people believe the claim of Sebelius that Obama knew nothing about HealthCare.gov's problems until right before launch. That sounds like classic covering for the boss, although I wouldn't totally put it past Obama to be intentionally kept in the dark for "plausible deniability." It's hard to imagine he would not keep on top of the details of something he sees as his legacy. But that's what Sebelius told CNN:
President Barack Obama didn't know of problems with the Affordable Care Act's website -- despite insurance companies' complaints and the site's crashing during a test run -- until after its now well-documented abysmal launch, the nation's health chief told CNN on Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked when the President first learned about the considerable issues with the Obamacare website. Sebelius responded that it was in "the first couple of days" after the site went live October 1.
"But not before that?" Gupta followed up.
To which Sebelius replied, "No, sir."
Sure he didn't. But to tell the truth, whether Sebelius is lying or telling the truth, it damns Obama either way. If he really didn't know what was going on, that means he was oblivious to the operational details of the most important policy implementation of his presidency. Worse, the fact that Sebelius so openly asserted that he didn't know means he doesn't even expect his people to keep him informed about problems at this level. Herman talked on the show today about what he's learned in terms of what a good executive leader needs to know, and I'm pretty familiar with how Herman operates. While he doesn't micromanage areas in which he has given someone else responsibility, he expects us to let him know when there is a major issue.
If we had a problem with this web site, he would expect me to get it fixed if I could. If I couldn't, and it became a major problem, he would expect me to tell him immediately. That is exactly how a good executive manager operates. To let a problem like HealthCare.gov become such a fiasco is on the top guy, whether he knew or not, because he should never have fostered a culture in which it is acceptable for his high-level people to keep something like this from him.
Herman saw this coming back in 2009, when Obama structured his administration with more than 65 people reporting directly to him. The ideal number of direct reports for a CEO is four, he told me. A really good executive leader might be able to push it to seven. Someone with no management experience whatsoever managing 65 direct-reports? Disaster. Guaranteed.
Nice to see that five years later, Obama hasn't learned anything. Then again, how can you learn anything when you think you already know everything?
