The Presidential Appointee Reading List
Part II of II
Word count: 2,049; ten minutes to read.
Last week I provided five items all presidential appointees should read to prepare themselves for serving in a future Republican administration.
Start now so if we win you can have them done by Inauguration Day.
The focus was on setting the context with key books and and one report (all by former appointees, including one from a Democrat admin) that describe what it’s like to be an appointee at both senior and junior levels while working in the world’s largest bureaucracy.
Studying them closely will help you keep yourself safe from the landmines that will be laid out for you and the lawfare you may become a victim of if you step on one.
Below are five more books to help you in the practical aspects of your task of moving forward the president’s agenda, which is the sole reason why presidential appointees exist (read this newsletter for more background on the purpose and role of appointees).
Hack Your Bureaucracy
Democrat administrations have an easier time wielding power in the executive branch because the vast majority of career officials are liberals.
This is a fact I explain in this newsletter using data and charts from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-partisan think tank that is best known for calling when recessions begin and end, and whose analyses are widely used by government, academia, and the media.
But Democrats occasionally deal with pushback and moving their agenda forward too.
Back in 2022 two former Obama appointees who originally came from the tech industry published a book on how to get things done.
Their job wasn’t to sit around talking and “do policy,” but actually accomplish tasks at production agencies (those with clear deliverables to the public, such as providing student loans, veterans’ benefits, transportation security, etc.) like the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Their book, Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team, is a practical handbook filled with relevant stories on dealing with the problems inherent to implementing change, no matter your organization.
My copy is underlined all over in red and has lots of notes because they cover so many of the practical day-to-day challenges I’ve encountered both as an appointee and as someone who works in a large organization with it’s own bureaucracy.
Each chapter is pretty short, about 5-7 pages, and deals with a discrete topic YOU WILL ENCOUNTER AS AN APPOINTEE and summarizes the points with “How I can use this” bullets at the end chapter.
The chapters are grouped in sections: 1) define the problem; 2) learn your org; 3) pitch the solution; 4) start small and build momentum; 5) build your team; 6) make it stick.
All the stories and challenges presented come directly from their experience working as appointees and dealing with bureaucrats, so are directly relevant to you.
If these are the things they encountered as Democrats in a friendly bureaucracy, you better believe you will deal with the same problems (and worse) as a Republican.
If you haven’t worked in government or a large organization before I can’t recommend this book enough. You will learn from it and it has the benefit of being useful to you even if November doesn’t turn out the way we want.
Buy it here.
Brief
No matter your position as an appointee, you will be spending most of your time communicating.
That may be verbal or written communications, the latter of which includes you trying to understand what other people have written in emails, policy memos, and other memoranda.
You will also likely be briefing senior officials whose time and attention span will be limited.
To be effective (and develop a good reputation) you’ll need to know how communicate complex issues in a simple and clear manner so you’re better understood and your ideas/proposals have a better chance being taken seriously, remembered, and implemented.
This book, Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less, will help you optimize both your time and those you’re communicating with by providing tips and strategies on how to do so.
This book is a hit among military officers and on a host of reading lists for military and civilian professionals.
It’s easy to read but filled with substance to help you be more effective and disciplined in emails, other writing, and in meetings or while giving presentations.
It has the added benefit of improving a professional skill that will serve you long-term in your career and other areas of your life that require effective communication skills.
I’ve read it and several of my current work colleagues have too and we all agree it’s an essential read for anyone who has to spend time briefing others.
Buy it here.
Leading with Questions
Earlier this month I posed a series of questions all potential and current appointees should ask.
I was asked to write it up by someone involved in the transition effort after I told him they should develop a list of questions new appointees at all level should ask when they get into their jobs, since often times appointees who never worked in government don’t even know what to ask so they can perform effectively.
That morphed into a larger piece on the importance of questioning, how to create a questioning culture in your organization, and how to respond to answers.
The basis for that newsletter was a book I had read back in the Trump admin that had been recommended to me during a one-on-one meeting with a three-star general.
At the end of our meeting I asked him what was the most important book he had read that proved useful in his job, and he recommended Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask.
As an appointee, one of your biggest challenges will be getting sufficient information, in the form of both data and analysis, from the bureaucracy.
This book shows you how to develop and ask questions so you achieve your objectives of clarifying issues and learning.
There is also sufficient guidance for leaders on developing a positive questioning culture in your organization.
The book isn’t boring and it flows well.
Knowing how to ask questions efficiently and effectively will help you succeed in implementing the president’s agenda because you will better understand situations, the reasons things are done, and whether change is or isn’t required.
If the former, asking questions will help you develop options for those with decision rights by being able to understand the costs and benefits, stakeholders, landmines, and other issues related to the change, in addition to developing a strategy for the way forward.
Asking good questions in meetings in which senior appointees are present will also help you build your reputation and show them you’re capable of taking on more responsibility and being promoted, and show your career official counterparts you’re engaged, willing to listen, and understand the issues.
NEVER BE AFRAID TO ASK A QUESTION
Buy it here.
Never Eat Alone
Politics is a relationship-driven career.
By reading Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time, you’ll supercharge your career.
I first read this book about 15 years ago and it is the one I recommend most to anyone just starting out in life because it’s filled with so much important information on getting ahead both personally and professionally.
Here’s the bottom line: if you can’t build relationships with people, you’re not going to succeed.
Creating new and strengthening existing relationships takes work.
This books shows you how to go about doing so. It’s like a roadmap for how to network effectively and it will change your world.
As an appointee everything you do will depend upon the relationships you have with others.
And if you want to be an appointee, your best chance of getting in will be based off the relationships you have with others.
Start networking for an appointee job today. Bring business cards wherever you go. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to get coffee or for their help. If you’re too geographically separated make a phone call.
If you have any trouble at all about networking in that you’re uncomfortable doing it or not sure how to go about it, read this book.
And even if it doesn’t lead to an appointee job, you’ll have a lot of fun and be better off for it, and it may lead to something else important to you.
Buy it here.
Succeeding as a Political Executive
Paul Lawrence is a former Trump appointee who served an Under Secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs where he led the 20,000+ person Veterans Benefits Administration (with 56 regional offices and a $104 billion budget) with a mandate to optimize the delivery of services to our nation’s veterans.
Prior to that he spent thirty years in management consulting as a senior leader involved in government and private sector practice.
For his work helping veterans he was twice selected by Federal Computer Week as one of the top 100 public service business leaders and was named the National Service to Citizen, Champions of Change, Government Executive of the Year for 2019.
He also has a PhD, is a former Army officer, and has written three books on serving as a presidential appointee.
I’ll list the other two below, but the one most applicable to all appointees is this: Succeeding as a Political Executive: 50 Insights from Experience.
I’ll caveat my review by saying I know Paul well, but even if I didn’t, this book is one you should read because it contains fifty pieces of wisdom that will aid appointees at all levels.
The book provides insights on the types of positions available, how to get a presidential appointment, what to do between nomination and confirmation if you’re up for a Senate-confirmed spot, what to do prior to arriving on the job and immediately after, learning the organization and deploying management levers to begin implementing change, and succeeding in the job, as well as managing your federal career as an appointee and beyond.
The book was published in 2016 before he became an appointee and is based off interviews with 72 former appointees from both Republican and Democrat administrations.
A final section contains an international perspective with interviews from seven European political appointees from France and Germany.
Paul’s other two books on appointees are:
Learning the Ropes: Insights for Political Appointees
What Government Does: How Political Executives Manage Change
But it here.
A Final Read
The one article I recommend all appointees read is “Schedule F Won’t Tame the Deep State,” which was published in the May/June 2024 issue of The American Conservative.
The author is Theo Wold who is the director of the Administrative State Project at the Claremont Institute. He’s also a former Trump appointee who served in key roles at the Department of Justice and the White House.
It’s an excellent piece, a large chunk of which is on the history and evolution of the civil “service,” and how to understand the federal bureaucracy.
For that alone it is worth reading.
But Wold also offers in good faith some important critiques of Schedule F and suggests it should not be the main effort in a new admin’s efforts to combat the administrative state and tame the bureaucracy.
He provides some additional ideas to consider.
Theo is one of the smartest appointees around when it comes to understanding and explaining the bureaucracy and what can be done, so this is essential reading.
Thanks for reading.
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Until next Sunday,
Bill Short
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