16 Weird Project 2025 Secret Training Video: The Art of Professionalism

The watchword for today is “fatuous”. These two entirely unprofessional stiffs define everything in terms of itself, and clearly have no idea what “emotional intelligence” is supposed to mean. Also watch out for “bushwah”, with doses of bogosity, Dunning-Krugeritis, Cognitive Dissonance, self-congratulation…

I will not dwell on the repeated complaint that many of the women in these videos very unprofessionally wear very short skirts that show far too much thigh.

Project 2025 Private Training Video: The Art of Professionalism

In this video, Chris Hayes [NOT the fiercely Progressive MSNBC host] and Karoline Leavitt discuss tenets of how to act with professionalism while serving in government.

Hayes worked for the Leadership Institute, a think tank that offers leadership and management resources for the conservative movement.

LI boasts

Your Leadership Institute is right on track to reach, and even exceed, our three-year goal of training 70,000 strong conservative Leaders for America in time for the decisive election battles to come. Thanks to you.

I don’t believe such a number for a minute.

Karoline Leavitt worked in the Trump White House press office and is now a spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign.

Which claims with a straight face that it has nothing to do with Project 2025 or the Heritage Foundation.

Can you say, “implausible deniability”? I thought you could.

Transcript

16 Project 2025 Private Training Video: The Art of Professionalism
0:17
Hi, there. My name is Chris Hayes. I'm the careers coordinator at the Leadership Institute here in Washington DC.
0:24
Today we're going to talk to you about the art of professionalism. I'm joined by Karoline Leavitt.
0:30
Yes, It's great to be with you, Chris

0:37

My name is Karoline Leavitt and I am a former political appointee in the Donald J Trump administration, where I served in the White House Press Office as an Assistant Press Secretary.

0:44

[Text overlay] The Conservative Movement presents

[Presidential quotations, mostly from inaugural addresses]

[Reagan] This every 4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

…that will never happen again if we have anything to say about it.

[Trump] In America we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.

[JFK] Only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.

[FDR] This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

Because of the New Deal.

[Reagan] Whether we go forward together with courage, or turn back to policies that weakened our economy, diminished our leadership in the world, America's future will be in your hands.

1:38
[Music]
1:44
All right so we're here to talk about professionalism, the art of professionalism.
1:50
There are a few things that you're going to want to keep in mind as we're having this conversation today.
1:57
The first of those is that things are a little bit different now than they have been in years gone by.
2:04
So the days of working at a company for 50 years and getting your gold watch at the end of it are probably over.
2:09
We're more in the place where people wear sneakers and jeans to work. So things are a little bit different.
2:14
There are however some things that haven't changed and we're going to talk about what are those characteristics that make a professional a great professional.
2:19
So we're going to talk about all that today, and then we're going to get into uh how does a professional interact with their colleagues?
2:30
How does a professional interact with their boss and how does a professional interact with others in the movement?
2:35
So as you find your way into a Presidential Administration what are going to be the ways to set you up to be the absolute best professional that you can be?
2:42
We're so blessed to have Karoline here to tell us just how she did it when it was her time to step up to the plate.

Competence

2:49
All right. So the first thing that any professional needs to know is that there is no such thing as a good professional who can't do their job.

So the first thing that we need to know about this video is that the fatuosity starts right here.

2:56
So competence is the first thing that I want you all to think about.
3:02
When it comes to professionalism what does competence mean?
3:10
Well it means that whatever your job description is, your boss is relying on you to do that on time and with excellence, and so you should be striving for those kinds of things.

That’s 2.

3:17
And this this sort of brings up a question that I have for Karoline.
3:22
Karoline, what were some of your day-to-day duties, your job duties that you had to make sure you never missed some of those core responsibilities?
3:27

it's a great question. and as a political appointee you will be the, you will get the books thrown at you on your first day on the job.

It’s a fatuous question. A professional has to carry out all of the duties of the job.

3:34

Knowledge

And one of the characteristics on this side as well is knowledge and that's a very important characteristic to have.

How stupid and ignorant, and fatuous is it possible to be?

3:40
However you have to understand, as your first day as a political appointee, regardless of which branch you serve in, which Agency you work under, uh you're not going to know everything.

🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏻

3:46
you're not going to have all the knowledge but competence is key.
3:52
You have to be resourceful. Don't go to your boss, who is definitely going to be a lot busier than you are, and ask them questions that you could have the answers to yourself first.
3:58
So that's a great piece of advice that I learned firsthand, was figuring out all of the answers to all of the questions that I had using my colleagues, using the resources that were given to me in the White House Press office, before I took that to my boss.
4:10
And many times you'll realize you can solve problems on your own before you bug your superior with them.

That's so spectacular.

That’s…never mind.

4:23
Resourcefulness is on the list 100% if you want to be considered good at your job not only by your boss but by your boss's boss and by your colleagues.
4:29
Being able to problem solve is going to be a part of it.
4:36
So sometimes things will happen, and that's not your fault.

It's not even part of your job necessarily.
4:42
But if all you do is bring that problem to somebody else, you're really just making their day harder.
4:49
If you are—if you're somehow able to instead solve it, or get halfway to the solution before you bring it to somebody else, you're going to put yourself in a much better stead, with that person and with the people around you you.
5:01
So I think that's excellent, excellent. Thank you so much.

Let me see. Did I mention hooey, balderdash, horse hockey…?

5:03
Uh you talked about knowledge too.
5:06
That is critical.
5:07
So in addition to being good at your job you want to be someone who knows answers.

Right.

5:14
So there's there's what am I supposed to do? What am I getting paid to do?
5:21
And then there's the the background, the theory as it were, and that's sort of like if someone picks up the phone and calls my department with a question, not with a request but just with a question, do I know how to answer it or how to steer them towards the person who knows how to answer it?

You?

5:32
Am I what we call a subject matter expert? am I an expert?

[Text overlay]

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PROFESSIONAL

KNOWLEDGE

• Professionals are committed to becoming experts in their field and they share that knowledge with others.
• Different types of knowledge:
  • Institutional knowledge: As you work weeks, months and years in an administration you acquire more institutional knowledge over time.
  • Day to day knowledge: Knowledge or information about your specific job that is immediately available to you.

5:39
You should be an expert at your own job that is a true professional.
5:46
I think there's a few different types of knowledge too that I came to learn uh during my experience as a political appointee particularly in the White House Press office
5:51
There certainly is an institutional knowledge that comes with being a first-time political appointee.

No. Institutional knowledge is not the province of clueless newbies, especially not individually.

The Importance of Documenting Institutional Knowledge: Six Benefits for Your Organization

5:58
Uh and you'll find that as you work weeks, months, and years in an administration you come to acquire that institutional knowledge over time.
6:04
But knowledge that you can go and get is that day-to-day knowledge about your specific job.
6:11
For me as an assistant press secretary that was reading up on the news of the day.
6:17
It was my part of my job to prepare the Press Secretary for her daily briefings in the White House Podium and I wanted to make sure that I knew the news as much or if not better than she did.
6:24
So if she had a question she could come to me and I would provide her an answer.

As a seasoned practitioner of Google-fu, I can assure you that this is bo-o-o-o-ogus.

6:30
So being well read is a great way to acquire knowledge.
6:37
You have the resources that you need at your fingertips in this digital age, so use them.

And the most well read person in the room is usually the one who's going to have an answer for their boss.
6:44
That's such good feedback, thank you.

I couldn't agree more, and I really really also appreciate your comment about institutional knowledge.
6:49
Specifically, when you're heading into a place like a Presidential administration where so many of the jobs are specific.
6:55
They don't exist elsewhere and so there's no way to know precisely how this has been done in the past except for to find someone who's done it.
7:02
Right.
7:09
And so to understand if—I don't know the answer—Who does like to get to that answer?  That's your job uh and so finding that answer is critical.
7:14
Either solve for it, know it ahead of time through your own research, or find the person who does know it.
7:20
Yeah. One of the things that I did when I um was hired in the White House Press Office and moved from another office in the White House was I wanted to know how previous press secretaries ran their their office.
7:26
And so I actually ordered books from Dana Perino who was the White House Press Secretary under George Bush.
7:32
She was only the second female Press Secretary to ever do it.
7:38
I also read what Sarah Huckabee Sanders uh put out there in the media when she was the press secretary.
7:44
So I could understand the challenges that they faced in that role, so I could better help my boss in her role.

This, to a Trump loyalist, is what counts as being well read.

Character

7:50
So some of, so moving on from knowledge there are a few things that have to do with your own character.
7:56
Um and we've used conscientiousness and integrity to talk about these things.

You use these words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

8:02
Uh those are the watch words but I encourage you to think about however it is you think about this.

I would rather encourage you to actually think.

8:09
I want you to focus on it and what I'm talking about is do what you say you're going to do.
8:14
so be reliable, uh be someone that is dependable, who if you say something will happen by Friday and it's Thursday afternoon and you're not where you want to be looks like you might be having a late night at the office…

Right
8:25
Because I said I would get it done by Friday and a professional gets done what they say they're going to get done…

I had a reputation with one of my publishers long ago for being the only one of their authors who always delivered on time. This turned out not to be an accurate description. I was the only one of their authors who always said as soon as possible if I was going to be late.

8:31
and the other thing is if, on that, in that same exact scenario, well then it's like 6:00 p.m. and I get a phone call from a family member I've got to go respond to something, and so I don't get this work done by Friday, I have to own that.
8:44
I have to say I know that I said it would be done by Friday and I failed to do it. Here's here's why. Here's what's going on. It's my fault, but here's what I'm now going to do.
8:57
Here's the new deadline. I will hit that deadline.

Um and so owning that, so owning your own mistakes but also being dependable and being a person of your word.
9:07
So we've talked a little bit about the skills side of things and now I'd like to talk more qualitatively
9:13
we're going to move into the second four characteristics.

• respect
• emotional intelligence
• appropriateness and
• confidence

[Text overlay]

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PROFESSIONAL

RESPECT & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Treat other people with respect and treat yourself with respect.
• Carry yourself as though you're someone who deserves to be where you are.
• Avoid having a negative emotional response in stressful situations.
• Instead, take a deep breath and execute your job to the best of your ability.

9:21
So let's talk about the first two together: respect and emotional intelligence
9:26
Respect here generally means means treat other people with respect and treat yourself with respect.

A = A

9:33
So don't be groveling and don't be arrogant.

Carry yourself as though you're someone who deserves to be where you are because you are.
9:47
By the same token, so do the people around you, and treat them as if they are also someone who has earned the right to be where they are.

No. No “treating as if”. Recognize that they have earned their position.

9:53
And I like to use a phrase called

Assume positive intent.

9:59
So even when there might be a dispute among employees assume that everybody has the best outcome in mind, but they might be in disagreement about how to reach it.

Ah, if only. No, to them, everybody else is a RINO at best.

10:04
So those are the first two.
10:11
An emotional intelligence is is critical to understanding how to navigate those.
10:17
Uh so Karoline, do you have any thoughts on situations, the high stress environment, um any anything you can remember where assuming positive intent and treating other people with respect led to some good outcomes?
10:23
Absolutely. There will be many of times where you are working in an Administration uh and there are very high pressure situations.
10:36
In my experience working in the Press briefing room where the news cycle is ever changing.
10:41
It's 24/7 and we would spend all morning from 7:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. briefing the press secretary, preparing her for the daily briefing, and then five minutes before the briefing call uh major news breaks, or the president uh would put out a statement, and it would really um change the way that we knew we were going to be questioned by the White House Press Corps.
11:00
Those were some of the most high pressure moments of my life, uh knowing that the White House Press Corps was out there going to berate my boss on something that we had not covered throughout the day.

Yeah, well, so much for positive intent.

11:14
and rather than get stressed out, cry or have a negative emotional response, you have to pull yourself up from your bootstraps.
11:20
You have to be prepared. You have to uh execute in that moment. um and you have to be there to support the people that are counting on you uh to do your job.
11:27
And when you're the boss one day you'll be hopeful uh and helped by your employees who are there to help you and assist you in those moments.
11:32
So uh high stress environments will come.
11:39
That's the nature of working at the highest level of our government.
11:46
Uh just be prepared for those and if you fail to prepare for those moments prepare to fail.
11:52
That's why reading and those previous characteristics we talked about about having knowledge and being well read really come in handy in those very critical moments.
11:59
Absolutely, absolutely, and and the the emotional intelligence to keep a cool head and not let a bad situation get worse…
12:04
Right.
12:05
is so critical to being a respected colleague and so helpful to the overall movement to the goals and what we're all here for.
12:16
By the same token we're also going to call your attention to confidence and appropriateness.

[Text overlay]

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PROFESSIONAL

CONFIDENCE & APPROPRIATENESS

• Strike the balance between contributing and dominating.
• Whether you are getting coffee with a co-worker, at a work happy hour, or at a conservative movement event, always behave professionally.
• Confidence is key—You are here for this moment, you were chosen and hired for this position, and that qualifies you to be here.

12:22
So confidence kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier which is you deserve to be there but you can either be—
12:28
So this is a personality type thing and some people take confidence and they take it to a place of arrogance.
12:34
And other people maybe are confident in their ability but maybe timid in a room and they don't know how to interject in a conversation even when it's appropriate that they do,  because they can steer that conversation in a good way.
12:41
So always remember your voice is there to be heard.
12:54
You are there to contribute, however not to dominate necessarily, and so you do want to strike that balance and this is something to be aware of and to focus on on.
13:00
Appropriateness is essentially the idea that when you're at work, or when you're getting coffee before work, or at a happy hour after work, you are with the people who you work with, and in the movement at happy—at all kinds of events unrelated to your work, your day-to-day work life, you still want to carry yourself in such a way that your behavior towards people is appropriate.

A = A again.

13:26
and that you're there because of the movement and because of you want to engage with the people around you.
13:32
Karoline, can you think of any times where maybe even in your own experience you wish you would have said something?
13:39
It would have been helpful but you just kind of let the moment go by or on on on the positive side a time when you were nervous about interjecting but you did and it was really to everyone's benefit?
13:52
Yes, absolutely. Confidence is key.
13:57
You have to have it or else you're going to fail. Know that you are here for this moment.
13:59
You were hired for this position. You were chosen for this position, and that in itself qualifies you to be there.
14:03
You're not going to know everything as I said previously sometimes you're going to have to fake it till you make it a little bit.
14:09
But you should always be prepared and have knowledge.
14:16
Um and to your specific question, uh there was a time in which I approached my boss with an idea that I thought would be helpful for our for our office and for our team.
14:23
I was nervous to do so because it was a little out of the-box thinking.
14:29
It was a bit creative. Um I will give the example. The President had been calling upon um the families of gun violence in inner cities in our nation,

in his usual racist way,

14:40
and uh I decided that it would be helpful that if we were going to name these victims in our press briefing, the President should send hand sign letters to the families of those victims.

14:46

it had nothing to really do with our press office, but I thought it would be a nice touch. The President and the Press Secretary ended up loving the idea.
14:53
My former boss actually wrote about it in her book and if I had not had the confidence in that moment to bring that idea to my boss and propose it for her it never would have happened.
15:04
those families would have never received that joyous letter from the President of the United States.

😡😡😡😡😡😡

Joyous, was it?

15:10
So if you have a good idea don't be afraid to pitch it.  The worst that happens is your boss says no.

Trump routinely did far worse than that, starting with

You’re fired!

15:16
wow! That's an excellent example and a really beautiful story. Thank you so much.
15:22
You're welcome.

All right now, let's talk about your boss. Uh the first thing that everyone should know about their boss is that their boss has a boss.
15:27
Even the President of the United States has people that he or she would answer to theoretically.

Right.

Yes, Putin, Xi, and Kim, for starters.

15:34
certainly the American people themselves. but also their own deadlines, their own things that they're concerned about.

Especially staying out of prison.

15:40
And so when we talk about bosses, just always remember that that your boss has things on his or her mind that you might not have thought of yet.
15:47
And they're not just waiting for you to come talk to them.

So the big thing that you always want to remember is attitude.
15:52
Always go to your boss with the appropriate attitude, never with a sort of uh uh petulant or kind of complaining.

As so often happens, we must inquire what planet these people spend most of their time on.

16:06
There's going to be times when you vent.
16:12
You might have a good relationship, but there should always be, I'm coming to you with something productive to discuss or something to contribute productively to something that you have going on in your world.
16:18
Part of that's going to mean managing up.
16:23
Right, and managing up does not mean—it specifically does not mean being tricky in in any way but it does mean anticipating.

[Text overlay]

YOUR BOSS

• Attitude—Always go to your boss with the appropriate attitude.
• Anticipate—Know what your boss needs from you even before your boss has thought to ask it of you.

16:37
It means knowing what your boss needs from you even before your boss is thought to ask it of you, because you know what you're going to present your boss with and what their next question might be.

So you want to be ahead of that.
16:45
You want to help them look good.
16:51

Making your boss look good

if the organization is built in in a logical way, making your boss look good is sort of your only job because your boss's job is to make his or her boss look good all the way up to the President whose job it is to make the American people look and feel good.

No, Trump’s self-appointed job is to make as many Americans as possible resentful haters, and to foment violence.

16:58
So if you're doing that, if you're focused on that, your boss's priorities, it should all filter it should all filter upward in a good way.
17:11
Uh and i think a critical juncture here is communication.  So your boss should never ever be caught off guard by something you already know.
17:17
So if you see something on the horizon and it could be an issue and you're working to solve it, let someone know.
17:29
Uh if you really think you you might not have it, but you don't want that to come to your boss's attention and have it be something that they've never heard about in their life, meanwhile you're already working on it, so everything that comes to where everything that is about your boss it all boils down to making your boss's life as easy as you possibly can is almost a direct equivalent to you being excellent at your job and being a good professional.

If you can untangle that sentence, you’re good.

17:55
Karoline, do you have any thoughts thoughts on how you may have as a as a supervisor or for your supervisors had any interactions that were just really really great or maybe some that you thought were good learning experiences?
18:07
Yeah, definitely. First of all your boss is not your friend, okay?
18:12
So don't try to be friends with your boss.
18:18
You work for your boss and that's very important to remember too especially in an administration.
18:25
Uh and also don't pester your boss with things that are unnecessary to bring them to their attention.
18:30
You should approach your—approach your boss when necessary, when there is information that you need to bring to their attention, when you are finishing a project for them, or when you have legitimate questions that again you have not already done your due diligence to figure out on your own.

Something got lost in translation here.

18:35
Having supervised folks myself in the administration and elsewhere in my career I can tell you there is nothing more annoying than having people come to you with things that are completely unnecessary.
18:47
You are not your boss's top priority. Your boss has their own job to do.
18:54
You are there to support your boss.
19:01
So don't try and play favorites. don't try and be in their face all of the time.
19:07
Show up every day.

Execute your job to be helpful to your boss and I guarantee you, I know for a fact they will remember you for being that worker who showed up on time did what they had to do, didn't complain, didn't annoy them, and that's the best way to serve in your boss's good graces.

Absolutely that is so smart.
19:21
I think Machiavelli said, “I'd rather be feared than loved.”  I would rather be respected than loved in a professional setting.
19:28
I would rather be known for doing good work in a timely manner than for being so much fun around the office…
 

Right.

19:34
being my boss's favorite person to talk to. And part of that's a personality thing too.
19:40
It's it goes into what we're going to talk about next which is building relationships.
19:47
People who work for me know that if they give me a problem I'll try and solve it even if it's not my job because I think that way.
19:52
So they know that even if we're having a casual conversation they shouldn't bring up work things they're working on unless they want me to be thinking about it because I'll start to solve the problem and that's their job.
20:05
So again all of these things come up and it's up to you to navigate and manage those relationships.
20:12
You're part of every relationship you're in…
 

A = A yet again.

and it's always your job to manage that.
20:19
So everybody works with people. Your colleagues at work in some ways are no different than the people around you in your life, starting with your family, your friends, your classmates, eventually the people who live in your neighborhood, and then your colleagues at work.
20:25
It's all you in a community of people. So there are going to be certain rules that apply across all of those different dimensions.
20:37
There are also some things that you should really remember when it comes to being a colleague.
20:44
You can be a team player and be a leader at the same time and you do that by just doing the things we've already talked about.

Right.

20:58
So if you're an expert at your job that means that you're able to—
21:05
Uh for example just the other day somebody approached me at work and they gave me something that actually doesn't help me, but it helps one of my colleagues elsewhere in the company,
21:11
so I was able to immediately flip that, send that over to that person, and now they're going to be able to take it and run with it. Now I'm not that person's supervisor at all, that's just my colleague.
21:25
but because I'm doing my job and I can quickly determine what's useful where what belongs etc etc I'm able to to present myself as a leader to my colleagues without being their leader and that's an important distinction to me.
21:31
You can be seen as a leader without giving instructions or commanding anyone or trying to dominate anybody.

Whoa, an actual insight!

21:45
As we talk about relationships with colleagues in leadership in general it's important to remember that being a servant leader is absolutely the best kind of leader and is also the best kind of colleague.
21:51
Being helpful to the people around you makes everything better.
22:04
Of course as we mentioned you're going to want to treat everybody with respect.

You're going to want to conduct yourself appropriately.
22:10
but ultimately with your colleagues your goal is to make their jobs easier just the same way as it was with your boss.
22:16
So focus on how does my work, how does what I do make somebody else's job easier?
22:22
in my professional capacity as a consultant uh a lot of my deliverable were critical to the next stage of the process and so to the extent that I was able to complete my work well and on time my colleagues were able to then do their jobs.
22:36
Can you think of any times, Karoline, uh where you or a colleague of yours just made your life so much easier just by doing what they do, and it was just nice to have them around?
22:48
Yes. Colleagues—I think we have long memories.
22:55
You remember the colleagues that helped you very fondly and you remember the colleagues that weren't so help not so fondly.
23:01
And in political administrations there's a lot of turnover when it comes to political appointees.
23:06
There's also a lot of shifting around of roles especially in the executive branch.
23:12
People will move from one office to the next quite quickly, and so those those people that are in your current office might not be there forever.
23:18
They may move to another office or position or Agency that you're actually going to have to report to one day.
23:24
So your colleague today could be your boss tomorrow. That's very important to remember. You may think you are on equal playing field with someone.
23:30
That person could be the next President of the United States.

So you want to be in great favor with not only your bosses of course but your colleagues too.
23:36
That's keenly important and they will remember you likewise, just like you'll remember your colleagues that weren't so helpful to you and you'll remember fondly those who were.
23:46
They will think of you the same way and in one way or another your professional careers and paths will absolutely cross again and you may need that person's help one day and if you were a good colleague to them chances are you'll get that help that you need.
23:58
That's absolutely true.
24:04
Uh in my time at the Heritage Foundation I had a number of colleagues. I now work at the Leadership Institute I have new colleagues. Wouldn't you know it some of the folks from my previous uh career with Heritage were now working together at Leadership and vice versa some folks from Leadership they're now at Heritage.
24:15
so I promise you it's true that your colleagues are the people who you don't just work with today they're who you'll see around as well and so you want to maintain those relationships and nourish them.
24:21
So let's talk really quickly about the other kind colleague in the mix and that's a coalition partner.
24:34
So this is going to be someone who you work with but maybe not in your department or maybe not even in your organizations or Administration.
24:40
Uh and I think a good example of this uh which kind of ties us together uh is Leadership Institute.
24:46
We have a lot of guest lecturers and so that's my colleague in a certain sense. And Kayleigh McEneny is one of them and so she's helped us out with a lot of great a lot of great events that we've done in the past.
24:58
And you know Kaylee as well that kind of makes us all Coalition Partners. Yeah.
25:04
and the way that I came uh to Kaylee McEneny's being on her team in the White House was um through a former colleague of mine in the White House.
25:11
But he was also sort of a coalition partner too because he worked in an entirely different office but our job descriptions commingled.
25:17
We had to help each other out with projects getting them across the finish line.
25:23
Uh and it came to a position where he became close to Kaylee. I had heard she was bringing in a new team of press staff, and he put my my resume on her desk, and that was someone…
25:29
When I was just working with him, I was just there to do my job and execute at the time.
25:35
I never imagined that he would be kind of that building block that coalition partner that link to getting me to the job job of my dreams in the administration.
25:47
And so anyone you come across whether they work directly in your office Department organization or not, treat them with respect.
25:53
Do your job on time they will remember that and then they'll be willing to put their neck out for you and recommend you for a job later if that time comes.
25:58
Absolutely, that's so true.
26:05
There's nothing better than a sterling reference from a trusted source. And so remember that that reference could come from anywhere and it's all going to be based on your level of professionalism and your ability to execute.
26:16
That's an excellent story.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

All right so we've talked a little bit about about colleagues and coalition partners and how to conduct yourself in your work space.
26:22
But let's talk in bosses too. Let's talk about when you're the boss, and so you're probably not the Big Boss unless you're the one person in the whole country who's the President of the United States.
26:35
But you will be in a position of leadership,  and uh you will have a title and authority over the people who will be working for you or reporting to to you.
26:41
So how do you handle that professionally? What does a good boss look like?
26:49
And what I'd like you to—the image I'd like you to have in your head is a duck on water.

Right.
26:57
So the water can be can be really uh turbulent, tempestuous, but the duck is floating on top and the legs are are are—
27:03
If you've ever seen web the little duck feet under the water they're moving really fast.

Right.

27:09
and so that's that's the image I want you to have in your head because as a manager there will be a million variables that your boss and your direct reports are all feeding to you at the same time.
27:16
And it can be a lot.
27:22
And so think about yourself under a stress situation with your personality, not when you're happy, but when you're under a lot of stress because that that's what you'll be.
27:28
That's the situation you'll be in. That's the personality that needs to be cool, serene, and calm.

Right.
27:37
And the reason that you want to do all these things is because what you put out is what you'll get back.

Oh, hey, karma. A second real thought.

27:42
So if you're an angry boss you're going to have angry employees. They'll be mean to their co-workers. your boss is going to not want to talk to you.
27:49
You'll have a bad relationship there and that's bad.

It’s a shame that they don’t see the application of this principle.

27:54
So you want all of those things to not happen and that means you stay calm.
28:00
And so what, when you do that, you will become a champion for your department. You will be the best advocate for your direct reports.
28:06
You will be the one who makes your boss look good and your department will therefore look good to your boss and your boss's colleagues.
28:11
Maybe they're at the VP level depending on the organization you're in.
28:17
If it's a Presidential administration they'll be higher up and they'll be in different conversations and you'll look good in those conversations.
28:23
So those are all things that as a boss you want to do.
28:29
You want to champion your own department and you want you want to remember that the work that comes out of your department reflects on you.
28:35
Even if people think you're a great guy or a great gal if the work coming out of your department isn't topnotch it reflects on your ability to lead.
28:42
So those are all things that you're going to want to think about, uh in addition to the day-to-day uh minutiae of just doing the job.
28:49
Karoline, you've managed people and you've done a lot of uh entrepreneurial and really just prestigious stuff in your career.
28:54
Could you talk to us a little bit about some of those experiences?

Sure, well I had a—you—I've had a unique experience. I served in the Trump Administration as I discussed previously with some real world examples.

And post Trump era I uh moved over to Capitol Hill and I was a staffer for a congresswoman.
29:13
For a principal I was a communications director and I learned so much in that role about serving my boss and answering to her needs.
29:19
And then when I became my own boss and ran for Congress myself, aspiring to be a Congresswoman, I then had staff who reported to me.
29:26
And I very much took everything I learned as a staffer serving that Congress person with me.
29:33
As a boss I remembered things I liked and didn't like, tried to treat my staff with respect, tried to have a team camaraderie, and have each and every person understand, uh you know, you have a job to do, let's not get in each other's lanes.
29:40
Uh we all execute our job as the famous Bill Belichick says do your job and you will win the game.
29:54
Uh and I think that's very important when you are a boss, to encourage all of your employees and your staff to be their best self, to understand they're in a position because they're an expert at that position, not to interfere with their colleagues, and if we all execute we're all going to be happy together at the end of the day.

I think that's fantastic.
30:13
what better example of a great boss and a great employee than  Bill Belichick and Tom Brady of the New England Patriots.

Oh, yeah, the renowned cheaters.

30:20
Amen.

Go Pats.  All right.
30:26
So today we've talked at a high level about some of the characteristics that you want foster and nurture within yourself as a professional.

We've talked about the changing nature of professionalism and some things that stay the same no matter what.

We've talked about how to be a colleague, how to interact with your boss, how to be a movement partner, and how to be a boss.
30:46
So these are all the things that you're going to want to focus on in addition to just competence, which is critical.
30:53
As we leave you today I would invite you to think about these things and areas in your own professional toolkit where you feel like you could maybe grow a little bit and find an outlet to do that, to grow in that direction, and might be getting involved at a community center uh in your—
31:08
Whatever your faith tradition is.
31:14
You could volunteer at your local uh place of worship. there are a lot of ways to try and build your skill set so that you can hit the ground running in a situation like this.
31:20
One of the resources that you could use is the Leadership Institute where I work.

Uh what we do is we help train young professionals to take the next step in their career in the movement. that could be in digital, it could be in campaigns…
31:32
What I do is Professional Services, so skills like this.
31:37
Um but you should definitely look into the various things that we would make available to you to try and help you get where you need to be to serve your country
31:43
Karoline do you have any parting thoughts for our audience?
31:50
I sure do.

Just know when you get into a presidential Administration, when that day comes, it is really an honor to work for our federal government.

Don't forget that your uh salary comes from the good hardworking taxpayers across this country.

It certainly doesn’t come from Republican billionaires.

Don't ever take a day for granted, and continue to move up the ladder, and remember, everyone you meet in the workplace will help you get to another place someday.
32:15
So nurture your relationships.

Cherish the people you meet during this journey.

It won't last forever.

No Administration does.
32:20
Of course this is a democracy uh so enjoy it while you have it,

Yes, we know about your plans to destroy it utterly and without remainder.

and it will certainly bring you to the next level in your professional career whatever that may be.
32:27
If you execute, if you have that confidence, if you're well read, if you remain resourceful, uh and maintain those positive relationships.
32:34
So best of luck, and uh if you need us as a resource, we are here to help.

That was two thoughts stuck in a misch-masch of platitudes, with occasional callouts to greed and hatred.