| OCR Text |
Show h him for resolution and that he doesn't waste his time on less important mat- ters." ? : John Reed, 27, holds a comparable post at the Department of Labor. This handsome, blond Harvard Business School graduate and father of three is f rij'l r decisions Young men like Richard Cheney, 34 (r), are often involved in top-lev- el As executive assistant to Donald Rumsfeld, White House chief of staff (I ) , he deals with a wide range of issues and also manages the schedule for President Ford (center). "I got a call from Brussels NATO headquarters on the night of Aug. 8th," recalls Cheney. ' Rumsfeld told me he was on his way back to the U.S. to head the team of Ford advisers who were supervising the transition. He asked me to meet his plane at Dulles Airport. I did and agreed to help him. I took a leave of absence from Bradley, Woods & Co., the investment firm I was working for at the time, and spent the next 10 days working on transition problems. A month passed, and then I got another call from Rumsfeld. He explained he was replacing Al Haig as chief of staff and asked me to become his deputy. I accepted once again." Like Rumsfeld, Cheney keeps in step with President Ford. He deals with issues ranging from Southeast Asia to Michigan's Apple Queen. He is also concerned with the mechanics of govHe manages ernment decision-makinthe President's schedule, coordinates the White House staff operations, and orchestrates the flow of paper in and out of the executive branch. g. 'Don't waste his time' "What's crucial in this job," he says, "is knowing when an issue should reach the President and when it can be handled at a lower level. You must make sure that the significant problems reach Secretary John Dunlop's right hand. Explaining his responsibilities, Reed says, "First, you must understand the secretary has been here only a short while with a few people of his own. The staff we have, I hired. Second, Secretary Dunlop has a broader range of interests than just the Department of Labor. He is a member of the President's Economic Policy Board and serves on a number of commissions around town which deal with policy matters significant to the Administration. Thus, he spends a lot of time outside of the department. In many ways I have to operate as his deputy as much as his executive assistant. 'This means I review everything for the secretary. I study the issues being presented to him in staff memoranda. I also serve as a firefighter on immediate problems. When the secretary is out of town, I sometimes must make decisions or carry on negotiations that lead to decisions on his behalf." Despite minimal training in economics and virtually none in labor affairs, Reed is not overwhelmed by his job. "Experience within the department in which you work," he says, "is not the john Reed, 27, is executive assistant to Secretary of Labor John T. Dunlop most important criterion for the job of executive assistant. The ability to ask questions and to say 'I don't know' is probably more important than any other in this job. You have to be smart enough to admit when you don't know something and not go off in the wrong direction just because an executive assistant has to seem that he knows what he's doing." Reed believes that he has learned what he can from Dunlop. Within the next few months he is planning to leave his position with the Labor Department and take a job in business, organized labor or a university. "One shouldn't make a career out of being someone's executive assistant," he explains. continued |
