A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Hardcover
I was initially hesitant to start this book, as it's not the type of thing I usually read, and I had a pretty good idea about what it would consist of. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised, however. I'm not going to summarize it chapter by chapter, as that's been done extensively elsewhere; instead, as per usual, I will just offer some general perspectives, whatever they're worth.
The autobiography-cum-commentary focuses heavily on Comey's ideas about leadership, his own and others, so even early on, it's fairly evident where it's going. The lessons he learned from various mentors in his life, especially regarding his appraisals of character and approach to leadership, are clearly highly important to him. I remember seeing a video of him giving a talk several years ago, where he spoke of his address to other Bureau employees on his first day as Director, where he laid out his ideas of effective leadership, and what he tried to instill in the people under him: the Five Things: 1) love what you do and follow your passion; 2) work hard (but work is play when you love what you do; but... 3) have a life: balance work with play, lest you forget what it is you're actually fighting for; 4) treat everyone with dignity and respect-there's a place for everyone and everyone has a place, but also respect the chain of command (so don't ask him to go for a cup of coffee as the director of the FBI) and 5) preserve the reputation of those who came before you for those who come after you. He also related these same points in the book, in a slightly different order. They stuck with me, somehow, and I will leave it up to the reader to determine how well he both embodied and cultivated those attributes in persons with whom he interacted.
One of the strengths: I have to state that Comey offers quite a lot of introspection throughout this book, more than I was expecting. That said, he seems outwardly confident, but something has just always irked me about his demeanor - I'm just not sure what. It probably has something to do with the fact that I can't quite figure out if it's real or feigned. In person, at least from the admittedly limited amount I've seen, his demeanor and behavior almost border on theatrical at times, as if he's attempting to maintain an exquisitely crafted external, "larger than life" image (which, in the actual sense, he is; he's 6'8"). That's not necessarily an insult, nor is it accusing him of being disingenuous, however. Most attorneys have to play to a jury, and I get the sense that he views his readers in a similar light, but perhaps because that's just what's familiar. I'm admittedly curious about the way in which he presents himself, more so than when I started.
I certainly would have liked to have seen more on his personal thoughts about particular events, such as being nominated as Director of the FBI, however, as he provides surprisingly little insight on this vital event in his life and others I would have thought he would have expounded on in far greater detail. There are some passages scattered throughout about his nomination, but the information is largely contained in a paltry few pages in the eighth chapter. There is far more detail concerning his controversial firing, in fact. Considering the centrality of his tenure at the FBI to the development of his character and leadership style (at least that's what he insinuates), I would have thought that much more content would have been standard.
Some of the weaknesses: I can't quite work out the premise of this book, in all honesty - it has more layers than an onion. If I were a true cynic, I would probably assert that it's a heavily disguised attempt to address the circumstances of his controversial firing, which was largely over the Hillary Clinton email fiasco, couched within what is ostensibly an autobiography. A presentation of this sort makes him appear less culpable for his sudden departure from government service, but the account had to be written in such a way that it would not seem defensive or apologetic, a move many would no doubt see as rather pathetic, especially considering his focus on character. Hillary seems not to have quite mastered this technique, as she's anything but subtle in her own apology, "What Happened." At the same time, however, it's a complex and covert critique of our current Fearless Leader, who fired him, according to Comey, at least, entirely without cause and under appalling circumstances, when he was on the other side of the country, via a letter sent to his secretary.
As Comey focuses heavily on leadership, it's pretty clear where he's going in that respect: of all the leaders he has known (he had the utmost respect for Obama, he relates), he builds a case that he, and many of the other well-known personalities he has worked with, are everything that Donald Trump is NOT, which allows Comey the freedom to critique Trump's leadership, or lack thereof. Any criticism of the administration would then just serve as a juxtaposition with the numerous other persons he describes throughout, as opposed to a clear and frontal attack on the current administration in retaliation for firing him. I never said that Comey wasn't smart.
I admit, I just skimmed through the couple of chapters which discussed the email fiasco, as I'm so sick of hearing about it that it was difficult to get through. If you're expecting a salacious bashing of the Trump White House, however, you will be mostly disappointed, although he saved the best for last in that regard. The last two chapters pull few punches as to his critique of the current president, whom he essentially compares to a mob boss demanding unquestioning loyalty of those around him. In essence, I think that more than anything else with regard to Trump, Comey exposes his obvious and admitted inexperience with how things work in Washington, which we all kind of knew. Things work very differently in the board room as opposed to the situation room, and what would be considered appropriate in the former (fealty to an owner/CEO of a large corporation, for example) is entirely unacceptable in a position of public trust.
Some particularly thought-provoking passages, for good or ill:
Here's a tricky one: "If the [DOJ] was to continue to be useful to the country and its presidents...the department simply had to fix its errors. To do otherwise, even in the face of angry leaders, would mean the Justice Department had become just another member of the partisan tribe, willing to say what needed to be said to help our side win." Alrighty, then. I'd say something about "forest for the trees" and whatnot here, but I'm not sure that would be decent.
The quote at the beginning of chapter 4: "I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value." -Hermann Hesse
**Not sure he succeeds here.
"There is no such thing as negative feedback or positive feedback: there is only accurate feedback, and we should care enough about each other to be accurate. By avoiding hard conversations and not telling people where they were struggling and how they could improve, I was depriving them of the chance to grow. My squeamishness was not only cowardly, it was selfish. If I really care about the people who work for me-if I create the atmosphere of deep personal consideration I want-I should care enough to be honest, even if it makes me uncomfortable."
**Depriving people of your personal opinion is... selfish? Okay....
And... people aside from you can also be uncomfortable, you know. As his wife apparently told him on more than one occasion (in his words), "it's not always about you, Dear."
"The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." -Harry Truman
Colin Powell, the Secretary of State of the United States, used non-governmental email, specifically AOL. Seriously. AOL. Remember AOL? Neither do I. Can we make these people imbued with the power to wipe out life on planet Earth get with the times? plzkthxbai
"Good leaders constantly worry about their limited ability to see. To rise above those limitations, good leaders exercise judgment, which is a different thing from intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to solve a problem, to decipher a riddle, to master a set of facts. Judgment is the ability to orbit a problem or a set of facts and see it as it might be seen through other eyes, by observers with different biases, motives and backgrounds. It is also the ability to take a set of facts and move it in place and time-perhaps to a hearing room or a courtroom, months or years in the future-or to the newsroom of a major publication or the boardroom of a competitor. Intelligence is the ability to collect and report what the documents and witnesses say; judgment is the ability to say what those same facts mean and what effect they will have on other audiences."
And, the winner is:
"The stuff [criticism] that gets me the most is the claim that I am in love with my own righteousness, my own virtue [or perceived righteousness and virtue-this last mine]. I have long worried about my ego. I am proud of the fact that I try to do the right thing. I am proud of the fact that I try to be truthful and transparent. I do think my way is better than that of the lying partisans who crowd our public life today [(!)]. But there is danger that all that pride can make me blind and closed off to other views of what the right thing is."
Aaaand⦠there you have it, kids. Enjoy. As a side note, I welcome the day these politicos of all descript acknowledge the difference between TRUTH... and opinion.
There are, however, some moments of genuine humanity: after a meeting at the White House, the last before Obama's departure from office: "my eyes fixed on the bowl of apples on the Oval Office coffee table... I wasn't entirely certain they were edible, but I once saw Chief of Staff Denis McDonough grab two at a time. He surely wasn't eating plastic fruit replicas. My youngest daughter long ago had asked me to get her a presidential apple, and this was surely the last time the Oval Office, an apple and I would ever be together. Now or never. Swipe an apple at the close of a meeting about Russian interference? So tacky. But fatherhood beats tacky. I scooped an apple. Nobody stopped me. I photographed it in the car and texted the photo to my daughter, delivering the product that evening. She let me taste a slice. Not plastic." Indeed.
The autobiography-cum-commentary focuses heavily on Comey's ideas about leadership, his own and others, so even early on, it's fairly evident where it's going. The lessons he learned from various mentors in his life, especially regarding his appraisals of character and approach to leadership, are clearly highly important to him. I remember seeing a video of him giving a talk several years ago, where he spoke of his address to other Bureau employees on his first day as Director, where he laid out his ideas of effective leadership, and what he tried to instill in the people under him: the Five Things: 1) love what you do and follow your passion; 2) work hard (but work is play when you love what you do; but... 3) have a life: balance work with play, lest you forget what it is you're actually fighting for; 4) treat everyone with dignity and respect-there's a place for everyone and everyone has a place, but also respect the chain of command (so don't ask him to go for a cup of coffee as the director of the FBI) and 5) preserve the reputation of those who came before you for those who come after you. He also related these same points in the book, in a slightly different order. They stuck with me, somehow, and I will leave it up to the reader to determine how well he both embodied and cultivated those attributes in persons with whom he interacted.
One of the strengths: I have to state that Comey offers quite a lot of introspection throughout this book, more than I was expecting. That said, he seems outwardly confident, but something has just always irked me about his demeanor - I'm just not sure what. It probably has something to do with the fact that I can't quite figure out if it's real or feigned. In person, at least from the admittedly limited amount I've seen, his demeanor and behavior almost border on theatrical at times, as if he's attempting to maintain an exquisitely crafted external, "larger than life" image (which, in the actual sense, he is; he's 6'8"). That's not necessarily an insult, nor is it accusing him of being disingenuous, however. Most attorneys have to play to a jury, and I get the sense that he views his readers in a similar light, but perhaps because that's just what's familiar. I'm admittedly curious about the way in which he presents himself, more so than when I started.
I certainly would have liked to have seen more on his personal thoughts about particular events, such as being nominated as Director of the FBI, however, as he provides surprisingly little insight on this vital event in his life and others I would have thought he would have expounded on in far greater detail. There are some passages scattered throughout about his nomination, but the information is largely contained in a paltry few pages in the eighth chapter. There is far more detail concerning his controversial firing, in fact. Considering the centrality of his tenure at the FBI to the development of his character and leadership style (at least that's what he insinuates), I would have thought that much more content would have been standard.
Some of the weaknesses: I can't quite work out the premise of this book, in all honesty - it has more layers than an onion. If I were a true cynic, I would probably assert that it's a heavily disguised attempt to address the circumstances of his controversial firing, which was largely over the Hillary Clinton email fiasco, couched within what is ostensibly an autobiography. A presentation of this sort makes him appear less culpable for his sudden departure from government service, but the account had to be written in such a way that it would not seem defensive or apologetic, a move many would no doubt see as rather pathetic, especially considering his focus on character. Hillary seems not to have quite mastered this technique, as she's anything but subtle in her own apology, "What Happened." At the same time, however, it's a complex and covert critique of our current Fearless Leader, who fired him, according to Comey, at least, entirely without cause and under appalling circumstances, when he was on the other side of the country, via a letter sent to his secretary.
As Comey focuses heavily on leadership, it's pretty clear where he's going in that respect: of all the leaders he has known (he had the utmost respect for Obama, he relates), he builds a case that he, and many of the other well-known personalities he has worked with, are everything that Donald Trump is NOT, which allows Comey the freedom to critique Trump's leadership, or lack thereof. Any criticism of the administration would then just serve as a juxtaposition with the numerous other persons he describes throughout, as opposed to a clear and frontal attack on the current administration in retaliation for firing him. I never said that Comey wasn't smart.
I admit, I just skimmed through the couple of chapters which discussed the email fiasco, as I'm so sick of hearing about it that it was difficult to get through. If you're expecting a salacious bashing of the Trump White House, however, you will be mostly disappointed, although he saved the best for last in that regard. The last two chapters pull few punches as to his critique of the current president, whom he essentially compares to a mob boss demanding unquestioning loyalty of those around him. In essence, I think that more than anything else with regard to Trump, Comey exposes his obvious and admitted inexperience with how things work in Washington, which we all kind of knew. Things work very differently in the board room as opposed to the situation room, and what would be considered appropriate in the former (fealty to an owner/CEO of a large corporation, for example) is entirely unacceptable in a position of public trust.
Some particularly thought-provoking passages, for good or ill:
Here's a tricky one: "If the [DOJ] was to continue to be useful to the country and its presidents...the department simply had to fix its errors. To do otherwise, even in the face of angry leaders, would mean the Justice Department had become just another member of the partisan tribe, willing to say what needed to be said to help our side win." Alrighty, then. I'd say something about "forest for the trees" and whatnot here, but I'm not sure that would be decent.
The quote at the beginning of chapter 4: "I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value." -Hermann Hesse
**Not sure he succeeds here.
"There is no such thing as negative feedback or positive feedback: there is only accurate feedback, and we should care enough about each other to be accurate. By avoiding hard conversations and not telling people where they were struggling and how they could improve, I was depriving them of the chance to grow. My squeamishness was not only cowardly, it was selfish. If I really care about the people who work for me-if I create the atmosphere of deep personal consideration I want-I should care enough to be honest, even if it makes me uncomfortable."
**Depriving people of your personal opinion is... selfish? Okay....
And... people aside from you can also be uncomfortable, you know. As his wife apparently told him on more than one occasion (in his words), "it's not always about you, Dear."
"The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." -Harry Truman
Colin Powell, the Secretary of State of the United States, used non-governmental email, specifically AOL. Seriously. AOL. Remember AOL? Neither do I. Can we make these people imbued with the power to wipe out life on planet Earth get with the times? plzkthxbai
"Good leaders constantly worry about their limited ability to see. To rise above those limitations, good leaders exercise judgment, which is a different thing from intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to solve a problem, to decipher a riddle, to master a set of facts. Judgment is the ability to orbit a problem or a set of facts and see it as it might be seen through other eyes, by observers with different biases, motives and backgrounds. It is also the ability to take a set of facts and move it in place and time-perhaps to a hearing room or a courtroom, months or years in the future-or to the newsroom of a major publication or the boardroom of a competitor. Intelligence is the ability to collect and report what the documents and witnesses say; judgment is the ability to say what those same facts mean and what effect they will have on other audiences."
And, the winner is:
"The stuff [criticism] that gets me the most is the claim that I am in love with my own righteousness, my own virtue [or perceived righteousness and virtue-this last mine]. I have long worried about my ego. I am proud of the fact that I try to do the right thing. I am proud of the fact that I try to be truthful and transparent. I do think my way is better than that of the lying partisans who crowd our public life today [(!)]. But there is danger that all that pride can make me blind and closed off to other views of what the right thing is."
Aaaand⦠there you have it, kids. Enjoy. As a side note, I welcome the day these politicos of all descript acknowledge the difference between TRUTH... and opinion.
There are, however, some moments of genuine humanity: after a meeting at the White House, the last before Obama's departure from office: "my eyes fixed on the bowl of apples on the Oval Office coffee table... I wasn't entirely certain they were edible, but I once saw Chief of Staff Denis McDonough grab two at a time. He surely wasn't eating plastic fruit replicas. My youngest daughter long ago had asked me to get her a presidential apple, and this was surely the last time the Oval Office, an apple and I would ever be together. Now or never. Swipe an apple at the close of a meeting about Russian interference? So tacky. But fatherhood beats tacky. I scooped an apple. Nobody stopped me. I photographed it in the car and texted the photo to my daughter, delivering the product that evening. She let me taste a slice. Not plastic." Indeed.
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