Corporate Leadership Principles to Political Decision-Making

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/06/23

Rick Williams is a seasoned leadership advisor with deep experience in both the political and corporate sectors. He was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Congress from Massachusetts’ 5th District, managed Congressman Mo Udall’s presidential campaign in Massachusetts, and served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention when Jimmy Carter was nominated. As a consultant with Arthur D. Little, Williams advised U.S. federal agencies on environmental and energy regulations, including shaping strategies to reduce fluorocarbon emissions alongside the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. His career has bridged political strategy, public policy, and board governance, with a focus on helping organizations make high-stakes decisions. In his book Create the Future, Williams asserts that leadership is fundamentally about shaping outcomes through value-driven decisions rather than relying solely on evidence. He explains that political decision-making reflects the values of both leaders and constituents, with short-term political dynamics often overshadowing long-term vision. Drawing parallels between corporate boards and public institutions, he suggests that legislatures can serve as “value accelerators” by setting goals, establishing priorities, reviewing performance, and coaching executive leaders. Williams encourages leaders to remain focused amid chaos by staying clear on desired outcomes and using every moment — even politically charged ones — as opportunities to reinforce long-term goals and build public trust.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Your leadership emphasizes “creating the future.” How does this apply to political leaders navigating complex global challenges?

Rick Williams: I believe that a leader’s primary responsibility is to create the future for the organization they lead. They create the future by the decisions they make — by the choices they make.

I named my new book Create the Future because I want to make a clear connection between the choices you make today and where the company will be tomorrow. If you are the mayor, governor, or president of the United States, your decisions today create the future of the community you lead.

Pres. Biden’s decision not to enforce US border security resulted in millions of undocumented aliens coming into the US. Pres. Trump announced that undocumented aliens would not be permitted to come into the US and mass migration stopped. Those two decisions will have a profound impact on the future of the United States on many levels.

Jacobsen: How is evidence-based decision-making evolving in political leadership?

Williams: Political decision making is not “evidence-based.” Political decisions express the values of the decision maker. Elected leaders choose which laws will govern our lives and economy. By their decisions, the leaders choose which programs to fund, which not to fund, and which businesses and groups of individuals get preferential treatment. These are values choices.

Decision making is hard. We don’t want to make choices until we are forced to do so. Elected officials are no different. They know that any decision they make will please some and anger others.

Advocates for and against a law or program will present evidence to support their position. Political decision makers will consider the evidence, but their final decisions will express their values and those of their constituents.

We elect our legislative representatives, governors, and presidents to represent us. We expect them to examine the issues and make informed decisions on our behalf. We, as citizens, do not have time to carefully consider every issue and do not have access to all the information — evidence. We expect our elected representatives to do their homework and make informed decisions that reflect our interests and values.

Elected political leaders learn about the complex issues before them, and their political constituency will have a general understanding of the issues. Our political election process drives politicians to make decisions in line with the wishes of a majority or plurality of their constituents, irrespective of what independent research might support. I recognize that donors and activists often have more influence than voters.

A political leader’s decisions are driven mainly by what their constituents understand or believe rather than what the elected representative has concluded based on their independent research and their assessment what is best for the state or country. President Kennedy’s book Profiles in Courage tells the story of rare political leaders who had the courage to make decisions contrary to popular opinion.

An unfortunate example today of political sentiment conflicting with well established science is the dramatic change in public opinion aboout vaccines. Vaccines against many diseases have saved millions of lives across the world. When the COVID-19 vaccine campaign demanded compliance far beyond what the public would accept, the public’s views about all vaccines changed from acceptance to skepticism. This change in public opinion has changed political leaders’ willingness to champion clearly beneficial vaccines.

Skilled political leaders educate both themselves and their constituents. Constituent education will include challenging preconceived ideas. Political leaders make decisions based on their assessment of the proposal and what they believe their constituents will support. With rare exceptions, that is how the political process works.

Political leaders rely on the media to educate their constituents. In an era of partisan media where most of us only tune in to media that supports our preconceived views, that process is broken. Local media has mostly stopped reporting on local government and politics.

With no one calling strikes and balls, political competition in the US has become the “Democratic Team” against the “Republican Team.” “Whatever the other team is for, I am against it even though I supported that position when my team was in office.” “I support whatever helps my team and hurts the other team.” In the past, Democrats championed tolerance and fought against anti-Semitism. Today, Democrats are against Trump’s effort to stop anti-Semitism at Harvard and other universities.

Jacobsen: You’ve served on numerous boards and speak about boards as “value accelerators.” How can this be adapted to public institutions for greater national impact?

Williams: In the private sector, the board of directors is the governing body of the corporation. The CEO is the “chief executive” charged with implementing strategy and business decisions made by the board. Legislatures, like a board, are responsible for approving the laws that govern the civil and business functioning of the country and approving specific programs and budgets that the president is responsible for implementing. The relationship between the legislature and the president is similar to that of the board of directors and the CEO but it is not precisely the same.

The CEO and the board of directors have a collaborative and competitive relationship. I describe the board as both the boss and the coach. The board sets policy and direction and also acts as a coach to help the CEO and other senior leaders succeed in their jobs executing on the board’s decisions.

The board will be a “value accelerator” if it sets goals that drive the company to higher value, coaches the leadership to make them successful in doing their job, and reviews and judges performance against the established goals.

The Congress, state legislature, or city council can be a value accelerator for the government as a whole and for government agencies. Congress’s job and that of a corporate board are not the same. But the principals of impactful corporate boards provide valuable guidance to how legislatures can better perform their governance role.

Legislatures have an important role as fact finders and communicators with the public. The board is responsible for educating itself, but that work is done in private and is generally not communicated to shareholders and the public.

Recognizing that legislatures and boards of directors are different, here are practices drawn from impactful board operations that can enhance the value that the legislature brings to the governing process as a whole.

Make decisions: Don’t delegate decision making about legislative intent to the president and agencies so the decisions will be hidden from public view. Make decisions — make choices — about what the government will do and let the public know why that is the right decision.

Set goals: Establish performance goals for the executive branch and government agencies.

Establish priorities: The government cannot do everything. Establish priorities that will guide the agency’s programming and budgeting.

Review performance: Once approved, the president, governor, or mayor — the executive — is responsible for implementing laws and programs. The legislature is responsible for monitoring performance. Hold hearing, do field visits, issue reports, and talk about what you are learning. Hold agencies and the executive branch responsible for what they committed to do and their implementation of the approved laws and programs.

Help the president and agency heads be successful: As part of the legislature’s performance review, senior members of the legislature can be valuable coaches to key executive leaders. Coaching is not an official legislative job, but a legislator’s depth of experience and different points of view — legislative vs executive — can be valuable to executive leaders.

Some of the coaching can be done through public and private committee hearings. But the most valuable will be done in private one-on-one settings. This coaching by senior legislative leaders can only work if there is a personal, trusting relationship between the individuals.

This is hard to do in such a partisan time, but informal coaching can be a valuable contribution. Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Democrat, met regularly with President Reagan, a Republican. O’Neill came from a very different background than Reagan and had a different time frame perspective. I am sure Reagan learned from O’Neill’s perspective, and O’Neill helped Reagan be a more successful president.

Government agency heads have difficult jobs balancing conflicting demands from Congress, the president, and their staff. Key legislative leaders can be valuable coaches to key agency leaders.

Jacobsen: Many politicians face decision fatigue. What insights from Create the Future helps leaders maintain strategic clarity amid chaos?

Williams: When you are clear about what success will look like and the goals you have established, the apparent chaos of the moment subsides. When you are clear what decisions you must make and are working to make those unique decisions, the path forward is less cluttered.

Jacobsen: Any advice to heads of state or ministers about balancing long-term vision with short-term politics?

Williams: Skilled political leaders have guiding principles and a long-term vision of success. By communicating their principles and vision, they define who they are as a political leader and their personal brand. They will also participate in the short-term political issues. The daily media cycle demands that a political leader stay engaged with the issue of the day to stay visible to their constituents.

Successful leaders will use transitory issues to continuously communicate their long-term goals and progress towards reaching them. Today, leaders have many communication channels to reach the public. Because these channels often have a well-defined audience with a point of view, political leaders can craft their message about the momentary topics to that audience within an overall message about their goals and branding.

President Trump has effectively used podcasts to reach non-traditional Republican audiences.. He has gone on media channels that are not friendly to him to get his message to their audience. He creates media events as counter programming to his opponents’ events These are ways to use the issues of the moment as a vehicle for building your brand and advocating for your long-term goals to your followers and to others who might be open to hearing your message.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Rick.

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