Showing People You Care: A Conversation with Gil Kerlikowske
by Aude Richard
Do multiple vantage points make a great leader? Gil Kerlikowske, former Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and an IOP Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, can certainly attest that it does. As an adviser to President Obama on drug policy, he proactively welcomed non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups into policy conversations ensuring that the focus stayed on public health. On April 4, 2017, Kerlikowske joined the Voices in Leadership series at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, drawing upon his successful career to offer leadership lessons to Harvard Chan students. He focused on what assets students should cultivate as they look to their future — a strong work ethic, great communication skills, and the ability to show people that you care.
An impeccable work ethic
One thing is certain — Kerlikowske has proved that he has an impeccable work ethic. Long back before his prestigious appointments, his career in public service can be traced to his work as a police officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant, and Seattle’s chief of police for nine years. In his most recent role as Commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection, he led the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, employing 60,000 people and allocating an annual budget approaching $13 billion. One can only imagine the leadership challenges that landed on his desk on any given day. He comments on this, saying,
“Everyone is…watching you as a leader. And if you’re not putting in the hours and putting in the time, that’s a mistake.”
On being a good communicator
Kerlikowske outlined the importance of engaging multiple partners to work towards a common goal, whether it be leading the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy or a delegation to the United Nations in Vienna. He approached the opioid epidemic holistically, not just looking at the drug problem in America as a criminal justice issue, but to be “smart on drugs,” saying,
“We were not going to arrest our way out of the nation’s drug problem. That meant health and education had to be key partners […] When I brought everybody together the Department of Education mentioned, you know we haven’t been at the table in six years. And once you have everyone at the table it makes a huge difference for the outcome. And a huge difference for who’s going to support it after it’s written.”
He also stressed the importance of building bridges between academia and policymakers, citing the opioid epidemic as a prime example of the need for this bridge,
“When I took office in ’09 the captain in charge of the narcotics unit in Seattle said to me, he said, you know, one thing you might want to look at there’s some issues around opioid prescriptions and pills. Honestly, I had not heard of it. My colleagues in law enforcement hadn’t. And then I began to look for the public sources. What are the articles? Who’s actually talked about this? In the health field there were certainly articles. But it was almost always among subject matter experts. It was an unknown issue.”
When asked to reflect on his career at the intersection of law enforcement and public health, Kerlikowske voiced that, for him, law enforcement has always been a public health effort. He pointed out how, on mental health issues, for example, law enforcement services are often one of the first responders. But he stressed the importance of intelligently using both camps’ resources:
“We all live within finite resources. Whether it’s at the local level, the state level, or the federal level. And it’s going to be very critical that we leverage those resources. You know, dealing with mental health crises and being able to prevent someone from either taking their own life, or committing a crime. Mental health professionals are, by far, the best to do that.”
The importance of caring
The third lesson Kerlikowske shared is that a strong leader needs to show what and who they care for. During his career as a police chief, Mr Kerlikowske had a major role in advancing community-oriented policing. He stressed the importance of the police being more than a repressive force; rather, he opined that it should be an entity available to all members of the community, saying,
“When a chief of police takes an oath of office, they take an oath of office to protect the people in that jurisdiction. They don’t take an oath of office to only protect American citizens within that jurisdiction. It’s everybody within that jurisdiction. […]But if there’s a chilling effect on people being afraid to come to the police, because they think they’re also part of immigration, that’s not healthy for safety and security. […] merely making arrests, merely responding quickly to a crime, in the long run, wasn’t going to be as holistically good for a community as building up other resources. And actually preventing crime.”
As Kerlikowske’s successful career stands to prove, multiple vantage points do make a great leader. He concluded the session by citing Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, exhorting students to get out of the classroom and confront themselves to others’ opinions,
“Spend more time talking to people, listening to people, and particularly getting the viewpoints of people that you may not agree with, or that you may not understand. And I think those people skills are as important as these skills.”
For more from the Voices in Leadership (@VoicesHSPH) series at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (@HarvardHSPH), visitwww.hsph.harvard.edu/voices.
Story by Aude Richard, a physician who is passionate about health communications and is pursuing a Master of Public Health in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Story edited by Sohini Mukherjee, a first year student in the Master of Science program in Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
