Speeches by Secretary Elaine L. Chao

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Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Acceptance of Business Leader of the Year Award
McDonough School of Business
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.
November 3, 2001

Thank you, Dean Puto.

It’s a delight for me to be in Georgetown. I certainly hear a great deal about the University from my own staff. Sean Redmond, my personal aide, is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service and he’s also got a Master’s degree in Social and Public Policy from Georgetown. Emily DeRocco, the new Assistant Secretary of Education and Training Administration, is a graduate of Georgetown Law School.

And, certainly, I have heard of Georgetown through your own Yvonne Ralsky who I had the good fortune of working with in the past.

I am very honored to be receiving this prestigious award. My thanks to the student committee that selected me. I heard that Taylor Kushner attended my confirmation hearing this year, all four and a half hours of it! Thank you, Taylor, for your vote of confidence.

I think it’s terrific that bright students like you are taking such an active interest in the governance of our country.

Most of all, I accept this award in the memory of Mr. Heinz Prechter, a giant of a man who was a friend to presidents, world leaders and ordinary folks alike.

Heinz was a man of the people who embodied the American dream. An immigrant to this great country of hope and opportunity, he built an empire through hard work, ingenuity and dedication.

We are saddened he is no longer with us—and what a loss it is. But, we treasure his memory and know that his legacy lives on.

Wally and Stephanie—your dedication to Georgetown is evident. We are glad you are with us today, as we are to see Paul and Gerda.

The McDonough School of Business invited me to accept this award back in August, before September 11^th changed all of our lives. My initial remarks had focused on the changing face of our workforce… on the challenges of the skills gap, the changing demographics and the global competitiveness of the 21^st Century American workforce.

But since the attacks on our country, we find ourselves in a critical period in our nation’s history. The forces of good and evil have been revealed in stark contrast—there is no room for moral relativism in our discussions of September 11^th.

Some people compare America to a loud, contentious, sometimes dysfunctional family. But on September 11^th, that family drew closer together, and gained courage through a shared sense of loss and a deep desire to help. Out of this tragedy, we have rediscovered how much compassion and concern there is in this country.

Difficult times like these also test leaders and prove their mettle. We have seen this in our president, George W. Bush. President Bush has mourned with us, but as a leader, he has also comforted and inspired us. He has set a clear course to win the war against terrorism, strengthen our security at home, and heal the human and economic harm inflicted by terrorist attacks.

None of these are easy tasks. Each of them will take sustained effort. However, we cannot fail to pursue them with anything less than our concentrated resources and resolve—or we will allow the terrorists to succeed in making America less than it has always been. We cannot—and will not—allow that to happen.

This is an important moment for all of you as well, preparing for your future today in this unforgettable season of history. As future leaders of the business community, you, like President Bush and his cabinet, will face times that test your abilities as leaders and as people.

You will face the challenges of an evolving, fluctuating economy. Challenges caused by job changes and career choices. Challenges posed by technological evolution and global markets.

But none of these challenges are as great or as important as the challenge of leading others. Leadership can never be reduced to the bottom line or organizational charts, because it’s about people.

That’s why the best leaders understand their people, communicate effectively with them, and inspire them with clear goals and concern for their well-being.

Most business leaders know that caring for their employees is not just the right thing to do; it’s good business.

In the weeks since September 11^th, there has never been a greater premium on caring, concerned leadership—in the business community as well as everywhere else. At the Department of Labor, for example, we have made an immense effort to communicate constantly with our 17,000 employees—especially on issues affecting their personal safety and security.

Concerned, compassionate leadership is the key to succeeding in moments of crisis. We all can learn from what we have seen in the last several weeks: these shining examples of personal leadership, courage and heroism when it really counts.

By paying close attention to the best in our elected leaders and the leaders in our private sector, you will learn creative ways to deal with trying times. You will begin to get a sense of the art of motivating people and nurturing them.

A lot of what we do at the Department of Labor has to do with compassion and nurture. Our job is to take care of workers both on the job and on the job search. We are working right now to help those who lost their jobs because of the attacks of September 11^th find new jobs as quickly as possible.

Yesterday, as you may have heard, my Department released the monthly unemployment numbers. The 5.4% unemployment rate was a dramatic jump from the previous month and reflected the devastation wrought on our economy by the terrorists’ attacks of September 11^th.

I have been referring to these unemployment numbers as the “Bin Laden” numbers.

The President has shown strong leadership on the domestic front as well by proposing a robust stimulus package to jump-start our economy and help workers who have been harmed by the September 11^th attacks.

In addition to the numerous government agencies that are on the scene in New York and at the Pentagon of which the Department of Labor was one, in the stimulus package, the President is proposing a major “Back to Work” relief program to help dislocated workers.

This package will extend unemployment benefits an additional thirteen weeks beyond the current twenty-six weeks available to unemployed workers. This extension alone will give approximately $4 to $8 billion in relief to these workers.

In addition, the President’s proposal will add an additional $3 billion in National Emergency grants that will be available to states most impacted by the September 11th attacks. These monies will be available to workers to help meet their mortgage payments, childcare expenses, transportation needs, and most importantly, their COBRA payments so people can maintain their healthcare benefits.

The President’s package is currently on the Hill, awaiting Senate action. The President has asked the Senate to act before Thanksgiving, the start of the holiday season in our country.

The President also has a National Energy Plan pending before Congress. The dangers of our country relying so heavily on foreign energy sources has never been more vividly shown than in the events of September 11^th. America needs to be energy independent and the President’s National Energy Plan brings us closer to that goal. The President’s Energy Plan would also create hundreds of thousands of needed new jobs.

Of course, at the Department of Labor, we are also looking for better ways to work with employers and employees to improve worker safety and compliance with various other labor regulations.

In short, we at the Department of Labor, or as we think of ourselves, the Department of Compassion, we are helping to enhance individual lives by helping them gain the dignity of work and ensure workplace safety.

When you become managers and business owners, it’s important to develop regular communication with your employees. Don’t wait for something bad to happen before taking a personal interest. And don’t wait for extraordinary times to take extraordinary measures.

Take visible action whenever you can—in business as well as in life. You already know how much a phone call or greeting card to a friend or loved one can mean, especially when it’s unexpected. Imagine how much those gestures mean to employees when it comes from the boss.

Managers often wonder how to inspire trust and loyalty in their employees. Well, the best managers know instinctively that it’s a two way street. Loyalty must flow from the top down, not just from the bottom up. As a manager you can’t expect loyalty-your job is to earn it.

As a cabinet member in President George W. Bush’s Administration, that’s my job every day-to earn the loyalty of my fellow employees, colleagues really, who work with me. And I work very, very hard at it. I never, ever take for granted the allegiance of the more than 17,000 employees who make up the Department of Labor. I make time to attend Departmental events. I communicate with them frequently, sometimes directly by e-mail that goes to each desktop computer. I answer email queries personally. I walk around the Department and travel to the regions to meet as many DOL employees as I can. On a number of regional visits, long-time employees told me I was the first Secretary of Labor they had ever met. But most importantly, I treat everyone with respect and insist that all my managers do the same.

A leader cannot run a cabinet agency or any organization and hope to change its direction with a tiny band of people laboring at the top. The leader has to work through and with others to get anything done. It’s the most important lesson I can share with you today.

I hope that you all will open yourselves up to absorb the good lessons in caring and leadership that we have seen in these recent, difficult days. They will serve you so well when you become business or political leaders yourselves. Thank you again for honoring me with this award today.

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