Shah has resigned from the USAID.
By Sujeet Rajan
WASHINGTON, DC: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Raj Shah, who has officially resigned and will leave office after five years of serving the organization, was in contention to be the president of the World Bank two years into his present job, but was not supported by the White House, writes his former chief of staff Sean C. Carroll.
The stunning revelation by Carroll, who was also the Chief Operating Officer under Shah at the USAID, was made in a blog he wrote for Creative Associates International, where he is at present Senior Director.
Carroll reveals Shah, 38 at that time, was in contention for the job, but it ultimately went to another candidate with a similar profile like himself: “young, first generation U.S. citizen and development expert.”
Carroll writes of how Shah took the response, or the lack thereof by the White House to his candidature: “Since he was also serving unofficially as an advisor to the White House, coming up with and vetting candidates, he saw what torpedoed a few of them. One after another, he told me, the White House discarded candidates who were seen as being insufficiently good at managing “the building” (the staff and operations of whatever government agency or other large institution they were leading). His implied message was he believed this may have hurt his chances too.”
However, Shah, instead of being stricken by this loss of opportunity was only spurred to work on a more aggressive level, to improve, adapt himself and his team to the challenges of USAID. He decided to become more directly engaged with the goings on of the organization and engaged a leading executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith (author of “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”), who was coach to Ford CEO Alan Mulally, and would soon coach new World Bank President Jim Kim.
Carroll writes: “Shah didn’t keep Goldsmith’s (and other business, coaching and mentoring) tips to himself, though. He encouraged all senior staff to read Goldsmith’s books, and also Bryce Hoffman’s book on Mulally. “An American Icon,” paints the Ford CEO as a leader whose success owes as much to smiles and love towards employees, as to quarterly reports and program dashboards.
“With senior staff, Shah established and dedicated time to an Administrator’s Leadership Council that aimed to solve management problems and provide greater support to and engagement with Agency staff at all levels.
Carroll added: “The best leaders know that the most effective way forward is to bring everyone forward together, asking others to lead the way as well. They know too, as Goldsmith notes, that “You can only inspire the people you are leading if you are inspired to lead.” Real engagement, and leadership, is about inspiring people to do their best and giving recognition when they do.”
In the blog titled ‘How Raj Shah reshaped USAID’, Carroll lavishes praise on Shah’s charismatic dynamism and determination as a leader who took his job seriously and earnestly to eradicate poverty globally.
Carroll writes: “Within seconds of meeting Raj for the first time, one sees his energy, commitment, charm, quickness, smarts and ambitions. He is inspiring. If his negatives are fewer and harder to figure, he points them out to you. At a large senior staff retreat in late 2010, he told us he was like a speedboat, and “I create a lot of wake.” Heads nodded like they were bobbing in those waves.
“What this meant on a practical level was that he moved fast, in so many directions and with such determination that he sometimes sped past good people and tools he needed to get the job done.”
Carroll gives an anecdote and insight into the way Shah wanted to go about his work:
He writes: “When the U.S. Agency for International Development celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011, Raj Shah told me and others at the agency, in so many words, that we should make sure USAID doesn’t live to see 100.
“As USAID’s Chief of Staff and then its Chief Operating Officer for the first half of Shah’s tenure, I knew Shah did not in any way want to kill the world’s largest, most important development assistance donor. Quite the opposite in the short-term.
“He felt, rightly, though, that if we’re still doing assistance the same way 50 years in, then we haven’t done enough. If we change, accelerate and scale the way we do things, then we shouldn’t be around—at least not in the same form—to “celebrate” 100 years of providing aid. Shah reminded all of us that development assistance should be around only for so long.”
Read Carroll’s full blog here: http://blog.creativeassociatesinternational.com/expertise/how-raj-shah-reshaped-usaid/