Former White House press secretary Perino gives career tips for pandemic conditions
The global coronavirus pandemic has created difficulties for women who want to stand out in the workplace, according to Dana Perino, former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush and current Fox television host. Perino discussed her book, "Everything Will Be Okay: Life Lessons for Young Women (from a Former Young Woman)," at a National Press Club Headliners virtual book event on Tuesday.
Perino, founder of the mentorship program “Minute Mentoring,” is passionate about helping younger women find their way in the workplace. She said she wrote the book because the young women she mentors “are hungry for advice and want you to give them a plan… They want to know, how do you become that resilient person in the office everyone turns to?”
The normal rules no longer apply in the work from home environment during the pandemic because the most important results of a meeting happen after a meeting when colleagues discuss ideas leaving the conference room or grabbing a coffee to brainstorm, Perino said and asked: When that's not happening how do you get face time with your boss other than as a small square on a computer screen? How do you stay relevant and noticed?
Communication is still the key, she said, describing steps she took as White House press secretary to keep information flowing. Every night, she emailed what she called the “night note” to colleagues as well as reporters who would be working the following morning, with the events of the next day. For her bosses, she emailed regular updates on current work, challenges and where she could use guidance. Everyone felt they were well informed, she said.
Translating that undertaking into our current environment, she recommended sending an email every Friday afternoon to the boss and other team members listing three events from the week, how they ended, and what to expect the following week. She also suggests networking virtually by reaching out to two new people a week in the company to learn about what they do.
Women—even the most educated, sought-after, talented, and ambitious—are often too self-critical, Perino said,“You never think you are enough of anything, not a good enough wife, sister, colleague, reporter.” However, telling her readers to stop worrying would just make them worry more that they were worrying, “I say, I know you are going to worry. How can you take that anxiety and put it through the catalytic converter and make that energy work for you?”
Perino recalled the irony of the day she was tapped to be the new White House press secretary: she was going to hand in her resignation. As deputy secretary serving under the very capable Tony Snow, she believed there was no possibility of moving up, and the president wanted a commitment from his team to stay on for the remaining eighteen months of his term or resign. But moments before she could do so, White House counselor Ed Gillespie informed her the president wanted to name her the new press secretary. Snow would be resigning for health reasons. Perino was the second female press secretary in White House history and the first Republican female in the job.
Club President Lisa Nicole Matthews, who interviewed Perino, observed that the book’s advice isn’t limited to women; much of it is gender neutral. Perino replied, “My husband thinks every man should read it so that men will then understand that they will never understand women. He read the draft and said, ‘You all think a lot!’”