Madeleine Albright

The first female Secretary of State shares her insights.

Last November, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, PhD, sat down with award-winning journalist Jim Gray to share her insights with the University of Phoenix community as part of the University’s Leadership Circle speaker series. Here, in this excerpt from their discussion, she weighs in on leadership, technology and the skills required to thrive in this new age.

Jim Gray: When you were a little girl in Czechoslovakia before your parents had to flee because of [World War II], what was your goal? What did you hope to be?

Madeleine Albright: My father was a Czechoslovak diplomat, and I was born in 1937. Two years later, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. Because my father was associated with the government, we went and lived in England during the war.

“All I wanted to do was to become a bona fide American. That was my greatest hope.”

Madeleine Albright

MA: (cont.) And so I lived through the Blitz and various things. And then my father became the Czechoslovak ambassador to Yugoslavia. Then, the communists took over in Czechoslovakia, and my father had another job at the United Nations.

[After that,] we came to the United States, and he defected and wanted to become an American citizen. All I wanted to do was to become a bona fide American. That was my greatest hope. People ask me often what the most important thing that happened to me is. Becoming an American, hands down. There’s just no question about that.

And so what did I want to do? Early on I did kind of think of myself as a potential diplomat, but mostly what I wanted to do was have some involvement with foreign policy and international relations. The part that might surprise you is that I actually wanted to be a journalist. I worked on the Denver Post and when I got married, I married a journalist. And I did the things you’re supposed to do. …

It never occurred to me that I could be Secretary of State. It’s not that I lacked ambition. It’s just that I’d never seen a Secretary of State without a beard or in a skirt. And it was a big deal. I have to tell you my youngest granddaughter, when she turned seven two years ago, said, “What’s the big deal about Grandma Maddie being Secretary of State? Only girls are Secretary of State.” It’s a little different [today].

JG: We live in such a divided country, a divided world. How do you define leadership and the role of leaders today?

MA: I think that it is one of the toughest questions. If you look around the world, I think there are a lot of questions about confidence in leaders, generally. We are about to look at, [this] year, a period of many elections and transitions. I often talk about [leadership] as if it were a hot air balloon. You need the idealist to get it up in the air, but you need the ballast of realism to make it go in the right direction. I think a leader is somebody who has that idealistic spirit and has a set of principles, and at the same time listens enough and is flexible enough to be realistic in terms of what can be done in a particular situation.

JG: What do you think of this technological revolution that has taken place over the past 10 years and how it affects our government and our world?

MA: Well, it has changed everything because of the rapidity of information. There is a constant amount of information coming in, and the decision-making process has to react to it. The question is whether we are forced to react too quickly, because there is a rule that, [and] I am not the first one to make it, the first information to come in is usually wrong. So you have to be very careful in terms of how you adjust to it and how you react to it.

Now, it is just at lightning speed. There is no question that a lot of what is happening in the Arab world has to do with the rapidity of the transfer of information and also the disclosure of all kinds of information that had not been disclosed before.

JG: A University of Phoenix faculty member submitted a question for you about 21st century skills. What do you consider to be the most essential skills for 21st century leaders?

MA: Well, I think the most essential skill is actually listening and realizing that other people have a point of view. I also do think, and I’m working on this myself, that mastering technology is important because it’s very useful. I think what is happening now is the opportunities that technology offers are so stunning that I do think knowing how it works is a very important aspect of it. … But the bottom line [is] I think the skills are the same: the listening, the having a set of principles and having the agility to figure out how to solve problems. Honestly, I do think that being able to solve problems is one of the really important aspects of whatever career one has chosen.

JG: Of all the people you’ve had the opportunity to meet and deal with, who is the most impressive?

MA: Well there are a lot of really impressive people, but there are three that I have really been impressed with. Nelson Mandela, obviously, for everything that he ever did. … Because I was born in Czechoslovakia, I was very impressed with Václav Havel, the first post-Velvet Revolution president. He had lived through all the horror of the communist period and was able to bring a nation back to morality. And then somebody who’s very much in the news today is Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese leader, who also has done a great deal for the country. The thing that links the three of them is that they forgive. And it’s most visible in Nelson Mandela. His story is so stunning, having been in prison for so long and then he came out and forgave and created a great country. And it’s true of Václav Havel and Aung San Suu Kyi. And the question is how do you operate in that kind of trauma to yourself and then are able to come out and lead a nation. And it’s because you’re able to forgive.

JG: If you were able to do this all again, could you replicate it, and would you be as successful?

MA: That’s a really good question. I think I could. I think that I might do a few things differently, but I would want to replicate it. … People ask me how I describe myself. Grateful. Grateful is the major word, and an optimist who worries a lot. I do think I would try to replicate it because I think it’s been pretty good, and it ain’t over.

JG: A member of our audience has a personal question for you. How did you juggle your work and high profile positions with the demands of motherhood?

MA: I got married three days after I left college and had twins a couple of years later, which drove me to graduate school. … I think in many ways, school and having children really works very well. The only thing that happened was it took me so long to get my PhD. … But I think it’s very interesting because now, I have three daughters and they’re all grown up … they have children and are married and have jobs, and they actually do think that I was a pretty good mother in terms of devoting time to them and not hovering in many different ways. It’s very hard. There’s no way to be truly comfortable with it, and I have said that every woman’s middle name is guilt because you never feel that you’re quite in the right place. When you’re at home all the time, you think you should go and work, and if you are working all the time, you wonder what your children are doing, and it’s very tough. And the part that is really tough is that other women are hard on you. … I believe the following thing: Women have to help each other, and I have a statement, which is just flat out that there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.

Listen to more excerpts from the interview at:
phoenix.edu/cmp/leadership-circle/albright.html

About Dr. Albright: From 1993 to 1997, Albright served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as a member of the President’s Cabinet. She is a professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She chairs both the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the Pew Global Attitudes Project. She also serves as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation.

About Jim Gray: Gray is an award-winning journalist who has had noteworthy interviews with many world leaders, celebrities and sports stars including President Clinton, Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Academy Award-winner Jack Nicholson, and NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

To find out more about the Leadership Circle speaker series visit:
phoenix.edu/cmp/leadership-circle.html