Time Management for Appointees

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Katie Sullivan

Former Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice

Katharine “Katie” Sullivan served as a state trial court Judge for 11 years prior to joining the Trump Administration at the Department of Justice.

The 5 Areas of Time Management this Training Will Cover

  • The First Month
      • Empower your political staff
      • Stack the deck in your favor
      • Learn your agency and become familiar with your office
        • Find out how to prepare for meetings and what is expected of you in the FIRST meeting. This will save you time down the line!
      • Start to read executive orders - even if your principal has not arrived
      • Meet with senior career staff - keep initial meetings to 20-30 minutes
  • Effective Communication
      • Communicate preferences, policies and internal direction clearly from the beginning (if you’re a senior staff member) and ask questions (if you are junior staff member)
      • Everyone has a preferred process to learn
      • So much time is wasted when staff are guessing what the principal wants. 
      • Set deadlines and communicate them!
  • External Meetings
      • Other agencies
        • If you are headed to a different agency, the same vetting rules apply - know who you are meeting with, get their bio and what their office does
      • Conferences
        • It is very important to take these opportunities to highlight the great work of the President
        • Set up as many meetings as possible with grant recipients and agency funded programs
      • Congress
        • Your visits to Congress will usually be handled through your Office of Legislative Affairs
        • Your time commitment is really preparation 
  • Internal Meetings
      • Meet with senior career staff on a regular bases - keep meetings to 45 minutes
      • Junior staff should put together a meeting agenda for all meetings
      • Meetings should ALWAYS be forward looking - how is your office advancing the presidential agenda?
      • If a topic starts to monopolize the time, set it aside and schedule a separate meeting for staff who are interested
      • If stakeholders or other people from outside the government are coming in for a meeting, be sure there is a thorough vet of the individuals and their organization
  • Document Review
    • Reviewing and editing documents for external release and internal use is perhaps the most important task you will have while in the Administration