A No-Nonsense Style Honed as Advocate and First Lady

IN CHARGE Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2006 in Washington, where she has a Senate staff of 55. She runs a campaign staff of about 500 people.
By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: October 26, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — Hillary Rodham Clinton needs her rest. She shuns the nocturnal habits of her husband — the 2 a.m. staff calls, the all-hours games of hearts. “It doesn’t suit my body rhythms,” said Mrs. Clinton, who typically sleeps six or seven hours, sometimes beside the briefing book she had been reading.

Her meetings have clear agendas and rarely devolve into open-ended “brainstorming” sessions. She might indulge gossip at the outset (Who’s pregnant? Who saw “Grey’s Anatomy”?) but hates wasting time. “Every meeting should be transactional,” said Tamera Luzzatto, Mrs. Clinton’s Senate chief of staff.

So should each e-mail message. Mrs. Clinton’s are spare (“yes, let’s do it.”), uncluttered with jokes, emoticons or out-of-nowhere “whassups.” She carries a Blackberry, on vibrate, in her purse.

When asked about her as a manager, people who have worked for Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic senator from New York, described her as “organized,” “methodical” and “disciplined.” They also note that those words were never applied to her husband, Bill Clinton.

“She is very smart and very organized,” said Leon E. Panetta, the former White House chief of staff. “Bill Clinton was very smart and not very organized.”

It is indeed likely that a Hillary Clinton White House would be more punctual, precise and process-oriented than her husband’s. Still, managing something as big as the federal government and unforeseeable as a presidency presents an inevitably steep learning curve.

Mrs. Clinton has never led a large enterprise, a point her Republican rival Rudolph W. Giuliani has made in recent days. She has overseen a Senate office (staff of 55), a first lady’s office (staff of 25), an ill-fated “health-care task force” (involving 511 people), a presidential campaign (staff of more than 500) — and attended many, many meetings (“I’ve decided to declare meetings as my major,” Mrs. Clinton wrote jokingly in a letter in her college days).

Her background as a boss, powerful spouse and advocate could signal Mrs. Clinton’s approach to the job for which she is now applying. She is credited with hiring capable, loyal staff members, though her top aides have also been called insular and needlessly defensive at times.

Friends and advisers say Mrs. Clinton has been a diligent student of her own mistakes, and her style has evolved over the years from a tendency to micromanage to a greater willingness to delegate; from a bent toward perfectionism to one closer to pragmatism; from a go-for-broke mentality to one more willing to compromise.

Mrs. Clinton, for her part, draws a distinction between leadership and management, and her style and that of Mr. Clinton.

“My husband has extraordinary leadership ability,” Mrs. Clinton said in an interview. “But he was also not as interested in the day-to-day management. He was much more focused on our goals and objectives: how you do the politics, how you do the persuasion. I’m trying to meld leadership and management in a way that really suits me.”