Episode 204 | Part 1: Leadership Lessons from 25 Years alongside General Colin Powell - Leslie Lautenslager

In this episode, Leslie Lautenslager shares personal insights from her 25 years serving as a trusted advisor and protocol expert for General Colin L. Powell. Leslie discusses the "art and science" of protocol, explaining how formal rules provide a framework for building international relationships while kindness dictates when those rules should be finessed. We explore her unique journey from a double major in psychology and fine arts to the U.S. State Department, and eventually to her pivotal role managing General Powell’s international speaking circuit and his office during his tenure as Secretary of State.

The conversation dives into the General’s "love note" system—a rigorous training method he used to ensure his staff remained "in harmonic" with his high standards and expectations. Leslie also highlights the simple but profound power of the handwritten thank-you note, a practice both she and the General credited for opening doors and maintaining deep professional respect. You will learn how to prepare for high-stakes leadership, why treating everyone with respect is the ultimate diplomatic tool, and what it was like to work alongside a leader who was a constant student of the world.

About Leslie Lautenslager:

Leslie Lautenslager is a distinguished protocol expert with a career spanning over three decades of high-level diplomacy and international relations. Beginning her journey in 1986 at Blair House, she managed state visits and led presidential delegations before transitioning to the private sector as the event manager for General Colin L. Powell. She served as a trusted advisor and liaison to the General for 25 years, including his tenure as U.S. Secretary of State, where she was the Assistant Chief of Protocol for Ceremonials. In this role, she organized functions for foreign dignitaries and coordinated major national events, such as the UN General Assembly and state funerals, remaining with the General until his passing in 2021.

Beyond her government service, Lautenslager is a global leader in her field, having served as President of Protocol & Diplomacy – Protocol Officers Association from 2016 to 2020. An accomplished author and trainer, she penned the memoir "My Time with General Colin Powell" and has contributed to several academic texts on international etiquette. A graduate of the College of William & Mary, she is now an internationally recognized speaker who trains prestigious organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Peace Corps in the

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Transcript

My guest today is Leslie Lautenslager, an internationally recognized expert in diplomacy and protocol. Leslie's the author of My Time with General Colin Powell: Stories of Kindness, Diplomacy, and Protocol. In this episode  she shares personal insights on  her 25 years spent at the side of one of America's greatest public servants, General Colin L. Powell, 

 My guest today is Leslie Slager, an internationally recognized expert in diplomacy and protocol. Leslie's the author of my time with General Colin Powell, stories of Kindness, diplomacy, and Protocol. In this episode, she shares personal insights on her 25 years spent at the side of one of America's.

Greatest public servants General Powell.

Gut speed. 

Stop.

Yeah. Leslie, welcome to the podcast. 

Thank you very much for having me. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you. 

I'm so excited that Patricia Fripp, we call her Fripp is such a connector connected to people in high places like you. 

She's charming and delightful, so I'm, I'm delighted to be here. 

She is.

And I was delighted to read your book, which I'm holding up. And this interview will be on, uh, YouTube as well as, all the podcast platforms. So the title is My Time with General Colin Powell, stories of Kindness, diplomacy, and Protocol. One thing I wanna point out, and this is really, I want you to talk more than me.

I'd like to talk, but you call him my general, and you two developed such a great friendship and that respect, and you know, it went way beyond A work relationship. His whole family has, taken you in. I mean, a lot of the, the testimonials to the book came from his family.

So you were just such an important part of his life and of course vice versa. So let's see how we can dive into this, because as I mentioned, it's a little overwhelming. You have done so much. And it's been a pleasure to get to know more about you and, and of course General Powell.

So let's talk about your background. Where did you start and how did you get to be involved in protocol? 

I am actually the best example of being at the right place at the right time and friend of a friend type of thing. I when I landed the job in my first job in Protocol a thousand years ago, um, 1986, so it was, it was after like the, one of the first jobs after my first job after outta college, um, a friend called Outta the Blue and said, Leslie, this is name, this is Job.

It's got your name on it. It's at the Department of State and the Office of Protocol. And at that point, I'm not even certain I knew what protocol was. I was a double major in college psychology and fine arts, which means. That I can either re psychoanalyze my own paintings or I can design my own ink blots, basically.

Um, 

I love it. 

But my friend had a friend at the State Department working for the Chief of Protocol of the United States, who was Ambassador Lucky Roosevelt Swell, lucky Roosevelt. And there was a position that had opened up and they were desperately, they, the, the office protocol staff and, and invest Roosevelt specifically, desperately needed to, to hire somebody to fill the position.

And they spread the word around the staff saying who you know, who do you know and whatnot. And so somebody on the staff had a friend who was my friend. And my friend, God bless her, thought to, to recommend me based on nothing more exotic than the fact she'd spent a lot of time with me, with my family.

And I was raised very much by a by, by a a, a good southern mother. And you know, I just, I say, yes ma'am. No ma'am. Yes sir, no sir. And thank you. And I write my thank you notes. I mean, everything you can imagine that comes from the epitome of proper raising, 

good breeding, 

good breeding. And my friend thought of me and think.

Goodness that she did. And I went in for an interview and lo and behold, I got the position, got the, the was offered the job. And within weeks of being in the job, fell in love with the profession. And suddenly I had found my niche, and that became my passion and my career.

Now, at the time, it was a political appointment, so I, my first position in the protocol world was a political appointee during the Reagan administration. So that meant that my position itself ended when President Reagan's administration ended. Although I stayed for a few months to help train the president, Bush 41 administration.

But I, but that was the end of my, my first job in protocol, but it became my career. And so from that, I went into protocol in, for private organizations and whatnot, but it became my my, my career and I was at my career is as a protocol professional and fell in love with it, fell in love. The fact that protocol is an art and a science.

So you, you, you learn the rules and you know what is correct, but the, and that's the science of protocol, but the art of protocol is you learn those rules. But then you know how to justify bending the rule or breaking the rule, 

or maybe finessing the rule, 

finessing the rule. You know, one of the, one of the examples that I, I give that's most, the most, most obvious lesson to, to, to show the art and the science of what protocol is.

Just as an example, you know, if, if the place of honor is always to the right, and, and, and for your listeners and your viewers who, who may not know a lot about protocol, and, and you may not know this, but the place of honor, when you are walking somebody someplace or you're seating somebody someplace, the place of honor is to the right.

So if you are the host and you have a guest of honor, you would put the guest of honor to your right. Or when you're walking with that guest of honor down a hallway, you would walk with the guest of honor on your right. That's the science, that's the black and white rule. Okay? But what happens if you are deaf in your right ear and your guest of honor is deaf in his left ear?

Now, is that going to be the kindest thing you would want to. Do put your guest of honor at a disadvantage. So if you think of protocol as also a gift, it's a gift you are giving those you are honoring. It's a gift you are giving as you are trying to build relationships between organizations, between leaders, between cultures, between countries.

Think in terms of yes the rules that are meant to be followed because it's, it's, it provides a framework so that everybody can walk forward together, theoretically walking symbolically, walk forward together or, or develop a relationship moving forward. But know when you when it's okay, know when it's appropriate to bend a rule so that it's the gift you're giving.

So again, going back to my analogy of deaf and, and right ear deaf and left ear, think of it as a gift. You're giving that person to not put them at a disadvantage, swap it, put your, put that guest of honor on your left, but you know how to justify it. You know how you're able to explain it. You would never wanna break a rule without the explanation why we do it this way, why that this is a gift, why this is a kindness.

So anyway, that's how I got started in protocol all those many years ago. And then. Again, going back to my, when I first said that I'm the perfect example of being in the right place at the right time and friend of a friend, same thing happened. Years go by and I'm, I've done protocol in different organizations and I, again, I get a phone call from a friend of mine who says, Leslie, that's the job.

It's got your name on it. Now, this is April of 1996. Okay. April of 1996. And my friend says, Leslie, this, this job's got your name on it. And it's with a organization called the Washington Speakers Bureau and their top speaker. And not to be crass, but basically their golden goose at the time the person taking care of him on the international speaking circuit is leaving and they need to find somebody to take care of him.

Him being general. Colin Powell and I, you know, at the time, I wasn't even job hunting, but this friend said, got your name on they, they need you. They need you. And what had happened was the Washington Speakers Bureau, the woman who had been taking care of General Colin Powell, for the first like 18 months, he was on the speaking circuit.

He, he retired from the from the military. He retired as chairman of the joint shift staff. Top military position in the United States, arguably the world. Even he had retired from the military. He'd written his first book, his autobiography, and he had entered the speaking circuit. And about 18 months into the speaking career he, the girl who was at the Washington Speaks bureau, who had been taking care of him, was leaving.

And the co-founders of the speakers bureau went to General Powell and said, listen, your event manager's leaving. Tell us who you want us to hire. We will hire whomever you wish. Tell us who you want. God bless Joan Powell, because he said, no, you all have taken good care of me so far. I trust you to find the person.

And so they spread the word around to other popular speaker or other very, um, active speakers in the speaking circuit. And former Senator Jack Kemp, who was also very, very popular in the speaking circuit. His chief of staff, his basically his right arm was a friend of mine who was actually the husband of a friend of mine from all the days, the years ahead in protocol.

And she had been one of my immediate bosses and. This gentleman, Rick Hearn, told Harry and Bernie, Harry Rose, and Bernie Swain, the, the owners of the speakers bureau found the speakers bureau. I know who it is you need, but let me call my wife because I don't know how to find, I don't know how to call her.

So lemme, lemme call my wife. She'll find her. He called his wife Pam. Pam called me and said, Leslie, they need you. Rick says they need you. And, um, there you go. Now the key to this was that I do not come from a military background. And there's a tendency to think of when you think of a leader in the military of, of needing that, that expertise.

But the reason why they, the reason why I understood that they ended up offering me the job was that the general, and I had two things in common, even though I didn't have the military background. Number one, we had both worked for President Ronald Reagan during the Reagan administration. And number two, despite the fact I did not have a military background, I had the protocol background.

And protocol in military speak a common language. In, in some ways in terms of like, there, there are right and wrong things. You go by the book, you follow procedure, you go for what is formal, you go for what is black and white and you carry forward with leadership, leadership. And so that was, despite the fact I didn't come from the military, I don't have the speak the language of the military.

They thought that those two things, we both were for Reagan and I spoke protocol, he spoke military and that might be a common language that we could at least share. So they offered me the job and the general, and I did not know if we would work out. We had no idea. I certainly had no idea I would last a year, much less for the rest of his life and beyond even.

But it turned out to be a, a, a magical adventure and, and and chapter. And he, I, when I would, so working with him on the international speaking circuit, I would have great fun sometimes when I would talk to a, my counterpart in a client. So I'm working with say the National Association of, um, speech writers and, and my, in working with my counterpart, and I could tell that person was a little bit intimidated about the idea of, oh my golly, I'm gonna meet and have to take care of the great and glorious call Powell, or, all this, you know, it was this. 

I can imagine that's how I would feel. 

Exactly. And so after I would develop enough of a rapport on the phone, sometimes I would then, when I could, I wouldn't do it right away.

'cause I would be cruel if I did. But I, I would, I would wait till I would hear a certain reverence in his or her voice and a little intimidation. But if I felt that I had developed enough rapport with the person, I would say, well, you know, every wonderful thing you've ever heard about General Powell Israel.

Okay. Can you hold on one second? I've had this problem with audio cut cutting out. So if you, you know, when you said, oh, 

stay 

back. So, so if you could start o over with saying everything you've ever heard about, but just make sure you keep your volume up. Otherwise it's good. Drop and 

stay this far away from the 

Yeah, this is fine.

But you know, I mean, it's a normal way of talking, but for them, can't confirm this. Yeah. So you told them that you just start out with every single thing you've heard. 

So it, when I would. Find that I'd had built enough of a rapport with my contact, I would say, every wonderful thing you've ever heard about General Powell.

And I'd pause a beat and I would say it's wrong. And you could hear almost this audible gasp at the other end. And then I would say he's even better. And it was true. And, and then I would try to also to reassure the person that please don't be nervous. You're gonna have a wonderful time meeting him.

But I will take care of him. I will make sure he's taking care of you. Do not need to take, you do not need to worry anything about him. I'll take care of him. But I will also help make you look great with your people and your bosses. You can shine because he will be happy. I, I can make General Powell happy, which will help make you shine with your bosses.

And, but it'll also take the pressure off you in terms of trying to juggle all the balls that you have to keep in the air. 

I wanna just talk to stop a little bit and go back to a couple things. Oh, sure. One thing that I have to say, moms everywhere. Look at the power of a thank you note when you said you were brought up to act a certain way and, and, you know, be polite, whatever considered.

And you wrote thank you notes. Well, I know General Powell also was very religious about writing thank you notes. And like I said, for every mom who has made our kids write thank you notes, whether or not they do those types of things matter. And also the fact that you got these references, people say, Leslie, you're perfect for this job.

Well, you had a good network and these people thought really highly of you. Um, I know in the book we, maybe we would talk about this later, but of course General Powell had very high standards for himself and for others. So I think it's, it that's really something that I think we could take away. Just who, you know, how you treat them.

Writing thank you notes. Okay. That's so 

simple. Well, lemme, lemme do a little plug about the thank you note business. My mother to this day, my 92-year-old mother to this day, credits a particular scholarship. I, I received going to college that she made me, I, I, I suspect it had been in, she had ingrained it in me enough that she wouldn't have.

Had to make me do it. But anyway, she made me write thank you notes to this little organization that had given me a, a nice little scholarship. And it was a, not gigantic, but a little scholarship that for every, every semester she made me write a thank you note. I didn't know who these people were, but just like to the, you know, generically the CEO of whatever this organization was, she made me write a thank you note.

And don't, you know, after the first semester when I wrote the thank you note at the end of the semester, suddenly the scholarship increased. My mother to this day swears that it was because I wrote a thank you note. But anyway, thank you. Notes are very important to include that General Powell, because his mama raised him right, I guess.

But he just knew it, um, ingrained after every speaking occasion, after every speaking event, he would write a handwritten thank you note to the CEO of the organization for having invited him. And somebody w would, would, other speakers on the speaking circuit would say, why would you do that? They're paying you a lot of money.

They should be thanking you. 

Right? It 

didn't matter. It does not matter. It is for the, if the person, if general pal philosophy was like, if the person, you know, wanted to invite me to participate, to come into their world, I can thank them and I should thank them. And it would be just, two or three sentences on a little.

Card handwritten the day after in the mail without doubt. 

And that, that is, yeah, that's 

being 

prompt. And he was, go ahead. 

Just as likely to write it. Just a, a thank you note to just somebody who wasn't even the CEO or might have been just somebody who, who you would not necessarily, would not be somebody who would, would be in the headline.

But he was always very kind that way. 

And, and you said he treated everyone with the ultimate respect no matter what political offic, uh, affiliation and matter if they're the person opening the door or the CEO of the company. I, I just, I mean, you know, you, if there were some skeletons, we would be finding them out, but you, there aren't any except for the little, uh, twinkle in his eye sense of humor that we'll talk about also.

I hope, but Well, 

and the, and the only time I've ever been in a car that went over a hundred miles an hour. 

Oh, only time you what? At a hundred miles an 

hour I've ever been in a car with somebody driving over a hundred miles an hour. 

I guess they, it's too late. They can't get him now, huh? 

On the Doles Access Road.

In the Corvette. 

He just such an interesting gracious, intelligent this whole military, you know, he, he loved that, the respect. And then of course he got into politics, all of that. He was just so consistent. And yet he had, like you said, I remember when we first got on, you said he was a little bit evil.

Is that okay to include in the podcast? 

Yep. Because, because I, I'll explain this reason. I use the word 'cause I, I, it's it's, it, I don't mean it seriously. Obviously. I know you don't, obviously I don't mean it, but when, when we first started working together, and so, so taking care of General Powell on the international speaking circuit, what that meant is that I, everything I did had to be devoted to making him smart on the speaking circuit.

So if, again, he's speaking to the National Speech Writers Association or, you know, whatever the organization is, and he is, he's gonna be their keynote speaker, my job is to make him smart about that association, make him smart about that event itself. Make it, make him smart about the audience who will be sitting in the seats listening to him.

So this speech is different from last week's speech. 'cause this is the donor. The, you know, the donor class of this association. And the people in the audience for this group will be the big underwriters versus the group that would've been in the audience last week. It might have been like the people new to the industry.

Also make 'em smart about what are the, the things that are pertinent to the industry right now. What are the highs and lows in the economy that's affecting it? So this comes into my working with the, with the client to gimme all the information to make him smart. 'cause he beating it up on me to make him smart about it.

Mm-hmm. And I then write a briefing paper. I then give him all the collateral, um, information. So I'm, I'm boiling it down to a briefing paper, but then I give him the raw material itself. 'cause he wants to read the annual reports. Whoever reads the annual report, I mean, the board of directors don't read annual reports.

He reads the annual reports and on top of that, he was a Google meister. He would then Google up so that he could find, even more information. Then it became a battle between the two of us if he could find something that I hadn't been able to find. But he was a constant student. He always, always was trying to make himself as smart as he could because he did not use a written speech ever.

Now, when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs or when he was the Secretary of State. Clearly there are some policy issues that you can have a written speech and the, you know, written bullet points and things. But on the international speaking circuit, no written speech, but it was because he wouldn't absorb it all my briefing paper as well as all the other materials in advance so he could get up on stage and Wow.

An audience. And so that when he's speaking to the audience, the audience hears the language they speak, you know, he's able to, to put if you wanted him to be your speaker, you were actually wanting General Powell to be General Powell. You wanted General Powell to be this phenomenal leader on your stage, but his gift to an audience was okay.

Yeah. I'm, I'm Colin Powell, but I'm giving you the gift of I know who you are and I know what's important to you. So yeah. My Colin Powell stories, but I can, I can can paint them in a way that is singing your song and speaking your language. But the reason why, why I, I made you gasp when I said, well, he was pretty evil.

We first started working together and that was because when, first couple days, you know, I, I prepared him for whatever his, his speaking events are. And this is 1996. So mind you, we don't have cell phones at the time. I mean, they, they exist on the planet, but we don't have cell phones at work at the time, and we don't have email at the time.

So really, we either talk on the phone or in person or by fax. By fax machine. Mm-hmm. So this first couple, um, events go really, really well. I've heard back from my contact with the National Association of whatever, and, the, the contact is delighted and pleased and the CEO is delighted and pleased and the 5,000 people in the audience, they're delighted and pleased.

And so I'm a little big from my britches and I come into my office thinking I've, I patted myself going back, I've done a good job. And then I would get to the fax machine, and then all my fax would be a page or a page and a half of fax that said two ll my Leslie laws, my initials LL from CP Powell.

And I know this next part 

regarding RE Love note. Love 

notes. 

And this is, and then he, then, for the whole page, sometimes a page and a half, he would then go into detail. But all the things I'd done wrong and he would. Bullet it, or he would number it in all caps. He would do a whole page, page and a half in all caps, telling me how I screwed up all the things I'd done wrong going forward, Leslie, we'll do it this way.

No, we won't do it this way. And you know what you did? You said it's, you know, he always did in the military clock, 1400, it means two o'clock whatnot. And again, not for the military. I, it doesn't come naturally. So of course, to me, 1230 at night, midnight 30 is 24 30. Oh no. Oh no it's, you know, not that at all.

So anyway, it was painful. So whenever I 

came, and so, I mean, how long did that go on? You mentioned that the beginning was a little rough, but I mean, you guys became such good friends 

and Well, and the thing, so, so the thing thing that he would, he would turn this love note and that was his way of trying to soften it, knowing he was pulling me through the ringer.

And, you know, I read it and I'm, I'm mortified. Oh my golly. How could this be? You know, I, I'm proud of myself. I think I've done a pretty good job. And, and it, how can this horrible man, be finding fault in, you know, something as you know that the clouds came out and it wasn't my fault, but the clouds came out anyway, as it turns out, this was the way he trained.

Any new, recruit, any new. Staff sergeant, any new lieutenant, anybody who worked for him, that was the way he trained them. So all the years go by 25 and a half years go by. And and especially during COVID because as you can imagine, the speaking circuit is so many arenas were really hurt during COVID shutdown.

But for the events that once we got past that first horribleness, uh, of COVID and been able to at least do some things, and suddenly the world has embraced Zoom and you can do a lot of things on Zoom. So we would do some speeches by Zoom and especially, um, those last years or year and a half so many of his speaking engagements were safe for like senior executive leadership programs.

Where, where, where, you know, it's not necessarily the National Association of X, Y, Z with 5,000 people in the audience now, it's like organizations are really the senior level, the C-suite executives are having like a leadership training executive seminar, or they would want General Powell to give lessons on, on his wonderful leadership style.

So during COVID, we'll go ahead and do those speeches. From the bunker, which is what we, we called the home office, uh, in the basement of his house, the bunker. And we would do it on Zoom. And when he would take the questions from the CEO saying, so, sir, how did you know, how, you know, you were known for your leadership skills.

How did you train your, your junior officers? How did you, you were known for having such a cohesive staff, whether it was State Department or when you were four star or even, you know, corporately, what's your secret to, you know, getting your, your, your staff so ingrained with you?

And he would always laugh and he would say, well, listen, it's very simple. You know, I would train my staff to start getting in and he would do this with his fingers, get in harmonic with me. And he would say, if you've gotta be in, in harmonic with me and just, you know, work with my technique and my, you know, my, my choreography, and the best way to do that is to train them fast and strictly right away.

And then he would say, and this is, you know, all in front of the Zoom screen and say, but better than that. Lemme let Les Leslie tell you. And so I would always be right outside the, the, the camera screen seated right over here, just outside of the camera range, seated right beside him. 'cause that way I could always like pass him notes in front so that saying like, look at the camera or whatever, whatever, or, or pass him.

So don't forget to say X, Y, z some literally seated right beside him. But he would, for this lesson, he would, have me come share the screen with him. And then I would do that to shtick. And I would say, you know what, when we first started, he was mean and evil and I hated him. And then I would, and now I would explain the love note system.

So, so even I came to appreciate it. I mean, the first month or so, it was painful, but once we got through it, and, and that was his plan, that was his plot. Once we got through it, it was, I've trained her, she's, he would tease and he would say, periodically would say, you're not the boss of me.

And it was always, that was the cue that he was saying, okay, yes, Leslie, you're in charge. But it was a way to train anybody working with him. It was a matter of getting them, to, to sing from the same page of music, so to speak. So it was the love note system that he would tell the CEOs that, if you've got new people coming in, uh.

Frame them hard, let them know your expectations down into the weeds. Split the hairs, but at least as soon as they learn it, they are your trusted aids. 

You know, I wanna take a break here. We talked about doing this in two parts. And before we close out, I do want to. Bring up Leslie's book again, my time with General Colin Powell, stories of kindness, diplomacy, and protocol.

Fascinating book. I told Leslie it, it, I got a little overwhelmed, or more than a little overwhelmed. There's so much to cover and so many, of his wise sayings and his values, the the way he treated. everyone so well with so much respect no matter who they were. I would like to close this part out and then in the next conversation, Leslie, I wanna talk a little bit more about you and how did you handle all this?

Leslie, thank you so much for our conversation so far. I really appreciate it.