After you become the expert, take a stand

You don't need to be a schmoozer or extroverted center of attention to be a leader in your department. You can also just know your stuff and be willing to stand up when your issues come up.

The Ben Bernanke that emerges from this account of the height / nadir of the financial collapse provides a fascinating example. (Unfortunately requires subscription.)

When White House officials first interviewed Bernanke for the post of Fed chairman, he was so quiet they worried that he lacked, as one put it, "assertiveness."

Sounds like the wrong guy for the job, and his television appearances haven't won any glamor awards.

But later, people scoff at his idea to give $85bn to AIG.

"Do you have eighty-five billion?" Representative barney Frank asked.
"I have eight hundred billion," Bernanke said, referring to the Fed's balance sheet.

You can almost imagine him thumping his chest.

Then, he needs to convince Hank Paulson to take drastic action beyond anything being contemplated. Keep in mind that Hank Paulson is as intimidating and strong a personality as you're likely to ever meet.

"Hank! Listen to me," he interrupted. "We are done!"

It was the first time Fed officials had heard him raise his voice.

"The Fed is already doing all that it can with the powers we have," Bernanke continued. One participant recalled, "Ben gave an impassioned, linear, rigorous argument explaining the limits of our authority and the history of financial crises in the US and abroad.... It was an encyclopedic tour de force."

It was as though Bernanke were the professor and Paulson the student. Bernanke's comments lasted about fifteen minutes, and Paulson was uncharacteristically silent until near the end.

The article mostly focuses on the other names, particularly Paulson, as you'd expect. These are just a couple snippets that I pulled out.

Bernanke doesn't really have a gift for gab, nor does he seem to like attention. However, he clearly inserts himself when he has to. He takes an informed stand, defends it, and is willing to suffer the consequences should he be wrong. None of these things Bernanke proposed had ever been done before.

Obviously, none of us are dealing with issues of this magnitude. Scale it down.

What major decisions are being made in your department? Which ones should you take a strong stand, even though you're not 100% sure it will work? The margin of error in our field is surely more forgiving.