Tim Kaine Reflects on First Year in Office, His Leadership Philosophy and the Future of the Commonwealth

November 28, 2006

Approaching the one-year mark in office and speaking to an audience primarily composed of students at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine discussed his views on the governor’s job and what he hopes to accomplish in office.

Elected last November and inaugurated in January, Kaine said he has three distinct leadership functions as governor. Acting as CEO of the government occupies 60 to 70 percent of his time. Kaine related that “although much of what a chief executive does is not necessarily the newsworthy part, it’s the biggest part of the job.”

Second, he cited his involvement in the legislative process, which requires 20 to 30 percent of his time. And third, his role as the political leader of the Democratic Party in Virginia takes up roughly 10 percent of his time.

Administering the state government of Virginia is a massive enterprise, involving the oversight of more than 100,000 employees in approximately 100 different agencies. While acknowledging various good-governance plaudits Virginia has received in the past from Governing magazine and others, he noted that those benchmarks are in the rear view. “I want to look into the windshield. I want to get better. I’m not interested so much in accolades in the past.”

The governor laid out his own philosophy of leadership, one he said he developed at the “school of hard knocks” via his prior work experience. “My leadership philosophy that I try to bring to bear in this executive capacity is a fairly simple one. Success in a big institution is a function of two things—goals plus relationships, and that is kind of my basic management philosophy.”

Setting goals and measuring achievement are essential to effective leadership, boosting productivity and performance, he said, noting he had spent six weeks early in his term reviewing in detail each agency’s proposed goals for the next several years.

The commonwealth will soon launch Perform Virginia, a Web site that will publish performance goals of each state agency and report updates on progress toward meeting those goals.

Kaine also said that he has his own goals for his administration:

1. To address Virginia’s transportation needs;
2. To improve health care outcomes, particularly with regard to expanding access for the uninsured and reducing childhood obesity;
3. To improve K-12 education and, specifically, to reduce by more than half the number of third graders failing statewide reading tests; and
4. To preserve at least 400,000 acres of open space in Virginia.

The governor then went on to talk about the role of relationships in leadership. In a few cases, an executive has the ability to make things happen by fiat. But to achieve complex goals, an executive must foster relationships and secure the cooperation of many people “The achievement of the goal depends upon collaboration and teamwork.”

Kaine cited three types of relationships in particular: the relationship between different agencies within state government; the relationship between state and local governments; and the relationship between the state government and the private and nonprofit sectors.

Kaine went on to talk about the symbolic importance of the gubernatorial role. He emphasized the significance of just showing up at events marked by crisis, celebration or grief. Kaine stressed the particular importance of reaching out to groups that often feel left out of the political process and only rarely have access to the highest levels of power, noting that this approach helps bring to life the notion of a commonwealth” in which we’re all in it together.

Kaine then went on to describe his successes and failures in working with the legislature in the 2006 session. He called attention to several measures he supported that passed, including requiring evaluations for public school teachers, ending Virginia’s estate tax and providing tax incentives to protect open space.

But he acknowledged that the larger goal of moving forward his marquee transportation initiative ended in stalemate in a record-setting legislative and special session. Despite basic agreement on certain priorities, particularly using state money more wisely and addressing land-use issues, legislators could not agree on how to fund new initiatives, Kaine said.

In subsequent comments, Kaine said that room to maneuver on that question had been hampered by the no-tax pledges many Republican legislators have made. . Although he acknowledged the benefits of Virginia’s status as a relatively low-tax state, Kaine warned against letting important public needs go unmet for the sake of having the lowest possible tax burden. “Reducing taxes can be a very good thing,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s a rigid ideological principle that you should always reduce taxes... You’ve got to find out what the needs are.”

Finally, Kaine talked about his role in leading the Democratic Party and encouraging strong candidates to run for office. Although proud to be a Democrat and part of what he referred to as “a big-tent party,” he said the Democrats don’t have a monopoly on wisdom or virtue. He recruits and campaigns for Democratic candidates, but he also reaches out to Republicans and Independents in an attempt “to find common ground and compromise,” he said.

Recent election results showed that Virginia is fundamentally an independent state, which he views as a healthy situation, he said, noting that a robust two-party system is a “wonderful form of government.”

In the question-and-answer period, Kaine responded to questions about taxes, leadership and ethics, protection of minority rights and the relationship between Virginia’s cities and counties. On that last score, he intends to use his first two-year budget next year as a tool to encourage regional cooperation among city and county governments by providing funding incentives to metropolitan regions which engage in regional problem solving, he said.

All in all, the hour-long session provided some rich insight into the mindset and aspirations of Virginia’s not-quite-a-rookie-anymore governor.

Written by Thad Williamson and Sue Robinson with research assistance from Audrey Gianpietro

Biography of Timothy M. Kaine
About the Jepson School of Leadership Studies

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