Story highlights David Gergen: President Donald Trump is weighing the possibility of a staff shake-up

Unless a leader is willing to look inward, changing the rest of his team is pointless

David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been a White House adviser to four presidents. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is a professor of public service and co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Follow him on Twitter: @david_gergen. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) A few years ago, the CEO of a Fortune 100 company confided that earlier in his career he had decided his company needed a serious shake-up. So he engaged a top consulting firm and searched for ways to change and realign his team. But then came a light-bulb moment: He realized that actually the first thing he needed to do was to change and realign himself. Both he and his team went through a major, thoughtful transformation and together moved swiftly ahead.

There is a serious lesson here for President Donald Trump as he weighs a shake-up of his White House team. Clearly, changes are needed. But he also needs to see and embrace a central idea for anyone running an organization: Leadership starts from within.

David Gergen

You can't lead others until you learn to lead yourself. For much of human history, a leader could dictate what others did. Today, one must lead through example and persuasion. A White House staff takes its cues from the president -- his temperament, his character, the tone he sets, as well as the course he chooses. Unless a president has his own act together, reshuffling the team is ultimately pointless.

Consider a couple of recent examples from White House history. In the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter was flailing two years into his presidency. His legislative agenda was ailing, the Russians were testing him overseas and the nation was dispirited. Looking for answers, Carter went to Camp David and called in a parade of prominent thinkers. Reporters waited breathlessly for him to return and report, but Carter stayed ... and stayed ... and stayed ... for a full week!

Finally, in what seemed like Moses coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, Carter descended from Camp David to give a prime-time speech to the country. But instead of taking any responsibility himself, he blamed his fellow citizens for losing their way -- his famous argument that the country was suffering from malaise. A few days later, he demanded resignations from several Cabinet members.

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