President Johnson’s Unconventional Leadership Style

           

LBJ’s Leadership Style
An Unknown Staffer receives his Instructions from the President
Type of Activity	Communications Support
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Location	Various
Date of Activity	Multiple
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President Johnson’s Unconventional Leadership Style

President Lyndon B. Johnson was known for many things: his ambitious domestic agenda, his political skill, and his commanding personality. However, one of the most unusual aspects of his presidency was his complete disregard for personal boundaries. Johnson often transformed private spaces, particularly the bedroom and bathroom, into extensions of his office, using them to conduct government business and assert authority over those around him.

Lyndon B. Johnson was 6 feet 3.5 inches tall. This made him the second tallest U.S. president in history, just half an inch shorter than Abraham Lincoln. He often used his imposing height to his advantage, a political intimidation tactic famously known as the "Johnson Treatment “which was President Lyndon B. Johnson's (LBJ) legendary, aggressive tactic for persuading politicians. It was an overwhelming mix of flattery, threats, and personal intimidation where he used his 6-foot-4 frame and booming voice to corner targets until they agreed to support his agenda.

In 1955, with only seven years of seniority, Johnson was elected Senate majority leader. Through his successful courting of the “old bulls” of the “southern caucus,” particularly Richard Russell of Georgia, Johnson controlled the agenda of the Senate as no majority leader has before or since.

                     

Vice President Hubert Humphrey (above) and Senator Richard Russell receive the Treatment  

The "Johnson Treatment" Another element of his mastery was the “Johnson treatment,” as displayed above with Senator Richard Russell. Newspaper columnist Mary McGrory described it as “an incredible, potent mixture of persuasion, badgering, flattery, threats, reminders of past favors and future advantages”; Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee recalled feeling that “a St. Bernard had licked your face for an hour, [and] had pawed you all over”; and Hubert Humphrey described it as a “tidal wave.” Johnson’s most notable victory as majority leader was the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first such legislation since Reconstruction. He deployed these persuasive, sometimes suffocating tactics as both Senate Majority Leader and President to push through monumental legislation like the Civil Rights Act and Medicare.

The WHCA A/V group had the biggest opportunity to experience the Johnson Treatment because of their exposure when operating the Teleprompters. President Johnson was the first President  to require a teleprompter at all his speeches, now WHCA was building and setting up LBJ’s bulletproof Podium at all speech sites, recording all his speeches, providing the PA system and an audio feed to all the networks.

General Jack Albright, WHCA CO, recalls his early days with LBJ “As time went on, he wanted more things. He wanted to be able to read his speech while looking at the audience, and so we turned to the philosophy of the teleprompter. We signed a contract with a New York company, and they provided us with a great number of teleprompters.  Now, these were heavy, very heavy things to haul  around.

The cabinets in front of LBJ was in 3 pieces.. extremely heavy especially when we installed the bullet proof shield.

TThere were generally three very large boxes that looked like podiums and they sat out in front of him and through a piece of glass it reflected the speech, which was being scrolled on a tape or in fact, teletype paper below that. So, he read this as though he was reading it as a speech from a paper.

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At this time, the presidential teleprompter was massive and obvious to individuals in the audience. The early teleprompters used a VERY LARGE typewriter that would put the text on a half inch gummed tape that was then pasted onto a roll of teletype yellow paper. It was very hard to cut and paste to make edits, and LBJ didn’t like handwritten comments in margins.

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"The print was about a half inch high, so, the President had little trouble reading it. He could read it either directly ahead of him or to either side of something like a forty-five-degree angle from that. That's the first innovation WHCA put in.” according to BG Albright.

  LBJ held many meetings in his bedroom at any time day or night

                                                                                                                                     

Recording Bathroom Conversations

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/Johnson's infamous “open-door policy” in the bathroom became legendary among White House staff. Rather than pausing conversations for personal matters, he routinely continued meetings, interviews, and policy discussions while using the restroom. One reason for this tactic was to allow him to continue recording the meeting. Cabinet members, aides, and journalists were often expected to follow him into the bathroom so discussions could continue uninterrupted. Many found the situation uncomfortable, but Johnson seemed to view it as both practical and strategic. When visitors attempted to give him privacy by stepping away, he would often insist that they move closer so he could hear them better. These encounters became a hallmark of what was known as the “Johnson Treatment,” his intimidating style of persuasion that relied on physical proximity and overwhelming personal presence.

One famous example involved National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, who reportedly lost his balance and nearly fell into Johnson’s lap while the president was seated on the toilet. Such incidents illustrated how Johnson blurred the line between public duties and private moments, often leaving those around him embarrassed or bewildered.

These stories reveal much about Lyndon B. Johnson’s personality. His bathroom meetings reflected a desire to dominate conversations, his persistence and demanding nature to maintain control at all times. Although these anecdotes may seem humorous today, they also offer insight into the leadership style of a president who believed that neither privacy, convention, nor practical limitations should stand in the way of achieving his goals. In this sense, Johnson’s bathrooms became symbols of a larger truth: his presidency was marked by an extraordinary drive to bend both people and circumstances to his will.