Leading to Greatness

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Leading to Greatness
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Rudy Guilianiformer Mayor of New York City
Lead efforts following 9/11 disaster

• Leaders are bornand made. It is really about
  applying what you learn throughout life. There
  are six principles to being effective in leading
  an organization or dealing with a crisis.

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• A leader must have strong beliefs/convictions and
  share them.
• People must understand your mission and where you
  are going. It is biased on what you believe is
  rightversus what is publicly popular. For
  example, Ronald Regan believed that communism was
  evil and that government had become too large.
  Whether he was right or wrong, he was very clear
  and consistent.
• A leader must be optimistica problem solver.
• People follow dreams and hope. Leaders maintain
  a positive attitude in the face of adversity.
  They have solutions. No one will follow someone
  who says there is no hope. Vince Lombardi
  said, I never lost a gameI only ran out of
  time.

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• A leader has courage.
• It is not that they dont have fearsthey are
  human. They know how to manage and overcome
  them.
• A leader relentlessly prepares.
• Great leaders manage risk by anticipating,
  rehearsing, and practicing. They prepare for
  what might go wrong. If something unexpected
  come up, the answer will normally be a variation
  of what they prepared for. When 9/11 happened we
  did not know exactly what to dothis had never
  happened before. But we had enough in the
  playbooks to quickly figure it out.

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• A leader understands the value of teamwork.
• A leader recognizes they dont have all the
  answers and that they have some weaknesses. They
  also know they dont personally win any gamesthe
  players do. They surround themselves with great
  peopleparticularly those who can compliment
  their skill set.
• A leader is a really good communicator.
• Doing the first five principles well and just
  talking to people is a great start. You must
  also really love and care for people. If you
  dont, it really becomes a grind and you just
  wont be very effective.

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Marcus BuckinghamFamous author of the
bestselling book Discover Your Strengths

• Leadership is a very complex topicbut one where
  Marcuss research allows one to cut through it to
  a few simple, actionable truths. There is a key
  difference between the best leaders and managers.
  Great managers tart with peoplegreat leaders
  start with vision.

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• A great managers chief responsibility is to turn
  peoples talents into performance.
• To do that requires finding out what is unique
  about each individual, capitalize on it, and
  manage around their weaknesses. Traditionally,
  most people focus on addressing their
  opportunities. The most potential exists in
  leveraging ones strengths.
• The role of a great leader is to rally people to
  a better future.
• It is rooted in deep-seated optimisma belief in
  a better future and a conviction that I am the
  one to make it reality. Leaders do this by
  finding out what is universal and capitalizing
  upon it. They tap into the few things that all
  the organizations sharelike fear of their
  enemies (beat competition) or being the best
  (winning).

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• A leader takes peoples common fear of the
  unknown (the future) and turns it into
  confidence/spiritedness. To do this they provide
  great clarity (through simplicity and directness)
  in four areas
• Who do we serve? Who is our primary audience and
  what are their real needs?
• What are our unique strengths? Why are we going
  to win? This is more than saying we have great
  people. So do our competitors. Why are we
  really better?
• What is our core score? Americans love measures
  because it helps them compete and win. It must
  be the one score that matters.
• What actions must we take today? People want to
  make a differencetell them how.

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• To help themselves get clear on the answers to
  these questions, great leaders learnthey muse,
  pause, reflect, think and ask a lot of questions.
  They look at what has failed as well as what has
  succeeded. They also practice a lot in being
  able to communicate effectively in both big and
  small group settings the words and stories of the
  future.
• The scandals of late are not due to big egosthey
  are due to small ethics.

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Jack WelchFormer Chairman/CEO at GE (where he
raised shareholder value over 4000) and Manager
of the Century by Fortune Magazine

• There are lots of crises happening all around us.
  Its hard to believe when they happen that it
  can make you better in the end. Crises typically
  go through fives stages
• Denial this cannot happen here.
• Containment lets keep it quiet.
• Blame-seeking trying to pin the R on others.
• Blood-letting removing individuals, etc.
• New Day Dawning taking corrective action.

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• A great leader during a crisis faces up to the
  bad news. They set the agenda.
• They are first, loud, and out there. They define
  the problem, make the vision clear, and build the
  plan
• Candor is a competitive advantage for a company.
• Getting clear facts out (versus 20 beautiful
  power points) is what really counts.
• You get ahead by over-delivering.
• Make your boss look good by leading their
  thinking and exceeding their expectations.

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Eight rules for leaders

• Relentlessly upgrade the teamthe team that
  fields the best team wins. Its that simple.
  Rate your employees and let the bottom 10 go.
• Differentiate performance.
• Define a crystal-clear mission.
• Be optimisticpeople dont work for a dark cloud.
• Build trustbe open, candid, and deliver. Dont
  surprise people.
• Make tough decisionshave the courage to
  downsize, let a person go, etc.
• Be curiousthink, look at your competitors, test
  your assumptions.
• Celebrate and reward those who step outeven
  exaggerate their success.

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• Ask a person why they left their last job when
  you are looking to hire them.. If they moan
  about others, be suspicious.
• Once you become a leader of others, your main job
  shifts to developing talents and enabling them to
  become stars.
• Maintain a flat organization structure. Like the
  telephone game, the message gets spun as it moves
  up and down the organization.

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Stephen CoveyAuthor of the bestseller The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People and The Eighth
Habit

• Leadership is about communicating peoples worth
  and potential so clearly that they are inspired
  to see it in themselves.
• This is the essence of the Eighth Habitfind your
  voice and inspire others to find theirs. This
  might include helping them rekindle what has gone
  out inside, by being a match.
• How many of you are here today because someone
  believed in youeven when you didnt?

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The new era of knowledge/wisdom we live in is
demanding a new way of thinking and acting as a
leader.
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Malcolm GladwellAuthor of the famous books
Tipping Point and Blink

• Your expertise is very fragile.
• For example, just by offering people three versus
  two drinks to choose from in a tase test (Coke
  vs. Pepsi) their accuracy rate drops from 85 to
  33. Police officers perform better alone than
  in teams.

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• It can be beneficial to limit the amount of
  information that gets on the table as you try to
  make a decision.
• For example, Emergency Room doctors increase
  their chances of properly diagnosing a patients
  condition by focusing on a few key variables that
  really matter. Needing more data is not always
  true. Subject matter experts become confused
  when given too much information.

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Sir Richard BransonCEO of the 8 Billion Virgin
Company and world-famous entrepreneur

• To survive long-term you need to be the best in
  service.
• Not one US airline exists today when we started
  Virgin Airlines 20 years ago to deal with the
  miserable travel experience across the Atlantic.
  He is striving to improve the worldincluding
  Africa, where the equivalent of 40 jumbo jets of
  young people die each day. He is into
  explorationhe is building five spaceships which
  will be ready to travel in two years.

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• Virgin has 300 companies today. To manage this
  complexity, he hires great people, immerses
  himself in it for 2-3 months to really learn it,
  gives them a financial stake in its success and
  gets out of the way. He does get sample customer
  complaint letters each day to keep in touch with
  what is really going on. Wherever he goes, he
  takes lots of notes on the details and follows
  upwhich he believes is critical.

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• The biggest obstacles he face over his career
  were
• Everyone tells you why your ideas wont work
• Not really knowing how to run a company
• He believes in authenticity
• Bringing all of yourself to the job. Since one
  spends 80 of their life at work, you must have
  fun doing it. Use all your capabilitiesincluding
  your heart and soul.
• Great leaders love peoplepraise, motivate, and
  believe in them
• He believes deeply in his employeesincluding
  inviting them to his house (with families) each
  year for a seven-day event.

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Carly FiorinaFormer CEO of Hewlett-Packard

• The 21st Century is radically differentwhich is
  requiring very different leadership. There are
  three fundamental changes
• Globalization - Three billion people have joined
  the global economy.
• Complexity Problems and their solutions require
  you to collaborate across boundaries (to share
  information/power and to both be accountable for
  the result). Leadership is exercised
  horizontally, versus the chain of command.
  Organizations today are best described as a
  network of relationships.
• Transformation Every physical process is
  becoming digital, mobile and personal.
  Photography is a great example of this change.
  Information is no longer power, and authority can
  be challenged. Technology is a powerful tool to
  break down the barriers of time, distance, an
  wealthand unleash personal capability.

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In this new era, what is leadership?

• It requires moving beyond subject matter
  expertise to having the confidence to rely on
  others to help in finding the answers. Asking
  the right questions is more important than
  thinking you have the solution.
• Leadership provides positive alternatives. It
  doesnt focus on what is wrong or can be
  criticized.
• Leadership requires overcoming fear. It is scary
  to take risks on uncertain bets.
• Leadership can happen in both big and small
  waysthey all take courage.
• Leadership requires trustyou putting your trust
  in others and them trusting in you. They may at
  times disappoint youbut more likely will excel.

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In this new era, what is leadership? (contd)

• 6. Leadership requires balancing the
  extremessuch as between profit and growth or
  optimism and realism. Its a lot like being a
  parentbeing consistent (so others can predict
  your behavior) and flexibility (changing based on
  circumstances).
• 7. Leadership requires an internal
  compassknowing who you are and what you believe
  in. In a storm, it tell you where north is.
  Many things can throw you off course. If there
  are temptations, ask your gut, does this feel
  right? Never sell your soulno one can pay you
  back.
• 8. Leadership is a balance of confidence and
  humility. You cannot do it all. You need to be
  willing to raise your hand and ask for help. He
  best leaders surround themselves with people who
  are different than themselveswith other points
  of view that will challenge them. Its not
  easier, but leads to better outcomes.

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• Leadership is not about power, positions, or
  titleit is about choice. Anyone can
  leadanywhere, anytime.
• It is about courage, taking risks, doing things
  others are not willing to do. It is about
  unlocking the potential in othersraising their
  sightsseeing something they didnt see before.

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• She began as a receptionistand never really
  planned to be a leader in business. She learned
  there is dignity in all workanyone can make a
  difference. Focus your energies on todays job
  and on taking chances on others. Early in her
  career she discovered that there are two ways to
  look at each job
• The limitations, constraints, frustrations.
• The possibilities, opportunities. Successful
  people choose to focus here.