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Thinking About Leadership
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 Santa Clara Leadership Lecture : April 9, 2009
Sunday, Apr. 12, 2009 4:54 PM
Kevin Gagan (BSC '87), Executive Vice President, Lee Hecht Harrison presented his thoughts on leadership at the April 9, 2009 Santa Clara Leadership Lecture.
Beginning with the assertion that "leadership is behavioral" Kevin explained that leadership is about actions. He shared findings from the Management Research Group about what leaders do to make things happen and indicated that there were two key leadership behaviors. One was being strategic, which involved taking a long-run and broad perspective on problem solving and the other was being empathetic, which involved building strong relationships and showing an active concern for others.
Returning to his opening point, Kevin re-iterated that people need to "see" the leader being strategic and being empathetic (that is, experience these in the presence of the leader). This requires that leaders are intentional in their communications and are, accordingly, self-aware about their personal "DNA" -- "do you know what you like and are good at?"
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SC Leadership Lecture : Mike Carey III
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009 5:07 PM
In a full California Mission Room last evening, Mike Carey, co-owner of Serius Innovation, a snowsports company; NFL referee; and member of SCU's Board of Trustees, presented his views on leadership.
Speaking from his heart, Mike opened by speaking about the humility his parents instilled within him at an early age, "my parents told me that I was special, but no more special than anyone else."
He then went on to remind the audience that all of us have a responsibility to lead in our respective communities.
Mike shared many suggestions on how to be a great leader, but one of the more interesting was, "You must have confidence. Even if you don't feel you have confidence, you must fake it until it [confidence] becomes real."
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SC Leadership Lecture : Mike Carey II
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009 8:35 PM
Mike Carey spoke before a packed California Mission Room about "expecting the unexpected as you live your life," which was even more salient as he reminded all of us, from his undergraduate studies in Biology at SCU, that "we are all connected and everything one does has an impact on others."
For this reason he explained that "nothing happens because of any one person" and knowing that our success is really a function of the success of others, then the "best leaders want to leave a legacy" because it is more about serving others than serving one's self. Getting commitment and buy-in from others, Mike explained, was an essential by-product of leaders "genuinely caring" about others: Your job as a leader, he said, was to hold up a mirror to others and to let them know that they matter.
"I love what I'm doing!" exclaimed Mike, as he found balance in being an entrepreneur and CEO of a premier snow sports equipment company, a head referee in the National Football League, and a devoted spouse and father,
While he answered lots of questions about football (Who were the greatest players? Who were the best leaders on the field? Did you really think that call was correct in the playoff game between the Jets and Eagles?), Mike came back time and time again to the premise that "you can't do your best unless you love what you are doing."
In reflecting upon his Santa Clara education, Mike said that what he took away was "learning how to learn." Armed with this capacity, he said, no challenge was too great.
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SC Leadership Lecture : Mike Carey
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009 7:32 PM
Mike Carey gave a thought-provoking presentation on leadership this evening. Mike shared that at a very young age his parents taught him the value of life. His parents instilled in him the notion that he was indeed special yet no more special than anyone else.
This assisted Mike in his confidence and ability as a leader but also provided the foundation for the necessity to listen and care for those he leads. Mike characterized his leadership as collaborative and shared stories from both his business and NFL experience to support his leadership style.
Finally, he shared the important notion of self-confidence and the ability to believe. A favorite quote from the evening was: "If you believe it can happen , it can. If you don't believe it can happen, it won't". A terrific quote to sum up all that has happened in our country today around leading and leadership.
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SC Leadership Lecture : Paul Gentzkow II
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008 8:02 AM
More from Paul Genzkow, COO, Staffing Services of Robert Half International:
Paul shared stories about leading others and connecting with employees in order to develop a successful organization.
Paul emphasized the importance of ethical leadership as a foundation for building trust and credibility within teams.
In recommending guidelines for successful outcomes, he encouraged students to "choose a company or organization with which you share an ethical foundation." He prodded students to be passionate and have commitment about their visions as a way of encouraging others to learn from example.
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SC Leadership Lecture : Paul Gentzkow
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008 7:56 AM
Paul Genzkow, COO of Staffing Services, Robert Half International, explained his L.E.A.D. principles:
L - Leadership by example
E - Ethics first
A - An openness to new ideas
D - Dedication to excellence
Leadership, he said, requires sacrifice, it requires honesty, and delivering on promises. The best leaders firmly don't believe that "my way is the only way" and they are open to lifelong learning (as an important antidote to arrogance).
Being successful in today's marketplace requires:
- Above average intelligence
- Interpersonal skills, especially communications
- Drive and determination
- Strong work ethic
- Solid values
Paul concluded: "Never settle for average. For yourself and your organization, you've got to dedicate yourself to getting better each time you do something."
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Finance Faculty Leadership
Monday, Feb. 18, 2008 3:51 PM
I am totally delighted to inform everyone that the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) recently published the All Time Top 10 Papers over the last 10 years. Of these 10, Hersh Shefrin ranks No. 6, and Atulya Sarin came in at No. 10. Note there are more than 88,000 authors on SSRN.
This is a significant achievement. The SSRN is the foremost repository of papers in the Social Sciences. This is just awesome!
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SC Leadership Lecture : Marty Allen
Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 10:49 AM
The former CEO of Party America spoke on February 5 to Leavey School of Business students and faculty:
Marty Allen, having just completed a turnaround at Party America, and in the process of moving to his next leadership adventure, made the point that you "can't separate culture from leadership."
Building the culture, often through personal example, was the framework for how Marty felt that leaders made a difference. And the basis for providing a personal example was through understanding your personal values: "Own them and live them. Never compromise them." Marty explained how values become transformed into a picture of a better place in the future is what gives life to a vision.
In explaining how leaders build a corporate culture, Marty told about the creation of corporate legends. He told several stories about personal actions he took at Party America which demonstrated his values to everyone. One of them underscored his belief that "people are our #1 asset" and another illustrated what it meant to be a "customer service fanatic."
Marty encouraged the students to "put their goals down in writing" because doing so provided a nearly magical focus to driving actions in these directions. He told people to leave their jobs when they stopped learning, or when they had to compromise their values.
Finally, he concluded that "the more you learn, the more you realize what you don't yet really know."
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Leavey Lecture : Scott Kriens, Jupiter Networks CEO
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008 4:28 PM
Scott asked himself: How am I going to add value as the CEO? His conclusion was "the only thing I can do is to teachers to do" and so he personally teaches Juniper Networks leadership courses. He spends more time on this than any other single activity.
Scott indicated that there were three questions leaders needed to wrestle with, although they applied to every employee in an organization as well:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What do I want?
The failure to answer these questions results in a life where "any road you take will get you there." In other words, one's life is pointless.Moreover, you can't build a plan without knowing the answers to these questions about how to get to the future you desire.
Wrestling with these questions leads to self-awareness, which was the first step in the leader's journey. The second step is authenticity. The third step, trust, is earned as a result of being self-aware and authentic.Trust creates the energy required for the fourth step of inspiration (so that others will seek to be inspired by you).
Scott also maintained that the impossible is just something that we haven't figure out yet how to do. He made the point that employees were the most important constituent in a company, and making them successful was paramount. Doing so ensured the success of all of the other stakeholders. The most important relationship in a company is the one between employees and their direct supervisor/manager, and this was true no matter where one is located in the organizational hierarchy.
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SC Leadership Lecture : Cammie Dunaway, Executive VP, Nintendo
Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007 8:34 AM
Cammie Dunaway, EVP, Marketing and Sales for Nintendo, spoke to over 125 students and literally spelled out LEADER and discussed what it is they do:
L = Leaders are Learners (need to seek out new ideas, be curious, and always ask for feedback)
E = Leaders set high Expectations (and reinforce that people and team have the capabilities to succeed)
A = Leaders Act (have the courage to act and be decisive)
D = Leaders Develop People (talent development takes 25-30% of my time)
E = Leaders Have Empathy (need to know people as people)
R = Leaders take Responsibility (can't blame others; move on).
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More Student Response to Global Innovation Dialogue
Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 12:24 PM
"It was amazing how a group of about three women could make an impact, small or big, that could range from improving a small part of their lives to paving the way for others. Support and grants from foundations are so key in motivating these women to stand up. The thought that they could DO something seems to automatically drive them. It's something worth waking up for everyday. Positive change can be influenced by external sources and by ourselves as well by even reaching out to a neighbor. More than anything, the seminar was proved to be truly inspiring." Kelly Hee, Class of 2011
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Global Innovation Dialogue with Anne Firth Murry
Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 9:38 AM
“Global problems seem insurmountable; poverty, injustice, and environmental decay demand attention. Nevertheless, hope persists. The beginning of change is the recognition that things can be different. Next comes a drive toward empowerment, an action plan, and the development of effective programs and organizations based on vision and principles.”
So writes Anne Firth Murray, author of Paradigm Found: Leading and Managing for Positive Change and founding president of The Global Fund for Women. She spoke Tuesday, October 9, at our Global Innovation Dialogue event, and here's what one student had to say in response:
“I really took to heart the metaphor Anne used to describe businesses and/or organizations. In an analogy of gardening/plants she said, “Money is the compost while passion and drive are the sources of water.” I also loved how she talked so fondly of empowerment and everything that she said could not only be applied to women in the business world, but also to every person involved in the business process, whether it be in a nonprofit organization or not.” Ashley Smaldino, Class of 2011.
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Tim Westergren's CIE Talk Featured on Law Prof's Blog
Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 3:34 PM
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SC Leadership Lecture : Stan Anders, KPMG
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007 1:15 PM
At the recent SCLL on October 2, Stan Anders (Managing Partner, KPMG) explained how the essence of leadership involved moving from your head to your heart as quickly as possible.
He said that leaders needed to "be present" (stop thinking about other things!). Anders maintained that the percentage of time you spend telling/talking should be inversely related to your position on the organizational ladder ("listen more as you move up"), and that being a leader was not "an event" ("you have to be constantly learning").
"At the end of the day," he asked, "can you say you acted in concert with your values?"
Stan also provoked the audience to consider: "If you could have any six people in the world, alive or dead, real or fictional, to dinner, who would they be, and why?"
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CIE Founder's Banquet : Carl Guardino
Thursday, Sep. 27, 2007 10:16 AM
Last evening, at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Founder's Banquet, keynote speaker Carl Guardino, President and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, highlighted current opportunities and future threats in Silicon Valley:
- The cost of living is a major challenge facing Silicon Valley employers. The community has made some progress on the issue through such programs as the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County. However, much remains to be done in order for the Valley to remain competitive.
- K-12 education, particularly in math, has not been as strong as it should be. The Valley needs to continue implementing creative ideas to train high quality teachers that can lead this effort.
- The Valley's growth has resulted in new traffic and community realities that require long-term commitment and collaboration to solve.
- Climate change is another issue facing the Valley, and leaders such as venture capitalist John Doerr have demonstrated the conviction that will be a building block for finding a solution.
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SC Leadership Lecture : More from Tim Harris
Wednesday, Sep. 26, 2007 3:49 PM
As a CEO, or someone in higher management, Tim emphasized how one should not only take risks personally, but also how one should take risks on people.
Spending the time and money on developing people can make a huge difference within a company, not only in terms of the quality of work produced, but also in establishing loyalty to the company and to the team. As he reminded the audience, many companies do not follow this rule and those are often the companies plagued by problems.
He further went on to state that to be seen as a great company leader, those holding upper management positions need to concern themselves not with the privileges associated with the position, but rather the responsibilities of that position.
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SC Leadership Lecture : Tim Harris, Komag CEO
Tuesday, Sep. 25, 2007 6:55 PM
Our guest, Tim Harris, talked about how leadership was a skill and that there were lots of opportunities to practice that skill (including outside the workplace).
He felt that the best leaders focused on others and were more concerned about their responsibilities than the privileges of rank or office. He reminded the audience that leaders needed to develop the skills of others, that no one regardless of his/her brilliance could accomplish anything great all alone.
Indeed, he said that "the more you put into developing your people (what he called "the supply-chain of management") the greater the potential for organizational greatness."
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Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology
Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007 8:08 AM
More from Seoul....
As students were exploring Seoul on Monday afternoon (August 27), I was over at KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology) to present a half-day presentation on leadership. In addition to the KAIST Business School, the sponsors included the South African and New Zealand embassies. Indeed, the South African ambassador and founding dean of KAIST both attended the entire session, along with 150 Korean executives.
In one part of the session, looking at the characteristics people look for in their leaders, the data collected from this audience was nearly identical with data we’ve been collecting in the U.S. and other parts of the world (which was a surprise to many in the audience). We agreed that credibility is an essential leadership quality regardless of what country or setting you work in and that, simply, some settings and situations make this more or less easy to achieve.
Looking forward to more discussions on Wednesday and in Hong Kong and Shanghai,
Barry
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Leadership in Seoul, South Korea
Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007 7:08 AM
[Note: Barry Posner, dean of Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business, is leading a Global Business Perspective course in Seoul, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, People's Republic of China. For more on the students and other observations, take a look at the Asia 2007 blog: www.scu.edu/business/asia-2007/index.cfm ]
August 27:Monday
Monday morning began with an informative presentation by John Kim, country manager for Hershey’s. He provided key insights into Korean history that get played out in the workplace and suggested several differences between the U.S. and Korea.
For example:
United States < --- > Korea
Results < --- > Relationships
Integrity < --- > Loyalty
Leadership < --- > Harmony
Merit < --- > Seniority
The paths to success that he outlined for Korea, I must say were very consistent to what Jim Kouzes and I have written about in The Leadership Challenge:
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Be very clear about the company and the leader’s values (alignment)
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Be very clear about roles and responsibilities (accountability)
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Celebrate wins together, even if small
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Engage each employee as a stakeholder
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Be patient and understanding
This last theme was reiterated by Wayne Chumley, President of Chrysler (Korea) and founding chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. Nothing happens quickly, he said, so be patient and spend time building relationships. He observed that there was a need for Americans to do less talking and more listening when they came and worked with Koreans.
Our next speaker, Richard Wacker, President/CEO of the Korea Exchange Bank, articulated many of the strengths of the Korean workforce. Among these were a strong work ethic, diligence and perseverance, and a tremendous desire of self-improvement. On the other hand, a leadership challenge is a strong deference to authority and focus on the hierarchy and seniority for decision making. He did point out that people everywhere (in Korea, as in the U.S.) want to do a good job and they want to be acknowledged for it.
A terrific closing for the morning was our conversation with Betty Divita (Head of Consumer Banking for Citibank, Korea), who has over 7500 people reporting to her. The challenge, “a journey”, she said, has been getting people to both speak up the hierarchy and to speak out. But when this happens, she explained, it is very powerful because it gets everyone aligned and the buy-in creates tremendous commitment. She’s worked hard to take advantage of the diversity other workforce by creating “communities” of people and changing the focus from “what did I lose?” to “What can I gain?” She contrasted her experiences in Korea, with those of her’s in South America (Venezuela) and the U.S., with her next assignment being CEO for Citibank in Canada. While she initially made some people uncomfortable because of her gender, she indicated that this has largely been a non-issue as people have gotten to know her and vice versa (although she did say that it was advantage in this regard for her to come in at the top!).
Finally, did you know that there are no checking accounts in Korea?
Learning more about leadership each day,
Barry
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St. Gallen Panel
Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007 4:08 PM
Today I moderated a panel of Silicon Valley leaders speaking before a group of visiting Executive MBA students from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
The three leaders--Spencer Clark, recently retired as Chief Learning Officer of Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; Roberta Linsky, Vice President of World Wide Human Resources at Logitech, Inc.; and Jaswinder S. Ahuja, Corporate Vice President and Managing Director of Cadence Design Systems in India--addressed the challenges of moving from being a functional expert to leading through other people and creating an aligned corporate culture.
The consensus? Leadership is about who you are--about your value system.
"The broader your set of experiences, the greater the opportunities to make a difference," said Spencer Clark. "The most effective teams are those that have a common set of expectations and values. Fit is important; after all, 90% of all games are won when you are choosing up sides."
Roberta Linsky agreed. "Moving up in an organization is not about how good you are but how good your team is."
"As a leader you have to make certain that attention is paid to all stakeholders," said Jaswinder Ahuja, adding "If you focus on your employees than all the other stakeholders will be taken care of." He further observed "People watch your feet. It's not about your words, it is about living your values."
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