I just listened to a Chicago GSB podcast featuring Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox on how she turned around the company. For those of you unfamiliar with the her leadership, she is a 30 year old Xerox veteran. She started as a sales rep and worked her way up. In 2000 she took over as the CEO of Xerox when Xerox was in around $18 billion in debt, no cash and had recorded its first quarter of losses, and turned it back around to the successful company Xerox once was. The amazing thing here is she wasn't a turn around - "Cut costs and make the next quarter" kind of leader. She truly connected to her employees and customers and focused on what had long term value for the company. She ranks number one in my list of women leaders that I admire.
I have always felt that women for the most part make great leaders and often enough better leaders than men. That shouldn't come as a surprise considering the fact that I think soft skills are way more important in leading and managing than hard skills. That is why listening to Anne Mulcahy talk about how she resurrected Xerox was so inspiring. Her fundamentals rules of management seemed to be simple, but are yet stunningly powerful. Part of the reason I am so excited about this is that I strongly believe in what she spoke about and it feels good to see that one of the most successful women in the history of business believes in the same management principles that you do. My cousin once said, "Business is nothing but common sense". Common sense would be to listen. Listen to your employees and customers, "Learn to be a learner", Focus on the long term and performance and finally treat people in a way that would make them want you to succeed. Yet it is amazing how many intelligent people I have met at various levels in my company (or for that matter any company) who just cannot do this. Instead they try to find fancy technology or complicated processes to find the answers to questions, which their direct reports and others in the company would gladly tell them if only they asked and listened. I don't have any direct reports yet and I do agree these things are a lot easier to talk about than to do especially during moments of truth. But, I can guarentee you, this is absolutely what I believe in and I would do everything I can to, walk to walk, not just talk the talk.
If there is ever a podcast that you MUST listen to, then this is it.
I have always felt that women for the most part make great leaders and often enough better leaders than men. That shouldn't come as a surprise considering the fact that I think soft skills are way more important in leading and managing than hard skills. That is why listening to Anne Mulcahy talk about how she resurrected Xerox was so inspiring. Her fundamentals rules of management seemed to be simple, but are yet stunningly powerful. Part of the reason I am so excited about this is that I strongly believe in what she spoke about and it feels good to see that one of the most successful women in the history of business believes in the same management principles that you do. My cousin once said, "Business is nothing but common sense". Common sense would be to listen. Listen to your employees and customers, "Learn to be a learner", Focus on the long term and performance and finally treat people in a way that would make them want you to succeed. Yet it is amazing how many intelligent people I have met at various levels in my company (or for that matter any company) who just cannot do this. Instead they try to find fancy technology or complicated processes to find the answers to questions, which their direct reports and others in the company would gladly tell them if only they asked and listened. I don't have any direct reports yet and I do agree these things are a lot easier to talk about than to do especially during moments of truth. But, I can guarentee you, this is absolutely what I believe in and I would do everything I can to, walk to walk, not just talk the talk.
If there is ever a podcast that you MUST listen to, then this is it.
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