Issue 86 - The Best Advice I Ever Got
It’s understandable if long time readers of my Transformational Leadership
Tips are experiencing a bit of deja vu right now. To some, the title of this month’s tip may seem vaguely familiar. You may be wondering, “haven’t
we covered this subject before?”
Yes, we have — sort of. In May and June of 2004, I wrote two back-to-back
tips on “The Best and Worst Leadership Advice I Ever Received.” The topic
resonated with many readers. In fact, many responded by sending personal
examples of the advice they had received.
Now, it seems, lightning has struck twice. The March 21, 2005 issue of
FORTUNE magazine featured a cover photo of Warren Buffett of Berkshire
Hathaway fame with the bold caption, “The best advice I ever got.” Hmm. Is it possible FORTUNE got the subject idea from our little publication? I
wonder… Of course I read the cover article with great interest. It seems
FORTUNE interviewers had fanned out across the business landscape to query the biggest names in corporate America. Their question was simple: What’s the best advice you got? The responses they received were interesting. Read on.
A total of twenty-seven individual interviews were published. Many of us
have heard it said, ‘when the student is ready, the teacher appears.’
These corporate leaders responded with wisdom from teachers who were
parents, supervisors, co-workers, professors, customers — even elephant
trainers! The nuggets of advice they offered took root and ultimately led to heightened levels of awareness, performance and success. I have highlighted a few of my personal favorites below. Examine them for yourself. What might you learn about being a more effective leader?
A.G. Lafley, Chairman & CEO of Proctor & Gamble:
* Have the courage to stick with a tough job.
Lafley was told regarding the bureaucratic problems he inherited at P&G:
“You’re running away. You don’t have the guts to stay and change it. You’ll run from the next job, too.”
“That really ticked me off and I stayed,” Lafley said. “And from then on, every time something didn’t work, I spoke up. I realized that you can make a difference if you speak up and set your mind to changing things.”
Vivek Paul, President & CEO of Wipro Technologies:
* Don’t limit yourself by past expectations.
“The best piece of advice I ever got was from an elephant trainer in the jungle outside Bangalore. I was doing a hike through the jungle as a tourist. I saw these large elephants tethered to a small stake. I asked him, ‘how do you keep such a large elephant tied to such a small stake?’ He said, ‘ when the elephants are small, they try to pull out the stake, and they fail. When they grow large, they never try to pull out the stake again.’ That parable reminds me that we have to go for we think we’re fully capable of, not limiting ourselves by what we’ve done in the past.”
Anne Mulchay, CEO of Xerox:
* Remember the parable of the cow in the ditch.
“”Albert C. Black, Jr. (a customer) came up to me and gave me this advice,
and I have wound up using it constantly. ‘When everything gets really
complicated and you feel overwhelmed,’ he told me, ‘think about it this way: You gotta do three things. First, get the cow out of the ditch. Second, find out how the cow got in the ditch. Third, make sure you do whatever it takes so the cow doesn’t go into the ditch again.’”
Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast:
* Let others take the credit.
“…the single best piece of advice Ralph (his father) ever gave me was to let others take credit. ‘You’re in a lucky position, and you know it,’ he told me. ‘You don’t need all the glory. If you let others take the credit, it makes them feel like they’re part of something special.’”
Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD:
* Surround yourself with people of integrity and get out of their way.
“In my adult years as a manager, Bob Galvin, the former CEO of Motorola,
was my most influential leader. He told me, “A good leader knows he is
doing a good job when he knows with certainty he can say yes to anything
his staff asks and feel totally confident that they will do the right thing.’ I use this advice quite a bit at work. The right people will feel far more pressure to perform well when they are trusted.”
Herb Kelleher, Founder & Chairman of Southwest Airlines:
* Respect people for who they are, not what their titles are.
(From his mother) “One piece of advice that always stuck in my mind is that people should be respected and trusted as people, not because of their position or title. Frequently, position or title did not reflect the true merits of a person.”
“You don’t have to have a doctorate to have an idea. You ought to be open
to listening to people. Show that you care about them as individuals, not just as workers. You know how people are always looking over your shoulder to see if there’s somebody more important behind you? Well, one of the things I’ve tried to do — if I’m talking to a person, that person is the only person in the world while we’re talking. They’re owed that.”
