The first
Module of the MBA program at Ivey
focuses on the development of leadership
capabilities essential to building
successful businesses. As students
launched into the Program, we invite
leaders from a broad spectrum of
industries and sectors into the
classroom to share the lessons they have
learned with our students.
Cross-Enterprise leaders in their own
right, each of these successful business
executives and entrepreneurs shares with
students the importance of understanding
the big picture --the interconnected
nature of the enterprise -- no matter
where you're operating from in an
organization.
The
leadership sessions shine a light on the
essence of leadership and what it takes
to succeed across the enterprise, in
both good times and bad times. Students
are encouraged to ask the leaders tough
questions and fully engage in the
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to talk
with some of today's greatest leaders.
The
following are some examples of leaders
who have visited the classroom:
Wade Oosterman brought 20 years of
experience in the telecom industry –
including foundational roles with
Clearnet Communications, Telus Mobility
and Bell – into the MBA classroom for a
discussion on leadership and its
influence on internal culture, teamwork
and business success.
Making
wireless work
While Oosterman has become a
marketing authority in Canada since, his
start in the business began humbly. He
began his career in the fast-growth
Canadian wireless industry in the mid
1980s, as one of 3 key members of the
team that started Clearnet
Communications, originally a small
blue-collar wireless company that ran
out of a simple hydro trailer in
suburban Toronto. Clearnet slowly built
itself from an upstart operator of
industrial two-way radio networks into a
national operator, eventually winning a
federal license in 1995 to compete with
its own digital mobile phone networks.
Above: Wade Oosterman, President of Bell
Mobility and Chief Brand Officer,
speaking in the Ivey MBA Classroom.
It was then that Clearnet's marketing
team crafted the new famous and still
used "the future is friendly" brand,
reflecting the creative vision of a team
focused on making both buying and
selling wireless an easier and less
intimidating process.
It was a remarkable success.
Clearnet's entry into the mobile phone
market set a North American sales record
for a new wireless company and the
company was ultimately acquired by
larger rival Telus for $6.6 billion, an
astounding price tag that still stands
as the largest telecommunications
acquisition in Canadian history.
Oosterman believes the enhanced value of
Clearnet stemmed directly from the
culture established by the
organization's leadership team. With its
emphasis on service, simplicity,
attention to detail, and employee
engagement at every level, Clearnet
became the kind of company that
customers stayed with.
With its acquisition in 2000, Telus
made an uncommon business decision to
not only engage the Clearnet leadership
team to run the Telus Mobility wireless
business but also to wholly adopt
Clearnet's "the future is friendly"
brand across the entire Telus
organization. It continues to use the
brand to this day.
On
to Bell Canada
Several factors made Clearnet a
successful startup and an attractive
acquisition but Oosterman consistently
referred to the organization's
team-oriented leadership style as
central. It's a style applied
successfully not only at Clearnet but at
Telus Mobility and, now, Bell Canada:
Ideas and insight are
encouraged, indeed expected, from
everyone in the company, from the
front line to the executive offices,
as partners in success
"The front-line steers while
management provides fuel,"
leveraging the unique insight of the
front-line team into what clients
want and where opportunities and
gaps lie
Team members treat the company's
budget as though it's their own
money
The team sweats every detail in
their areas of expertise
Now with Bell as both President of
Bell Mobility and Chief Brand Officer,
Oosterman is part of a new leadership
team implementing a transformational
culture at Canada's largest
communications company.
The new Bell brand is a core element
in the company's strategy to deliver a
better customer experience at every
level, with dramatic investments in its
service and network operations and a new
corporate attitude to match.
Bell's new "Today just got better"
brand promise works in two ways: To
inform Bell's customers that it is
re-energized as a competitive,
customer-focused organization, and to
guide the Bell team's journey to
achieving Bell's goal… "To be recognized
by customers as Canada's leading
communications company."
Turning "Today just got better"
inward is just part of the commitment by
Bell's new leadership team to encourage
and enable Bell employees across the
enterprise to make decisions that
improve the customer experience
themselves. It's an initiative-based
leadership approach that very much
reflects the collaborative
front-line-to-boardroom-table customer
focus originally employed with such
success at Clearnet.
"Why does good leadership matter?"
asked Oosterman. "Because it encourages
collaboration, and that coming together
equals winning. Let's face it, winning
is more fun than losing – and pays off
better… If you can't lead effectively,
you can't execute effectively. If you
don't execute effectively, you won't get
the results you're striving for."
Media
Relations & Crisis Communication Best
Practices
David Estok, editor in chief at the
Hamilton Spectator, former Associate
Business editor at Maclean's and
Associate Vice President of
Communications and Public Affairs at the
University of Western Ontario, was the
final guest lecturer in the MBA
leadership speaker series this term.
The series brought leaders and Ivey
Alumni alike from NASA, WestJet, ING
Direct, Maple Leaf Foods, and VANOC into
the classroom to discuss leadership,
culture and their experiences with Ivey
students. Estok wrapped the series by
talking to the class about what to do
when companies are thrown into the media
spotlight and how to handle it as future
CEOs.
Above: David Estok, guest
speaker in MBA leadership series.
In the
first 24 hours
"Fess up when you mess up."
The first thing to do if you've made
a mistake is to apologize. As a
leader, it is critically important
to take responsibility even if the
incident wasn't directly related to
yourself. You are responsible for
your organization.
Open up the story
The next step in crisis
communications is to provide a
broader context. The media will
zero-in on a specific event rather
than the big picture. Media
relations teams need to broaden the
story and give it context.
Make promises you can keep
You won't be able to promise that
nothing similar will ever happen
again, but what you can do is
communicate what you are doing to
rectify the situation, and what you
are doing to prevent it from
happening again.
Estok
emphasized that these three important
steps should all take place in the first
four to twenty-four hours. With CNN, and
an army of citizen reporters armed with
twitter-enabled smartphones and flip
video cameras, you need to act quickly
but carefully. Most likely you won't
know fully what happened or what has yet
to be discovered, but you need to start
the dialogue with the media regardless.
The
Value of Media Relations: Reputation,
Relationships, Revenue
The
steps above are going to go smoother if
you have healthy relationships with the
media before anything goes wrong.
However, even if you have excellent
relationships with the media, good media
relations will not:
Resolve performance gaps
Create a positive image if poorly
run
Be
an excuse for poor customer service
Overcome things that should not have
happened
A media
crisis, which Estok defines as being on
the front page for four days in a row,
has the potential to ruin the reputation
of your organization and reputation is
absolutely critical to success. Crisis
media relations is critical towards
protecting the organizations reputation,
relationships and revenue for the
future. Estok called on the class to
"understand the cumulative effects of
serious smart and sustained
communications, create credibility and
trust, and to build reputation."
From
Glimmer to Shine: David Loree talks
talent management with Ivey MBA students
Professor David Loree, Organzational
Behaviour, is the latest in the Spring
MBA class' Leadership Guest Speaker
series. Although the class has touched
on talent management, now they were
going to truly dig into the topic.
Above: Professor David Loree,
Organizational Behaviour.
David started his presentation running
and didn't make any stops. He spoke with
incredible speed, pushing through as
much material as possible – and still
ended up sacrificing half the slides in
his deck.
Talent
management is what keeps David Loree up
at night. Some consider it a cutting
edge topic but David proposes instead
that it is a set of "cutting edge
questions." There are no equal signs or
perfect formulas that guarantee you will
spot the best and brightest in your
organization. This is a grey area domain
where, even after twenty years, former
General Electric CEO Jack Welch only
gets it right 80 percent of the time –
that's up from 50 percent originally.
Professor Loree emphasized how important
it is to identify the "glimmer" of
potential early: "developing ‘great'
takes much longer than many of us are
comfortable admitting." In some
industries it takes a decade, and in
others it can be two.
The earlier you start looking, the
harder it can be to spot potential
talent. What are you looking for?
Professor Loree gave a list of six
characteristics of high potential
candidates, drawn from "Talent is
Overrated: What really separates
world-class performers from everybody
else" by Geoff Colvin:
The
desire to master new skills
The
ability to rapidly absorb knowledge
The
ability to communicate it to others
effectively
The
ability to build lasting
relationships
The
ability to mobilize others to get
things done
The
ability to see how larger pieces of
the puzzle fit together
Professor Loree quotes Sir William
Osler, called the "Father of Modern
Medicine," to explain the traps and
mirrors encountered when looking for
talent: "If only all patients were
identical, medicine would be a science,
not an art." In the same way, talent
management is more an art than a
science. Decisions have to be made with
subjective, qualitative data. A person
may show a few sparks but might not be
in a position where they can truly
demonstrate Colvin's characteristics –
especially in the lower levels of an
organization. In other situations,
someone with all the right features
might not want to be the next great
leader. Before you invest in an
individual, make sure that you check
that they are interested in the
opportunity. Those that have both the
potential and the interest will need the
right resources and coach, and a
practice field: "You can't learn to swim
from the stands."
Students
asked Professor Loree about the
conflicts between coaching and
mentoring. The same person who can coach
an employee to perform their daily job
at the desired level might not be the
same person who can guide development.
Mentoring demands candid discussion of
weaknesses and goals – topics that not
many staff would be comfortable
discussing with someone who supervises
their daily performance. Above all,
Professor Loree emphasized that
performance evaluation meetings are the
wrong place to discuss development.
The
class wrapped with a debate about
millennials, and how to look for and
develop talent from the pool of tech
savvy, multi-tasking twenty-somethings
entering the workforce. Millennials are
characterized by new experiences, such
as as growing up with parents that tell
them they are special for no reason at
all, little leagues where both teams are
winners and trophies are awarded for
participation. This is the generation
that only takes "yes" for an answer.
Companies are considering flexible work
hours, free food, games rooms and other
perks to cater to a generation that puts
lifestyle in front of careerism at every
turn. Some say that loosening the reins
results in harder working, more
dedicated employees and others wonder if
make-your-own-hours is a sustainable
model in a world with clients,
colleagues and deadlines. David left the
class with this question to ponder: Is
the sudden attention on work-life
balance a mistake that will cause our
economy to fall behind, or is it a shift
in the right direction?
VANOC CEO
discusses leadership, finding your
podium in life, and what it takes to
plan the world's biggest event.
John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver
Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter
Games addressed Ivey MBA students on May
28 via satellite from Vancouver.
A former
athlete himself, John's philosophy is to
take the lessons of athletic and sport
and apply them to whichever organization
he is running. The following are his
pearls of wisdom for running a
high-profile, multi-year project, on a
global stage.
Celebrate the possible. "For an
organization to be successful there has
to be a sense of always trying to
achieve the best you can," said John.
It's important to have that spirit
prevail throughout the organization.
"Every person at VANOC understands they
are part of a large team and their
individual piece is critical to
success," explained John. "People in the
organization are smitten with their
responsibility. We employ champions in
life. There is a champion at every
desk."
Set
clear goals and visions. VANOC's
primary goal is to make Canada look
great on the global stage. The Vancouver
Organizing Committee is chasing this
dream as hard as they can. John's vision
for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter
Games is that they will make for a
stronger Canada whose spirit is raised
by its passion for sport, culture and
sustainability.
Believe in your values. Describing
the task of organizing the Vancouver
2010 Games as a "difficult project" is
an understatement. John said the
difficulty of planning the Games almost
defies description. "It never goes away.
It lives with you. But what holds us
together is our values." VANOC's values
are:
Team
work: Fair play, respect,
compassion, accountability and inclusion
Trust: Integrity, honesty,
respect, fairness and compassion Excellence: Recognition,
compassion and accountability Sustainability: Financial,
economic, social and environmental
sustainability Creativity: Innovation,
flexibility and adaptability
John
believes that VANOC has endured
challenging times easier than most
because they have these values in place.
For VANOC their vision, mission and
values are not simply words on a wall.
They are what the organization believes
in and what prevails at every desk and
in the hearts and minds of the people
who work there.
There
is no room for a selfish leader. As
the leader of VANOC, John revealed that
his role requires a lot of humility.
"This job is very difficult. You can't
fool people. People are watching me all
the time; but, it's not about me, it's
about all of us." John continued, "You
have to be an example and give people
something to follow. As a leader, I am
always asking myself. ‘How do I come
across?'"
The
thing John worries most about as the
leader of VANOC is the reputation of the
organization and of Canada. "If we
struggle, it plays out across the
country." For this reason he requires
VANOC to be proactive in their
communications and to always think about
how Canadians would think and react to
their decisions. The guiding force for
John is considering how VANOC and Canada
will be perceived by the public.
Don't
make your projects all about here and
now; think about the legacy. For
large scale projects it's always
important to think about what is being
left leaving behind. "This project is
too big and too compelling to make it
about 14 days of sport," said John. "It
needs to be bigger than that. Positive
influences must be left behind and our
children should marvel at what has been
left behind for them."
The
Games are about influencing everybody.
VANOC's mission is to touch the soul of
the nation and inspire the world by
creating and delivering an extraordinary
Olympic and Paralympic experience with
lasting legacies. John wants to get the
games into the heart of everyone and
come face to face with every Canadian.
"If through the Games we can get people
to find their own podium in life, than
we have done a good thing for Canada.
Not everybody will be an athlete, but
everybody can be better. The Games are
about getting the country to realize its
potential."
MBAs learn
the importance of keeping candour at the
heart of organizational culture
"Good culture begins with one
fundamental concept: candour." That's
David Fear, President of Ziff Brothers
Investments, who spoke candidly to MBA
students on May 25th about the
importance of candour in the workplace.
Candour
at ZBI means that all of the people
working at the firm communicate with one
another in a real, open, and sincere
way. In short, their culture is based on
the practice of habitual good candour.
Candour
also translates into having the people
you work with know where they stand with
you and their own abilities. Candour
means that you don't falsely reassure
people or tell them things that don't
reflect the truth.
For
example, David talked about how the
annual performance review should really
be executed. "People want to be told
where there stand, what they're good at,
and what they can do better."
People
don't want false reassurance, but giving
candid reviews is often hard for a
number of reasons. David likened it to
fighting evolution. In our culture we're
taught to be nice to each other, to
flatter one another and not to speak up.
To make
his point, and inducing laughter in the
room, he asked the men if they knew the
answer to the question "Do I look fat in
this?" We're conditioned to act a
certain way and candour often calls for
fighting against well entrenched
behaviour.
So why
do euphemisms and white lies prevail in
workplaces? "It's scary and messy to
give honest feedback, but the rewards
far exceed any of the costs involved,"
said David.
Openness
takes time, effort and commitment. There
is fear involved with upsetting the
other person, but when it comes down to
it, as David said, "Candour is the
ultimate sign of respect for someone you
work with."
How can
we implement candour in the workplace?
David offers these suggestions:
Start by committing to it yourself.
Commit to act in a certain way in
the work place.
Talk about the concept of candour
repeatedly with the people you work
with. By talking about candour it
raises the consciousness about it in
the organization.
Demand it. Be clear and upfront and
say you're ok with it. Convince them
you will not react badly to it and
that it's what you really want.
Push them for more. Ask people for
specifics and examples.
Celebrate and acknowledge candour
when you see it. Acknowledge the
incident to others in the
organization in a team meeting. That
kind of public, positive
reinforcement makes an impact in an
organization.
Kuhlmann
has built five banks in his career thus
far, including ING Direct. ING's goal
was to change the game of banking, and
to lead Americans back to savings by
simplifying financial products at their
disposal. Today, with 7.3 million
customers happy to bank without
branches, ATMs or cheque books, it seems
to have more than met this goal.
Kuhlmann
went outside traditional banking in
order to find a team that could change
the industry. He commented that he
himself had never quite "fit" with
traditional banking, and it was others
like him that he sought to make up his
"cast of misfits." Arkadi joked that he
has become the "most evil guy in US
banking," having destroyed the way
banking is supposed to be. He has used
the drama of ING's approach versus
traditional banking to position the bank
on the side of the people, which
indirectly positions competitors as the
people's opposition. By focusing on the
drama rather than numbers, ING has
positioned itself at the heart of a
social movement.
The team
looked outside banking when they set
about creating a brand. They decided to
act like a retailer rather than a bank.
ING saturates each new market upon
arrival, offering free subway rides for
a day, rock concerts – anything
experiential and detached from
"banking." At first, clients started
showing up at ING's offices. To meet
this need, rather than adding branches,
ING started opening cafes where clients
could "hang out" and buy an affordable
cup of coffee without being approached
by bankers. The ING Direct cafes sell
250,000 cups of coffee a month – plus
brand merchandise.
Above: Arkadi Kuhlmann, HBA
'71, MBA '72, the founding
CEO of ING Direct USA and
Chairman of the Board of ING
Direct Canada.
There are many other ways that ING
Direct is different than other banks.
When you call their toll-free number, a
real person answers your call. Arkadi
feels that it's not possible to have
"intellectual conversations about
customers" and emphasizes the importance
of customer service experience. In fact,
everyone in the company works the phones
at some point, including Arkadi.
Kuhlmann
and his team focused on something called
"values-based execution":
differentiation, discipline,
accountability, empowerment, sense of
urgency, and customer advocacy. These
are the basis of the "Orange Code"-— the
unbreakable components of the culture,
and internal rules of the road everyone
must follow.
The
Orange Code:
We are new here. Every day is a new beginning. A
new set of challenges. A chance to
reinvent ourselves.
Our mission is to help people take
care of their wealth. Money is the fruit of work, and
saving it is fundamental to freedom.
Few missions could be more important
to the lives of our Customers than
this one.
We will be fair. Everyone has value. Everyone
deserves a chance at independence.
So, everyone will be treated equally
here.
We will constantly learn. Every experience we have will
make us wiser and better at what we
do. That will always be true.
We will change and adapt and dwell
only in the present and in the
future. The world does not stand still.
Neither will we.
We will listen. We will invent. We
will simplify. Our Customers can make us better
if we let them. But we must first
understand them. If our inventions
do not make our Customers' lives
better, it will not make our
business better.
We will never stop asking why. Or
why not. Nothing can be sacred here
except for our mission.
We will create wealth for ourselves
too, but we will do this by creating
value. Our Customers want us to
succeed. Profit is the proof that we
are fulfilling our mission, and it
is only rewarding when it is earned.
We will tell the truth. We cannot succeed without the
trust of our Customers and of
society.
We will be for everyone. To be our Customer, people need
only a dollar and the will to be
independent.
We aren't conquerors. We are
pioneers. We are not here to
destroy. We are here to create. We have competitors, not
enemies. We will respect them.
We will never be finished.
To help
the Orange culture develop consistently
across new locations and markets, new
buildings were designed to match the
values: warehouses without front
parking, elevators, offices or titles
became the homes of ING staff. The shape
and tone of each facility was designed
around the culture: fewer callers and
more space.
Kuhlmann
challenged Ivey's MBA students in their
future roles:, "there is no such thing
as an industry that can't be
re-energized." Making change requires
amazing perseverance in order to sell to
the regulators and sell to the boards
and get permission to do things the
"wrong" way. It is important to know
yourself, and to know your people.
Consumers are looking for how they can
relate to your business or product,
which makes the culture and values of a
business are incredibly important. Above
all else, Kuhlmannn noted that
leadership is the key ingredient and the
engine that powers the business.
WestJet
brings its culture and lessons of
success to Ivey
Beginning their presentation with a clip
from the popular game show Jeopardy!,
two WestJet executives, Ferio Pugliese,
Executive vice-president, People, and
Richard Bartram, Director of Culture and
Communications, gave a presentation to
the newest MBA class at the Richard Ivey
School of Business on May 14, 2009.
The Jeopardy! video clip
perfectly set the stage and captured the
WestJet culture with Alex Trebek reading
the $800 square, "WestJet punk'd fliers
on April Fools' Day with a $12 offer for
‘sleeper cabins', actually these." The
correct answer was "what are the
overhead bins?" – a response that none
of the panellists could come up with.
The dynamic duo passionately talked
about WestJets' unorthodox style and
culture, and how these very things were
the secrets to their success.
WestJet began in 1996 with 200
employees. Their business model was to
be a low cost carrier servicing five
destinations in Western Canada with 3
Boeing 737s. WestJet follows a business
plan that allows them to offer great
prices because of their low cost; simple
fares with few rules; and a standard
structure that allowed massive
reductions and pricing. This left the
competition – legacy airlines with lots
of rules and a traditional business
structure – unsure how to react.
Today, WestJet employees 7800 employees
and receives 1200 resumes a week. With
the growth of business it creates
leadership challenges. Leaders can't get
everybody in the same room anymore.
Richard Bartram, Director of
Culture and Communications.
But despite the fact that they can't get
their entire company in one room,
WestJet has stayed true its original
plan due to a strong vision and purpose.
In a presentation simply titled 5
Secrets to Success they used the WestJet
story and cultural values relay the
principals that led to their success.
"We care to plan." WestJet knows
their culture (they have an entire
department dedicated to culture) and
what they are dedicated to (e.g., on
time departures and landings). One
thing that the WestJet team chose to
plan was putting in time to find the
right language. How you use language
makes a big difference. For example,
they prefer "team leaders" over
"supervisors." When you're
supervised it implies someone
watching you to make sure you don't
mess up. On the contrary, being a
leader means that you give people
the tools to do their job and help
them do it better.
"We care to share."WestJet has
an employee share purchase plan
because they know that owners try
harder than employees. Over 80% of
WestJetters are shareholders and the
company matches every share of
employees purchases. They also have
a profit share plan with bi-yearly
pay out profits. The payout at the
end of the period can be upwards of
$30 million. They hand out cheques
at the profit share event. People
come for more than just the cheques
though. They come for the experience
and camaraderie.
"We care to really listen."
WestJet listens to its own people
through culture connection, tech
talks, and airport visits, and they
listen to their guests through their
surveys and letters.
"We care to design." WestJet
designs their experiences and
processes to make sure their own
people can be proud and successful
and to ensure their guests are truly
getting value in everything they do.
And
finally, "We care to celebrate
and have fun." WestJet offers
parties, new destinations launches,
and family days – just to name a
few!
NASA
aerospace engineer reveals lessons
learned from the Columbia Space Shuttle
accident
Using the Columbia Space Shuttle
accident as an example, Matt Melis,
aerospace engineer for NASA,
demonstrated how intuition will not
always give you the right answer.
Mr.
Melis walked the class of MBA students
through the series of events leading up
to Columbia's demise. In 2003,
Columbia's left-wing leading edge was
impacted by a piece of foam, suspected
to have separated form the external tank
bipod ramp, at 81 seconds into its
launch. Travelling at Mach 2.46 the foam
hit the vessel at 700-800 feet per
second. Although the incident was caught
on tape, NASA believed that the foam was
too soft and light to damage the tough
reinforced carbon-carbon composite
material that the leading edges of the
Orbiter are made from. They incorrectly
concluded that no critical damage
resulted from the impact and that
Columbia was clear for landing and safe
to return home. This resulted in air
shuttle disintegrating upon re-entry
into the Earth's atmosphere and the loss
of all seven crew members.
With a
multi-media presentation Melis used
pictures and video to explain the
different parts of the Shuttle, how the
parts are built, and the science they
used to determine the cause of
Columbia's breakup and what his team of
researchers did to shed light on the
accident.
Matt Melis, aerospace engineer
for NASA.
For five years after the loss of
Columbia, Melis and his colleagues at
NASA's Glenn Research Center Ballistics
Impact Lab worked to help determine what
happened to Columbia and what needed to
be done to get the Shuttle back to
flight. After running a series of
smaller scale tests, the Glenn team
supported a full scale test to recreate
the accident. A full size leading edge
was built and impacted with a piece foam
the same size and dimensions as the one
that fell off Columbia, at the
conditions of the actual event
determined from the footage of
Columbia's take off. Melis played the
students a video of this test and the
class gasped when the foam tore a large
hole in the panel.
During
class, students examined why NASA may
have downplayed the threat of a foam
strike. Meils explained, "If you don't
have valid data to support a critical
decision then make that decision
accounting for that fact. Don't make
things worse by guessing." This was the
mistake that led to the Columbia
accident. He stressed that this as a
lesson the group should take forward
into their careers.
Basically, Melis explained that the NASA
was living with a design flaw –the foam
from the external tank that eventually
broke off and damaged Columbia –that had
been dodged for 25 years. The insulating
foam design was put into place in the
1970s but created an accident in 2003.
Melis explained, "You can sometimes live
with design flaws for awhile, but there
is a good probability that they will
eventually catch up with you."
As the
next generation of business leaders,
students learned the importance of
creating as safe an environment as
possible, not to accept the status quo,
and to constantly challenge ideas within
their organizations.
Sukhinder
Singh Cassidy kicks off MBA Leadership
speaker series, shares her "Note to
Self"
"Being a leader is about managing
diverse agendas, not just your own."
That was one of the leadership insights
that Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, HBA '92,
shared class on May 12, 2009. Singh
Cassidy, who is in the midst of her own
career change, shared how her ambition
and desire to take the step of running
her own company led her to leave her
role as Google's President for
Asia-Pacific & Latin America Operations
in April 2009 to become CEO-In-Residence
at Accel Partners.
With a
presentation titled, Note to Self: What
Have I Leaned the Last 12 years? Singh
Cassidy, CEO-In-Residence at Accel
Partners, shared 15 lessons about
leadership. The talk came during the
second day of the MBA program's spring
class and gave the students class some
leadership goals to keep in mind through
their year long program and beyond the
classroom.
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, HBA
'92, CEO-In-Residence at Accel
Partners.
Singh Cassidy talked about the
importance of discerning when to
delegate tasks, she advised the class on
the delicate balance between avoiding
politics and when they matter to your
career, and how to avoid confusing
collaboration with consensus and over
inclusion.
In a tip
that she joked was especially relevant
for the men in the room, she said, "It's
ok to cry. It shows people your passion
and showing emotion shows people you
care." She explained that people want to
see that leaders can empathize with
their employees. "Be a leader who cares
about your employees' interests. They
have trusted their careers with you and
you should show them you take that
seriously."
Singh
Cassidy finished her presentation with a
discussion on managing big egos, the
benefits of knowing thyself, playing to
your trademark strengths, and the
importance of patience. The following is
a brief description of her 15 leadership
lessons:
Discern when to delegate vs. when to
know the details - its all about
exercising your operating range that
makes for the best leaders and
highest value add.
Know when politics matter and when
to be heads down on focused on the
job at hand. Sometimes you need to
play the game to get ahead in your
career.
Don't confuse collaboration with
consensus. Don't over include -
listen to everybody but make a call
and move on. Consensus is the enemy
of speed.
The
organizational chart is a pendulum
that keeps swinging– so don't worry
what side you're on. Instead focus
on adding value for other functions
and you will be impactful.
It's ok to cry. Showing emotion
shows you care and have empathy for
your employees.
Leave your crown at the door. When
you come home, you're a father,
mother, spouse, friend - and be
present when you are in those roles.
Everything you do as a leader is
analyzed. Accept it!
No
more PowerPoint presentations
please. People get distracted by
reading the slides and move ahead of
you. Use slides ahead of time for
people to read through and use your
meeting for discussion.
Managing big egos: when are they
more trouble when they are worth.
Learn to balance the trade-off
between someone's ego and skill set
and watch for warning signals when
big egos are undermining your
management team dynamics.
Know thyself. Play to your trademark
strengths and complement your
strengths with those you hire.
Don't compromise: if you can't find
someone for your #1 position, hire
for the #2 position. Don't hire the
"right now" person because of
urgency.
The
age old debate: hiring for intellect
vs. experience. Hiring on smarts
ensures a person's ability to
problem solve. These people will
also have a clean slate and vision.
Patience: sometimes you've just got
to let an issue go despite your
desire to drive to conclusion. Know
when to let things sit.
Launch early and often .Fast
iteration cycles with quick feedback
is a clear strategy towards
meaningful progress vs waiting to
perfect something.
Find balance over a course of a
lifetime vs the course of a day.
It's impossible to excel at anything
if you don't devote time to it -
think of your life in cycles.
Accel
Partners is a global venture and growth
equity firm funding companies from
inception through the growth stage.
