From the seed of an idea in 1919, to the first graduates in 1923 and now in the new building 90 years later, the Ivey Business School has been about the development of leaders. We celebrated LEADERSHIP DAY on September 10.
Leadership is the essence of what we do and what we always have done at Ivey. It is an understatement to say that the world craves better leadership. That's apparent from today's headlines alluding to leadership failures in business, government, science and education, sports, the military and other sectors.
But whether the quality of leadership in organizations improves or not depends on the efforts of many stakeholders -- families, schools, religious institutions, boards of directors, professional associations, educators, and senior leaders in all segments of society.
As educators at the Ivey Business School we have the opportunity and indeed obligation to thoroughly examine, understand and commit to the development of good leadership. We must explore a number of critical questions including but not limited to the following: What good leaders do; who good leaders are; and how good leaders are developed.
I recently completed the book "Good Leaders Learn: Lessons from Lifetimes of Leadership". The book delivers on Ivey's commitment to leadership and leadership development. Through 30+ in-depth interviews with leaders, readers will find out first-hand and up-close how good leaders become better leaders through learning.
I invited 5 leaders who participated in the book project to join us on LEADERSHIP DAY to discuss their learning to lead with our HBA, MBA and MSc students. These leaders were:
- Daniel Akerson, Chairman and CEO of General Motors Company
- Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, HBA '92, Founder and Chairman of JOYUS, former president, Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations, at Google
- Arkadi Kuhlmann, HBA '71, MBA '72, Chairman and CEO of ZenBanx, former President & CEO ING DIRECT USA
- Jody Wilson-Raybould, British Columbia Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief
- Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival, graduate of the Ivey Executive Leadership Program
The panel discussion revealed a number of interesting insights.
Daniel Akerson articulated that if you as a leader accept mediocrity, over time that becomes a hallmark of the organization, and the organization "dumbs down". Leaders have to recognize that they too are being observed. If the leader accepts mediocrity, that behaviour will be replicated.
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy explained that one thing that derails people is an inordinate focus on what they can't control versus what they can control. She said that: "Lots of things are out of your control and I've always struggled with being obsessive about what is in my control."
Arkadi Kuhlmann urged students to learn quickly from mistakes. He bemoaned the fact that many people won't do the post-mortem. They'll do the preparation and then execute on the plan, but they won't take enough time to reflect on whether both planning and execution could have been done in a better way. He learned very quickly from his mentors that the post-mortem is where the value is. He said: "It's funny, as a society, we do this with sports. We will argue for hours about why a goal was scored, or not scored, and how an individual played, and so on. In business, and even in family situations, we just won't do those kinds of post-mortems. We don't do them enough. We get the results and just move on. The reality is that really good leaders take time to reflect."
Jody Wilson-Raybould shared with the students her advice about becoming a better leader. She stated: "I would tell people that what has been able to keep me grounded and to continue moving forward is to be confident in who I am and know where I come from. I would encourage leaders to approach every person with openness and recognition that they have something to contribute. You should value other people's opinions and what they are doing and not to judge. Be open to being challenged. Be open to sharing information and supporting people. And be who you are and no matter what circumstance you are in, or who you are meeting with."
And, last, Antoni Cimolino urged students to always be ambitious and to always be trying to shoot the lights out. Too many people ignore what needs to be done and accept less than their very best. He also shared his passion for collaboration to achieve greatness.