Posts tagged: Leadership

The most admired leaders are those who have a personal reputation for acting ethically and with integrity, and establishing a culture in which their employees do the same. The organizations with these types of leaders are the ones people want to work for and that flourish over the long term. Quoting Waren Buffett when he was chairman of Salomon Brothers: “Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.”

Why do people want to work for Elon Musk? He is a visionary, and people buy into his visions for his companies. However, his rash decision-making and leadership style and his sudden or unpredictable changes of mood and mind could undermine the future success of his companies. People want to work for a company led by a CEO that is consistent and readable and treats its employees as empowered valued assets.

Boeing needs to significantly tighten its safety processes and procedures. The company also needs a new mission statement that must be easy to remember and clearly focuses everyone’s efforts—Boeing and contractor employees alike—on building safe aircraft. The new mission statement: “We build our aircraft as if our kids and grandkids were going to be flying on them.” This will resonate with employees and make them personally invested in aircraft safety.

Individuals who are toxic are not trusted by their peers or direct reports. The actions of everyone they work with have a defensive component, which hinders any group from becoming a high-performance team. Toxic people don’t realize that they are damaging their personal integrity and reputation, important traits which determine whether people want to work alongside them. Never tolerate a toxic leader. They cause great harm to your organization. Part company with them.

Boeing mechanics improperly reinstalled the door plug that blew off an Alaska Airline’s 737 Max 9 aircraft on Jan 5. Paraphrasing Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun’s Jan 10 remarks to his employees: “We build our aircraft as if our kids and grandkids were going to be flying on them.” This is the mindset every Boeing and contractor employee should have. This should be Boeing’s mission statement and is an important element of Calhoun’s tone at the top.

It is not often that a CEO with the power of Musk emerges on the scene. CEOs with that power are a double-edged sword with the success of the company dependent on them. This is normal for an early-stage company. However, for a company with a valuation of nearly $700 billion, it’s dangerous when the CEO can dictate his compensation package and threaten to hurt the company and its stockholders if he doesn’t get what he wants.

A recent CBS poll found that 75% of Americans view the migrant situation at our southern border a crisis or very serious. Of those polled, 68% disapprove of the way Biden is managing the U.S.-Mexico border issue. Congressional Republicans didn’t score much better, with 63% disapproval. Biden needs to lead proactively on this issue and take control of the narrative.

Author’s note: Shortly after my article on Claudine Gay was published, she resigned the presidency of Harvard.

University leaders need to earn the trust and confidence of not only those on campus, but also the wider community. They also need to hold themselves accountable to the same standards they hold others. Due to her plagiarism and the culture she is nurturing at Harvard, Gay is failing her leadership responsibilities. If she survives, she will be a significantly damaged leader.

Intercity bus passengers deserve a great customer experience. This is not what they are getting in Philadelphia from Greyhound after the company abandoned their bus terminal and moved to curbside pickup and drop off of passengers. Greyhound claims they follow industry standards. When industry standards are inadequate, leading companies go beyond those standards to differentiate themselves from their competition. Why doesn’t Greyhound?

Every leader has their own leadership style. As a leader, Musk is an outlier, a disruptor, out to accomplish what he believes is possible. Musk is an engineer, so his hard technical skills and way of thinking fit well with Tesla, SpaceX and Boring. However, at X (formerly Twitter), technical skills are not the driver for success. People skills and emotional intelligence are, which is not his strong area.

All forms of hate or violence, regardless to whom it is directed, must be condemned. When any group of students feels unsafe on campus, it is the responsibility of the university administration to protect them regardless of their race, nationality, religion or sexual orientation. Let’s hope all university administrators fulfill this responsibility.