The Leader Prepares

This is a work of fiction. I wrote this piece as part of an exercise in B-school reflecting on leadership lessons. I’ve channeled my experiences, philosophy and thoughts into this story. Any resemblances to situations or characters are coincidental.

Mark smiled as he pulled into his assigned parking spot at Sicos Systems. He was poised to take over the helm from the departing CEO, John Faber. As he stepped out of his car, the euphoria from having a reserved parking spot quickly turned into a myriad thoughts about how he would carry John’s legacy into the future. John was not just a successful CEO in terms of helping Sicos grow to over a billion dollars in revenue, but an inspirational leader. In the weeks leading up to his departure, Mark was hoping to gain valuable insights into John’s leadership style and apply them in practice.

The board room filled quickly, as John started the meeting right on time. A few minutes in, Ken Roberts, the SVP of Engineering, burst into the room ending his phone conversation in a hurried whisper before settling down. John paused and let a few moments of uncomfortable silence seep into the room before continuing. Mark knew something was different about this place. He couldn’t remember the last time he sat in a meeting where every single person was completely engrossed in the speaker’s words. There were no open laptops, no smartphones and no forced interruptions.

John suddenly got up, turned off the projector, took off his coat and slowly made his way toward the windows. Mark could see the entire room shuffle a bit as John flicked the blinds open. “Who’s going first?”, asked John. Ken volunteered immediately, perhaps to make up for his tardiness. Everyone in the room spent about five minutes talking about what was not going well for their division. John forced everyone to talk about solutions to problems that had been identified. Mark knew he was in the right place.

“How was class?”, John asked as Mark heaped some pasta on to his plate. “Oh! good, but a bit too abstract.” John laughed as they sat down, “No, not your training, but the boardroom this morning.” Mark looked confused as John proceeded, “Do you know why Ken felt uncomfortable even though he was just a bit late? It’s because I’ve created relentless discipline around the value of time.” Mark knew this was his first lesson ­­- the value of time and the culture of respecting other peoples’ value of time. He was reminded of how Steve Jobs ran his meetings at Apple. The only people present were the ones who had a valid reason to be there; to solve a problem, to contribute. The only people who would see little reason in wasting time. “It’s not easy”, John continued. “My job is hard not because I pay everyones salaries. It’s because I have to be CEO every single moment, every single day.” Mark stopped chewing his pasta as he reflected on that thought for a moment. Leadership isn’t a sprint. It requires the discipline of a marathon to carry your unique style into every vein of the organization over a long period.

Over the next few weeks, Mark would spend a lot of time shadowing John. While these experiences proved to be very valuable, the best insights seemed to come at night, sitting in solitude. One night, thumbing through pictures of his kids, Mark had an epiphany. He had been trying to figure out how John managed to motivate his employees day in and day out. He remembered what his dad had taught him about parenting. Like parenting, leadership is hard, not because you need to just bring about external change, but change from within. Just as being a parent highlights your core personality, so does true leadership. Effective leaders spend a lot of time transforming themselves from within in order to effectively manage change on the outside. Mark knew John spent a lot of time in self reflection, looking for continuous improvements. This showed clearly in the way he led Sicos and was another key lesson for Mark. Being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses was a crucial requirement for being an effective leader. There was no better method of achieving this than being receptive to feedback and reflecting on it. Many successful CEOs highlight the importance of such self awareness. Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, talks openly about her willingness to change based on constructive criticism of her leadership style.

It was now only a week prior to John transitioning out of his role permanently. Mark had been called to lead the global sales meeting and had spent a lot of time preparing his pep talk for the sales leadership. He spent a lot of time thinking about lessons recently learned and past experiences. He knew he had to make a great impression on the sales team as their new leader. He spent a lot of time studying the company growth patterns, financial data, sales pipelines and product strategies. The day prior to the meeting, he met with John over drinks. “What’s your key message?” asked John. “Double digit sustained growth”, replied Mark. John put down his whiskey glass and smiled a bit. He then looked at Mark sternly and said “Bullshit! You’re speaking corporate BS! Throw that speech away!” Mark was taken aback, but knew that he was about to learn another key lesson. “You know Mark, there are a few words that fake leaders use. Words such as streamline, orchestrate, synergy, innovation, metrics, mindshare and the like. The reason they use them is because their emotions are fake. They prepare their script mechanically and are forced to use filler words; classic cliches in the business world.” In his honest desire to do a good job, Mark had unknowingly prepared a script that was designed to please the audience, not tell the truth as it was. A few sales regions were suffering and critical decisions needed to be made about the fate of those teams. John was expecting a lot more transparency. There needed to be a very clear purpose behind the meeting. Mark could feel Jack Welch’s thoughts on candor echo in his mind ­­ “…What determines your destiny is not the hand you’re dealt; it’s how you play the hand. And the best way to play your hand is to face reality — see the world the way it is — and act accordingly.” Mark immediately called the SVP of sales and had a candid conversation with him prior to the global sales meeting. Being honest and opening up to reality immediately garnered a lot of respect from the entire team the next day. A lot of people came up with constructive ideas on how to fix lagging sales in the regions of concern. All Mark had to do was to be open, honest and a good listener. The rest seemed to follow magically.

Mark had a huge task ahead. The last few weeks with John had been an eye opener. Mark knew that he could not bring about change if he portrayed himself as someone he wasn’t on the inside. He had to be open to continuous improvement of his own self, free of fear, free of greed and free of ego. He had to go above and beyond the lessons he learnt from his time at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. This wasn’t going to be easy, but knowing that the true essence of leadership is a never ending journey rather than a destination provided immense strength and direction.

Sicos had a new CEO. Mark smiled again as he pulled into his parking spot. This time, the smile was a reflection of his inner strength, not the material benefit of reserved parking. As he stepped into his office, he saw a plaque that John had left as a gift for him. On it were these words from Intel ex-­CEO Andy Grove:

“There are half a dozen words in the English language that are substitutes for substance. Three of them are innovation, accountability, and leadership. Companies that let people get away with murder talk too much about accountability. Those that don’t have the courage to leave the handrail talk incessantly about leadership. And people who are incapable of changing what they are doing, or even analyzing what’s wrong, go on and on about innovation.”