Tag Archives: loving like a leader

Leadership Mints Series Sampler Rethinking SHARE Holder Value

More than 180 chief executive officers leading some of the largest companies in America last week virtually endorsed the key message in LOVING Like a Leader, the second book in the 3-book Leadership Mints Series:

A caring and sharing mindset (love in a business context) can engage all stakeholders — from employees to customers to suppliers etc — to be more productive, more profitable and more innovative.

No way. No how. Many business owners still say it’s all about the money-accruing it, investing it and leveraging it. In fact, that money-is-everything mindset has been the prevailing opinion of business leaders for more than 20 years (since 1997).

But on August 19, 2019 — a date that will go down in the business history books and transform the way colleges teach business administration and leadership development in the future , the Business Roundtable signed and issued a Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.

In the process this key influential corporate lobbying group comprised of chief executive officers from major corporations in America (like Amazon, Walmart) redefined shareholder value in more than monetary terms and recanted economist Milton Friedman’s dictum in 1970 that corporations exist to maximize profits.

“Each of our stake­holders is essential. W­e commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities, and our country,” the Business Roundtable Statement says.

Now leaders in the future might consider those stakeholders — employees, customers, suppliers and the communities they live and work in — SHARE holders. They all have a share in the corporation’s bottom line success. They all must be treated equally with dignity and respect and fully factored and collaboratively considered in all decisions.

Adding a 5th “P” — PEOPLE — to the traditional 4 P’s model of business acumen and marketing know-how (Price, Production, Place, Promotion), corporate leaders in the future are more likely to see employees as assets to be developed, nurtured and invested in not as an expense to be contained. Take it from Bob Chapman, Continue reading

Savor Today’s Leadership Mint: Gaining Trust With Empathy

Empathy is good business.

You gain greater buy-in the more you can step into the shoes of your customers or your employees and more readily feel what they feel.

That empathy then fuels a trust that triggers greater productivity and profitability over time.

But how do you teach empathy? You don’t.

Let others do it for you : like Generals in the U.S. Army (Colin Powell and Norm Schwarzkopf), political leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Barack Obama and Lee Kuan Yew along with legendary sports heroes like pro football’s Vince Lombardi and professional golf’s Jack Nicklaus.

They share their secret to success: leading with empathy among the 77 Leadership Mints 5-minute stories in LOVING Like a Leader, one of the three books in the Leadership Mints Series designed to help busy leaders freshen their feeling for leading.

How Many Souls On Board?

What if you thought of your company or organization as if it were a 747 jet flying at 35,000 feet. All of your employees are on board. Of course, you are in the pilot’s seat.

You sense your awesome responsibility not only for the safety and security of your employees but also for your company’s fiduciary commitments to customers, stockholders etc. through your employees. You realize the significance of your “corporate jet” that management and staff are in this together, that we need each other.

We have to work with each other — and for each other — to achieve our common destiny: a safe landing. And as the pilot of your “corporate jet” you adopt the communications protocol of Air Traffic Controllers who pose this question during an emergency: How many souls on board? The word “souls” more clearly communicates the inclusive list of humans at risk (passengers, pilots and crew).

We Need Each Other

That realization that we are all in this together no matter where you are sitting in this organization — in First Class or Coach, in the Pilot’s seat or in Aft seat — stems from a feeling of caring and sharing with others, a feeling of interdependence on each other, a sense of love of and for each other that feeds the organization in general and the leaders in particular to better adapt to changing conditions in real time.

And in serving their collective souls, loving leaders tap into an ever-widening and enriching treasure chest of humanity with all of its attendant inspiration, imagination and innovation that leads to greater productivity and ultimately greater profitability.

(This is an excerpt of a newly relaunched book titled
LOVING Like a Leader now available on Amazon.com

Loving Those Who Served

 

Methodically and precisely the former fighter pilot in World War II steered his grocery-cart scooter into the checkout lane. He grimaced as he gripped the soup can in his cart. The pain shot through his frail 85-year-old hand like so many bullets. Wincing, he dropped the can of soup on the conveyor belt with a thud!

The sound caught the attention of the customer in front of him. The 40-year-old abruptly turned his attention from the cashier scanning his groceries to the elderly man behind him. The younger man seemed captivated both by the cap the octogenarian wore and the compelling message it bore: WWII Veteran. Something stirred deep in the soul of the younger man.

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