Styles of Leadership

Came across two longish articles on executives at big companies in my newspaper reading today: the first is a New York Times profile of James Farley, who left Toyota to take a job at one of the world's biggest turnaround challenges - Ford Motor Company. The other is a Wall Street Journal profile of Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Airlines.

I love that Farley seems to be pursuing work he's genuinely passionate about, that he's not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom, and that he seems to be a great listener - whether with colleagues or dealers or customers. I found this anecdote really compelling:

At his first town hall-style meeting with his extended Ford staff, Mr. Farley opened the session with a gesture that people still remember.

“I’d like you to turn to the person next to you, I don’t care if it’s on the right or left, and pat them on the back,” he said. Then he laid out his agenda in the simplest terms possible.

“I hope you are ready to save this company,” he said, “because that’s what I’m going to be doing every minute of every day.” Ford, he said, “was at the precipice,” and had no margin for error.

I don't think I'd much like to work for someone like Anderson.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mystery Solved

Image
Funny story about the source of the maple syrup smell that has periodically occurred in New York City: Map of the Day: NYC's Official Maple Syrup "Odor Reports" . Most interesting to me is that the mystery was ultimately solved by overlaying calls to the city's 311 line on a map with dates and prevailing weather patterns (check the link for a detailed picture). Related articles by Zemanta Maple Syrup Smell Mystery Solved! [Metro] (gawker.com) NYC's Mysterious Syrup Smell Tracked To New Jersey (cbsnews.com) LIVE: Maple Syrup Smell...is FROM NEW JERSEY (gothamist.com)
Read more

A '59 Seconds' Exercise in Motivation and a 2010 Resolution

For a couple of weeks in 2008, during the peak of training for the Chicago Marathon, I was at my target weight: 165 pounds. Given the aftermath of all the running I did in 2008, 2009 was not a great year for running. I'm back on track now, though, and eagerly looking forward to the NYRR Manhattan half-marathon in a couple of weeks. I'm recommitting myself to achieving my target weight, and I'm using the steps outlined in the Motivation chapter of 59 Seconds: Think A Little, Change A Lot to focus my efforts. It's a fun book that I highly recommend. The key steps include: 1. Identify the overall goal 2. Create a step by step plan to achieve the goal (including specifics on how each step will be achieved and how you will reward yourself as each step is achieved. 3. Specifically identify the benefits of achieving the goal. 4. Tell lots of people about your goal. That's what's happening here, by the way..... For more background, check out this post on Wiseman's
Read more