Sam Swaminathan

Leadership in the New Millennium

Why Should Anyone Be Led By you?

WHAT PRICE PROGRESS?

• The age of progress might have lightened our physical load – but it has numbed our minds and taken our spirit away from work.

• Speed and change are no longer linear or additive.

INTERNET TIME

“We can’t wait for evolution: three million years to grow a lung, another twenty to learn to walk upright, sixty more to grasp a spear, ten more to light a fire.”

– Peter Senge

first thinkingthen decidingfollowed by acting swiftlyand finally, reflecting

LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT

thinking – explorationdeciding – evaluation/selectionacting swiftly - edgereflecting – analysis/introspection

All of the above are intensely intellectual activities.

LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT

• To become rich, I have to be miserable.

• To be successful, I have to be unfair to my customers and employees.

• I must dominate to win.

• I must know everything.

• I have to make all the decisions.

MYTHS ABOUT LEADERSHIP

“If we were to think of the leader as a storyteller, whose stories must wrestle with those that are already operative in the minds of their audience, we get a powerful way of conceptualizing the work of leading.

“It is important for leaders to know their stories, to get them straight, to communicate them effectively, and above all, to embody in their lives the stories that they tell.”

Howard Gardner

LEADERS ARE STORYTELLERS

GREAT LEADERS ARE DREAMERS

“There is always a dream in all enterprise, but the dream if it lasts, one day becomes a reality” – Jean Monnet [One Europe, One World]

“India must be able to face Britain as an equal nation, and not as a subordinate colony. India could not, and should not, remain a British possession.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi’s greatest contributions extended well beyond the Indian subcontinent. Through his inspired writings and his own embodiment of personal courage, he conveyed to people around the world that it is possible to resist injustice in a way that is honorable, does not involve counterattack, and may even bring about resolutions that empower all concerned.

GREAT LEADERS ARE DREAMERS

Leaders are infinitely patient in negotiations, never accept defeat as permanent, and adhere steadily to the single progressive and inclusionary idea that animates their lives.

Most human progress is owed to this belief.

LEADERS ARE BELIEVERS

“The best leaders have an almost magical ability to turn a phrase and articulate their agenda for the organization graphically, compellingly, memorably.”

- Robert Kaplan

Leadership entails exciting people’s imaginations and inspiring them to move in a desired direction. It takes more than simple power to motivate and lead.

LEADERS ARE EXCITING

“Don’t ever lock this door again.” Bill Hewlett - HP

This does more to prize trust than any lecture.

LEADERS ARE EXCITING

GREAT LEADERS DON’T ARRIVE ALONE AT THE FINISH LINE

The ways in which leaders conduct their lives – their embodiments – must be clearly perceptible by those whom they hope to influence. People who do not practice what they preach are hypocrites, and hypocrisy mutes the effectiveness of their stories.

LEADERS ARE CREDIBLE

LEADERSHIP CRISIS

Gillette

Lucent

Campbell

Coca-Cola

Xerox

Mattel

P&G

Michael Hawley

Rick McGinn

Dale Morrison

Doug Ivestor

Rick Thoman

Jill Barad

Dirk Jager

Tyranny is not leadership.

Cruelty is not edge.

- Jack Welch on Leadership

GandhiGandhi MandelaMandela

Havel Havel Mother TeresaMother Teresa

Martin Luther KingMartin Luther King

Change doesn’t have to Change doesn’t have to start at the top.start at the top.

The Activist’s Rule

They possessed no political power, yet each disrupted history.It was passion, not power, that allowed them to do so.

The Activist’s Rule

Leadership – The GE Way

PASSION

Source – Fortune 24/9/2001

A Leadership Development Model

T3T3 T4T4

T1T1 T2T2

Low VALUESVALUES High

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T1 T1 – Say goodbye now

T2T2 – Coach, give a chance

T3T3 – Tyrant.Warn – if no change, get rid

T4T4 – Make them role models

T3T3 T4T4

T1T1 T2T2

Low VALUESVALUES High

High

Low

PE

RF

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NC

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A Leadership Development Model

• LEARN

• EMPATHIZE

• ACT

• DREAM

WHAT IT MEANS TO LEAD

YOU!

LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT

Leadership is not something that you do. It is an expression of who you are.

- Kevin Cashman

Brought to you by

Sam SwaminathanSam SwaminathanCenter for Creative Thinking

http://www.ccthinking.com

HELPING YOU THINK DIFFERENTLY