Leaders I Respect and/or Admire
Job-searching has enhanced my large-picture view to look toward companies and individuals I respect and admire, and I view the terms as mutually exclusive. I'm sure I'll be revising this list but here's a start....
John Chambers of Cisco--John Chambers in recent months seems to have had an epiphany and has become more insightful and truly aware of social networking and collaboration. He is one of the least assuming or arrogant leaders who still manages to motivate his troops on many levels. I just watched the video of the interview with the San Jose Mercury News on the official Cisco blog and it only confirms my belief. Chambers, with his accent, comes across as humble but the guy has vision. I really want to see his company demonstrate it with goods and services that reflect that vision. The difficult thing is that Cisco is a huge ship and has a long reputation of being very conservative in product design and highly proprietary so re-directing that ship to get on course with Chambers' vision will be a tough thing. Sometimes I wonder if Chambers wouldn't have more fun with a new company. I respect AND admire John Chambers.
Jack Welch, formerly of GE--Jack Welch while with GE was almost exactly the opposite of what I wanted to emulate as a leader. As a classmate of mine in my MBA program described him, he was a chair-and-whip sort of lion tamer showman. He instituted some pretty ruthless management and business styles. I can't say that they were bad per se because the business was highly successful under his leadership, however I do believe that there is more than one way to get the job done. Since he retired from GE, he and his wife, Suzy, have been answering business questions in the back of Business Week every week. I have to say that it seldom strikes me that this is the same Jack Welch; he actually has glimmers of compassion and is incredibly insightful. Occasionally the 'cut off the bottom feeders' statement comes out but for the most part I really like his advice. While with GE I respected him, now I respect and admire Jack Welch.
Steven Jobs of Apple--Steve Jobs is a mixed bag for me. He is more arrogant than the leaders that I see as ideal (but so are most of them) and his showmanship is almost too over the top for me on the marketing side. I generally prefer someone who is a little more subtle. To his credit though, Jobs knows what he's doing and he's thinking far beyond just Apple. He has changed the way consumers think about cell phones. Wired Magazine did an excellent article on how Jobs and the iPhone are shaking up the cell phone industry. In a couple of years, I assure you that the cell phone industry will have so many cool products and services it will make pre-iPhone days look prehistoric. Even the Apple-haters can't deny that what Jobs did for the cellular industry isn't huge. Jobs is also trying to do similar things in the video (movie and network) arenas. Knowing the little that I do about the industry, it really strikes me as being a mafia-like empire and Jobs is making notable inroads in getting media distributed the way the consumer wants to see and use it. Some have likened him to being the largest advocate for entertainment media for the consumer. That's huge, keep in mind that this industry has a long history and the major studios have long had an alliance that hasn't been broken by many and Jobs has made the biggest inroads as an outsider. While he's first looking out for his own company's interests (and profits), he's the intrepid explorer wielding a machete and is finding the treasure and distributing the prize (although you do have to buy admission to get the prize in the form of iTunes/iPods/AppleTVs). Do you think Amazon would be selling MP3s if it weren't for iTunes? No way, not yet or at least not in the volume it is just out of the gate. I definitely respect the guy, I kind of admire him because he is borders on being too much of a marketer and is a little too full of himself.
Oprah Winfrey of Harpo--Oprah Winfrey embodies the story of someone pulling themselves up by their bootstraps to a level of success that is unrivaled. Winfrey has on many occasions demonstrated that she has a tremendous humanitarian side to her. While I personally don't care much for the daily show, it's really only one of many parts of her self-built empire. Winfrey credits her staff and she loves her audience. She has hundreds of thousands of devotees and has often been considered one of the most influential women in the world. She is compassionate but still has a tremendous business acumen. I don't necessarily appreciate her products but I do respect her for getting to where she has from nothing and I admire her passion.
Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek, Next Generation--Jean Luc Picard is a fictional character, yes, I know. No, I don't go to Star Trek conventions and I'm not about to get into a debate about Kirk v. Picard. What always struck me about Picard was his very collaborative management style. When the tough decisions needed to be made he would pull in his usual top brass and often a subject matter expert. They would discuss the matter as equals and if the obvious choice didn't become clear, Picard would make the decision, explain why, and lead the team cohesively. When you use this style of management, you tend to get greater buy-in to the decision and long-term support in executing a decision or project. It's not natural for everyone and certainly won't work if your thinking is to tell someone to do it and if they question you, you tell them your mind is made up and you're the boss. Picard gave his managers a high degree of autonomy but he held them accountable. This style doesn't work for everyone but it's a style I admire, respect, and try to emulate (sans the outfit and bald head).
John Chambers of Cisco--John Chambers in recent months seems to have had an epiphany and has become more insightful and truly aware of social networking and collaboration. He is one of the least assuming or arrogant leaders who still manages to motivate his troops on many levels. I just watched the video of the interview with the San Jose Mercury News on the official Cisco blog and it only confirms my belief. Chambers, with his accent, comes across as humble but the guy has vision. I really want to see his company demonstrate it with goods and services that reflect that vision. The difficult thing is that Cisco is a huge ship and has a long reputation of being very conservative in product design and highly proprietary so re-directing that ship to get on course with Chambers' vision will be a tough thing. Sometimes I wonder if Chambers wouldn't have more fun with a new company. I respect AND admire John Chambers.
Jack Welch, formerly of GE--Jack Welch while with GE was almost exactly the opposite of what I wanted to emulate as a leader. As a classmate of mine in my MBA program described him, he was a chair-and-whip sort of lion tamer showman. He instituted some pretty ruthless management and business styles. I can't say that they were bad per se because the business was highly successful under his leadership, however I do believe that there is more than one way to get the job done. Since he retired from GE, he and his wife, Suzy, have been answering business questions in the back of Business Week every week. I have to say that it seldom strikes me that this is the same Jack Welch; he actually has glimmers of compassion and is incredibly insightful. Occasionally the 'cut off the bottom feeders' statement comes out but for the most part I really like his advice. While with GE I respected him, now I respect and admire Jack Welch.
Steven Jobs of Apple--Steve Jobs is a mixed bag for me. He is more arrogant than the leaders that I see as ideal (but so are most of them) and his showmanship is almost too over the top for me on the marketing side. I generally prefer someone who is a little more subtle. To his credit though, Jobs knows what he's doing and he's thinking far beyond just Apple. He has changed the way consumers think about cell phones. Wired Magazine did an excellent article on how Jobs and the iPhone are shaking up the cell phone industry. In a couple of years, I assure you that the cell phone industry will have so many cool products and services it will make pre-iPhone days look prehistoric. Even the Apple-haters can't deny that what Jobs did for the cellular industry isn't huge. Jobs is also trying to do similar things in the video (movie and network) arenas. Knowing the little that I do about the industry, it really strikes me as being a mafia-like empire and Jobs is making notable inroads in getting media distributed the way the consumer wants to see and use it. Some have likened him to being the largest advocate for entertainment media for the consumer. That's huge, keep in mind that this industry has a long history and the major studios have long had an alliance that hasn't been broken by many and Jobs has made the biggest inroads as an outsider. While he's first looking out for his own company's interests (and profits), he's the intrepid explorer wielding a machete and is finding the treasure and distributing the prize (although you do have to buy admission to get the prize in the form of iTunes/iPods/AppleTVs). Do you think Amazon would be selling MP3s if it weren't for iTunes? No way, not yet or at least not in the volume it is just out of the gate. I definitely respect the guy, I kind of admire him because he is borders on being too much of a marketer and is a little too full of himself.
Oprah Winfrey of Harpo--Oprah Winfrey embodies the story of someone pulling themselves up by their bootstraps to a level of success that is unrivaled. Winfrey has on many occasions demonstrated that she has a tremendous humanitarian side to her. While I personally don't care much for the daily show, it's really only one of many parts of her self-built empire. Winfrey credits her staff and she loves her audience. She has hundreds of thousands of devotees and has often been considered one of the most influential women in the world. She is compassionate but still has a tremendous business acumen. I don't necessarily appreciate her products but I do respect her for getting to where she has from nothing and I admire her passion.
Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek, Next Generation--Jean Luc Picard is a fictional character, yes, I know. No, I don't go to Star Trek conventions and I'm not about to get into a debate about Kirk v. Picard. What always struck me about Picard was his very collaborative management style. When the tough decisions needed to be made he would pull in his usual top brass and often a subject matter expert. They would discuss the matter as equals and if the obvious choice didn't become clear, Picard would make the decision, explain why, and lead the team cohesively. When you use this style of management, you tend to get greater buy-in to the decision and long-term support in executing a decision or project. It's not natural for everyone and certainly won't work if your thinking is to tell someone to do it and if they question you, you tell them your mind is made up and you're the boss. Picard gave his managers a high degree of autonomy but he held them accountable. This style doesn't work for everyone but it's a style I admire, respect, and try to emulate (sans the outfit and bald head).
1 comment:
Good choices! This was fun to read too.
Post a Comment