Learning from Giants
The Golden Rule of Ethics
I had the privilege to listen to recorded Executive Circle Calls within the John Maxwell Mentorship Program. All of them are leaders with integrity and of service to people.
When I first realized this once in a life time opportunity, my first thought was: “Who am I to learn from world class leaders, and I was embarrassed that I would never measure up to this leaders. But you know what? I don’t have to!!!! And I can learn at the feet of this humans to learn, reflect and help others.
After all, we teach and facilitate servant leadership. We facilitate and mentor the John C Maxwell teaching with horses as thinking partners the golden rules of character building:
You’re valued
You’re appreciated
You’re trusted
You’re respected
You’re understood
No one will take advantage of you
The leaders I learned from in those private calls were: Alan Mullaly, former CEO Boeing, Mcdonnell Douglas and Ford Automobiles, Casey Crawford, American Football and Movement Mortgage, Horst Schulze, Founder Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Steve Green CEO Hobby Lobby, 30’000 employees and 60 stores, Carly Fiorina CEO HP, Ralph de la Vega At&T, and he launched Steve Job’s very first iPhone, Carlos Dominguez, COO CISCO and Sprinklr, Rick Keyes CEO Meijer, Bob Hammer CEO Commvault, and Kimberly Inskeep, founder and CEO Cabi Fashion.
Those leaders were sharing their success formulas for 60-90 minutes each.
I also learned, that focused and intentional journaling is invaluable. If you don’t, it’s like having not many pictures (baby, childhood, youth, adult life) of your growth, because journaling are your mind -growth pictures, so to speak.
Reflections:
Some of Alan Mulally’s values:
Business Culture, communication with an open mind, without fear, honesty when things are going bad, help instead of shame and blame, customer conscious attitude, leadership is a people business, loving people, learning from reality, arrogance stops EVERYTHING. Minimal of politics.
A vision- a system in place- a plan- results
Some of Horst Schulze’s values:
Vision of destination, inclusive of every single employee, timeframe for results, no excuses, focus and culture, customer focused, alignment to the objection. Careful selection of employees, orientation days about vision, purpose and culture, empowerment of employees to do a great job, teachability and attitudes.
The 5 C’s, Cares, Clarity, Consistency, Communication and Community
Some of Steve Green’s values:
Rather application than education in the direct customer contact areas, love and discipline, to have the right people on the bus, good structure, learning from competitors, always improving and keeping it simple for leading managers, good people skills
Always striving, never arriving and don’t rest on success. Surround yourself with likeminded people, as iron sharpens iron, character first.
Some of Carly Fiorina’s values:
Overcoming fears of obstacles, looking foolish, failing and mistakes, being overlooked. The more you overcome fear, the better to get at it. Systemic and methodical approach regarding products, success, organizing and culture. Unlocking potential in others, serving and changes: Asking great questions, courage, character, collaborating, being humble, empathy.
A C T= Apply-Change-Teach
Carly developed her own transformational framework for Hewlett Packard’s turnaround:
She wrote a book about it: Tough choices unlock the potential.
Some of Ralph de la Vega’s values:
It doesn’t matter where you start, it matters where you end up. Don’t let anybody put limitations on what you can achieve on you. Stabilizing a bad situation, tight knitted team and agreements. Success cycle for turnarounds: Stabilize assessment, creative vision, wins and successes. plan align, execute, monitor and adjust. Inspire people.
Dream Big, believe in yourself, take risks, have a plan, learn to unlearn what is no longer true, no excuses.
Some of Carlos Dominguez’ Values:
The world is not changing in a comfortable pace. Remain relevant, leverage technology, be aware of trends, when the environment changes, so must you. Don’t see the new problem in an old way. Courage and confidence to admit that we don’t know it all. Not forcing our mindset on others.
Learn-adapt- re-adjust. Experiment something new every 30 days. Let people experiment, let them fail. Do not annoy clients!
Pay attention to anyone, learn from millennials, every person matters, build a bridge, simplify. Deliver consistent high quality results.
Some of Rick Keye’s values:
Always investing and learning for oneself, growing and learning and having values and principles. Secret to happiness is giving to others. Being committed to excellence, collaboration, appreciate people, simplify instead of over complicating things.
Values in decision making, culture, purpose, role clarity, investing in people, investing in business, customer focused, win with the team, trust, empowerment, compete to win, set them up for success. Can I trust you? Can you help me? Do you care?
C T C= Customer- Team- Compete
Some of Bob Hammer’s values:
Think 3-5 years ahead of the market, longterm vision, bold risks, adjust business models.
Culture is how you drive innovation and execution.
Consistency, sustainability, integrity, passion, ethical, results, keep ego out of it.
Some of Kimberly Inskeep’s values:
Leadership sets the pace for EVERYTHING in a company, performance management and systems. Open to ideas and trust. Intentional about vision and culture.
Culture: Why are you in the business?- Relationships- Growth mindset
The why gives passion. Relationships define the purpose, connections, collaboration and values ( people over profit) and Growth Mindset.
Focused journaling and reflecting daily for insights, to remember, for take aways. Protecting the culture when the business is growing. The togetherness, developing leaders, be transparent, always keep the why, change is inevitable, but be consistent and in context with your bigger picture, attitude and know your strength, step into it.
Summary: Character matters. All of them have a clear vision, goals and know how to achieve by valuing people, collaboration and teamwork. Courage to take steps and execute. All of them are servant leaders clearly defined in their culture and how to treat each others. AND a never ending investment in personal growth and leadership.
Start as young as possible, set yourself and others up for success.
This values can be learned, leadership can be learned. Horses are the perfect thinking partners in our team building and personal growth and leadership Think Tank Workshops.
Serendipity Ranch:
R E A L= Relationship- Equipping- Attitude- Leadership.
L E A D= Learn- Experience- Apply- Develop Self and Others
Personal Growth and Leadership is our PASSION
Thank you for reading my blog
Edee