Posts Tagged ‘Managing Transitions’
How to Coach a Future CEO February 21 2012 no responses
If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know I’m a fan of Ford CEO Alan Mulally. He started in the top job at Ford about five years ago and, he has led the company to quarter after quarter of profitable growth. He’s accomplished that through any number of ways. Probably one of the biggest is by changing the culture of the company’s leadership team.
Of course, you change a culture by inspiring people to think, feel and act differently. It’s a process of winning hearts and minds. As the New York Times reported this past weekend, Mulally just turned 66 and is expected to retire in the next couple of years. The front runner to succeed him is an executive named Mark Fields who runs Ford’s business in the Americas.
In reading the story on Ford and Fields, I was struck by the evidence that Fields has changed his style as a leader over the past five years. Of course, that’s concurrent with Mulally’s time at the company. Prior to Mulally’s arrival, Fields was a high flier (literally and figuratively) who had gotten himself in trouble when it was revealed that he was using Ford’s corporate jets to fly back and forth to his Florida home at the same time that he was cutting thousands of jobs at the company and shutting down manufacturing plants.
As Fields himself said, “There was a ‘dead pool’ about me. People were saying, ‘When is Fields going to get shown the door?’ ” Five years later, however, he’s a poster dude for what great coaching and role modeling can do to turn an executive’s career and life around.
What Do You Make of This? October 12 2011 no responses
One of my idiosyncratic sources of fun is inserting random lines from movies into everyday conversation. Kevin Bacon shouting, “All is well. Remain calm!” right before the riot runs over him at the end of Animal House would be an example. Another one is when the Lloyd Bridges character in Airplane is looking at a report on a big piece of paper and turns to Jonny asking “What do you make of this?” Jonny grabs it and says, “Oh, I can make a hat, or a broach or a pterodactyl.”
It’s amazing how much the Lloyd Bridges question, “What do you make of this?” comes up in day to day life. For instance, when an organization is going through a big change, “What do you make of this?” is a pretty germane question. People’s answers will depend on the framework and context they have. That’s where leadership plays a critical role.
Change usually involves the end of something which usually means that at least some people are losing something that matters to them. The leader’s job is to start some conversations that focus on “What else can we make of this?”
An executive I know was promoted to be the CEO of his organization. He’s following a much beloved leader. Like most organizations these days, they’re facing a tough operating environment. It’s natural that the people there might focus on the downside of losing a leader they love at a time when it’s hard to meet goals. The new CEO is asking the question, “What else can we make of this?” When you ask that question, the possibilities open up. You give people the opportunity to come up with new options and new ways to view the roles they play or could play.
In his book, Managing Transitions
What do you do to help people focus on the possibilities?
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
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