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Colin Powell: WCA Leadership Summit
By Jeremy | August 13, 2007
Leading at the Highest Level
Friday, Aug 10, 2007: Session 6 + Colin Powell, C-student from the Bronx and City College (CUNY) graduate + Secretary of State + Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff + National Security Advisor + Session Webpage Colin Powell's story is the ultimate city-kid-makes-good tale of perseverance, courage, and leadership. As a fellow New Yorker with a passion for equipping and empowering young leaders, Secretary Powell's insights are must-haves. + Leaders must be action oriented problem solvers. + To that end, they may be a spark or a motivator, but mostly they must be an example. The Powell Principles + Promote a clash of ideas. Don't recruit yes-men. Let "lots of flowers bloom." Take advantage of others' expertise. Listen to their points of view, argue, and debate. Facilitate a "noisy system," with round table exchanges. Be among your followers. You should want what they know, but then DECIDE. + Plans and charts don't accomplish work. Only people get things done. Therefore leaders must create environments where followers can flourish (ie get stuff done). General rule: 1/3 time for senior leaders to plan; 2/3 time for managers and followers to plan, teach, and implement. + Probe the organization. Don't be threatened by what you find. Maintain open-door policy for any issue or problem. Maintain accountability to outsiders, and open communication with grassroots. Close the loops on helpful information and thank them. + Reward your best performers and get rid of nonperformers. Prune the organization consistently. When someone's not pulling his/her load, good followers notice. Organizational cancer: "Why am I working so hard?" + Be prepared to disappoint people and make them angry. + Check your ego at the door. Don't align personal ego/emotions with professional positions. Allows leaders to be liked AND effective. + Have fun along the way. Make this a priority. It settles mind. Allows for logical solutions. (Personal hobby: fixing old cars, esp. Volvos.) + Fit no stereotype. CP refused to be typecast or labeled as "The Black" anything. Had he joined Army 5 years earlier, never would have risen to Chairman of Joint Chiefs (highest ranking military officer). Truman's integration decree was 10 years earlier, but implementation only began in earnest five years before he joined. + Expectations & Shame. Strong family instilled in CP both strong expectations ("You are going to college") and sense of shame. Never got a beating. Shame was worse -- more effective as a deterent. + Optimism is a "Force Multiplier." Infectious, but not when it's spin. Must be authentic. + Things look better in the morning. Therefore, get good rest! + Morning staff meetings. 30 minutes max (usually less than 10). "Tell me what I need to know." Facilitates trust, which is "the foundation of all interpersonal relationships." + Avoid war if at all possible. In Vietnam, a soldier dying in CP's arms -- "the memory sticks with you." War is "a failure of diplomacy paid in blood." Hence, the "Reluctant General." + Battlefield leadership is compressed, but fundamanetally the same. Still requires the same process, analysis, instinct, and adjustments: the "mind to sort through and the heart to decide." "No plan survives contact with the enemy," who brings plans of its own. + Be prepared to be lonely. YOU must stand by YOUR decision, whatever may come. Find ways to "deal with it" and "share the burden." For CP, that was regular commander calls and chaplain and a few outside friends. + Churches are responsible to educate people about the issues. Should rise above partisanship, but go in highways and byways, beyond comfort zones, to serve people in need. + Current passion. Youth work. Instilling purpose, discipline, expectation, and shame in young people: America's Promise Alliance for Youth. + Epitaph. "He served faithfully and left behind a good family." + Debt of service. "All of us have a debt of service we may never be able to repay."Topics: colin powell, leadership, leadership summit, willowcreek | No Comments »
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