Today, Meijer is still family owned, and has more than 190 locations throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. The company follows its original mantra: “Take care of your customers, team members, and community...and all of them will take care of you, just like a family.”
Another great leader, statesman, creative thinker, eloquent speaker, and tireless crusader for college students is David L. Warren, PhD. He clearly recognizes and understands the importance of connecting with those around him. He also knows that true leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure your impact endures in your absence. Today he is a tireless advocate for private education funding on Capitol Hill as president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, a Washington, D.C.–based industry group. He’s also a former president of Ohio Wesleyan University, a former alderman and chief administrative officer for the City of New Haven, Connecticut, a former Assistant Secretary of Yale University, and a graduate of Washington State University, Yale, and the University of Michigan.
When Warren assumed the presidency of Ohio Wesleyan University in the 1980s, times were tough. Alumni relations were less than ideal, behavior at campus fraternities was an issue, fundraising was down, and relations with the local community and the surrounding area were somewhat strained. Warren’s university-owned home was not yet ready for him and his family of five, so he opted to live in one of the university’s residence halls. It was a brilliant move that cemented positive relations with everyone. He used the dorm room to meet students and staff informally. This story made national headlines and immediately endeared the new president to students, faculty, alumni, and townspeople. In fact, living in the dorm was such a positive experience, Warren established an intergenerational living community at the school that thrives today, 20 years later, and remains part of his legacy of leadership.
For those aspiring leaders who doubt the power of personal and real communication, the next time you’re out of the office, try this simple experiment: smile at the next few people you see and pay attention to how each responds; chances are good that the majority of people will smile back. Try the same experiment in your workplace and see the results. Start personally communicating with those around you. Your relationship with them likely will change.
Put Tweets and IMs Aside
Electronic communication is integral to today’s business world, but think about cutting back on the Tweets and instant messages (IMs), and avoid relying on e-mail for all your communications. Instead, try to approach projects and problem-solving in your office with the same face-to-face openness and willingness to communicate that you demonstrated in your smile experiment. Such personal interaction can produce positive ideas and results, especially in an up-and-down economic environment.
Nearly everyone can recall an instance involving back-and-forth e-mails with someone in the workplace or elsewhere that involved a misjudged cue, misunderstood content, or missed opportunity. The e-mail “oops” could be nothing more than a misunderstood punch line for a joke. But on a more sobering note, if the e-mail exchange is in the workplace context, and the misunderstanding is something such as an insult or involves taking the wrong action that results in a negative outcome, the consequences can be far more serious.
Never allow e-mail to completely replace in-person communication. E-mailing, texting, and Tweeting cannot convey the personal and important nuances and critical thought processes of telephone discussions and face-to-face meetings. Anyone who thinks they can has not yet learned this lesson the hard way.
Do take advantage of the benefits of high-tech communications; just use them properly, and don’t rely on them as the only form of “face-to-face” communication. Video-conferences, for example, can be a cohesive tool for project teams, or an e-mail or a Tweet can be valuable to convey a real-time confirmation. These communication tools are valuable as ancillaries, as long as they’re not used as a replacement for more direct, personal communication.
Concrete Results
Warren netted great results from interaction, collaboration, and face-to-face communication—not only laying the foundation for his tenure at Ohio Wesleyan, but for success in the community as well, and later at the national level at the NAICU (National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities) in Washington, D.C.
McDonald’s Ray Kroc was a leader in fostering communication, cooperation, and innovation from his franchisees. His business model was a three-legged stool that stood strong because everyone interacted and recognized the importance of each leg: franchises owned by franchisees, McDonald’s corporate, and McDonald’s suppliers. Along the way, Kroc fostered tremendous innovation from the field: three of McDonald’s most popular menu items—the Big Mac, Egg McMuffin, and Filet-o-Fish—were invented by franchisees.4 (Incidentally, one of my most enjoyable and rewarding learning experiences was serving on the founding board of the West Michigan Ronald McDonald House in Grand Rapids, Michigan and spending time at McDonald’s University in Oak Brook, Ill.)
Taking Stock of Your Communication Skills
Your communication should be up close and personal, and it should be authentic. Why should you or any leader need to turn over speeches and other important communiqués to speech-writers, public relations specialists, or their assistants? The answer is, you and they shouldn’t. There’s no good reason for it, especially with so many electronic programs available today to facilitate effective writing and outlining. For example, the iA Writer for the iPad is a simple and intuitive word-processing system that helps most anyone write down their thoughts at least in an outline or draft form.
The writing process may be difficult for you as an untrained writer, because it involves organization and evolution of ideas. But it’s an important step. When, as a leader or aspiring leader, you plot strategy or determine policies, if you draft the content yourself, the end result is more focused, better thought through, clearer, and more concise. Outcomes are further improved, too, because the personal connection fosters employee trust and followership.
Why should real leaders still rely on physical connections and communications? We as leaders must use every method available today to stay connected and in touch with employees, the community, our customers, and markets. If we do not, the disconnection becomes a real threat to our company’s success.
Real leaders must go the extra mile to ensure connections with their teams and employees or lose touch. But that does not mean leaders should not also employ every other high-tech means possible to enhance that communication. That includes social media such as Twitter and Facebook, Websites, e-mails, instant messaging, and texting, plus traditional communication methods such as snail mail, paper handouts, faxes, and the like. The goal of your communication strategy should not be “going paperless” for its own sake, but establishing real and direct back-and-forth interaction between leaders, their employees, their managers, and the community, and getting it right in order to remain competitive. In today’s marketplace, there’s no reason for coming up short on communication.
How could the leaders in your life communicate more efficiently and effectively combining both e-methods and traditional communication tools? What can you do to communicate more effectively and efficiently in your own life? What’s stopping you from doing it?
You Can Do It, Too
Not only does face-to-face communication convey real connections, it can give you as a leader a better understanding of what’s really happening in your workplace and in the marketplace. Use face time to complement extensive electronic communication and the more traditional forms such as faxes, printouts, and notes to give your company and employees the competitive edge.
As a leader, set up a company Facebook page and a blog to chat business and develop ideas with your staff; and Tweet the newest to stay connected with your employees and staff, too. Listen to what others have to say and be open to different viewpoints. Use e-mail, a note, and/or a bulletin board post
to follow up, and then a face-to-face meeting to go over ideas and make sure everyone is in the loop. All these types of communication can help build that all-important genuine sense of community and an environment in which people want to work together. Remember: real leaders listen to all views, respect all parties, and then embark forward on a journey to make a difference.
Takeaway
Face-to-face communication enables leaders to really connect with employees and to better understand what’s happening in the workplace.
Social media, e-mails, texting, and instant messaging do have a place in the workplace as long as they are not the only form of back-and-forth communication.
If a leader connects and communicates with his or her staff, confrontations or divisive issues generally end up less volatile, and it’s easier to reach a consensus.
Real leaders know how to use humor to diffuse and to reassure.
Writing your own messages helps you clarify your vision and chart your strategic direction.
Real leaders need to learn how to listen to their employees, their markets, and their communities.
Connecting and networking with others—no matter their job strata—can help develop long-term, important alliances.
Chapter 4
Real Leaders Have a Unique Make-Up
Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Leadership is not about the size of someone’s paycheck or the length of his or her resume; it is about passion, guts, and the willingness to give back. Too often people confuse the need and desire to manage (boss) others or the craving to get rich with passion and guts. On the surface, these characteristics can appear similar. But closer examination quickly reveals how far apart they are when it comes to action, attitude, and reality. Bosses bully, whereas real leaders inspire by passion and guts, and rally those around them to follow and achieve greatness. Of course, we can’t prove it scientifically, but it almost seems as if there’s a “leadership make-up”—if not in the genes, then an alignment of certain traits that, if developed properly, can allow someone to flourish as a leader.
Passion: The Starting Point
Passion in many forms surrounds us every day. But little of it translates into real business or community leadership that commits to helping companies, employees, and others so that everyone benefits from it. The brand of passion that infuses great leaders needs to be “fervor.” It is an infectious lifestyle that includes living one’s ideals, having a clear vision for the future, and possessing a mindset that enables the achievement of success in the face of adversity. For individuals who have found their passion, invariably life becomes more exciting, rewarding, and enjoyable, too. In the workplace, that passion translates into creation of a strong corporate culture that can help drive an organization’s success in good times and bad. Look around you at those companies that have remained strong through the current recession. Somewhere in their make-up there is probably a passionate, real leader.
Passion is the best form of PR and fuels the perception by others that a leader is, indeed, just that. People want to know that their leaders—in government, business, church, sports, and elsewhere—fervently ascribe to what they say. They want to know that their leaders’ views will not be easily swayed or vanish mysteriously when times get tough. People want to believe that the actions of their leaders are motivated by a strong sense of purpose and by values encased in passion. Above all, leaders must lead by example, teach others how to lead, be willing to always extend a helping hand to people in need, and always be humble and compassionate in how they approach life.
The Power of Belief
Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, has had an enormously successful career. But he certainly didn’t start out that way. His father died when Tom was 4 years old; his mother couldn’t take care of him and his brother, so Monaghan ended up in an orphanage and foster homes. He dropped out of college and initially failed at the pizza business. But he was driven to succeed and passionately convinced that his vision of pizza delivered fast and fresh for a reasonable price would fly. So he kept trying, listened and learned from others, and finally got it right. We all know the rest as home-delivery history.
Comebacks in organizational and political life are the stuff of legends. Americans identify with those who have been knocked down and bounce back to experience success. Many of Tom Monaghan’s critics made the mistake of writing him off when he lost his pizza business. He has been variously described as wacky, grandiose, over-zealous, lowbrow, heavy-handed, and worse. I liked him, though, the very first time I met him, probably attracted to his “comeback-kid” quality. He tasted failure several times in business, only to rise triumphantly, surpassing nearly everyone’s expectations.
Another leader who tackles his responsibilities with purposeful zeal and incredible passion that transfers to others is U.S. Senator Dan Coats, who has served in both the House of Representatives and Senate on and off for more than three decades. He’s been honored for his impassioned leadership by various organizations. I ran head-on into that passion-inaction while working as head of marketing and public relations for Indiana University Medical Center and also serving on Sen. Coats’s Naval Academy Selection Committee. Some Congressmen turn the military academies’ selection process into something political or just another task that must be done—but not Sen. Coats. This was a responsibility handed to him by his position and entrusted to him by the voters in Indiana, and he was passionate that it be done right. He absolutely wanted to identify the most qualified and deserving candidates to attend the academies. That was the charge, and that’s what we did under Coats’s leadership.
Standout athletes personify the “belief” factor, and some become great leaders in the community and in business. Former Boston Globe assistant sports editor, and more recently retired Ventura County Star sports editor, Larry Ames singles out quarterback Doug Flutie as “the biggest leader on the field of play” that he has ever observed. Flutie was relatively small in stature, 5-feet, 9-inches tall, yet he was a mountain among others, on and off the field. He believed in himself, his athletic abilities, and his leadership capabilities. He took calculated gambles essential to his team’s success, and he didn’t waver. Ames recounts a bit about Flutie’s resolve and skill:
Flutie...wasn’t highly recruited (out of high school) and went to Boston College as a defensive back. Flutie went up to Boston College football coach Jack Bicknell and asked if he could be put on the quarterback depth chart if he had a strong showing in the annual Shriners’ Football Classic being played at Boston College. Flutie performed well and Bicknell kept his promise, placing Flutie fourth on the quarterback depth chart.
In Flutie’s freshman year, Boston College was struggling, as it usually did against Penn State. Already, two of the four BC quarterbacks had been injured and the third-string quarterback was performing poorly. Bicknell decided to give Flutie a chance. Flutie rallied BC for a touchdown before halftime and nearly pulled off the victory in the fourth period.
Flutie started every game for the rest of his career, winning the Heisman Trophy in his senior year.... Flutie became a Hall of Fame quarterback in the Canadian Football League and played for a few NFL teams before retiring at age 43 with the New England Patriots.
In the 2005 season finale against the Miami Dolphins, Flutie made a drop kick, the first in the NFL since 1941. It was a fitting ending to a storied career.1
Off the football field, Flutie is a real leader, too. He and his wife, Laurie, founded the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism after their son was diagnosed with the disease at age 3. The foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations that provide services for children with autism and to organizations that conduct research on the causes and effects of autism. Since 1998, the Fluties have helped raise more than $11 million for autism.2
Roots of Passion
For some, passion is rooted in life’s experienc
es. History is filled with stories about the kindling of a fervent flame—from the politician exposed to the plight of those less fortunate, to the college student encountering a professor who taps into something buried deep inside. Passion can be instilled at a young age, the result of parental modeling, and the discussions and decisions that shape a childhood environment. It is the same with other important lessons, such as the value of hard work and of not giving up in the face of adversity.
Leadership can be in the genes, too, waiting to be developed. For me, it started with the “family business.” My grandfather, father, and uncles were strong community leaders and instilled in me that sense of purpose. My mother was a schoolteacher and hospital volunteer who introduced me to the importance of looking deeper within the individual and treating everyone with respect. With those foundations, I was able to watch, listen, and learn from those around me; build on experiences from supervisors, leaders, fellow workers, and beyond; and develop the concept of a real leader. I had great teachers, too—role models who made a big difference in my life and in the lives of others. Even without parents or grandparents, uncles, or siblings as role models, it is possible to harness your passions, learn how to lead others, and then excel as a real leader.
Passion and Commitment Work in Tandem
Positive passion and commitment surround us every day in the form of teachers who care, nurses who go the extra mile, pastors who reach out, neighbors who want to make their community a better place to live, and other individuals who deeply care and willingly volunteer. Too little of this passion, though, translates into real leadership committed to helping companies, employees, and communities come out winners.
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