Leadership Notes

These are some of my notes from hearing Max DePree last night:

The difference in managing and leading is that you manage the things you can put your hands on: products, machinery, processes; however, you lead people. Leadership is relational.

Is leadership nature or nurture? You can learn a lot about leadership but you cannot teach it. Leadership has to do with context and time. You may be a good leader at one time or in a particular situation but not at another time or in another situation.

How do you get people to see your vision? You must develop a vision that has many authors and those authors must be included in the planning process.

Herman Miller has a policy that the CEO’s salary is capped at 20x the average production worker’s salary. That allowed him to be open and transparent with everyone in the company. He said often other employees said they wouldn’t want his job for the money.

Funny moment: A student asked Max a question. Max asked him “Do your supervise people?” The student looked at him and then said, “Interns. So yes, they are people I guess.”

Leadership is relationship. Some practical advice he received was that “you can do things at home that you cannot do at work. They lover you enough at home to forgive you; they don’t like you that much at work.”

A leader must ask what does a follower need or want.

Getting involved with service (Rotary, at church, charitable, etc.) teaches one how to lead without power.

Regarding today’s economic crisis:
Leaders must envision the consequences.
A leader must practice self-restraint with the common good in mind.
Today’s greed is a symptom not the problem. The problem today is a lack of ethics.

How do you keep hope alive in difficult times?
Be a transparent company. Don’t keep people in the dark.
Consider how you would handle a situation or what you would say if it was someone you loved.
When you’re under pressure you’ll be glad you’ve built trust with those you lead.

Your legacy is how others evaluate how closely you became compared to what you wanted to be.

Should leaders be humble?
“I suppose if you are perfect you don’t have to be humble, but not many are perfect. There’s great pressure to be right all the time, but not many are right all the time. It seems humility is a good trait if you’re not perfect or you’re not right all the time.”