NETWORKING KNOWLEDGE HORIZON
TEACHING AND LEADERSHIP
S.
Krishnaswamy
Chartered
Accountant
In
a book " The Leadership Engine" - How winning
companies build leaders at every levels by Noel M. Tichy,
Harper Business- the author discusses teaching as an integral
part of leadership. This is a very well researched book
on topics covering many top corporate leaders. I give
some brief critical extracts to show the link between
Teaching and Leadership.
"Proven
leaders do the teaching. They have a teachable point of
view about running and changing the business, as well
as about leadership. They personally act as coaches and
role models, and they share their mistakes as well as
their Victories".
"The
leaders are avid learners. They draw from their pasts
and reflect on their experience to develop lessons for
the future.
These
leaders have : Ideas, Values, Energy, Edge and Stories
: Winning leaders personalize their visions and ideas
by telling stories that touch people's emotions as well
as their intellects".
The
author then takes a few well known leaders of companies
like GE, Intel, Pepsi.
"Jack
Welch of General Electric is one of the most dedicated
teachers. For fifteen years he has made biweekly visits
on GE's Crotonville executive training center to enter
into dialogue with thousands of his employees each year.
His schedule is also filled with hundreds of videoconference,
meetings, factory visits and workshop sessions.
Andy
Grove is another great leader who teaches others to be
leaders. Grove says his teaching is the result of deep
reflection about what has allowed him to be successful.
"I'm an engineer and a manager, but I have always
had an urge to teach, to share with others what I've figured
out.
Roger
Enrico, the CEO of Pepsi Co, has perhaps set the performance
bar high as an executive leader / teacher. In 1994 and
1995, the two years before he became CEO, Enrico devoted
more than 120 days exclusively to coaching and mentoring
the next generation of PepsiCo leaders. Enrico's methodology
was one of intense integration. He would begin the program
with five days at a remote site, where he would spend
from 8.00 AM until late night every day talking to the
participants individually and as a group about his own
personal experiences rising through the ranks in PepsiCo.
He talked about his successes, his failures, how he solved
problems, met challenges and viewed the world. "I
try to talk... frankly, openly, matter-of-factly. I don't
pontificate; I tell stories" syas Enrico".
He
then summaries his findings very crisply.
Leading
is Teaching Teaching is at the heart of leading. In
fact, it is through teaching that leaders lead others.
Leading is not dictating specific behavior. It is not
issuing orders and commanding compliance. Leading is getting
others to see a situation as it really is and to understand
what responses need to be taken so that they will act
in ways that will move the organization toward where it
needs to be.
