Motivate your employees. If people know that they are valued,
not just once a year when they get a pay raise but in day-today ways, they’re going to
want to do more. Making a
positive difference is an energizing experience, but you
have to know that people
appreciate what you’re doing.
Very few people are saints
and can just continue to do
things without any positive
feedback. I am not a saint,
and I don’t expect my people
on my team to be so. I expect
them to work hard, work
effectively, be very committed, have the right values, and
they should expect me and
others to appreciate them for
doing that.
Get buy-in. For a business to be
successful over time, people
other than the CEO have to
believe it’s a very worthwhile enterprise. If people believe
that, the CEO can get the support that he or she needs for
making hard decisions and
doing the difficult things to
make a business better. So it is
a virtuous circle.
Only if one has the support
of one’s constituencies can an
organization move forward
over time. You can’t be a
leader without followers, and
these days, if you’re surrounded by smart people, you can’t
have slavish followers. You
have to have followers who
really believe in the same mission, the same goals, as well as
some of the strategies that you
develop to accomplish them.
Make sure the lawns get mowed. The best business advice I
ever received was tongue-in-cheek from a Penn trustee
and alumnus, Jon Huntsman,
who is a very successful
businessman. Shortly after I
became president, he invited
me out to his Utah getaway.
He sat me down and told me
there were two things that
presidents had to do to be
successful. No. 1, they had to
make sure that the lawns got
mowed, and (No. 2), they
had to raise money.
While it was tongue-in-cheek, it wasn’t entirely
without seriousness. What
Jon was saying to me is that
a leader has to set priorities
and stick to them. Be sure
you know what you want to
do, and don’t get distracted
by all of the other things
you’re going to be called on
to do.
HOW TO REACH: University of Pennsylvania, (215) 898-8721 or www.upenn.edu
