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Jim Citrin Leadership by Example

Jim Citrin, Leadership by Example

Learning From Great Leaders

by Jim Citrin

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Posted on Friday, April 10, 2009, 12:00AM

I have always been a big believer in role models. There is enormous power in learning from those with whom you come into contact, and adapting the lessons to your own personal circumstance and individual style. This belief underscored one of the original goals of this column from its founding more than three years ago -- to introduce readers to leaders from a wide variety of disciplines in order to learn, develop, and improve.

In this, the second half of my two-part final 'Leadership by Example' installment, my aim is to distill the most important lessons from the 25-plus leaders with whom I visited in this column. But first a caveat: Profiling a leader did not mean that they were above criticism, that their inclusion was any guarantee of continued success, or that I did not make some mistakes in choosing whom to interview.

And at a time of devastating losses, executive scandals, and plunging stock prices, some readers may have written off business leaders entirely as a category of people worthy of respect. If that is your inclination, please feel free to stop reading this column right now. However, if you are open to looking for the good and seeing what might be gleaned from others, I invite you to continue.

Some Memorable Leaders

Here are several of the most memorable leaders with whom we visited:

Gerald Grinstein, former CEO of Delta Air Lines, addressed the volatile issue of executive compensation head-on. He decided in March 2007 to refuse more than $10 million in promised compensation after shepherding the No. 3 U.S. airline through bankruptcy. Instead, Grinstein decided to contribute this post-bankruptcy pay to scholarships and hardship assistance for Delta employees, families, and retirees. In doing so, Grinstein almost singlehandedly defused employee resentment and regained employee trust and confidence in Delta management. A representative reader comment from this column: "I only wish other 'overpaid' CEOs would follow Grinstein's example."

Howard Schultz, founder, chairman, and CEO of Starbucks, took back the CEO reins from the popular predecessor, Jim Donald, in January 2008. He has fought hard to reset the company's cost base, core value proposition, brand positioning, and culture. Despite the difficult challenges of reorienting a company whose entire history was as a hot-growth company, cultural icon, and investor bellwether, Schultz has remained steadfast in his commitment to keeping the company operating with soul, purpose, and performance. And significant progress is being made. Once again, Starbucks was recently named one of the world's most admired companies, and its performance has put it back on the new 'Business Week' list of 50 best-performing companies.

After becoming the CEO of The Walt Disney Company on October 1, 2005, Bob Iger gave one of his first interviews to this column and, over the three and a half years since, he has emerged as one of the world's most respected CEOs with his calm, inclusive, yet decisive leadership style. He has racked up achievements ranging from resolving the rancorous battle with Roy Disney and Stanley Gold to the successful integration of Pixar, which reinvigorated the company's animation legacy. He has also built new global franchises such as 'Hannah Montana', 'High School Musical', 'Pirates of the Caribbean', and 'Cars'. Of special note is the fact that Iger has shown a company can be transformed by a new CEO who was promoted from within.

For his leadership during and after Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Patrick J. Quinlan, CEO of New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System, was named the Most Powerful Physician Executive. In the tragic aftermath of Katrina, Ochsner was and remains a bright spot. Dr. Quinlan and Ochsner's employees provided uninterrupted service during the hurricane and, in the 24 months since, the organization has played a key role in the recovery of the New Orleans medical community and economy. Ochsner's culture of preparedness helped Dr. Quinlan keep the organization focused and operating during Katrina, and allowed it to fulfill its commitment to helping the battered region recover from the storm.

I also went on a quest to find leadership examples that prove that you don't need to be a household name to achieve extraordinary things. The truth is that everyone, no matter how successful, started out as an ordinary person. At some point, the paths of the great leaders and champions diverged from others when they recognized and honed their skills, established their goals, and decided -- either explicitly or implicitly -- that they would do important things that would add value to the lives of others.

One of the "ordinary" people with whom we visited was Michael Evans, a young man who's working on bridging a religious and cultural divide through basketball. A former college player, Evans took the initiative to create and lead a travel basketball team made up of five Catholic and five Protestant high school boys in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with limited money and insufficient resources. His progress and his organization, Full Court Peace, have begun to spread across that city and into multiple continents.

Leadership Strategies and Tactics

Here are six leadership strategies and tactics to sum it all up:

1. Don't be afraid to set ambitious goals for your work and life, as long as you can build a specific, credible, multidimensional plan to achieve them.

2. The more your goals are directed at benefiting people beyond yourself, the more likely you'll be to achieve success by inspiring others to support you along the way.

3. Good questions make a good leader. Focus on the quality of your questions to stimulate the most compelling feedback and answers. Experiment, collect questions from people such as colleagues or newscasters, and see what works.

4. To lead people in uncertain times, project a sense of continuity, of having managed through similarly difficult predicaments. Just as panic is contagious, so too is a feeling of calm, which, when it kicks in, can settle the frayed nerves of those around you.

5. Beyond market-leading performance, the greatest source of long-term job security isn't a pre-negotiated employment contract with a golden parachute and rich severance package. Rather, it is to maintain your reputation and integrity at all costs, and be able to articulate what you've done, why you did it, and what the outcomes and lessons learned were.

6. The two most important characteristics of world-class performance are the ability to develop mental toughness and the power of deliberate practice. Mental toughness -- the ability to come through and deliver in the moment of truth -- is the key characteristic that distinguishes the greatest performers from everyone else. And, contrary to what most people believe, this is actually a learnable skill.

The very best performers are distinguished less by talents that they inherited than by their ability to continue improving for years, even decades, until they become great. Expert performance is the end result of prolonged effort to improve through a regimen of deliberate, targeted activities specifically designed to optimize improvement in carefully selected areas. The top performers in the world not only work harder than everyone else in their field -- they also work smarter.

* * *
I want to thank all my readers for your time and interest. Some of you were turned off by my optimistic, "anyone can achieve" tone, my conviction that leadership can be learned, and the profiles that many felt didn't apply them. But others found these concepts, role models, and examples helpful, practical, and interesting. Wherever on the spectrum you find yourself, I appreciate your time with and engagement in this topic, and I wish you all the best of success and satisfaction in your careers and lives.

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57 Comments

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  • Marcus M - Saturday, April 18, 2009, 3:15PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    i agree with some of the other commenters on there, this author is pretty pathetic. but another person brought up a good point, maybe his articles are so bad because these guys work for free, they work for the exposure? maybe that explains why yahoo keeps them on, it probably costs them nothing!

  • Emily - Friday, April 17, 2009, 7:55PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    i enjoyed the article. folks on this messageboard are way too cynical for their own good. take a tip or two. doesn't detract from your lives in any way.

  • Samuel - Friday, April 17, 2009, 6:33PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    PLEASE stop writing. Yahoo, PLEASE get rid of this guy!

  • looneytarian - Thursday, April 16, 2009, 10:58AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 3/5

    Not a bad article, but too short to give a true comprehensive view of what makes a good leader. I think there is a perception, especially among the one star posters that being a leader means being a manager, supervisor, CEO, etc. That is not so. There are leaders among the average workforce. Think about it. There is ALWAYS someone in the office, warehouse or wherever, that other employees turn to for advice, suggestions, to tap their expertise, etc. Usually, these people willingly help out, that is why others go to them. These are LEADERS who exhibit many of the qualities that Jim listed above. All too often, they are overlooked and undervalued by the company, but some of them do not want the responsibilities of management. A point that Jim does not make is that everyone cannot be a leader. That is OK because everybody does not want to be a leader, there are a LOT of people out there who are perfectly happy to follow as long as they feel that they are being represented. This is a far cry from the 'sheeple' label being pinned to them, usually by people who think they know what leadership is but in fact, have no clue. Further, I think their attitude is that ALL leaders suck, since none of the ones that they know listens to THEM. Given their attitude...duh! The bottom line is that there are leaders among the leaders and leaders among the followers. Sometimes you can be a follower at work, but a leader in your community, or at home, or at church. Being a leader does not mean you lead in EVERY aspect of your life. And even if you are not a leader at anything, that does not make you a sheep. Anyone who believes otherwise needs to remember that the only way to be a leader is to have willing followers.

  • Coby - Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 7:18PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    why does this guy still have a column to write? besides the people who got us into this mess, guys like this give us bad advice.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 7:09PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 2/5

    People like Madoff were also set up as role models to follow. Our prob today is credibility of Leaders.

  • K - Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 6:50PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    awful article. i will show some sympathy in that if this "writer" doesn't have his yahoo gig, then he would be unemployed. i don't even know why yahoo still has him as a contributor.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 4:06PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Jim Thanks for the effective summary of all your research. I'll miss your columns on Yahoo Finance.

  • RobertM - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 7:46PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 2/5

    Great leaders? Grinstein - caused Delta Airlines to degenerate into a second rate carrier. Schultz - overextend company based on assumption that people will overpay for coffee. Iger - Disney - overpriced innane mediocrity Why anyone would look up to these CEO's is beyond me.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 5:39PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 2/5

    Some do...others take all the credit. This is the only rule you need to know. My career has taught me that all the nicety is bunk! There to fool the sheeple and keep us supplicants to the greedy and evil. How many CEOs gave up the taxpayer bonuses? How many Obama appointees paid their taxes? Nuff said!

  • HR Dir - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 4:54PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    I'm shocked by all the one star commenters and their follow the leader spin. Jim's articles have always been about getting a head in life, spotlighting a person who has done well in a given career and provide some meaningful advice. My view of the education system is to teach you things you need to know so that you can make informed decisions with a greater understanding of successes and failures. Jim isn't saying follow in these people's footsteps - just learn from them. Learn mistakes - so that you can avoid them. Learn sucesses - so that you can incorporate them. By tuning out educational sources - of any type - you limit your self and your ability to reach self actualization. I am an optimist. I have done well for myself. And I will never stop learning and trying to improve. I wish the same for everyone who takes the time to read this post.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 12:09PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    Unfortunately, we are living in an era where the very expression CEO is looked upon as being a bad thing. This will perhaps change. I've found that bad and evil folks are that way because we let them become bad and evil. Good and thoughtful folks are that way because they want to be like that. The negative responses to CEO's mentioned in this column and in general are quite normal resopnses from induviduals that have become sick and tired of having their intelligence insulted by greedy and evil. These folks should be lauded for speaking ouy against those whom are guilty and offers a warning to those whom have future greed and evil in their preformance goals.

  • Reggie6567 - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 10:19AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    I appreciate Jim's comments on leadership and find them very helpful and inspiring. Although his suggests are rather simple, they need to be to apply to the wide variety of leadership opportunities that exist. That said, they are also practical. Thanks Jim.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 8:51AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    April 13, 2009 8:08pm. You got it 100% right. Citrin is one of the biggest TOOLS on Yahoo. Though its really difficult to choose, there are just so many tools!

  • Aubetoile - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 2:30AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    d_diggler, excellent comment (3-4 post below),

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 12:51AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 3/5

    I agree that you can learn something from just about anybody. Almost everyone a person gets to know in life offers either an example to follow or a model from which to distinguish oneself. Some offer both.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 9:40PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    wHY DON'T YOU JUST ROLE MODEL ON OUT OF THIS COLUMN, DORK!

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 8:08PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    You are only a leader when you get people to follow you VOLUNTARILY. Dragging people along, getting them to "follow" your ideas under threat is not leadership. These "leaders" don't even have the nuts to start their own companies. They just stand on the shoulders of people already there, and prosper off the innovation of real thinkers. As a PhD chemical engineer over the past 20 years I have seen no shortage of ass sniffing loosers, put into companies by people like you, who come in and mess up everything, believe the scientific method is a guarantee for success, destroy morale, and then leave at the most inopportune time when they didn't like the lobster in the executive lunch room. Honestly, do you wake up in the morning, finish your ankle grabbing work out, look at yourself in the mirror and say, "I'm gona be the biggest, best TOOL I can be today!"??

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 7:34PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    I have to agree with Dirk. Very well said. Why can't we have CEO's who are socially conscious. Who not only make a big salary but help the local community with little environmental impact. These are the leaders who are going to get us out of this mess. The Donald Trumps of the world will only get us to the apocalypse exponentially quicker. Wake up America! Where did the bailout $ go?

  • d_diggler - Monday, April 13, 2009, 6:30PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    All those guys you hero-worship have a few things in common: 1). They are work-a-holics, who sacrifice their homelife for work, 2). They had to step on others to get where they were going, and 3). They were flatout LUCKY. The graveyards are full of guys like these who didn't get that one critical break and never made a name for themselves. So go ahead and worship these guys and when you don't get to be CEO of a multimillion dollar company, you can call yourself a failure in life. Maybe then you can try to re-connect with your grown children who hate you because you weren't there. These rules, these goals, this self-centered egoism are all part of the problem.

  • spinaltap58 - Monday, April 13, 2009, 4:33PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    Boycott Baseball in 2009. Tickets up 400%.Cost a family of 4 900 dollars to sit in the cheap seats to watch a game! Why watch a bunch of Steroid shooting dummies earn a zillion Dollars to wack a ball? or better yet not to wack a ball.Boring game, over-priced tickets, the players are not heroes. the true heroes are the cops firemen and EMS!

  • richard - Monday, April 13, 2009, 4:28PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 3/5

    He provides good examples of leaders acting as leaders. Unfortunately some of his choices are only infrequently good leaders, starting with Bob Iger. In addition, he misses the key ingredient to becoming very successful or achieving great things - dumb luck. The difference between a lot of people who follow the principles set out above and the list is pure dumb luck - being born with money, being born at the right time, meeting a mentor who helped them up, guessing at the right investment, etc. Truly great people are rarely ever great success in a societal or monetary sense. For example, Albert Einstein, Edison, Micheal Angelo, or Mozart. Micheal Angelo and Mozart dies paupers and in despair. Albert Einstein is remembered as much for being a postal clerk who spent his time on complex mathematical problems then as the discoverer of the theory of relativity. Bill Gates on the other hand is fabulously rich based on not selling ownership of MS DOS to IBM. The fact is that without dumb luck no one can succeed.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 1:53PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Nice article. Wish our media would publicize more of these stories.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 12:34PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    imjay, ouyay itewray oneway inefay articleway. ouryay ommamay ustmay ebay oudpray ofway ouyay

  • Brian - Monday, April 13, 2009, 11:32AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    He's not talking about finding a leader and "just follow" them. Listen to wisdom, if it is in fact wisdom, then it's worth listening to. I don't know how anyone could argue with that. If you are looking for success, you need to try somone elses way because yours isn't working. If it is, why are your eading the article? It's cliche for sure, but there's no reason to re-invent the wheel.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 11:16AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Good guidelines. Judging from some of the low marks and comments, they're not asking the right questions. The question is, what did you get from this?

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 11:01AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    Thanks for the neat rules to live by. Are they the secret to your success? I needed something to eliminate possibility in life like reducing everything to a set of rules. Too many choices! Why think analytically when one can just follow?

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 9:32AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap. - Ayn Rand

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Monday, April 13, 2009, 8:00AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    You aren't interested in women much, are you.

  • RobinY - Monday, April 13, 2009, 2:18AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 3/5

    Decent, motivating article in the spirit of outliers by malcolm gladwell. Hard work does truly separate the successful from the mediocre. However the perspective that I feel is missing from this article is innate ability. Sure, most all people can be better than they are now, but most all people are not capable of greatness. It is a special blend of innate ability, hardwork, and luck that leads to true success. For instance if a genius is born in sub-saharan africa his chances of winning a nobel prize are infinitely lower than an above average child born to nurturing, middle class parents near cambridge.

Showing comments 6-35 of 57<< PreviousNext >>
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