A Little About Leadership
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Posted in : Investing:
- On : Sep 13, 2004
by Wendell Cayton
The headlines and articles in the papers couldn’t have offered a starker contrast. On one hand, icons of corporate malfeasance were being charged with looting the companies they ran. On the other, a true icon of leadership died of a heart attack.
Corporate America could use a few more of the latter.
One by one, executives from Enron, World Com, and now Tyco are being held accountable for their misdeeds and breach of fiduciary responsibility to all the stakeholders in their businesses. The history lessons that will be written and studied in future graduate school classes, hopefully, will also include the positive side of what real leadership is all about, as evidenced by the contrasting icon.
I grew up with this man as an idol. Complete with the high top, black football cleats, and the flattop haircut, I dreamed of playing quarterback and leading my teams like the great Johnny Unitas. The operative word here is “leading.”
Unitas was probably not the best athlete, nor the most physically gifted, to play quarterback in the NFL, but he is acknowledged by many to be the best ever at his position because of his leadership skills. When the chips were down, and the game was on the line, he was the general who inspired and led his troops time and time again to victory.
Unlike his more contemporary peers, he practiced his profession with neither pouting nor preening. He never went on strike for higher pay; he worked for the same employer 17 of his 18-year career. He remained involved in his community, giving back much in the way of service and his quiet leadership.
When I flipped the page of the Wall Street Journal, after digesting the day’s criminal activity, another article caught my eye. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York chided corporate executives and their boards to get executive compensation back to reasonable levels.
He cited a study that found the average chief executive officer’s pay had increased from 42 to 400 times that of the average production worker over the past 20 years. Calling it “infectious greed,” he noted that the reward system for compensation was getting out of line. Makes one question the motivation of those running some of the great companies of our land, doesn’t it?
Great leadership doesn’t necessarily have to be measured in money. It is about passion, vision, and the charismatic ability to get others to work hard to excel and achieve common goals.
There are many examples of great leaders for us to learn from in both public and private life. Generals Eisenhower, Patton, and my particular favorite, USMC Lewis “Chesty” Puller, come to mind. The corporate leaders who built great businesses such as A.P Gianinni of Bank of America, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove at Intel, Bill Gates at Microsoft, and Scott McNealy at Sun Microsystems all built great companies by inspiring others and by being leaders…while not “looting” their companies in the process.
In times like these when the numbers of business don’t always add up, stock prices are down and you are beginning to question the wisdom of continuing to own pieces of corporate America, look around for the leaders. These are the people who want the ball (or puck), who can motivate others to higher productivity and excellence, and who have the ability to make champions out of their business.
We have been discusing the same thing. But for us we visit Singapore. The country has so much to offer and the food is great.You can walk around the city and feel safe.