Page 116 - How We Lead Matters

Humility

Women MBA students are hungry to see models of female leadership—there
are still so few. To address this need, I agreed to host a leadership series at the
Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota called
“Inside the Boardroom” in which I interview a female leader one-on-one and
then we are joined by professors for a panel discussion.
I was fortunate to have as a guest Anne Mulcahy, one of the most
lauded CEOs in American business, and for good reason. She did what sev-
eral others before her had failed to do—turn around the beleaguered and
iconic Xerox.
Anne was disarmingly candid during the interview, sharing thoughts
and concerns that most CEOs keep to themselves. She was a refreshingly rare
example of business leadership.
In her new role, there was a lot to clean up. Anne recounted the story
about the day she settled the SEC lawsuit against Xerox. As a result, the
company hovered on bankruptcy. She knew the settlement would make the
news the next day and had braced herself for the fallout, but she never imag-
ined the extreme effort it would take to respond to the media onslaught, bol-
ster demoralized employees, and reassure customers and shareholders that
Xerox would survive.
“At the end of this very long day,” she said. “I picked up a voice mail
from a former colleague who said, ‘Mulcahy, you know that what you’re read-
ing in the press doesn’t accurately reflect Xerox or you. That’s not the real
story. But here’s the other piece: You’ll get through this, and when you do,
you’ll read a story about how you turned Xerox around. Just remember, that’s
not the real story either.’”

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 99