Page 112 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Cause People to Follow You Even Though They Don’t Have To • 93

You can’t just say to yourself, “I’m other-oriented. I care about my
people. I understand them.” You have to live it in small and big actions
every day. The CEO of an international corporation had a gathering of
employees and thanked them for their contributions in seven different
languages. Small gestures such as this make a big impression.

Lead like you want to be led only if everybody is just like you. My
style is “Give me clear goals and leave me alone. I’ll call you if I need
you.” That’s how I thought I should deal with others. But one of my
people came to me and said, “You’re too hands-off for me. I need
more feedback,” so I learned to adjust my style to others working for
me. It’s my role to be observant and ask people how they like to be
dealt with.

ƒ

I was recruited by the CEO, who was pushed out by the time I got on
board. The new CEO never said, “I’m glad we recruited you” or even
anything welcoming to me. He said that his leadership style was going
to be one of repetitive organization rhythm, which I took to mean if
you have enough meetings and documentation regularly that even
idiots will start to fall in line. He had no interest in any approach
other than his own. I believe you need diversity of thought, not just
diversity of skin color, . . . so I quit three weeks after I was hired.

ƒ

In college ROTC, a test question was, “Should a commander be
liked, disliked, or doesn’t matter?” The answer was, “Doesn’t matter.”
As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is leadership. All I want
from someone to relate to me is with confidence. Neither of us has to
be liked.

If you grasp the ambitions of others and help them to achieve and
perform in a stellar fashion, they will gravitate to you—as someone worth-
while following.
If you make people around you more successful, you’ll get pushed
up by them because “a rising tide raises all ships.” You’ll get noticed and