Page 212 - The Bible On Leadership

198 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

view of things; or to what extent does he bring in new ideas?’ It’s on
my mind constantly, and finding the right person is the most important
thing I can do for my group at the moment.’’ 2
Welch’s most fervent wish echoed the plea of Moses: ‘‘May the Lord
. . . appoint a man . . . so the people will not be like sheep without a
shepherd.’’ (Num. 27:16–17) Welch’s efforts at Crotonville and else-
where to continually develop his executives assured him that there
would be no shortage of competent shepherds.
Andrew Grove of Intel is another executive who reinforced his com-
mitment to leadership development with extra dollars in an executive’s
bonus. Like Welch, Grove truly enjoyed the process of teaching his
potential successors. Grove went into the classroom to teach several
times a year. ‘‘I’ve always had an urge to teach, to share with others
what I’ve figured out for myself. It is that same urge that makes me
want to share the lessons I’ve learned.’’ 3
Grove insisted that every executive at Intel do some teaching. He
believed that you can learn to make the tough decisions only from
people who have been there, not from outside consultants. It’s not as
old as GE’s or the Bible’s, but during his tenure Grove did develop a
good, solid ‘‘leadership engine.’’
Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Allied Signal, also realized that devel-
opment of new leaders is not only a key to profitability, it’s also very
satisfying in terms of feeling like you’ve left a legacy, not just an income
statement. ‘‘How am I doing as a leader? The answer is how the people
you lead are doing. Do they learn? Do they manage conflict? Do they
initiate change? You won’t remember when you retire what you did in
the first quarter of 1994 . . . What you’ll remember is how many people
you developed.’’ Bossidy is so committed to, and so rewarded by, the
4
leadership development process that he has founded a company com-
pletely devoted to executive development.
None of us, particularly top executives, likes to dwell on this topic,
but we are all going to die someday. In March 1996, a plane carrying a
group of top executives on a trade mission crashed in Bosnia, leaving
their organizations in differing states of preparedness for executive suc-
cession. Asea Brown Boveri’s president and CEO died, and the com-