My week begins with a Monday morning discussion with my colleague about the Sunday New York Times. One of the first columns we talk about is the Corner Office column on P. 2 of the Business Section. Adam Bryant from the New York Times interviews business leaders from many industries.
Here are three themes discussed in recent columns.
1. Listen.
Kasper Rorsted, the chief executive of Henkel, the consumer and industrial products company based in Düsseldorf, Germany, stresses the importance of listening to people at all levels of the organization.
I do less e-mail and a lot more of being present. Last year, I just moved my office to the U.S. and traveled around for six weeks without going home. This year, I’ll go to Asia for six weeks and will visit as many sites, employees and customers as I can. So that’s one — just understanding how important it is to be where the business is and understand how it works.
How do you listen and incorporate information from people across the organization?
2. Don’t take it personally: business is business.
Lisa Price, founder and president of Carol’s Daughter, a beauty products company, had this to say about learning to detach in business.
I have learned to be distant without really being distant. I’m very friendly with everybody, but I would get so invested before, and if there was a transition for whatever reason, it would hurt for me to lose that person. And that discomfort is very hard to deal with, and it doesn’t really have a place in business.
So I’ve found this interesting space within myself, where I can have these really great relationships and work closely with people, but still have that distance. I feel like I’m in a place now where I can be close to you and collaborative with you, but I don’t get as emotionally attached.
How have you found this space in your leadership style?
3. Fail and learn from adversity.
Quintin E. Primo III, co-founder and chief executive of Capri Capital Partners, shared his experience coping with adversity. Capri is a real estate investment and development firm based in Chicago.
It was a very frightening period for me, but what I’ve learned is that one must have faith, faith in something larger than yourself, or you truly will be sunk. Whether that faith is faith in the common good of man, whether it’s in universal rhythm or karma, or whether it be simply in God, there has to be something larger than you.
How do you cope with adversity and failure as a leader?
I especially like the advice about not taking things too personally. There’s an art to remining both appropriately detached and fully engaged at the same time. Not easy…