There’s No Success Without Successors
My Perspectives on Leadership
My philosophy about leadership is simple: There is no success without successors, so it’s up to today’s leaders to develop the next generation. Successful companies that consistently stay on top are those with exceptional leaders who can inspire their employees and even the world at large. Apple stands out as the most valuable company in the world largely as a function of Steve Jobs’ extraordinary leadership. SAP is now ranked among the top 10 IT companies in market capitalization and number 19 among the world’s top 100 brands thanks to transformative leadership and market changing innovation over the years.
But the move from “Good to Great” at any company requires continuous investment in leadership – not just of product, but of people! Leadership development must be a priority for everyone in executive leadership. In fact, it should be an obsession.
For me personally, leadership is about the virtuous cycle of TEACHING and LEARNING. I believe every leader – and by leader, I mean more than just managers – must be a lifelong teacher and student. A decade ago, I took a class called the Teachable Point of View, a concept developed by Noel Tichy, who led leadership development for Jack Welch at GE. GE became famous through the 80s for being the “People Factory”, producing some of the industry’s best general managers. Tichy’s curriculum helps leaders teach leadership by linking their personal experience to organizational goals. The class had a seminal impact on my own leadership journey. Like Tichy, I believe it’s up to leaders to train the next generation of leaders at every level.
True, there are some special people who are born with exceptional leadership attributes. Business leaders like Jack Welch or Steve Jobs, sports leaders like Michael Jordan or Franz Beckenbauer, and leaders of movements like Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa all had uncanny leadership attributes that made them shine. But beyond what everyone is born with, there is also a lot that anyone can learn to hone their leadership skills and perfect them through daily practice, year by year.
To that end, I teach a leadership development class called Time for Leadership NOW. I don’t relegate these sessions to HR trainers but run the day-long classes myself. The class is divided into a journey of three chapters – Who am I, Who are We, Where are we Going. The discussions, case-studies and group exercises are set up like a mini-MBA program to be applied to our joint leadership journey. I make it clear that I’m far from perfect myself and as a teacher/student, I am as much a work in progress, as everyone else in the class.
One exercise is called the Leadership Journey. We divide into pairs and each person walks through their highs and lows in life, sharing events that have shaped their leadership experience. In hearing people’s passions, we learn what makes them tick, so we can help them realize their dreams. We look at the qualities of Multipliers, Servant Leadership, Tribal Teamwork, and many other simple frameworks that are easily applied with case studies. We also run through a visioning exercise where we watch some of the best communicators of our time such as Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King, and learn what made them great communicators – in essence, we learn about their storytelling skills. Because storytelling is a skill anyone can learn to help them become better communicators, and thereby better leaders, we also run storytelling workshops as part of our people development program.
Sessions like Leadership NOW allow for self-introspection and help managers realize the value of continuous learning through sharing experiences and giving back to their community of employees. Such sessions always energize me and give me new ideas and perspectives about my own leadership journey. My greatest joy is seeing how people hone in on their inner zen to identify areas where they can perfect their leadership, communication or mentoring skills.
Today, leadership seems to be in short supply, yet it’s crucial to any company’s long term sustainability and success. That’s why leaders have the responsibility and obligation of not just paying lip-service to the topic, but taking a hands on approach to developing the next generation of leaders. To do so means investing time in coaching, grooming and sponsoring leaders, as well as fostering diversity in leadership, but for me, the rewards far outweigh the effort. If you are in leadership position, I encourage you to develop your own teachable point of view and share it with your peers and colleagues. That‘s how you’ll secure the next vanguard of leaders for your company’s long term success.
Sanjay Poonen is President and Corporate Officer, Technology Solutions and Mobile Division at SAP, and can be reached @spoonen on Twitter.
Hi Sanjay,
It is an exemplary truth, that 'Leadership' starts within oneself, and is not only the applicable to the managers/top leaders. Each and everyone can be a leader, I call it a "Lead without a title" - en coined by Robin Sharma, the author of Best-seller "The Monk who sold his Ferrari".
A lot of companies/businesses, who have reached to what is called an extra-ordinary, have remained loyal to this one, of what you mentioned above. It has to be such a focused obsession to continuously innovate, being not just great but the best of the best to such an level that term 'normal' should fade away to eternity. The workforce/people are one of the greatest assets of an organization. If you tap into that potential and grow leaders after leaders & A players, surely the organization is headed to becoming a true success. Apple is a classic example of how Steve Jobs built and ran Apple as a company. In fact the best technology company known on the planet. Steve was obsessed with perfection, everything starting from Employees, Apple Stores, Apple factories, even the circuit boards inside Macbooks/iMacs were just extraordinary, nothing less!
This above quote is the epitome of what needs to be done as a true leader. You have to take the responsibility and go out and get the good things done for yourself, before expecting anyone else to lead.
I personally follow Professional & Personal Leadership lessons of Robin Sharma and it's coming along really well, though I am still a Work in Progress.
I would also like to share a video clip in addition to your excellent blog on Leadership.
[embed width="425" height="350"]https://www.youtube.com/embed/k57JmqQSSKo[/embed]
Regards,
Akshay.
Hi Sanjay,
This is a good blog and it's no surprise that SAP have an excellent track record in developing leaders, including your co-CEO's, members of your SAP Cloud division, and members of Solution Management (to name but a few that are within my focus area).
It is critical in this day and age to be sustainable in terms of leadership and employee development. I wrote a blog about this last year:
Talent Management: All about Sustainability
Best regards,
Luke
Hi Sanjay,
Wonderful to 'feel' your passion on leadership come through these words so vividly! I'm definitely a firm believer in lifelong teaching and learning. This is a tangible message, especially as you focused on leadership as a process and a journey and had offered a wider definition of a leader (going beyond a manager). Leaders develop future leaders and mentoring is an active, engaging, and rewarding responsibility that leaders must internalize in being a good leader.
The more we can make 'leadership' real and tangible to wider participants through conscious and explicit opportunities, the less we have to look for that "one in a million" type of person. There's a leader in each of us, just have to help bring him/her out.
Regards,
Mohamed
@bizuser
Hi Sanjay,
Thanks for the post. Wonderful insights.
The world has come of age. It is now goodbye to the type of leadership where the leader is one who stood above his men and shouted order to them to obey. But we need more people (who lead's others without a title) and motivate them at all levels to bring the best in them.
We need thousands of Moses, Mahatmas, Mandela, Martin (jnr.), Abraham Lincoln, to mention but a few, but history has given us only one of such men. The leadership traits and potentials they possessed lie within us. You may not have the crowd to lead like them, but assuredly you’ve got yourself to lead, and that is the first step to becoming a great leader in this day and age and to lead others.
We learn, we earn.. We pass it on! Success without successors is failure.
Regards
Sundeep
@sun_coool (twitter)
Hi Sanjay,
Very nice blog.
A friend once told me that in his company you cannot get a promotion until you succeeded in developing a widely accepted successor. Widly accepted meant that you boss and your peers need to be supportive of the successor.
I think that such a "policy" helps ensuring that leaders focus on teaching and developing people.
Best regards,
Rüdiger