Engr'slog#4.1 // How To Lead

 What Makes Great Leaders Tick?

Leadership in today's corporate world especially when external factors like Covid pandemic has pushed everyone to the edge of the cliff; has become more highlighted and necessary skill for CEOs, business leaders and influential people. In this book, similar to the 7 Habits of highly effective people¹,author* interviewed world's high performing leaders about who they are and how they became successful.

This book, an outcome of interviews, provides reader with perspectives of different kind of leaders, with the hope that readers might be inspired to develop and enhance their own leadership skills. Leadership comes in many forms and is exercised in many ways but few traits and attributes always remain common.

• Luck
• Desire to succeed
• Pursuit of something new and unique
• Hard work
• Focus
• Failure
• Persistence
• Persuasiveness
• Humble demeanor
• Credit sharing
• Ability to keep learning
• Integrity
• Responding to Crises 

Author has divided leaders in categories based on their leadership experience. In the previous blog (Engr'slog# 4.0), first category, Visionaries was presented. In this blog post, category Builders is presented. Remaining categories will be presented in upcoming blog posts.

Phil Knight

Phil Knight (PK) is the Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Nike.

PK in 1964, pursuing the idea he had earlier proposed in a paper at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, importing running shows made in Japan, which led to the creation of Nike, the world's largest, most profitable and best-known athletic show company.

PK is very much different from other CEOs and Owners, a quite reserved and shy person by normal company founder/ CEO standard. As PK puts it, Hollywood will portray a leader as tall and handsome and strong jawed. A lot of times, the real good leaders are just the opposite. First of all they've got to want it but they come in all shape and sizes.

Ken Griffin

Ken Griffin (KG) is the founder and CEO of investment company, Citadel. 

According to KG, market is rarely dead wrong. The history books are littered with people who are "smarter than the market" who have lost all their money. When you're in an investment and it's not working out, you really need to step back: "What don't I understand in this situation? If you really think you've resolved all the unknowns that you can possibly get your head around, you stay with your position. But in the history of finance, the failure of stories are people who don't respect the market.

Robert F. Smith

Robert F. Smith (RS) received global attention in 2019, for his commencement speech at Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, During his speech, he announced his intention to pay off all of the student load debt of the graduates, ultimately amounting to about $34 million. 

RF is the wealthiest African American, a completely self-made business leader who built one of the worlds most successful and admired private equity firms, the Vista Equity Partners. 

Trained as an engineer, RS initially took his engineering skill into tech investment banking and later into private equity world. He is a clear role model not only for African-American but also for all Americans. RS is working extensively to solve problems of equalization of opportunity for African Americans, to help them on board into commercial enterprise that is America.

Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon (JD) is the Chairman and CEO of leading bank, JPMorgan Chace & Co.

According to JD, his contribution to making better world is running a good JPMorgan Chase. He tells people, "If I don't do a good job at JPMorgan Chase, I hurt the opportunities for our people. I hurt opportunities for the two thousands hamlets we do business in. We can be philanthropic. We can help people grow. If I do a good job, we can do all those things. I'm not an artist, I'm not a tennis player, I'm not a musician, I'm not a politician. This is my contribution."

Marillyn Hewson

Marillyn Hewson (MH) is the CEO of Lockheed Martin, and is the first woman to lead USA's largest defense contractor.

One of her areas of focus apart from dealing with large corporate bureaucracy and working with company's dominant customer, the Pentagon, has been developing other women-at Lockheed Martin, and the young girls and students in the talent pipeline-for senior leadership positions.

According to MH, to become a leader, struggle and hardwork is key. As she remembers her own university days; " I didn't have a scholarship. I worked nights, or what we call graveyard shift, from eleven at night to seven in the morning, and then went to class from eight to one or two and then I'd sleep. I worked full time, paid my own way through school. You do what you have to do."

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*Author: David M. Rubenstein

David M. Rubenstein is the host of The David Rubenstein Show on Bloomberg TV and PBS. He is the chairman of the boards of trustees of the JFK Center for Performing Arts and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also an original signer of the Giving Pledge and a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey