Ep 11: Willie Pietersen – You want to lead? Here’s the scoop on what it takes to succeed

Willie Pietersen has the street cred to earn the attention of anyone interested in leadership. In addition to his teaching at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, he’s been a consultant to some of the world’s best-known organizations, ranging from Ericsson and Johnson & Johnson to ExxonMobile and the Girl Scouts of America. This former Rhodes scholar has also served as chief executive of several multibillion-dollar businesses, including Lever Foods and Seagram USA.Willie says we all learn intuitively, but few of us know consciously how to learn. The driver is curiosity—not idle curiosity, but energetic curiosity in a pursuit of good answers. Even the smartest people among us can have their thinking skewed by bias.* Effective leadership is the intersection of three interdependent domains: leadership of self, strategic leadership, and interpersonal leadership.* “The difference between successful people and REALLY successful people is that REALLY successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” * The antidote to “barriers to truth” (biases) is awareness—the ability to monitor our own thinking and that of our teams.* How can you successfully use Willie’s approach of “subtract first, then multiply” in managing projects?* What can you do to make it safe for people in your organization to “manage up” and speak truth to power in ways that enhance the performance of all the players?* How can you make your own leadership more about service than about power? Get full access to LeaderSHOP at podcast.leadershop.net/subscribe