Global Leadership Summit 2013: Session 2 – Colin Powell

I’m glad that she did not go into all that resume stuff and she instead focused on the human part of my life.

I was raised in an immigrant family. I went through the public school system of New York City.

A city has nothing more important to do than to educate the next generation.

Leadership is getting more out of people than the science of management tells you that you can.

Leaders inspire people to reach beyond themselves.

I learned at Fort Benning that you get nowhere without followers that want to follow you.

I’ve built my leadership on my followers.

How are we making a contribution to society by what we’re doing?

Start with a purpose.

I would always talk to the person who cleaned my office. I wanted them to understand that they had a purpose. I wanted them to understand that I couldn’t achieve my purpose as Secretary of State if she did not fulfill her purpose.

There is no such thing as an unimportant person in an organization, but you have to constantly show their importance.

Invest in the people that get it done. Soldiers go up the hill into battle after we get them prepared.

Story of Pres. Reagan teaching “Colin, I love you and I’ll sit here and listen to you tell me about your problem, but until you tell me that I have a problem, I’m going to watch squirrels in the Rose Garden.”

I wanted to get the best people I could. People that I trusted, but people that trusted me.

Empowering means taking risks. Empower your subordinates and trust them. Act in such way that they can trust you.

Trust is the glue that holds an organization together and the lubricant that keeps it moving forward.

“I’m glad they think that America is a good investment.” – Reagan on Japan’s purchases in America

He understood the great purpose of our country. He had simple themes constantly repeated. Great leaders do that. They have themes that others understand and they constantly repeat them so they infect the whole organization.

If you want to be a great leader, take care of your troops.

If you want to be a sure that you are going to keep moving forward, have a destination.

Failure is an option, every time. Great leaders understand that and are always prepared for it.

Soldiers don’t need someone to say “I’m sorry.” They want someone to recognize their service. I never say, “Sorry” instead I say “I know it had to be tough. Thank you.”

The important thing was that I do the best with the opportunity that I had been given.

You have the responsibility to reach back, reach across and help someone else reach up.

It will look different in the morning: It may not but I always go to bed thinking that it will be better in the morning. It’s an attitude, an aspiration. Know why it is going to be better? We are going to make it better.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Successful leaders are those who infect their followers with optimism.

People look to leaders for confidence, optimism, encouragement.

You have to persuade people that it is in their interest to share the corporate interest.

Get mad but then get a new attitude: Get mad if you have to but then get over it.

I’ve always tried to adapt to the personality of my subordinates. It was my job as a leader to figure out their strengths and weaknesses.

Leaders are people who solve problems. If you don’t solve problems all the time, watch out because people may stop bringing you problems. Worse, your subordinates may think you just don’t care.

A red flag for an emerging leader? EGO.

Beware of subordinates who are always looking around your office as if measuring for drapes. They probably are.

Promote people based upon their potential, not on their present performance. As a leader, you have to have an instinct for potential.

Everybody should know when they should get off the train, change trains, or retire.

I’m a product of all that has happened to me: the best and the worst.

Mandela had a significant impact on me. When getting released from prison, he was asked if he wanted to get even. His response was “If I felt that way, I would still be in prison.”

Tell me early: Problem solving is what leaders do, but tell me about the problem early.

We are trying to be a missionary church because that is what we believe our faith calls us to do and that is what Jesus calls us to do.

We come to church to hear the lessons, to learn more about our faith and the Bible. We also want it to be relevant to the world we are living. Then tell us how to apply that relevancy.