Q. Leadership is one of those words that everybody has a slightly different take on. How do you define it?
A. Simply put, it’s the ability to inspire others to achieve shared objectives, and I think the most important word there by far is “inspire.” I think that’s the difference between leading and managing. Managers will tell people what to do, whereas leaders will inspire them to do it, and there are a few things that go into the ability to inspire. It starts with vision, and the clarity of vision that the leader has, and the ability to think about where they ultimately want to take the business, take the company, take the team, take a particular product.
It’s also very important to have the courage of your convictions, because things are going to get challenging. There are going to be doubters, because if the vision truly is unique, there are going to be a lot of people who will say it can’t be done. In order to inspire people, that’s going to have to come from somewhere deep inside of you. The last component is the ability to communicate that vision and the ability to communicate that conviction in an effective way.
Q. What do you consider some of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. There have been a lot, really too many to count. But one in particular occurred while I was with Yahoo, and Jerry Yang was installed as the C.E.O. Jerry got a lot of calls from the Silicon Valley community asking if there was anything they could do to help. Everyone was rooting for Jerry and rooting for Yahoo, and one of those people was Steve Jobs. He came and addressed several hundred of the leaders of Yahoo, and I’ll never forget it. He said after he had left Apple, and then came back, there was too much going on — too many products, too many lines — and he said he started to focus the team on prioritization.
Prioritization sounds like such a simple thing, but true prioritization starts with a very difficult question to answer, especially at a company with a portfolio approach: If you could only do one thing, what would it be? And you can’t rationalize the answer, and you can’t attach the one thing to some other things. It’s just the one thing. And I was struck by the clarity and the courage of his conviction. He felt it so deeply, and there wasn’t a person in the audience that day who did not take that with them as a lasting memory.
Q. What about mentors who had a big effect on the way you lead and manage today?
A. One is Ray Chambers. He essentially created the modern-day leveraged buyout, and he was on top of Wall Street with his firm, Wesray, and did that for several years and then basically gave it all up because he wanted to make a positive, lasting impact on the world and pursue a life of philanthropic activities.
Among many things that Ray has taught me are five rules for happiness. So the first one is living in the moment. The second is that it’s better to be loving than to be right, and if you’re in a relationship, you know how challenging that can be. The third one is to be a spectator to your own thoughts, especially when you become emotional, which is almost impossible to do. The fourth is to be grateful for at least one thing every day, and the last is to help others every chance you get. So I’m incredibly fortunate to have people in my life like that.
Q. What about the influences of your parents?
A. My mother is unusually and highly intuitive, to the point where it gets a little freaky from time to time. She’ll meet someone, and she’ll size them up after about 30 seconds, and she’ll say a few things to the person. Then the person will say, “How in the world did you know that?” But it’s not some sixth sense. A lot of it is pattern recognition, and I think pattern recognition can be an incredibly valuable asset, especially for leaders. What she’s learned to do is see certain patterns, listen to people a certain way, their voice inflection, their body language, and recognize and pattern-match certain kinds of behavior. From my father, I’ve learned about trusting instincts and the importance of values.
Q. Did you aspire early on to be a C.E.O.?
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/business/jeff-weiner-of-linkedin-on-the-next-play-philosophy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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