Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen Paperback (6 page)

To give you a better idea of how this can work, I’ll explain a couple parts of this example. For one thing, I’m naturally a very passionate person, which is a useful trait for a leader, good for keeping people motivated and rallying their spirits. But that, combined with my positional power and the fact that I have strong convictions, can sometimes intimidate others, especially team members who don’t know me very well. So I need to do everything I can to make sure I encourage other points of view by asking people who are not forthcoming to speak their minds.

I’m also a creative thinker who loves nothing more than coming up with new ideas. That may sound like a good thing, but it can be particularly dangerous when I find myself with a day when I don’t have a lot to do. On days like that, some people would take the opportunity to relax. But not me. Left to my own devices, I start dreaming up more stuff the organization can do before we’ve finished the things we’re currently working on. And that’s not good. It means creating activity instead of action. But because I know that about myself, I can work on it. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing this year.

The best leaders understand that this is a lifelong process, that even if you make it to the top, you can never stop working on yourself. You have to continue getting to know who you are as a leader and how you can grow and improve.

Warren Buffett is one of the realest deals I know. I love learning from him. In fact, I have a ritual with the world’s most famous investor: Every year I have the privilege of taking him to lunch at a KFC in Omaha, Nebraska, where his company, Berkshire Hathaway, is headquartered, and we talk about whatever is on our minds.

At one of these lunches, while he was devouring our Original Recipe chicken, to which he likes to add a ton of extra salt, I asked him what he looks for when he acquires a company.

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

—
MAX DE PREE, AUTHOR AND FORMER CEO OF HERMAN MILLER

“I’m looking to buy companies that are run by painters who are working on a painting that isn’t finished yet. They know what the painting can be and they are passionate about making it as great as it can be.”

I loved that analogy because it reminded me that business is always a work in progress. It also got me thinking about what makes a great painting. A great painting, a masterpiece, is a one-of-a-kind that’s like nothing else on earth.

When you think about it, you’re like that too. No one has your DNA. No one is like you. The best leaders are the ones who understand that they are like no one else, that they have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, interests and knowledge, and that they are always going to be a work in progress.

I was talking about this subject in my Taking People with You program one time, and someone said to me, “Hey, it’s easy for you to be yourself. You’re the CEO. You can be whatever you want to be and people have to adjust to you. But how do
I
do it?” It was a good question. It’s true that it’s easier for me at this stage of my career, but I wasn’t always the CEO. Looking back over my career, there have been numerous times when I wanted to get to the next level and I had to decide what I needed to do and who I needed to be to get there. I always fell back on the idea that I needed to be me and build on that, rather than trying to be someone I’m not. It’s a good thing to think about as your career progresses. Here are
some ways to help you be yourself no matter where you are in your career:

You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.

—
JOHN L. MASON, AUTHOR

•   
  Have Conviction:
  Being yourself is the only way to be. Acknowledge that it’s key to building trust and credibility with others.
  
•   
  Know Your Stuff:
  There is no substitute for time and experience. Building your know-how will give you confidence.
  
•   
  Know Your Environment:
  Being yourself does not mean ignoring the impact you’re having on the people around you. Remember the example of Indra Nooyi: In business, you have to be yourself while also being compatible with your company’s culture.
  
•   
  Build Self-Awareness:
  Constantly solicit feedback so you know how you’re impacting others. Ask people what they would do if they were in your position.
  
•   
  Be Open and Honest About What You Don’t Know:
  It’s amazing how liberating it is to do this and how much more people will get behind you if you do. It builds trust and gives people a chance to contribute their own knowledge.
  
•   
  Use Positive Self-Talk and Positive Thought:
  Reminding yourself of your strengths and your accomplishments will help you to believe that you can succeed. When the dragons of self-doubt come creeping in is a great time to look back at your lifeline to remember how far you’ve come while being careful not to get mired in negative things of the past. We all need to realize that our outlook on life affects how we act toward people and situations in our daily lives, so tune in to your thoughts and make them as positive as possible. Try it for yourself and you’ll see: it’s impossible to be thinking positive things and feeling negatively at the same time!
  
•   
  Get Out of Your Comfort Zone:
  Use your unique gifts and keep pushing the boundaries of your potential. Mark Chu, now the president of Yum! China, started out as a McDonald’s restaurant general manager. He’s a dynamic and humorous speaker in his
  native language but barely spoke English when I first met him in 1997. Now he presents in English to our board of directors and can crack a joke with the best of them. You never know what you’re capable of. By the way, the only Chinese I know is
  ni-hao
  (hi),
  xie-xie
  (thank you), and
  duo-kai-yi-xie
  (build more!).
  

Another thing people always ask me is, “How can you be yourself when you disagree with your boss?” to which I say, “Team together, team apart.” By this I mean that when you’re together with your team, always have the courage to express your point of view (team together). That’s what teaming up is all about, and you’ll be able to sleep better knowing you spoke up. If your boss decides to go a different route, support that decision (team apart). You gave it your best and were true to yourself, but you also need to accept that the boss is the boss. This way you demonstrate that you are an independent thinker who can also play team ball, which is key if you want to climb up the ladder in any organization.

As the leader, your responsibility doesn’t end with just getting good at being you. You also have to communicate to everyone you lead how important it is for them to be themselves too. Here are some ideas that will help:

•   
  Believe in All People
  : Celebrate individuality. Even though the personalities on your team may be very different, as long as everyone is working toward the same goals with a similar value system that reflects a respect for others and a sense of personal accountability, that’s OK. I call this “unity of values, diversity of styles.” Allow the people you lead to succeed in their own ways, not as carbon copies of you.
  
•   
  Provide Individual Development Plans:
  There’s no substitute for tailored, constructive feedback. Express your appreciation for people’s strengths and take the time to understand what makes them tick. Then help them identify ways to be even more effective.
  
• Create a Safe Haven:
  Make it easy for people to speak up, share their points of view, and express their individuality. Allow people to disagree with you, and when they do, thank them for it.
  
•   
  Openly Seek Knowledge and Perspective from Others:
  Don’t wait for people to speak up. Ask them what they know and what they think about your ideas.
  

When doing the self-reflections and exercises that end each chapter, think about how those you lead would characterize your leadership skills. Solicit opinions from colleagues or people on your team if necessary. Even if you think you’re pretty good in a particular area, try to think of some ways you could be even better. We’re aiming for breakthrough results here, which means that pretty good isn’t good enough.

These questions are designed to help you pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses and determine what you can do next to be an even better leader so that you are better prepared to accomplish your Big Goal.

Self-reflection

Exercises

Look back at your lifeline and answer the following questions:

1.   What experiences on your lifeline have most affected the way you lead people today? What did you learn from each experience?
   
2.   Who were the people who have had the greatest impact on your lifeline? Who has led you?
   
3.   What qualities do you admire most about the leaders who have most affected you? What steps could you take to be more like them while being true to yourself?
   

One of the most effective things you can do to continue to grow and be your best self is to always be learning. In fact, I believe that being an avid learner is the single biggest thing that separates a good leader from a great one. Someone with a voracious appetite for knowledge is bound to inspire others with their passion and curiosity and can energize an organization by bringing to it new ideas.

I’ve never taken an IQ test, but I know there are a whole lot of people out there who are smarter than I am. Still, I’ve managed to do pretty well in my career, and I’m certain that what separates me from others is that I always make an effort to prioritize knowledge and ideas over ego and ownership. Why is this so important? Well, obviously the more I know about a problem, the more likely I am to make a good decision. But even more important than that, being able to admit up front that I don’t have all the answers helps establish an atmosphere in which the people I lead are more willing to share what they think and what they know. And if all members of your team are actively learning all they can about a problem and freely sharing their wisdom with you and with each other, then that’s the best chance you’ve got of coming up with a solution that makes your business a whole lot better.

I will take good ideas wherever I can find them. In fact, some of the biggest successes of my career have been the result of building on the
ideas of others, and I’m not too proud to admit that some of those ideas came directly from competitors. For example, when I went to Pizza Hut to run marketing in 1986, sales were down, and the brand hadn’t had any successful new products in years. One of the emerging concepts in the industry back then was specialty pizzas, and one of the places that was doing that better than anyone else was California Pizza Kitchen. They excelled at using known flavor combinations to make unique specialty pizzas, like barbecue chicken pizza, Thai chicken pizza, and BLT pizza.

So one day I took my team to Los Angeles, and we went to CPK for lunch. We ordered practically every specialty pizza on the menu and really enjoyed them. It was clear they were on to something, but we weren’t CPK. Could we make this concept work at Pizza Hut without losing what makes Pizza Hut unique?

Pizza Hut was then and still is more mainstream than California Pizza Kitchen, so the answer wasn’t as obvious as having a Pizza Hut version of their Thai chicken pizza. At first, we tried a Cajun pizza, but that didn’t really hit a home run with our customers. They wanted new menu options, but they didn’t really want strange new flavor combinations. Next we decided on a specialty pizza that gave our customers more of what they already loved. First up was a Meat Lover’s Pizza, which was such a hit that it led to our Cheese Lover’s Pizza and then to a whole new “Lover’s” line that has become a phenomenal success. Our Pepperoni Lover’s Pizza, which is just a regular pizza with an extra helping of pepperoni on top, was one of the most successful new products in Pizza Hut history.