Page 196 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

Leading Yourself 185

fostering in others? Your values might be such things as “integrity and
truthfulness in all my dealings,” “customer interests always come first,”
“commitment to gender equality,” “decisions based on facts, not personal
preference,” or “creating value by embracing prudent risks.” You will also
have values about your nonworking life—about the importance you attach
to family, community, patriotism, broader social causes, and so on.
As we saw in earlier chapters, leading vision, people development, or
cultural change will necessarily reflect your values. So will most of the
kinds of strategy development and transformational work you undertake.
Values confer credibility and build trust—people know what you stand for.
Anne Mulcahy’s turnaround of Xerox was successful because she was a
longtime employee who deeply believed in the values of the company, so
her people knew the changes she demanded were in service of protecting
Xerox itself. Similarly, Roger Ferguson’s personal commitment to the wel-
fare of people serving those who serve others gave him the credibility to
evolve TIAA so its business model could adapt to external financial pres-
sure yet provide its customers with the financial security that the company
has provided them for 100 years.

Aspirations and personal resilience
How high do you want to reach for success? How brave will you be, and
how hard will you work to get there? When you fall short or suffer a setback
in your job, do you have the heart and stomach to work through defeat and
the humility to learn, change course, and try again? Do you believe the
prizes—tangible and intangible—are worthy and worth what you’re willing
to endure? Do you have the courage to answer yourself honestly?
Bumble Bee Seafoods CEO Chris Lischewski summarized succinctly
what we’ve heard many times from executives: “Probably the single most
important thing for a leader is to have the drive to win and the grit to keep
going.” Mulcahy recalls that she had to take criticism from all sides at every
step of the way, even as she worked as hard as she ever did in her life. Her
success in the venture was as much about her personal resilience as any
specific strategy. McChrystal reflected how the devastating loss of troops
to Al Qaeda terrorism drove him to make personally painful decisions