Participants at a past leadership forum. Heads of family business out to find time to nurture leadership skills. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Rather than trying to suppress bright minds, bosses should help nurture them.
Of the Gadites there went over to David to the stronghold in the wilderness men of might, men trained for war who could handle shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and who were swift as gazelles on the mountains…..These Gadites were officers of the army.
The lesser was equal to and over a hundred, and the greater equal to and over a thousand. These are the men who went over the Jordan in the first month when it had overflowed all its banks and put to flight all those in the valleys, east and west. - 1 Chronicles 12:8,14-15
Shortly before 3 p.m on July 13, 1978, Henry Ford II called the president of Ford Motors, Lee Iacocca, into his office to fire him.
According to his autobiography Iacocca; An Autobiography, when pushed for a reason, Ford simply said “sometimes you just don’t like somebody”.
Not that Iacocca was easy to like. According to the History Channel, he was brash and unorthodox and was in the process of soliciting support from the board to take over leadership upon Ford II’s impending retirement.
This was a fatal error given that Ford II was determined to hand over leadership to his son, Edsel Ford.
Iacocca was a man of immense talent and ability. He oversaw the development of the legendary Ford Mustang and other iconic brands such as the Lincoln Continental, Ford Fiesta and the Mercury Cougar that cemented Ford’s place at the top of the automotive industry. He rose to position of vice president in 1960 and president in 1970 at which point he earned a salary of $1 million.
Iacocca had little regard for Henry Ford II who he described in his autobiography as “petty, paranoid and destructive”, going further to say that “one man with inherited wealth was making a shambles of everything”.
Given the excellent $2 billion turnover Ford Motors generated in the previous year, there was little to justify firing its 54-year old president.
According to www.edmunds.com, Ford II resorted to giving the board an ultimatum; me or Iacocca.
After four months of introspection, Iacocca took up the top position of Ford’s rival Chrysler Motors, which had just posted a quarterly loss of $155 million in addition to a large deficit.
His entry into Chrysler was brutal. He fired 33 of its 35 vice presidents and, in desperation, sought for and was granted a $1.5 billion loan guarantee by the US government, a loan which Chrysler paid back seven years before it fell due.
It was for his stint at Chrysler that Iacocca is best known. Set free to expand his boundaries, he introduced small, fuel efficient front-wheel cars and mini vans to serve the previously ignored family segment.
In the words of Chrysler’s 1980s commercials, with Iacocca at the helm “The pride [was] back”. Ford’s loss was Chrysler’s gain.
Every leader of a family business who is worth of their calling ought to have around them individuals of outstanding capability, skill and aptitude for matters business.
Leaders should not be afraid of being outshone by staff who seem to have greater ability; they ought to develop and hone their leadership ability to ensure that they have the capacity to provide the leadership that such strong performers crave.
Strong, capable and performance-oriented staff can intimidate insecure leaders to whom they are a threat given the potential to deliver much more if given the chance.
Rather than trying to suppress the capabilities of such individuals, leaders should provide them with opportunities to exert themselves by constantly expanding their boundaries to test the limits of their competence.
Leaders of family businesses ought to dedicate time, effort and resources to developing their leadership skills. This activity ought to have the highest priority seeing that it is the one thing that only they can provide for those who look up to them.
No leader should imagine that leadership ability is mysteriously allocated to some and not others; it accrues from dedication, diligence and practice.
Most highly skilled individuals crave good leadership more than any other attribute in a corporate environment. They seek out individuals who can see into them; what they have within and how much more they can deliver when properly motivated.
Any family business that can provide an excellent leadership setting will deliver the results that ensure that they properly reward their performers and in that way sustain an upward spiral of growth.
