Smeal Op-Ed: Great Leaders Focus On Life, Love, Legacy

Smeal Op-Ed: Great Leaders Focus On Life, Love, Legacy

(February 27, 2004) At its essence, leadership is the responsibility for advancing the organization, for delivering on its promise, for building a better life for every stakeholder that comes in contact with it. Essentially then, leadership is stewardship. And despite some recent, highly publicized CEO blunders, I believe that most leaders still feel a commitment to that responsibility.

But it's easy for leaders to lose sight of this stewardship role. They can get caught up in the pressure of their position, overwhelmed by the intense pressure to generate results, blinded by the spotlight.

Great leaders don't let that happen. In my experience, that's because they stay focused on what I call the three L's—life, love and legacy. These three values not only frame the foundation of stewardship, they are the key drivers of real leadership, the approach that helps truly great leaders to excel.

• Life. Great leaders are committed to ensuring that their organization enhances the quality of life for all stakeholders who come in contact with the organization. That means they are committed to making the organization not only a great investment for shareholders, but also a reliable and dependable source of products and services for customers, a great employer and a strong supporter of the community.

I recently facilitated a meeting of the senior executive team of a client company. I asked each member of the team to independently come up with a story that reflected the firm's true character. Every story involved an event in which the company and its leaders went beyond the call of duty to help employees, customers and the communities in which they operate.

I believe it is no accident that this company is among the nation's highest performers over the past several years, and that its commitment to stakeholders is a key factor to their success.

• Love. Great leaders create an organizational culture based on mutual respect and engagement. Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher called it love.

He noted in an interview, "A company is stronger if it is bounded by love rather than by fear." He was referring to a culture in which employees feel appreciated and involved, like they're making a contribution.

Southwest is a sterling example of how an organization bounded by love can rise to the top of its industry. It is the envy of its peers and certainly the most consistent performer. And, true to great leadership, upon Keller's retirement the next generation of Southwest leaders is showing the same commitment to a strong and vibrant culture.

• Legacy. Great leaders are committed to their organization's legacy, to passing the organization on to the next generation of leaders in better shape than it was in when they took the helm. This is the core of stewardship. It is the only way an organization can sustain high levels of performance over the long term.

In his landmark book "Good To Great," Jim Collins found the corporations that delivered the highest levels of sustained performance over the longest periods of time were led not by celebrity CEO's but by leaders with humility and fierce resolve. They passionately believed in their organization. And they believed that their job was to create sustainable performance by building a strong, focused culture and a deep bench of next generation leaders, a team of believers who were intent on continuing the organization's legacy of respect and performance.

So what is great leadership? It is stewardship. It is a commitment to making a positive contribution to every individual who comes in contact with the organization, to building an engaging culture, to building a lasting legacy of sustained performance. It is a leader's relentless commitment to life, love and legacy.

(Albert A. Vicere, one of the country's top leadership coaches, is a professor of strategic leadership at Penn State's Smeal College of Business and president of Vicere Associates, Inc. Visit www.vicere.com.)