What I Learned From “Leading to Thrive”
Hello friends!
One great thing about being CEO at Scribe is working with thinkers, leaders, and people who share their wealth of wisdom and experience with the world.
One gem I’ve been reading is “Leading to Thrive: Mastering Strategies for Sustainable Success in Business and Life” by Klaus Kleinfeld.
Klaus is the former CEO of two Fortune 500 companies, Siemens and Alcoa. He is also a recent guest in episode 83 of the Smart Friends Podcast.
In the book, Klaus shows how he led big companies with a balanced life. Keys for me were energy management, and creating purpose both for yourself and your team. The stories of leadership to change directions at Siemens and Alcoa (both Fortune 500 companies) are remarkable.
Klaus has accrued an incredible amount of wisdom, he writes in such a straightforward-German-no-bullshit way so that we can learn from it.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned lessons for running Scribe and leading a fulfilling life. I’ve got around 90 highlights from the book, I’ll just share a few of my favorites here.
Here are some valuable excerpts from Leading to Thrive:
I love this as a prescription for positivity in leadership. The mental attitude of the team starts with the leader’s vision.
Success comes from a mental attitude, a better capability of envisioning; of seeing opportunities when others don’t notice anything; of believing not that the glass is half-empty or full — but that the glass is capable of overflowing.
Klaus observes that our mental relationship to our work determines our effort and longevity. To cultivate energy… love your work.
The inspiring power of a vision most often also comes from creating a personal purpose, which provides meaning in your life. This will become your True North. The focus of all your actions. And it’ll do to your energy what a laser does to light—becoming a super strong force that can cut through almost anything.
While this relationship starts with the leader, it can also be infused into the team and the organization.
One big difference between your personal vision and your business’s vision is that it’s not just you who needs to be excited. Your team must be as excited as you are. And a lot depends on how you communicate that with them. Your vision needs to be simple to comprehend, as vivid as possible, as well as both logically and emotionally appealing. It’s never one and done. You must repeat it time and time again. You may be tired of hearing it, but remember, some are only hearing it for the first time. Some studies have even shown that it takes repeating your message two to seven times—sometimes more—before it sinks in and your audience takes action.
My FAVORITE passages in the entire book are the examples of HOW Klaus demonstrates these missions. He invests immense effort to create emotional, impactful moments for his team to get aligned on the mission.
Before I took the job, I made it a prerequisite for Siemens to allow me to spend time with some of the business’s most important customers. Not hour-long “get-to-know-you” meetings in some windowless conference room. No. I wanted to better understand our customers from their perspective. So, I asked them to literally embed me in a hospital with doctors and staff so I could watch our solutions being used in real time, in the real world.
You’ve seen the show Undercover Boss, right? Well, I became “Undercover Supplier.” I spent a week in hospitals, “disguised” as an observing doctor. During this time, I saw numerous patients receiving amazing treatments that were only possible through the capabilities our systems offered. The doctors were excited, too.
Suddenly, I was pumped and über-excited about taking on the leadership of the division. But I was still faced with the stark contrast between the enthusiasm and optimism I saw from our customers and the perceived pessimism of my workforce. I decided to bridge the gap by inviting a real patient to our all-hands meeting which we held every quarter.
Our employees were hanging on her every word. Everyone in the room knew the hospital was using Siemens’ medical equipment. What they didn’t know was that the best was yet to come…
The medical industry is highly regulated with stringent quality procedures. For every machine that gets produced you must record all tiny details—including the individuals who assembled it. We had gotten the information beforehand on what machines were used on her and I had given her the names of all the employees who had worked on those exact machines.
She pulled out a piece of paper and said she came here today to thank all the employees who had saved her life and allowed her to live it fully again. She wanted to shake hands with those who had built the equipment the doctors used on her. She read their names out loud and asked them to join her onstage.
When Klaus told this story in our podcast episode, he said this is a bavarian group — normally very stoic. Yet there were a lot of moist eyes and a palpable energy for their mission, like flipping a switch!
Here’s a similar story from another company:
We once did something similar at Alcoa by inviting an astronaut and having him describe what goes through his mind during the minutes of the countdown. It was important for him to know the people who made the thin aluminum skin separating him from the uninhabitable outer space are rigorous and unwavering in their pursuit of flawless quality—not allowing for a single iota of imperfection.
Here is Klaus on how to enact change in organizations:
In simple terms: Create a burning platform. To make people act, you need to create a credible set of arguments as to why the only option is change. In my experience, don’t just talk about what you want from them.
Talk about the outside world that’s requiring these changes to be made in the first place so we all can win. All of these stories need to lead to one and only one conclusion: If we don’t change—we will lose and eventually go under. What led to success in the past will not lead to success in the future.
The platform we are on is burning. To survive, you need to jump. If you want to stay alive, there is no other option. Detailed descriptions of competitors’ strategies, plans, and behaviors go a long way, particularly when translating this into what it would mean for our success or failure.
Season your descriptions liberally with as many personal stories as possible. Talk about meetings you had with customers—from the C-suite to the shop floor. Talk about their concerns—what keeps them up at night. Talk about what they need to make their customers happy. Talk about experiences with contracts won or lost to competitors. Make it real: Let your employees shiver from the thought of competitors breathing down their necks, let them see the fire coming, let them feel the heat increasing, let them get ready to jump.
There are obviously all kinds of nuances that can help drive change, including incentives, promotions, and the like. But from my experience, a balanced approach of incentives and consequences—employing both carrot and stick—proves most effective in driving human change. All carrot and there are no consequences. All stick and they’re headed for the exits. But balance both and you have a real shot at change that gives you a sustainable advantage over your competitors.
I love how straightforward, honest, and clear his writing and thinking is. This is the kind of honest book you only get from a retired CEO. Someone just sharing what they know, in the hopes that it helps others.
As someone in the thick of an operating role right now, I found this book to be immediately useful. I hope you do too.
I’ll leave you with one simple, polished gem:
Nobody’s perfect, but a team can be.
If you’re considering writing or publishing a book, be like Klaus and come talk with my team at Scribe Media.
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