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| Carol Mackenzie, Industry Advisor Senior Manager, SAP |
AtelierSAP is a unique community of senior ex-SAP executives, largely engaged in current entrepreneurial pursuits. As part of my participation in the Leadership Excellence Acceleration Program (LEAP) at SAP, I attended their third annual leadership event. I was humbled to be in the company of such an accomplished group. I came away from the event with many pages of notes, two partnership possibilities to investigate supporting my current role, and one viable future mentor to connect with.
Primarily, however, I walked away pondering a singular theme that spoke to me personally and surfaced repeatedly throughout the session: inspirational leadership. What does it look like today? Who has it? How do you attain it and model it? In a world where inspiration comes from pop culture (non)superstars and overpaid, over-drugged sports figures, how does a “steady” life in business inspire the Millennials of today?
Several speakers touched on the topic throughout the two days, but two presenters in particular resonated with me. Each integrated their own points of view to reinforce the call to action: more than ever, every organization needs more of it.
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| Les Hayman (left) & Tom Pfister |
At the event of the event, Luisa Delgado, ex-member of the Executive Board and Global Managing Board of SAP AG and former Chief Human Resources Officer, also spoke to us. Joining the event via Skype from SAP’s headquarters in Walldorf, she commented that discretionary effort of the individual is the true differentiator today – and having leaders that inspire work effort above and beyond being a new standard as operating practice. Leaders who create an environment where people truly want to do more, where emotional intelligence is more important than intellectual intelligence, where heart is becoming more of a key attribute in business strategy – these are today’s inspired few.
Who has inspired me personally? It’s a small number…people with vision, steadfast beliefs, people of action. Steve Jobs, Hillary Clinton, Abe Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower are a few on the list. In my 20+ year career, I can name three individuals that helped shape me into the professional I am today by challenging, guiding, driving my thinking and execution to beyond what I ever thought I could accomplish on my own.
So this, then, is my own definition of inspirational leadership: Finding the best people, and putting them “ in the arena”. This statement by Theodore Roosevelt wraps it together nicely:
It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again …… and at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Pushing people into the arena involves letting their absolute strongest aptitudes have an opportunity to shine, and setting goals into somewhat uncomfortable zones that leverage those aptitudes. I think about what my team (and myself) could do if we felt the freedom to fail/freedom to thrive.
Inspirational leaders are the people you want to be around to feel their energy, their passion, their devotion. To see their results and the next area they tackle. More often than not, they make conversations less about themselves and more about others. They live in the arena.
