Print This
Email This“The three Detroit carmakers had been losing their leadership position over the years,” he told me. “So I made a balance sheet. Here are the reasons to come, and here are the downsides. Here are the risks. Here are the opportunities. But the biggest thing I had to decide was whether I could add value. I can remember struggling with that. Could I use my skills and experiences to serve in this new job?
“I thought, ‘I’ve designed airplanes. I haven’t designed cars. I’m going to need a whole new skill set.’ But then I decided that the things that had served me well before would serve me well in the new job. What was important was having a compelling vision, working together, having a plan, and making sure that everybody is included in the plan. I could always rely on these working principles. And, of course, I would grow and learn on the job.”
Alan’s realization that his core beliefs, combined with his willingness to learn and adapt, gave him the confidence he needed to tackle the job. “I took the job to help a great American icon reverse its slide and start growing again.” Then he rolled up his sleeves and went to work.
“When you come into an environment like this, the most important thing you can do is define reality. ‘Do we want to give up? Do we believe we can make a viable business? Or should we liquidate this place?’ Certainly I came in with the goal of making this a viable business. That might have created anxiety. But it was also liberating.
“Everybody knew what the status was. There were no secrets. Dealing with it directly was refreshing. The other side, of course, is that people got anxious. They wondered, ‘Am I going to be here?’ ‘Am I going to be part of the turnaround?’ ‘Am I going to have to work differently?’”
Change and uncertainty make people anxious even when change is what they need to keep their company viable. Good leaders like Alan understand this—for themselves and the people around them. And they also know that anxiety can be planned, modulated, and channeled into productive energy.
“I started a Thursday business- plan review. And that always creates anxiety. You’re either ahead of the plan or behind it. So right away, boom. You’ve built a gap between where you are and where you want to be. You’ve built in anxiousness, excitement, motivation. And, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m going to see you next week. We’re going to get back together.’ And, of course, nobody wants to stand up and be behind again, right? We wouldn’t want to let each other down. The meetings create the motivational anxiety, the energy we need to make progress.”
Sustaining the right level of anxiety is Alan’s strategy for success at Ford. He uses it to challenge and motivate himself and to drive the behavior required to turn the company around.
“Half the time, at the end of the day, I don’t know how we’re going to get it done. You always give it your best shot, and you can never get down or immobilized. So anxiety is a good thing. It means you’re thinking about your goals, your objectives and plans, and the risks and opportunities. It’s very useful and very enabling. If you’re free and open to deal with the uncertainty of it all, then you have to be able to say you’re anxious.
“Now there’s still a lot of anxiety here. But we have a plan to get back to profitability in 2009. We are aggressively restructuring the business to changing market and customer demands. We’ve accelerated the new products and services that people really value today. We’re making great progress on accelerating the plan. We have the financing in place. And we’re really working together on our leadership skills.”
Alan may succeed in turning the company around. Only time will tell. Ford won five top- quality awards from J. D. Power and Associates in 2007—more than any other carmaker—and that’s a good indicator of its ability to produce great products. The company, maker of the Mustang, Lincoln, and Taurus, is in good hands, given Alan’s track record and his mindset for success. And things appear to be moving in the right direction.
So what do you have in common with a guy running a $160 billion company with approximately 260,000 employees? Maybe more than you think. Your inner experience of anxiety is the same as Alan Mulally’s. In today’s fast- paced world, with its pressures and problems, opportunities and options, we’re all in the same boat.
Think about the times you have had to make tough decisions. You’ve wondered: Should I change jobs or stay where I am? Is a new job what I really want? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Do I have what it takes to succeed? Can I make a difference?
These are the kinds of questions we ask ourselves whenever we’re faced with change, whether we’re a CEO or a new hire in the mailroom. Questioning ourselves is how we manage our anxiety when we are step- ping into a new role, tackling a new challenge, or doing something to improve ourselves or our organizations. We examine our fears and hopes. We assess our strengths and weaknesses. We weigh our options. It’s part of being human.
Yes, Alan Mulally is a great leader today. But before he was a CEO, Alan was a student, management trainee, middle manager, and division head. His ability to create just enough anxiety to motivate himself and others has evolved over his lifetime, just like yours.
Excerpted from JUST ENOUGH ANXIETY: THE HIDDEN DRIVER OF BUSINESS SUCCESS by Robert H. Rosen by arrangement with Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright (c) Robert H. Rosen, 2008.
For more timely, relevant, and engaging articles, subscribe to Brazen Careerist.
