10 Inspirational Examples of Great Leadership. Part 2.
As we move into 2022, I thought a little inspiration might be called for. Over the years as I have written about leadership, I have uncovered some inspirational stories that depict leadership as it should be. Often, it emerges from the most surprising places and circumstances. Some of these names you will know and some you will not.
In this article I share the second five of 10 inspirational stories.
1. A fantastic lady
On 15th April 1989, Anne Williams said goodbye to her son as he went off to a football match. She would never see him again. Kevin Williams, age 15, was a devout Liverpool FC supporter and went to see his team play in the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground Hillsborough. It was to be the site of Britain’s worst sporting disaster claiming the lives of 97 Liverpool fans.
A fatal decision to open an exit gate by the Leppings Lane turnstiles led to a crush in the central pen and claimed those lives. When Kevin did not return home, Anne and her husband drove to Sheffield to try and find him. The treatment they received and the events that ensued are well documented and caused immense anger and frustration.
After an overall verdict of accidental death, Anne couldn't let her anger and frustration rest and joined the Hillsborough Family Support Group with other families who believed justice had not been done.
An inquest in 1991 jurors heard that Kevin and 94 others were dead by 15:15, a verdict which Mrs Williams never believed and, as a result, she refused to accept his death certificate from the coroner. She tracked down witnesses, one of whom suggested Kevin uttered the word "Mum" at about 16:00.
Anne dedicated her life to over-turning the false official version of her son’s death. She tutored herself to become a legal and medical expert and fight the establishment.
Her calls for a fresh inquest were rejected by attorney generals and the European Court of Human Rights. But following the publication of The Hillsborough Independent Panel's report in September, a further appeal by the families of the victims to quash the verdicts was upheld.
The attorney general applied for fresh inquests and home secretary Theresa May announced a new police inquiry into the disaster. Although she did not live long enough to see the new inquests take place, she did make it to the 24th annual memorial service at Liverpool’s ground Anfield on 15 April - the first held since the Hillsborough Independent Panel exonerated fans of blame. Tragically, Anne died in 2013 just three years before the inquest that ruled that the Hillsborough victims had been unlawfully killed.
Words used to describe her include “resolute”, “dignified defiance”, “an example to everyone”, “persistent”, “resilient”, “heroic and noble”, and “dedicated”. She was a leader. Kenny Dalglish, who was manager of Liverpool FC on the day of the disaster said she was “a fantastic woman.”
For more than two decades she explored every possible legal avenue on behalf of her teenage son Kevin. She famously said: "They’re going to try and wear me down. But... I’ll wear them down before they wear me out."
And she did.
Leadership traits: Determination, purpose, resolve, resilience, noble, dedicated, persistence.
2. The Impossible
Does the name María Belón resonate with you? Maybe not. But chances are you have watched the movie The Impossible about the family who survived the deadly tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean in 2004.
María Belón and her family are from Spain. María is a physician, and she was in Khao Lak, Thailand with their three sons Lucas, Simón and Tomás when the tsunami struck.
Gathered around the pool at the Orchid Resort Hotel. María describes the moment in an interview with The Mirror in 2017.
“We started to hear a very horrible sound. I was looking around thinking maybe this is just in my mind. No one recognized the sound. It felt like the Earth was coming apart but everything looked perfect. I was facing the sea and saw a huge black wall. I didn’t think it was the sea. I thought it was a black wall coming to get us.”
María was swept away and separated from her husbands and sons. She was underwater for three minutes. She managed to locate Lucas and grab onto a tree trunk. They were eventually found by a local man, and both had severe scratches and wounds. They were taken to a nearby resting house located on higher ground. Inside the house were many injured locals and tourists.
Despite her deep wounds on chest and leg, María took on the responsibility as doctor and being treating the injured. Many of these people, especially the locals, were less fortunate than her, and she felt a moral obligation as both a doctor and human being to help them when they needed it.
She took the lead in helping these people despite having come close to death, suffering internal bleeding as well as external wounds, and believing her husband and two sons were dead. It took more than two days for María’s husband, who had miraculously been reunited with their two other sons, to find her. María spent 14 months in hospitals after leaving Thailand. She now travels around the world as an advocate for survivors of the tsunami and gives motivational speeches about how she overcame the turmoil and two years of recovery following her injuries.
Leadership traits: Advocate, humanitarian, resilience, care and compassion.
3. A Tower of Courage
Another name you may not recognise is that of Rick Rescorla. Born in England, Rick was an American soldier, police officer, educator, and private security specialist. He rose to the rank of colonel in the Army before entering the private sector, where he worked in corporate security.
Working as vice president for corporate security at Morgan Stanley located in the World Trade Centre (WTC), he warned the Port Authority of a possible truck bomb attack on the unguarded basement of the WTC. He was not listened to. When Islamic terrorists tried to bring down the Twin Towers with a truck bomb in 1993, Rescorla took charge of the evacuation and was the last man out.
He was convinced that another attack would occur with aircraft and again warned his employer. He suggested they move headquarters to a safe location in New Jersey, but as the Manhattan lease did not end until 2006, his warning was once again ignored.
Despite the warning falling on deaf ears, he did not give up. He did the next best thing and got the Morgan Stanley employees as ready as possible for another attack. He insisted, despite pushback from executive and employees due to its disruptive nature, that everyone participated in full-blown, no-warning, evacuation drills every quarter. They rehearsed evacuating the 22 floors they occupied in the South Tower, one level at a time, descending the stairwells in twos, and leaving room for first responders to ascend at the same time. Regardless of employee annoyance, the stood his ground, and was adamant they practised.
As we are all too aware, on the morning of September 11, 2001, at 08:46 am, American airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the WTC. Rescorla heard the explosion and saw the tower burning from his office window on the 44th floor of the South Tower. Ignoring the announcements over the PA system urging people to stay at their desks, he grabbed his bullhorn, walkie-talkie, and mobile phone, and began systematically ordering the 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees to evacuate. He had most of Morgan Stanley’s employees and hundreds of visitors down the stairwells before United Airlines Flight 175 hit Tower Two at 09:02 am.
Nearly 3000 people died in those two buildings but only six of Morgan Stanley’s employees, including Rescorla. He refused to leave the building until “I make sure everyone is out” he told a Morgan Stanley director who was telling him to get out. He was last seen heading back up the staircase to rescue stragglers shortly before the South Tower collapsed at 09:59 am.
A true leader who stood firmly by his convictions and had the safety of others as his prime purpose. He put the safety of others before his own. In the face of rejection, he found other ways to achieve his goal of employee safety. At a veteran reunion in 2022, a former comrades said “We lost one of the best men we’ve ever known. For those who don’t know Rick Rescorla, he was a warrior, leaders, and a friend. He was the bravest man I ever saw.”
Leadership traits: Purpose, resolve, courage, care and compassion, certainty, confidence, determination.
4. Evil empire to cool kid
Satya Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 at the age of 25. He became CEO in 2014 at a time that the organisation was going backwards. Microsoft Windows 8 had been a disaster, and the iPhone and Android were outrunning Microsoft phones, customers were losing faith, and the organisational culture was inflexible and rigid. Each employee had to prove to everyone else that they were the smartest in the run. Delivering on time and hitting numbers were the priority for most of the organisations 120,000 employees.
There was a fixed hierarchy an entrenched chain of command. Creativity and innovation had been stifled.
On becoming CEO, he changed Microsoft’s mission to “empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.” He orchestrated a transformation of the organisation from a closely guarded traditional IT organisation to an empathetic and collaborative company. In a radical change from the past, Microsoft would become a people company instead of a product company.
One of his first acts as CEO was to send an email to Microsoft staff. It read:
“I am 46. I’ve been married for 22 years, and we have 3 kids. And like anyone else, a lot of what I do and how I think has been shaped by my family and my overall life experiences. Many who know me say I am also defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning. I buy more books than I can finish. I sign up for more online courses than I can complete. I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things. So family, curiosity and hunger for knowledge all define me. “
One of the key aspects to the culture change was bringing a growth mindset to Microsoft. He said “Anything is possible for a company when its culture is about listening, learning and harnessing individual passions and talents to the company’s mission. Creating that kind of culture is my chief job as CEO. The culture change I wanted was centred on delivering a growth mindset, to be customer-obsessed, diverse, and inclusive, and working as One Microsoft to get us there."
He devoted much of his first year listening to employees at every level in the organization anonymously, individually, or in focus groups.
He drove the fundamental change from a culture where employees felt they had to be the single source of knowledge to one where collaboration and knowledge sharing flourished. Diversity of thinking was embraced. The performance system changed from a forced ranking stack to one which focussed on collaboration and contribution to the success of others.
Another massive change he made was to get every Microsoft manager to model, coach, and care for their teams. His message was that every manager must create an environment in which employees were empowered to do their best work with managerial support. He even went as far as redefining the role of a manager within the company - a manager enables success through the empowerment and accountability of their team.
In December 2021, Fortune magazine ran with the headline “How Microsoft made the stunning transformation from Evil Empire to Cool Kid.” This headline sums up the change that Nadella brought about. He literally flipped the switch.
He was cut from different cloth than most of the CEOs of the large tech companies. “Never raising his voice or showing overt anger at employees or executives, Nadella constantly worked to create a more comfortable environment. He never wrote angry emails, and he refused to tolerate anger or yelling in executive meetings.
The results of Nadella’s efforts have been nothing short of spectacular. The company’s market capitalization has nearly increased by an order of magnitude, from roughly $300 billion at Nadella’s ascension to about $2.5 trillion today, and Microsoft has become the most valuable company in the world, surpassing Apple and Google.”
Leadership traits: empowerment, empathy, inclusivity, growth mindset, accessibility, motivation, purpose, accountability.
5. Alan Mulally
Alan Mulally served as president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company and was a member of the company’s Board of Directors from September 2006 to June 2014.
Mulally joined Ford in September 2006 and led Ford’s transformation into one of the world’s leading automakers. He guided the Ford team in working together on a compelling vision, comprehensive strategy, and relentless implementation of the One Ford plan to drive profitable growth for all the company’s stakeholders.
Ford had been struggling during the late-2000s recession, returned to profitability under Mulally, and was the only American major car manufacturer to avoid a bailout fund provided by the government.
His leadership approach is one of simplicity, authenticity, tenacity, and zero tolerance in the face of dissent.
It was his performance at Boeing that got the airline back on track after September 11, 2001, within 5 years, that caused Bill Ford – Ford Company Chairman – to reach out to him to help the struggling car manufacturer. When Alan arrived at Ford, the company had lost more than a quarter of its North American market share and was about to report a $17 billion loss.
In just 8 years, he took the company from the brink of collapse to dominate the industry.
Alan imported his 10 core values he had at Boeing.
1. People first
2. Everyone is included
3. Compelling vision
4. Clear performance goals
5. One plan
6. Facts and data
7. Propose a plan, “find-a-way” attitude
8. Respect, listen, help, and appreciate each other
9. Emotional resilience … trust the process
10. Have fun … enjoy the journey and each other
Ford had a toxic, macho culture that was ruthless to outsiders, had forgotten its customers, and had an outdated and bloated product line-up of vehicles that fewer and fewer customers wanted.
Alan introduces the Business Plan Review (BPR meeting). At the weekly meeting each leader had to deliver a brief status update on their top 4-5 priorities. He used a simple red-yellow-green indicator to reflect the status. At the first meeting, all the leaders said they were green. Alan asked them whether the pending $17 billion loss was planned and if so, green was ok. Eventually one leader admitted to being red and was applauded by Alan for doing so. He generated a culture of honesty, transparency, and acceptance of reality.
He openly admitted that he knew little about the automobile industry and didn’t have all the answers, but that was ok and those that did could start working on the problems. He had courage to ask for help.
He had zero-tolerance for bad leadership behavior and led with tough-love. He held everyone accountable. He was prepared to make tough decisions along the way like selling off Ford’s luxury brands like Volvo and Aston Martin. He renegotiated contract with the union. He had to breakdown the silos and fiefdoms with his “One Ford” plan.
The plan had four objectives:
Bring all Ford employees together as a global team.
Leverage Ford’s unique automotive knowledge and assets.
Build cars and trucks that people wanted, and valued.
Arrange the significant financing necessary to pay for it all.
He created a new culture and set of behaviours from the top down. He created a compelling vision and created accountability and collaboration across leadership.
Leadership traits: authenticity, tenacity, honesty, candour, vulnerability-based trust, discipline, courage, accountability, tough-love, collaboration, innovation.