Leadership Matters September 2013 .pub

Leadership Thoughts

General Powell: ‘Empower people and then trust them’

rank of four-star general. “Leadership is about followership. Great leaders invest in followers. People are not widgets. The old adage ‘Take care of your troops and they will take care of you’ is true.” Powell said that trust is the “glue and lubricant” of successful organizations. “Always empower people within their zone of operation, and then trust them,” said Powell, who is founder of the not-for-profit America’s Promise Alliance and also the

I had the privilege recently to attend the Global Leadership Summit sponsored by the Willow Creek Association. The live summit was held in South Barrington and attended by some 8,000 people, and it also was beamed by satellite to 170,000 attendees in 525 cities across some 100 countries. The globally known speakers

Colin L. Powell Center for Leadership and Service at his alma mater, the City College of New York. He talked about a meeting he requested with President Ronald Reagan when he was serving as Reagan’s National Security Advisor. He said he wanted to brief Reagan on a problem he was having. He said Reagan sat in his rocking chair in the oval office as Powell went into great detail, but Powell noticed that the president was

Michael Chamness IASA Director of Communications

“People think generals run around saying ‘That’s an order!’ I never once have said that, Leadership is about

came from all walks of life -- a general, an attorney, a sociologist, a psychologist, professors, researchers, best- selling authors, CEOs, pastors, and even an Emmy award- winning TV producer – and they all talked about leadership through their respective prisms. The information they shared was transformational, things I wish I had heard 30 years ago, things that would have been helpful in both my professional and personal life. In an attempt to share some of that information, we are

followership. Great leaders invest in followers. People are not widgets. The old adage ‘Take care of your troops and they will take care of you’ is true.”

— General Colin Powell, who served in leadership positions for four presidents

including a monthly “Leadership Thought” in our newsletter. This month’s thought comes from the message delivered by Gen. Colin Powell, who served as a senior level advisor to four presidents in the roles of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Advisor and the country’s 65 th U.S. Secretary of State. “People think generals run around saying ‘That’s an order!’ I never once have said that,” said Powell, who served 35 years in the U.S Army and rose to the

looking past him. “So I talked faster and louder,” he recalled. “But President Reagan wasn’t really paying a lot of attention. Finally, he stood up, walked over to the window and said ‘Colin, look, the squirrels ate the nuts I left for them in the Rose Garden.’ “ Powell said he walked back to his office on the other end of the White House and reflected on what (Continued on page 17)

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