Leadership Lessons Learned from Ted Kennedy
Posted by Celia Couture on Tue, Sep 01, 2009 @ 08:36 AM
I found this article written by Rosabeth Moss Karter. Ms. Karter is best known as the master of change for companies and organizations. With the death of Ted Kennedy this past week. Ms. Karter highlights some of the many leadership traits that she acknowledges is uniquely tied to former Senator Kennedy's success as a leader. Hope you enjoy reading this. The article is in this month's Harvard Business Review. Since the article is rather long it will appear as two different blogs.
"Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose loss America is mourning, was no darling of the traditional big business community. He fought for the little guy, for children, for the poor and disadvantaged, sometimes against establishments and elites.
But as a leader, he was greatly admired across the political spectrum. Even those who disagreed with his politics can draw inspiration from his life. From knowing and observing him, I choose four leadership lessons I hope executives will take to heart.
Remember that performance is everything. No one is entitled to a position. When Ted Kennedy won his Senate seat for the first time during the Presidency of his brother, Jack Kennedy, critics said that he inherited his position in the family business and bought his way into the Senate through favoritism. Critics dismissed him as a weak younger brother who would be merely a celebrity Senator. How wrong they were. Ted Kennedy's route to the Senate stopped mattering once he began performing for his constituents and collaborating with his colleagues.
Kennedy did not rely on dynasty as destiny. He rolled up his sleeves and mastered the details, and he kept studying and learning as the issues changed. No one is entitled to a top executive position; everyone has to earn it through his or her deeds, and each is only as good as his or her command of the issues. When Mitt Romney challenged Kennedy for his Senate seat in 1994, the pivotal moment of their debate - which probably won Kennedy re-election - involved Kennedy pressing Romney for specifics on his health care plan, with Romney finally admitting he hadn't worked out all the details. "Well that's what you have to do with legislation," the Senator replied. Kennedy knew the job. His career rewards followed from his service. His career rewards followed from his service.
Even when Kennedy could not move the needle forward on really big change (health care reform), he supported incremental improvements (children's health insurance), which meant that he survived in office long enough for his big agenda to come close to being enacted.
Find a higher purpose. Think values first, and suspend ego.Ted Kennedy believed in public service as an honorable profession and in government as a vehicle for helping all citizens get their chance for high quality of life. Once he found his core mission (after losses and setbacks), it was clear where he stood and who he stood for - other people who needed a voice because they couldn't always speak for themselves.
This was not about Ted Kennedy or his ego. He was known for humility, graciousness, and geniality in the Senate; he was not engaged in partisan contests to win for the sake of winning. The goals were so important that he was willing to work with political opponents to reach agreement on measures that served the people. His work with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch was a model for collaboration that transcended ideological disagreements. He supported President Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation for school reform; the cause of children was so important that he would rather compromise and get a little something done than prevent any action. Negotiating by calling on higher principles made him effective with principled members of the other party.