No One Achieves Success Alone
No one achieves success alone. We
all need a team to accomplish great things. Teams make movies, create
songs, win championships, launch rockets into space, write software,
design hardware, bring new products to market and turn around
underperforming companies.
The truth is we are better together and together we become a powerful team.
When Alan Mulally stepped into
the CEO role of Ford in 2006 the automaker had just suffered an annual
loss of $12.7 billion and was on the verge of bankruptcy. However, in
just a few short years he was able to turn around the company and
deliver an annual profit since 2009. Many say it was one of the greatest
leadership feats in history.
While interviewing Alan Mulally for my new book The Power of Positive Leadership I
asked him how he did it. He told me that when he became CEO he learned
that Ford was regionalized and acted like they were a number of
different companies instead of one company. Ford also had a number of
leadership and teamwork challenges and suffered from a lack of clarity,
accountability, focus and execution.
Alan Mulally, who defines his
leadership style as positive leadership, created a One Ford initiative
to unite everyone in the company to become one team working on one plan
to achieve one goal. He even created his own “Working Together”
Management system (a simple set of 11 ideals, principles and practices)
and Creating Value Roadmap (strategy and process) to get everyone to
work together, focus on the process and implement the plan. Alan said
everyone had to know the plan, embrace the plan and relentlessly work
towards the plan. They had to be committed to the enterprise and each
other. And they had to be accountable to the values and principles of
the culture and to each other.
Ford's leaders, managers and
employees answered Alan’s challenge and became One Team that saved Ford
and tens of thousands of jobs, improved the American economy and
delivered incredible results.
How is your team doing? Are you
One Team? Whether you’re a family, a school, a business, a new venture,
a hospital or a sports team, share this article with your team and
discuss ways you can become more united and more committed to the team
and to teach other.
No one achieves success alone. The more you work together the more you will accomplish together.
I'm rooting for you!
- Jon
P.S. If you want to read more about Alan Mulally's leadership and how to create One Team read The Power of Positive Leadership or American Icon by Bryce Hoffman. It's one of the best business books I've ever read and all leaders should read it. |
