Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Thoughts on Leadership from CEO of Prescription Solutions


Interesting interview with Jacqueline Kosecoff in Sunday's Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/business/21corner.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all). She had some good advice and insight into leadership that really mirrors some things that I share with clients. Here are some highlights:
  • She doesn't lead all of her team's meetings. "Each one of the executives leads the meeting — it rotates in alphabetical order and we just go through the list." She said this approach gets some good outcomes: "First of all, it teaches them how to lead a meeting. It also sends a message that this meeting’s not for me, it’s for us. And it’s been my observation that at a lot of these operations meetings, everyone talks to the C.E.O., not to each other. It also teaches good meeting etiquette. People are much more, I think, respectful of how they behave in a meeting because they’re going to be leading the meeting one day. "

  • She also starts meetings by asking if someone in the company needs to be acknowledged. A good idea to be sure reward and recognition is prevalent in the company.

  • Kosecoff also has this to say about silence: "it is consent. If you don’t speak up in the meeting, you can’t later come back and say: 'I really hated that. I don’t want it to happen.'" I would add that silence is really abdication. It is a good idea to have each team member go on the record and state their opinion on every important issue to avoid the outcome Kosecoff describes above. I am so glad she has thought this through. Shows good leadership on her part.

  • She also stresses "assume positive intent." I agree. On the great teams I have worked with and on, there is a high level of benefit of the doubt.

No comments:

Post a Comment