Alan Mulally served as the President and Chief Executive Officer at Ford Motor Company from 2006 – 2014 shared his principles and practices for teams that work well together. He did a fantastic job of sharing his real-world leadership journey of transitioning from Boeing to Ford.
Principles and Practices of Working Together
- People first
- Everyone is included
- Compelling vision, comprehensive strategy, and relentless implementation
- Clear performance goals
- One plan
- Facts and data
- Everyone know the plan, the status, and areas that need special attention
- Propose a plan, positive, “find-a-way” attitude
- Respect, listen, help, and appreciate each other
- Emotional resilience – trust the process
- Have fun – enjoy the journey and each other, but humor can never be at someone else’s expense
- Walking into new problems at Ford upon leaving Boeing
- Regionalization had created low synergy levels in the organization
- Consumer tastes were changing and we were behind
- We were fast followers
- The economy was slowing down and fuel prices were going up
- They were losing money on every brand and every vehicle
- Was picked up in a Land Rover not a Ford to be taken to the head quarters from the airport
- None of the Ford Executives drove a Ford
- Look at the data and it will tell you who’s hot and who’s not
- Don’t look at the success you’ve had but the ground you still have to take to make the gap between vision and reality smaller
- Deal with reality, build a plan to deal with it, and trust and help each other to improve it
Posted in Leadership
