Jim Hackett (left) shared his leadership lessons with Rob Pasick (right) and attendees at Leaders Connect – Friday March 11, 2016
In the 20 years of presentations at Leaders Connect, Jim Hackett’s discussion about leadership is absolutely one of the best we’ve ever heard.
Like the most excellent speakers, Jim not only told great stories, but he gave sound and inspiring advice. Here are some of the highlights of the leadership lessons we heard from Jim Hackett.
- “Three important questions to ask when coaching: what do you want to do less of, what do you want to do more of, what do you want to stop?”
- “Employ human centered design thinking in your planning: this means divergent thinking and taking a thorough deep dive into analytics.”
- Ask yourself: “on your death bed are you going to remember what you did for yourself or for others?” The answer to this question leads to servant leadership. Your value as a human being is not diminished by failure. Have the self-confidence never lose sight of yourself as to who you are.
- “In carrying out your strategy, think long term. As an example, it took months of planning and detail execution to come to an understanding with Jim Harbaugh to coach at Michigan.”’
- “Treat everyone with equal respect: from the janitor to the board members.”
- “Thinking long-term enables you to recognize when your industry is likely to be disrupted. The university is one sector yet to face the full impact of disruption.”
- Good boards are ‘eyes in, fingers out.’ Choose board members for their capabilities and their ability to work together.”
- Diversity is critical and essential. “To gain more diversity, you must look for it. Look at it as an equity, an equal opportunity... to find talent, build networks with minority communities.”
- “Success as an executive depends on continuous learning. Ask yourself what system you are using for continuous learning.” For example: Jim watches the Charlie Rose Show every day, reads continuously about science, and has attended TEDx for 30 years.
- “Leadership is having a point of view. Decide what to do, set the course, and stick with it.”
- “Empathy is crucial for effective leadership.”
- “Organizations must be willing to give up some of the old to get to the new.”
- “If someone is rigidly opposing what you want to do, ask them “what would you have to believe to allow this to happen?”
- Encourage self-reflection.
- Jim’s sweet spot for a job: “working on hard, abstract problems with great smart people.”
About Jim Hackett
Jim Hackett recently stepped down as the the Interim Athletic Director for the University of Michigan. Jim was appointed to this position on October 31, 2014. He led the successful searches for the University of Michigan Football coach and for the permanent Athletic Director.
Jim retired from the President and CEO role at Steelcase in February 2014, after overseeing all domestic and international operations of the company for more than 19 years. Steelcase is the global leader in the office furniture industry. Jim announced that as of today, he will be the new chairman of Ford Smart Mobility LLC, a new Blue Oval subsidiary.
Ford Motor Co. will replace Chief Executive Mark Fields with Jim Hackett, the former head of office-furniture maker Steelcase Inc. who joined the auto maker in 2016, according to people familiar with the matter.