Former Secretary of State General Colin Powell might have a distinguished set of credentials – former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, four-star general, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – but at his core, he’s a great storyteller.
As the keynote speaker for The Premier Business Leadership Series, General Powell took the audience on a narrative journey about leadership, retirement and the great American spirit.
General Powell painted a portrait of himself as a very hands-on leader, one who walked the halls regularly to get to know the people who worked for him. He believes in infusing all levels of an organization with a sense of purpose and vision. “There is no one in the organization who is not valuable,” he said. "You're a person just like me. You have hopes, dreams, fears, just like me. It's not hard."
A visit to the State Department’s parking garage became a parable for the importance of the human connection when General Powell’s curiosity about how the attendants decide which cars get the best spots is met with a meaningful answer from the attendants: “They said hey, if you stop, lower your window, and speak to us like real people, you get a number one spot. You see, everyone wants to be treated like they matter.”
"Leadership is leadership is leadership," said General Powell. "Take me off this stage and put me behind a desk anywhere in the world and I'll lead the same way I always have." It's the leadership style he learned in Infantry School and it can be summarized with the motto, "Follow me."
Leaders, General Powell says, must be passionate, demonstrate selflessness, and empower their people to do their jobs. General Powell seems to be a genuine optimist and is concerned that business often focuses on the negative instead of empowering the positive. He cited a credit card conference that seemed to be all about avoiding risk instead of how to attract and empower low-risk consumers.
A great question from the audience prompted General Powell to discuss the leadership styles of the presidents that he worked with. Ever the politician, General Powell expressed his belief that all four presidents meant the best for their country and came in determined to help solve the country’s problems.
President Reagan, he said, “operated at a level above the rest of us” and shared an anecdote: “One day in 1988 we had a big fight in the oval office. The Japanese were buying up property all over America and the Cabinet was very troubled by it. We had a big meeting with the president and told him, ‘We have to do something! People are outraged!’ We argued about it for 45 minutes. Ragan never lost composure and finally just said, ‘Well, I’m glad they know a good investment when they see one.’ Turns out it was a bad investment and we got it all back, but while we were down in the mud, he was on another plane, seeing the bigger picture.”
President George H. W. Bush (or “Bush 41” as he refers to him) had the most experience of all of them, with a mature team, General Powell said. His style was to sit back, let everyone argue out an issue, ask questions, then make a decision. When President Bill Clinton first came in, General Powell said, he wasn’t like that. He liked to chat like he was in a college seminar. “Made me crazy,” General Powell said jokingly, but went on to praise Clinton for his own effective decision-making process that he came to develop. “Bush 43 [George W.] was quite different. We never had a meeting about whether to go to war in the second Iraq war; he decided that on his own. He listened to everyone, but went on instinct and what he thought was right.”
