Remember to Share the Stage
In the article “Remember to share the stage” conducted by Adam Bryant, he concluded plenty of analysis and the important leadership qualities from this interview with Gordon M. Bethune, the former chief executive of Continental Airlines. This interview reflects both the art and science aspect of leadership in a big organization and how to build a good relationship with workers in your team. Adam lists a lot of practical examples the interviewee mentioned and conveys the key content to readers.
First of all, the most important leadership lesson Gordon said is “if you treat me with respect, I’ll do more for you.” He was a mechanic in the Navy when he was young. So he knew the real feeling of a worker. Based on this experience, he knows what is the best to let people do more works and be efficient. This can be called share the stage. He also stated his theory about it. Gordon said that every time he got recognition, he brings his colleagues on the stage with him. He thought not one leader but a whole group does make the success. Therefore, his opinion about sharing the stage becomes his working theory. I am one hundred percent agree with his idea. Once I was in a group, we need to do a group project, the leader just assigned the job without discussing and he only had a little job for himself. Every group member was not happy and lost the passion to do it. I think this is a very typical example to tell leaders sharing the stage with your workers to get the maximize gratification. Secondly, Gordon mentioned another interesting and practical point about how to communicated with employees. He did a weekly voice mail for 10 years. The content of voice mail can be what is going on of one week and all the performance of the company in one week. In my opinion, this is a very direct way to know your employees and your company-working situation. The precondition is that they never lied. I agree with this point too. I think communication is an important part of employees with leader. Better communication gets better work performance. Knowing what your employees thinking is a necessary lesson of becoming a successful leader. The last example Gordon told in interview is to sacrifice you to work. If you want to be a great leader, this cannot be avoiding. I agree with also. No pains, no gains is a truth.
In conclusion, it is not hard not find that this article tell us many principles and strategies of being a great leader. Sharing the stage with other will help both you and your employees are greater and greater. This is an important part of leadership in an organization.