You never get a chance to make a first impression. When Paul O’Neill became CEO of Alcoa in 1987, the company was facing significant challenges. Wall Street had serious concerns about the company’s revenue projections and profit margins. In his first address to shareholders, O’Neill did little to install confidence a turnaround was possible. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
In what would become a legendary speech in business circles, O’Neill said, “I want to talk to you about worker safety.” Worker safety???!!! Of all the issues he could talk about, worker safety??? Investors began immediately selling off their shares.
O’Neill attempted to ease their concerns by reasoning, “If you want to understand how Alcoa is doing, you need to look at our workplace safety figures. If we bring our injury rates down, it won’t be because of cheerleading or the nonsense you sometimes hear from other CEOs. It will be because the individuals at this company have agreed to become part of something important: They’ve devoted themselves to creating a habit of excellence.”
Organizational leaders can learn the following from O’Neill’s “how you do anything is how you do everything” approach:
- Successful leaders are laser-focused on the key success links of the organization.
- Smart leaders are data driven.
- Even smarter leaders know which data is most important and how to leverage that information.
- Cheerleading moves emotions but rarely the bottom line.
- There is a lot of nonsense being done by leaders.
- One of the goals of leadership is to create something “bigger-than-ourselves” people can buy-in to.
- Successful organizations have created a culture of excellence.
So what were the results of O’Neill’s efforts? When he retired after 13 years as Alcoa’s CEO and chairman, the company’s net income increased 500%!!!
If you are looking to become a successful leader, the lessons learned from Paul O’Neill’s time at Alcoa should serve as a template for you.
Much of the content of this post was gathered from pages 69-70 of Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra’s incredible book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest. Click HERE or on the book’s image above to purchase.
The Top 75 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 2 is my latest ebook. For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world. People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional. Hope seems to be in short supply. Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.
Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.