A Leader Finds the Meaning of Leadership: Ben Simonton Interview

I just read an amazing intervew with Ben Simonton, former Director of Surface Combat Systems for the U.S. Navy, and author of Leading People to Be Highly Motivated and Committed.

Having started as a top-down command-and-control style leader, learned the errs of his ways, and acheived astounding performance after making key corrections, he's a walking example of how a leader can change from being a "by the book manager" to an inspiring and great leader.

I particularly liked the following points from the interview

1) His story of the poor manager that changed for the better after reading a study of himself. There's so much that can be gained by simply showing managers a mirror into how they're perceived and the damage they can cause.

2) The theory that workers do not rotate around the boss (the sun), but instead "the boss rotates around the workers, and without the warming heat of the workers, the boss dies.”

3) The idea of listening being a core component of good management.

4) The concept that we must spend more time creating non-followers vs. trying to find better ways to make followers conform.

Here's the interview...

Extensor - Intervew – Ben Simonton speaks to Alistair Schofield