412: Kevin Sharer (Former CEO of Amgen) - What Operational Excellence Looks Like

<p>Text LEARNERS to 44222...</p> <p>Full show notes at <a href= "http://www.LearningLeader.com">www.LearningLeader.com</a></p> <p>Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12 <a href= "https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12">https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12</a></p> <p>Kevin Sharer has a distinguished career as a successful CEO and Board Member. He is currently a senior lecturer at Harvard University Business School and continues to mentor a select number of senior executives. Either as a Chairman, independent director, or mentor, Sharer has been a part of more than 20 successful CEO-successor transitions. Kevin led Amgen for 20 years, first as President and then as CEO for 12 years. Under Sharer's leadership, the company achieved annual revenue of $16 billion with operations in 55 countries. </p> <p>Notes:</p> <ul> <li>"What Operational Excellence Looks Like" <ul> <li>Must know the details</li> <li>Must have a listening system to know where problems brew</li> <li>The leaders have a clear agreement with the team on what success is</li> <li>A cadence of clear communication</li> <li>The leader must embody the behavior... They are the model</li> <li>Must have real empathy for people and care about them</li> </ul> </li> <li>The leader needs to assess when things go wrong so that they don't make the same mistake twice...</li> <li>Kevin spent 110 days underwater in a submarine...</li> <li>When he left the Navy, he knew he wanted to be a manager. He joined a program at AT&T to become one... <ul> <li>He had an ambition to rise high in an organization</li> </ul> </li> <li>Kevin's dad - A military aviator. His hero and role model. his dad cared a lot about leadership...</li> <li>How did Kevin earn the CEO role at Amgen? <ul> <li>Spent 8 years as the President of the company. And "made it pretty obvious" to hire him for the CEO role</li> <li>He consistently delivered results and formed a strong partnership with the CEO</li> </ul> </li> <li>How to sustain what's special about a company as it grows? <ul> <li>The book <em>Built to Last </em>by Jim Collins was very helpful....</li> </ul> </li> <li>How to create and live your values? <ul> <li>They are not defined by what's written down, it's the behavior of the people. And that starts at the top...</li> <li>Understand what your real values are. If you don't believe in the values, you shouldn't work there...</li> <li>You "have to have social data to know that the values are real." Ask others in the organization: "Are the values you experience consistent with the values stated by the company?"</li> </ul> </li> <li>How he got hired as the President at Amgen? <ul> <li>"I first decided that I wanted to be a General Manager and not a functional specialists." Kevin pursued that through General Electric and got great experience...They hired him in part because of his broad range of experience.</li> <li>It was a multi-step interview process. Kevin interviewed with 20 people at the company before getting the offer...</li> </ul> </li> <li>Listening ability: Kevin went from bad to great... "On the way up in my career, I had the view that I was so fast, so smart... It was working. I thought I was being helpful by telling others what I thought, but I was cutting off the full picture."</li> <li>Kevin had an eye opening moment when he asked the CEO of IBM to talk about leadership with his team... <ul> <li>"I learned to listen for comprehension. Listen to understand first."</li> <li>"You need to listen to the entire eco-system."</li> </ul> </li> <li>Big idea: Pick 10 CEOs who didn't make it: "Seven of them weren't situationally aware."</li> <li>What are some "must-have" hiring qualities? <ul> <li>A record of good knowledge</li> <li>Great communication skill</li> <li>Comfort in their own skin</li> <li>Curious - they must ask questions</li> <li>Answer the question, "what are your goals?"</li> <li>Answer the question, "what have you learned from failure?"</li> <li>"If five people were asked about you, what would they say?"</li> <li>Their accomplishments speak for themselves. They don't have to overly sell themselves</li> <li>They need to "clearly want the job."</li> <li>A good sense of humor</li> </ul> </li> <li>Hiring trap: "There is a bias for us to hire people like us. It's overwhelming. We're wired to think, "other is dangerous." We must be aware of that."</li> </ul>