This week’s notes of leadership wisdom for reflection comes from a ConantLeadership conversation between Deanna Mulligan (CEO of Purposeful, former chair and CEO of Guardian Life Insurance Company) and Doug Conant (Founder of ConantLeadership, former CEO of Campbell Soup Company).

Selected notes from the conversation below:
* Leaders embrace three characteristics that have brought people through great crises in the past: Flexibility, empathy, and patience.
* Historically, empathy is highly valuable in times of change and disruption and is what gets us through, no matter where we are on the political spectrum.
* The modern penchant for instant gratification makes it too easy for leaders to forget that meaningful change takes time. The best leaders are the ones who stay the course.
* Staying the course requires a deep foundation to help you keep a steady hand on the wheel. Not only must your foundation be deeply personal, purpose driven, and performance oriented, it must also honor all the people you work with. It includes your unique purpose, values, and beliefs-from the ground up. The sturdier your Foundation, the more you can remain stable and withstand the winds of change.
* Before leaders can inspire or motivate others, they must clearly articulate why the group effort matters.  You must get to the heart of the problem first and help people understand what’s at stake in any given situation. Otherwise, you risk the organization splintering into chaos-or crumbling entirely.
* Never let a good crisis go to waste. Use the lessons from one wave of turbulence to prepare you for the next one.
* Leaders have a responsibility to grow and develop employees. And often, the untapped talent you’re in search of is right in your own backyard.
* Great leaders make meaning for people. They answer the question, Why am I here today? Why should I get up and come back in?.
* It’s vital for leaders to declare their purpose..: Your audience needs to hear you say it, needs to know that you mean it, that you’re willing to declare it. And that you have every intention of walking the talk.
* You can’t do it if you’re exhausted. Find the things that renew your resolve and restore your energy, and be disciplined about staying afloat so you can buoy the people around you.

Source:
– ‘Great Leaders Make Meaning’—2 Purpose-Driven CEOs on ‘People First’ Leadership; ConantLeadership; Vanessa Bradford; Apr 24, 2025

Food for reflection and reminder this week, comes from Stephen R. Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.
The following are unedited notes from the book and Franklin Covey site.

Think Win-Win

Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparison and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing – If I win, they lose; or if they win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. We start to believe there’s only so much to go around, and if they get a big piece, there’s less for me; it’s not fair, and I’m going to do everything I can to get my share.

That kind of thinking is fundamentally flawed. It’s based on power and position rather than on principle. These paradigms of scarcity are worth shifting. Win-win is a belief in the Third Alternative. It’s not your way or my way; it’s a better way, a higher way.

Win-win is about constantly seeking mutual benefit in all human interactions-about finding solutions that are truly beneficial and satisfying for everyone involved. To go for win-win, we not only have to be empathic, but we also have to be confident. We not only have to be considerate and sensitive, we also have to be brave. That balance between courage and consideration is the essence of real maturity and is fundamental to a win-win approach to life.

Win-win requires that we be both high in courage and high in consideration, that we approach others with generosity and a sense of partnership. When we do that-when we demonstrate our investment in their interests and successfully advocate for our own needs, we build stronger, more trusting relationships.

In the long run, if it isn’t a win for both of us, we both lose. That’s why win-win is the only real alternative in interdependent realities.

Character is the foundation of win-win, and everything else builds on that foundation. There are three character traits essential to the win-win paradigm.
1. INTEGRITY. We’ve defined integrity as the value we place on ourselves.
2. MATURITY. Maturity is the balance between courage and consideration.
3. ABUNDANCE MENTALITY. The paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody.

Most people are deeply scripted in the Scarcity Mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else. The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.

One thing particularly helpful to win-lose people in developing a win-win character is to associate with some model or mentor who really thinks win-win.

Sources:
* Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
* Franklin Covey; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; Habit 4: Think Win-Win®

We are seeing this phenomenon play out quite a lot. Success or expertise in some areas does not translate to expertise in other/all areas.

At a personal level, we need to be really conscious and careful about whom we listen to or believe blindly. It’s always helpful to reflect, ask questions and think deeper before giving the benefit of doubt to any point of view (including experts) and allowing it to influence/become our own. It’s also important to remind ourselves and watch out constantly to not fall into this fallacy.

——-
“The idea that expertise in one area automatically translates to expertise in another is a cognitive bias, often called the “spillover fallacy” or “ultracrepidarianism,” where individuals mistakenly assume their knowledge in one field applies to unrelated areas.

The Fallacy:
Expertise is highly specific to a particular field. A person’s knowledge and skills in one area don’t necessarily extend to other, unrelated domains.

Examples:
A brilliant scientist might be a poor writer, or a world-renowned geologist might not be knowledgeable in philosophy.
Someone who is an expert in a particular programming language might not be an expert in other programming languages or in web development.
(Success/expertise in business might not translate to expertise in science.)

Related Concepts:
Dunning-Kruger Effect: This cognitive bias describes individuals with limited competence in a specific area overestimating their abilities.
Curse of Knowledge: This bias occurs when experts assume others share their knowledge and understanding, leading to difficulty explaining things clearly.

Why it Matters:
Recognizing the limits of one’s expertise is crucial for effective learning, decision-making, and collaboration. Overestimating one’s knowledge can lead to poor decisions, wasted resources, and even harm.

How to Mitigate:
Seek diverse perspectives: Consult with experts (listen to multiple points of view with an open mind) in different fields to gain a broader understanding of a problem.
Acknowledge your limitations: Be open to the possibility that you don’t know everything and be willing to learn from others.
Think like a beginner: Try to understand concepts from a novice’s perspective to better grasp the complexities of a field.”
Develop, constantly work on a growth mindset.
——-

A valuable comment that I received from an ex colleague on this topic:

“The mindset to think like a beginner is a blessing if there is a mentor. I did waste a lot of my time when I was learning something new since there was no one to guide me. Rabbit hole is one aspect where I spent my whole weekend on something and I couldn’t answer what new did I learn related to the new topic I was planning to learn. Finding a mentor never occurred to me at that time.

Today, AI can play the role of a mentor to provide roadmap when I start learning something new so that I can save my time and energy. Yes, asking the right questions and validating the response is one of the key thing.”

Source: Notes from Google Search Generative AI, with few personal edits
Image Source: OpenClipart-Vectors, Pixabay

When a leader of a large, successful enterprise like Siemens shares perspectives, it’s valuable to listen, reflect and act. This is the gist of how Siemens President and CEO Roland Busch responded to the question, “What leadership qualities are most critical in the Intelligence age?”, during a LinkedIn event, from Davos on January 23, 2025.
Coincidentally, I was discussing Growth Mindset and Psychological safety during a session with a group of experienced managers on the same day.

1. Growth Mindset – Constant learning, trying new things, keep on going even after failing, learning from mistakes. (Belief that everyone can learn and push the limits).
2. Collaborative spirit, build a network, especially important while working in a virtual world.
3. Empathy, with strong communication skills to communicate, connect with people.
4. Especially in management, Empower people. Let them do what they are good at, and that goes together with Accountability.
Last but not least, having a solid set of values.

Couple of additional notes:
* He also said in his experience, diverse teams deliver better results than those that are homogeneous.
* Also, emphasised the importance of staying curious, open.

From the Siemens website:
Siemens Limited is a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, digital transformation, transport as well as transmission and generation of electrical power. Globally, Siemens employs 312,000 people. It had a revenue of EUR 75.9 billion in fiscal 2024.
Siemens’ long-term commitment in India began in 1867, when the company’s founder Werner von Siemens personally supervised the setting up of the first telegraph line between London and Calcutta. Today, Siemens has a strong manufacturing footprint across the country, various Centres of Competence and R&D centres as well as a nationwide sales and service network.