Understanding Yourself and Others

Effective leaders are comfortable within themselves. Both outgoing, quick witted leaders and quiet, thoughtful people can be effective leaders. People follow people who are clear, confident, and know them selves.

I first discovered the Enneagram at least 35 years ago through study of the Jesuits. Ennea from the Greek for nine; gram from the Greek for picture or diagram. The Enneagram is a diagram showing the nine basic personality types and some relationships among them.

The origins of the Enneagram are hazy, but an early church father is thought to have put out the original ideas.

The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile provides an overview of the nine types and their nuances. Most importantly, since the Enneagram has Christian origins, it is more useful for personal and spiritual development than it is for psychological profiling.

Oh, the nine types:

  • One-The Perfectionist, Reformer
  • Two-Helper, Giver
  • Three-Achiever, Performer
  • Four-Individualist, Romantic
  • Five-Investigator, Observer
  • Six-Loyalist, Loyal Skeptic
  • Seven-Enthusiast, Epicure
  • Eight-Challenger, Protector
  • Nine-Peacemaker, Mediator

I am a Five with a strong Four—just so you know why I write observations so much and prefer reading and researching. Don’t ask about the Romantic side 😉

Ian Morgan Cron has partnered with a company for Enneagram assessments.

As you go deeper, you discover that 9, for example, may have a relationship with 8 and 1. All three are in the “anger” triad. Each deals with the anger that began in childhood differently. They call these “wings”, so you could be 9 with an 8 wing, for example, which will describe you in more details.

Even that is simplified. However, each number has a healthy side and an unhealthy side. It becomes important to your growth and spiritual journey to recognize when you are healthy and when you are not. Then you have work to do to get to healthy.

Also, we all have some of each number. So in the mixture comes an occasional misunderstanding. Depending upon the assessment, I can come up with a strong 9. But upon reflection, it is really a manifestation of 5 where I take time to digest things, think about it, see both sides of the issue, and so on.

The purpose of the Enneagram is not just to know your type, or your significant other’s type, or the numbers of your co-workers. It is to do the work of growth and spiritual development. It never ends.

ABB Names Another CEO–Björn Rosengren Assumes Leadership in 2020

ABB Names Another CEO–Björn Rosengren Assumes Leadership in 2020

Senior leadership among leading automation companies has been regularly shifting during the past few years. ABB, Emerson Automation, GE Digital, Honeywell Process, Rockwell Automation have all experienced changes. Sometimes a few.

ABB’s board evidently didn’t like the direction former GE executive Joe Hogan was taking the company and looked closer to home to bring in Ulrich Spiesshofer. He accomplished some massive restructuring, but apparently his results did not match the expectations of the board, so he was replaced by Board Chair Peter Voser.

In today’s announcement, the Board of ABB has unanimously appointed Björn Rosengren, as Chief Executive Officer. He will join ABB on February 1, 2020 and succeed CEO, Peter Voser, in this role on March 1, 2020. At that time Peter Voser will revert to his position at ABB solely as Chairman of the Board.

Björn Rosengren (60), a Swedish citizen, is a highly experienced, international executive and leader of industrial businesses. He has been the CEO of Sandvik, a high-tech global engineering group, since 2015. During this time, he has overseen the successful implementation of a decentralized structure and improved both the profitability and financial strength of Sandvik. Prior to that, he was CEO of Wärtsilä Corporation, which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment for the marine and energy markets (2011-2015) and spent some thirteen years (1998-2011) in a variety of management roles at Atlas Copco, a world leading provider of sustainable productivity solutions.

“The Board is pleased that Björn Rosengren will be taking the lead at ABB, bringing with him a proven track record of value creation and exactly the managerial skills ABB needs during the next stage of its transformation,” said ABB Chairman and current CEO, Peter Voser. “After undertaking a thorough search, the Board is convinced that Björn Rosengren is the best candidate for the role. He understands how to establish successful decentralized organizations, empower people and demonstrates the culture of cooperation and high performance. Together with our strong management team, he will drive ABB’s strategy and deliver long-term value to all our stakeholders.”

CEO-designate, Björn Rosengren, said: “I am honored to have the opportunity to join ABB, a truly global technology leader, after I have completed my current commitments. At such a pivotal time for manufacturing industries, ABB must continue to best serve the needs of global customers with a unique technology and digital solutions portfolio to help enhance their productivity. I look forward to working with my new colleagues around the globe to enhance value through the delivery of the group strategy and fully empowering our businesses and people.”

What the Best Mentors Do

What the Best Mentors Do

Can you think of a mentor who has helped you grow either personally or professionally? Perhaps a teacher? A boss early in your career? When have you mentored someone? How did it work out?

I can remember a teacher or two who helped guide me. My first supervisor in manufacturing would put me in situations where I couldn’t help but grow. My problem then was that although I could do the work intellectually, my interpersonal skills were sadly lacking. Especially in the manufacturing environment of the time that placed a premium on strong personality. I can still remember moments when he set me up for a confrontation forcing me to be forceful. I think the other guys liked it because I was almost the only “college kid” there. The old guys loved to poke at the college kid.

Many people have begun studying mentorship. We talk often about mentoring young soccer referees as the best way to move them from the classroom to a successful career.

I recently ran across this older article in the Harvard Business Review by Anthony K. Tjan. His research revealed four things that the best mentors do.

Before he gets to the four things, he notes that mentors he studied consistently “do everything they can to imprint their ‘goodness’ onto others in ways that make others feel like fuller versions of themselves. Put another way, the best leaders practice a form of leadership that is less about creating followers and more about creating other leaders.”

  1. Put the relationship before the mentorship. All too often, mentorship can evolve into a “check the box” procedure instead of something authentic and relationship-based. For real mentorship to succeed, there needs to be a baseline chemistry between a mentor and a mentee. Mentoring requires rapport. At best, it propels people to break from their formal roles and titles (boss versus employee) and find common ground as people.
  2. Focus on character rather than competency. Too many mentors see mentoring as a training program focused around the acquisition of job skills. Obviously, one element of mentorship involves mastering the necessary competencies for a given position. But the best leaders go beyond competency, focusing on helping to shape other people’s character, values, self-awareness, empathy, and capacity for respect.
  3. Shout loudly with your optimism, and keep quiet with your cynicism. Your mentee might come to you with some off-the-wall ideas or seemingly unrealistic ambitious. You might be tempted to help them think more realistically, but mentors need to be givers of energy, not takers of it.
  4. Be more loyal to your mentee than you are to your company. Of course, we all want to retain our best and brightest. We also want our people to be effective in our organizations. That said, the best mentors recognize that in its most noble and powerful form, leadership is a duty and service toward others, and that the best way to inspire commitment is to be fully and selflessly committed to the best interests of colleagues and employees. Don’t seek only to uncover your mentees’ strengths; look for their underlying passions, too. Help them find their calling.

And Tjan makes a couple of final points: The best mentors avoid overriding the dreams of their mentees. At its highest level, mentorship is about being “good people” and having the right “good people” around us — individuals committed to helping others become fuller versions of who they are.

This is all based on research as is befitting of the Harvard Business Review. It is also wise guidance.

ABB Names New Country Managing Director

ABB Names New Country Managing Director

ABB has appointed Maryrose Sylvester as Country Managing Director (CMD) and Head of Electrification for the United States, effective August 1, 2019. In the CMD role, she will succeed Greg Scheu, who will support a smooth transition until his retirement at the end of October 31, 2019.

Sylvester was most recently President & CEO of “Current, powered by GE”, a GE startup business that was acquired in April by New York-based private equity firm American Industrial Partners. Having spent her career at GE, she held several executive-level positions, including President & CEO of GE Lighting, of GE Intelligent Platforms/GE FANUC, which was GE’s longest-running joint venture with a Japanese company, and of GE Quartz.

I remember interviewing Sylvester during her tenure as president of GE Fanuc/GE Intelligent Platforms. She did well at a relatively small unit and obviously progressed within the organization.

These corporate changes at the top are not always relevant to most working engineers and managers. The thing I find most surprising is that ABB reached out to GE for new management talent. First, it shows just how similar the GE and ABB businesses are. In fact, throw in Honeywell, Schneider Electric, and Siemens as part of an industrial big five. Emerson is lurking just behind, but it is refocusing. Rockwell Automation has eschewed following a similar path and seems to be in a group with companies such as Beckhoff Automation.

A second thought occurred which is that I’m surprised by a selection from GE given the less than satisfactory fit of Joe Hogan who came from GE to ABB as CEO.

“Maryrose Sylvester brings extensive experience of managing and transforming industrial businesses and of applying digital technologies in industry,” said ABB Chairman and CEO, Peter Voser. “Her proven track record at GE makes her an ideal candidate to run our Electrification business in the US and to be our CMD for the US.”

Sylvester is a board member of Harley-Davidson and a member of the board of governors of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. She also sat on GE’s Corporate Executive Council and its Commercial Council, and was a member and co-founder of GE’s Women’s Network.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, I would like to thank Greg Scheu for his many years of committed service to ABB in numerous leadership roles, and especially for his strong contributions as Region President Americas, US Country Managing Director, and head of Group service and business integration,” Voser said. “Under his direction, ABB has significantly strengthened its market presence in North America and positioned itself as a digital technology leader among key customer groups. We wish him every success in his future endeavors.”

What the Best Mentors Do

The Coaching Role

I’m still reflecting on Trillion Dollar Coach plus three weekends of youth sports. Most executives don’t even have coaches, even though they could really use one. The variety of coaching skill and ability at the youth sports level is staggering. So many coaches need coaching at that level. That’s the role of the leadership of a good club. Often doesn’t happen.

What makes for a good coach.

Begin with empathy and trustworthiness. If the coach lacks these character traits, then anything further is hopeless.

A coach must have a set of knowledge and values. Good coaches have experience, but they are seldom the greatest. They are the ones who have been there but had to reflect on their development and experiences. They’ve studied the game and know the skill sets required for success.

A coach is observant. This ability means a coach can see each player or client, their strengths, and their weaknesses. They can pick out the next skill each player/client needs to develop to succeed at this level in order to progress.

A coach can teach skills. Of course, the player/client must be teachable. It is a two-way interaction.

A coach can devise practice for student to repeat until learned. This is the same idea for a 9-year-old beginner or a 29-year-old pro. Knowing you need to move slightly to the left more or knowing how to field a ground ball does nothing without the drill to make the skill part of “muscle memory.”

A coach provides appropriate feedback. This makes practice more valuable and helps adjust skills to the situation.

The end result consists of increased confidence and character development.

Think of the coaches that you’ve had. Think of the impact of the good coaches on your development. Then the bad ones where you learned nothing. Or, perhaps the bad teaching or negative comments set you back years.

Become a good coach. You do that by practice, of course. That means finding a young person who is coachable. Start slowly. Build rapport. Then try with another. Make yourself valuable to your organization and find your own fulfillment by bringing along the next generation. Works for engineers, managers, executives, whomever.

Go make a difference.

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