Leading the High Energy Culture: What the Best CEOs Do to Create an Atmosphere Where Employees Flourish

CHAPTER 5

Pay Careful Attention to the Alpha Dog

Leadership is influence.

—JOHN C. MAXWELL, AMERICANAUTHOR AND PASTOR

In an October 2008 article, authors Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui passed along a story originally told by Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. This one will make you chuckle, but I find it a little haunting, too.

Professor Kanter once met an executive at a fabric manufacturer. New to the organization, this executive had taken over a group and managed to empower his employees by demonstrating that he was sincerely open to any new ideas. He suspected that there might be some untapped wisdom among his employees. Wisely, he created a culture in which it was not only safe but valued for lower-level employees to ...