“The most important ship we’ll ever sail is leadership.”

Leadership is a core competency of any successful organization. My definition of leadership is “influencing for a positive outcome.” We can talk until the cows come home; what happens is what matters. We have been struggling with what I call “look the other way leadership.” That means we are not responsive to our challenges. Somehow, we’ve adopted the notion that if we ignore problems, they will go away. Clearly, that is not the case. Early responders are the most effective leaders. Early intervention takes far less emotional and intrinsic energy than waiting until you have a crisis on your hands.

An Executive Leader

In January 2009, I participated in a comprehensive “Executive Leadership 360 Survey” by the Accord Management System. We solicited feedback from seven co-workers who have leadership positions in the company as well as feedback from five outside sources including a CEO in a multi-billion dollar corporation, a senior partner in a reputable law firm, and the National Assistant Vice-President of Claims for State Farm Insurance. Their feedback was completely confidential; we encouraged them to be candid and constructive. Please read the attached results to learn more about my strengths as an executive leader as well as areas that I am working to improve.

Call Out Bad Behavior. Reward Good.

How often do we take the easy wrong over the hard right? My history shows I have consistently chosen the “hard right” rather than the “easy wrong.” That is a defining principle of my life. I grew up in the “question authority” generation. I have the backbone and the will to call out bad behaviors and reward good. I can assure you, the attitude and tone will change in our state leadership when I am Governor. We have over 100,000 state co-workers who depend on good, strong leadership. A Moody administration will be seen as respectful, responsive and innovative. We are leaders who will create a challenging yet rewarding place to work. This influence will attract and retain the best leadership and co-workers making Maine competitive in the market. By doing so, we will restore pride in public service.

Share Information and Responsibility

I expect a lot of myself, and I expect a lot of others, empowering them to dig deep and challenging everyone to reach their potential. Back in 2003, Moody’s leadership team looked at the future of Social Security and was not confident the system would be solvent in 15-20 years. Taking responsibility for our future, we gave our co-workers the opportunity to control their destiny by implementing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).  Moody’s co-workers chose to share in an ESOP that encourages them to trade sweat equity and personal responsibility for a stake in the business outcome and their own retirement fund. The results have been remarkable. From 2003 – 2009, the value of our ESOP stock has increased an average of 18.1% per year!

When we considered implementing an ESOP plan, we went to a New England ESOP event in Rhode Island. One of the speakers promoted the value of “Open Book Management.” He illustrated the importance of sharing goals and key area measurements in business. Moody’s had been doing that through its profit-sharing program for over a decade. We had never heard our policy referred to as “Open Book Management,” yet apparently we were light years ahead of most small business operations.

My administration will implement a process of monthly leadership meetings to discuss all aspects of morale, productivity and performance. We will have quarterly meetings with co-workers to seek feedback and share operating results with them. They will have the opportunity to share their concerns, successes, and offer input in a safe and collaborative environment.

Good to Great

We have been conducting annual performance reviews since the mid 1990’s. We firmly believe that if we don’t grow individually, we won’t grow collectively.

A few years ago, we were given a book assignment as part of our “Wings” peer group. The book was called, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Collins had studied behavioral and statistical performance of top companies and learned what separates good companies from great companies. We learned there are a lot of good companies, but to become a great company leadership needs to focus on growing the people around them as well as themselves. Without that fundamental principal, the quest from good to great is impossible.