The leadership ethos

CNBC ran a very successful set of interviews with accomplished business leaders from across a wide spectrum on industry: names included Indra Nooyi, Carlos Ghosn, Aditya Mittal, Ronald Cohen and Sergio Marchionne. All venerable names, held in the highest esteem in international business circles amongst peers. I bought the 2-set dvd, thinking it would be a catch-all silver bullet that I could take with a glass of water and a dispirin, to wake up in the morning and discover that I had turned into a jargon-spewing behemoth with a private jet parked in my modest back garden. Not so... but I was pleasantly surprised nonetheless. £10 well spent.

These men (and women) had one thing in common: drive, an eye for talent, and decisiveness. But what pretty much jumped off the screen whilst I was watching, was their conviction and belief in what they were doing, and the energy that backed that up. I'd like to make reference here to a now-famous speech from the movie "The Recruit", when Al Pacino (who else!) was addressing Colin Farrell's class of rookies, at The Farm (CIA -speak for rookie-school). He asked a question: "Why are you here...?" And he went on to puncture any notions the befuddled recruits may have had about money,fame or sex as potential motives for joining the CIA. And then he made that statement: We are here because we believe... right over wrong, good over evil etc etc. Sure, corny stuff, you may say. But think about this: the money-fame-sex thing definitely holds for the guys in C-suits. And for some, perhaps that's an end in itself. But for a few - I think it's because they believe. And in this case, they believe they are making a difference, a change for good that will fundamentally alter the way we conduct our lives - whether it's driving cars, making steel or drinking juice. Sometimes, that belief gets clouded and they start believing their own publicity, and you end up with a Bernie Ebbers or a Ken Lay. Very often, they start preaching what they don't believe.

But for the cautious few, it's a straight and narrow path laced with touch decisions, intense scrutiny, failure (at times), hard work a responsibility for the lives of his/her employees, and the customers who trust you enough to buy your product. That's a responsibility - just like bringing the news to the masses, or making food or preaching a sermon. And the smart ones are the ones who do it for the right reasons.

What's your reason?