Every Second Counts by Donald McRae

Every Second Counts is a very fascinating book and has made a profound impact on the way I think about my personal and professional lives. It made me think about the goals in my life and how I was preparing myself to achieve them. Furthermore, it forced me to think about the legacy that I want to leave behind. Donald McRae does a phenomenal job in painting the intertwined lives of four people and how these played out according to each individual’s personality. This book is not a story of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys. There are numerous positive takeaways even from the likes of Christiaan Barnaard. McRae rightly points out that there might have been flaws in his character but he did contribute immensely to his profession.

First lesson learnt from the book was that every person needs to develop short-term and long-term goals in their professional lives. Shumway, Lower, Kantrowitz and Barnaard developed a focus to their careers – achieving and perfecting human transplant. This focus was important because all eventually contributed massively to the field and had successful professional careers. It was also interesting to know that Shumway, who was the greatest amongst the lot, seemed to enjoy his work the most. It was not that he was trying to prove a point to the world like Barnaard. He had genuine interest in his job. So I believe that a person has a greater chance of achieving professional greatness if he/she chooses a job that he/she enjoys the most.

Another aspect of this story that impressed me was Christiaan Barnard’s belief in himself. This is a characteristic that we have seen in most great leaders. As soon as he saw Lower perform the dog transplant operation in Richmond, Barnaard knew in his mind that he could also do it. The lesson learnt here was that we need to develop a confidence in our abilities. Of course it is important to develop and hone our skills as well but I am if Barnaard did not have the faith in his skills, he would not have achieved what he managed in the end. One could very easily relate to the emergence of doubt in Barnaard’s mind when he was in the scrub room before Washansky’s transplant (Page 205). Fear of failure often lets people down. But at that time it is important for him to have a belief in himself. An able aid in Marius Barnaard was also helpful and highlights the importance of surrounding yourself with a smart team to support you in the most critical moments.

Every Second Counts, I feel, is about defining “success” in life. The fame and glory Chris Barnaard achieved was short-lived because he could not overcome the flaws in his characters. It reminded me about David Gergen’s analysis of Nixon in Eyewitness to Power. Barnaard let his darkness get the better of the intelligent doctor. He lost respect of both his peers and his family. He won the race to the first transplant but lost so much more. In contrast Shumway, Lower and Kantrowitz were revered by their peers. Shumway especially was extremely magnanimous when he could have easily hopped on to the band wagon and criticized Barnaard. He still chose to identify Dr. Barnaard’s contributions when asked to comment on him. That is the kind of person I would like to be. The story of Dr. Shumway is evidence that you do not have to brag about yourself to the world to prove that you are a big-shot. Good work gets recognized and pays off. Another valuable lesson underlined through Shumway’s description is that a leader should be gracious in giving praise to subordinates. It was no wonder that Stanford became a world-class research institute on heart-transplantation under Shumway because he was so eager to give credit to his team. This, along with finding a focus in profession; developing self-belief and defining “success” in life are few of the important lessons I learnt from this book.

Colin Powel's American Journey

I had a bias against this guy because of his involvement in the Iraq Invasion in 2003. Even though he did speak out against it later on and resigned from office, I don't believe he has come out of it clean. But there are some good aspects of his life that he brings out in this book and that is what this note is about.

It is very impressive how Colin Powel has maintained a connection with his roots at the Bronx in spite of all his accomplishments. My American Journey to me was an admirable story of a man who was pitted to contest for the position of the most powerful office in the world and I believe his sense of humility had a large part to play in his successes. Colin Powell was brought up in a fashion not to take anything for granted and did not have qualms about work which might have hurt other people’s ego. In one of his earlier jobs, he mopped the floor of a bottling plant with the belief that all work is honorable. As can be seen from his career later on, such an attitude pays dividends in positions of leadership. It enables the leader to connect with his subordinates. Like the time when he underwent training for tanks even though he was not required to. It is natural to develop respect for a leader who comes down to the assembly line or runs the 4-mile jog with the subordinates. My primary take-away from this book is that a leader needs to earn the trust of her subordinates and in order to do this, she should break all redundant bureaucratic layers and lead from the front without letting her ego come in the way.

My favorite passage in this book was the description of Hank “The Gunfighter” Emerson’s farewell parade in which he concluded by commanding his officers (Colin Powell included) to salute the soldiers. This is another theme that I picked up from this book. That in order to maintain a winning team, it is important for the leader to have a genuine sense of responsibility for the team. This was evidenced in Powell’s description of leading the Perishing Rifles in his high-school days to the time he spent in West Germany as Commanding General and his tenure as the Chairman of Joints Chief of Staff in the White House. It was impressive to read how Powell threw support behind Norman Schwarzkopf, the CINC during the Gulf War and took the heat from Dick Cheney and other senior White House officials. Lesson learnt from Powell’s experience was that a leader should first get the best people on board, work hard on getting the team ready in meeting the target and back the team in front of her peers and superiors.

Optimism is something that comes across as a pre-requisite in every effective leader we have studied so far. The most inspiring aspect about Powell’s achievements was the fact that he accomplished those in an era in which he could easily have been discouraged due to the treatment meted out to the African-American community. Great leaders take strength from positive energy and radiate optimism themselves. Powell tended to see the good in the society and the individual and I thought this was very important in achieving the level of success that he did. The mood of the leader makes a huge difference to the team and this is a vital lesson for any budding manager.

This book gives hope to the readers, whether they are American or not. Not only is it a story of a person who did not let a humble background or his skin-color interfere with his path to glory, it holds valuable lessons in working with and managing people.. As a business student, I have found it particularly enjoyable for the lessons of people-management that it holds. Furthermore, the emphasis to family was an important aspect of this book. Powell is a man content with himself and his surroundings and aware of his responsibilities and position in a society. He had an opportunity to contest the President’s office but he chose not to. That forced me to think about a balance in life which I believe is very important in the fast-paced world of today.

Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom

Other than being an incredibly inspiring story of one man’s determination for a cause, Long Walk to Freedom contains tremendous leadership insight. Nelson Mandela was an excellent judge of people and that was one of the fundamental reasons for his success. Other themes of his leadership that leapt-out to me were the importance of emotionally-detached decision making, selflessness and relentless optimism.

A leader needs to use her/his understanding of the people to make them feel comfortable around her/him. This ensures winning the trust of the team and that the concentration of the entire unit is in achieving the common goal. In this respect, I think there was a similarity between Ronald Reagan and Nelson Mandela. Both possessed a unique talent of keeping attention away from themselves and focusing it on their teams. This made the people around them feel valued and inspired faith in the leader’s judgment. There is evidence of this throughout the book but the passage that struck me most was when Nelson Mandela reacted to President Botha’s call to trade his freedom from imprisonment for renouncement of violence (Pg 522). Mandela’s message that was read out to the ANC supporters began by praising and endorsing Oliver Tambo’s leadership of the ANC. Acts like these strengthened the bond at the top of the organization which was essential for a united effort. Before taking any major decision, Mandela consulted with his ANC team and incorporated their feedback. Even when he took the crucial decision of initiating dialogue with the government, he mandated that the ANC Executive Council was ultimately responsible for holding the actual negotiations with the National Party representatives.

Another valuable take-away from this book from a leader’s perspective was that it is very important to avoid making decisions influenced by pride or embarrassment (Pg 218). Mandela was very tactful in handling the negotiations of ANC and the National Party. When President de Klerk’s inclination towards progress seemed insincere and ANC members were persecuted by state-sponsored acts of violence, the ANC leadership was outraged and called for resuming armed resistance. Mandela realized that it would not fulfill the strategic purpose of the negotiations and attempted to channel the anger through mass rallies, a means that would not wash away the progress made through negotiations (Pg 604).Nelson Mandela’s achievements also were made possible by his outlook towards life. He was fundamentally an optimist and chose to see the good in every person he interacted with. This is a major lesson that the future generation can learn from him. I have often noticed that a large number of people tend to be negative about life and identify flaws in everything they come across. It is not only a difficult task to work alongside such an individual but it is extremely discouraging to have someone like that as your manager or leader. By opting for a life of a freedom fighter, he sacrificed his desire to be a family-man and went through periods of grief owing to this. He easily could have moved away from his objectives during the decades he spent in prison but maintained an unwavering belief in his cause and remained optimistic about emerging victorious. These are the traits that we all can benefit from in both our professional and personal lives.

The Status-quo Trap

The text below is taken from a friend's facebook profile who googled it.

"The source of the status-quo trap lies deep within our psyches, in our desire to protect our egos from damage. Breaking from the status quo means taking action, and when we take action, we take responsibility, thus opening ourselves to criticism and to regret. Not surprisingly, we naturally look for reasons to do nothing. Sticking with the status quo represents, in most cases, the safer course because it puts us at less psychological risk."

Bill & Dave by Michael Malone

Among the numerous qualities of Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett described in Michael Malone’s book, humility is the one that resonates the most with me. I was most impressed in learning how humbly HP conducted its business under the leadership of its founders. Michael Malone’s analysis of the importance of Charlie Litton in polishing Packard’s view on the way to live a successful life was a delight to read (page 65). It made me re-think on how to define “success in life” and strengthened the resolve that it does not necessarily derive from material wealth. The founders’ spirit of enjoying their livelihoods and finding happiness in simplicity of lifestyle went a long way in enabling them to devise policies which translated into the long term success of HP.

Another important leadership characteristic that I discovered to be extremely important is to develop a sense of loyalty towards the company’s stakeholders. The relationship between HP and Ernie Schiller, the company’s first cabinet maker (page 83) was awe-inspiring. For me, this is a lesson of a company having its feet firmly on the ground and trying to collaborate with all its stakeholders and ensuring they move on the path of success in unison. One of the key factors in HP’s long-term success was that it attracted and retained the best talent in the industry. The founders viewed their employees as equals and felt responsible for them. For a leader it is very important to ensure that her company is living in harmony with its environment. And it seems it seems a pre-requisite for this is that a genuine feeling of loyalty should come from within the leader.

Bill & Dave is abundant in effective management insight. The examples of Fred Truman’s lab in Stanford to the immediate post-war steps taken by HP’s founders prove that it is always wise to surround yourself with the smartest talent. The manager should set a general direction but always take input from those below her in the company hierarchy. Once a future course is set, the manager needs to refrain from exercising absolute control should focus on empowering the workforce and entrusting the employees with the company’s specific path towards the goal. HP also teaches us that the victories and progress along the way should be celebrated with the employees. The HP picnics, handing-out of Christmas bonuses and coffee-breaks all of which involved direct contact of the CEOs with the entry-level employees in my opinion were excellent techniques of inspiring the employees to lead HP in an increasingly competitive industry.

I feel grateful about reading this book at this particular point in my life. I am about to embark upon a professional career and am choosing between various alternatives. From what I understood from this book, HP achieved greatness because it began with two people starting something that they enjoyed doing. Both Packard and Hewlitt had an interest in their profession. They did not build HP into a multi-billion dollar company because they enjoyed making money, they built it in spite of that. Enjoyment, passion and desire emanate from HP’s story. I understand from Mike Malone’s book, that there was a deeper purpose as well, which was to benefit society. The greatness of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, in my opinion, was in their modesty and humbleness. The world would be a much better place if business students like myself emulate people like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard.

Takeaway from Eyewitness to Power by David Gergen

One of the major themes that struck me while reading this book was how important it is for leaders to understand themselves. My favorite part was the analysis Gergen performs on President Clinton’s regime and how he went astray. He describes how Bill Clinton lacked an Inner Compass and gauged himself by the way he was perceived by others (Page328). I think it is very important for a leader to be at ease with herself for that enables her to focus on the job at hand and how to inspire others in getting it done. This is the primary insight that I drew from this book.

Gergen praises Ronald Reagan’s emotional intelligence and how he used it to his advantage. Three (self-regulation, self-awareness and personal motivation) of the constituents of emotional intelligence deal with knowledge and control of one’s own aspirations, emotions and feelings. A very interesting quote attributed to Winston Churchill acknowledged the perpetual internal struggle of light and darkness which prevails in all political leaders. And that good leaders are effective in overcoming their dark sides. I believe this is true for every individual. If a person in a position of power is at peace within, then she would feel secure about her being in that designation. My impression from working with some corporate managers and supervisors was that they still had not come to terms with the fact that they held a position of higher responsibility. They felt a need to assert their power and prove a point. We can compare that with Gergen’s analysis of President Clinton and how he drew attention to himself as opposed to Ronald Reagan, who diverted attention away from himself. It is thus easy to imagine how the latter could have inspired the people around him.

Another interesting aspect of the book was the preference of management and reporting amongst the US presidents. From the spokes-of-the-wheel concept adopted by Gerald Ford to the triple-headed structure during the Clinton Presidency, Gergen was very effective in identifying the shortcomings. The idea that an organization cannot afford to have multiple decision makers at the top resonated with my beliefs. At the same time it is important for a manager to have a flat organizational set-up with effective delegation and empowerment at play. It is important for a leader to recognize that the position of responsibility requires taking blame for wrong decisions and ultimately she needs to be the one endorsing everything. The leader should ensure that his organization is inclusive and process flows are smooth without being overwhelmed by unnecessary information. This was one of the major shortfalls of President Ford’s earlier years in office. The best structure is one of inclusion and delegation but contains a hierarchy placing information filters in the form of reliable aides which pass on the relevant information to the leader who ultimately takes sole responsibility of the decision made.

Lastly, I would like to discuss a good quality common in most of the US Presidents analyzed by Gergen in his book. Almost everyone realized the importance of learning from history and having historical figures as their idols. I was most impressed by President Nixon’s extensive reading of history and developing a foresight by reading about the past. I believe this applies to people leading corporations as well as to those who lead countries. Historical events bear a tremendous amount of insight to be taken away and the lessons learnt can help tackle complex situations in the present and future. A classic example is the financial crisis that we are witnessing now. If the present financial and economic leadership had learnt the lessons from the US financial crises in the 1980s and the Asian ones of the 1990s, we might not have been in as deep a pit as we find ourselves presently.