I was just reading through one of my favorite blogs (David Maister’s People, Passion and Principles) and was delighted to read about David listening to former Pepsi executive Craig Weatherup discuss leadership. According to all reports of Mr. Weatherup’s character, he is a a down-to-earth, low-key kind of person who practices a hands-on approach to leadership. According to an interview in the November 2000 edition of “The Chief Executive”, Weatherup is a big believer in bringing humanity into the corporate world. The article quotes Weatherup as stating:

“People need to know that you care about them and that you’re worthy of their followership,” he says, explaining his belief that “the winning company with the highest stock price will be the one that has humanity.”

He is absolutely correct…to be an effective leader requires empathy, courage, honesty and trust. Any people think that ‘leading’ is telling people what to do when in reality it is really about asking people to help you do what needs to be done for the betterment of an organization.

Another interesting quote from Mr. Weatherup from The Chief Executive article is:

“It staggers me that being nice is seen as being inconsistent with being tough.”

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