AMERICAN WAY: And what characteristics do leaders most need?
FOREHAND: We need leaders who can build teams, inspire people,
and create trust. Trust starts with having high integrity. It means
being open and candid about the good and the bad, being transparent
about problems, and then setting expectations. Tomorrow's leaders
also have to be more accessible, not staying in the office, but out
there with employees and customers. They can't work through four or
five levels. They may have to reach around the organization to show
it matters what people on the front line are doing every day. These
are qualities that even three years ago were not at such a premium,
but will increasingly be expected by the very best companies.
Scott S. Smith is a freelance business writer who has
interviewed executives such as
Oracle's
Larry Ellison and eBay's
Meg Whitman for
American Way.
Lee Blankenship Emmert's portraits have appeared in
Time,
Fast Company, and
Red Herring. He most recently
photographed
Emmitt Smith for the 11.15.02 issue of
American
Way.
IN TRAINING
A good team is a well-trained team. New Accenture employees begin
with intensive training, which continues on and off for five years.
Here's how CEO
Joe Forehand describes the firm's training
protocol.
BACK TO SCHOOL:
"Entry-level employees go to Client Readiness School for two weeks
to get the basics of working with a client, our basic methodologies
of how we do our work, and exposure to our culture. This is at our
central learning facility outside of
Chicago, where they begin to
build international personal networks with attendees from around
the world. During the first five years, employees get 750 hours of
training."
SCHOOL FUNDING:
"We spent $692 million, or 6 percent of our net revenues, on
training last year, in a combination of live classroom and
technology-based solutions."