[January 22, 2016] New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is most revered for his leadership in the aftermath of the terrorist attack that brought down the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. If you speak with him, he will tell you that the reason NYC recovered so quickly was that it’s important to surround yourself with smart people who can get things done.
“Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.” – John Wooden
I’ve been lucky to meet some of the greatest contemporary leaders of our time. Whenever I ask the reason for their success, all of them have said it was because they surrounded themselves with smart people. They didn’t have “yes men” to make them feel good or to rubber stamp their decisions but ensured folks around them asked hard questions and questioned that leader’s motives and intent.
Yes, this made those leaders uncomfortable. But they stretched the imagination and thinking of that leader and were able to push the decision-making process to its limits helping ensure a more thoughtful and intelligent end result. Missions were tackled without fear of failure or hesitation.
There are many types of smart people a leader should have around them. Those that have the ability to take small bits of information by being observant and can “see” the whole picture. Those that are academically smart and have a wealth of detailed knowledge. Those that are creative, able to think “out of the box,” and don’t panic at the first sign of trouble. Those that are well connected and willing to link those to the leader.
Great leadership means reaching out to the right folks and find these smart people. Then once they are part of the team, they need to be challenged in a diversity of situations and otherwise taken care of to ensure peak performance. Giuliani employed smart people who were smart and came from a cross-section of successful people. This helped him quickly solve the multitude of problems in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
When al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked two commercial passenger airlines and crashed them into those buildings in New York City, both towers collapsed and killed 2,752 people. What is not so well known is that Giuliani and his leadership team saved as many as 20,000 lives due to the well-coordinated rescue operations and bravery of many police, firefighters, and others. The ability to do this doesn’t occur overnight; it’s built over many years of hard work and strong guidance.
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Note: Interesting discussion by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on President Obama’s concept of surrounding himself with smart people (YouTube video 1:40 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDHireIp2Zk