I was thrilled when I learned that Randy Dobbs, a friend and mentor from my days at General Electric, was writing a book about his leadership experiences. In the early 1990s I worked with Randy at GE Motors in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and then again at GE Medical Systems when I was in Philadelphia and he was in Atlanta. Randy was also an important advocate in my obtaining funding from GE to be able to attend the Wharton School of Business and earn an MBA.

Randy’s book, Transformational Leadership, is aptly titled because Randy not only has a history of transforming organizations for better results, but also having a transformative effect on people’s lives. Randy demonstrated his transformative “touch” throughout his tenure at GE, as CEO of Philips Medical Systems, North America and then as CEO of USIS, a leading global security services provider. His book is a mix of real-life stories of his personal accomplishments and works alongside information-rich examples of his professional successes and challenges. Here we review the five skill sets Randy uses to define transformational leadership:

1. Build a culture

2. Improve esprit de corps

3. Communicate problems and actions

4. Change financial results

5. Leaving behind a cadre of future transformational leaders

Build a culture

Randy writes that “In many respects, culture change is the best return on investment for senior leaders on a transformational team. You can communicate, get feedback from the organization, attract the best senior leaders, and gain buy-in for your vision, but until the culture changes, you won’t achieve lasting transformation.“Randy’s key to creating cultural change is implementing the business vision, and he lists two factors that must be clearly addressed to fully gain the organization’s trust in the leader’s vision and cultural direction:

1) The vision must be clear, attractive and feasible.

2) The leader’s position must be as clear as the vision, and their commitment to that vision must be unquestionable as a catalyst for cultural change.

The foundation for driving sustainable cultural change is a vision statement, mission statement, and supporting strategies that employees can understand and accept.

Improve esprit de corps

Rather than talking about employee morale, Randy prefers to think of it as esprit de corps, a French term that literally means “spirit of the body,” but refers to the spirit of a group as one body. Randy writes that “This means that everyone in the organization shares the same vision and is excited to be a part of that vision and work towards clearly defined collective goals. In simple terms: once you establish a culture, you must establish esprit de corps for the people in the organization to buy into that culture.“Accomplishing this will help leadership continually win people over, which is critical to maintaining responsibility, focus, and momentum toward achieving company goals.

Communicate problems and actions

Randy writes that “If you want the most important key to effective transformational leadership, you must drive the communication process.“In other words,”Leaders don’t just talk about communications; they must force communications to happen for the good of the company.“This builds trust and commitment among those assigned the task of leading. Another communication lesson for leaders is”Never assume that everything you say is as clear to others as it is to you.“Randy exemplifies this by sharing about himself with his employees so that they understand who he is as a person. Randy has found that this openness helps people feel more comfortable with him and helps them accept him as a leader.

Randy has used a variety of methods to foster communication and understanding, including numerous new manager take-in sessions, frequent town hall meetings, newsletters and letters from the CEO, and an “AskRandy” email program open to all. . In the first two months as CEO of USIS, he received about 200 AskRandy emails from employees. These messages not only provided him with critical information about the company, but were also an effective way to communicate with his new hires (he personally responded to the 200 emails).

Change financial results

Randy relates that Jack Welch once told him, “There is not a single GE shareholder who is in love with revenue. All they care about is profit.” And no one hired Randy as a transformational leader to drive better communication, build a senior leadership team, create a vision, or change a culture. “The only reason to involve any business transformation leader is to achieve financial results!“He writes that it is critical to stay focused every day, every week, every month, and every quarter on how transformations affect bottom line results.

Leaving behind a cadre of future transformational leaders

Transforming a business requires the right people, and having the right people on the top management team with the right skills to drive the necessary changes is especially critical.

The main attributes that Randy looks for in the leaders of his transformation team are:

1) People who can see the changes you are making for the business as an opportunity for the business, for their own financial success and for their professional development.

2) People with a strong faith in themselves and the confidence that their vision of the future It is not the only vision to overcome the challenges they face. People need to bring something to the party.

3) People who want to build an organization in which they are respected. People who build a dynamic and successful organization because they have earned the respect of their team.

Randy adds that, in addition to the many managerial aspects, “leaders who truly transform organizations go much further. They appeal on a deep emotional and spiritual level to the most fundamental human needs of workers.:

• Important feeling;
• Make a difference;
• To be part of something successful and worthwhile. “

In this book, Randy skillfully combines his personal and professional experiences so that it is clear that he puts his heart and soul into every endeavor and that his personal values ​​shape what he does “at work.” It’s no wonder so much of what Randy has accomplished as a leader has been truly transformative.