Tag: Carry The Torch

Carry The Torch

How Can CEO’s Carry The Torch?

Posted on by nrg2perform in Article

How Can CEO’s Carry The Torch?

By Craig Johns

On Friday the 26th July, the Olympic torch will wind its way through the lively streets of Paris and the heart of the Olympic Village before arriving at the Olympic Ceremony.

The Olympic flame, a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games, started out as a ritual every four years to honour the Greek god Zeus. 

It has become a signal for the start of the Olympic Games, and to transmit a message of peace and friendship along its route. 

What can CEO’s and organisations learn from the Olympics? 

The Olympic Torch relay is responsible for respecting the past, protecting the present and leaving the world in a better place. 

To Carry The Torch is about continuing a legacy and building succession.

You have the responsibility to receive the torch, Carry The Torch and pass the torch.

Like Jongka, a tradition in Korea where the eldest son’s role is to keep their family lineage alive, or debuting as the next All Black rugby player you have a responsibility to leave the jersey in a better place, a CEO has a responsibility to Carry The Torch and leave the company in a better place. 

A responsibility to be a custodian who is able to positively transition from the past to the present and into the future. 

CEO’s are handed more than one torch when accepting a new CEO role. 

They have a responsibility to look after an organisation or family legacy, the role of the CEO’s legacy, the team they lead’s legacy and an industry legacy.

To Carry The Torch has more responsibility than just enhancing the legacy, the torch you have been handed. 

Some torches we are excited about, some we may want and others we didn’t even know we had been gifted. 

Let’s put this all into perspective from a CEO lens. 

It is our responsibility to receive the torch with gratitude, respect the past and respond with grace. 

Be grateful, and say thank you, for the opportunity and responsibility you have been given to lead a team, organisation and an industry. 

Respect the previous CEO’s and organisations directions and decision’s, as you never walked in their shoes. 

Whether you agree or not, they paved the platform you now get to start from. 

Acknowledge the work that has been done to this point by being graceful in the way you respond to and speak about the history of your role, company and industry. 

We must Carry The Torch by protecting it with care, having the curiosity to learn and the courage to evolve the torch. 

It is not our right to destroy the legacy that has been built so far. 

It is our responsibility to protect what has been created so far with care.

Care doesn’t mean keeping everything that has been built so far. 

It means having the curiosity to learn what is the core of the company, what is working well, and what can be enhanced to remain relevant and viable in the future. 

How can you be brave and have the courage to create a better legacy and future?

The most challenging part of creating a legacy and to Carry The Torch is how we pass the torch when we hand it over to someone else. 

When we pass the torch onto someone else or the next generation can you live with character, presence of mind, and then trust and surrender?

There are times when we leave a role on terms that are not ours. 

Rather than pass the torch with bitterness and anger, will you pass it on in a positive way with integrity and humility?

Will you have the presence of mind to respect that the person you are passing the torch to will see the opportunity through a different lens than you do at that moment?

Stepping out of something we have been part of for a while can be very challenging. 

We want to let go, but there is something trying to keep one hand on it. 

Our ability to trust the person receiving the torch and surrender our connection to it is critical.

It provides the new CEO a freedom to be themselves without someone looking over their shoulder.

We also know that it is also healthy for you to let go, focus on what’s next and trust that the legacy is in safe hands. 

We are handed a torch as a CEO.

Our job is to never let the flame go out. 

Will the torch flame glow brighter when you hand it to the next person or generation?

Craig Johns High Performance Leadership Expert

Craig is a 10x National Champion, International coach and CEO turned high performance leadership expert, international speaker and and Inspiring Great Leaders Podcast host.

He is the CEO & Managing Partner of Speakers Institute Corporate, a high performance leadership expert, and a leadership, high performance and workplace culture keynote speaker.

Learn more about how Craig is working with a diverse team of exceptional human beings to inspire great leaders at www.speakersinstitutecorporate.com.

Book Craig as a Keynote Speaker and learn how to become a high performing leader by going to www.craigjohns.com.au for more on the Gravity of Leadership, PRIDE, Break The CEO Code and Atomic Pressure.

Harmony Is The Handbrake To High Performing Teams Link
Courageous Conversations Link
What Is High Performance Link
Relentless Without Being Ruthless Or Reckless Link
How Gravity of Leadership Effects Your Impact Link
Beyond The Comfort Zone Link
Are Leaders Born? Link

LEARN MORE

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Troy Mortier from Unsplash - Customer Service Starts With The Qantas CEO by Craig Johns

Customer Service Starts With The Qantas CEO

Posted on by Craig Johns in Article
Soheb Zaidi from Unsplash - Customer Service Starts With The Qantas CEO by Craig Johns

Customer service starts with the QANTAS CEO

By Craig Johns

How does the incumbent Qantas CEO approach a plane that has lost both engines?

When public confidence has reached rock bottom and the culture of the organisation is beyond rust repair, how does a leader restart the engines and have them firing on all cylinders? People are our greatest priority. It seems like Alan Joyce has led Qantas via the old saying “people are our greatest assets” and approached both customers and employees as a line on the balance sheet rather than humans.

As the old English proverb says, the fish always rots from the head and  it is clear to see that Alan Joyce may have overstayed his time in the cockpit. When a company goes through severe turbulence how do we ensure that it takes off and lands safely each day?

Marcus Reubenstein from Unsplash - Customer Service Starts With The Qantas CEO by Craig Johns

The Challenges of Employing Internally Work?

The challenge will be that someone from QANTAS has been anointed CEO by the current board and possibly the current CEO Joyce himself. Is Vanessa Hudson going to be able to bring a fresh approach after being in Qantas for 29 years and being part of the most recent executive team? 

How easy will it be for her to build rapport, gain buy in and establish the trust and respect necessary to bring everyone in Qantas together as one united company? With her experience across a range of areas of finance, inflight services, products and customer service, there might be a chance.

What power dynamics will the board and shareholders play? Will the Qantas CEO be empowered or will her engines be depowered?

Andy Wang from Unsplash - People Are Our Greatest Assets at Qantas by Craig Johns

People Are Our Greatest Priority

Approaching a shift in focus from bottom line to people first is going to be more challenging that trying to turn a cruise ship around in the Suez Canal. Where there is will there is a way. 

QANTAS’s ability to rise again will be determined by Vanessa Hudson’s gravity of leadership. She will need to shift from the Qantas CEO creating a gravitational push to developing a gravitational pull where everyone is aligned and heading in the same direction.

It will require creating an eco-system not an ego-system, where people are positioned at the heart of every decision and action made. Qantas will need to start with a culture detox before they can commence a culture change.  

The iconic Australian airline, once known as the Spirit of Australians seems to be fast becoming the ghost of Australians. Vanessa Hudson faces the challenge of balancing business, employee and customer centricity. 

Troy Mortier from Unsplash - Vanessa Hudson will need to keep\ an eye on customer, people and Qantas by Craig Johns

Focus On Customers, People & Business

As noted in the Channel 9 interview “As a company, our job is to get the balance right between looking after our customers, you – our people, and the business itself. Right now, achieving this balance must start with our customers, and that’s what we will be focused on with our new management team.”

However unless you first get the right strategy, right people and right culture in place Qantas won’t be able to attend to the customer service needs. Customer service starts with the CEO. 

Vanessa Hudson will need to work with the employees of Qantas to identify what the right customer service approach is and then embody it. Once the right strategy, right people and right culture have been attended to, the right systems and processes, products and services and customer service will come to life.

Sam Carter from Unsplash - Customer Service Starts With The Qantas CEO by Craig Johns

The First 100 Days

The bottom line will take care of itself rather than being the number one focus in recent years. The first 100 days of Vanessa Hudson’s reign will be pivotal. Trust and respect will need to be earned, which requires hearing the voice of Qantas people, loyal customers and stakeholders.

There are two pivotal questions that will determine what the Qantas of the future will look, feel and sound like.

  1. What does a world class version look like?
  2. What will stop us from achieving that?

These two simple questions will not only reveal what it will take to gain enough momentum to achieve liftoff, but also what is required to consistently perform in the eyes of the traveller.

Josh Withers from Unsplash - Vanessa Hudson Carry the torch at Qantas by Craig Johns

CARRY THE TORCH

Qantas’ leadership needs to ask itself three all important questions;

  1. What do travellers need?
  2. What do our staff want?
  3. How can we re-inspire loyalty in our brand?

All while remembering the mantra… ‘People are our greatest priority’.

Vanessa Hudson has been handed the Qantas torch from Joyce. Qantas’s condition may not be what it used to be, however Vanessa Hudson’s role is to Carry the Torch. Not just to carry the torch, but to protect the flame so the flying kangaroo is illuminated in our hearts and minds once again and leave the Qantas torch in a better place than she received it.

Craig Johns talks about the new Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson

Craig is a 10x National Champion, International coach and CEO turned high performance leadership expert, international speaker and and Inspiring Great Leaders Podcast host.

He is the CEO & Managing Partner of Speakers Institute Corporate, a high performance leadership expert, and a leadership, high performance and workplace culture keynote speaker.

Learn more about how Craig is working with a diverse team of exceptional human beings to inspire great leaders at www.speakersinstitutecorporate.com.

Book Craig as a Speaker and learn how to become a high performing leader by going to www.craigjohns.com.au for more on the Gravity of Leadership, Break The CEO Code and Atomic Pressure.

Having Courageous Conversations Link
What Is High Performance Link
Relentless Without Being Ruthless Or Reckless Link
How Gravity of Leadership Effects Your Impact Link
Beyond The Comfort Zone Link
People Are Our Greatest Assets Link
Are Leaders Born? Link

LEARN MORE

High Performance Leadership COACHING
Speakers Institute CORPORATE
Inspiring Great Leaders PODCAST
Craig Johns SPEAKER
Craig Johns BLOG
Contact CRAIG JOHNS
Return to HOME