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Lesson #4: Develop a Strong Sense of Leadership

Article Overview: “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun,” said Rockefeller.

Lesson #4: Develop a Strong Sense of Leadership

“The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun,” said Rockefeller.

In his decades of business, one of the key characteristics that propelled Rockefeller to success was his strong leadership. It wasn’t his status, nor his age that made Rockefeller a great leader. Instead, it was his influence. People around him wanted to follow him; they were inspired by him to do more than they ever thought they were capable of. It was his ability to create a strong sense of teamwork and his own energy and passion that drove his workers and thus his company.

“I would rather earn 1% off of 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts,” said Rockefeller. With this attitude, it would be necessary for Rockefeller to instill within his workers the same sense of desire to succeed that he had, and indeed, he did. He was a hands-on leader who valued the interaction he would have with his workers on a daily basis. He never believed to be above any of his staff, even going down to the refineries on a regular basis to sweep up so that workers could continue their efforts without any interruptions.

“Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people,” he said. Indeed, Rockefeller knew that he, too, was just an average person trying to do above-average work. He knew that there would be times when he too, as the leader, would make mistakes. However, Rockefeller took full responsibility for his actions, whether they were failures or success. “Don't blame the marketing department,” he once said. “The buck stops with the chief executive.” It was this accountability that earned him the respect of many of his colleagues.

“I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand,” said Rockefeller. “That the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.” Rockefeller’s own dignity was questioned many a time, including a particularly brutal series of attacks by journalist Ida Tarbell.

In a series of articles for McClure Magazine in 1902, Tarbell began exposing Standard Oil and Rockefeller as two of the greatest evils in America for their monopolistic and ruthless business practices. While Tarbell was in no way impartial – her father had been put out of business by Rockefeller years before – her articles went a long way in demonizing Rockefeller in the eyes of the American people.

But, in a demonstration of maturity and strong leadership, Rockefeller’s response to Tarbell and his other critics was silence. “Let the world wag,” he used to love to say. While many saw Rockefeller’s silence as an admission of his guilt, Rockefeller preferred to carry on with his business and not get distracted by media attacks, as he knew that as he continued to grow in size and power, public scrutiny over his activities would only increase.

Rockefeller was a strong leader who used his personal charisma and passion to inspire those around him. No matter how far he pushed the envelopes, he ensured himself a loyal staff behind him.

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Article Tags: accountability, attitude, average person, chief executive, coffee, colleagues, commodity, daily basis, decades, desire, dignity of labor, interaction, interruptions, leadership, marketing department, own energy, passion, refineries, rockefeller, teamwork



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