Terri Mulcahey Leadership

As a successful Fortune Fifty company, Lowe’s depends on great leaders to help the organization achieve its financial and organizational goals, motivate its extensive workforce, and build a culture where employees share and cultivate the purpose of the organization. While many great leaders, including Wheatley, Cashman, Peters, and others have written on the subject of leadership, the success of Lowe’s Companies has demonstrated that since 1946, it has been the home of many great leaders. By interviewing recognized leaders in key positions at Lowe’s, I hope to learn several valuable aspects of effective leadership, which I plan to incorporate in my personal leadership style.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Justin Robison, Controller and CFO for The Housing Trust in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Housing Trust is a non-profit agency who helps people in northern New Mexico locate affordable housing. This assistance is provided to low and moderate income level families. The Housing Trust also builds energy efficient, affordable homes for low income families. Justin has been in the financial sector as an Investment Analyst and a Financial Analyst. He earned his MBA at the University of New Mexico. Justin’s leadership style has developed from experience and education, but he appears to still be in the process of really finding what style works best for him. Justin had an insightful view of what defines leadership, what helps motivate his followers, and what makes a good follower.

Colleen Barrett is one of the most influential women in the world of business and her efforts have paved the way for future female executives. According to Dierendonck and Patterson (2010), “For five years in a row, SWA is the only airline to win the Triple Crown, ranked first in most on-time flights, least lost baggage, and fewest Customer complaints”(p 135). Colleen Barrett is a rare example of a leader that rose from the ranks of an organization to the highest position of the company while never receiving a formal education in business management (Southwest Airlines ' Colleen Barrett on 'Servant Leadership, 2008). Her greatest achievement while at SWA was completely changing the leadership style and atmosphere of the organization. According to Dierendonck and Patterson (2010), her remodeling of the organization has kept SWA the leader in their industry by “setting and achieving incredible records of performance”(p 135). Leaders at SWA still practice her servant leadership style of managing employees even after she left the organization (Dierendonck & Patterson, 2010). Before a leader can achieve greatness they have to overcome challenges in their career fields.

In Phase 1, pre-training, Campbell’s CEO Institute teaches participants about leadership, formulating ideas and experiences and take time to reflect on what they have learned and apply it to all aspects of their lives. As the CEO, Conant was a motivator, “Doug is personally involved in all aspects—developing content, teaching, communicating with class members, and sharing lessons from his more than 30 years in business…….He’s all in. An active instructor, he’s fully present during the entire two-year journey” (Reardon, 2011). The program is developed internally which helps employees can build on their skills. The Institute accepts 20-24 participants per year and they must be nominated by their unit president or functional leader (Newell, 2011).

An advantage of mentoring is that it helps to acclimatise less successful workers to the job and organisational requirements. By having a "go to" person to ask questions, discuss scenarios and generally learn the nuances of the company, the mentee can become a productive member much more quickly and never feel that he has nowhere to turn for help. The mentee can gain the sense of achievement that comes from the mentor's feedback and assessment of his progress. The mentee's quest to gain the mentor's approval can serve as a motivating force to continue to improve his performance. The mentor can gain satisfaction from knowing that she is helping an individual and can take a measure of pride in her accomplishments. For a mentor that has already achieved a great deal of success, she can look at the process as a way of "giving back”.

I've seen her drive for success an I'm certain she won't give anything but her best. I'm proud to have witnessed her growth an I'm sure she'll encourage more an cultivate an atmosphere of leadership in her role!

For those charged with developing leaders, identifying potential leaders who possess the building blocks of character, creativity, and compassion, and those who also have a clear sense of purpose and the energy to pursue that purpose is key (Allio, R. J., 2005, p.

Working directly with our GM it is very empowering to work with such a confident and successful woman who is also a mother. She always says: “If you want something done, ask a mother to do it!” Her confidence and support makes the job very rewarding and a happy place to be. It makes her really look forward to coming to work every day!

Attached is the proposal to implement a mentoring program at Anderson, Lower, Whitlow P.C. In early summer, ALW hired fifteen recently graduated individuals and 12 have already taken positions at other firms. There needs to be a system in place to develop and foster relationships for these individuals within the firm. This firm has a high turnover rate of new hires; currently, the turnover rate is 85%. Firms that are considered the Big Four are offering mentoring programs that make their employees invested in the company’s future. Unfortunately, if ALW does not start to compete with this issue, more employees will be lost to the Big Four Firms.

Today’s potential leaders who have enhanced there skill with education in leadership, believe in the elements that they 've learned. The rational, technical reducible in today 's marketplace could be ill-equipped without the proper motivation and mentoring because motivation of followers isn 't created out of thin air. It’s accomplished by aligning individuals and members who take pride in their contributions and have an understanding of shared goals and values.

“Companies need to reach deep, almost down to entry level, for talented women and minorities who can rise to leadership positions. Early identification and development of talent is crucial,” says Dr. Greer. “Also, identifying skilled mentors and fully utilizing their talents should be a priority. Mentoring has great importance in terms of succession.”

I have learned many lessons from Jack Welch on leadership. Jack Welch has been with the General Electric Company (GE) since 1960. Having taken over GE with a market capitalization of about $12 billion, Jack Welch turned it into one of the largest and most admired companies in the world by the time he stepped down as its CEO 20 years later, in 2000. Jack Welch used his uncanny instincts and unique leadership strategies to run GE, the most complex organization in the world and increased its market value by more than $400 billion over two decades. He remains a highly regarded figure in business circles due to his innovative leadership style. Jack Welch demonstrated Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of modeling the way, inspiring a shared

Mentorship is very important in the workplace especially in the area of training and development. The mentor-protégé relationship is a much needed relationship that begins in the early career stage and this relationship involves the current or new employees and the supervisor or other colleagues that provide work-related guidance. The relationship itself is comprehensive and involves “educational, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual development” (Greenhaus,, Callanan, & Godshalk, 2010, p 211). One of the initial task of the early career the establishment of the career field which involves the gaining of the workplace competence, learn what is needed to excel in the organization, and to gain acceptance in the workplace to be recognized as the valued employee. There are many ways of achieving the above mentioned advantages in the workplace which one main method is through the use of the mentorship program.

With the development of the more organic and less formal organisational structures the role of mentors has shifted with these changes. Unlike previously where mentors where seen as formal trainers who taught newcomers the processes and got them acquainted with the cultures and the systems within the organisation. Which required good interpersonal skills and a good knowledge of the activity or tasks the mentee would have to undertake, and be able to effectively relay or demonstrate the tasks or activities to the mentee. As opposed to more recently where a mentor would have to be more of an emotional counselor and demonstrate more skills than were traditionally required from

Prior to attending the Business Internship course, my knowledge and understanding on successful business leaders was very limited. Although I had heard of countless success stories in business, I had never actually understood what it took to achieve such measures of success. However, it wasn’t until we had the privilege of hearing from four different business magnates in weeks 6 -9. Each of the business leaders gave an hour’s seminar and which was aimed at providing insights into their personal lives, working experiences and the core essence of 21st century business leadership.