“An Introduction to Virtuous Leadership”

Interview with Alexandre Havard (Army and Navy Club, Washington DC, December 2010)

On Thursday 10th, Alexandre Havard delivered a seminar on Virtuous Leadership hosted in Riga, Latvia, by Big Business Day and Elevator International.

More than 50 Latvian senior executives from middle and large companies attended the seminar. The success of the event attracted the media as well, and a couple of interviews were held at top newspapers.

The participants of the seminar highlighted the relevance of the topic and the inspirational style of Alexandre.

Inga Bratena, founder and CEO of Big Business Day stated that “we are certainly looking forward to hosting more Virtuous Leadership seminars in the near future and even we are seriously thinking in how to promote Alexandre’s approach in the Latvian business community”.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

Etyka przywódcy – WKRÓTCE W SPRZEDAŻY!
Trening doskonalenia osobowości

Tytuł oryginału:
Virtuous Leadership. An Agenda for Personal Excellence

Autor:
Alexandre Havard

 Tłumaczenie:
Michał Chaciński, Marek Cieślik

ISBN: 978-83-927125-8-9
Oprawa: miękka
Format: 12 x 20 cm
Liczba stron: 235

Cena detaliczna: 49 zł
Cena dla Ciebie: 47 zł

Etyka przywódcy to lektura obowiązkowa dla osób, które zajmują się przywództwem lub o tym marzą.
Kreśląc sylwetki współczesnych liderów ze świata polityki, biznesu, religii i intelektu, takich jak Ronald Reagan, François Michelin, Jan Paweł II czy Aleksander Sołżenicyn, jak również odwołując się do własnych doświadczeń, autor wykazuje, że przywództwo i moralność tworzą bliski, nierozerwalny i komplementarny związek.

O autorze:

Alexandre Havard jest dyrektorem Instytutu Etyki Przywództwa Havarda (Havard Virtuous Leadership Institute, http://hvli.org). Etyka przywódcy jest jego sztandarowym kursem, w trakcie którego uczestnicy mogą się przekonać, że klasyczne wartości, takie jak odwaga, pokora, samokontrola, rozwaga i sprawiedliwość, stanowią podstawę i warunek samodoskonalenia i osiągnięcia satysfakcji zawodowej. Autor prowadzi kurs w języku angielskim, rosyjskim, francuskim i hiszpańskim, a wśród słuchaczy przeważają urzędnicy państwowi, kadra menedżerska i studenci MBA.

Alexandre Havard jest absolwentem jednego z najbardziej renomowanych wydziałów prawa we Francji i ma za sobą wieloletnią praktykę adwokacką w kilku krajach europejskich.

Wybór z recenzji z amerykańskiej edycji książki:

W końcu ktoś napisał książkę o moralności dla osób funkcjonujących w świecie biznesu. Jest tak dużo książek o tym, jak być efektywnym albo jak szybko zarobić duże pieniądze, że możne odnieść wrażenie, że światem biznesu rządzą tylko ludzie pokroju Machiavellego czy Napoleona. Havard dał nam to, czego potrzebujemy: pożywki dla naszej duchowości. Ta książka powinna być dostępna w księgarniach na każdym lotnisku w USA i Europie. Brawo, Havard!

Lider, który potrafi posługiwać się tylko sztuką wymuszania lub technikami manipulacji, być może osiągnie swój cel, ale tylko na krótką metę i w ograniczonym zakresie.

Alexandre Havard uczy nas, że przywództwo to służba, a służba to prawdziwa cnota.

The Havard Virtuous Leadership Institute (HVLI) held its flagship Virtuous Leadership seminar at the Army and Navy Club, Washington, DC, on December 2, 2010.

This seminar served as the launch for formal efforts to bring Virtuous Leadership to the United States and Canada. Having already been met with success in Russia, Europe, and Africa, Alexandre Havard saw the necessity of bringing the message of Virtuous Leadership to an American audience. In light of the challenges facing America’s current economic and political institutions, and understanding the key position that the United States and the American economy play in the world – its influence on business practices, global political affairs, cultural movements, and the spread of ideas and values – Mr. Havard saw the critical nature of the message of virtue-based leadership as the source of an American renaissance and influence around the world.

The focus of the evening’s presentation was the deep conviction that traditional human virtues constitute excellence of character, the key to successful leadership — the most effective way of bringing out the best in people and the secret to achieving a flourishing corporate culture — no matter the type of enterprise. The key leadership virtues of magnanimity and humility were discussed, as well as the other virtues of courage, justice, prudence, and self control, through extensive and in-depth case studies of leadership in action.

Executives from the business, military, non-profit, and educational worlds were in attendance.

Virtuous Leadership and Motivation in Action

14^th Lismullin Institute Business Leadership Forum (Wednesday 3^rd November 2010)

The seminar re-iterated the need for leaders to have courage, to be decisive and the enormous value of humility, which is exactly what is needed in the tough economic environment that Irish businessmen are operating in at present.

The value of magnanimity struck a real cord – particularly the very positive effect that it can have on leadership.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

For more information, click here

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.

 Fraternal humility—the habit of serving others—far from being an obstacle to business is the condition for its success.  In forty years, François Michelin lead his company from tenth to first place in the ranking of the world’s largest firms in its sector.

By Alexandre Havard
(Translation from French, Anthony Salvia)

François Michelin was 28 years old when he took over as head of the large industrial concern, Michelin, in 1954. Ever since, he has occupied the office of Edouard Michelin, his grandfather and the founder of the company, who died in 1940.  It is a small space notable for its modesty. Some years ago, François Michelin received in his office an employee who was about to retire.   The employee recalled that when he was sixteen years old, his job was to deliver mail throughout the company.  One day, he was asked to deliver a letter to Edouard Michelin personally.  He knocked on the door of his office, and Edouard said, “Please come in, monsieur [trans., sir], and have a seat.”  This sign of respect on the boss’s part made a strong impression on the young employee.  Edouard’s words and demeanor remained in the employee’s heart from that day on.  The founder of the company showed deep respect for other people no matter the station they occupied in life. 

François Michelin is heir to this tradition.  He is aware that “monsieur” is a contraction of “mon seigneur” [trans., my lord].  It means recognizing that each person is unique and possesses a part of the truth, which only he possesses. 

When François Michelin speaks, his language is simple, accessible to all, a language that workers, trade unionists and managers understand:  “If I use simple words when I speak, it is to be sure I understand what I am saying.”   This is no mere witticism, but an expression of profound respect for the people he is addressing. 

I recently visited Michelin at his company’s headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand in central France.  In our two and a half hour conversation, he had to take important telephone calls on three occasions.  These calls, as I learned later, concerned a campaign of calumny against him being waged in the media.  And yet Michelin did not seem in the least perturbed by the affair, which must have been very unpleasant for him.  He was completely absorbed in our conversation.  He would return smiling, apologize, look me straight in the eye, and pick up the conversation where we left off.  In François Michelin one observes self-mastery, serenity, and, above all, respect for other people, for each unique and irreplaceable person, and a strong desire to serve. 

“What strikes me about François Michelin,” says Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Reanult, “is the attention he pays to people, his concern to foster the growth of the people around him.  He has great ambition for his firm, but an ambition that is not destructive of those who are there to help him realize it… His interior self is even stronger than his captain-of-industry self.”

To serve others, first you have to know how to listen to them.   “Look at my ears,” François Michelin told us.  “They have fallen off.  It is my best qualification.”

For François Michelin “to help a person become himself, this is what counts above all.”  It was this spirit that allowed Marius Mignol, a typographical worker without formal education, to invent the radial tire that revolutionized the industry.  When he was hired, Mignol was supposed to work in the company’s print shop, but Edouard Michelin told the firm’s head of personnel: “Don’t judge by appearances…Remember that one must chip away at the stone in order to find the diamond hidden within.”

Mignol was assigned to a commercial position dealing with export markets.  One day, Edouard Michelin noticed a strange slide ruler on his desk.  Mignol had invented it to more quickly convert exchange rates.  Edouard exclaimed: “This man is a genius!”  Mignol turned out to be a man of extraordinary imagination.  He was transferred to the research division at a time when the conventional tire had reached its limits because of its tendency to overheat at high speeds.  To study the variations in heat inside the conventional tire, Mignol imagined a “fly cage,” as he called it.  He proceeded to design a tire whose sides were replaced by radial metallic cables with space between them.  The resulting tire proved revolutionary.  It was because Edouard Michelin was more interested in people than in things that Marius Mignol was able to discover his talents and put them at the service of others. 

François Michelin’s respect for people and desire to serve them is not just a necessity of the spiritual order, an act of fraternal humility; it is also a matter of good sense.  “It is often said that facts are stubborn, but in reality it is we who are stubborn,” he says.  We refuse to accept facts; we refuse to accept the truth about man.  We fix our attention on things, whereas “the most powerful engine of enterprise, as Edouard Michelin liked to say, is human energy.”

Fraternal humility—the habit of serving others—far from being an obstacle to business is the condition for its success.  In forty years, François Michelin led his company from tenth to first place in the ranking of the world’s largest firms in its sector.