Friends,
In almost 11 years of writing “Reading for Leading,” I think I’ve only once written about my wife. Much as I love and admire Jennifer, I’ve tried to keep her out of this, and I’ve appreciated that about 99.5% of my readers have as well. So, as she enters the last 10 days of being Michigan’s governor, I break my own rule. I do so for two reasons. First, I exercise this personal privilege to publicly share my admiration (and to share this video for those curious about her leadership legacy). But the other is frankly more important and that is to use her as an example as you and I try to lead with our best selves.
It would take chapters to discuss all of her strengths, and I’d guess I could spend a few pages on her shortcomings, but here are three dimensions of her leadership practice that inspire me.
1. Accept. Adjust. Advance*. When you lead well, you don’t do the opposite: Blame. Deny. Wait. Whether they were her own rare but inevitable mis-steps, flubs by her team, or simply facing the mind-numbing challenges Michigan faced as a million manufacturing jobs evaporated, Jennifer got up every morning and focused not on who screwed up, self pity, or wishing and hoping, but on what was in her power (and much of which appeared to be beyond her grasp). I tell myself all the time to “be like Jen,” when my natural inclinations are to obsess over my stupid mistakes or to get mad (or want to get even 😎 ). Let go. Move on!
2. Build people up. Jennifer does both parts of this activity. She does the personal-emotional side by seeing people, encouraging them, and thanking them. Frankly, this takes some work, for her basic make-up is to be a restless, driving leader (an ENTJ “field general” in the Myers-Brigg/Keirsey schemes). I have complemented her – sometimes by not complimenting her – but encouraging her to keep doing the personal part, and she does it with warmth and genuineness. She also does the second up-building part by delegating tasks and sharing power well. Her cabinet and team have been freed and encouraged to “enlarge their territory,” which, more than her own leadership, has caused the Pew Foundation Center on the States to score Michigan among the top-3 states for the way it’s been managed.
3. Disciplined focus. Peter Drucker long ago said of executives, what is true of all of us: our time is precious, and the best of us focus our time on what’s most important. For Jennifer, this may have been her main area of growth as a leader. In the early years she wanted to do everything: cities, arts, higher ed, early childhood ed, a massive poverty reduction program, etc., and because she delegated so well her team got much of that done. But she became laser-focused on the core vision: diversification and education for 21st century jobs. If Michigan becomes extraordinarily competitive in the decade ahead, I expect it will, it will have been laser-focus that made it happen. She also had a laser-like discipline when it came to ethics and modeling the way. This weekend Delta handed me boarding passes that upgraded us to first class. As she did every time that I was aware, she said no, and “made me” turn them back in…for Row 27. I had rationalizations: it’s 4:00 AM, obviously they have unpaid seats available, we can get on quietly and not be seen. But she was right – modeling the way, staying squeaky clean, and offering me an example of great discipline, a seldom appreciated aspect of leading with your best self!
Love to have you share your observations on Jennifer’s leadership and on your own heroes and heroines!
Have a wonderful holiday, and enjoy a little break from RFL!
Dan
* I offer props to Joe Caruso, a Michigan writer and leadership expert who was the first I heard to describe the three A’s of accept, adjust and advance. I have included in my own thinking and practice the concepts of Acknowledge and Apologize, which often belong to the Adjust part of the sequence.
Hi Dan,
I still remember when Gov. Granholm was running for office, against Dick Posthumus in 2002. Both candidates said repeatedly that trying to lead Michigan back from its downward slide would be difficult. Part of this was because the playing field against Michigan’s automakers and other major employers was becoming increasingly tilted. And in the two years immediately preceding her taking office, unemployment in the state had nearly doubled.
I don’t think anyone, Gov. Granholm included, could have appreciated then just how hard it would be for anyone to lead this state in such difficult economic times, which included the tail end of one recession in 2002, and the worst worldwide economic downturn since the Great Depression in 2008 … and the worldwide event hasn’t yet corrected itself.
Yet through it all, Gov. Granholm remained positive. She served as a spokesperson for all the good things that Michigan is, and can be even better at again. The state’s economic turnaround finally has begun, as the 2-point drop in unemployment in the last year shows — while the unemployment rate in some states keeps climbing.
Dan, I look forward to your continued posts in the years to come, and also look forward to the great things that you and the Governor will continue to do together.
Dan, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to unload. However, I coud take up more space than is available. I have lived under every Govoernor since Soapy Williams and no Governor in my lifetime has ever faced such an economic crisis and collapse as your ourtstanding wife.
I got so fed up with people telling me she hasn’t done anything or asking me what has she done that I began a notebook with divided sections that included all of the things she has done for the state in the area of jobs, education, issues dealing with Seniors, and legislation she signed and had friends initiate in the legislature. People only remember things for a week and don’t remember that when John Engler left office he left our current Governor with a 1 billion dollar deficit because he used money generated by surpluses to pay down deficits he was incurring while Governor. That was a fact published in GongWer. In addition, the state lost approximately 300,000 jobs during his last 2 1/2 years in office and when he left office the unemployment rate was 6 1/2% and climbing. Governor Granholm had that deck of cards and of Course you had a president who embroiled our nation in a War that cost this country untold sums of money that shoud have been sent back to the states to cover expenses such as medicaid. and that president never bothered to speak with our auto executives until his last two months in office.Jennifer was the first governor in my lifetime that initiated a plan that put in motion academic requirements designed to make our highschool gratduates marketable and competitive with high school students from around the globe. The fruits of the tax incentives to lure film production will demonstrate that this effort has and will help local communiteis and the hospitality industry.
Dan,
Thanks for the opportunity to thank Jennifer for her governing at a most difficult time for Michigan. I applaud her and will miss her leadership. I wish you both the very best. Merry Christmas and God bless you now and as you contemplate your future.
Gov. Granholm has done an outstanding job leading Michigan for the term of her office. She couldn’t have been elected to a more challenging time, save the Great Depression. As a Michigan native of 61 years, recent retiree, MSU honors grad, college administrator, leadership consultant, Girl’s State participant, award winning 4-H member and volunteer, Girl Scout Leader, community school volunteer, taxpayer /property owner, Roman Catholic, spouse of 40 years, parent, daughter, voter, cancer survivor, hospital chaplain, and thoughtful citizen of Michigan and the US., Gov. Granholm is also my hero(ine). I am proud to say I helped elect her and sad she only served 2 terms. Best wishes for her future leadership endeavors!
Terry, the simple fact is that our Federal Government during the glourious Bush years destroyed the economy and his administration did nothing to halt the exodous of jobs from tihis country. Fact: nearly 80-90% of the jobs leaving this state are not those held by unionized employees; jobs are being shipped to Mexiico, China, and India because corporate America owns Congress. You could fill up a storage bin with goods we sell in this country that are made outside of the USA. Those Goods represent jobs that coud be be given to Michigan residents and to Americans living in other states. I know you won’t like reading my comment but Engler and GW’s Economic belief that lower taxes would spur job growth was a fallacy. If that were the case then why did Michigan loose all those jobs in Johhny boy’s last two years in office? Anothr fact: He left office with unemployment at 6.5% and climbing and Jennnifer Granholm with a 1 billion dollar deficit something well recoginized by many pundits who sleep in the halls of the Michigan Legislature.
You cannnot distort reality. Jennifer Granholm had to perform andvanced life support on Michigan thanks to Pappa John. If the media in metro Detroit were honest reporters of truth much more could have been written about the catastrophe that was John Engler and George Bush. Of course the media doesn’t want to dwell on how Engler manipulated the system to make sure he got an obscene pension that probalbly pays him somewhere in the neighborhodd of $200,000 + or the utterly and useless waste of money spent on moving state of Michigan Employees from a building the state owned to one it has to pay about 1$million dollars a month to lease. I hardly call those decisions sound economic policy and an example of good leadership,
Dan, not only are his facts dead wrong but whatever relationship between the Governor and the UAW that was created had nothing to do with foreign companies opening up facilities in the South. Those companies did not want to come to Michigan becasue they could get a sweetheart deal in the South that made union organizingg efforts very difficlult. So ultimately, the American worker decided to reduce his/her standard of living since the workers in the south have chosen to work for companies that would like to manufacture cheap goods.
Dan,
What a beautiful tribute to your wife. She is one in a million. I remember standing on the capital lawn freezing and listening to her warmed up my heart. She has done a lot for Saginaw. It wasn’t her fault Michigan is in this mess. Best of Luck in the future. God Bless you and your family for sharing her with us.
Marti
A couple more things should be said. One person is primarily responsible for Kwame Kilpatrick resigning as mayor of Detroit. That person is Jennifer Granholm. She risked alienating a large portion of her base-but had the courage to do the right thing.
When Michigan was hit with an electrical grid blackout the gov responded so well that even the Detroit News praised her. She also earned high marks for her response to the Benton Harbor riots. Quite a contrast to the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
When Gov. Granholm ran for reelection she was outspent two to one but won handily. The Dems regained the state house that year but just missed winning the state senate when two very close races went the wrong way. That allowed the GOP to employ a Jim DeMint Waterloo strategy to prevent the implementation of much of the governor’s agenda. Then they blamed her for not fixing all the problems!
Gov. Granholm is an excellent speaker and one of her fine speeches was delivered at the Rosa Parks memorial. Unlike Peggy Noonan, I don’t think she looked like a Wicca Priestess. The gov has stated that if there was one remark she could retract it would be the one about being blown away in fifve years. I will always remember the line from a speech she gave at a dinner in Washington: “Sarah Palin has given hot governors a bad name.”
Good luck Dan and Jennifer,
Dave Hochman
Dave an excellent review. Appparently, her critics cannot recall strengths and accomplishments which you highlighted. The Senate Republicans and the entirety of their party had no intention of cooperating with the Governor on anything that would have been tallies on her scoreboard. Brooks Patterson’s latest broadside against the Governor is a testiment of the origination of “Pin The Tale On The Donkey”. Obviously he couldn’t criticize the debacle of the Engler Years.