Commitment to Leadership Competencies May 7, 2010
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I thanked the gentleman beside me for asking the question. We were at the Illinois Quad City Chamber’s Executive breakfast this morning and our guest speaker was Murry Gerber, the CEO and Chairman of EQT Corporation. At the end of his informative presentation, John, sitting next to me asked Murry what he looks for in new employees. Murry perked up and said, “I know we’re running low on time, but I really want to answer this one thoroughly.”
He went on to say that one of the things he is most proud of is his commitment to transforming the culture at EQT. Murry became CEO of EQT in 1998 and was elected Chairman in 2000. He said there were two important things they did. One was to make a commitment to hire managers from within the organization. “We’ve tried hiring from outside and it didn’t work. I even hired a few managers from outside and I did a poor job.”
The ability to promote from within requires the second commitment. EQT identified four leadership competencies. “And we’re not just talking about competencies from identified leaders. We’re talking about competencies for anyone in the organization.” The four competencies that he identified were:
1. Be Forthright. Be willing to say what needs to be said at any level of the organization. “If you say it around the water cooler, be willing to say it to the CEO.”
2. Make informed decisions. Use data and use the knowledge of colleagues. He talked about the fact that they didn’t create a number of formal teams, but expect people to create ad hoc discussions with colleagues as necessary.
3. Achieve results. Do what you say you will do.
4. Build Capability. And not just in others. If you supervise people then you should be building capability in yourself as well as in others. If you’re not supervising, then you are still responsible for developing yourself.
Thank you Murry for the inspiration!
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