LEADER of the FUTURE by Alan Mulally

“Well, I remember one wonderful phone call that I received from Frances and she said that she would like me to be her first ‘Leader of the Future—’ a recognition that she was establishing with the Leader to Leader Institute [The Frances Hesselbein Institute]. And I remember saying to Frances—‘You are asking me to be your first leader of the future?’ And I just—think I even said that—‘I don't think I'm ready for that yet, and I have a lot of leading to do and a lot of learning to learn’. And she just shared with me what she thought about my leadership and the contributions I was making at Boeing and now at Ford. And just so important for so many people, so important for our country.

And you know, I remember just being very thoughtful about whether I was ready for that, and she—again she said, ‘Alan, you're ready for it, and I'd like to recognize you as a first leader for the future.’ And I accepted and we attended the event and I had my family with me and I remember that I—I just shared with everybody the phone call—what it meant, why Frances told me she was recognizing me. And I didn't have any notes. I just shared with everybody what I thought. And I remember Frances coming up to me afterwards and said, ‘That was just fantastic—that's leadership by example. You're speaking from your heart and you have exceeded my expectations.’ And I remember thinking, wow, that was pretty special.”