Recently Carly Fiorina gave an inspirational talk on leadership. Here are some notes:
The former chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) was in East Palo Alto, CA to speak with legal and business professionals on her experiences at HP, human nature, and the status of women in the workplace.
She was introduced by Larry Sonsini, the chairman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, LLP, her legal advisor during the Compaq Computer acquisition.
She indicated that leadership had nothing to do with titles, and was something that could be possessed by anyone with character, capability, and collaboration. She mentioned that one could not always control circumstances, but could choose how to respond to negative situations, not as a victim, but as a catalyst for change. She gave examples of events in her work experiences, such as times when she was aware that people posted harsh criticisms of her on public message boards. She was able to laugh at the messages, and understand that sometimes people's opinions were the result of uncomfort, such as having to work with people who differed from them, or fearing events that were not part of their historic experiences. She stated that in the end, history has shown that the many usually wins out the few, and the future usually wins out the past.
She made observations of human nature, and explained how sometimes misjudgements may be made of people because of subjectivity. Sometimes relationships do not work out because of mistrust. Sometimes the wrong people are trusted. Sometimes the right people are not trusted soon enough. Sometimes people's abilities are underestimated.
She closed by stating that changes in the workplace occur when people are given chances though having no prior experiences, and that this is something to be thankful for.
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