Why to Put a Chink in Your Own Armor: Brad Smith (Intuit)
Jul 10, 2024
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Former Intuit CEO Brad Smith shares how vulnerability and failure are key to leadership. He transformed Intuit into a cloud-based platform, emphasized a startup culture, and learned from a $40 million mistake. Smith navigated tough decisions with compassion, evolving the company culture and emphasizing transparency in performance reviews.
Embrace vulnerability to inspire others in leadership roles.
Foster innovation by empowering employees to think and act like entrepreneurs.
Prioritize customer support and transparency during challenging times for successful leadership.
Deep dives
Brad Smith's Leadership Principles
Brad Smith emphasizes the importance of core leadership principles such as working hard, being kind, and taking pride. He believes in not mistaking kindness for weakness and strives to maintain a leadership style that fosters kindness and respect within his team, ensuring that he is remembered as someone who was always kind and respectful.
Transformation of Intuit's Culture
Smith led a significant transformation within Intuit by turning the company into a high-powered cloud-based platform with a startup culture. He focused on reinventing traditional processes, embracing innovative strategies, and fostering an environment that encouraged employees to think and act like entrepreneurs.
Nurturing a Culture of Innovation
Smith implemented strategies to cultivate a culture of innovation within Intuit by empowering all 9,000 employees to be owners, operators, and entrepreneurs. He encouraged experimentation, provided unstructured time for innovation, and recognized and rewarded employees for impactful contributions, motivating them to drive innovation across the company.
Navigating Through Challenges
During the 2008 financial crisis, Smith guided Intuit by prioritizing customer support, lowering prices, and enhancing service levels to help customers through tough times. Despite challenges like layoffs, he maintained transparency, compassion, and a focus on empowering employees, ultimately steering the company successfully through turbulent times.
Learning and Growth as a Leader
Smith's leadership journey involved continual self-improvement and reflection, highlighting the importance of receiving feedback and recognizing personal areas for growth. He emphasized the value of open communication, embracing debate and disagreement, coaching publicly, and focusing on strategic decision-making to enhance leadership effectiveness.
Brad Smith, the former CEO and now Chairman of the Board at Intuit, knows first hand why vulnerability and failure are intrinsic to good leadership. At one point in his career he lost $40 million for a company and then...got promoted. Smith, heavily influenced by his father's wisdom (i.e. "put a chink in your own armor") leaned into the power of authenticity, humility, and vulnerability to inspire others. At Intuit, Smith led the company through one of its most significant transformations, reinventing it into a high-powered cloud-based platform and reigniting a startup culture within a decades-old software firm. In this 2019 conversation, leadership principles meet real-world application. The watchwords? Authenticity and vision.
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