#083 Klaus Kleinfeld: How to Lead Fortune 500 Companies, Manage Energy, Inspire Teams

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:24) - Watching the moon landing

(00:07:32) - Klaus’ career

(00:10:08) - Why Klaus wrote Leading To Thrive

(00:15:13) - Energy management, not time management

(00:19:37) - How do you implement these tactics in business?

(00:23:46) - Spiritual energy

(00:37:36) - Managing energy for life, work, and family & business

(00:54:52) - Instilling purpose as a leader

(01:04:59) - How do you approach balancing stakeholders?

(01:07:50) - What do you look for when building a team?

(01:12:01) - Closing advice

Links:

Leading to Thrive by Klaus Kleinfeld

Klaus on LinkedIn

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Here’s what we explored in the episode:

• Watching the moon landing as a child from East Germany inspired Klaus’ lifelong belief in the strength of human innovation.
• Shifting from time management to energy management.
• Finding your purpose is like "focusing a laser" that channels diffuse energy to achieve extraordinary results.
• From observing professional tennis players, Klaus learned how mental toughness and micro-recharges help maintain peak performance.
• Controlled breathing is a simple but powerful tool to manage emotions and maintain focus during high-pressure moments.
• Klaus helped transform and restore purpose to Siemens’ struggling angiography division with the most impactful team meeting you can imagine. 
• Aligning a team's work with a meaningful purpose motivates teams and improves long-term performance.
• His book was born from a desire to share lessons with young leaders, his daughters, and others seeking balance and performance.
• Creating memorable moments with his family helped Klaus maintain strong relationships despite a demanding career.
• You can instill urgency and align teams by clearly communicating that a situation absolutely requires change.

Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.  

Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.