Leadership Journey by Philip Morris

Well, this weekend was an incredible experience. I went with the Eli Broad scholars to a leadership journey sponsored by Philip Morris, and I must say it was much more than I had expected. First surprise of the day...we're staying at the Westin and we each get our own rooms.It was quite a nice room, with my very own king size bed, and a big plasma TV, it was quite an experience to say the least. However, the room was not the reason we went to Southfield, we went to learn about leadership, and Philip Morris really knows how to teach leadership. I'll admit I was skeptical about going on this leadership journey which was paid for mostly by cigarettes, but I feel better about it afterward.
They did not avoid the topic at all, they were very ready to talk about the issue. At one point, one of the District Managers said "Do you have any questions about the company? It can be the good stuff or the bad stuff; I don't know if you've heard...but we make cigarettes." We discussed some of the issues that they face with rising health consciousness, and what they are doing to try to sell cigarettes as responsibly as possible (I still don't think it's possible to sell cigarettes responsibly) There are a new type of smokeless cigarette called Snus that are available in Dallas I believe, that should be nice for cutting down second hand smoke.
Anyway, the journey was not about Philip Morris either, it was all about leadership. We learned different techniques and thoughts about what leadership is, and what makes a good leader. One of the people we talked about the most was Sir Shackleton; he led a journey to Antarctica to try to cross the land continent. When he got stuck in ice, they changed the plan to try to get home, instead of cross the continent. After like 2 years, and MANY risks, including riding 800 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island in a tiny rescue boat (a journey that he should have gotten lost on, since there was no land in between, and therefore, no landmarks) he eventually got every single man out alive. I felt he was a good leader as far as compensating for a poor decision in the first place. One of the DM's Mark Barton felt he was a poor leader who made a bad decision, who then became a very good manager. There is a difference between a leader and a manager, he said.
We also discussed various other aspects of leadership which I won't bore you with right now, but it was really inspiring to hear some other aspects of leadership that I would not normally have thought of. The biggest aspect is that a leadership not only deals with how the leader treats the followers, but how the followers treat the leader. I just always thought a good leader knew how to lead, I didn't really think about the fact that he/she needs a good follower.
Anyway, there was MUCH more to it, but for now, that will have to do. If you want some more details, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll let you know what we talked about; it's simply too difficult to put it all into words, since it took a day and a half.