Leading with Heart: Alan Mulally’s Masterclass in Life, Leadership, and Love

Regarded as one of the strongest corporate leaders of our time, Alan Mulally's legacy is marked by his transformative impact at Boeing and Ford. Under his leadership, Boeing thrived, and Ford not only returned to profitability but also emerged stronger from the Great Recession. This success was no accident; it was the result of Mulally's lifelong commitment to his “Working Together” Leadership & Management System. But as you'll discover, this approach extends far beyond the boardroom—encompassing family, community, and friendships, while addressing the critical challenge of work-life balance and how we show up for those we love.

This is not just a lesson in leadership; it’s a masterclass in living with purpose.

Here is the presentation Alan shares during his discussion: “Working Together”

Or ping me and I'll email the presentation to you: [email protected]

Thanks for listening.

Debra

The Dareful Project podcast

Transcript:

Debra Hotaling (00:00:08):

Hello and welcome to the Dareful Project. I'm Debra Hotaling. I'm joined today for a very special conversation with business leader Alan Mulally. Now Alan is considered one of our strongest corporate leaders, and he has spent his entire professional life developing an approach called “Working Together Leadership and Management System.” And ... I want to quote here, “and it's connected and collaborative culture of love by design to create value for all the stakeholders and the greater good.” He's going to coach us through all of this today.

In addition to Alan, we're also joined by Sarah MacArthur. She's editor in chief of Leader-to-Leader Journal, and she's an advisory member of the Francis Hesselbein Leadership Forum. She's going to keep us organized today because we're running this like a working session so that Alan can coach us through our approach. Welcome, Sarah.

Sarah MacArthur (00:01:08):

Nice to be here.

Debra (00:01:09):

Can we go to the first slide? So throughout his career, Alan has developed and nurtured the Working Together leadership and management system, and he's going to share with us how he developed this approach and as a result, how we can be better parents, leaders, friends, partners and community members. We're going to be sharing slides today, and I'm going to make sure that in our show notes that we share those slides so that you can go back and refer to them again. Sarah, let's go to slide two.

Debra (00:01:52):

So before we dive in a word or two about Alan's professional journey. So he served as president and CEO of Ford Motor Company from 2006 to 2014. And under his leadership, Ford transformed itself into one of the finest automotive companies in the world. And I had the pleasure of working under Alan's leadership during that time. Prior to joining Ford, Alan served as executive vice president for Boeing Company President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and president of Boeing Information Space and Defense Systems. From 1969 to 2006, he was named one of the world's most influential people by Time Magazine. He was named Chief and Executive of the Year by Chief Executive Magazine and he was named number three on Fortune's World's greatest leaders, number three. And he's going to explain to us why being number three is important. He currently serves on the board of directors of Google, carbon 3D and the Mayo Clinic, and he sits with global leaders like he's sitting with us today coaching them on how to embrace working together in their own lives. We're going to learn more about that right now. Alan, welcome.

Alan Mulally (00:03:11):

Well, Debra, thank you so m...