they have been vice presidents, governors or generals. over the last century, only two before president obama have come directly from the legislature. john f. kennedy and warren harding. does this matter? after all, most people think of john f. kennedy as a very good president, and at any rate, a man who vigorously exercised executive power. it president obama's background the right one in an age where negotiations are inevitable and compromise is essential? or is he too weak as a president? to answer these questions intelligently we need ask ourselves what makes a good leader, what makes a great leader? i think the answer will vary widely depending on the time and place. after all, the qualities that made general george patton a successful head of the third army are probably not the same as those that will help a managing partner in a law firm lead his team in new york. max vaber famously made distinctions between charismatic leaders, authoritarian leaders and bureaucratic leaders. charismatic leaders inspire, authoritarian ones command, and bureaucratic ones manage. i would add a fourth, a collegial leader, one who leads by persuasion. when i travel around the country and around the world, there's one thing people often want to know. they say to me, "you meet so many people who run things, countries, companies, government agencies. what strikes you as the best qualities of a leader?" so on today's special we'll explore exactly that. we'll help you think through what makes a good leader by listening to some of the people who have led in various fields. you will find that they emphasize different aspects of leaderships. some have tasks that require more command, others more persuasion. but perhaps the truth is that to succeed in any of these positions, one needs a mix of all these qualities. the leaders you're about to meet are admiral michael mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs, president obama's top military adviser, and the top man in uniform in the u.s. military. he offers his ideas on not just how to lead but how to command. richard levin, the president of yale university and one of the top economists in the nation. he has few of the tools that corporate leaders have. he can't fire professors, doesn't really hire them, the students are not his employ ease either, but he has to lead them all through example and persuasion. lou gerstner, who has led some of america's biggest companies. a turnaround king who took losing companies and turned them into winners. he will tell us how to succeed in a crisis. christie whitman, first female governor of new jersey. a member of george w. bush's cabinet. how does a woman lead in what is still a male-dominated world? whitman will tell us. first up, he led a nation of more than 60 million people for more than ten years. former british prime minister tony blair on the highest levels of leadership. prime minister blair, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure, fareed. >> do you think that political leadership is different from leadership in the military, business spheres? is there something unique about the nature of politics? >> no. i think this is interesting, actually, because in my view, no. when i think of the great leaders that i know, i won't just think of political leaders. i will think of business leaders. i will think of leaders of community organizations. i will think of, you know, of a few managers of soccer clubs i know. the coaches at some of those clubs, they're great leaders. >> what's the common trait? >> the common trait is a clear sense of what you want to achieve, the ability to step up and step out and not step back when responsibility comes knocking, and a willingness to do things that are difficult, even unpopular, but you believe in them so you're going to do them. if you take any organization, you know, the people that make the change and get the thing done are usually creative and innovative and very determined and are prepared to -- when that mantel of responsibility is floating by, to take it and put it on your shoulders no matter how heavy it is. and that is a very -- i actually think sometimes political leaders think that politics is unique. i don't think it is actually. i think leadership is a quality you recognize, you know, whatever sphere of life you're in. >> but here's one area where it does have some differences. you need to be -- you need public approval at periodic intervals. you're re-elected. >> helps. >> and so doing something unpopular is very tough. i think it's much tougher for a politician. it's easy for businessmen to say politicians should do unpopular things. they don't have to run for re-election. but you did, and you still ended up doing something, the iraq war, that was extremely unpopular. did you find that it sapped your will to know that what you were doing was something that 70% of the british people thought was a bad idea? >> look, you've got to take account of that in the work that you do. although, i would actually say, again, in any leadership position, i mean, the stakes are different, obviously, in politics especially, talking about war and peace and so on. but, you know, business person, if they mess up their leadership, they pay this -- stockholders come after them or, you know, the fans come after you, you're running a football club. i think everyone has a system of accountability. but here's the thing because even after iraq i've won a general election. i do think that part of being a leader is to understand that there is a very deliberative process on behalf of the electorate where they're giving the leadership to you. and it's a funny thing about this. they will forgive you anything -- in fact, they may even forgive you a decision they profoundly disagree with, but they won't forgive you for not deciding, you know. in other words, strength and conviction in leadership is very, very important. and, you know, if they think you're out there and you're doing what you think is right, even if they disagree with it, they will give you a certain understanding actually, and i found that even in the most difficult things and when i was doing domestic reform, and i came close to losing my premiership over education reform -- >> again, something you took on that was quite unpopular. >> yeah, very unpopular in certain quarters, at least. and, you know, i found that people though, they kind of think, well, that's what we elected you to do. so okay, we may not like it and i was always very frank about this. i said, look, what i believe i owe you as the decision-maker is the decision that i think is right. if you disagree, you have the right to put me out. people often say to politicians listen to the people. the problem is, they don't agree, okay? so, you know, who do i listen -- that's not the way it can work. of course, you should listen to both sides, you listen to people. in the end, the whole purpose of them giving you this mantel of leadership is to do something different. >> is there something about leadership at the level that you customered it? because it's public, it's global. every half sentence you utter becomes global news. does that scrutiny change the nature of leadership? >> i think it does because it puts you in a situation where the entire time you're on show and, you know, i always used to say to people when -- even margaret thatcher was british prime minister, she would do an interaction with the press every so often even as a matter of choice. even when i was prime minister, a few times a week you'd be interacting. so you're on a far different media environment. your agenda is far busier. for example, in europe you've got european council meetings the whole time. you've got global meetings. a lot of the challenges of global, it's sensible to have global meetings. but the public back home often doesn't really understand that and kind of thinks what's the prime minister or president do, but other thing is, it's -- then it gets quite tough to find the time and the energy for strategic thought. >> which is the more important part you think for a leader or was it both important? the painting a picture, the creating a narrative -- you know, the big picture, giving people a sense of where you're going, or is it the nitty-gritty of actually changing these very hard-to-change systems like education? which did you find more important? >> well, both, i'm afraid. the short answer is both. i think the latter, getting policy right, is the toughest thing, though. you know, if you're smart and articulate and so on, you can usually articulate the vision. you know, you know basically where you want to go. the hard thing about the modern world is how to do it. you know, most -- >> it's because these institutions have become so large and have so many constituencies? >> yeah, and because you're taking on vested interests, systems that have grown up over a long period of time because the world changes so fast. i mean, part of the trouble is, that you know, countries -- this is why it's so important to have a country with enough sort of freedom in it so that it innovates constantly because the nature of the modern world is that it's changing so fast. so whether you're in a business or an organization or leading a country, you're constantly changing and reforming. and so i've found what was very difficult in the uk, because people said to me, particularly towards the end of my time, that enough of all of this change. why do you keep telling us that we've got to change again? you know, let's keep steady for a bit. my experience of change is this. when you propose it, everyone tells you it's a bad idea. when you're doing it, it's hell. and after you've done, it people think things were always like that. and so what i've found by the end of my time was that i was always wishing that i'd actually pushed the envelope further. and i think, you know, that it's really tough to make policy changes in government today, but one piece of good news for political leaders, at least, is i think what governments should be doing today is pretty clear. doing it's still very hard. but if you look around the world today, say health care reform, education reform -- >> physical. >> business, yeah, fiscal reform, there are some pretty clear lessons there. >> tony blair, pleasure to have you. >> thank you. >> so you just can't go out and paint a picture of, my god, it's awful, it's awful. we're going to die, and then people say, that's nice, but what are you doing here? what is your role? 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[ female announcer ] certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, reduce the effect of plavix leaving you at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. your doctor may use genetic tests to determine treatment. don't stop taking plavix without talking to your doctor as your risk of heart attack or stroke may increase. people with stomach ulcers or conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. tell your doctor all medicines you take, including aspirin, especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. we're back with a special edition of "gps, how to lead." if true tests of leadership come during crisis, then lou gerstner has been tested many times. he's been president of american express, chairman and ceo of rjr nabisco, but perhaps his biggest test came at ibm. when gerstner took over big blue in 1993, the american icon was on the road to failure. the day he took over, ibm had $8 billion in losses. the year he left, ibm had $8 billion in profits, and it had become world class once again. lou gerstner on what kills he needed to effect that kind of turnaround. lou gerstner, pleasure to have you. >> thank you. glad to be here. >> you've turned three companies around, but you also work at a management consulting firm. you're mckinsey, rjr, american express, ibm. ibm is the most famous turnaround where you made an elephant dance as you described it. how do you get people to do what you want them to? >> well, i think you start off with -- i mean, i start off with my definition of leadership which is leaders get people to do things they otherwise wouldn't do. so leadership, in my opinion, is all about change. you know, you don't need a leader to sort of administer something that's going very well. in fact, in one sense, an overly ambitious person in that circumstance can probably screw it up. but leadership comes to the fore when something has to change. and i think that it begins, it begins with creating a sense of urgency. it begins with creating a sense of purpose. a need to change because nobody wants to change. nobody -- i don't care who you are. high levels of an organization, maybe the young people are more attuned to change. so leaders create a sense of urgency and a sense of direction. >> and that's a power of persuasion, right? >> yes. >> because you have to make your case, as it were. >> it's about communication. it's about honesty. it's about treating people in the organization as deserving to know the facts. you don't try to give them half the story. you don't try to hide the story. you treat them as -- as true equals, and you commune kate, and you commune kate and you communicate. i probably spent 50% of my time in the first six months at ibm talking to people about the need for ibm to do something different. >> did you paint the real picture, which was that ibm was on its way to a kind of potential extinction? >> yes, i did. but i also painted the picture that there was a huge opportunity for us to be a leader again if we did things differently. so you just can't go out and paint a picture of, my god, it's awful. it's awful. it's awful. we're going to die. and then people say, that's nice, but what are you doing here? what is your role? so you need to create a sense of urgency. but along with that you need to create a sense of hope and direction for the future. and then -- and this is the most important part -- and then you have to make sure that everything that happens in that organization is aligned with that new direction. >> when you look at a person, middle, senior management, average guy, they're scared of change, as you said. but they're also scared of being the revolutionary. so you're asking them to do things differently, and they're wondering, wait a minute, but whenever i've -- i've had a standard operating procedure, i've done my job well. now i'm being asked to do something completely different. how do you convince them that -- you know because you're just one guy in this big organization. everybody else might still be aligned to the old way. >> but you see, that's what i mean about changing the processes that say to them that we're going to behave differently. and therefore, it's allowable, and not only allowable, expected for you to behave differently. so one of the things that i needed to build in ibm because of the strategy we created was an ability to team inside of ibm, an ability to work as a team across the business unit. well, i found out that the compensation system was based entirely on individual performance. it was all individual performance. so i changed the compensation system so people got rewarded only for a team effort. well, that sort of gives people some incentive to change. they now see that the rules have changed. the system has changed. >> machiavelli once said it is better to be feared than loved. some people have said your leadership style was more to get people to fear you. is that fair? >> i don't think so. i think what my leadership style is to get people to fear staying in place, to fear not changing. i mean, i love that quote from andy grove that said "only the paranoid succeed" or "only the paranoid survive." i mean, i think you do need some kind of paranoia in an organization that we're in a competitive battle, and we need to stay on top. and you want to call that fear? i'm okay with that. but i don't want people to fear other people. i want them to fear our competitors, and to feel like they need to change and they need to keep driving for success. personal -- personal animosity or personal fear gets you nowhere. on the other hand, i don't think you can have a great need to be loved and be an effective change agent. i mean, you do have to make tough decisions. you do have to in effect tell people that things aren't the way they used to be, and i'm responsible for seeing that change gets made and hold people accountable. >> lou gerstner, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. i'd be in a meeting and be the only femalthere. i would say something, and the conversation would continue and a man down the table would say the same thing. brilliant idea. it's okay, as long as they got the idea, it's all right by me. well, i can't breathe. did you try blowing your nose? 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>> i wouldn't know. i've never been a man. i don't mean to say that facetiously, but i used to get the question a lot what's it like to be a woman governor? i would say, "i can tell you what it's like to be a governor, i don't know what it's like to be a woman versus a male." having said that, being out of office for a while, i can look back and see where i was treated differently or the standards were slightly different than they would have been for my male counterparts. but, you know, when you're going through it, you are what you are and the job is what it is, and you have to do it. >> but do you think there are different styles of leadership? because you -- >> yeah. >> you must have dealt with a lot of men. and you've seen the differences. >> yes, no, that's very true. i think there really are differences, which is why i argue that we need a better mix at the decision-making table, not just men and women, but minorities as well, because we do bring a different approach, different life experiences, different frames of reference. i mean, i've often found, and the minute you generalize you get into trouble, but it was often the case when i'd be in a meeting, and i'd be the only female there, and i would say something and the conversation would condition -- would continue on and a man down the table would say the same thing and they would go great idea, okay, right. it's okay. as long they got the idea, it's all right by me. >> and what about the idea that there is a kind of a softer style and a more concensus-building style? do you think that's true? >> yeah, i do. i mean, there used to be -- mill sent fenwick was a congresswoman from new jersey, the lacey davenport on the cartoon series, used to say -- when women have been in power as long as men, they'll act just the same way. i don't think that's true. i think we will always see a difference. and i used to remember i'd send a bill as governor to the legislature. and they would deal with it as they're supposed to. and they'd make changes, and then it would come back to me with changes, and i'd sign t.fs and i can remember seeing headlines say, well, it wasn't what she wanted. that's not true. if we finally were moving an issue forward, didn't have to be exactly the way i'd sent it in. that's what the legislature's supposed to do. that was not a loss, as far as i was concerned. that was a victory. that was getting things done, moving into a place we hadn't been before. a place we hadn't been before. very often the pundits, usually male, would be saying, well, that didn't get what you wanted it. that wasn't a victory. i would say, you don't get it. >> you know the famous story of harry truman? >> the buck stops here? >> no, he's -- harry truman, when he's about to hand over the office to eisenhower, tells one of his aides, he said, "poor ike. all he's done is be a general. he's going to pick up the phone and say do this, do that, and he's not going to realize none of it's ever going to happen." do you feel like that's another difference that in politics you can't just command. >> no, you can't just command. you have to get people -- it goes back to a definition of leadership that i always liked which is leadership is getting other people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. and that's what it takes. you have to convince people. you have to work with people. you have to get people to support you on these things. you have to get them to understand, communication becomes enormously important. while it's important for the ceo of a major company, it's even more so for a person in political office because it's a daily thing. and it does require getting that support. >> you're constantly persuading. >> you're constantly persuading. you're constantly explaining. you're constantly trying to prioritize. the other thing that i think is quite different, you know, as ceo you do decide what's in the best interests of your company and what's in the best interests of the shareholders. it's not the same thing as when you're coming up with a policy in government. getting to understand the fact that there are always going to be people you're going to hurt, no matter how good a policy is, it's not going to benefit everybody. and you will have people coming to you saying, this is going to kill me, this is going to put me out of business, this is going to hurt my children, whatever it is. and it's that ability to stand back and say, what's going to be the greatest good for the greatest number? >> do you think there are still glass ceilings for women in america? >> you can still see it in the business side. for women in politics, it's fortunately breaking down a bit. but it's still there more in presumptions. it's interesting. my daughter ran for congress, and she's a mother. she was 30. she had twin boys who were young at the time, very young. and -- she worked on capitol hill, she'd been communications director for a pretty prominent congressman. she'd worked at the department of labor, running programs for them. she'd had her own business, management consulting business, events planning. she was a licensed realtor in the state of new jersey. and yet, when she ran, people would look at her and say, well, you don't have enough experience. and who's going to take care of the kids. yet, the fellow whose seat she was seeking had been 30 when he'd run, he had young children, and he'd been a substitute teacher. and nobody said "you don't have enough experience" or "who's going to take care of the children"? there's still that bias that does create a ceiling of expectations, and it makes it tougher on women. but it's breaking down, fortunately. business world not so much. we still don't have pay equity. but it's getting better. just taking a long time. >> governor whitman, thank you very much. >> pleasure. >> this notion of a common shared purpose actually makes it -- makes it, you know, it's in truth easier to run a university than to run the united states of america. i don't think there's any question that president obama has a much harder job than i do. and like that, we had a new side to our business. 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>> it's not the easiest job in the world, i'll tell you. but one of the things that brings a university together is there really is a common commitment to a shared set of values about the importance of the advancement of knowledge and the importance of a scholarly ent priss and about the importance of educating young people. so in some ways people talk about academic politics being the most vicious around because the stakes are so small. i don't think that's really true. i think underneath it there is a kind of common sense, a purpose that if you can draw on that and inspire people and convince them we're all marching in the same direction and have good things to accomplish, you can succeed in keeping the community from being excessively fractured. >> but do you think a great deal of your job then is painting that picture, describing that common vision so people buy into it? >> absolutely. in fact, key thing, i think, for a university leader, any leader but a university leader in particular is, i think, to give a clear sense of direction to the institution, a clear vision. if you appear to be at ease, all the disharmonious things will surface, everyone will be out for his or her own agenda. if you can convey a handful of themes, it won't entirely suppress the spirits of the faculty, but it will at least give people the sense that the institution as a whole is moving forward. we tried to do that at yale over these last 17 1/2 years, to identify a few themes that have been paramount and to pursue them. >> you've led yale through extraordinary expansion, huge growth of its endowment, huge expansion of the facilities. you've also had to lead it through some painful cost-cutting, hundreds of millions of dollars. what is the key on the downturn, managing through a crisis? >> it is so much easier sailing with the wind at your back than sailing into the wind, there's no question. and i do think, you know, the fact that we've had an extraordinary run of good fortune and if -- i think if we have to tighten our belts, as long the burden is fairly distributed amongst us, we could do it. i think we've managed to maintain a pretty high morale through this. it's not perfect, and it's hard, and people do their -- they're chomping at the bit wanting to get moving again. but we're -- i think we're doing pretty well adjusting to a time when we simply can't grow as rapidly or expand as rapidly or take on new initiatives as vigorously as we did in the ten years or so prior to the recession. >> how much does a leader like you consult or try to get the approval, or, you know, think about being popular because one of the decisions you have taken was to expand yale college. and somebody once put it this way, when looking at the reaction of the students, which was initially negative. it was like, if you're a member of a club and somebody says we're going to double the membership, nobody -- none of the existing members like the idea. >> right. >> how much do you worry about the existing members? >> well, you do. you try to persuade as much possible, and -- but you can't always persuade everyone and sometimes you have to reach the right decision that's in the best interest of the institution even if everybody's not on board. >> when you manage, a lot of what universities have to do is do stuff by committee. and you know what people say about committees, this is -- you know, camel is a horse designed by a committee. how do you make committee management work? how do you make it end up getting you the outcome you want even though it was done by a committee? >> well, this is an imperfect, an imperfect activity. academics are very smart people, and they have a very independent mind and you can't always be assured that the outcome will come out the way you want. one of the things that i think's important in guiding an institution like a university is to differentiate clearly and to have a clear sense of what you need to get the faculty to buy into it and indeed to own as their own decision and what you can do of your own initiative as a university president or a dean of a school. and there are clear distinctions. the two prerogatives the faculty guard most callously and are embedded into the written and unwritten constitution of most universities is the faculty control curriculum and the faculty control appointments to the faculty. so you have to be very cautious about your attempt to move and have influence in those areas. but you can -- outside those areas of curriculum and faculty appointments, you have a lot more latitude to sort of change the direction of the institution. >> the leadership style you're describing seems to me to be a lot of persuasion, cooperation, a lot of working with others. this strikes me as very well suited to washington. wouldn't you say that -- where sort of everyone think they're the boss and nobody really is. do you think that this is something you'd like to see more in washington, this kind of leadership by persuasion? >> well, i think that probably is the only way people do lead in washington is through persuasion, ultimately. i mean, you can't -- we, fortunately, our constitution doesn't permit leading by dictate, so i think there are similarities. i think there are -- you know, the difference is that the stakes are higher in washington, and they're fundamental, both economic and ideological differences that run much deeper than they do within the uns community so the notion of a common shared purpose makes it, you know, it's in truth easier to run a university than it is to run the united states of america. i don't think there's any question that president obama has a much harder job than i do. >> rick levin, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> one of the things that has been a leadership principle for me forever is i don't want -- i want to understand as much as i can about what i'm asking a young man or a young woman to do, including to die for our country. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some people just know how to build things well. give you and your loved ones an expertly engineered mercedes-benz... ho ho ho! 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[ female announcer ] make the retirement cornerstone annuity from axa equitable part of your retirement plan. consider the charges, risks, expenses and investment objectives before purchasing a variable annuity. contact a financial professional for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. whoo hoo! here's a look at our top stories. r & b singer teena marie has died. marie was a grammy-nominated artist and protege of the great funk legend rick james. she began her career with motown records in the 1970s and had a hit with the song "lover girl" in 1974. marie was noted for her success as a white performer in r & b music. teena marie was 454 years old. a brutal winter storm is slowing traffic to a crawl in the northeast. cancellations for american, continental and delta airlines are totaling 100 flights so far. many airlines are waiving penalties for people who have to reschedule and amtrak has cancelled service in some areas and the nfl has postponed the eagles/vikings game. take a look at lincoln financial field and you can see why. that's a look at headlines now. now back to "how to lead," a special edition of fareed zakaria gps. that's after the break. welcome back to a special edition of "gps," "how to lead." in admiral mike mullen's current job as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he's the principle military adviser to the president and the highest ranking officer in the entire u.s. military. in that role, as he says, he doesn't command anything, but most of his career has been about commanding, dozens of ships and tens of thousands of sailors. his first taste of it came when he was just 27 years old and found himself in charge of a ship in the mediterranean during the 1973 war in the middle east. what does it take to lead men and women in war and in peace? admiral mike mullen. how do you get people to listen to you? is it all about command, that you just have that authority? you say it, they tremble and do it? >> well, the navy has a wonderful tradition. the captain of the ship is the captain of the ship. and certainly i don't subscribe to just being the captain means you're automatically a great leader because that's not always the case. but in the toughest situations i've ever been in, the single most important aspect of who i am or who somebody else is is leadership. and i find great leaders who emerge in crises that sometimes surprise people. and our toughest problems are solved by leadership. so i've worked very hard to become a good leader, to understand it, and as i become more senior, as i am now, one of the things i worry about the most is how do i stay in touch with those that i affect the most. i'm a vietnam vet, so i was here when men and women came back from vietnam and were not well received by the american people. so i am focused on the hardest part of these wars. so -- >> which is? >> which is the young men and women who come home to dover. debra and i go to dover to meet those families and to face the most difficult part of it. we attend the funerals at arlington. we meet with spouses of the fallen, families of the fallen. >> and all this sends a signal to the troops in the field that you will be there for them. >> well, and i certainly intend to be there for them. and i meet them in the field. i try -- local commanders in afghanistan around iraq don't necessarily want me out in the middle of the fight, and i can understand that. but when i visit, i try to get as far into that as i can because one of the thing that's been a leadership principle for me forever is i don't want -- i want to understand as much as i can about what i'm asking a young man or a young woman to do, including to die for our country. that's -- that's just in my soul. i need to do that. so i push the envelope pretty hard with respect to that because i feel responsible for that. i feel accountable for their lives, and that goes back to accountability that i learned very young as a naval officer. >> you have another -- a part of leadership which is, i would say, more horizontal. you've got a whole bunch of people at the joint chiefs of staff, the head of the army, the head of the navy, senior generals, admirals. and these are people, i'm assuming, you don't just bark orders to. these are people you have to persuade. i'm guessing that relationship is more a political one, not in a bad sense but in the sense of persuasion. >> this is our tenth year of war. we live in extraordinarily difficult and complex times that are unpredictable in so many ways. and i couldn't do it without the team, so i do work hard to try to influence them. i do work hard to listen to them. one of -- another thing that i try to subscribe to, particularly as i've gotten more senior, is listening, learning, and leading, and so the more senior i've become, the more i try to listen to others and to see challenges and problems through other people's eyes. whether they are service chiefs, combat commanders, or in fact military leaders throughout the world, so i've worked hard to bring that team together, to understand them, and at the same time, i'm not shy at all about here we go. this is what we're going to do, and i have found them to be incredibly supportive of where we're headed, particularly in these wars and in ways that actually give me great comfort that it's a -- it's a great leadership team in an extraordinarily difficult time. >> when you see a young officer in the field, what is the quality that he or she has that makes you think this is a potential leader? how do you spot leadership? >> well, they're pretty clear-eyed. they're pretty frank with what's going on. they'll look me in the eye, and they won't be shy about what they're telling me. i get asked an awful lot about the future of our military. and if i'm concerned about one group in our military right now, it would be those young captains and lieutenants, those young mid-grade non-commissioned officers who have been through these wars, and they are the most combat experienced force we've had in our history. they are exceptional in what they've done, and if we retain them in our military in the right proportion, the right numbers, then our military is going to be fine for the future, and it's going to be fine because they will lead us. if we don't do that, i think our future is much more difficult. and this at a time where they and their families have sacrificed so much. so it's pretty easy when i meet young officers or mid-grade ncos to say very quickly, particularly in these very raw combat environments, to say very quickly, this is somebody that's pretty special from a leadership standpoint. >> admiral mullen, thank you very much. >> thanks, if a -- fareed. >> the thing i learned the most is that if you really want to drive change, you have to understand what makes people tick. what do they value? 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[ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses at achievewhatsahead.com. on this special edition of "gps, how to lead," we've gathered some top leaders in their fields. so what's the best advice they have to offer on how to lead? that's what i asked them. >> if you really want to create change or you want to lead something, you need to understand the culture of that institution and why people behave the way they do, how they think they should behave, how they're rewarded, what they value, and those -- that sort of understanding to me i under valued early in my career. i mean, i just thought, you know, it was just figure out what to do and go put the resources in place and let's go. and it wasn't until i really understood what had happened to ibm. ibm lost touch with its customers. it became so full that ibm focused on inside, inside ibm instead of outside ibm. that's behavior. so i would say to you that the thing i learned the most is if you really want to drive change, you have to understand what is makes people tick. what do they value? what do they do, and what makes them come to work every day and do the things they do? >> have strong vision, communicate it clearly. set goals that are ambitious but not unrealistic. set goals that people can imagine reaching, rather than overreaching. so that sometimes means going step by step toward an ultimate goal. and -- and i think empower people. nobody can run a complicated institution all alone. so it's really important to pick a great team and to empower them to do their jobs. >> make sure you know your people and that you take good care of them and make sure that you under all circumstances can look yourself in the mirror every single day, and that your integrity is always intact and hold yourself accountable. hold yourself accountable for yourself, yourct