Diamonds and Digital Files

I’m a fairly good archivist. Today I happened to be rooting around some old files from college, and found (amongst other things I’m not going to share here) a paper I wrote in 1999 about the leadership style of Thomas J. Watson of IBM. I concluded with this summary that perhaps is still relevant today?

• One of the most effective ways for a leader to build a cohesive team is to create an organizational culture that binds the employees together.
• Having a vision for an organization is important, but being able to motivate others to get behind the vision is even more important.
• Kindness shown to followers goes a long way towards developing loyalty and trust.
• An autocratic leadership style can be very effective if interpersonal relationships are not ignored.
• A good leader must not fall into the trap of wanting recognition.

I can mostly still agree, though that bit about autocracy makes me wonder.

Quasi-related factoid: I remember this class well because I pulled an all-nighter right before the final, not to study, but to drive across the state to the Lennox Theater in Columbus to watch The Phantom Menace at midnight. Good times, but a poor choice in retrospect.