Jamie Ramsden is the CEO of Goodridge USA which is an automotive company that supplies high performance products to the automotive and racing industry. Jamie is a Certified Executive Leadership Coach and ad hoc faculty member at the Center of Creative Leadership. Jamie also manages his own consulting firm, Adastra Consulting, which specializes in the development of executive talent and leadership potential.
Here are my 5 questions with Jamie and his answers:
1) If you only had a minute to sum up what leadership means to you, what would be your answer?
During my ongoing study of leadership, I have always been struck by how many authors focus on a) the traits of the leader or b) the inter-relationship between leader and context, or between leader and followers. For the 19th and 20th century this was an adequate model. However, it is insufficient for the world we live in today. I believe that leadership in its optimal form is based around the relationship between leader, followers and context – a 3-dimensional framework, if you like – if it is to be relevant today.
From a practical standpoint, the successful leader must recognize that he/she represents the goals and dreams of the people who put him/her in their current position and provide a framework for people to develop in four key areas: their sense of self, their sense of community, their sense of meaning (making meaning of the world around them) and their sense of purpose.
2) In researching the subject of leadership have there been one or two authors/experts that have really seemed to capture the essence of leadership for you?
For me, the key text that really opened the door to understanding this rather intangible subject was Warren Bennis’ “On Becoming a Leader”. In it, Bennis stated that “leadership is like beauty, hard to define, but you know it when you see it”.
However, there are many other people who have written knowledgably on the subject from an intellectual standpoint, notably Kouzes and Posner, Boyatzis and McKee and Goleman. If you like your leadership medicine a little stronger then, Welch and Giuliani offer very practical guides. One book that I really love that has an oblique view on the universal essence of human motivation is by Pasternak, “Quest: The Essence of Humanity”. If a leader wants to understand human motivation there is no better book.
3) Like a talented singer, or a fast runner, do you tend to believe that exceptional leaders are born with a gift, or do you believe leadership is primarily a skill that can be developed by anyone?
One fascinating theme that came out of my original research was that people in leadership roles normally define their leadership style by studying what NOT to do from their previous bosses, rather than what they should be doing. It was very clear that there are not many models out there. Most importantly, every person I spoke to about the subject stated that leadership for them was more commonly defined by people outside of their working world i.e. family, friends, social leaders, etc.
This led me to the conclusion that leadership is an every day event. As a parent, you have to show leadership, as a friend you have moments that lend themselves to leadership, as captain of your local soccer team, or chair of the mom’s club, or as a sponsored athlete, or within your church group or chess club, people are demonstrating leadership every day. Once I realized this, I felt like I had fallen into a gold mine. We are all leaders and we are all followers – it simply depends on the context!
The point about the publishing world is that they have missed the obvious target of every day leadership, which is where most people derive their inspiration. They instead focus on spurious titles such as “Jesus, CEO” or “The Leadership secrets of (Insert CEO Here)” that really adds nothing to the understanding of the subject.
4) You have acquired significant success in business in a relatively short amount of time, how much do believe that this can be attributed to the attention you have paid to the subject of leadership?
Well, I am a relatively young CEO, but that is probably due to 2 parts hard work, 2 parts dedication and 8 parts good fortune (oh, and a long-suffering and supportive wife!). The key thing to understand is that unless you are prepared to challenge yourself, look like a fool most of the time, admit that you don’t know what the hell you are doing some of the time and most critically LEARN from your mistakes, you can never be the best in whatever you are doing, be it CEO or anything else.
The format that I have developed into a book talks about a leader as a Role Model, a Community Builder, a Sense Maker and a Dream Enabler. This has certainly helped me make sense of the world but I don’t for a minute think that it will work for everyone. As John Lennon once said “Whatever gets you through the night, it’s alright”.
5) You are currently writing a book on leadership. What do you hope people will get out of your book and when will it be available?
Probably 70% of my job at work is helping people make sense of the world. Is this threat real? Is this person ready to jump? How does this tactic fall in line with our overall strategy? Why has person x done such-or-such a thing? I hope that my book and the framework contained within will allow people to make better sense of a small portion of their lives, not just from a business standpoint, but in many other areas that will ultimately enable them to be the best person that they can be.
I do coaching work at the Center for Creative Leadership. Their mission statement is “to advance the understanding, practice and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide”. My utmost joy would be to see the worldwide community make a small step forward because of some of the thoughts contained in my book. It is entitled “Dream Enablers” and we are in the final stages of negotiation. I’ll let you know when it surfaces…
