Note: This is part of an ongoing series of articles that mine the Be Epic Podcast for lessons and insights that students and practitioners can apply to their lives as business leaders.
Jeff Simmons runs a global pharmaceutical company, so naturally he’s keenly aware of our present situation. Yet his message amid the chaos is one of optimism, a call for leaders at all levels to dedicate themselves to a purpose that will make the world better.
Like Simmons, you probably know what’s wrong. There’s the pandemic and all that’s come with it – inflation, millions of people resigning from corporate jobs, and challenges wrought by the supply chain, for instance. Add to that the political and social unrest and the fact that many people say they are overwhelmed by worry and anxiety, and you might take a cautious, if not pessimistic, view of the future. But here’s what Simmons, the president and CEO of Elanco Animal Health, told Walton College Dean Matt Waller on a recent episode of the BeEpic podcast: “There couldn’t be a more beautiful time if you are a bold, courageous leader that wants to make a difference in the world.”
The pressing questions, Simmons said, are simple: “Where can you take this world by 2030? … What role can you play in this bigger time of need?”
The questions apply to students, graduates who are just entering the job market, professionals who are looking for a career change, and executives who’ve been leading for decades. And leaders must not only answer those questions for themselves and for their organizations but they must make sure everyone they lead is also answering them for themselves.
This occurred to Simmons several years ago when he was attending a company leadership conference. After two days of what he described as “pretty boring presentations in a ballroom,” there was a question-and-answer session and someone took the microphone and said, “Could somebody up there just tell me a vision of what you personally see in the future that can excite me as I leave here?”
Simmons compared the reaction to slapping the boards in a barn full of turkeys: all the heads in the room rose to attention.
Unfortunately, the response was for the birds.
“All I would say was the response was corporate,” he said. “It was fluffy. It was stiff. And I said to myself, right then at any point in time, if I get asked the question in an elevator, in a ballroom or in a restaurant by an employee that steps up to me – tell me about the future? – (I’ll) make sure it’s relevant, make sure it’s real, it’s timely and it’s very personal.”
Elanco’s vision – “food and companionship, enriching life” – might “seem boring,” he said, “but I think as you start to apply it and it becomes personal stories, then everything changes.”
Elanco began in the 1950s as the plants and animal sciences division of Eli Lilly and Company. Simmons became president of the division in 2008 and CEO in 2018, when it became an independent company. In addition to organic growth, he’s led a series of acquisitions that have seen Elanco triple in size to become a multi-billion-dollar company active in almost 100 countries.
That’s all impressive, of course, but it’s not the type of personal “chase,” to use his word, that motivates many people, including himself. He gets more fired up by talking about Elanco’s role in addressing climate issues, in improving food security, or in promoting better nutrition for pets and farm animals. And he’s quick to connect the work Elanco does for animals to the benefits it produces for people.
In his talk with Waller, Simmons discussed three ways he tries to spread that personalized passion throughout the organization.
One, he asks new employees to revisit what they do and why they do it within the first six months of their employment.
“I believe somebody chasing something is a different kind of person,” he said. “You chase things when you know you can make a difference and when your vision and your Why is bigger than your cautionary political correctness odometer, which I think is a real big factor now.”
Two, he prioritizes conversations around the culture he hopes to see at Elanco. That means emphasizing things like “humility” during town hall meetings, regularly surveying employees about their engagement with their work, listening to the stories of people in the workforce, and sharing the stories of those who are living what the culture says it values.
Three, he recommends that leaders create and regularly update a personal standard operating procedure, “because to me, this is the difference between good and great in the world we’re going into.”
Every six months, he said, leaders should stop and evaluate what they consider their “ideal state” and adjust their plan for achieving it. That plan could include things like prioritizing time with family, going fishing once a week, reading a certain number of books, or staying physically or spiritually fit. “If you are not in control of yourself and aren’t optimized yourself,” he said, “you’re not going to be sustainable.”
Leaders who take care of themselves and who see a connection between their passions and their work will naturally perform at higher levels and inspire others to do the same. None of that will likely eliminate the chaos in our world, but it can contribute to a world that’s better in the future.
