One CEO’s View on Leadership

On November 3, 2010, Walter P. Havenstein, CEO of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), spoke to students, faculty and staff at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business as part of their CEO@Smith Speaker Series. A segment of the event can be viewed here.

As a Naval Academy graduate, retired Marine Corps officer and successful leader in business, Havenstein shared his thoughts on leadership and his philosophy of how he leads SAIC. 


According to Havenstein, his four basic principles of management are partnership, safety, fact-based management, and continuous improvement.

• Partnership. Havenstein said he "looks at those who work at SAIC not as employees but as partners, or colleagues. As such, he said, they should be trusted and empowered to do what they do best."
• I do like this philosophy.  As an employee of SAIC myself, the company does empower us to do our jobs, which allows me to be much more efficient in getting the job done.  The sense of teamwork is clear and the support mechanism between divisions, operations and business units is very active.  From a military perspective, I would call this teamwork.  Because of the military chain of command, it is not feasible for everyone to be "partners" and "colleagues," but we can be on the same team. It is important for  the leader to make each person feel like they are an important member of that team; giving them specific responsibilities and empowering them with the authority to do their jobs.

• Safety. "One of the biggest responsibilities of a leader," Havenstein said, "is to provide a physically and emotionally healthy and safe place, where people can express themselves without fear of being criticized, ridiculed or ignored."
• This is important in any organization.  You don’t want your team worrying about their environment; they have far more important things to be concerned about like getting the job done.  It is the leader’s job to ensure their team is physically safe (unless in a war zone, of course) and free from any discrimination or disrespect.

• Fact-based management. "Leaders," Havenstein said, "must make decisions based on the facts, even while recognizing some uncertainty, and not just facts that support a single point of view, but all of the relevant facts."
• A good leader will base decisions based upon all the facts he/she knows. However, in some cases, the leader will need to make decisions based upon only what is known at a certain moment.  That is why they usually get paid the big bucks.  It is important for the leader to instill into the team the importance of not keeping secrets or from filtering important information as it goes up the chain.  It is also important, at times, for the leader to solicit discussion and recommendations from the team regarding important decisions.  This will also contribute to building teamwork.

• Continuous improvement. Havenstein said that he "believes that continuous improvement is crucial, but not in the sense of enterprise wide continuous improvement projects. What is most effective is creating a culture in which people are not afraid to ask two questions — "Why?" and "Why not?" While tools such as Six Sigma are important, they are just tools."
• I would hope that every leader would desire to continuously improve their team; to make them more efficient to increase output and reduce the required resources.  There are many tools out there, with just as many opinions on their application, that can aid in improvement.  However, from a military perspective, it is not wise to have subordinates question decisions and orders, unless done so tactfully.

Havenstein also addressed the importance of “principled leadership, life-long learning and continuous service.” He discussed six key traits that a good leader should possess to be successful.

·         Technically competent:  A good leader must “know their trade.” They don’t need to know the technical details of an engineer or scientist, but they must be able to understand what they are responsible for.

·         Must have energy:  A good leader must have “passion or the innate capability” to motivate the team and themselves.  A leader without energy will quickly fail.

·         Must have resilience:  Every leader will face difficulty at one point or another. The good leader will know how to face it, deal with it, learn from it and move on.

·         Must have passion for learning:  As I mentioned in a previous post, the good leader will continually learn every day to improve his/her knowledge.  Knowledge is power!!

·         Must have a moral compass: A good leader will not sacrifice his/her ethics or reputation to achieve success dishonestly.  What goes around will come around.

·         Service:  A good leader cannot be self serving; they must take an honest interest in the success of others.  This will strengthen teamwork and build morale. 

Walter P. Havenstein, SAIC CEO with an Old Sailor

“    "Leaders who are self-serving are usually those who don't succeed. When you take more interest in the success of others, you will be amazed at how successful you will become." Walter P. Havenstein, CEO, SAIC, November 3, 2010