I have long admired John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco. In my various readings of Cisco, I have observed how Mr. Chambers has been able to produce a strong culture of customer satisfaction at Cisco.  In my personal interactions with those working at Cisco, I have found Cisco’s employees (including executives) to be extremely helpful and willing to spare their time to hear you out and share their knowledge. I believe a lot of credit for creating this cooperative and customer-oriented culture goes to Mr. Chambers. A New York Times’ interview with Mr. Chambers, published last Sunday, provides us interesting insights into his leadership style.

There are several points about leadership that stood out for me from the interview. First, we need to appreciate the challenges we face; they offer great opportunities for learning. How we face those challenges shapes our lives more than what we accomplish or our successes. He gives the example of Cisco’s near death experience in 2001 during the dot com crash as having an important influence on him.

Second, today’s world requires a different kind of leadership. Those who lead by command-and-control will probably be ineffective. Today’s world requires leaders who are more collaborative and teamwork oriented. To be successful, leaders need to be facile with  Web 2.0 tools. Mr. Chambers looks for these attributes in the people that Cisco hires. Most importantly, Mr. Chambers models these attributes for the rest of the company. After initial discomfort, Mr. Chambers is using Web 2.0 tools himself.

Third, pay attention to whom you hire.  In addition to looking for collaboration and technology skills, Mr. Chambers asks people about the results they have achieved and how. He is accepting of failures but wants to know if people have learned from their failures. Another critical attribute he looks for is whether a potential hire has good listening skills.

Check out the interview. I am sure you will enjoy it.