The session began with an interview about Carly’s firing as the CEO at HP. And then it shifted to an interview between Bill Hybels and Carly. Bill recommends Carly’s Tough Choices, and suggests that “everyone” needs to read it. He commented that he doesn’t usually say that.

The Early Years
Carly doesn’t think that she was a gifted child, but comments that her parents were a very formative influence. They stressed the importance of integrity, honesty, hard work, and doing the right things.

Education was also of high priority, and her parents encouraged her study things that interested her. Eg, at Stanford, she took logic and philosophy among other subjects; Logic taught her the “power of the right question”.

At UCLA she went to Law school, and hated it. But the approval of her parents was so important, that she kept going … Until she realized that it was her life and that she needed to make her own decisions. It didn’t stir her; it didn’t align with her passion.

On Being on a Team
Teamwork is what make things fun. Nothing worthwhile happens with a single person working alone. For the first time, she experienced the power and thrill of being on a winning team.

On Overcoming Fear
Carly says she was a frightened, insecure child. She experienced fear about lots of things. She has learned through this that others are fearful too, and everytime you overcome fear, you become stronger. Although many fears are stupid, they feel very real.

Fears: I haven’t done it before, I don’t think I can do it, etc.

On Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated World
Many people are afraid of others who are different. Just understand that prejudice is rooted in fear. Understand that and accept it.

But, don’t let their prejudice become your baggage. One way to do this is to seek commonalities … Eg, the common ground in a project.

Carly said that she had to learn to not to let other people’s views of her and what she can do define her emotional status.

On Vision
You have to cast the vision, but you also have to make the hardness of the task real.

Leadership is seeing potential in others and helping them see it in themselves. This is the joy of leadership.

How do you develop leaders?
(A) the leader has to continue to develop themselves.
(B) the leader has to provide time and money to develop others.
(C) set the expectation that everyone will develop their leadership skills.

Why does a leader need “dis-passion”?
Because a leader needs enough objectivity to see what has to be done, and to see people for what they really are. And if they can’t perform the leader needs enough dis-passion to do what needs to be done. Bill found this really helpful — and Carly reminded him that “the truth will set you free”. That’s true in leadership too.

On Being the “Most Powerful Woman in Business”
Fame is a doubled edged sword. There was a degree of thrill in it, but fame puts a wall between you and others. It is difficult to show authenticity when others can’t “see” you, but instead see the label/image that others have put on you.

It can be a very lonely place.

On Deeply Entrenched Organizational Cultures
Codified principles from the founders can be lost in shorthand, eg, “the HP way”. It became the thing people said when they didn’t want things to change.

Carly said that HP needed to go back to the earlier words and re-discover what the original words meant. Eg, “innovation”, “respect for the individual”.

“People are people wherever you find them”

“When a team is facing tough choices, they need to deliberate in confidence, but then be transparent in its conclusions”.

“I lost my job, but I didn’t lose my soul” (authenticity, character, integrity). “Soul” is about being able to go to sleep at night knowing that you’ve done your work with excellence, that you are satisfied with your contributions, that you have lived truth.

“There are gifts to be discovered in hard times”