Leadership-Interview-Transkript - Sozialpsychologie - Goethe ...

grow up, get taught not to connect personally, always be objective and never be subjective –
well, I am subjective all the time, I am personal all the time, I am very, very close to the
people all the time, and I think that makes a big difference.
Rolf van Dick: And, do you think that influenced by your American heritage or background,
are you a different leader from other people you know because of your American background,
compared to other German leaders?
Patrick Cowden: Yes, I think, Rolf, there is an element of that. I think I am the way I am
because of where I come from. So I have the combination of the Germanic - and sometimes I
stress the ‘manic’ part of ‘Germanic’ – the Germanic piece and the American piece, as I grew
up. And I believe the values of those two cultures are in all cultures. It is the same everywhere
in the world that we go, but I learned a certain combination. I learned how to keep my
‘Deutsche Tugenden’ of being focused on detail, structured, you know, I need ‘Ordnung’, if I
do not get ‘Ordnung’ I feel uncomfortable, right. You know, process orientation, you know
those types of Germanic traits of me, but on the other side I have got the American pieces, the
‘Begeisterungsfähigkeit’, really be able to be excited and engaged about something that we
would want to do. I have the pieces in regards to creativity, allowing mistakes to be made, so
that we can have more space and room for innovation. I have some of the American pieces
around the charisma and the way to communicate with people that I have been able to
combine. And I think the magic is, when you start to combine the best of the different worlds,
the combination is what makes it better, and each of us have that potential – whether we are
from Germany or from America or from Japan or from Vietnam, my wife is from Vietnam.
We all have the same opportunity to combine pieces of the different cultures that we have
met. And that combination is part of what makes great leadership.
Rolf van Dick: Who has inspired you to become the person you are now? Do you have a role
model or did you encounter teachers or leaders who practiced what you now preach?
Patrick Cowden: Oh, absolutely. My first inspiration in my life was always my father. My
father was a drill sergeant, and a sergeant major in the U.S. Army. So it was always ‘Yes,
Sir’, ‘No, Sir’, everything you say, ‘Sir’. So I grew up with that environment, and he trained
the next generation of leaders in the military. That was one of his roles for about 10 years of
his career, of the 30 years he was in the military. That was all about honor, and integrity, and
process, and quality, and comradeship, and teamwork, you know all these military aspects
that I grew up with, are also elements in business environments later in life. So my father was
an inspiration for me. As I grew up later, I ran into leaders in business, or I read about leaders.
One of my greatest inspirations is Douglas McGregor, who wrote a great book, 1960, ‘The
human side of enterprise’, of the ‘X-factor’ and the ‘Y-factor’. That influenced me later in
life, after I have been leading a business, to understand some of the differences more
consciously, about how people are motivated, and how we should go about great leadership.
But you know, what he did, what Douglas did in the 50’s and 60’s, is something that Daniel
Goleman does now, in Stanford, on emotional intelligence. On the physiological aspect, not
the psychological aspect as Douglas did. And I think those combinations today are becoming
the newest school of thought on leadership. It is no longer just psychology, or just physiology,
or just economics, it is exactly what you guys are doing here in Frankfurt! It is combining all
the different schools of thought into a cross-functional, cross-departmental view of what the
best combination is. And I am probably a human experiment, of what is the best combination,
because I grew up in those different cultures and I worked at ten different companies from
four different cultures, in the last 30 years. And I think that combination will be the answer to