1 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:43,830 Klaus Kleinfeld: Nashville Tennessee. Okay, that's very 2 00:00:43,830 --> 00:00:44,310 nice. 3 00:00:44,490 --> 00:00:46,860 Adam Outland: Where in Germany? Did you grow up again? Or was 4 00:00:46,860 --> 00:00:47,100 it... 5 00:00:47,130 --> 00:00:51,030 Klaus Kleinfeld: I was born in Bremen, but I left when I was 6 00:00:51,060 --> 00:00:54,810 18, and my parents were refugees from East Germany. Currently, 7 00:00:54,810 --> 00:00:56,220 I'm outside of New York. 8 00:00:56,450 --> 00:00:58,400 Adam Outland: Well, uh, ich bin ein actor Berliner. 9 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:05,390 Klaus Kleinfeld: Oh wunderbar, let's start with that. So, how 10 00:01:05,390 --> 00:01:06,500 come you speak German? 11 00:01:07,310 --> 00:01:10,580 Adam Outland: Both my parents were opera singers, and they're 12 00:01:10,580 --> 00:01:14,090 us, born in the US, but they live 14 years in Bonn and 13 00:01:14,090 --> 00:01:14,750 Cologne. 14 00:01:14,900 --> 00:01:18,200 Klaus Kleinfeld: And they performed there at the.... does 15 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:19,970 cologne. Cologne has an opera house? 16 00:01:19,970 --> 00:01:22,100 Adam Outland: It does, yeah, yeah. My dad performed locally 17 00:01:22,100 --> 00:01:25,430 at the Cologne Opera House. Bond had an opera house still does. 18 00:01:25,460 --> 00:01:28,760 And my mom performed there, and then she, she had an 19 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,700 international career after that, and performed all over. 20 00:01:31,910 --> 00:01:34,460 Klaus Kleinfeld: I love opera. I'm also on the Metropolitan 21 00:01:34,460 --> 00:01:38,570 Opera board, you know, so I just love it. Yeah, lovely, 22 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,330 absolutely lovely. And bond at the time probably still was the 23 00:01:41,330 --> 00:01:42,620 capital of Germany, right? 24 00:01:42,620 --> 00:01:45,860 Adam Outland: Yes, yeah. My dad and mom would sometimes perform 25 00:01:45,860 --> 00:01:49,790 in Berlin during that period. And the way they were paid was, 26 00:01:49,820 --> 00:01:52,970 it was always interesting, and you always wondered if your pay 27 00:01:52,970 --> 00:01:55,550 would would make it back across to the other side. 28 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:59,690 Klaus Kleinfeld: What were they paid with gold coins? It's 29 00:01:59,690 --> 00:02:02,360 interesting, yeah. I mean, I went to Nuremberg, or my first 30 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:04,190 place of work. Then from Nuremberg, I went to 31 00:02:04,190 --> 00:02:07,100 Switzerland, you know, worked there in the pharmaceutical 32 00:02:07,100 --> 00:02:11,450 industry, back to Munich, and there I started my career with 33 00:02:11,450 --> 00:02:16,340 Siemens, you know. And then Siemens moved me to to Erlangen. 34 00:02:16,340 --> 00:02:19,790 And then from Erlangen, I was asked to go to New York, then I 35 00:02:19,790 --> 00:02:22,340 was asked to come back to Munich. And then after that, I 36 00:02:22,340 --> 00:02:25,400 decided to leave Siemens, and I came back to New York. And when 37 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:28,850 I co headquarter was in New York, you know, so which most 38 00:02:28,850 --> 00:02:31,610 people don't know, because the presence was usually in 39 00:02:31,610 --> 00:02:32,150 Pittsburgh. 40 00:02:32,150 --> 00:02:34,310 Adam Outland: You know, when you were a young man, though, did 41 00:02:34,310 --> 00:02:38,450 you did you already envision this, this path towards 42 00:02:38,510 --> 00:02:41,720 administrative leadership of of major companies? Or were you in 43 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:43,640 it for the details of the science? 44 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:47,180 Klaus Kleinfeld: And yeah, so no, I did not. I did not imagine 45 00:02:47,180 --> 00:02:51,260 that. In fact, I enjoyed learning. I mean, I've always 46 00:02:51,260 --> 00:02:55,520 been curious and wanted to want to learn more. I enjoyed being 47 00:02:55,520 --> 00:03:00,830 in the outdoors, doing stuff I only later realized I was forced 48 00:03:00,830 --> 00:03:04,670 into working when I was 12. Was my first paying job, you know, 49 00:03:04,670 --> 00:03:08,090 because my father died. So when I was so, so little, you know, 50 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,690 but I enjoyed it. I mean, I enjoyed working in core 51 00:03:11,690 --> 00:03:14,810 business. You know, for me, it was making money, but it's also 52 00:03:14,870 --> 00:03:18,200 something that I I started to really like, you know, making 53 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:21,920 things, doing things, you know, so to be I always enjoy being 54 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:27,830 with people, and I also enjoyed complicated problems, you know. 55 00:03:27,830 --> 00:03:31,550 So in the early days, I would have thought I stay in academia 56 00:03:31,550 --> 00:03:35,750 and and make an academic career, because I saw what some of my 57 00:03:35,810 --> 00:03:39,800 friends who studied with me, when who went into business, 58 00:03:39,830 --> 00:03:42,740 what type of jobs they had. And I thought that I wasn't 59 00:03:42,740 --> 00:03:44,000 interested in that, you know. 60 00:03:44,390 --> 00:03:47,060 Adam Outland: And so, I mean, 12 I just, I gotta spend a minute 61 00:03:47,060 --> 00:03:49,670 on this, and then we can, what could a 12 year old do? 62 00:03:49,670 --> 00:03:51,590 Klaus Kleinfeld: Well, first of all, it's illegal to employ a 12 63 00:03:51,740 --> 00:03:55,670 year old, you know. But, but, but the local supermarket, first 64 00:03:55,670 --> 00:03:58,700 of all, I was fortunately relatively tall at a young age 65 00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:01,760 already, so they never asked me for a passport, you know. So 66 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:05,630 they, they needed somebody who refills the the racks, you know, 67 00:04:05,630 --> 00:04:09,620 and and ideally comes in early in the morning, and changes also 68 00:04:09,620 --> 00:04:12,710 the fresh goods, milk and stuff, you know, before the supermarket 69 00:04:12,710 --> 00:04:15,830 opens, and be there on the weekends, you know, and where 70 00:04:15,830 --> 00:04:18,890 there was a lot of traffic, you know. So, so I did that, and 71 00:04:18,890 --> 00:04:22,310 they paid me two Deutsche marks an hour. Made my first money. 72 00:04:22,430 --> 00:04:25,730 The motive was very simple. I wanted a new bike, for instance. 73 00:04:27,470 --> 00:04:31,010 So things like, things I want to does a 12 year old one, you 74 00:04:31,010 --> 00:04:34,370 know, you want a nice bike. And very early on, then also, I 75 00:04:34,370 --> 00:04:37,790 started to love music. So then it became records, you know, I 76 00:04:37,790 --> 00:04:40,970 was very intrigued by this thing that had just gotten started, 77 00:04:40,970 --> 00:04:45,860 called software as as a as a individual, there was no way you 78 00:04:45,890 --> 00:04:48,860 could have a computer. It didn't exist, you know, even the the 79 00:04:48,860 --> 00:04:52,580 thought of it was insane, you know. So I wanted to, I wanted 80 00:04:52,580 --> 00:04:55,460 to get my hands on a computer and do programming. And at 81 00:04:55,490 --> 00:04:58,400 gutting, there were only two locations where I could program. 82 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,100 One was where the physics. Department. And the other one 83 00:05:01,100 --> 00:05:03,410 was with the economics department, you know. And I 84 00:05:03,410 --> 00:05:06,530 decided to start with the economics department, you know. 85 00:05:06,530 --> 00:05:09,950 And and immediately got into software writing, which I 86 00:05:10,010 --> 00:05:11,120 enjoyed tremendously. 87 00:05:11,510 --> 00:05:13,340 Adam Outland: You speak to this a little bit in your book. And 88 00:05:13,340 --> 00:05:16,130 maybe this is a good opportunity to take, take a principle out of 89 00:05:16,130 --> 00:05:21,080 the story, your ability to or one's ability to untangle a 90 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:24,050 problem. It's a good visual image because they're like nuts 91 00:05:24,050 --> 00:05:28,010 in business, and the knots are sometimes created because of a 92 00:05:28,010 --> 00:05:32,120 communication issue. Sometimes they're created because of a 93 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:37,400 strategy issue, but what was a procedure that you found most 94 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:40,640 helped you untangle the knots in business? 95 00:05:41,270 --> 00:05:44,570 Klaus Kleinfeld: Asking questions. I think, I think that 96 00:05:45,230 --> 00:05:50,930 I don't think I was shy asking questions and and I even today, 97 00:05:50,930 --> 00:05:53,810 and I think friends who have worked with me, and what, even 98 00:05:53,840 --> 00:05:55,910 those who are not friends who've worked with me, would say, 99 00:05:56,270 --> 00:06:00,290 closes a hypothesis generating machine, you know, because I 100 00:06:00,290 --> 00:06:07,100 always try to verify or falsify and find, find a course and, and 101 00:06:07,130 --> 00:06:09,740 I'd like to drill down to the bottom, you know, to really 102 00:06:09,740 --> 00:06:13,610 understand how the mechanics work. Because that did me also 103 00:06:13,610 --> 00:06:16,460 well, already in school, you know, when you understand the 104 00:06:16,460 --> 00:06:18,950 principle, then you don't have to learn much, you know, you can 105 00:06:18,950 --> 00:06:22,310 deduct everything from the principle. And in a way that 106 00:06:22,310 --> 00:06:25,100 helped me a lot, you know, because I also had to be very 107 00:06:25,100 --> 00:06:28,280 efficient with my time, because I had to do other things like 108 00:06:28,280 --> 00:06:30,620 work, you know, where other people could spend the time 109 00:06:30,890 --> 00:06:35,180 doing homework or whatever, you know, I use logic, you know. So 110 00:06:35,180 --> 00:06:40,040 that's the one thing that you can't have fault, you know. So 111 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,860 I, first of all, I'm I don't think there is such a thing than 112 00:06:42,860 --> 00:06:48,890 a than a wrong question. And also, you also have to remind 113 00:06:48,890 --> 00:06:53,510 people that they should talk to you in non expert language, 114 00:06:53,540 --> 00:06:58,880 because way too often have I seen that expert language is a 115 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:04,310 way to hide behind and very often, certain terms that have 116 00:07:04,310 --> 00:07:09,110 been coined in the expert world describe the phenomena, 117 00:07:09,140 --> 00:07:13,580 phenomenon in a limiting way. I mean, language is a limiting 118 00:07:13,580 --> 00:07:17,060 thing. That's one of the reasons why you see there are large 119 00:07:17,180 --> 00:07:20,900 differences in languages, like, for instance, the Australian 120 00:07:20,900 --> 00:07:24,320 aborigines when they describe the different kinds of red, you 121 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:27,110 know, because they live in an environment, if you ever been in 122 00:07:27,110 --> 00:07:30,440 Australia and fly over it, it's red. The same with the Eskimos. 123 00:07:30,500 --> 00:07:33,470 They have gazillions of words for snow, whereas we say it's 124 00:07:33,470 --> 00:07:37,310 snowing and the snow is a snow there. Yes, you know. So. So I 125 00:07:37,310 --> 00:07:41,450 always believe that you have to be careful in in accepting this 126 00:07:41,450 --> 00:07:45,470 terminology, because it might actually prevent you from 127 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:49,790 finding the real issue. So I asked them to explain it to me 128 00:07:49,790 --> 00:07:53,000 in plain language, and I would continue if they use terms, I 129 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:56,270 would not be shy to say, Can you please explain how you use the 130 00:07:56,270 --> 00:07:59,570 term? What does that term mean? Then, then you get it, you know. 131 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,380 And very often people then say, word classes is complicated, 132 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:06,140 because if somebody tells me it's complicated, I mean, but 133 00:08:06,140 --> 00:08:08,900 first I would say, we're in a very friendly way, yes, please 134 00:08:08,900 --> 00:08:11,990 explain. I have time, you know. Because that's the other thing 135 00:08:11,990 --> 00:08:14,030 that they would say, oh, takes too much time, you know. And 136 00:08:14,030 --> 00:08:16,760 say, no, no, I have all the time. I want to understand. What 137 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:19,340 is this, you know? Why don't you explain it? You know? But very 138 00:08:19,340 --> 00:08:22,490 often, you see very quickly that they can't explain it, then you 139 00:08:22,490 --> 00:08:25,610 find, then very often, flaws in the logic. The moment you have 140 00:08:25,610 --> 00:08:29,030 flaws in the logic, you say, why did that individual, who's 141 00:08:29,030 --> 00:08:32,600 supposedly the expert and not not ask these questions? Maybe I 142 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,530 have to get some other people looking into this. Or maybe I 143 00:08:36,530 --> 00:08:38,030 have to drill even further here. 144 00:08:38,060 --> 00:08:40,760 Adam Outland: You know, this brings it to mind another 145 00:08:40,790 --> 00:08:44,450 question where I feel that this strength of yours played out, 146 00:08:44,450 --> 00:08:46,610 which is that there's, there's really only been, I think 147 00:08:46,610 --> 00:08:50,540 yourself, that's, that's Captain multiple companies at the CEO 148 00:08:50,540 --> 00:08:53,390 level on different continents that are in the Fortune 500 149 00:08:53,390 --> 00:08:57,140 right? There's two companies that you've led as a CEO on two 150 00:08:57,140 --> 00:08:59,480 different continents, and that really hasn't been done before, 151 00:08:59,630 --> 00:09:03,290 and one was US based, and one was German. So, you know, I 152 00:09:03,290 --> 00:09:06,890 think about the cultural and language differences between two 153 00:09:06,890 --> 00:09:10,640 different countries, what did you find from a leadership 154 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:13,070 standpoint, as how you had to adapt? 155 00:09:13,340 --> 00:09:16,490 Klaus Kleinfeld: Yeah, I think that, yes, there are a lot of 156 00:09:16,490 --> 00:09:20,570 differences, but the fundamentals are similar. You 157 00:09:20,570 --> 00:09:23,900 know, because we all as human beings have some fundamental 158 00:09:23,900 --> 00:09:27,440 principles that we live by. How we interpret certain things is 159 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:30,470 different, you know, but get the fundamentals is, everybody wants 160 00:09:30,470 --> 00:09:34,580 respect. And I mean respect comes to simple things, 161 00:09:34,610 --> 00:09:38,240 listening to somebody, you know, asking, you know, their opinion, 162 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:42,590 you know, being thankful when, when they do something. So these 163 00:09:42,590 --> 00:09:47,330 type of behaviors are, I think, unilateral, all around the 164 00:09:47,330 --> 00:09:50,750 world. You have to learn, you know, what, what exactly what 165 00:09:50,750 --> 00:09:53,870 means. You know, certainly the most tricky thing is sign 166 00:09:53,870 --> 00:09:58,040 language, very I would advise everybody to be very, very 167 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:00,860 cautious on this, you know, very carefully. Can get you into real 168 00:10:00,860 --> 00:10:04,220 trouble if you think that you know the sign language and 169 00:10:04,220 --> 00:10:08,720 suddenly realize it means something not so nice to their 170 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,330 sign word, you know. But those are little things. Those are 171 00:10:11,330 --> 00:10:14,630 little things you know, that you learn. And overall, I think the 172 00:10:14,630 --> 00:10:18,530 commonalities, particularly when it comes to leading people, are 173 00:10:18,530 --> 00:10:22,280 bigger than the differences. One other principle is that I always 174 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:26,900 try to go as close to the source where the issue originated. 175 00:10:27,230 --> 00:10:31,100 Because you very often you have filter processes. I mean, the 176 00:10:31,100 --> 00:10:34,460 higher you get, the more filter theoretical filter processes you 177 00:10:34,460 --> 00:10:39,080 have, and to really understand what is going on, you know. I 178 00:10:39,080 --> 00:10:43,370 mean, I would always go to the source, you know, and literally, 179 00:10:43,370 --> 00:10:47,540 to the person who is standing at at the machine, you know, where 180 00:10:47,540 --> 00:10:51,350 something is going wrong, and understanding what exactly are 181 00:10:51,350 --> 00:10:55,550 you observing that gets lost in translation, you know. I mean at 182 00:10:55,550 --> 00:10:58,550 a certain level you I mean, you don't even talk to a head of the 183 00:10:58,670 --> 00:11:02,480 to the head of the factory anymore. You talk to the 184 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:05,960 division head, you want to make sure that you really, really go 185 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:07,310 down to the core. 186 00:11:07,940 --> 00:11:11,240 Adam Outland: It very rarely is, is someone's life just pure 187 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,630 accelerated growth. There's plateaus, there's down curves, 188 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:18,890 because you've had such extraordinary success, not just 189 00:11:18,890 --> 00:11:21,800 in arriving in leadership at a company, but helping companies 190 00:11:21,860 --> 00:11:25,490 really scale and grow. What have been some of those plateau 191 00:11:25,490 --> 00:11:28,940 moments that presented real challenges for you personally? 192 00:11:29,540 --> 00:11:32,262 Klaus Kleinfeld: The first kind of wake up call shock was when 193 00:11:32,323 --> 00:11:36,074 my father died and I was 10, you know, and basically life, our 194 00:11:36,135 --> 00:11:39,765 life, my life, became a very different life then, because it 195 00:11:39,826 --> 00:11:43,335 made me ask a lot of very fundamental questions. You know, 196 00:11:43,395 --> 00:11:47,086 the next one, the next biggest one, was when, after 20 years, 197 00:11:47,147 --> 00:11:50,233 you know, 20 plus years, I decided to leave Siemens 198 00:11:50,293 --> 00:11:53,923 because, I mean, obviously after 20 years, you have a lot of 199 00:11:53,984 --> 00:11:57,856 friends there, you have a lot of memories, you know, you feel at 200 00:11:57,917 --> 00:12:01,426 home. But I decided to that's not that the environment was 201 00:12:01,487 --> 00:12:05,057 just not worth for me to stay on, you know. And I move very 202 00:12:05,117 --> 00:12:09,050 difficult, very, very difficult, you know. And then there's a ton 203 00:12:09,111 --> 00:12:12,741 of others, you know, when you when you have to restructure a 204 00:12:12,801 --> 00:12:16,190 certain and you you know that that how many families are 205 00:12:16,250 --> 00:12:20,062 affected by it. And you know, at the same time, if you don't do 206 00:12:20,123 --> 00:12:23,935 it, you'll risk that everybody will get affected by it. I mean, 207 00:12:23,995 --> 00:12:27,686 so by making that you can at least save the core, I hope that 208 00:12:27,746 --> 00:12:31,377 you can save the core, and you can never be certain you know 209 00:12:31,437 --> 00:12:35,068 whether it works out or not. So you you've done the best you 210 00:12:35,128 --> 00:12:38,759 can, you've got all the facts together, and you hope that it 211 00:12:38,819 --> 00:12:42,389 will work out after you've done your your best. And there's 212 00:12:42,449 --> 00:12:45,838 really nobody who as a leader. There's really nobody who 213 00:12:45,898 --> 00:12:49,347 carries the burden other than you, and at least that's my 214 00:12:49,408 --> 00:12:52,493 that's been my view of leadership. You know, when I 215 00:12:52,554 --> 00:12:55,821 when I take it on, I'm accountable and I live with the 216 00:12:55,882 --> 00:12:58,000 consequences and I stand up for it. 217 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:00,691 Adam Outland: Yeah. And you know, you, you mentioned quite a 218 00:13:00,749 --> 00:13:04,143 bit around energy, you know, where it stems from, but also 219 00:13:04,201 --> 00:13:07,361 how you can recognize which quadrant you're in in that 220 00:13:07,419 --> 00:13:10,988 moment, one of those quadrants, I think you you've labeled as 221 00:13:11,046 --> 00:13:14,849 the burnout quadrant. It's, what was it? Low Energy, and what was 222 00:13:14,908 --> 00:13:16,020 the other variable? 223 00:13:16,020 --> 00:13:18,396 Klaus Kleinfeld: Low energy and negative, you know, so, so 224 00:13:18,454 --> 00:13:22,106 burnout is basically your toast, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's 225 00:13:22,164 --> 00:13:25,585 an interesting one. Let me take a step back, you know, I've 226 00:13:25,643 --> 00:13:29,121 always driven for efficiency, you know, because I also never 227 00:13:29,179 --> 00:13:32,599 had time had to do stuff, you know. So I was always driving 228 00:13:32,657 --> 00:13:36,135 for efficiency. I always thought it's willpower, good German 229 00:13:36,193 --> 00:13:39,729 willpower, boom, boom, boom, plow through, you know. So until 230 00:13:39,787 --> 00:13:43,266 one day, I realized it's all about energy and why? How did I 231 00:13:43,324 --> 00:13:46,860 realize that? I realized it very straight. It came relatively 232 00:13:46,918 --> 00:13:50,396 late in my leadership life, you know. So when I realized the 233 00:13:50,454 --> 00:13:53,874 following phenomenon I saw around me, people really getting 234 00:13:53,932 --> 00:13:57,642 burned out, you know? I also saw that not only older people, but 235 00:13:57,700 --> 00:14:01,179 younger people got burned out, you know. And I thought, wow, 236 00:14:01,237 --> 00:14:04,599 what is this? And then I love playing tennis. Wish I could 237 00:14:04,657 --> 00:14:08,367 play better, but I love it, you know. And in the tennis world, I 238 00:14:08,425 --> 00:14:12,019 saw another phenomenon. They got older and older and older the 239 00:14:12,077 --> 00:14:15,381 top performers. So I was thinking, What on earth is going 240 00:14:15,439 --> 00:14:18,860 on there? You know, in the end, it's all about performance, 241 00:14:18,918 --> 00:14:22,280 whether you're in business or whether you're in tennis you 242 00:14:22,338 --> 00:14:25,526 know, all about performance. How come that there's this 243 00:14:25,584 --> 00:14:28,715 dichotomy, you know? So I started looking into it, you 244 00:14:28,773 --> 00:14:32,425 know, as a curious person, you know, I want to learn more about 245 00:14:32,483 --> 00:14:35,903 it, you know. How can a tennis player, you know, who has no 246 00:14:35,961 --> 00:14:39,323 time to recover, really, you know, just 20 seconds between 247 00:14:39,381 --> 00:14:42,802 the serves? How can they do that? And how can they do it at 248 00:14:42,859 --> 00:14:46,048 such a late age. And I realized that in this whole high 249 00:14:46,106 --> 00:14:49,642 performance scene, the concept of energy had been introduced, 250 00:14:49,700 --> 00:14:52,888 and that they were not talking about time management or 251 00:14:52,946 --> 00:14:56,309 whatever on the court. They were talking about, how do you 252 00:14:56,367 --> 00:14:59,439 recharge, how do you keep your energy? How do you get 253 00:14:59,497 --> 00:15:02,917 resilience? And then I started my own journey and trying to 254 00:15:02,975 --> 00:15:06,627 figure out what is energy. What gives me energy? And I realized 255 00:15:06,685 --> 00:15:10,453 it's the old thing of body, mind and soul. The body I understand, 256 00:15:10,511 --> 00:15:13,642 you know, but then on the mind is basically mental and 257 00:15:13,700 --> 00:15:16,830 emotional, and then on the spiritual side. Nobody even 258 00:15:16,888 --> 00:15:20,540 talks about the spiritual sides, but those are the things there 259 00:15:20,598 --> 00:15:23,961 are no more. Those are the things that give us energy, and 260 00:15:24,019 --> 00:15:27,439 they can also drain energy. There's a flow in this, because 261 00:15:27,497 --> 00:15:30,975 you burn in the morning, you get up, you have a full tank of 262 00:15:31,033 --> 00:15:34,685 energy, typically, if you have slept relatively well, you know, 263 00:15:34,743 --> 00:15:37,990 and then you burn it through. So, and there are a lot of 264 00:15:38,047 --> 00:15:41,294 tricks, you know, that the high performance players have 265 00:15:41,352 --> 00:15:44,714 learned, and leaders can learn the same thing. Leaders can 266 00:15:44,772 --> 00:15:48,482 learn absolutely the same thing. So in the end, we are even more 267 00:15:48,540 --> 00:15:51,902 high performance athletes, you know, then, then the tennis 268 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:55,439 players. Because the tennis player after the game or after a 269 00:15:55,497 --> 00:15:58,743 tournament, they have a time where they can go somewhere 270 00:15:58,801 --> 00:16:02,279 else. We are on 24 hours, or 25 hours, eight days a week. It 271 00:16:02,337 --> 00:16:06,047 feels almost, you know. So that got me into this. And in regards 272 00:16:06,105 --> 00:16:09,699 to the zones, it's relatively simple. You know, you want to be 273 00:16:09,757 --> 00:16:13,236 in performance zone. You know, performance zone is where you 274 00:16:13,294 --> 00:16:16,946 have high energy, positive, but then life happens, you know. So 275 00:16:17,004 --> 00:16:20,714 what do you do? Panic, you know. So you immediately go into what 276 00:16:20,772 --> 00:16:24,192 I call survival zone, by the high energy, but but negative, 277 00:16:24,250 --> 00:16:27,844 you know. So what do you do now? What do you do now? You know, 278 00:16:27,902 --> 00:16:31,265 you have to find a mechanism how you quickly get back into 279 00:16:31,322 --> 00:16:34,743 performance zone. The first thing when you go into survival 280 00:16:34,801 --> 00:16:38,163 zone. It's very good. And the human body is made for this, 281 00:16:38,221 --> 00:16:41,873 because it's a flight or fight response. We get adrenaline. Our 282 00:16:41,931 --> 00:16:45,351 focus goes like this. We get superpowers. The only thing is 283 00:16:45,409 --> 00:16:49,177 that the superpower lasts for an hour, for two hours maximum, and 284 00:16:49,235 --> 00:16:52,946 then you drop into burnout zone, so you have to very quickly get 285 00:16:53,003 --> 00:16:56,540 back into performance zone. And what's the trick of this? You 286 00:16:56,598 --> 00:16:59,844 know, there's a ton of tricks mental training, you know, 287 00:16:59,902 --> 00:17:03,554 figuring out the situation, but you have to be aware of it. You 288 00:17:03,612 --> 00:17:07,322 get back into it. So life is not I used to think. I thought life 289 00:17:07,380 --> 00:17:11,090 is an ultra marathon. That's in reality, your life is sprints of 290 00:17:11,148 --> 00:17:14,395 various distances, and recharge sprints and recharge and 291 00:17:14,453 --> 00:17:18,047 recharge time. And the sprint time is not equally, equal time, 292 00:17:18,105 --> 00:17:21,699 you know? It can be much, much less time today there, there is 293 00:17:21,757 --> 00:17:25,409 a really simple way how you can figure it out for yourself, you 294 00:17:25,467 --> 00:17:29,119 know. So, so, I mean, many of us have some type of tracker, you 295 00:17:29,177 --> 00:17:32,655 know, so, and this tracker shows me my heart rate. The heart 296 00:17:32,713 --> 00:17:36,018 rate, for me, is a super good indicator of whether you're 297 00:17:36,076 --> 00:17:39,670 stressed or not. You know one. The second one is breathing. If 298 00:17:39,728 --> 00:17:42,858 your breathing gets very shallow, very fast, you know, 299 00:17:42,916 --> 00:17:46,278 then something is going on emotionally with you. The third 300 00:17:46,336 --> 00:17:50,047 one is vision, you know, if your vision becomes a tunnel vision, 301 00:17:50,105 --> 00:17:53,525 you know. You know, where you only see one thing, you know, 302 00:17:53,583 --> 00:17:57,177 then you know something is going on that is not healthy over a 303 00:17:57,235 --> 00:18:01,003 longer period of time. You know. So, so, so there are things that 304 00:18:01,061 --> 00:18:04,597 you can learn how to observe yourself. And I would think that 305 00:18:04,655 --> 00:18:08,133 it's very easy to learn. You know, I don't even have to look 306 00:18:08,191 --> 00:18:11,496 at the watch, and I know exactly, roughly, exactly where, 307 00:18:11,554 --> 00:18:15,206 where, where my heart rate is, you know. So because somehow you 308 00:18:15,264 --> 00:18:18,742 you know your body, what, how the body feels, you know when, 309 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:22,394 when the heart rate is outside of the zone that you want it to 310 00:18:22,452 --> 00:18:25,756 be in. It also requires a certain will to change. I mean, 311 00:18:25,814 --> 00:18:29,003 certain will to first be confronted with the realities, 312 00:18:29,061 --> 00:18:32,365 which, unfortunately, very often. I mean, we kind of know 313 00:18:32,423 --> 00:18:36,191 that something is not right, but in the we don't want to hear it, 314 00:18:36,249 --> 00:18:39,669 because it inflicts stress on us, you know, but at the same 315 00:18:39,727 --> 00:18:43,032 time, then, if you are not brutally honest with yourself. 316 00:18:43,090 --> 00:18:46,336 How often have you seen that people have certain strange 317 00:18:46,394 --> 00:18:47,380 habits? You know? 318 00:18:47,380 --> 00:18:50,016 Adam Outland: That feedback loop; I've interviewed numbers 319 00:18:50,076 --> 00:18:53,731 of executives and leaders, and it's kind of a common feedback 320 00:18:53,791 --> 00:18:57,326 when you arrive at a higher level of leadership is that the 321 00:18:57,386 --> 00:19:00,921 honesty from your team can diminish because there's less of 322 00:19:00,981 --> 00:19:04,875 incentive directly to the person to be directly honest with their 323 00:19:04,935 --> 00:19:08,530 superior, right? How would you go about moderating that risk 324 00:19:08,590 --> 00:19:12,125 for those around you? Or how would you go about making sure 325 00:19:12,185 --> 00:19:16,080 the feedback was honest, even if it's not always what you want to 326 00:19:16,140 --> 00:19:16,440 hear? 327 00:19:16,620 --> 00:19:18,060 Klaus Kleinfeld: By the way, this is one of the big 328 00:19:18,060 --> 00:19:24,080 differences when I was asked to move into a leadership role here 329 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,780 in the US, for the first time, it's one of the big differences 330 00:19:26,780 --> 00:19:30,980 between a German environment and a US environment the US. I mean, 331 00:19:30,980 --> 00:19:34,580 if you as a CEO, start a conversation and want to want a 332 00:19:34,580 --> 00:19:39,140 feedback from your team, it's very interesting. The the team 333 00:19:39,140 --> 00:19:42,640 very often does not offer offer feedback. They ask you 334 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:47,920 questions. And I realize that the reason why in the US you 335 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:50,860 have that situation is simply because, in the US, if you want 336 00:19:50,860 --> 00:19:53,740 to fire somebody, you know the person is gone, literally, in a 337 00:19:53,740 --> 00:19:57,880 minute. And whereas in Europe and Germany, particularly, you 338 00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,780 know, you can't fire the person you know you. Know, go through a 339 00:20:00,780 --> 00:20:03,900 process, you know, because otherwise they sue you, you 340 00:20:03,900 --> 00:20:09,900 know, and then talk with the unions. And so, in a way, the 341 00:20:09,900 --> 00:20:15,300 perceived job security is, in this case, is a positive, a 342 00:20:15,300 --> 00:20:19,620 positive enforcer of they are not, they are not afraid of 343 00:20:19,620 --> 00:20:23,000 giving you feedback, even if the feedback is against what they 344 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:27,140 think you want to hear, you know, whereas here, there's more 345 00:20:27,140 --> 00:20:32,300 an inclination to please, please the boss. So it's it requires a 346 00:20:32,300 --> 00:20:35,600 little bit more of an effort. And I would always do it in a 347 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,140 one on one and say, may I ask you to give me feedback, you 348 00:20:39,140 --> 00:20:43,120 know? And and the and learn the rule of feedback. And the rule 349 00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:47,560 of feedback is you, you do not respond to what the person says. 350 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:50,920 Your response is simply, thank you for the feedback, and that's 351 00:20:50,980 --> 00:20:55,780 it. If you draw a four by two by two, you know you basically you 352 00:20:55,780 --> 00:21:00,160 say, what do you know about yourself and what do you not 353 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:02,580 know about yourself? And you have the second one, what do 354 00:21:02,580 --> 00:21:06,180 others know about you? And what do others not know about you? 355 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:10,260 And the interesting thing, there is a an element there of 356 00:21:10,260 --> 00:21:13,860 something that others know about you that you don't know. So what 357 00:21:13,860 --> 00:21:17,220 you do with feedback? You open that window, and very often it's 358 00:21:17,220 --> 00:21:21,440 these things that you you don't even you don't even realize you 359 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,560 know. You've adopted some practices, you've adopted some 360 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:29,420 language, you've adopted some some evidence you know that, or 361 00:21:29,420 --> 00:21:32,960 dress you know so that people interpret in a certain way, 362 00:21:33,020 --> 00:21:37,100 which was not your intention. And that's why it's so important 363 00:21:37,100 --> 00:21:41,020 for learning. Just look at the Navy SEALs. I mean, they, after 364 00:21:41,020 --> 00:21:45,100 mission was done, they would criticize what didn't go well, 365 00:21:45,100 --> 00:21:50,560 you know. And then they separate the the feedback from the 366 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,860 person. They don't say you are an idiot. You didn't do, you 367 00:21:53,860 --> 00:21:56,620 didn't didn't do, they will say, this went wrong. This went 368 00:21:56,620 --> 00:21:59,620 wrong. It's clear whose accountability it is, you know, 369 00:21:59,620 --> 00:22:04,020 but it's a mutual description of how can we get to better 370 00:22:04,020 --> 00:22:08,220 performance. So brutal, honest feedback cultures are the 371 00:22:08,220 --> 00:22:11,340 fastest learning organizations, as long as it comes with an 372 00:22:11,340 --> 00:22:15,060 understanding this is not about you. This is about performance. 373 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:19,080 Adam Outland: Yeah, so many good things here. Accountability 374 00:22:19,140 --> 00:22:23,720 seems to be invited by top performers. So for you know, an 375 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,420 executive that might be listening what you know, where 376 00:22:26,420 --> 00:22:29,600 they find there's sometimes accountability gaps for 377 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:33,140 themselves, right? How would you advise them to seek 378 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:34,940 accountability for themselves? 379 00:22:35,420 --> 00:22:37,700 Klaus Kleinfeld: Yeah, I think in general, I believe, as we 380 00:22:37,700 --> 00:22:40,220 just talked about feedback, I mean, you even in larger 381 00:22:40,220 --> 00:22:43,660 organizations, to I would highly recommend that. And you can run 382 00:22:43,660 --> 00:22:46,360 this multiple times of the year. It costs you nothing if you want 383 00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:49,600 to have it, have a real finger on the pulse if, particularly if 384 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:52,120 you're going through transition phases, if you have made an 385 00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:55,000 acquisition, you know, or you have a major transformation 386 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,460 going through, you know. So I would highly recommend that, on 387 00:22:57,460 --> 00:23:00,480 a personal level, I think very often people also don't 388 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,540 understand why this is so important. And it comes down to 389 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:07,080 what makes a great team. You know, will you be able? How will 390 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:10,200 you be able to make a great team? And accountability is one 391 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:13,800 of those five things that are essential. You know, if you want 392 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,200 a high performance team, they are essential. And it starts 393 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:19,140 with trust. You know, that's that's the core. That's the 394 00:23:19,140 --> 00:23:22,040 core. You have to have trust among your core team, you know. 395 00:23:22,100 --> 00:23:25,580 Secondly, we talked about this, what I call conflict, you know, 396 00:23:25,580 --> 00:23:29,420 is you have to be willing to live with conflict. By conflict 397 00:23:29,420 --> 00:23:33,740 here, I mean, it's also very critical feedback, you know. So 398 00:23:33,740 --> 00:23:36,680 which many people interpret that as conflict, you know, but 399 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,720 people have to have a capability of that commitment is, a big 400 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,660 thing, you know. And then accountability, you know, if 401 00:23:43,660 --> 00:23:46,480 something goes wrong and you are committed and it's yours, it was 402 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,380 your work stream, you basically say, hey, look, I mean, I did 403 00:23:50,380 --> 00:23:54,820 not do well in that moment, I will correct that. And last one 404 00:23:54,820 --> 00:23:57,520 is basically the results. And that's also interesting me, 405 00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:01,140 something that very often is not clear. You would not believe how 406 00:24:01,140 --> 00:24:07,800 often I see when I ask mentors, CEOs, you know, and when I ask 407 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,520 CEOs who complain about that their team is not doing what 408 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,220 they think they're doing, and ask them, explain to me, what 409 00:24:14,220 --> 00:24:17,580 exactly do you want? Do you want from them, you know? And 410 00:24:17,580 --> 00:24:21,020 interestingly, I mean, then they go into a rant, you know, it has 411 00:24:21,020 --> 00:24:25,460 to be crystal clear. What is, what does winning look like? The 412 00:24:25,460 --> 00:24:29,120 moment you know what winning looks like, and you will you can 413 00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:32,240 align the team around that's what winning looks like. 414 00:24:31,940 --> 00:24:36,131 Adam Outland: Wow, such a simple question to remember to ask your 415 00:24:36,213 --> 00:24:37,940 team members to test. 416 00:24:37,940 --> 00:24:40,818 Klaus Kleinfeld: By the way, we didn't talk about purpose on the 417 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:44,555 energy side. I miss that. I mean purposes, this thing on the 418 00:24:44,616 --> 00:24:48,414 energy. It's a very interesting thing, because purpose does to 419 00:24:48,475 --> 00:24:52,334 energy what laser does to light. You know, it basically focuses 420 00:24:52,396 --> 00:24:56,193 the energy around one point. And as you see, light is diffuse, 421 00:24:56,255 --> 00:24:59,991 you know, it's nice. You know, the moment it becomes a laser, 422 00:25:00,052 --> 00:25:03,728 it can cut through large walls. It can. And do anything, and 423 00:25:03,789 --> 00:25:07,587 that's like, that's what purpose does to energy the moment you 424 00:25:07,648 --> 00:25:11,507 know what you want to achieve, what mission you want to do. You 425 00:25:11,568 --> 00:25:15,427 know, all of your energy goes to this one point. Visioning is a 426 00:25:15,489 --> 00:25:18,919 great exercise. And in my book, I have a long chapter on 427 00:25:18,980 --> 00:25:22,165 purpose, because a simple concept, yet a complicated 428 00:25:22,227 --> 00:25:25,534 concept, you know, it's a concept that the mankind has 429 00:25:25,596 --> 00:25:27,740 struggled with as long as we exist. 430 00:25:27,740 --> 00:25:30,197 Adam Outland: What was your purpose? What was the purpose 431 00:25:30,254 --> 00:25:31,340 that you landed on? 432 00:25:31,340 --> 00:25:33,909 Klaus Kleinfeld: That's the other thing. I mean, my purpose 433 00:25:33,970 --> 00:25:37,397 also changed, you know, my purpose changed. And, I mean, 434 00:25:37,458 --> 00:25:41,312 and it's not just one purpose, it can be multiple purposes, you 435 00:25:41,373 --> 00:25:45,044 know. So my purpose, clearly, has always been around. I want 436 00:25:45,105 --> 00:25:48,776 to raise a lovely family and have a great relationships with 437 00:25:48,838 --> 00:25:52,570 my children, you know. And want to have children, and want to 438 00:25:52,631 --> 00:25:56,424 have a great relationship with my children and also the family 439 00:25:56,485 --> 00:26:00,034 of my my wife, you know, and want to be a great husband at 440 00:26:00,095 --> 00:26:04,072 the same time. I mean, when I've been running large organizations 441 00:26:04,133 --> 00:26:07,865 or even small ones, you know, the purpose was, I want to make 442 00:26:07,926 --> 00:26:11,658 this successful. And I want to help people excel in here. The 443 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,513 people element also was always there. Those have been constant 444 00:26:15,574 --> 00:26:18,878 elements of of the of the purpose, you know. I mean, I 445 00:26:18,939 --> 00:26:22,916 love it, I change it, or I leave it, you know. So I Yes, I needed 446 00:26:22,977 --> 00:26:26,770 work originally, you know, for for making money, you know. But 447 00:26:26,832 --> 00:26:30,013 I, even then, I lived by the principles, even then I 448 00:26:30,074 --> 00:26:33,745 believed, you know, I want to get energy from it, and I want 449 00:26:33,806 --> 00:26:36,560 to feel that it serves a good purpose for me. 450 00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:39,129 Adam Outland: So I love what you said, and this may, it's kind of 451 00:26:39,180 --> 00:26:42,304 a great wrap up point. And if you've you've probably seen this 452 00:26:42,354 --> 00:26:45,277 quote, but it's called the master in the art of living. In 453 00:26:45,327 --> 00:26:48,451 this description, he says, the master and the art of living is 454 00:26:48,502 --> 00:26:51,475 the person that makes it so hard to tell if he's working or 455 00:26:51,525 --> 00:26:54,700 playing, because at the end of the day, he's always doing both. 456 00:26:54,700 --> 00:26:56,560 Klaus Kleinfeld: I like that. Yeah, wonderful. 457 00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:58,889 Adam Outland: So many good lessons in here. Klaus, I know 458 00:26:58,944 --> 00:27:02,465 we could probably go for another hour, but I'll stay to our time. 459 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,825 The book was wonderful to do an initial read through, and I'd 460 00:27:05,879 --> 00:27:09,292 recommend it. Where can people find and follow your your future 461 00:27:09,346 --> 00:27:11,460 wisdom outside of what you've authored? 462 00:27:11,460 --> 00:27:14,258 Klaus Kleinfeld: I don't do much on social media. I do LinkedIn, 463 00:27:14,318 --> 00:27:18,129 I mean, so my LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile, you find me on a Klaus 464 00:27:18,189 --> 00:27:22,000 Kleinfeld, and I do write these things myself, and I do comment, 465 00:27:22,059 --> 00:27:25,692 you comment also, and, yeah, so, and the book can be found on 466 00:27:25,752 --> 00:27:29,444 Amazon, you know, and on many other platforms. There's also an 467 00:27:29,503 --> 00:27:33,195 audio book around it, you know, which I really like. I mean, I 468 00:27:33,255 --> 00:27:36,887 didn't read it myself, but I like the guy who read it, and he 469 00:27:36,947 --> 00:27:40,580 has a wonderful voice. I love it. I really love it, you know. 470 00:27:40,580 --> 00:27:43,857 Adam Outland: So good, great knowledge today, and coming from 471 00:27:43,927 --> 00:27:47,762 someone who grew up in the land of Haribo gum bears and 472 00:27:47,832 --> 00:27:51,040 Beethoven, really glad to spend time with you. 473 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,200 Klaus Kleinfeld: Well Adam, wonderful pleasure. Yeah. 474 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:54,520 Adam Outland: Thank you so much, Klaus. 475 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:55,300 Klaus Kleinfeld: Thank you very much.