← Excellent Executive Coaching: Growing Your Business and Enhancing Your Craft.
Excellent Executive Coaching: Growing Your Business and Enhancing Your Craft.
EEC 413: Leadership Advice from Dr. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Past Director General at CERN
00:19:00
Loading summary
Transcript43 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:05]
B
Hello, I'm Dr. Katrina Viges, and this podcast is part of a series on excellent international leadership. So I hope you will enjoy it. We're reissuing it. And it explains how these powerful leaders, what they credit their success to enjoy. And happy holidays. I'm delighted to be interviewing Mr. Rolf Heuer. It's a real privilege. Thank you for being here. And my first question would be, give us a brief bio of your long and very successful career.
- [00:47]
A
Well, welcome to my office here. I am at present, the Director General of cern. CERN is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. It's a very international, very global laboratory by education. I'm a physicist specialized in particle physics. So what do we want to do in particle physics? We want to understand the microcosm. So what are the building particles, the meta particles out of which we are formed?
- [01:17]
B
Oops, your mic just fell. So let me repeat your last words. It was building particles and meta particles out of which we are formed and.
- [01:28]
A
The forces between these particles. So we want to understand what holds the world together, and at the same time, we want to understand the early universe. How did everything develop? Why can we physically exist at all? So these are questions, I think, which everybody asks himself or herself from time to time. So that's particle physics. And the nicest place to be in particle physics is at cern, because here we have the largest super microscope in the world to look into the microcosm and into the early universe. I think that's enough for my short bio. I mean, I have in between being professor in Hamburg at the university, but at the moment I'm leading this laboratory and I have moved from particle physics to diplomacy. So I think I'm now more diplomat.
- [02:17]
B
What was CERN when you first came for this contract that you had? What was the state of cern? What was your vision then? And my next question was, what did you accomplish? I know you're going to be ending your contract at the end of this year.
- [02:32]
A
Yes.
- [02:33]
B
And of course, my next question will be, what is your vision and your advice for the future?
- [02:38]
A
Well, that's a very large amount of questions.
- [02:40]
B
It is.
- [02:41]
A
I was elected end of 2007. That means one year before I took the mandate, before I took office on the 1st of January, 2009. At that time, there was not yet such an economic crisis as we had it in 2008. Then 2008 was quite an economic crisis. Yes, which still goes on, at least with some of the countries. So the first challenge was to see how to steer a Laboratory, which is concerned with fundamental, with basic science, how to steer it through such a crisis. Secondly, our large accelerator, the super microscopes, the Large Hadron Collider was supposed to start in 2008. It broke down due to 1 out of 10,000 high current connectors malfunctioning, which took a lot of effort in order to repair it and in order to set up new measures to avoid another break of another connector. So a broken machine and economic crisis altogether was not such a brilliant starting point. But we could repair the machine, we could improve the machine, we could overcome the financial problems of the member states. It took US Then from 2010, we had the fantastic achievement of breaking the world record of high energy. So we opened a new window, a new era of fundamental science. Two years later, 2012, we could announce the discovery of the so called Higgs boson, the particle which is absolutely mandatory for everybody to exist, because it is the messenger of the mechanism which gives mass to fundamental particles. And if fundamental particles would not have mass, we could just not exist. So I think we made a very fundamental, very important discovery. One year later, the Nobel Prize in Physics was given to the inventors of that theory. And you have to imagine the papers which were postulating the existence of this particle were written in 1964. So it took 48 years to find that beast, to find that particle, yeah, because we had to develop the technologies in order to find it. And so we had this technology. So that was this huge discovery which made it everywhere into all the media. Then the last two years, we had the machine in shutdown mode. That means we were improving the machine, the accelerator, we were bringing it up to higher energy. And just a few days ago, before that interview, we opened another new window into the universe, maybe even into the dark universe, by having the first collisions at an energy which is nearly twice as much as the energy we had in our to discover that particle. So from that point of view, brilliant, Fantastic. Now, what other things did we do? Our science is global. We are a European laboratory, but with a global user community. So we also want to open it globally for countries to become members of this institution. So we have redefined the E in CERN from Europe to everywhere. That means any country independent of its geographical location can become a member of CERN. And so 2010, we took that decision. We have now 21 member states. The first one came outside Europe, came beginning of last year, beginning of 2014. We will soon have more associate members from outside Europe. So we open CERN to the world, so to speak. I Think we have moved the laboratory into a new era concerning science and concerning institutional relationships.
- [06:42]
B
Fantastic. And what an accomplishment in your mandate. What do you think helped you be successful as a leader?
- [06:51]
A
That's a good question. I think you have to ask other people. In principle, what I consider as one of my strengths is to be able to listen to people, to talk to people, to mediate, to draw conclusions and to come to common understanding between different parties, even if they at the beginning might not fully agree with each other. So motivation, talking to people, listening to people, using the input which I get from other people. I think it's very important. Nobody knows everything, so you better listen to the experts. But the experts might not all agree on each other. So you have to make a synthesis. That's maybe one of my strengths, to make a synthesis of what I'm hearing and to bring everybody together and then finally to support the decision which we have to take together. That's maybe one of the strengths. But the main success factor, to my mind is not the Director General, it is the people around him, it's the staff which supports the Director General. It's everybody who works together for one single goal, namely knowledge gain. So I think the credit goes essentially to all the people who work on that, independent of their profession. Everybody feels I am a part of this huge machinery and without me there is some problem in the machinery and that makes it.
- [08:24]
B
You also had to. A very challenging factor was to get the funds from your member states just after the financial crisis of 2008 and economic situation was more difficult. What kind of competencies and ability do you need to discuss? You mentioned some already, but one thing.
- [08:47]
A
Is diplomacy, the other thing is talking, talking bilateral discussions. Again, listen to people acknowledging that there are problems, acknowledging also that we understand the problems, trying to find common solutions bilaterally. And once you have established personal contact and very importantly, trust, talking between parties can only lead to success once you trust each other. So personal contact, establishing trust, transparency, openness, not coming with a hidden agenda, but really putting things on the table and trying to come to a common solution, which is okay for both sides, but that can only happen once you trust each other. In principle, it's easy, yes, in principle, indeed.
- [09:42]
B
So what would you say would be the culture of cern? If someone comes from a for profit company and comes into cern, which is a different culture, what would you say was the predominant culture of cern?
- [09:55]
A
I think what people will realize is that there is competition, because science without competition is not a good science. But this competition goes along with Cooperation, competition and cooperation do not exclude each other. I think they can very well work together. And that is the spirit of cern. You compete, but you compete openly and you compete even inside cooperation. So, you know, you are one part of this big experiment, for example, but you cannot do your part of the experiment without the other. The other knows that he or she cannot do it without the information you are giving to him or her. That means, you know, if I don't give, I don't get anything. So it's a give and take, independent of competition. You know that you can only compete through the cooperation. So I would call it coopetition to certain scene. And that I think makes the spirit of CERN that everybody knows again, that alone you cannot do it. There is a common goal. And of course, everybody wants to reach that common goal first. But you do it in a friendly way.
- [11:14]
B
And for having worked here, I would say there's a lot of passionate people that really love CERN and the objective and the mission of cern. And they might be competing, but their loyalties to this institution.
- [11:29]
A
Yeah, it's again, a question of, as you say, passion, motivation, and again, to a large extent, trust. Because if you give somebody something, you trust that you also get something in return. Otherwise it doesn't work. And somehow it has worked over 60 years, and I'm pretty sure it will work for longer.
- [11:50]
B
In your vision, let's say, for the next 25 years for CERN, what do you hope for CERN? Because you've done an incredible accomplishment while you were here. What would be some of the advice you give to the people that stay here and continue at cern?
- [12:05]
A
My advice is very easy. Continue in the same way. Be open, of course, to changes in the world. That's, of course, sure. One cannot just continue all the time in a straight line. You have to follow a little bit also the development of the world, and you have to adjust a little bit your goals, but follow the same spirit. Follow the same line.
- [12:28]
B
Tell me the spirit and tell me the line.
- [12:30]
A
Just again, the line is definitely knowledge gain, knowledge gained through science, through basic science, but at the same time through developing new technologies. That's the goal. I mean, we want to make progress in our knowledge about the early universe, about how our world is built on and why we can exist, as I said at the very, very beginning, why we can exist at all. There are tremendous amount of questions still open. We want all to address these questions in a common way. So continue to work together, independent of cultures, independent of nationalities. Break the walls between cultures and nations. It doesn't matter if you are coming from country A or from country B, we don't care. We just continue that line.
- [13:17]
B
I'll tell all the listeners how multicultural CERN is really combination and a coordination for many, many, many countries.
- [13:27]
A
But this is a huge advantage because this is an opportunity because different cultures look differently on also on scientific questions, on the way, how you tackle scientific questions. Use this as an opportunity, don't consider it as a challenge. It's an opportunity and I think it's very important. Also in the more and more global world, you learn to appreciate the other, you learn to work together. So if you have to go and do something else than science, I mean, many of the young people here, quickly or later they go into the private sector, but they have learned what it means to work together with other cultures, with other nations. They have learned that everybody is a human. And in principle you can do everything together. It might even help to form at some stage a better world. But you need much more droplets like CERN to fill the ocean for a better world.
- [14:26]
B
So the next 25 years, what else? So it's increasing the knowledge, having people work together, leveraging the cross cultural aspects. What kind of competencies do you think besides technological and expertise, or engineer or in physics, what kind of management expertise would you advise young leaders?
- [14:49]
A
Take yourself less important than you think.
- [14:51]
B
You are Modest.
- [14:53]
A
Modest. Think on the topic, on the subject, on the goal, and not so much on yourself. The subject is the point which counts. If you think too much on yourself, somebody else will replace you. At some stage, if you get a task, do it, do it in the right way, do it as good as well as you can. People will recognize that you can do it well, and then the next step will come. But aim at the topics, at the results, and not on yourself. That was at least the way I worked.
- [15:30]
B
Fantastic. Anything else?
- [15:32]
A
No. I think we should always consider that it's a privilege to work in research because you work on your hobby, you work on what you like, and you can shape a little bit your own future through that. Once you do it right. So the message is really not only follow your brain, but sometimes for the young people, sometimes also follow your stomach. What I mean with this is follow a little bit your feeling. So get not only your brain together, but also your feeling. What do you mean by feeling the passion, the motivation? Whatever you do, you do it better when you are highly motivated. So motivation is a huge factor, not only for you, but if you want to become a leader or a Manager. Also motivate your staff. It's the motivation of your staff. Without the motivation of your staff, you have a problem. It's motivation. And the motivation of your staff comes once you show your motivation.
- [16:33]
B
Okay? So follow your passion, find your motivation. Listen to yourself, listen to your gut so that you can focus on what gives you energy and what you're passionate about, and then find a means to also make other people passionate about, or give them the opportunity to do so.
- [16:51]
A
And give them the visibility. If somebody does something for you, give that person the visibility. That's important because that motivates visibility.
- [17:01]
B
Maybe recognition.
- [17:02]
A
Yeah, that's what I mean with it. Yes. Recognition. Yeah, look, I mean, of course, if I have developed a method and my boss presents it as his method, that's not motivating. So it has to be the recognition. There are a few easy things, and once you follow these good facts, you're.
- [17:21]
B
Very modest because you have a lot of qualities and you've done incredibly well for cern, if I may say so.
- [17:28]
A
Well, I had a very good team.
- [17:31]
B
That's great. That's great. Is there any last message you want to give to the listeners before we finish?
- [17:37]
A
Maybe one thing which I didn't touch yet is also one message. If you have people whom you rank highly, whom you trust, take their advice, but form your own synthesis. Form your own opinion out of this advice. It's your responsibility to follow it and not the responsibility of the people who give you the advice. But ask them, think about it, and then take you away. But don't neglect the advice of other people.
- [18:05]
B
So listen, integrate. But nevertheless take your responsibility of synthesizing and taking your own opinion.
- [18:12]
A
Yeah. Because it's your life or your decision. Don't blame the others. Take the advice, but blame yourself if it's wrong.
- [18:21]
B
Okay. Tough, tough to be a leader, isn't it? Well, thank you very, very much for this interview. It was interesting.
- [18:31]
C
Thank you for listening to the excellent Executive Coaching podcast. You can subscribe to all Future podcasts@excellentexecutivecoaching.com join us each Wednesday to learn more about the latest trends in leadership techniques and bring your coaching to the next level. To learn more about Dr. Burris CEO mastermind, use the contact form@excellentexecutivecoaching.com.