3M's group president tells COS why the key to success is how great you can make your team
As leader of 3M’s biggest business group – and with a career spanning almost 30 years at the company – Michael Vale knows a thing or two about leadership and innovation.
Vale is Group President of 3M’s Safety & Industrial Business Group and though the company has always been committed to innovation, the pandemic has reinforced this commitment.
“The pandemic accelerated the global trends we had been seeing, and part of that is the expectation that business is done the responsible way, especially when it comes to protecting people,” says Vale. “We believe strongly that we can use science, our unparalleled expertise, and a culture of collaboration to drive performance, safety and reliability for our customers.”
And this culture of collaboration is key to success, with Vale saying you are only as good as the team that you are able to build. “Eventually, it doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s just not enough,” he says. “What then really matters is how great you can make your team.”
This is a core part of being an effective leader. At some point, even the most brilliant leader will reach their maximum capabilities. We are, after all, only human. But great leaders distinguish themselves by their ability to nurture and develop a team that can ask the right questions.
“It’s being able to develop a team in a way that makes your workforce even stronger than the leaders themselves are on their own,” says Vale.
“Management is not necessarily about having all the answers, it’s about making sure we’re focused on the right questions. The team ideally leads me to the answer, and my job is to make sure that they’re thinking about the questions in the right way.”
This is true not only in safety, but in any business in any industry looking to succeed.
