UTCFS Vice
President Robert Isaman '85 Speaks at Smith
Commencement
SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COMMENCEMENT
SPEECH DECEMBER 2005
Prepared by
Robert G. Isaman '85
V.P. Integration, UTC Fire & Security
I am honored to be with you today at
your commencement from the Smith School
of Business at the University of
Maryland, one of the finest and most
respected business schools in the world.
My sincere congratulations to the
graduates assembled here today. I
understand that you are justifiably
excited, hopeful, reflective, and a
little anxious. For many, a healthy dose
of the fear of the unknown is present,
as you leave known surroundings, and
strike out on your own. Let me be one of
many today to assure you that these
feelings are a normal and are a
necessary part in your growth as a
person. The fact that you are surrounded
today by your parents, your spouses,
your siblings, your mentors, and your
friends in essence... the people who love
you is a testament to our belief in you
and your future. We are all very, very
proud of you.
As I prepared to talk with you today,
I was astonished to learn that I am
getting older at the same rate as
everyone else on the planet. Before
today, I had never really stopped to
calibrate that it has been over 20 years
since I graduated from the business
school at the University of Maryland and
began working for United Technologies
Corporation. Over my two decades of
working in line and staff leadership
positions in established and emerging
markets, I have met thousands of
outstanding leaders across the172
countries that I have visited.
Reflecting on the best of those
outstanding leaders I have met in
business, academia, and government, I
have observed that they all share four
common attributes for success, which I
will focus on today.
First, successful leaders are
ambitious and have formulated a career
roadmap that they follow with great
vigor; second, they are curious by
nature and pursue a continuous learning
posture throughout their lives by
investing in their education; third,
they are proactive, personable,
approachable, and optimistic; and
fourth, they have a great support
structure from their faith, their
families, and their friends.
One needs to look no further than the
Apprentice television shows for
validation in American pop culture that
there are many ambitious people in the
world, but not all of them are
successful. I have observed that the
best leaders clearly understand where
they want to end up in the organization,
and have carefully thought through each
position they will need to take (line
experience, staff experience,
international experience, headquarters
experience, outside experience, etc.),
to position themselves for future
success. Unfortunately, in today's
culture, too many people move through
jobs quickly and without a sense of
their ultimate career destination, which
is like being on an aircraft where the
pilot comes over the intercom and says,
I have bad news, and I have good news.
The bad news is that the avionics are
not working correctly we've strayed over
the ocean and we don't have enough fuel to
make it back to land. The good news is
that we are making excellent time.
I talk frequently with emerging
leaders inside and outside our
corporation, and you would be surprised
how many of them, who are on the cusp of
a significant leadership role, have no
idea where they want to end up. This
makes it very difficult to add the right
kind of value to these people and
accelerate their learning curves. Simply
put, the more information that you can
provide on where you want your career to
end up, the better the help and advice
you will receive, and the better your
chances of winding up on the ascension
charts that will eventually get you to
your destination. You, and no one else,
control your destiny on this issue.
What should you do now? If your goal
is to someday run multi-billion dollar
business or a corporate-wide functional
area, know that on average the soonest
that people hit this career plateau is
in their mid forties. So, if you are 22
years old, and allow for the minimum
time to show results in each position
you take, you have, at best, eight job
rotations over about 20 years to learn
all the functional, cultural, and
leadership skills that will be required
for success. You need to make each one
count, and learn as much as you can in
each of them. Talk to people to get an
understanding of the skill-sets you will
need at that level, and plan your eight
stops to gain that knowledge. As you
move through your career, periodically
benchmark your assumptions and progress
against any new knowledge or success
requirements. You will need to be
flexible, because timing may not align
in such a way that it falls perfectly
into your timeline. Sometimes the path
forward will look like a jungle trail
and not a six lane highway, but keep
moving forward. If you do this you will
significantly increase your chances for
success in your career.
If you don't do this, or if you trust
someone else to do it on your behalf,
like the airline pilot, you may think
that you are making great progress, only
to find out too late that you are
seriously off course, and in an
unrecoverable position. I've spent a lot
of time on this point because this is
the area where you can significantly
out-distance your competition, many of
whom will be flying blind as their
career progresses, and well on their way
to an emergency water landing.
The next common attribute for success is
an inquisitive nature and a commitment
to life-long learning. Interested people
are also usually interesting people. I
have observed that successful people
have a great capacity to listen and
learn from others, and can hold up their
end of a conversation on almost any
subject. I remember when we were living
in St. Petersburg, Russia in the early
1990s when I was working as a general
manager for one of our defense
start-ups. I had gone to Moscow for an
air show where we were showing off some
of our hardware, and one of the events
on my agenda was a dinner with industry,
government, and technical experts. This
was generic enough that I didn't have
very high hopes for a productive
evening, but I went anyway. As it turned
out, it was a big formal dinner with
lots of tables, food, and vodka toasts,
and predictably, as it was breaking up
there was a mad rush to the exit. There
were so many people clogged at the exits
that I hung back and went to get one
last cold drink.
I was reflecting on my uninteresting
evening, when into the room walks the
U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Thomas
Pickering, and one of his security team.
Now, as you can probably imagine, this
poor guy was surrounded all night by
people, and he looked very happy to be
almost alone, so I decided to
respectfully keep my distance, content
to be able to tell people that I was at
least in the same room with him. What
happened next was truly unexpected, he
started a conversation with me, and for
about 15 to 20 minutes we talked about
what I was doing in Russia, and about
his career in the State Department and
his prior postings before Russia. His
command of facts on any subject was
mesmerizing. This is a trait that I see
in the best leaders, and also a trait
that I saw in almost every Chinese
government leader that I have met. They
read extensively on a wide variety of
subjects, and they stay current on
critical information and facts.
I say this not to dissuade you from
adding to your formal education, which
is also tremendously important, but to
highlight to you the importance of being
well-rounded in your knowledge, and to
emphasize that this is a required skill-
set in many markets, particularly
outside of the United States. It is also
to counsel you to plan your schedules to
stay that extra ten minutes at the end
of a meeting, because you never know who
will engage you in a memorable
conversation.
The third part of this equation is
that successful leaders are personable,
approachable, and optimistic. Ill tackle
personable and approachable first, with
a brief story that I attribute to some
advice that my mother, also a Maryland
graduate, gave to me when I first became
an executive. As a bit of background,
let me say that my mother had been
watching senior executives at IBM for
years, where my father worked for over
30 years, and had formed some strong
opinions. She counseled me that, There
are two kinds of executives in business.
The first are those at a dinner that
approach the wives or significant others
of the employee while they are in the
salad bar line and introduce themselves.
They have done their homework. They have
memorized the names of the spouses who
goes with whom and know how many
children you have and the approximate
ages. They say many very nice things in
a very short time, and end by telling
you how much they appreciate your
sacrifice on behalf of the company, and
by thanking you for your personal
support of the company. The other type
of executive takes a position standing
against a doorjamb near the end of the
room, and waits for people to come to
them. She looked at me and said, I want
you to be a salad bar executive. And I
will tell you that without exception,
the best ones are salad bar
executives proactive, personable and
approachable, as well as optimistic.
Optimistic leaders look for ways to
make things work, frequently take
calculated risks, are passionate about
making sure their teams are well trained
and successful, and could care less
about their job preservation because
they believe in their abilities. People
gravitate to them because something is
going to happen, and they want to be
there when it does. If this describes
you... good... because I have seen very
few pessimistic senior leaders that
survive and prosper.
Lastly, successful leaders have a
great support structure from their
faith, their families, and their
friends, which helps to ensure that work
doesn't become the only thing in their
life. Balance in your life will be
essential for success, but despite even
the best advice from Oprah and Dr. Phil,
it will probably be an area of
opportunity for most of you throughout
your life. Great leaders have an ability
to laugh at themselves, to listen to
advice from those that they love, and
include those that they love in their
success. When I was awarded the
Friendship Award by the Premier of
China, Wen Jiabao, my largest
satisfaction was that my wife, Linda,
was at my side, and that my family was
as proud my success as I am of all of
them. Even though your central role over
the next 20 years of your life will be
that of of intense activity; working,
forming your reputations, starting
families, serving institutions, testing
values, identifying your passions it is
important that you don't forget the
people here today. In life, you can
never have enough people that love you.
They will be your source of strength as
you start this era of endless
possibilities in business and commerce.
Successful leaders know that no one does
it alone.
If you keep these four criteria
attributes for success in mind,
understand that there are few shortcuts
to learning your craft, and work
consistently hard at every task you are
given, I have no doubt that you will all
be great successes.
Your careers will be a wild ride, as
the world, and the business community,
changes frequently in ways that cant be
foretold. The Smith School and your life
experiences to date have equipped you
well to succeed. We have every
confidence in you and your abilities.
Good luck. Were counting on you.
Thank you.
Winter 2005
Commencement Highlights
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Robert Isaman's speech.
The commencement will be available on
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