Wednesday, December 18, 2013  Keeping A Gentle Grip On Power
Page 2 of 3  The third leadership strand is perhaps the hardest
to internalize, but Whitman has: Don't assume you know more than
the marketplace or community--because you don't. Unlike Wall
Street bond traders who try to outguess and outsmart the market,
Whitman listens and learns to formulate the right questions;
then she influences others on her team so they can come up with
the right answers. "You are constantly taking in new
information," says Whitman, "constantly changing the prism
through which you view your business." Adds Tierney: "CEO s
today have to be receivers rather than transmitters. It's a
discovery process, not a dictatorial process."  Learning by
doing. Whitman has demonstrated leadership through learning by
making several trips to China, listening and trying to
understand how the country actually works. Her time on the
ground was crucial. China's 100 million Internet users are
second only to those in the United States.  Whitman al