Leadership

Leadership 'rhythms' drive opportunity: Johnson Controls' George Oliver on Meet the Leader

George Oliver, Johnson Controls

Johnson Control's Chairman and CEO George Oliver Image: Johnson Controls

Linda Lacina
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Leadership?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how SDG 13: Climate Action is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

SDG 13: Climate Action

  • Subscribe to Meet The Leader on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
  • Meet the Leader is a fortnightly podcast from the World Economic Forum that features the world’s top changemakers, showcasing the habits and traits effective leaders can’t work without.
  • Johnson Control's Chairman and CEO George Oliver explains the powerful role that leadership rhythms can play in tackling complex problems from COVID-19 to the climate.

When doctors and nurses mobilized for the pandemic last year, they were joined by a different sort of front line worker: those in critical infrastructure.

As COVID emerged in Wuhan, China, smart building technology provider Johnson Controls was needed to construct temporary hospitals and isolation rooms to help those impacted first by the coronavirus. As it shifted nearly overnight to meet the shifting needs of the crisis, the company and its 100,000 employees found new ways of working and connecting.

Loading...
Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about climate change?

During this time of great upheaval, leadership rhythms played an important role, Johnson Controls' Chairman and CEO George Oliver recently said in our podcast, Meet The Leader. Regular monthly and weekly meetings covering strategy to fundamentals ensured that teams stayed focused and aligned. Such sessions also ensured teams had the information they needed to understand best when to pivot or change course.

"If you stop the rhythm, then you're going to start to sacrifice the opportunity," said Oliver.

Oliver applies rhythm and routine to the way he works as well. He rises early - at 4 AM - to connect with teams in Asia and Europe. His day can last 12 hours before he retires to spend time with family and recharge. He's a "big believer in sleep and getting the proper amount and is often in bed by 9. "Especially in the last year, it has been everything we do on steroids," he said, "being able to do what you do and do it as well as you can, I think is very important."

With a hold on travel during the pandemic, Oliver could build in new habits and routines. Working remotely gave him more time to connect with more teams internally and those outside the company, such as through the Business Round Table (where Oliver chairs its Energy & Environment Committee).

Have you read?


"With new tools, it gives you an incredible opportunity to take what you know is important and really significantly elevate it," said Oliver.

Oliver spoke to Meet the Leader about the importance of rhythm in weathering crisis and driving collaboration and innovation. He also discussed the role such practices can play in tackling other complex problems, such as leveraging digital building technologies to tackle climate mitigation and how the company is helping its customers to become more energy efficient and reduce carbon emissions.

"If you stop the rhythm, then you're going to start to sacrifice the opportunity."

George Oliver, Chairman and CEO, Johnson Controls

"Leadership needs to have kind of a rhythm, engagement, collaboration - which drives innovation and then, ultimately, performance," said Oliver.

Learn more about the routines Oliver depends on - and the book that he calls a "cause for optimism" - on this week's Meet the Leader podcast.

Loading...

Listen and subscribe:

Find all our podcasts here.

Join the World Economic Forum Podcast Club on Facebook.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:
LeadershipHealth and Healthcare Systems
Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Meeting the UN's SDGs takes new leadership — here's how it should look

Kulé Galma

September 20, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum