A career spanning more than four decades has taken Michael Polk from the executive suites of Kraft and Unilever to the top job at Newell Brands and, ultimately, to the smaller but no less demanding world of private equity-backed business leadership. Each transition has shaped Polk’s understanding of what it means to lead effectively and why the definition of a great CEO continues to shift.
Leading Through Other People at Scale
At companies the size of Unilever, individual executives cannot possibly touch every part of the organization. The CEO must set direction and let others execute. “The way you do that is by focusing on the strategic agenda of the company in allocating resources in a way that delivers against the strategic plan you’ve got. You’re typically working through other people and leading through other people to get things done,” Polk explains. That style of leadership requires trust in the layers of management below and a steady focus on the big picture.
When Polk came out of retirement in 2019 to run Implus, a private equity-owned business with a younger, less experienced workforce, he had to recalibrate quickly. There was no deep bench of veteran managers to absorb and execute his directions. Instead, he found himself in the work directly, doing marketing, designing selling programs, and shaping go-to-market strategies alongside the teams responsible for carrying them out. “In many ways, it is a back-to-the-future experience,” he says of the role.
The Goal That Never Changes
Michael Polk Newell Brands career has taught him that the context of leadership shifts constantly but the destination does not. Whether answering to public shareholders at Newell Brands or reporting to private equity owners at Implus, a CEO’s primary obligation is value creation. Everything else, including the org chart, the reporting cadence, and the management style, is in service of that single goal. See related link for more information.
Check out for more about Michael Polk Westport Newell Brands on https://www.businessload.com/run-grow-business/michael-polk-newell-brands-former-ceo-shares-his-unique-approach-to-leading-through-transformation/