President and Chief Executive Officer, Novelis Inc.
The Impact of Vulnerable Leadership with Novelis CEO Steve Fisher
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What does being a vulnerable leader mean to you?
According to Steve Fisher, President and CEO of Novelis, being a vulnerable leader means acknowledging and embracing your own limitations and areas where you need assistance.
It's about having the humility and self-awareness to recognize that you can't excel at everything.
Instead of trying to do it all, a vulnerable leader focuses on...
About Steve Fisher
In September 2023, Fisher discussed workforce development policies, stating that "it is important that the federal government pursue tax, regulatory, and education policies that are globally competitive" and called for expanding apprenticeships and community college partnerships. He highlighted Novelis's apprenticeship programs in Kentucky, New York, Iowa, and Ohio, as well as partnerships with educational institutions and the Manufacturing Institute's "Heroes MAKE America" program to recruit former military personnel. In 2018, Fisher expressed opposition to proposed aluminum tariffs, calling them "the wrong solution" and arguing that the issue should be addressed "at China's border with our allies." He also described Novelis as "the largest recycler of aluminum in the world," noting that the company increased its recycled aluminum inputs from 25% to 55% of its metal supply.
Transcript (8 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
What does being a vulnerable leader mean to you?
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Steve Fisher0:02
Lots of people told me I have some of those characteristics as being a vulnerable leader. It's okay to recognize where you need help and bring that to the table. I got some good advice early on: do what you're really good at, and lead what you're not necessarily good at by putting the right people in the right places.
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Interviewer0:28
What does being a vulnerable leader mean to you? Just when you hear that phrase, 'vulnerable leader,' what comes to mind?
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Steve Fisher0:36
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Lots of people told me I have some of those characteristics as being a vulnerable leader. To me, it's being open and transparent with all subjects, being willing to talk about the good and the bad, being open about where your strengths are and open about where you have opportunities to grow or just flat out weaknesses. In my case, when I came into the executive role here, I've never run a plant, I've not been part of operations. My background, as I highlighted to you before, is much more on strategy and finance and a bit on risk management, commercial part, but nowhere close to the operations. I think some people would dive directly into trying to know everything about the operations and try to become an operational expert because you're the CEO of the company. I got some good advice early on: do what you're really good at and lead what you're not necessarily good at by putting the right people in the right places. For me, it's okay. I can be very open with my organization, with people—that's not my area of expertise, and I rely on others for that. That's just a small example of being a vulnerable leader, but being open and honest with yourself, looking yourself in the mirror, and knowing truly where—I think we all know where our strengths are—but being okay with sharing where you have some weaknesses.
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Interviewer2:34
It's interesting because I find that vulnerability versus vulnerability for leaders is different. I don't know if you would agree or not, but I feel like because you're a leader, you have that extra responsibility where you can't just be vulnerable and say, 'Hey, I need help' or 'I don't know,' but you have to have that leadership component with it when you do it.
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Steve Fisher2:56
Yeah, I mean, I agree with that generally. I think it's okay to recognize where you need help and bring that to the table. I think the decisiveness of what you do with that information is maybe a different part of leadership. Being vulnerable and saying, 'Hey, I don't know the answer here, I want these two, three, four people around me to help me figure that out,' but then once you get those people around you, you can't waffle and not come to a decisive place with whatever you're being open about. But I've never found, particularly as a leader of a large organization, raising my hand and saying, 'Hey, I don't know the answer to this, I need some help,' as a sign of weakness, as long as you take that information and you can action against it.
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Interviewer3:59
What about for other people out there who are like, 'You know what, I want to share, I want to admit to making mistakes, I want to be okay with that too,' but they're scared to do it because they don't want to be judged by those around them? Any advice for those types of people who are just scared of that vulnerability at work?
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Steve Fisher4:15
Yeah, I mean, to me, leaning into it more—you're never going to get better if you don't recognize where you either need help or where you have opportunities to improve. I think having more—someone told me this before—people always think that red on a scorecard is bad. Red on a scorecard at least is identifying where the opportunities are. I think a little bit is just that if you can embrace understanding where some of these opportunities are in your journey as a leader, your journey in whatever you're trying to accomplish, that's okay as long as you're doing it with the right intentions to be open to improvement too, not just open without the improvement part. So I just encourage people to embrace it and utilize it to find ways to get better and win.