Name: The Best Advice NRG Energy's CEO Ever Received
Uploaded: 2020-01-02
Duration: 4 min
Description: Mauricio Gutierrez reveals his father’s words of wisdom.

 Mauricio, congratulations that you have now come on your one-year anniversary as CEO of NRG. But you came in under difficult circumstances. Your predecessor was fired. There was no transition time. And suddenly, you were the boss of the whole company. What did you learn from that experience that prepared you to be an effective leader? As I took over as CEO, one of the first things that I did was to reach out to five CEOs of very large, public companies to ask that same question. They said own the vision and the mission. You can have a very inclusive process with a number of stakeholders and employees and listen to all of them. But at the end of the day, you have to provide a very clear direction because you own it, and they expect that you provide-- that you give it to them. How did you get NRG's senior executive levels, as well as employees throughout the company to back you up and to follow your lead? It must have been difficult. Well, it wasn't that difficult, Susie, because I've been in the company for nearly 12 years before I took over as CEO. So many of the employees were peers of mine, were colleagues. They knew me well. So in those first initial days, I brought the leadership team together, and we talk about it openly. We learned to disagree in the path and disagree on the various paths and options that we had. But I wanted to create this environment of trust. Some people, when they get a little bit of pushback or resistance, they take it as a negative, as almost a criticism. How did you take it? As a negative or as valuable information? Well, I took it as a valuable information because my main objective was to make sure that they felt comfortable talking to me and expressing their ideas and expressing their concerns. So in the first 100 days as CEO, I embarked on something that I called the Listening Tour. And I reach out to employees, customers, stakeholders. And we talked about the issues that we had in the company and in the industry. And that all helped me inform my thinking about how to move the company forward and how to reshape it. Given that this is the first time that you're a CEO of a huge company, did you feel that you had to modify your natural way of leading that you did in other executive jobs in order to be an effective leader? Look, I mean the main change that you do is you have to learn to listen more. You have to be open to different ideas. Once you have all this information, then you have to be decisive because people want leaders that are decisive and that shows them a clear path and a clear vision for the company. As you look back on your career, I'm sure you had a lot of mentors along the way who gave you a lot of advice. What was the best leadership advice that you ever received? And why did it resonate with you? Well, the best advice came from my father. He was the CEO of his company, and I worked with him when I came out of university. And his advice was around work ethic. Be the first one in the office, and be the last one to leave. People always watch the CEO. And you need to show great work ethic around your employees. 

The Best Advice NRG Energy's CEO Ever Received

Leadership

Mauricio Gutierrez reveals his father’s words of wisdom.

Marie Theo, Congratulations That you have. Now. Come on. Your one year anniversary, a CEO of an RG. But you came in under difficult circumstances. Your predecessor was fired. There was no transition time. And suddenly you're the boss off the whole company. What did you learn from that experience that prepared you to be an effective leader? You know, So I took over as CEO. You know, one of the first things that I did was to reach out to five feels off very large public companies to ask that same question. They said own division and the mission. You can have a very inclusive process with a number off stakeholders and employees, but listen to all of them. But at the end of the day, you have to provide a very clear direction because you own it. And they expect that you provided that you give it to them. How did you get and RG senior executive levels as well as employees throughout the company, too Back you up and to follow your lead well, have been difficult. Well, it wasn't that difficult to see because I've been in the company for nearly 12 years before I took over a CEO. So many of the employees where Pierce of mine were colleagues. They knew they knew me well, so in those first initial days, yeah, I brought the leadership team together and we talk about it openly. Um, we learn toe, disagree in the path. Ah, and and we agree and disagree on the various paths and options that we had. But I wanted to create this environment off Trust. Some people, when they get a little bit of pushback or resistance they take it as a negative is almost a criticism. How did you take it? As you know, a Z negative or is valuable information. Well, I took it as a valuable information because my main objective was to make sure that they felt that comfortable talking to me and expressing their ideas and expressing their concerns. So in the 1st 100 days of CEO, I am barking something that I call the listening tour, and I reach out to employees, customers, stakeholders, and we talked about the issues that we had in the company and in the industry, and that all help me, um, informed my thinking about how to move the company forward and how to reshape it. Given that this is the first time that you're a CEO of a huge company, Did you feel that you had to modify your natural way of leading that? You did another executive job in order to be an effective leader. Look, I mean, the main change that you do it if you have to learn to listen more, um, you have to be open two different ideas. Um, once you have all the information, then you have to be decisive. And because people want leaders that are decisive and that shows them a clear path and, um, a clear vision for the company. As you look back on your career, I'm sure you had a lot of mentors along the way. Who gave you a lot of advice. What was the best leadership advice that you ever received? And why did it resonate with you? All the best advice came from my father. Uh, he was the seal off his company, and I worked with him when I came out off university, and he said lives was around Work ethic. Be the 1st 1 in the office and be the last one to leave. People always watch the seal, and you need to show and great work ethic Ah, around your employees