Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

PROFILE U.S. Cellular’s Tom Grifﬁn Developing Great Leaders BY LINDSAY EDMONDS WICKMAN From the start of his career, Tom Grifﬁn, vice president of organizational learning and chief teaching ofﬁcer at U.S. Cellular, realized that “what separates the good from the great” is character. This also happens to be the underlying component of U.S. Cellular’s servant-leader philosophy. TOM GRIFFIN Vice President of Organizational Learning and Chief Teaching Ofﬁcer, U.S. Cellular SUCCESSES • Helped implement U.S. Cellular’s dynamic organization, which is based on effective leadership. • Helped develop and deploy U.S. Cellular’s servant-leader philosophy. • Develops learning programs that are tied to strategic business initiatives. • Recipient of U.S. Cellular President’s Award. LEARNING PHILOSOPHY “First of all, people’s voices need to be heard. You have to create the conditions that allow people to engage in very substantive conversations. In my view, it’s hard to learn leadership in short bursts. As leaders engage in very productive and powerful conversations, that’s when the lightbulb goes on.” s a young infantry ofﬁcer in the U.S. Army, Tom Grifﬁn learned a lifelong lesson: Great leaders have strong character. Little did he know this lesson would play itself out many times in the course of his career and ultimately would become the foundation of the leadership model he deployed at U.S. Cellular. “As a military ofﬁcer, what stood out for me in my career was the importance of character; character is what separates the good from the great and, at the end of the day, what deﬁnes you,” said Grifﬁn, vice president of organizational learning and chief teaching ofﬁcer at U.S. Cellular. “To be successful as a leader at U.S. Cellular, you have to be strong of character, highly ethical and, most of all, you [have] to be authentic. That was a lesson I began to learn early in my career, and I’ve just seen [the merits of ] that lesson play out in our leadership development efforts here at U.S. Cellular. That’s why our model is effective because it’s predicated on [principles], values and behaviors that have withstood the test of time and will continue to stand the test of time.” Before coming to the wireless service carrier, Grifﬁn took a circuitous path to learning. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts and spending four years in the military, he took a job at Texas Instruments (TI) as a quality and reliability engineer. Grifﬁn eventually moved from the technical side to human resources, where he found his true passion in learning. After 14 years at TI, Grifﬁn took a position at SBC-Ameritech, where he met John E. Rooney, who eventually left Ameritech to become the president and CEO of U.S. Cellular. About 10 months after Rooney’s departure, Grifﬁn was offered a job at U.S. Cellular, where he helped develop the dynamic organization (DO), which starts with effective leadership. “Tom is a true partner in implementing the DO here at U.S. Cellular,” Rooney said. “His ability to A 28 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • September 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

Chief Learning Officer Editor’s Letter Contents Connections Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Lifestyle Learning: Improve the Bottom Line With Behavioral Education Tracom’s Social Style Model CLO Profile IOL: Determining the Impact of Learning Communicating With the Boss About Impact Mission Accomplished? Measuring Success of Corporate Universities Borrowing Measurement Practices From Investors Value Creation With Human Capital Investment Business Impact Analysis at Chrysler Learning or Performance Enhancement: Which Is It? Best Practices in Global Project Management Training Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

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