Despite being “Outside the company, outside the industry, outside the family, outside the gender expectations,” as she told Fortune Magazine in October 2006, Patricia Woertz, CEO of agribusiness giant ADM, is and will remain very much the center of the business world’s attention. The four “outsides” are true: She is woman in an alpha-male role (she says it’s never been an issue against her). No, she is not a member of the family that has run the company since 1970 (neither is she a member of either of the families that started the company 105 years ago). No, she was not a member of the famously insular company prior to be named its CEO. And yes, she was hand-picked from a completely different industry (prior to this post, she was EVP at Chevron Corporation).

The elephant in the room is that ADM needed to transform itself, needed to become a player in the alternative energies markets. A stronghold in the agribusiness sectors, ADM needed to diversify to compete and to extend its strong financial momentum to tomorrow’s opportunities. But before she starts talking about her experiences at ADM so far, she tells first about her story of survival, one of her two themes of leading change.

Survive
It was her former job, at Chevron. The company had just experienced its worst year in the company’s history. 20,000 employees were about to hear some disheartening news, but Woertz obviously wanted them to be able to keep going, to keep their heads high. So instead of just giving only the bad, disappointing new, she focused on the tangibles—what the employees could do to improve the situation, urging them to repeat those tiny things that tallied together always make a surprisingly positive, rather big impact. She asked them to focus on what they could control—working safer, operating reliably, and delivering the promised financial results. If they continued doing these things, the rest would follow. She spoke personally with the 250-strong leadership team; it was important that the employees could sense their confidence and commitment to achieving the goals.

After five months, “the changes were systemic.” After these five very difficult, very uncertain months, there was a new business model, a new leadership team (the initial team of which Woertz had to let go by 1,000 people), a new organizational structure and goals. Despite the difficulties, their conviction had paid off. Woertz had led Chevron’s transformation to more than just an oil company, but only, she’s quick to point out, because the leadership team was passionate about the possibilities. In the next year’s address to employees, Woertz was able to announce them the company had more than achieved its goals—it did so a full year ahead of schedule.

It was then that Woertz asked, what’s next?

ADM answered.

Thrive
Her current challenge at ADM is one that seems incredibly difficult, except that it’s Woertz who is in charge. It’s Woertz who is to lead this food giant to its alternative energies future. She lists the interrelated opportunities as ADM has identified: more food; energy; energy security; and environmental improvement.

Woertz is charged with determining ADM’s role in these four world trends—and also ADM’s opportunity, where it can thrive, Woertz’s second theme of leading change.

In short, ADM predicts that by mid-century, the global population will have grown by 50 percent, but that the demand for food will double. Energy is of course driven by demand and geographic and political limitations on traditional energy sources will require a new cache of sources. Energy security becomes an issue as the desire for sustainable energy supplies increases. And it goes without saying that eco-sensibilities have become refined—consumers and ADM-specific customers more and more desire green products and green solutions, period.

Woertz has positioned ADM at the best possible position to capture these global needs and capitalize on them. It isn’t just “business,” however. Woertz sees the opportunity as holistic. ADM is positioning itself as the company that can and will sustain the holistic needs of the everyday consumers—food, heat, light, mobility, safety, a healthy environment. With Woertz’s skill and track record in bringing worlds together, this does not seem unlikely. She is committed to making sure ADM more than achieves these goals. She’s committed to ADM leading them. Each company must choose to lead their future, not just operate in it (either successfully or unsuccessfully). She stresses: A company can recognize what needs to be done or what goals they want to achieve, but this is not the same as leading toward those goals.

Woertz sees the next generation of leaders deeply committed to the power of business. She believes people and capital in lockstep can make profound differences in the world. She is earnest but it doesn’t alarm the evidence; her chops are legendary. She’s earnest because she not only is she is in complete command, but she has always envisioned herself as such and seems so naturally qualified to lead a company to a future very different than the past it has known.

How will Woertz lead this transformation? Firstly, importantly, by focusing on the people, making sure they know they matter and figure significantly in the company’s future, Woertz says the company is “letting people know nothing is more important than a colleague going home in the same condition as they came.” Making sure their vision and the vision of the company more and more comes into focus and aligns. She’s emphasizing learning and development for everyone, no matter their seniority or rank, to underscore the value of a team. “It’s going to be hard, takes guts, conviction, and sleepless nights….but the journey to a better future will be worth it if you lead it with passion and care for the people.” Who could say it better?

Woertz sums up her approach to leadership with four words: Be, Know, Do, Care. “’Be’ is about being yourself, leading from your values. There is no substitute for leading from your core values. ‘Know’ is to know your people and what motivates them. Know your job, your competition. ‘Do’ is be biased towards action. Do it—take those chances and risks. ‘Care’ about people. When people know you truly care about them, all change and success comes.”

It would seem that Woertz’s people know that she cares.