American Express Leadership50, San Francisco, CA

transcript

The Passion Imperative:

The Leadership50Tom Peters/American Express/

06.08.2004/San Francisco

Slides at …

tompeters.com

Biases

Strategy Systems Passion Execution Porter 50 20 15 15

Drucker 35 30 15 20

Bennis 25 20 30 25

Peters 15 20 35 30

Successful Businesses’ Dozen Truths: TP’s 30-Year Perspective

1. Insanely Great & Quirky Talent.2. Disrespect for Tradition.3. Totally Passionate (to the Point of Irrationality) Belief in What We Are Here to Do.4. Utter Disbelief at the BS that Marks “Normal Industry Behavior.”5. A Maniacal Bias for Execution … and Utter Contempt for Those Who Don’t “Get It.”6. Speed Demons.7. Up or Out. (Meritocracy Is Thy Name. Sycophancy Is Thy Scourge.)8. Passionate Hatred of Bureaucracy.9. Willingness to Lead the Customer … and Take the Heat Associated Therewith. (Mantra: Satan Invented Focus Groups to Derail True Believers.)10. “Reward Excellent Failures. Punish Mediocre Successes.” 11. Courage to Stand Alone on One’s Record of Accomplishment Against All the Forces of Conventional Wisdom.12. A Crystal Clear Understanding of the power of a Good Story (Brand Power).

Kevin Roberts’ Credo

1. Ready. Fire! Aim.2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!3. Hire crazies.4. Ask dumb questions.5. Pursue failure.6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!7. Spread confusion.8. Ditch your office.9. Read odd stuff.10. Avoid moderation!

Sir Richard’s Rules:

Follow your passions.Keep it simple.

Get the best people to help you.Re-create yourself.

Source: Fortune/10.03

The Passion Imperative:

The Leadership50

“Uncertainty is the only thing to be sure of.” —Anthony Muh,

head of investment in Asia, Citigroup Asset Management

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like

irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff,

U. S. Army

Mount Madness v.2004

Perfect Storm

Corporate Mal-adaptivity

The Perfect StormJobs

TechnologyGlobalization

War, Warfighting & Security

“14 MILLION service jobs are in

danger of being shipped overseas” —

The Dobbs Report/USN&WR/11.03/re new UCB

Jeff Immelt: 75% of “admin, back room, finance” “digitalized” in

3 years.

Source: BW (01.28.02)

“The world has arrived at a rare strategic inflection point where nearly half its population—living in China, India and Russia—have been

integrated into the global market economy, many of them highly educated workers, who can

do just about any job in the world. We’re talking about three billion people.” —Craig Barrett/Intel/01.08.2004

“This is a dangerous world and it is going to become more dangerous.”

“We may not be interested in chaos but

chaos is interested in us.”

Source: Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century

Perfect Storm

Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the Class of ’17 were alive

in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market

by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the market 1917 to 1987.

S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were

alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.

Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market

Perfect Storm

The Basic Premise.

1. Leadership Is a …

Mutual Discovery Process.

“Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it

difficult for people to get things done.” – P.D.

“I don’t know.”

Quests!

Leaders-Mentors-Teachers Do Not “Transform People”!

Instead leaders-mentors-teachers (1) provide a context which is marked by (2) access to a luxuriant portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which

(3) allow people to fully (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they”

don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous

discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an

extensive self-constructed network) by which those people (5) go to-create places they (and their mentors-teachers-

leaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the leaders-mentors-teachers (6) applaud like hell, stage

“photo-ops,” and ring the church bells 100 times to commemorate the bravery of their

“followers’ ” explorations!

Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman

“Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and

members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best.”

“The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to

discover their greatness.”

The Leadership

Types.

2. Great Leaders on Snorting

Steeds Are Important – but

Great Talent Developers (Type I

Leadership) are the Bedrock of Organizations that Perform Over

the Long Haul.

Whoops: Jack didn’t have a vision!

T.A.: 3

3. But Then Again, There Are Times When This “Cult of Personality”

(Type II Leadership) Stuff Actually Works!

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Napoleon

(+TP’s writing room pics)

4. Find the “Businesspeople”!

(Type III Leadership)

I.P.M. (Inspired Profit

Mechanic)

5. All Organizations

Need the Golden Leadership

Triangle.

The Golden Leadership Triangle: (1) Talent

Fanatic-Mentor … (2) Creator-Visionary … (3)

Inspired Profit Mechanic.

6. Leadership Mantra

#1: IT ALL DEPENDS!

Renaissance Men are … a snare, a

myth, a delusion!

7. The Leader Is Rarely/Never the Best Performer.

33 Division Titles. 26 League Pennants. 14

World Series: Earl Weaver—0. Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0.

Walter Alston—1AB. Tony LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games. Sparky

Anderson—1 season.

The Leadership

Dance.

8. Leaders …

SHOW UP!

9. Leaders … LOVE the

“I’m not comfortable unless

I’m uncomfortable.”—Jay Chiat

10. Leaders

“We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.” — Herb Kelleher

The Kotler Doctrine:

1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)

1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)

1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)

11. Leaders

Re-do.

“If Microsoft is good at anything, it’s avoiding the trap of worrying about criticism. Microsoft fails constantly.

They’re eviscerated in public for lousy

products. Yet they persist, through version after version, until they get

something good enough. Then they leverage the power they’ve gained in

other markets to enforce their standard.”Seth Godin, Zooming

12. BUT … Leaders

Know When to Wait.

Tex Schramm: The

“too hard” box!

13. Leaders Are …

Optimists.

Hackneyed but none the less

true: LEADERS SEE CUPS AS “HALF

FULL.”

Half-full Cups: “[Ronald Reagan] radiated an almost transcendent

happiness.”Lou Cannon, George (08.2000)

14. BUT … Leaders Are

Realists/Leaders Win Through LOGISTICS!

The “Gus Imperative”!

15. Leaders …

DELIVER!

“It is no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing

what is necessary.” —WSC

“When assessing candidates, the first thing I looked for was energy and

enthusiasm for execution. Does she talk about the thrill of getting things

done, the obstacles overcome, the role her people played—or does she keep

wandering back to strategy or philosophy?” —Larry Bossidy,

Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution

16. Leaders

FOCUS!

“To Don’t ” List

“I used to have a rule for myself that at any point in time I wanted to have in mind — as it so happens,

also in writing, on a little card I carried around with me — the three big things I was trying to get done. Three. Not two. Not four. Not five.

Not ten. Three.”

— Richard Haass, The Power to Persuade

17. Leaders …

Set CLEAR DESIGN SPECS.

Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic

Initiative Overload)

JackWorld/1@T: (1) Neutron Jack. (Banish bureaucracy.) (2) “1, 2 or out” Jack. (Lead or leave.) (3)

“Workout” Jack. (Empowerment,

GE style.) (4) 6-Sigma Jack. (5)

Internet Jack. (Throughout)

TALENT JACK!

18. Leaders …

Send V-E-R-Y Clear Signals About

Design Specs!

Ridin’ with Roger: “What have you done to

DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE quality in the

last 90 days?”

If It Ain’t Broke … Break It.

19. Leaders …FORGET!/

Leaders … DESTROY!

Forget>“Learn”

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative

thoughts into your mind,

but how to get the old ones out.”

Dee Hock

20. BUT … Leaders

Have to Deliver, So They Worry About “Throwing the Baby Out with the

Bathwater.”

“Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, Just Plain

Damned.”Subtitle in the chapter, “Own Up to the Great Paradox: Success

Is the Product of Deep Grooves/ Deep Grooves Destroy Adaptivity,” Liberation Management (1992)

Therefore …

Leadership = Art

Therefore …

MBA = Useless

15 “Leading” Biz Schools

Design/Core: 0Design/Elective: 1Creativity/Core: 0

Creativity/Elective: 4Innovation/Core: 0

Innovation/Elective: 6

Source: DMI/Summer 2002

21. Leaders …

HONOR THE USURPERS.

Saviors-in-Waiting

Disgruntled CustomersUpstart CompetitorsRogue EmployeesFringe Suppliers

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision

22. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes

– and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!

“Sam is not afraid to

fail.”

23. Leaders Make …

BIG MISTAKES!

“Reward excellent

failures. Punish mediocre successes.”

Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)

Create.

24. Leaders Know that

THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN “LINE EXTENSIONS.” Leaders Love to CREATE NEW

MARKETS.

No one ever made it into the Business Hall of Fame on a record of

“line extensions.”

“Acquisitions are about

buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets.

There is a big difference.” Peter Job, CEO, Reuters

25. Leaders … Make Their Mark /

Leaders … Do Stuff That Matters

“Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the

first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we

intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do

we intend to be?’” —Max De Pree, Herman Miller

Ah, kids: “What is your vision for the future?” “What have you accomplished since your first book?” “Close your eyes and

imagine me immediately doing something about what you’ve just said. What would it be?”

“Do you feel you have an obligation to ‘Make the world a

better place’?”

26. Leaders Push Their

Organizations W-a-y Up the Value-added/

Intellectual Capital Chain

Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”

“What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride

through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”

Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?

“The sun is setting on the Information Society—even before we have fully adjusted to its demands as individuals and as

companies. We have lived as hunters and as farmers, we have worked in factories and now we live in an information-based

society whose icon is the computer. We stand facing the fifth kind of society: the Dream Society. … The

Dream Society is emerging this very instant—the shape of the future is visible today. Right now is the time for decisions—

before the major portion of consumer purchases are made for emotional, nonmaterialistic reasons. Future products will have to

appeal to our hearts, not to our heads. Now is the time to add emotional value to products and services.” —Rolf Jensen/The Dream Society:How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your

Business

27. Leaders

LOVE the New Technology!

100 square feet

28. Needed? Type IV Leadership: Technology

Dreamer-True Believer

The Golden Leadership Quadrangle: (1) Talent

Fanatic-Mentor … (2) Creator-Visionary …

(3) Inspired Profit Mechanic … (4) Technology Dreamer-

True Believer

Talent.

29. When It Comes to

TALENT … Leaders Always Swing

for the Fences!

Talent’s Big7 Rules

1. Talent = 25/8/53. 2. Some people are better than other people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other people.3. Women are the best leaders for the New Economy4. Think “Roster”5. Think “V.C.”6. Talent is what leaders do. 7. Talent = Brand

30. Leaders Don’t Create “Followers”:

THEY CREATE LEADERS!

“I start with the premise that the

function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more

followers.”—Ralph Nader

31. Leaders “Win Followers Over”

WHAT AN IDIOT: “Instead of employees being in the driver’s

seat, now we’re in the driver’s seat.”

PJ: “Coaching is winning

players over.”

“I didn’t have a ‘mission statement’ at Burger King. I had a dream. Very

simple. It was something like, ‘Burger King is 250,000 people, every one of

whom gives a shit.’ Every one. Accounting. Systems. Not just the drive through. Everyone is ‘in the brand.’ That’s what we’re talking

about, nothing less.”— Barry Gibbons

Passion.

32. Leaders …

Out Their

PASSION!

G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

Jim & Tom. Joined at the

hip. Not.

Good to Great: Fannie Mae … Kroger … Walgreens … Philip

Morris … Pitney Bowes … Abbott … Kimberly-Clark … Wells Fargo

Great Companies … SET THE AGENDA.

(Period.)

AGENDA SETTERS: “Set the Table”/ Pioneers/ Questors/ Adventurers

US Steel … Ford … Macy’s … Sears … Litton Industries … ITT … The Gap … Limited …

CitiGroup … American Express … American Express …Wal*Mart … P&G … 3M … Intel …

IBM … Apple … Nokia … Cisco … Dell … MCI … Sun … Oracle … Microsoft …

Enron … Schwab … GE … Southwest … Laker … People Express … Ogilvy …

Chiat/Day … Virgin … eBay … Amazon … Sony … BMW … CNN …

“Humility: The Surprise Factor in Leadership … bosses with Gung-

ho Qualities and Charisma May Be Out of Fashion” —Headline/FT/

re JCollins/10.03 (TP: scribble: “Nelson, Wellington, Montgomery, Disraeli, Churchill, Thatcher”)

WellingtonNelsonDisraeliChurchill

MontgomeryThatcher

“Quiet, workmanlike, stoic leaders bring about the big

transformations.”--JC

“Humble” Pastels?

T. Paine/P. Henry/A. Hamilton/T. Jefferson/B. FranklinA. Lincoln/U.S. Grant/W.T. Sherman

TR/FDR/LBJ/RR/JFKPatton/Monty/Halsey

M.L. King/C. de Gaulle/M. Gandhi/W. ChurchillPicasso/Mozart/Copernicus/Newton/Einstein/Djarassi/Watson

H. Clinton/G. Steinem/I. Gandhi/G. Meir/M. Thatcher E. Shockley/A. Grove/J. Welch/L. Gerstner/L. Ellison/B. Gates/

S. Jobs/S. McNealy/T. Turner/R. Murdoch/W. Wriston A. Carnegie/J.P. Morgan/H. Ford/S. Honda/J.D. Rockefeller/

T.A. Edison Rummy/Norm/Henry/Wolfie

Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Susan B. Anthony/Martha Cary Thomas/Carrie Chapman Catt/Alice Paul/Anna Elizabeth

Dickinson/Arabella Babb Mansfield/Margaret Sanger

“intrepid, unprincipled, reckless, predatory, with

boundless ambition, civilized in externals but

a savage at heart.”

Herman Melville on JPJ: “intrepid, unprincipled,

reckless, predatory, with boundless ambition,

civilized in externals but a savage at heart.” —from Evan

Thomas, John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder,

bloodshed—and produced Michelangelo, da Vinci and the

Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce

—the cuckoo clock.”

Orson Welles, as Harry Lime, in The Third Man

33. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM

BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!

BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”

“You can’t behave in a calm, rational

manner. You’ve got to be out there on

the lunatic fringe.” —

Jack Welch

34. Leaders Are …

in a Hurry

The Urgency Factor: LEADERS … have a distorted

sense of time. (E.g.:

Rummy thinks he asked months ago … it was the day before yesterday.)

35. Leaders Focus on the

SOFT STUFF!

“Soft” Is “Hard”

- ISOE

Message: Leadership is all about love! [Passion, Enthusiasms, Appetite for Life,

Engagement, Commitment, Great Causes & Determination to Make a

Damn Difference, Shared Adventures, Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable

Appetite for Change.] [Otherwise, why bother? Just read Dilbert. TP’s final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]

The “Job” of Leading.

36. Leaders Know It’s

ALL SALES ALL THE TIME.

TP: If you don’t LOVE SALES … find

another life. (Don’t pretend

you’re a “leader.”) (See TP’s The Project50.)

37. Leaders

LOVE “POLITICS.”

TP: If you don’t LOVE POLITICS … find

another life. (Don’t pretend

you’re a “leader.”)

38. But … Leaders Also

Break a Lot of China

If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not making

a difference!

39. Leaders

Give … RESPECT!

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He

talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a

bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

“Ph.D. in leadership. Short course: Make a short list of all

things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to

others. Ever. Make another list of things done to you that you

loved. Do them to others. Always.”

— Dee Hock

40. Leaders Say

“Thank You.”

“The two most powerful things

in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”

Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]

“We look for ...

“... listening, caring, smiling, saying ‘Thank

you,’ being warm.”— Colleen Barrett, President, Southwest Airlines

41. Leaders Are …

Curious.

The Three Most Important Letters …

42. Leadership Is a …

Performance.

“It is necessary for the President to be the

nation’s No. 1 actor.”

“You can’t lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a

horse.” —John Peers, President, Logical

Machine Corporation

43. Leaders … Are The Brand

“You must be the change you

wish to see in the world.”

Gandhi

44. Leaders …

Have a GREAT STORY!

“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective

communication of a story.”

Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

Introspection.

45. Leaders …

Enjoy Leading.

“Warren, I know you want to ‘be’

president. But do you want to ‘do’

president?”

46. Leaders …

KNOW THEMSELVES.

Individuals (would-be leaders) cannot engage in a

liberating mutual discovery process unless they are comfortable with their own skin. (“Leaders” who are not comfortable with themselves become petty

control freaks.)

47. But … Leaders

have MENTORS.

The Gospel According to TP: Upon having the Leadership

Mantle placed upon thine head, thou shalt never hear the unvarnished

truth again!* (*Therefore, thy needs one faithful

compatriot to lay it on with no jelly.)

48. Leaders … Take Breaks.

Zombie!Zombie!Zombie!Zombie!

The End Game.

49. Leaders ???

“Leadership is the PROCESS of

ENGAGING PEOPLE in CREATING a LEGACY

of EXCELLENCE.”

“Hire smart – go bonkers – have grace – make mistakes – love technology – start all

over again.”

“LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF

GIBRALTAR ON ROLLER BLADES”

50. Leaders Know

WHEN TO LEAVE!

T. J. Peters T. J. Peters 1942 – 2---1942 – 2---

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME

REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT …

HIS BOSS WOULDN’T HIS BOSS WOULDN’T

LET HIM! LET HIM!

T. J. Peters T. J. Peters 1942 – 2---1942 – 2---

HE WAS A PLAYER!HE WAS A PLAYER!

“If you ask me what I have come to do in

this world, I who am an artist, I will reply: I am here to live my life out loud.” — Émile Zola

American Express Leadership50, San Francisco, CA

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