w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m Steve Farber Leadership Consultant Excellence LEADERSHIP THE MAGAZINE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY JUNE 2010 “Leadership Excellence is an exceptional way to learn and then apply the best and latest ideas in the field of leadership.” —WARREN BENNIS, AUTHOR AND USC PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT Extreme Leaders Extreme Leaders Take a Radical LEAP Take a Radical LEAP
Transcript
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Steve FarberLeadership Consultant
ExcellenceL E A D E R S H I P
THE MAGAZINE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY
JUNE 2010
“Leadership Excellence is an exceptionalway to learn and then apply the best and latest ideas in the field of leadership.”
—WARREN BENNIS, AUTHOR ANDUSC PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT
ExtremeLeadersExtremeLeaders
Take a Radical LEAPTake a Radical LEAP
ExcellenceL E A D E R S H I P
THE MAGAZINE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY
STEVEN BERGLAS
Superstar TalentSince you can’t livewithout them, learnto live with them.. . . . . . . 3
SALLY HELGESEN
Women’s VisionLeverage what womennotice and value. . . . . . . . .4
Who’s Now Leading?Take down walls and seekpositive deviants . . . . . . .17
JOHN MCKNIGHTAND PETER BLOCK
Limits of ConsumptionUltimately satisfactioncan’t be purchased . . . . . 18
PHIL EASTMAN IICharacter of LeadershipDevelop leaders ofgreat character. . . . . . . . .19
BUD TAYLOR
Leadership BetrayalDeliver first on whatyou promise. . . . . . . . . . .20
VOL. 27 NO. 6 JUNE 2010
Thinking Outside the BoxToday, you must not only think
outside the box, but blink and link outside as well. So, you arise early and
arrive at work before everyone else, to take quiet time to reflect,
contemplating a cloudless future. In minutes, you may be joined by others, but for now the sky’s the
limit, possibilities endless.
SWINE FLU SEEMS TO HAVEfizzled out, but Mad How
disease is still rampant, asmanagers and leaders are consumed by nag-ging questions of how to make ends meet.
As many of the contributing authors tothis issue suggest, with a strong (and wide-ly shared) why, you can overcome any how.So, leadership task #1 is to work on why, orcreate and communicate the why of work togenerate meaning, even in such seeminglymundane activities as keeping the bathroomclean and the customers happy.
I have purposefully and proactivelyprospected strong voices to bringthis message home to all managersand leaders; otherwise, given thechallenges we all face, we mightweaken, lose confidence, and wimpout. We are admonished here to befearless, positive, enlightened, help-ful, extreme, and loyal—and thusrestore confidence, lead throughcrises, create abundance, buildmojo, generate pride, and serve asnew models and responsible citizens.
WWaanntteedd:: TTuurrnn--KKeeyy SSoolluuttiioonnssAs I walk the expo floor at the ASTD
Conference in Chicago (May 16-19) and sitin on sessions, I detect a strong bent towardprepackaged, plug-and-play, off-the-shelf,turn-key solutions to complicated leader-ship challenges, in the grand tradition ofAmerican consumerism.
I concur with Phil Eastman: “It would benice if becoming an effective leader were easy—and if all the ideas and techniques you readabout or experience in workshops were sim-ple to use. However, the real world is some-thing else again. Becoming a great leader ishard work. The leadership development indus-try has softened the reality of leadership,boiling it down to formulas, tips, and tricks.
“The ability to lead is built on character.Leadership is a lifelong pursuit in whichtime and experience matter greatly. It isfraught with pain and exhilaration. Everyleader leads from his or her character.”
Thus, the shaping of a character is thekey-turn solution. Having character-basedleadership is like having a skeleton key—you can then open any door, navigate anyterrain, endure any setback. Indeed, you
might say that you have a Shackleton keyfor returning all home safely, even from theextremes of East, West, North and South.
When I reunited in March with one ofour founding editors of Leadership Excellence,Stephen R. Covey, I witnessed once againhis compass demonstration: Close your eyesand point to what you think is North. Nowopen your eyes and look around.”
Invariably, when this demonstration isdone in a large hotel or convention centerwith many participants coming from out oftown, people are pointing all over the place.
But the leadership lesson goes beyondone of direction. As other presenters pointout, if these same participants were asked toexplain their organization’s mission, mar-
keting strategy or reason for being(the Why questions), the answerswould vary widely. Why? Becausepeople are rarely clear on the whyof their work.
Action Item: Make sure you areclear on why you work.
WWhhyy LLeeaaddeerrsshhiipp EExxcceelllleennccee??I was wondering aloud in my
office the other day: Is there still areason for us, Leadership Excellence maga-zine, to exist. When we started in May 1984,we were one of a kind, creating the leader-ship development community from scratch.
But now, with so much out there in theleadership development industry, do we stillhave a place and purpose? If so, what is it?
Gratefully, our namesake, the incompara-ble Warren Bennis, made it clear when heemailed me this response to receiving theMay issue of LE: “Dear Ken, I thought thiswas an especially interesting issue—one ofthe best I’ve seen. I found all articles wortha skim and more than a few, a thoroughreading, which is more than I can say for3/4 of journals I read.” Beyond the “goodread,” Bennis adds this endorsement:“Leadership Excellence is an exceptionalway to learn and then apply the best andlatest ideas in the field of leadership.”
We were the first in business publishingto transcend the medium of the magazine andbecome, by design, a management and lead-ership development resource. If you aren’tusing our three monthly magazines (andarchives) in your people development pro-grams, you are misusing the product.
LE
Y o u c a n t h e n o v e r c o m e a n y H o w .
by Ken Shelton
Volume 27 Issue 6
Leadership Excellence (ISSN 8756-2308) is published monthly by Executive ExcellencePublishing, LLC (dba Leadership Excellence), 1806 North 1120 West, Provo, UT 84604.
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The Why of LeadershipE . D . I . T . O . R ’ S N . O . T . E
2 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
Editor since 1984
Covey: True North
father’s punishment that they become apsychological Humpty Dumpty:Demanding, self-centered, narcissistic,pains-in-the-butt (achievers you can’tlive with). “Talent is God given. Be humble.Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit isself-given. Be careful,” said John Wooden.
Talent. In my lexicon, Talent are peo-ple who possess exceptional attributes.They are Franchise Players that sportsteams pay tens-of-millions-of-dollars ayear to employ. Operationally, Talentare the elite members of the group sin-gled-out by the Pareto Principle—the80/20 Rule—as getting results. Theyare the top eschelon of the 20 percent,seen as responsible for 80 percent of acompany’s favorable results.
In business parlance (thanks to JackWelch’s recognition of their worth),Talent are often called A Players. Welchsays of them: “The A’s are the people
who energize not only themselves, buteveryone who comes into contact withthem. They make business productiveand fun at the same time.” Simply put,A Players have a synergistic effect—onereason why you can’t live without them.
Prima Donnas. The reason whymost people believe that Talent oftenimposes intolerable burdens on teamefforts is because they can easily bemistaken for Prima Donnas. Early intheir careers, both Talent and PrimaDonnas deliver the goods with no illeffects on those around them. Beforetoo long, however, Prima Donnasreveal their true colors. These folks areinsecure over-achievers who see life asone zero-sum game after another, witheveryone in their environment posinga threat and representing a potentialobstacle to their coveted achievement.
Before their insecurities dominatetheir life, Prima Donna can put pointson the board. But, since a pathologicalneed to achieve is the engine driving
Superstar Talent
MY CAREER HAS BEENdevoted to study-
ing the effects that suc-cess has on those who achieve it, andserving now as a leadership coach, tothose who can’t handle its problematicconsequences. In the 30 years I’ve de-voted to these endeavors, I never met aperson who was universally acknowl-edged to be Talent (with a capital T)—for example, Derek Jeter (sports);Wynton Marsalis (music); and RichardBranson (business)—who wasn’tworth his (or her) weight in gold towhatever organization he or she wasaffiliated with. Make that platinum.
While my perspective is shared bymany CEOs who move mountains toacquire great Talent, some question itsvalidity: “Give me folks with goodcharacter rather than talent any day,”they say. This knock on Talent is oftenundeserved, because no authenticTalent, A Player, or Superstar, morphs,over time, into the character-disorderedmegalomaniacs that give Talent a badname. Those folks—Prima Donnas—arenot Talent. Once you learn the differ-ence, the problematic aspects of work-ing with Superstars are diminished.
Talent is born, not bred. Prima Donnas,on the other hand are “bred” by beingdamaged at such an early age that itappears as if they are born to achieveand aggravate simultaneously. Theyare not. As far as the field of psychia-try can tell, Prima Donnas are kids pos-sessed of one or more rare attributesthat as a result of a major trauma ortraumas become the basis of compul-sive achievement-seeking strategies.
Often a Prima Donna is born whena dad berates his young son for whathe deems to be substandard perfor-mances. Vowing to never again sufferthe verbal excoriations his forebearmeted-out, Junior works night andday to excel. The good news is that heoften attains his goal (Those reared byhypercritical fathers who can’t exceloften end-up in jail.) However, thepsychic toll Junior pays to preventgetting verbally eviscerated nevergoes away. These kids overcompen-sate so drastically to ward-off their
their train—not the joy that comes withdoing well that motivates Talent—themoment Prima Donnas cross one goalline, they start searching for a new one.Often, the goals they choose are at var-iance with those their teammates (andbosses) have set, but they could careless. They are compelled to look good, anddamn anyone who gets in their way.
The compulsion that drives PrimaDonnas to look good is the fear that ifthey don’t succeed constantly, aspectsof their self-image that should remainhidden—a negativity, born of their his-tory—will be seen by the world, whichwill then reject them. This compulsionto prevail makes Prima Donnas looklike Talent striving for achievement, butthis is not the case. Prima Donnas oftenget results similar to those obtained byTalent but at a price: When they suc-ceed they are driven to cause otherspain, while demanding to be extolledfor their achievements and value.
TThhrreeee DDiissccrriimmiinnaattiivvee TTeessttssSince both Talent and Prima Donnas
are quick starters, deliver stellar resultsearly in their careers, and are indefati-gable in their pursuit of success, it ishard to differentiate the folks guaran-teed to give you headaches from thosewho will be a rising tide lifting allships. Moreover, by the time PrimaDonnas show their true colors, thedamage they cause can be consider-able. For this reason—and to amassthe resources that you need to keepTalent satisfied (they are not inexpen-sive), you must learn to discriminatebetween these two sets of high scorers:
Test 1: Know them by what they want.The easiest way to differentiate Talentfrom Prima Donnas is by what it takesto satisfy them. Talent, although oftenquirky, strives to succeed for the joy ofsucceeding. Prima Donnas seek bothtangible rewards for doing well andpublic acclaim. Talent is often shy, es-chewing spotlights for quiet time after ajob well done. Prima Donnas can’t justknow they did well; they must havean audience! Since their maladaptivedrive was born to keep critics at bay,the compensation they develop is notcomplete unless potential critics (every-one) is told that they are Stars. WarrenBuffet—The Oracle of Omaha—appearsin public infrequently. Donald Trump,a man drawn to interpersonal con-flicts, has his own Reality TV show.
Test 2: Know them by their influenceon others. Apart from humility and apassion to actually be the best—not mere-ly be perceived as the best—Talent willdemand the best from those around
by Steven Berglas
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 3
PEOPLE TALENT
Can’t l ive with or without them.
them. Interestingly, Talent are not nec-essarily good mentors, but neither arethey saboteurs like Prima Donnas are. Itis one thing to not suffer fools gladlyand seek social support to improve asub-standard teammate’s performanceor have him axed. It is quite another tocastigate someone or humiliate them ifwhat they do is not up to par. The rea-son why Prima Donnas are so critical isbecause they “identify with the aggres-sor:” Dad ripped them apart for notputting points on the board, so they dowhat he did to others once they can.
Test 3: Know them by how they de-mand to be spoiled. Aristotle observed,“No great genius has existed withoutsome touch of madness.” All Talent isquirky, at best, and obtuse, at worst.However, Prima Donnas are downrightupsetting, refusing to make their wish-es known in benign ways. Recall CalRipken, Jr., formerly of the BaltimoreOrioles, who surpassed Lou Gehrig’srecord for consecutive games played.In private, Cal was anything but acces-sible and humble. To keep in peak con-dition, he received special accommo-dations: He traveled apart from theteam; he slept in a private room; hehad personal trainers. While thesewere costly and not in keeping withThere is no ”I” in team, Ripken created awin/win: He provided record atten-dance, and he achieved greatness without stepping on anyone to do so.
Years ago, I worked for a legal con-sulting firm and was hired to coach“problem partners,” all Prima Donnaswith a propensity to berate, belittle,and abuse their associates. Why? Tohave a scapegoat-in-waiting should acase of theirs not go as expected.
Talent eschews the blame-game: Yes,they refuse to perform unless all knivesaround them are sharp, because theywant to achieve cutting-edge outcomesthat enable them to show that they arethe sharpest blade in the bunch.
Once you can differentiate Talent fromPrima Donnas, you need to reward Talentin ways that inoculate them againstattempts to poach them while massag-ing their egos. The only way to do thisis with heart-to-heart conversation, a pro-spect that is intimidating to managers.
Michael Jordan describes what Talentmust do to function as A Players, notPrima Donnas: “To be successful you haveto be selfish, or else you never achieve.Once you get to your highest level, youhave to be unselfish: Stay reachable,stay in touch, and don’t isolate.” LE
Steven Berglas is author of Reclaiming the Fire, and TheSuccess Syndrome. Visit www.berglas.com.
ACTION: Learn to live with top talent.
by Sally Helgesen
tion tends to operate like radar; men’smore like a laser. Women monitoremotional cues, anticipate what othersneed, and make constant subtle adjust-ments to reconcile conflicting agendas.
Broad-spectrum noticers are good atjudging context and making unexpect-ed connections; focused noticers provideclarity and analytic rigor. Broad-spectrumnotice resists quantification and can seemoverly subjective, but focused notice canleave out vital information. Both areessential in an environment driven byshifting customer demands, fast-evolv-ing distribution systems, and productsthat require continual calibration. AsGE CEO Jeff Immelt notes, leaders needto see around the corners. Women offer astrong resource, but their abilities canflourish only in organizations thatvalue broad-spectrum notice.
2. What women value. We see a mis-match between what the marketplaceassumes talented people most value intheir work and what most womendeeply value. Most organizations stilloffer reward, recognize achievement,build incentive, and decide promotion,using definitions of worth that reflectan all-male leadership culture. The pri-
mary carrots in this culturehave always been compen-sation and perks. But,women are less likely tojudge financial and prestigerewards to be “worth it” ifthey perceive the quality oftheir days to be negativelyimpacted by their work.Women tend to view com-pensation as a means to anend—providing a good life
for themselves and their families—rather than as an end in itself. Purelynumeric gauges of reward matter lessto women than the daily texture oftheir experience, which is shaped bythe quality of social interaction, andthe ability to control their time andmeet domestic responsibilities.
Women are less motivated by what ajob might lead to or promise for the futurethan whether they perceive their work tobe enjoyable and rewarding. To fullyengage women’s talents, leaders need torecalibrate how they define reward ratherthan assuming that talented individualswill always value more perks andbonuses. Women’s ways of perceivingvalue offer a more comprehensive wayof calibrating motivation, building loy-alty, and leveraging talent. LE
Sally Helgesen is author of The Female Advantage, The Web ofInclusion, and Thriving in 24/7. Call 518-392-1998, [email protected], or visit www.sallyhelgesen.com.
ACTION: Leverage your female talent.
OVER THE LAST 20 YEARSthe best organizations
have come to view attract-ing, retaining and developing talentedwomen as a business imperative. Women’sskills—their ability to collaborate, buildstrong relationships, open up lines ofcommunication, work in teams––haveproven highly adaptive to the decen-tralized models that web-based tech-nologies require. And women’s ideasand insights have provided an essen-tial resource for organizations seekingto market products and services to theexpanding female customer base.
So the business case for women enjoyswidespread acceptance. Yet the strategiccase for women’s leadership has yet tobe made. For although organizationsplace more value on female skills andseek to spur female recruit-ment and participation,they rarely recognize thefull scope of women’svalue when it comes toshaping the mission andstrategic direction.
This is a chief reason thatwomen are still underrepresen-ted in positions of influenceand power. Because organi-zations—and women—havenot yet understood or articulated thestrategic potential women have to offer,the best of what women have to offerremains stymied. This shortchangesorganizations and frustrates women.
Women’s strategic power is vested intheir vision—the lens that shapes theirdistinctive point of view. What advan-tages might this perspective provide interms of leading in a diverse, globalenvironment—and in terms of conceiv-ing and executing the mission?
For four years, executive coach JulieJohnson and I have tried to identify thecultural reasons that women still strug-gle to achieve top positions. We find thatorganizations can’t leverage women’scontributions until they understand twoelements that shape the female vision:
1. What women notice. Women’sattention is engaged by many differentthings at once, whereas men tend tofocus deeply and narrowly on a singleperception or task. So, women’s atten-
Women’s VisionMaking the strategic case.
PEOPLE WOMEN
4 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
That thinking led me to a more rad-ical position. I gave up on the idea ofchange led by senior executives. Istarted looking for people who wereinterested in change, encouragingthem to do what they could, but not towait for people at the top—to just actwithin their own domain. There’s still apossibility of creating beneficial resultson these islands of hope in companies.
Once fear sets in and risk increases,many leaders revert to command andcontrol. This was exacerbated by theimpact of technology, globalization,and constant communication. Manymanagers and leaders tell me thatthere’s no time to think, no time tolearn from experience. If somethingdoesn’t work the first time, you justpick up the pace the second time;maybe it’ll work then. People in pro-
ject management and training haveincredible time-compression demands.
Another factor is the intensifying ofcommunications technology. E-mailhas given us a 10-fold increase in ourwork and a 100-fold decrease in ourability to pay attention. Last year astudy showed that people could tellyou when their day began, but notwhen it ended.
We are so overwhelmed by informa-tion that we’re becoming numb. E-mailalso takes away the need to meet faceto face, which causes misunderstand-ings and damaged relationships.Today people deal with tough issuesby e-mail even if they’re down the hallfrom each other. It’s also led to strangebehaviors, such as people using theirBlackberrys or phones to e-mail or textmessage under the table at meetings.The most common posture now is thedownward glance, whether it’s inmeetings or elsewhere.
Fearless Leaders
IF A COMPANY IS ONLYas good as its people,
leaders have much toworry about. The reason: their peopleare under unprecedented strain. In aneconomic environment that demandsincreased productivity, leaders aretightening control and asking employ-ees to do more work in less time. Atthe same time, employers are payingless attention to their employees’development or satisfaction.
Leaders can cope with this situationwith fearlessness—by building a strat-egy driven by quality and the valuesof the people, rather than by quarterlyperformance. Regrettably, few leadersare likely to lift themselves above theshort-term fray to get this message.
Fearlessness can play a critical rolein addressing problems facing leaders.
For years, there has seemed to be adeep disappointment and despairgrowing, even among engaged, capa-ble business leaders. I’ve spent muchtime working on large-systems change,helping organizations become morecommitted and productive, with thefull engagement of people at the top.Many of these people were heroes tome. They knew about the value ofparticipative management; they hadmade great gains in both the tradition-al measures of profitability and ininnovation and viability.
Now pressures on leaders haveincreased dramatically. They nolonger have time or flexibility. Theyfeel caged, oppressed, and exhausted.The demand for quick results and thepressure from boards and oversightcommittees have left them no time fordevelopment or learning.
I saw these leaders withdraw: “For-get about values, learning, or partici-pation. We just need to execute.” Thismeant: “Drive performance now.”This business rhetoric, the notion ofexecution, is quite violent: You “exe-cute” people. It gives me the shivers.Seeing this happen made me thinkabout fearlessness: Who was going totake a stand on behalf of quality andother values? And if people did take astand, would it make a difference?
There is also an intense focus onshort-term results at the expense of allelse. There is pressure to get projectsdone faster with quicker turnaroundtimes and unreasonable deadlines.
We’ve entered the era of believingthat a client or boss can just ask forthings sooner, without losing quality.The thinking is that you don’t have toworry about how a decision will affectlong-term success—just think short-term, and somehow it will work itselfout. Employees are now evaluated onshort-term results, but these don’t real-ly measure anything of value for thelongevity of the company. These mea-sures get tied to incentives andrewards and start to transform behav-ior in a negative way. All this leads toworse performance in the end.
If leaders took the time to engagepeople instead of clamping down onthem, not only would employees per-form better, they’d also be more innov-ative and focused. It would lead to lessstress, less illness, and more productivity.
Right now, leadership actions arepushing the workforce toward increas-ing disengagement. People show up towork to collect a pay check. As Galluphas shown, 70 percent of the Americanworkforce currently feels disengaged,up from 33 percent in 2000. That’swhat happens when you squeezefewer people to do more work, givethem shorter deadlines, measure theirwork using meaningless reports, andtreat them with profound disrespect.
These behaviors persist becauseleaders don’t know how to relate touncertainty, how to deal with a futurethat they can’t plan for. They can’t evenplan for their own future: recently,there have been record levels of CEOfirings. Meanwhile, the people whorecruit and select CEOs cling to thebelief that one person should have theanswer. And when the new CEO doesnot have it—because no one persondoes—they just go for another, moreheroic leader. These powerful dynam-ics reinforce one another and pushorganizations in the wrong direction.
FFaaccee RReeaalliittiieessThis is where fearlessness comes in.
To be fearless is to face the reality ofyour situation and to recognize whatyou can achieve, given these powerfulcultural and systemic dynamics, with-out deluding yourself that you can,through your own act of will, be morepowerful than you are. Then, decidewho you want to be, so that you canstand firm for the practices you believein most deeply, and accept criticism.
by Margaret Wheatley
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 5
LEADERSHIP FEAR
W e n e e d t h e m h e r e a n d n o w .
Such fearlessness can be found in any-one—senior leaders, mid-level leaders,supervisors, or workers.
If you’re a leader, you have to bethoughtful about this. Even a seniorleader from a major corporation, some-one who is very successful and useshigh engagement strategies, probablywon’t be able to convert the wholecompany. Hence, I’ve given up onlarge-scale transformation, but smallermeasures can still effect change—forexample, helping a few people realizetheir competence, value, talents, or creativity. But it’s hard for leaders toaccept this thinking. For once youaccept that, you open yourself toaccepting other ideas, such as the beliefthat human beings aren’t the mastersof the universe; that we can’t make ourown rules, no matter how powerfulour technology is. That’s not how theplanet works. Or recognizing the waysin which the pursuit of material goodsand consumer comforts, even as thispursuit makes people healthier andlive longer, can also deaden people inother ways. This destroys the essenceof culture, community, and family.
One thing I’ve felt deeply workingwith indigenous communities inAfrica, Australia, and North America,is that the lure of acquiring material goodsis stronger than any other lure in the worldnow, especially to teens. Many of themleave home to support their families andexperience a better life. But a societywhose practices are based only on eco-nomic growth will self-destruct, sincematerialism, if left unchecked, destroysthe best aspects of being human andbrings out our baser qualities. It’s not apretty world right now. Inside and out-side organizations, things peoplethought were protected are fallingapart. Within organizations, many peo-ple are left to their own resources.
To break away from this situation,fearless leadership is called for. I inviteyou to address these fearless questions:1. Does my team or organization needme to be fearless now? 2. Why shouldI choose to be fearless? 3. When have Ibeen fearless? 4. What prompted me tobe fearless? 5. Who needs me to befearless? 6. How can I best be fearless?7. Where can I make a positive differ-ence by being fearless? These ques-tions are designed to help you developclarity about your work and the contri-bution you want to offer. LE
Margaret J. Wheatley is founder of the Berkana Institute andauthor of several books on leadership. This article is adaptedfrom her interview with Strategy + Business magazine. Visitwww.margaretwheatley.com or [email protected].
ACTION: Address the fearless questions.
by David Parmenter
termined if candidates had a positiveattitude and a light-hearted nature. Hisrecruitment strategy was this: Loyaltycomes easier to a cheerful person thanone with a heavy countenance. He setdifficult tasks for the candidates to seehow keen they were to join. He usedtrials to test if applicants were up todifficult tasks. He picked his second incommand with great care, as his innercore had to be loyal. Frank Wild wasdedicated to acting on behalf of the“Boss” in his absence. He followedhim on all his adventures. He startedoff as a seaman and became a greatexplorer. Wild left the planning to theBoss and focused on maintaining ahappy, friendly nature; thus, the Bosscultivated leadership within the team.
3. Show an abundance of positiveenergy. As Jack Welch says, it’s vitalthat a leader has positive energy—thecapacity to go-go-go with healthy vigorand an upbeat attitude. Shackleton hadan abundance of positive energy. Heworked the hardest, slept the least,and lead from the front. He was fitterthan all others on the team. The Bossnever gave up: he believed that “there’salways another move, you just have to
find it.” He was always apurveyor of hope and opti-mism. When setbacksoccurred, he had to remainoutwardly optimistic,despite his own feelings, toprevent despair among hismen. He knew that suchdespair could, in the face ofadversity, lead to dissen-sion, mutiny, or giving up.He kept the men so busy
that they had little time to brood overtheir predicament. When he sensed thatthe mood was darkening, he’d use aholiday observance or some other pre-tense to justify extra rations of food toboost morale. He rose to his best andinspired confidence when things wereblackest. He loved a party, toasted lovedones, and celebrated birthdays. Oncenear starvation, he saved a small pud-ding with a piece of holly to share onChristmas. He was young at heart, alwayslooking for ways to amuse his team.
4. Communicate effectively. The Bossavoided public fights. He said onlypositive words about crew memberswhen expressing an opinion in public,knowing that he needed their support.He engaged in informal, one-to-one,personalized communication. Beforemaking a major change, he’d mentionit in passing individually so when heannounced the change it was no sur-prise. Bad news was never unexpected.
SIR ERNEST SHACKLETONsaved the lives of all
Endurance crew mem-bers who lived for two years in theharshest environment in the world.With low-technology equipment andno support from outside agencies, hemanaged to make a home on a floatingice shelf, sail all his men to an unin-habited island (Elephant Island), take ateam across 800 miles of the roughestwater in the world in a life boat, andthen cross unclimbed mountains andglaciers in an epic 30-hour traverse.
From him, all leaders can learn 10lessons in crisis leadership.
1. Manage well the immediate crisis.When Shackleton (the Boss) witnessedthe sinking of the Endurance, he knewit meant personal bankruptcy. Yet, hedidn’t let this event affecthis optimism of getting histeam back to safety. Herespected the old dogs(senior team members). Onperilous journeys where lifeand death were in the bal-ance, he had the old dogsin the advance party. Heobserved that old dogs eatless, complain less, sleepless, and are injured less!He was flexible, always thinkingahead. He reversed some decisions asconditions changed and dictated whatcould be done on the next leg of thereturn journey. When it was time toleave the breaking ice floe, the Bosshad to assess the safest option bearingin mind the conditions of the men, thesea, and life boats. Although unable topredict accurately the weather orfuture, he made provision for worst-case scenarios and accurately assessedthe best options to take. Moreover, hemaintained a sense of humor, evenwhen all looked lost. He was the lifeand soul of the group, constantly look-ing for ways to maintain morale. AsTom Peters says about bad times:“This is when it gets fun for talentedand imaginative leaders.”
2. Recruit your team with care. TheBoss chose his people carefully; he waslooking for character, competence andmulti skills. His interview questions de-
Crisis Leadership10 lessons from Sir Shackleton.
LEADERSHIP CRISIS
6 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
was not guaranteed. He could havebeen the first to the Pole, but he knewthat they would have died. Ultimately,success meant coming back alive.
9. Embody the values. The Boss wasa religious man. He took the Bible withhim, knew many of the scriptures(love thy neighbour as thyself), andhad a profound love of the commonman. He respected his colleagues, theirlife and time. While the Boss loved thelimelight, enjoyed the public adorationand the attention from the fairer sex,he was humble when communicatingto his team, knowing that throughhumility greatness can be achieved. Inhis public relations, he only laid claimto what was rightly his achievements.He treated his crew as equals. JanGunnarsson calls this leadership traithostmanship—the art of making peoplefeel welcome. He knew that helpingwas his most important task, and thuswelcomed interruptions! Time andagain, Shackleton gave up personalcomforts for his men. He gave up thefur-lined sleeping bags, his bed for asick member, his gloves at a pointwhere he risked severe frost bit. Heshared the provisions faultlessly to all
no matter what their contri-bution. The Boss set highvalues, and when thesewere compromised he wasunforgiving. The four staffmembers who had jeopar-dized the safety of his menwere later punished on theirreturn by the withholdingof the Polar medal.
10. Be a serving leader.The Boss looked after the
comforts of the team. He was a motherhen. He genuinely cared for his teammembers as if they were his own fleshand blood. He saw a leader as onewho served rather than one who wasserved. He dutifully took his turn per-forming the most menial of chores andexpected his leadership team to do thesame. He was “a Viking with a moth-er’s heart.” As Ken Blanchard writes inThe Secret, a leader exists to serve oth-ers rather than be one who is served.The boss would be the first to nurse anailing member, the first to make a cupof brew if he knew his staff were at theend of their tether. He saw such ser-vice as a clear strength, not a weak-ness, in his leadership. LE
David Parmenter is a writer and presenter on performancemanagement and author of Key Performance Indicators andPareto’s 80/20 Rule for Corporate Accountants (Wiley). [email protected], visit www.waymark.co.nz orwww.DavidParmenter.com.
ACTION: Read Shackleton’s Way.
“There is more of this when we get home.”7. Develop, engage and trust. The Boss
removed barriers of rank to build cohe-sion. Tasks were assigned based on aperson’s skills. All members, includinghim, did dishes and cleaned floors.When it came to rationing the fur-linedsleeping bags, straws were drawn, thethree leaders drawing a blank in arigged draw to benefit the youngermen. The Boss insisted on courtesy andmutual respect among members of theteam. The team was prepared to takeon any task the Boss wanted, as theyknew he would be in the line withthem. Being focused on the fitness andhealth of his team, he devised manyactivities on the ice floe to keep themin good health. He communicated thecritical success factors clearly to keep theteam aligned. He ensured that theteam planned their daily duties withtheir critical success factors in mind. TheBoss cross-trained the team and brokedown any barriers that might inhibitcohesion, matching tasks to individualcapabilities and personalities. He knewhis staff inside out and spent time witheach member to learn what made themtick, how he could best lead them, andhow he could serve them.
8. Reinvent yourself andconstantly innovate. TheBoss always learned fromexperiences. He designedspecial clothing, the equiv-alent of a Gor-Tex break-through. He also designeda tent that quickly could beerected in a blizzard. Theseinnovations no doubtsaved the lives of his men.The James Caird life boat that made thecrossing to South Georgia was modi-fied, and these modifications savedthem all when a 40-foot-plus roguewave swamped the boat. He had deepexperience in the enterprise he wasrunning, thus having what JohnGardner calls “the capacity to win andhold trust.” The Boss trained himselfto become an exceptional leader. Helearned from prior mistakes, he was astudent of other explorers’ experience,and he too had as a hero the greatNorwegian Roald Amundsen. Headmired and sought to emulate theskill, preparation, and attention todetail displayed by Amundsen in the1911 race to be the first to the SouthPole. He thus was well prepared forhis role. He valued results, but he val-ued life and people more. No goal ortarget was worth the loss of life. Hetook no unnecessary risks. He neverattempted a goal if the return journey
The Boss always canvassed the menwhen the options were unpleasant. Eachevening, he did a walkabout. No matterhow cold it was, the Boss would visiteach tent for a pep talk. He’d wake inthe early morning to accompany theman on watch (he rarely got more thanfour hours of sleep). He found time tocheer up members who felt depressed.
5. Let psychology be your friend. TheBoss read widely, and his understand-ing of psychology played a big part insaving the lives of this team. For exam-ple, on the hike over the mountains ofSouth Georgia, his two team memberswanted a small sleep. The Boss knewthat would be the end of them and hiscrew if they slept long, so he let themsleep for five minutes and then wokethem up saying they had slept for 30minutes. On the famous boat trip, hetook two members who would be ofno use but could not be left behind topoison the minds of others. His selec-tion of crews on the escape from thesinking ice floe took account of thedynamics of the friendships, seaman-ship, and the state of the boats. Henoted that the moodiness of the expe-dition’s photographer was improvedby flattery and inclusion. He’d sow ahint if he thought a change might beinevitable, but he never shared any doubts.The Boss was the master of conflictresolution: he avoided emotional out-bursts. He would gently point out thereason why it should be a done a dif-ferent way. He would only tell staff offin private. Where team members failedhim, he managed his anger and frus-tration. He engaged dissidents, andavoided needless power struggles.
6. See and own the future. The Bosscould visualize things ahead and planaccordingly. The extent of his planningincluded: different gear to avoid theproblems he had experienced in pastexpeditions; provisioning food andequipment that saved their lives manytimes; packing cases made of ply woodthat could be reconstituted into build-ing material for a hut. The Boss was boldin planning but careful in execution.While the vision must be bold, everyrisk was minimized to ensure a safeoutcome. He was over-provisioned. Hisoriginal plans were to be away for justover a year, but he wisely provisionedfor two years based on 4,000 calories aday. In providing for the team, only thebest equipment was good enough. Andwhere necessary, new equipment wasdesigned. The food on board was fit fora king. Treats that could be stored foryears were taken. In bleak moments,the Boss used a treat to say to his men,
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 7
the organizations where they learn,worship, socialize, and play. Meaningcan be discovered in friendships, fami-lies, neighborhoods, religious commu-nities, schools, clubs, and work.
People find meaning in many suchplaces and activities. Meaning is theobject of a nearly universal search, andwork is a nearly universal setting forengaging in this quest.
Leaders are meaning makers: theyset direction that others aspire to; theyhelp others participate in doing goodwork and good works; they communi-cate ideas and invest inpractices that shape howpeople think, act, and feel.As organizations becomean increasing part of theindividual’s sense of identi-ty and purpose, leadersplay an increasing role inhelping people shape themeaning of their lives.
Too many leaders focuson where they are going andhow to get there, without attending tohow it feels to those on the journeywith them. When leaders make workmeaningful, they help create abundantorganizations where employees oper-ate on a value proposition based onmeaning as well as money. Meaningbecomes a multiplier of employeecompetence and commitment, a leadindicator of customer share, a sourceof investor confidence, and a factor inensuring social responsibility. Evenhard-nose leaders become interested inmeaning when they see its potentialcontribution to bottom-line realities.When leaders grasp the why of mean-ing, they then seek the how.
We hope to redefine leaders’ rolesto include making meaning and creat-ing a sense of greater abundance byfocusing not only on what needs to bedone but also on how it feels to do it. Wehope to turn deficit-laden thinking intoabundance metaphors and actions.
Meaning at work. Leaders need toput meaning to work to succeed in themarketplace. The search for meaningadds value in two ways. First, peopleare meaning-making machines whofind inherent value in making sense outof life. The meaning we make of anexperience determines its impact on usand can turn disaster into opportunity,
Creating Abundanceloss into hope, failure into learning,boredom into reflection. The meaningwe create can make life feel rich andfull, regardless of our circumstances orgive us the courage to change our cir-cumstances. When we find meaning inour work, we find meaning in life.
Abundant Organizations (AOs). Werefer to a company that is meaningfulas an abundant organization—a worksetting where people coordinate theiraspirations and actions to create mean-ing for themselves, value for stake-holders, and hope for humanity. AOshave enough and to spare of the thingsthat matter most: creativity, hope,resilience, determination, resourceful-ness, and leadership. Yes, they areprofitable, but rather than focus onlyon competition and scarcity, they focuson opportunity and synergy. They
bring order, integrity, andpurpose out of chaos anddisintegration. Rather thanrestrict themselves to nar-row, self-serving agendas,they integrate a diversity ofhuman needs, experiences,and timetables—creatingmeaning for the employeeswho comprise them andthe customers who keepthem in business.
Market value of why. You intuitivelyknow that you and your work teamwould be more productive, satisfied,and creative if work engaged not onlyyour head and hands but your heartand soul. When employees find mean-ing at work, they care enough about itto develop their competence; they workharder and are more productive; theystay longer and are more positive—andcustomers respond in kind. Employeeattitude is a key indicator of customerattitude, and satisfied customers helpthe businesses they patronize to thrive.Meaning reinforces employees’ passionfor work because it ties what they do toa greater good that pays off in the mar-ketplace. Passion for work is an intan-gible asset that has a direct impact on afirm’s market value. Meaningful worksolves real problems, contributes realbenefits, and adds real value to cus-tomers and investors. Employees whofind meaning in their work are moresatisfied, more engaged, and more pro-ductive. They work harder, smarter,more passionately and creatively. Theylearn and adapt. They’re connected tocustomer needs. And they stick around.Meaning making is noble, and prof-itable. Making sense can also make cents.
Leaders as meaning makers. The taskof leadership is to create AOs. A crisis
8 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
LEADERSHIP MEANING
L e a d e r s a r e m e a n i n g m a k e r s .
by Dave and Wendy Ulrich
THIS MORNING, YOU GOT OUT OF BEDand got ready for work. You may
have found a sense of meaning, pur-pose, even abundance in your work—or found world-weary tedium, frus-tration, and despair. Which was it foryou, and for the people you lead?
Friedrich Nietzsche notes: “He whohas a why to live can bear with almostany how.” People who have a why towork can bear with almost any how.Organizations are primary settingsnot only for accomplishing tasks butalso for finding an abiding sense of mean-ing in life. Work is a setting in which topursue our universal search for mean-ing. Great leaders create a sense ofabundance (meaning, purpose, hope,pleasure) that engages people anddelivers value to stakeholders.
We encounter leaders who formu-late great strategies, structures, andprocesses but overlook the heart andsoul that make organizations mean-ingful places to work. The questionsboth leaders and followers wrestlewith connect around the search for thewhy of work—the search for meaning,purpose. Finding that why infuses asense of abundance—having enoughand to spare of what matters most.
In life, meaning is tied less to belong-ings and more to emotional bonds, asense of purpose, and using skills toserve the needs of others. In organiza-tions, meaning and abundance aremore about what we do with what wehave than about what we have to beginwith or what we accumulate; moreabout finding the resources to dealwith challenges than about havingunlimited resources to make work easy.
There is a strong business case forhelping people find meaning at work.As they find meaning, they contribute tothe broadest purposes for which orga-nizations exist: creating value for cus-tomers, investors, and communities.
People find meaning not only intheir personal lives but also through
accountable and unaccountable behavior.If they remain below the line, thingsalmost always get worse.
Rather than face reality, they ignoreor pretend not to know about theiraccountability, deny their responsibili-ty, and blame others for their predica-ment, citing confusion as a reason forinaction. These individuals may askothers to tell them what to do, claimthey can’t do it, or just wait to see ifthings will miraculously improve.
Embracing the four steps can build aculture of accountability where peopleconsistently assume personal account-ability and regularly overcome obsta-cles by replacing the question “Howdid that happen?” with a more posi-tive and proactive one: “What else canI do to achieve the desired results?”This question puts those who ask it inthe right mindset to resolve issues,become more resourceful and diligentin searching for new ways to moveforward, and achieve desired results.
It’s a question people at Ford MotorCo. have been asking in recent months.Evidence of the company’s emergingturnaround includes refusing govern-
ment bailout money,improving management,cutting costs, reducing debt,raising new equity funds,building greener cars, andsolving structural problemsthat had taken it to the edgeof bankruptcy.
So, the first step towardcreating a culture of account-ability is to define clear de-sired results. Clearly define
results and communicate them broad-ly. Whether the focal point is a salesgoal, a delivery period, or a minimumROI to achieve, people have to be clearon the direction and clear on the results.Leaders will often say: “I don’t carewhy or how you do it, just get it done!”Often org charts and job descriptionspush people into boxes. They give peo-ple the idea that they are paid to per-form a defined function or set of tasks.People are accountable for doing theirjob, but not for delivering results.Effective leaders lead people beyondthe boundaries of their jobs and inspirethem to relentlessly pursue desiredresults by creating a culture that moti-vates them to ask, What else can I do?until the results are achieved. They leadtheir people to recognize their “job” asachieving the desired results. LERoger Connors and Tom Smith are co-presidents of Partners InLeadership and authors of How Did That Happen? HoldingPeople Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way.Visit www.ozprinciple.com.
ACTION: Hold people accountable for results.
USUALLY, THE QUESTION “HOW DID THAThappen?” is accompanied by a fair
amount of hand-wringing, fist-shak-ing, and even brow-beating becausesomething fell through the cracks, anexpectation was not fulfilled, resultswent undelivered, assignments wereignored, and golden opportunities lost.
Regardless of who failed to deliver,unmet expectations can result in nega-tive consequences, including account-ability interactions. Today, accountabilityhas become something that happens topeople when things go wrong.
To implement positiveaccountability, negativeaccountability—what hap-pens to people when thingsgo wrong—should be re-versed and shifted so peopleproactively take ownershipfor results and overcomeobstacles to make positivethings happen regularly.
TTaakkee FFoouurr SStteeppssThere are four essential steps to
acknowledge and appreciate the trans-formative power of accountability: Seeit, own it, solve it and do it.• To see it, employees must obtain and
listen to others’ perspectives, whetherthey agree with them or not, preparingthem to readily acknowledge reality.• To own it, they need to make con-
nections between the circumstances theyface and the actions they’ve already taken.• To solve it means constantly asking,
“What else can I do to obtain thedesired results?”• To do it requires people to follow
through on commitments withoutblaming others for failure, take action tochange the situation, make progress andultimately achieve necessary results.
Individuals, teams, or organizationsthat try to deny or deflect accountabili-ty—often because they feel victimizedby circumstances they perceive to beoutside of their control—can becometrapped below the line that separates
Think PositiveETHICS ACCOUNTABILITYof meaning is always a crisis of leader-
ship. Abundance is not only a preroga-tive for leaders of rich, smart, prestigious,and successful people. Meaning is inshort supply for poor, mediocre, strug-gling, hurting people. Great leadersrecognize the vital importance of abun-dance and meaning to all stakeholders.To maintain outstanding performance,the best companies not only make moneyvia excellent customer service and solidmanagement practices, they also tapinto the elusive quality of meaning.Their leaders turn the meaning peoplefind in work into sustained abundance.They help employees find meaningthat contributes to business success.They create a direction that is chargedwith meaning and resonates with theminds, hands and hearts of those they lead.
Recessions of meaning. In both leanand prosperous times, values are test-ed and forged, setting the stage for thefuture. Meaning is shaped or dissipated.Loyalties are won or lost. Talent and skillare honed or abandoned. Creativity andproblem-solving skill are developed orundermined. And future sustainabilityis either ensured or threatened. Weneed AOs in deficit-dominated con-texts that challenge our sense of mean-ing and in growth-dominated contextsthat give rise to expansion. The searchfor meaning is more about how wethink than about the circumstances inwhich we find ourselves. Deficit think-ing can abound even amid plenty.
Prevalence of deficit thinking. Whenwe lose what we’ve come to count on—be it a person, income, position, retire-ment, treasure, security, identity, direc-tion, or job—we lean to self-protectionand deficit thinking, which can lock usinto a prison of our own making, onedominated by fear, isolation, disorien-tation, and competition for scarce re-sources. Even if we get back what welost—even if the economy improves,the takeover is averted, or we end upwith a better job—our deficit thinkingcan cast a discomfiting spell over ourlives. The thieves and robbers of crisisundermine the ability of leaders to fos-ter abundance. Once we realize the pre-cariousness of the things we dependon for security, we can’t restore securi-ty fully until our dependencies change.
Leaders search for meaning in goodtimes and bad. Meaning matters becauseemployees are essentially volunteerswho can choose where to allocate theirtime and energy. LE
Dave and Wendy Ulrich are co-authors of The Why of Work.Dave is a professor and management consultant (www.rbl.net).Wendy is a psychologist. Visit www.thewhyofwork.com.
ACTION: Clearly communicate the why of work.
by Roger Connors and Tom Smith
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 9
Transforming accountability.
set of people or individual leaders. Inthe best organizations, leaders are sub-servient to the core principles. Member-ship is ultimately defined by sharedcore values and common purpose.
2. Build mechanisms of connectionand commitment rooted in freedom ofchoice, rather than relying on systemsof coercion and control. You can’t justestablish shared values and commonpurpose and expect everything to holdtogether; you also need tangible mech-anisms that foster the commitmentrequired to produce results. However,these mechanisms will increasinglyrely on commitments freely made andwill grant wide operating autonomy,rather than rely on coercion and control.
The commitment plus freedom modelrequires heavy up-front investment inselecting the right people. It does not
try to mold people to be what they arenot. People often ask, “How do we getindividuals to share our core values?”The answer is, “You can’t.” You can’topen people up and install new corevalues in them. The key is to find, attract,and select people who have a predisposi-tion to sharing the core values, and tocreate an environment that consistentlyreinforces those core values, buttress-ing it with mechanisms of connectionand commitment. If you select the rightpeople in the first place—and theyselect your organization—you don’tneed to control them. They don’t needfixed hours. They don’t need to comeinto offices where they can be watched.They don’t need rules. You need toguide them, teach them, provide direc-tion, set clear objectives, agree mutual-ly on deadlines, and have mechanismsof commitment and connection—butyou don’t need control. Most managersunder-invest in the selection process and
Enlightened Leaders
IN THE FUTURE, WALLSthat have traditional-
ly defined boundaries—what you own, what you control,whom you employ, where they work—will cease to have much meaning.Instead, the defining boundary will bea permeable membrane defined byvalues, purpose, and goals; organiza-tions will be held together by mecha-nisms of connection and commitmentrooted in freedom of choice, ratherthan systems of coercion and control.The exercise of leadership is inverselyproportional to the exercise of power;hence, the most productive relationshipsare, at their core, mutual partnerships.
Leaders today need to make fourshifts in order to be effective.
1. Define the inside and the outsideof the organization by reference to corevalues and purpose. Every great orga-nization is characterized by dual actions:preserve the core and stimulate progress.On one hand, it’s guided by a set of corevalues and purpose that change little,if at all, over time; on the other hand, itstimulates progress—change, improve-ment, innovation, renewal—in all that isnot part of the core values and purpose.In great organizations, core values andpurpose remain fixed, while operatingpractices, cultural norms, strategies,tactics, processes, structures, andmethods continually change inresponse to changing realities.
The organizations that best adapt toa changing world first know whatshould not change; they have a fixedanchor of guiding principles aroundwhich they can more easily changeeverything else. They know the differ-ence between what is sacred and whatis not, between what should neverchange and what should be alwaysopen for change, between what westand for and how we do things. Corevalues and purpose provide the gluethat holds an organization together asit expands, decentralizes, globalizes,and attains diversity. Core values andpurpose define the eternal character ofa great organization, the character thatendures beyond the presence of any
try to correct for bad choices throughcontrol and over-management. If youselect the right people, you don’t need tomold people. Indeed, the moment youfeel the need to control and mold some-one, you’ve made a selection mistake.
3. Accept the fact that the exercise oftrue leadership is inversely proportionalto the exercise of power. The best andmost innovative work comes only fromtrue commitments freely made betweenpeople in a spirit of partnership, notfrom bosses telling people what to do.Leadership can’t be assigned or bestow-ed by power or structure; you are a leaderif and only if people follow your leadershipwhen they have the freedom not to.
As people become increasingly com-fortable with ambiguity, they will tradethe single-job model for a multi-clientmodel, thus granting to any singleorganization or leader less power overtheir lives and livelihood. All thosepeople who lost their jobs suddenlycame to understand that low ambiguity(a single job) comes at the price of highrisk (all eggs in one basket). You canalready see this change to the lower-risk, multi-client model happening asolder executives bemoan the “lack ofloyalty” in the younger generation.And yet there is no less loyalty in theyounger generation. They are simplygranting less power to any single orga-nization; they are less subservientbecause they have more freedom. Themoaning executives are confusing sub-servience to power with loyalty to cause.Executives need to cultivate the latterand relinquish dependence on the for-mer to be effective. We’ll see a shiftaway from ownership of people in anyform, including the traditional job (anadvanced form of owning people byowning their time). Every relationshipwill be viewed as a joint venture.
4. Embrace the reality that tradition-al walls are dissolving. We are movingtoward a world in which the conceptthat walls are necessary is becomingarchaic and is no longer useful. Themost progressive corporations have jet-tisoned the idea that they can exist in awalled-off cocoon of private activity.The customer revolution, for example,reflects a dissolution of the walls com-panies once tried to construct betweencustomers and companies. The socialsystems best suited in the long run tomeeting the material and spiritualneeds of most people tend to distrib-ute, rather than concentrate, power. LE
Jim Collins is the best-selling author of Build to Last and Goodto Great. This article is adapted from his chapter in Leading Be-yond the Walls (Wiley/Jossey-Bass). Visit www.jimcollins.com.
ACTION: Adapt to these new realities.
by Jim Collins
1 0 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
LEADERSHIP REALITIES
T u n e i n t o f o u r n e w r e a l i t i e s .
tiative and executive ability—and hermemo became the moment that jump-started her career from assistant tooverseeing hundreds of employees.
Look at achievements from two per-spectives: what you bring to the taskand what the task gives to you. Untilyou can honestly put a value on whatyou’ve achieved lately, you may not beable to create or re-gain your mojo.
The third element is reputation. Whodo other people think you are? Whatdo other people think you’ve donelately? Unlike questions about identityand achievement, there’s no subtletyhere. While identity and achievementare definitions you develop for your-self, your reputation is a scoreboardkept by others. Your co-workers, cus-tomers, friends and sometimesstrangers grab the right to grade yourperformance—and report their opin-ions to the rest of the world. Althoughyou can’t take total control of yourreputation, there’s much you can do tomaintain or improve it, which can havean enormous impact on your mojo.
The fourth element is acceptance.What can you change, and what’sbeyond your control? On the surface,
acceptance—being realisticabout what you can andcan’t change in your lifeand accommodating your-self to those facts— shouldbe easy. After all, how hardis it to resign yourself to thereality of a situation? Youassess it, take a deep breathand accept it. Yet accep-tance is often one of ourgreatest challenges.
Rather than accept that their man-ager has authority over their work,some people fight with their bosses, astrategy that rarely ends well. Ratherthan deal with the disappointment ofgetting passed over for a promotion,they’ll whine “It’s not fair” to anyonewho will listen, a strategy that rarelyenhances their image among peers.Rather than take a business set-back instride, they’ll hunt for scapegoats, lay-ing blame on everyone but themselves,a strategy that rarely teaches them howto avoid future setbacks. When mojofades, the initial cause is often failureto accept what is—and get on with life.
By understanding the impact andinteraction of identity, achievement,reputation and acceptance, you canalter your mojo at work and at home. LEMarshall Goldsmith is the author of What Got You Here Won’tGet You There, Succession: Are You Ready? and Mojo: How toGet It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When YouLose It! Visit MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com.
ACTION: Use these elements to build your mojo.
OUR MOJO IS APPARENTwhen there’s no
gap between the posi-tive way we perceive ourselves andhow we are perceived by others. Fourvital ingredients need to be combinedin order for you to have great mojo.
The first is your identity. Who doyou think you are? Often I ask peoplethis question and their first response is,“Well, I think I’m perceived as some-one who . . .” I stop them immediately,saying, “I didn’t ask you to analyzehow you think other people see you. Iwant to know who you think you are.Taking everyone else out of the equa-tion, how do you perceive yourself?”
What follows is often a long silenceas they struggle to get their self-imageinto focus. Without a firm handle onour identity, we may neverunderstand why we gain—or lose—our mojo.
The second element isachievement. What haveyou done lately? If you’re asalesperson, this might belanding a big account. Ifyou’re a creative type, itcould be coming up with abreakthrough idea. This is amore subtle questionbecause we often underrate or overrateour achievements based on how easyor hard they were to pull off.
For example, one senior HR execu-tive told me she could pinpoint theexact moment her career took off—though she thought nothing of it at thetime. She was the assistant to the CEO.One day she heard him complainingabout the company’s tracking systemfor expenses. That night, she wrotehim a memo on how she wouldstreamline the system. It didn’t requiremuch effort on her part; as someonewho had been filling out the CEO’stravel and entertainment reports foryears, she had a very good sense of thereimbursement system already inplace. But the memo impressed herboss, who almost immediately movedher into the human resources depart-ment, where she could shake things upwith her ideas. In her manager’s eyes,she clearly demonstrated insight, ini-
Build Great MojoIncorporate four elements.
by Marshall Goldsmith
PERFORMANCE MOJO
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 1 1
by Carol Kinsey Goman
PEOPLE WOMEN
THIS MONTH, WOMENwill become the
majority in the Americanworkforce. Females already make upthe majority of university graduates andof professional workers. And womenalready run many great companies.
Many companies are committed todeveloping the leadership abilities offemale employees and creating family-friendly policies and flexible workarrangements—all in hopes of attract-ing, retaining and grooming women fortop management roles. Yet many tal-ented females still bump their headson a glass ceiling: Only 2 percent ofthe senior leaders of America’s largestcompanies are women.
Why are even the best-intentionedefforts at developing women leadersfailing? Research shows that intellectualassertiveness by women in mixed-sex dis-cussions elicits visible nonverbal cues ofnegative affect. Females taking a leader-ship role receive fewer pleased respons-es from group members than do maleleaders who offer the same input.Women’s ideas can thus be devalued.
Here’s what can happen in a teammeeting: A woman states her opinion.In response, negative nonverbal affectcues—frowns, head shakes, eye contactavoidance—are displayed, processed,and often mimicked by the group toproduce a negative consensus aboutthe value of her contribution. And thisoccurs without team members beingaware of what’s happening. Covert re-sponses still reflect discrimination againstwomen taking a leadership role. And sincehiring, salary, and promotion to lead-ership positions often depend on beingrecognized as an emergent leader, thisputs females at a disadvantage.
To groom women for leadership, keepoffering coaching, mentoring, and careeropportunities—and pay attention to yourbody language. People emulate the non-verbal signals they get from their bosses.Provide the same positive cues (eyecontact, smiling, nodding, leaning for-ward) when listening to women as you dowhen listening to men. LE
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an executive coach, consultant,speaker, and author of The Nonverbal Advantage. Call 510-526-1727, email [email protected], or visit www.CKGcom.
ACTION: Groom women for leadership.
Watch your body language.Why Jane Doesn’t Lead
PPrriisscciillllaa!! ((PPrriisscciillllaa--iissmm!!))In the helping business, it always
helps to have a model. My wife Susanand I and four close friends recently re-turned from a week-long tramp amongrainforests in amazing Costa Rica.Birds! Plants! Animals! All fabulous!
But years from now I’ll mostlyremember Priscilla! Priscilla was ourbrilliant driver on truly awful roads.She ranks in the Top 10 in the “God’sbest smile” category. After half a day,Priscilla figured out that a Diet Cokeand I should not ever be far apart.(There was always a Diet Coke wait-ing for me—where did she get them?)
I had trouble on several occasions.It was very hot and very humid. I hateheat. And I really hate humidity.Priscilla always had a folding chair
placed in the shade exactly when Ineeded it when I got back from thetrail. (Such chairs appeared mysticallyat exactly the right moment.)
I sweat like a demon; when Ichanged T-shirts (often), she alwayshung the wet one up—and once sheeven somehow found a dryer whilewe were out on a two-hour walk, andthe last shirt was dried and readywhen I’d soaked through my backup.(That’s insane, that’s true, and that’sPriscilla.) Priscilla provided the sameservice for all six of us. She has thebest attitude of the 6,000,000,000+ peo-ple on earth (and that’s a guarantee).And Priscilla has been doing this for20 years, without letup.
Do you have a Priscilla? SeveralPriscillas? Understand the Power ofPriscilla-ism. Accept no less thanPriscillas in any customer-facing job.
Do you look for Priscilla-ism in vir-tually all employees, especially those
How Can I Help?
THE MAIN MESSAGE INmy book The Little
BIG Things, a com-pendium of 163 ways to pursue excel-lence, is that Excellence is the result ofmany small tasks, all of which can bepracticed and mastered.
For example, I ask you, What domanagers and leaders essentially dofor a living? They help! Right? And yethow many “leaders” could call them-selves “professional helpers,” mean-ing that they’ve studied, like otherprofessionals (say, neurosurgeons) tomaster their craft?
Not many, I’d judge. In his bookHelping: How to Offer, Give, and ReceiveHelp, Edgar Schein gives us a few prin-ciples of helping, such as: “Effectivehelp occurs when the helping relation-ship is perceived to be equitable.”And “Everything you say or do is anintervention that determines thefuture of the relationship.” “Effectivehelping begins with pure inquiry.”And, “It is the client (employee) whoowns the problem.”
I love the idea that the employee isa client! Employee as client! Youremployees are your “clients.” Andhelping is what we leaders “do” for aliving. “Helping” is our neurosurgery!
So, think of the Boss as Helper. Boss-es exist to help. Period. Check yourcalendar. Right now. What are yourexplicit “helping” activities today?
If your calendar is not loaded withhelping activities, I implore you to be-come a student of “Helping.” Becomea “Professional Helper.” Helpingshould not be a “seat of the pants”activity. Study it. Practice it. Master it.
In business and in life, success is allabout the friendships (fueled by help-ing)! Regardless of the stakes or sub-ject matter, collecting allies and nurtur-ing supporters determines whether ornot the things that you care about get done.
So, check your lunch schedule thisweek, and check your calendar. ThinkROIR—Return On Investment inRelationships. What’s your “invest-ment plan” for the week? How doyou plan to help people to do thethings you care most about?
with customer contact? Do you under-stand that the bottom of the organiza-tion is really the top when it comes todetails of execution and perception of“We-care-ism”?
By the way, our guide, Jimmy, wasmuch like Priscilla. Priscilla and Jimmywere more important to the “CostaRica trip” than Costa Rica was!
If you want a model of helping inbusiness, look to Kip Tindell, CEO ofthe Container Store. He gets the help-ing message Big Time. That’s why aboring retailer was the #1 “best com-pany to work for,” per Fortune, a cou-ple of years ago. Follow the ContainerStore axiom and do not compromiseon Priscilla-ism.
TTiipp:: BBee TTeeaamm TTiiddyyIf you want an earthy “help” item,
start by helping keep your workplaceclean, especially the bathroom.
I once happened by a messy chain-store branch in the Natick Mall outsideof Boston. I followed the visit with aspur-of-the-moment post that I called100 Ways to Succeed/Make Money #1:The Clean & Neat Team! (Team Tidy?); Isuggested that the store’s blatant disar-ray screamed, “We don’t care.” I saidthat stores, and even accountingoffices, are judged as much or more onappearance as on “substance.” Theappearance is a nontrivial part of theassessment of the substance—in fact, itis an integral part of the substance.
Few of my “tips” are oceanic. Thatis, they are “little BIG things,” such asmy reaction to the messy store—or,alternatively, a spectacularly cleanrestroom. I offer this case in point:
I usually fly out of Boston’s LoganAirport. The trip from my home inTinmouth, Vermont to Boston passesthrough Gill, Massachusetts. It’s exact-ly halfway—hence, the perfect placefor a pit stop. With choices aplenty, Iam firm in my habit of stopping at theWagon Wheel Country Drive-in, asmallish coffee shop-diner. The food,including the fresh muffins, is boffo.The attitude is boffo, too.
But make no mistake, my custom istruly earned, three or four times amonth, by the restroom! It’s clean-to-sparkling. (Despite the invariablycrowded shop, I’ve never seen eventhe tiniest scrap of paper on the bath-room floor.) Fresh flowers are thenorm. And, a great multi-generationalcollection of family pictures cover allthe walls. Rushed though I typicallyam, I spend an extra minute examiningone or another, smiling at a groupphoto from a local company dinner, or
by Tom Peters
1 2 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
LEADERSHIP HELPING
L e a d e r ’ s l i f e w o r k i s t o h e l p !
20 percent of what we hear, 30 percentof what we see, 50 percent of what wehear and see, 70 percent of what wesay, and 90 percent of what we do.”
20 Minute conversations help peopleretain more because they becomeactive participants in their own jobgrowth. You can talk to an employeeand they will retain 20 percent of whatyou say; or you can actively engage anemployee in a serious back-and-forthdiscussion and help them retain 70percent of what they say!
2200--MMiinnuuttee CCoonnvveerrssaattiioonn TTeemmppllaatteeThe following template will guide
you through an effective 20-MinuteCoaching Conversation:• Expectations and importance: Give
yourself 1 to 3 minutes to state yourexpectations and why they are impor-tant. Team members need to knowwhat you expect before they can give itto you; this opening sequence givesyou the time to let an employee knowexactly what you need and howimportant it is to the organization.• Questioning and listening: Take 4 to
10 minutes to do questioning and lis-tening. Conversations aren’t one per-
son talking and the otherperson listening: they are anequal partnership in theemployee’s growth. Spend 4to 10 minutes, questioningthe person about his or herexpectations and how toachieve mutual satisfactionon an issue. Remember,employees retain 20 percentof what they hear but 70percent of what they say.
• Solution and agreement: Schedulethe last five minutes to select a solu-tion and get agreement. This must be areasonable goal that can be achievedthrough specific action steps uponwhich you both agree.
Creating a winning template foryour 20-Minute Coaching Conversationssends the message that you care aboutproductivity to the point of being clear,concise, and compelling in your inter-actions with staff and team members.In turn, they’ll act accordingly. Whenyou show the courage to say what youneed in a clear, direct manner, peopleknow where you stand and what isexpected. By being a role model forclear, direct communication, your mes-sage to the team is that we can be clearand direct with each other. LE
Alan Vengel is founder of Vengel Consulting Group andauthor of The Influence Edge, Sprout! and 20-Minutes to a TopPerformer (McGraw-Hill). Visit www.vengelconsulting.com.
ACTION: Practice 20-minute leadership.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.Frustrated leaders
face more demands withfewer resources. One such demand is forconstant coaching and mentoring.
What does it take to lead today?Conversations—a genuine back and forthwith teams and individuals—makes allthe difference. However, due to timeconstraints, many leaders don’t take thetime to have these vital conversations.
Not only is coaching becoming lesseffective, but it’s taking longer to pro-duce less. In one survey of managers,33 percent felt, “Coaching is too time-consuming.” Managers worldwide in-dicate that coaching takes too long. Timeis precious; 29 percent of leaders com-plain that they have too many directreports for time-intensive coaching.
You may be thinking:“With all that I do, with asmany people as I have,you’re telling me to coachthem one-on-one for betterresults? Do you know howlong that’s going to take?”
I know how long it takesbecause I’ve been sharing my20-Minute Leader philosophyfor years. I’ve learned thatthe less time you have, themore effective you have to be. Those20 minutes could pay off in ways thatinclude higher ROI, more effectiveemployees, and better sales. You don’thave the time not to do it.
LLeessss TTiimmee,, MMoorree RReessuullttssYou can have more results in less time
—genuine, effective and productiveresults in 20 minutes or less. Manyleaders think conversations have tolast one hour to be effective. But I’vediscovered that team members onlyrequire 20 minutes of active conversa-tion to produce remarkable results. Wecan’t keep tuned in to a lecture formore than 15 to 20 minutes at a timebefore our attention drops dramatically.
Retention is a critical part of learn-ing; and good leaders know that noth-ing is more vital to productivity thanlearning. According to Dr. Donald E.Wetmore, Professor at Mercy College,“We retain 10 percent of what we read,
20-Minute LeadershipTake time to have vital conversations.
by Alan Vengel
COMPETENCY CONVERSATIONSsome such, circa 1930, I’d guess.To me, a clean and attractive and
even imaginative look is the best “Wecare” sign in a retail shop or profes-sional office—and it goes double whenit comes to employee restrooms! So,Step #1: Mind the restrooms! Not a“Trivial Pursuit.”
The restaurant’s “We care so muchwe can taste it” or the chain store’s“We don’t care—we can’t be bothered”is at the heart of the BIG idea of so-called experience marketing—which inturn is the heart of “value-added” in acrowded marketplace.
BBiigg aanndd PPootteenntt IIddeeaassI’m a sucker for a little, comprehen-
sible, compelling nugget of a life expe-rience that represents a BIG and PotentIdea; I prefer such an illustration to anelaborate example in a pithy tome fromthe Harvard Business School Press—complete with charts and graphs!
I am, in my passion for little storieswith real people as the principal play-ers, consistent with my first observa-tions about effective enterprisesshowcased in 1982 in the book I co-wrote with Bob Waterman, In Search ofExcellence. The main “takeaway” fromthat book was a “simple” assertionthat became our de facto six-wordmotto: “Hard is soft. Soft is hard.” Boband I slapped the regnant “strategy-first” mavens in the face and said that“the ‘hard’ numbers” are the true “softstuff.” They can be combined andcompared in countless ways to backup any “fact” to be proven. Soft. Yetsuch purportedly “soft” things as“people and relationships,” “core val-ues,” “closeness to the customer,” andManaging By Wandering Around” arethe true “hard stuff.” These aspects ofbusiness are not “fluff,” but theirimplementation is very, very hard andnot taught in the B-schools.
Well, this book is another effort toright the ship! In fact, an inbred anddetermined “back-to-basics” streak hasengulfed me in the last couple or soyears. In part, it’s in reaction to theentirely preventable financial madnessthat surrounds us.
I imagine you’ll look at this idea orthat—and I hope that a few will becompelling enough to induce you totake action, to try out one of these “lit-tle BIG things,” maybe even include itin your canon and incorporate it inyour daily affairs. LE
Tom Peters is author of The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways toPursue Excellence (HarperStudio) Visitwww.tompeters.com/books/little-big-things.
ACTION: Take action on one little BIG idea.
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 1 3
comes with the territory.Your experience of fear (or exhilara-
tion) is your internal indicator thatyou’re moving in the right direction—that you are leading. If you’re using allthe buzzwords and reading all theleadership books, and holding forth atevery meeting on the latest manage-ment fads, but you’re not experiencingthat visceral churning in your gut, andyou’re not scaring yourself every day,you’re not doing anything signifi-cant—let alone changing the world—and you are not leading anyone else.
TTaakkee aa RRaaddiiccaall LLEEAAPPExtreme Leaders take a Radical LEAP
(love, energy, audacity, proof) daily.L: Cultivate love. The Extreme
Leader’s personal credo is akin to this
theme: Do what you love in the service ofpeople who love what you do. Many con-sider the emotion of love to be inap-propriate in business; they believe thatgood business people keep their heartsout of their work. The opposite is true.It’s the heart that brings the fire of cre-ativity to bear and inspires drive, loy-alty, and leaps of innovative brilliance.
Love is a key element in productiveleader-follower and coach-employeerelationships. To be an effective coach,you have to care about the person youare coaching. It’s not that you shouldfall passionately in love with everyoneyou work with. However, you need tofind something to care deeply about inyour business and in each individualthat touches your business. And it hasto be real—and they have to know it.
The key, then, is to find a way togenuinely and sincerely love your cus-tomer, for example, and then act fromthat level of motivation. Great business
Extreme Leaders
MANY PEOPLE WHOcall themselves
leaders are only pos-ing. They’re wearing the label oraccepting the title without puttingtheir skin in the game. I invite you toapproach the act of leadership asyou’d approach an extreme sport:learn to love the fear and exhilarationthat comes with the territory. And thattakes a personal commitment.
As Terry Pearce writes: “Many peo-ple think they want to be matadors,only to find themselves in the ringwith 2,000 pounds of bull bearingdown on them, and then discover thatwhat they really wanted was to weartight pants and hear the crowd roar.”
If you choose to leap into the ring,do so because of your love of the chal-lenge and adventure. Love is whatmakes the fear of the “sport” worth-while. You accept the fear as part ofthe experience, and fear creates anddefines the experience. Extreme wouldnot be extreme without fear, and fearwould not be worth it without thelove of the game.
The same is true of Extreme Leader-ship—the dynamic interplay of fearand love. Those who actively use theexperience of fear and love daily intheir attempts to change the world forthe better are Extreme Leaders.
Extreme Leadership is intensely per-sonal and intrinsically scary. You arestriving to change the nature ofthings, and that’s a scary endeavorbecause you’re asking yourself andothers to give up the familiar. It isscary because you have no guaranteeof a positive outcome and don’t knowhow you are going to be judged; yourcredibility is on the line. Therefore,you can’t participate in an authenticleadership experience without fear.
While it’s true that fear can saveyour life or keep you from doingsomething stupid, avoiding it can alsokeep you from doing something great,from learning and growing. Fear is anatural part of growth, and sincegrowth, change and revolution are allon the Extreme Leader’s agenda, fear
relationships are won in ways analo-gous to romantic relationships: by pay-ing nearly obsessive attention to theneeds, desires, hopes, and aspirationsof the other person; by knowing notonly when to stand firm on your prin-ciples but also when to sacrifice yourshort-term needs for the long-termrelationship; and by proving throughyour actions that you mean it. ExtremeLeaders actually love the customer andstrive to enhance their customer’s life.
E: Generate energy. Energy is real,tangible, and palpable. You know whenyou have it, and when you don’t; youknow when you have to drag yourselfout of bed in the morning, and whenyou have to use the law of gravity toslide your slack, lifeless body off themattress and smack on the floor.
I can tell within 30 seconds of walk-ing into the reception area of a compa-ny whether the place is energetic,exciting, and scintillating, or a morgue.And unless it’s a morgue, it shouldn’tfeel like a morgue. It’s not an accident,either way. Someone is creating thatenvironment; and if it’s your place ofemployment, that someone is you.
Ask yourself: “Do I generate moreenergy when I walk into a room, orwhen I walk out of it?” Some peopleare walking vacuums of the humanspirit. They are energy vampires. Allthey have to do is walk into the room,and they instantly suck the life out ofthe place. Everyone else seems to with-er and die—until that person leaves. Be sure that you’re not that person,that you put more energy in than youtake out.
Energy is what keeps us coming backto work day after day without waningin passion or enthusiasm. It comes, inpart, from having a higher purpose.People want to feel a passion for thecompany’s work, to become part of ahigher purpose. The Extreme Leader’sjob is to help define and redefine, dayafter day, what that higher purposeis—and that’s very energizing to mostpeople. As Michael Cunninghamwrites, “If you shout loud enough, forlong enough, a crowd will gather tosee what all the noise is about. It’s thenature of crowds. They don’t stay long,unless you give them reason.”
A: Inspire audacity. Audacity is abold and blatant disregard for normalconstraints. Love-inspired audacity iscourageous, not impudent (the word,courage, has at its root the word, cor,meaning heart). The Extreme Leader iscourageously audacious in his or heractions. As Carly Fiorina said, “Aleader’s greatest obligation is to make
by Steve Farber
1 4 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
PERFORMANCE EXTREME
T h e y t a k e a r a d i c a l L E A P .
tion during staff meetings and infor-mal conversations.
2. Create a list of positive attributesdirectly from engagement survey high-lights and open-ended comments. Makethis list visible to employees to ensurethat the information reaches all areas.Also, use the list of positives for recruit-ing purposes to attract the best talent.
3. Meet with employees to determinewhy they would or would not recom-mend the organization as a good placeto work; make action plans accordingly.
4. Establish an award program torecognize employee contributions; thesecould be as small as rewarding on-the-spot, to developing an employee-of-the-month initiative. Employees gain asense of pride through recognition,which greatly impacts engagement.
5. Match employees’ daily tasks toemployee personality traits and values.Create a positive environment that focus-es on daily accomplishments. By settingattainable goals, employees can reflectpositively on their day.
Although these best practices aredirected at managers, employees needto understand that pride is a personalfeeling. Creating and enhancing en-
gagement should be a jointresponsibility that is sharedby management and em-ployees alike. No matterhow many programs are created to cultivate pride,each employee is ultimately incontrol of his or her own prideand engagement.
The benefits of highengagement can’t be ignored.Just as happy customers
help to drive new business, engagedand proud employees naturally createa captivating culture, driving con-sumers to the organization. Employeeengagement also influences turnoverand financial performance. Engagedemployees are six times more likely tostay with their organization than theirdisengaged counterparts!
To create a sense of pride in one’swork, high engagement is imperative.Creating a culture of engagement benefitsboth employee and employer. Turnoverwill be reduced, lessening the strain onthe company financially and enablingrevenue growth. In turn, employeeswill have greater job security as finan-cial metrics become stable, even prof-itable. Don’t underestimate the powerof employee pride and engagement. LE
Kevin Sheridan is the CEO of HR Solutions, Inc. Visitwww.hrsolutionsinc.com.
ACTION: Foster pride in your organization.
WORD OF MOUTH ISone of the best
communication meth-ods for consumers to hear about prod-ucts and services. Employees who pro-mote their organization show pride intheir work and in the organization.
Pride carries different meanings,depending on the context. It can be seenas a person’s sense of his or her influ-ence as a role model within a culture,created by praise or criticism from out-side sources or from internal reflection.Pride can also be viewed as a vice orindulgent thought of oneself. But inbusiness, employee pride has positiveeffects. Pride in work can only exist ina culture that nurtures engagement.
Pride can be measured through em-ployee engagement surveys. Our researchshows that employee prideis at a high level:• 71 percent of employees
say that they would proud-ly recommend their organi-zation as a good place towork to a friend or relative.• 75 percent of employees
agree: “My work is person-ally rewarding.”• 71 percent agree with the
statement “I leave workoften with a good feeling of accomplishmentabout the work I did that day.”
In healthcare, word-of-mouth rec-ommendations are vital. There’s nobetter endorsement of a hospital thanthis statement: “If I needed medicalcare, I’d want to be treated at this orga-nization.” Based on our HealthcareNormative Database, 74 percent ofemployees strongly agree with thisstatement. This proves that manyemployees, especially those who takepride in their work, will take the timeto recommend and promote their orga-nization, leading to increased revenue.
You foster employee pride by furtherenhancing employee engagement andloyalty. These improvements create apath for increased pride, employeeproductivity and business outcomes.We offer five best practices to create aculture of pride and engagement:
1. Create initiatives to communicatethe positive attributes of the organiza-
Employee PrideEngagement drives growth.
by Kevin Sheridan
PERFORMANCE PRIDEpossible an environment where peoplecan aspire to change the world.” That’san audacious statement of purpose,and it begs the question: “How are wegoing to change the world?”
That’s the right kind of audacity,and it demands a bold and blatant dis-regard of the most insidious constraintwe impose on ourselves: I can’t do that.I’m not Ghandi, Mother Theresa, or MartinLuther King; I’m just me. Frankly, that’sa dangerous self-inflicted constraint.And, it’s a convenient lie; in believingthat lie, we abdicate our responsibilityfor changing the world to someone else.
You have direct influence over theworld of your industry, company, team,community, neighborhood, family, orperson in your family. These worlds areno less noble, they add up, and theyare within your scope.
So, step up to that challenge andask: How can we change the world of ouremployees, customers, and marketplace?That’s audacity. I admit, it’s a mucheasier question to ask than it is to an-swer—and do something about. Evenso, you have to do some something.
Provide proof. Jim Kouzes and BarryPosner have shown that credibility isthe foundation of leadership, and theydefine credibility behaviorally as DoWhat You Say You Will Do.
You have to put your skin in thegame, put yourself and your reputationat risk. You have to prove yourselfthrough observable, daily action. It’sinsanely easy to talk a good game. Doyou say you love your team? Prove it!Do you say we need to be bold andinventive for our customers? Prove it!Do you tell your folks that they’reyour most important asset? Prove it inevery action that you take.
When you say, “I can’t do that here”or “they won’t let me,” your credibilityas an Extreme Leader is shot. Whenyou’re convinced that you can changethings for the better, you have to proveit through the radical courage of youraction. Gandhi said: “Be the changeyou want to see in the world.”
We typically express accountabilityas what we desperately want other peopleto be. While change, improvement, andsuccess are ultimately the results of acollective effort, nothing ever happensunless you hold yourself ridiculouslyaccountable to your own words. That’show you prove you’ve earned the sta-tus of Extreme Leader. That’s how youprove you’re not a poser. LE
Steve Farber is the president of Extreme Leadership and authorof Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson In Leadership.Call 760-603-8110 or visit www.stevefarber.com.
ACTION: Take the radical LEAP.
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 1 5
operates—at least at first—entirelybelow the surface of consciousness. Itsends its messages through weirdlyindirect channels, like the sweat glandson the palms of our hands. It’s a sys-tem in which our brain reaches conclu-sions without immediately telling usthat it’s reaching conclusions.
How can thinking that takes placeso quickly be useful? Don’t we makethe best decisions when we take thetime to carefully evaluate all availableand relevant information? Certainlythat’s what we’re always been told.Our society is dedicated to the ideathat we’re always better off gatheringas much information and spending asmuch time as possible in deliberation.As children, we are taught: haste makeswaste, look before you leap, stop and think.But there are many situations—partic-
ularly at times of high pressure andstress—when haste does not makewaste, when our snap judgments andfirst impressions offer a much bettermeans of making sense of the world.
Some years ago, the Emergency Roomdoctors at Cook County Hospital inChicago changed the way they diag-nosed heart attacks. They now gatherless information on their patients: theyzero in on just a few critical pieces ofinformation about patients sufferingfrom chest pain—like blood pressureand the ECG—while ignoring every-thing else, like a patient’s age, weight,and medical history. Now Cook Countyis one of the best places at diagnosingchest pain. It was hard to convincethese physicians to go along with theplan, because they believed that moreinformation is always better.
There’s a wonderful phrase in psy-chology—the power of thin slicing—thatsays that we are capable of makingsense of situations based on the thinnest
Blink of an Eye
BLINK IS ABOUT RAPIDcognition, about
thinking that happensin the blink of an eye. When you meetsomeone for the first time, or walk intoa house you are thinking of buying, orread the first few sentences of a book,your mind takes about two seconds tojump to a series of conclusions. Blinkis about those two seconds, becausethose instant conclusions that wereach are powerful and importantand, occasionally, really good.
The word intuition never appears inBlink because intuition strikes me as aconcept we use to describe emotionalreactions, gut feelings—thoughts andimpressions that don’t seem entirelyrational. But what goes on in that firsttwo seconds is perfectly rational. It’sthinking—it just moves faster and oper-ates more mysteriously than deliberatedecision-making. I’m trying to under-stand what goes on inside our headswhen we engage in rapid cognition.When are snap judgments good, andwhen are they not? And how can weenhance our powers of rapid cognition?
TThhee SSeeccoonndd MMiinnddIn situations where the stakes are
high, where things are moving quick-ly, and where we must make sense ofa lot of new and confusing informa-tion in a short time, our brain usestwo very different strategies to makesense of the situation.
The first is the conscious strategy.We have some experiences. We thinkabout what we’ve learned. We devel-op a theory, and then we put two andtwo together and eventually come upwith an answer. This strategy is logi-cal and definitive. But it takes severaliterations to get there. It’s slow. Itneeds a lot of information.
The second strategy operates quick-ly. It starts to kick in early, and it picksup the problem almost immediately.We may even begin making the neces-sary adjustments long before we areconsciously aware of what adjustmentswe are supposed to be making. Thisthinking has the drawback that it
slice of experience. Our thin-slicingskills are unbelievably powerful.
On the other hand, there are badcases of thin-slicing, of jumping to thewrong conclusion, when rapid cogni-tion goes awry, when first impressionsformed in those first two seconds de-rail every other consideration and exerta powerful hold over our thinking.
I’m interested in figuring out thosesituations where we need to be carefulwith our powers of rapid cognition. Forinstance, I talk about what it means fora man to be tall. Almost all CEOs ofFortune 500 companies in the U.S. are tall.That’s weird. There is no correlationbetween height and intelligence, or heightand judgment, or height and the ability tomotivate and lead people. But for somereason corporations overwhelminglychoose tall people for leadership roles.
That’s an example of bad rapid cog-nition: something is going on in the firstfew seconds of meeting a tall personwhich makes us predisposed towardthinking of that person as an effectiveleader. I think we make these errors inmany situations—particularly when itcomes to hiring. With Blink, I’m tryingto help you distinguish good rapidcognition from bad rapid cognition.
There is a lot of psychology in Blink,but those ideas are illustrated usingstories from every corner of society. Ijust want to get people to take rapidcognition seriously. When it comes tosomething like dating, we all readilyadmit to the importance of what hap-pens in the first instant when two peo-ple meet. But we won’t admit to theimportance of what happens in thefirst two seconds when we talk aboutwhat happens when someone encoun-ters a new idea, or when we interviewsomeone for a job, or when a militarygeneral makes a decision in battle.
Blink is concerned with the smallestcomponents of our lives—with the con-tent and origin of those instantaneousimpressions and conclusions that bub-ble up when we meet a new person,confront a complex situation, or haveto make a decision under stress. Weought to pay more attention to thosefleeting moments. If we did, it wouldchange the way wars are fought, theproducts we see on the shelves, themovies that get made, the way policeofficers are trained, the way couplesare counseled, the way job interviewsare conducted—and if you combine allthose little changes together, you endup with a different and happier world. LE
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of Blink. Visit www.mal-colmgladwell.com.
ACTION: Use your power of rapid cognition.
by Malcolm Gladwell
1 6 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
LEADERSHIP JUDGMENT
L e a d e r s n e e d t o b l i n k t w i c e .
My goal is to help you become amanagement pioneer, to equip you toreinvent the principles, processes, andpractices of management. Managementinnovation (MI) has a unique capacity tocreate a long-term advantage for yourcompany. But you must first imagine,and then invent, the future of manage-ment. Frankly, today’s best practicesaren’t good enough. Even the “mostadmired” companies aren’t as adapt-able, innovative, or fun to work in asthey should be. When it comes to thefuture of management, you’d ratherlead than follow. So I invite you toinvent tomorrow’s best practices today.
Rather than try to sell you my pointof view about the future, I encourageyou build your own agenda for man-agement innovation, and then executeagainst it. I can coach, but in the end,
the vision and execution must be yours.I dream of organizations capable of
spontaneous renewal, where the dramaof change is unaccompanied by thewrenching trauma of a turnaround,where an electric current of innovationpulses through every activity, wherethe renegades always trump the reac-tionaries. I dream of companies thatdeserve the passion and creativity ofthe folks who work there, and natural-ly elicit the very best that people haveto give. Of course, these are more thandreams; they are imperatives—andthey can only be surmounted withinspired management innovation.
I write for dreamers and doers, foreveryone who feels hogtied by bureau-cracy, who worries that the “system” isstifling innovation, who secretly believesthat the bottleneck is at the top of thebottle, who wonders why corporate lifehas to be so dispiriting, who feels thatindividual competence and positionalpower should be more tightly correlat-
Who’s Now Leading?
WHO’S LEADING ANDmanaging your
company? You mightanswer, “the CEO” or “managementteam.” And you’d be right, but to alarge extent, your company is beingmanaged right now by a small coterieof long-departed theorists and practi-tioners who invented the rules andconventions of “modern” manage-ment a century ago. They are the pol-tergeists who inhabit the musty mach-inery of management. Their edicts,echoing across the decades, invisiblyshape the way you allocate resources,set budgets, distribute power, rewardpeople, and make decisions.
So pervasive is the influence ofthese patriarchs, that the technology ofmanagement varies only slightly fromfirm to firm. Most companies have asimilar hierarchy (a cascade of EVPs,SVPs, and VPs); analogous controlsystems, HR practices, and planningrituals; and rely on comparable report-ing structures and review systems.That’s why it’s so easy for a CEO tojump from one company to another—the levers and dials of managementare similar in every corporate cockpit.
Yet unlike the laws of physics, thelaws of management are neither fore-ordained nor eternal—and a goodthing, too, for the equipment of man-agement is now groaning under thestrain of a load it was never meant tocarry. Whiplash change, fleetingadvantages, technological disruptions,seditious competitors, fractured mar-kets, omnipotent customers, andrebellious shareholders are testing thedesign limits of organizations, andexposing the limitations of an anti-quated management model.
Management is out of date. It’s atechnology that has largely stoppedevolving. That’s not good becausemanagement—the capacity to marshalresources, lay out plans, programwork and spur effort—is central to theaccomplishment of human purpose.When it’s ineffective, we all pay aprice. What ultimately constrains per-formance is not the business or operat-ing model, but the management model.
ed, who thinks that people really aresmart enough to manage themselves,who knows that “management,” ascurrently practiced, is a drag on suc-cess—and wants to do something about it.
I call for nothing less than revolu-tionizing how organizations are struc-tured, managed and led, and for build-ing companies that are as nimble aschange itself, innovative from top to bot-tom, and awe-inspiring places to work.
Innovation in management—ratherthan in operations, products, or strate-gies—is most likely to create long-termadvantage. You can get a head start onthe future by building tomorrow’s bestpractices today. But you’ll need to seethe toxic effects of old managementbeliefs. Sadly, as much as you mightdeplore bureaucracy, it still constitutesthe prevailing organizing principle.And while some managers may workto ameliorate its stultifying effects, fewcan imagine a root-and-branch alternative.
When it comes to innovation, mostcompanies have a huge blind spot.Perversely, the sorts of innovation thatare least likely to produce long-termcompetitive advantage—operationalinnovation and product innovation—get the most attention. Yet MI yields thebiggest, longest-lasting performanceadvantages when one or more of threeconditions are met: the innovation isbased on a novel management principlewhich challenges some long-standingorthodoxy; the innovation is systemic,encompassing a range of processes andmethods; and innovation is part of anongoing program of rapid-fire inventionwhere progress compounds over time.
In an age of wrenching change, themost valuable human capabilities areprecisely those that are least manage-able: nerve, artistry, élan, originality,grit, non-conformity, valor, derring-do.These qualities create value. In contrast,the qualities management fosters andrewards include: self-discipline, econo-my, orderliness, rationality, prudence,reliability, moderation, fastidiousness—no wonder organizations are lessresilient and inventive than the peoplewho work for them.
The most bruising skirmishes todayare fought along the lines that separatethose who seek to defend the preroga-tives, power, and prestige of theirbureaucratic caste from those whohope to build less structured, lesstightly managed firms that elicit andmerit the best that people have to give.
The belief you can’t manage withoutmanagers is the mother of all manage-ment orthodoxies. Largely, managersplay the role of parents, principals,
by Gary Hamel
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 1 7
MANAGEMENT INNOVATION
P o l t e r g e i s t s m a y h a u n t t h e h a l l s .
and hall monitors. They employ controlfrom without since employees are de-prived of exercising control from within.
New problems demand new princi-ples. There’s simply no way to buildessential new capabilities—resilience,innovation, and engagement—atop thescaffolding of 20th century manage-ment principles. Few executives thinkabout the principles that underlie theirviews on how to organize, manage, andlead. Modern management is a quest toregularize the irregular, starting witherrant and disorderly employees. Increas-ingly, though, we live in an irregularworld, where irregular people takeadvantage of irregular events and useirregular means to produce irregularproducts that yield irregular profits.
What things have shown adaptabilityover centuries? Life, markets, democra-cies, faith, and cities. These biologicaland human systems are far moreresilient, and compared to companies,they’re under-managed or un-managed.
To discover radically better ways ofleading, organizing and managing, lookbeyond today’s “best practice.” Looksomeplace weird and unexpected.Seek out the positive deviants that defythe norms of conventional practice.
Imagine what a democracy of ideaswould look like: employees would feelfree to share their thoughts and opin-ions, however politically charged; nosingle gatekeeper could quash an ideaor set the boundaries on its dissemina-tion; new ideas could garner supportbefore being voted up or down byexecs; and the internal debate aboutstrategy, direction and policy would beopen, vigorous, and uncensored.
In an ideal management system,power is automatically redistributedwhen environmental changes devalueexecutive knowledge and competence.Yet the question that obsesses managers—How can we get more out of our people—is loaded with old thinking: How do we(management) get more (units of pro-duction per hour) out of our people(individuals who are obliged to followour orders)? Ironically, the manage-ment model encapsulated in this ques-tion virtually guarantees that a companywill never get the best out of its people.Vassals and conscripts may work hard,but they don’t work willingly.
In the future, the work of managementis less the responsibility of “managers.”Increasingly, this work will be distrib-uted to those on the periphery. LE
Gary Hamel is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and theStrategic Management Society and the author of The Future ofManagement. Visit www.garyhamel.com.
ACTION: Engage in management innovation.
even sexual desire are all purchasable.We sell our souls to orchestrating ourchildren’s lives. We don’t have a life ofour own but live vicariously throughour children, isolated and insulated inour cars. We want social workers andinstitutions to take care of the vulnera-ble in retirement homes. The space thefamily and community were designedto fill has been sold and is now empty.The lost community has to be re-found.
Consumer way: lives of scarcity andconsumption. We are familiar with thespiritual downside of materialism, thesocial competition of conspicuous con-sumption, the effects of waste on theenvironment, the ethical questions ofplanned obsolescence, and the effectsof consumerism on the isolation andloneliness common in our cities. Ourculture is created and sustained by aninstitutional way of life—one that isnot our own. It is to live a managedlife, organized around the products,services, and beliefs of systems. This isa direct result and demand of the built-in structure and assumptions of a con-sumer society— and our dependence onspecialists, people expertly trained toprovide through the marketplace what
we once provided for ourselves.Citizen way: lives of
abundance and cooperation.Consuming has its attrac-tions, but for true citizens itis not the point or providerof the good life. We know howto do without. Make ends meet.Make do. We do this together.We take care of our own.There are no foster kids, onlygrandmothers and cousins.
These are beliefs of people who live ina competent community, who live in away they have chosen and who experi-ence a more satisfied life. They are lessdependent on the material culture andits requirements and call. They do notwork in systems nor reap the benefitsof them. They think they have enough;their mindset is abundance, not scarci-ty. Their families have a function, andthey have the power to provide.
The way to the good life is the wayof a competent community recognizingits abundance. We see that if we are tobe citizens, together we must be the cre-ators of our future—we must becomecitizens, not consumers. Consumers aredependent on the creations of the mar-ket; and in the end, they produce noth-ing much but waste. LE
John McKnight is author of The Careless Society. Peter Block isfounder of Designed Learning. They are coauthors of AbundantCommunity (Berrett-Koehler). www.AbundantCommunity.com
ACTION: Become a socially responsible citizen.
THE ESSENTIAL PROMISE OF A CONSUMERsociety is that satisfaction can be pur-
chased. This promise runs so deep in usthat we’ve come to take our identityfrom our capacity to purchase: I shop,therefore I am. The dependency on shop-ping is not just about things, it includesthe belief that what is fulfilling or neededin life can be bought—from happiness tohealing, from love to laughter, fromraising a child to caring for someone.
In our effort to find satisfaction inconsumption, we’re converted fromcitizens to consumers. The implicationsare profound. Consider just two conse-quences: impact on the function of thefamily and competence ofthe community.
The family has largelylost its function. It is nolonger the primary unitthat raises a child, sustainshealth, cares for the vulner-able, and assures economicsecurity. And, we are large-ly disconnected from ourneighbors, isolated fromour communities. Hence,community and neighborhood are nolonger competent—competence meaningthe capacity of the place where we liveto be useful to us, to support us in cre-ating those things that can only be pro-duced in a connected community.
Competent communities support thecapacity of a family to fulfill its func-tions. They provide a safety net for thecare of a child, attention and connec-tion for the vulnerable, economic sur-vival for the household, and the socialtools that sustain health.
In a consumer society, these functionsare removed from family and communityand provided by the marketplace; they aredesigned to be purchased. We now dependon systems to provide our basic func-tions. For example: we expect theschool, coaches, agencies and sitters toraise our children. We expect doctorsto keep us healthy. We believe in betterliving though chemistry. We think thatyouth, a flat stomach, a strong heart,
PERFORMANCE ABUNDANCE
by John McKnight and Peter Block
1 8 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
Satisfaction can’t be purchased.Limits of Consumption
We see many similar decisions in ourcurrent financial-sector crisis.
The leadership decisions made aspart of the current financial crises havenot been a matter of leadership ability,but a matter of character. Leaders didnot show the strength to stand againstthe thread of greed woven through-out capitalistic systems. Neither didthey learn from past mistakes.
Beyond this illustration, the dailyheadlines overflow with examples ofleaders whose character shortcomingscrippled their ability to lead effectively.Based on those examples, it would beeasy to approach character-based LDfrom a position of fear, with an eye totoward mitigating the risk that leaderswith poor character represent. We seethis approach in the endless codes ofconduct produced to keep people fromdoing the wrong things. The brutal
reality is this: Policies, processes, andregulations will not curb the behaviorof leaders whose character is deficient.
The risk-mitigation approach tocharacter and LD is appealing becauseit is easier to see character clearlywhen it is fractured, rather than whenit is whole. However, the more power-ful (and difficult) approach is not tofocus on the endless tales of failure,but to choose a character model toserve as the basis for your LD efforts.
This positive approach permeatesmy thinking. I advocate for a modelupon which leaders can build theirleadership and do so with the confi-dence of two millennia of history.
The Character of Leadership modelhas two basic propositions. First, lead-ership is inside out; your charactergives rise to your leadership. Sincecharacter fuels leadership, the explo-ration of character is of paramountconcern to every organization serious
Character of Leadership
IT WOULD BE NICE IFbecoming an effec-
tive leader were easy—and if all the ideas and techniques youread about or experience in workshopswere simple to use. However, the realworld is something else. Becoming agreat leader is hard work. Being aleader is a tremendous responsibility.The challenges are many, the demandssteep, but the rewards are magnificent.
The Leadership Development (LD)industry has softened the reality ofleadership, boiling it down to formu-las, tips, and tricks. But LD is a lifelongpursuit in which time and experience mat-ter greatly. Like any long-term process,it is fraught with pain and exhilara-tion. To complicate the process, thedevelopment of leadership abilitydoes not even begin with leadership—the ability to lead is built on character.Every leader leads from character, andthe shaping of a leader’s character isparamount for any organization look-ing to distinguish itself.
In 1987, I joined a failing companythat was part of a crippled industry: Iworked as a commercial lending offi-cer for a savings and loan. I was young,and I was fortunate that this movewas not the end of my banking career.Nonetheless, motivated to be part ofthe industry’s newly expanded pow-ers in commercial lending, I joined thestaff of a savings and loan. Little did Iknow that the recently granted lendingpowers were a final attempt on thepart of regulators to save an industrythat was terminally ill. The S&L indust-ry had been in trouble for years, andthe demise of that sector ultimatelycost the U.S. taxpayers $200 billion in557 institutional failures. The majorcauses of the collapse were: changingmarket conditions, over-investment insingle-family residential mortgages,expanded regulatory authority, andweak regulatory oversight.
Of those four major causes, only thefirst is economic—the other threerelate to leadership. The concentrationof investment in mortgages, theexpansion of powers to weak institu-tions, and continued poor regulatoryoversight were all leadership decisions.
about LD. Second, context is every-thing. Every leadership setting is dif-ferent, and the leader’s behavior mustadjust to fit the group and situationthat the leader is responsible for.
I didn’t create the Character of Leader-ship model; I discovered it. The modelhas its origins among the Greeks whonoted that character is comprised offour cardinal virtues (elements): Courage,Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom. First-century leaders added Hope, Love, Faith.
Faith is the central element in theCharacter model. Faith, the unique abili-ty of human beings to unwaveringlybelieve in something they can’t rationallyprove, is at the core of a leader’s char-acter. I am not speaking of religion orspirituality. Each of us has a belief sys-tem that gives rise to how the rest ofthe elements of character demonstratethemselves in us. What I believe willreveal itself in the way I demonstrateJustice, Temperance, Hope, Wisdom,Love, and Courage. The rest of the ele-ments link together like puzzle pieces.
Human character is the whole ofthe seven elements working together.
I describe each element in leader-ship terms: Faith is leading from aclear set of positive core values thatare demonstrated through actions.Justice is leading by doing what isright, even when it is difficult andcostly, leading selflessly and fosteringpersonal and team accountability.Temperance is leading with personalhumility, passion, and self-control.Hope is leading by sincerely and con-vincingly articulating a bright future,especially when the immediate circum-stances look bleak. Wisdom is leadingby effectively applying accumulatedknowledge and experience to currentsituations. Love is leading by demon-strating a genuine concern, care, andcompassion for people. Courage isleading by boldly seizing opportuni-ties and dealing with challenges.
Beyond these descriptions, theCharacter of Leadership model contains36 behaviors that serve as a beginningfor a character-based leadership pro-gram. This model might serve as thestart of your character-based leader-ship journey. Your LD program needsa strong character component. Thismodel provides a beacon from whichyou can navigate, because the chal-lenges we face today are not economic,environmental, social, or legal—they arechallenges of character and leadership. LE
Phil Eastman II is the author of The Character of Leadership.Email [email protected], call 208-344-0471, or visitwww.leadershipadvisors.com, www.characterofleadership.com.
ACTION: Develop the character of your leaders.
by Phil Eastman II
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u n e 2 0 1 0 1 9
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
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Ken Shelton, editor
ty. He painted the inspirational visionand then made the decisions to bring itinto a focused picture.
When our leaders speak, we inter-pret this to mean that their ideas will bebacked up with what we need to imple-ment the grand new idea. There willbe resources, supply chains, systemsand controls, legal agreements andwhatever else is necessary to transformthe ordinary into the extraordinary. Andwe expect to bask in the radiance of theleader as we work to change the world.
Leadership Betrayal happens whenthe vision isn’t being achieved, whenresources become scarce, and the leaderis out chasing a new shiny thing. Thevision is exposed as unattainable in theabsence of the elite talents of the leader.
However, leaders see it differently.They see that people are empowered
to make things happen. They lose faithin people and start to see them as amere mortal—”just another mechanicwho can’t turn my ideas into reality. “
The leader withdraws resources andattention. Leadership Betrayal goesinto ever decreasing concentric circlesuntil intense acrimony destroys bothparties. Enron’s Ken Lay is likely theicon, but leaders in financial serviceshave recently challenged him for thecrown. Maybe Ken Lewis at Bank ofAmerica would like to rethink Merrill-Lynch; and surely investors regrettheir faith in Bernie Madoff. Does ithave to end this way?
AA ““RRee--sseett”” oonn LLeeaaddeerrsshhiippDo you have the problem of leader-
ship betrayal? Do leaders communicatebig ideas? Do the ideas get implement-ed, or do they atrophy? Do others fol-low or fade away? Is there a pattern ofinspiration and stagnation followed by
Leadership Betrayal
MANY PEOPLE ASPIREto be leaders. It’s
the pinnacle of theirprofession. They start out as individ-ual contributors where they get resultsthough skill, raw talent, and force ofwill. Next they learn the mechanics ofmanagement. Their ability to get resultsaugments exponentially; but there is alimit. They can only get results throughresources they control, like the peoplethey actually “touch.” Finally theycome to understand that transforma-tions, the big bangs, come throughleadership—that mystical ability toinspire and excite others to do extraor-dinary things. “I have a dream . . .”;“ask not . . .”; “reach for the sky . . .”
Why do we follow these people?We’re told that it’s because they cancommunicate. They reach our souls.They connect with us at a deep levelof trust. We believe in their words andhow those words make us believe inourselves. We’re led to believe that:Inspirational words = self-confidence =aspirational goals.
That may be true in motivationalspeaking and evangelical eulogizing,but leadership in business is morethan talking and sermonizing—it ismore than infusing people with hopeand sending them on their way. In-spiring people with the excitementand vision of flight is figurativelyuplifting—until they step off the edgeof a cliff. At this point, they learn thehard reality of Leadership Betrayal.
WWhhoo DDoo YYoouu TTrruusstt??Why do we trust people when they
are painting us the too-good-to-be truepicture? How have they convinced usthat we can do something that hasn’teven entered our dream space?
We believe because we not onlybelieve in their words, but we believein them. Their self-confidence can beoverpowering, particularly when theirleadership melds with hubris. Weimplicitly believe that their inspirationcomes with their support. The GrandeArmee believed in Napoleon becausehe was the first to charge into adversi-
bitterness? If so, then you have beeninfected with leadership betrayal.
The gap between leadership and be-trayal comes in three forms: 1) Attention.Followers love the glow from sun kingleaders. If the leader energizes andthen abdicates, inexperienced followerswill feel abandoned and lose energy. 2) Talent. Sometimes leaders have spe-cial talents that evade followers. Somepeople sell better than others; whileothers raise capital. If the follower can’tmatch up to the leader’s uniqueness,performance will suffer as frustrationand disappointment set in. And 3)Resources. Even resourceful followerscan’t meet goals in the absence of ade-quate resources. Asking for resourcesturns into whining that leads to defeat.
How do you reverse this trend?Training the leader can be tedious andrepugnant to them. Finding a trustedlieutenant is tricky. Who can you trustwhen the issue is potential betrayal?When will internal politics overcomethe good intentions of the lieutenant?
The best way to guard against Lead-ership Betrayal is to support leaders withstructure. Even leaders have to learn tocreate within established guidelines.
Here are four critical points whereyou can protect your leaders:• Vision. The vision is the energizing
starting point. It can’t be precise; how-ever, it must be founded in the discon-tinuities of change that surround thebusiness as well as one of three values:service to customer; quality products/services; or respect for the innovativetalents of employees. Which is the pri-mary driver and is everyone on this page?• Migration path. The vision gets clar-
ified as the idea passes through stagesand gates. Challenge each milestone bydefining “what’s in and what’s out.”Then agree on what you have to believeto achieve the milestone—what are theassumptions. Only at this point canyou reasonably assign resources, andunderstand where they’re needed most.• Competence. Use a structured pro-
cess to choose those who’ll be chargedwith implementing the vision. Youwant people who can manage forresults and lead people. Don’t ask atechnician to be Steve Jobs.• Reward. A leader’s grandiose vision
usually implies a grandiose reward; butnot every idea results in a promotion orshort-term wealth. The quickest roadto betrayal is overstating the reward.
Leadership is a rare quality. Supportit. It should never result in betrayal. LE
Bud Taylor is author of Customer Driven Change (BrownBooks). Contact Cindy Birne 972-381-0009.
ACTION: Avoid leadership betrayal.
by Bud Taylor
2 0 J u n e 2 0 1 0 L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
ETHICS BETRAYAL
W h e n l e a d e r s p ro m i s e , b u t d o n ’t d e l i v e r.
