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THE MAGAZINE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY
ExcellenceL E A D E R S H I P
July 2012
DevelopingLeaders
The End ofLeadership
At Least as We Know It
Barbara Kellerman
w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
“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
ExcellenceL E A D E R S H I P
THE MAGAZINE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY
JIM COLLINS
Great By ChoiceRemember that goodis the enemy of great . . . . 3
HARRY HERTZ
Peer LearningShare best practiceswith a cohort group. . . . . .4
NOEL TICHY
Developing LeadersHow are the peopleyou lead doing? . . . . . . . . 5
SUSANNE BIRO
Leadership BrandKnow your yes so youcan then say no. . . . . . . . . .6
RALPH JACOBSON
Leader ParadoxesCreate common groundto bring about change. . . .7
BARBARA KELLERMAN
End of LeadershipAt least as we nowknow and practice it. . . . .8
KEN SHELTON
Reinventing LeadershipAlong with what we doto develop leaders . . . . . . 9
MICHAEL MILOFFAND LOIS J. ZACHARY
Strategic LeadersMentor them in 7 ways. . 10
LINDA HILLAND KENT LINEBACK
Political RolesDon’t neglect this role. . .11
CYNTHIA MONTGOMERY
Strategist-in-ChiefYou can play this vitalrole in any position. . . . .12
DENISE MORELAND
Management CultureLearn to cope with threemajor pressures. . . . . . . .13
JEFF WOLF
Seven DisciplinesThese are practices ofhighly effective leaders. . . 14
DON PEPPERSAND MARTHA ROGERS
Trust RequiredPractice six strategies. . .15
BRADY MICK
Measuring ProductivityWe need to rethink theold numbers game. . . . . .16
GINNY WHITELAW
Leading FearlesslyClaim your power bytaking three steps. . . . . . 17
GEORGE CASEY
Engaged Is a VerbLeadership is a relationshipwith followers. . . . . . . . . .17
PATRICK LENCIONI
Organizational HealthIt’s now the last greatcompetitive advantage. . . .18
JIM BURKETT
Bad to WorsePractice seven learnedmanagement disciplines. . .18
LEE ELLIS
Lead with HonorPrepare to face diversionsand distractions. . . . . . . .19
M. ALEXANDER KUHN
Charismatic LeadersHarness your powerto create change. . . . . . . .20
VOL. 29 NO. 7 THE GLOBAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT RESOURCE JULY 2012
End of Dragonian Leadership
Imagine this creature is the last surviving
leader, telling his tales to a wizard, the
keeper of all knowledge. The leader spins
out his stories, a millennium of adven-
tures, triumphs and sorrows as the wizard
dutifully and diligently records them.
WHY DO WE PUBLISH SALESand Service Excellence,
along with Personal andLeadership Excellence each month and deliverall three magazines to all members?
These three magazines represent thethree primary domains of development—andsales and service excellence constitutes theessence of any great enterprise.
This truth was reinforced recently whenmy wife Pam and I spent a three-day week-end in Northern California, June 16-18.
GGoollff,, DDiinniinngg,, LLooddggiinngg LLeessssoonnssUS Open. First stop was the
Olympia Golf Club for the US Openwhere we saw Tiger fade from theleader board by spending too muchtime in the Woods. AnnouncerJohnny Miller said that “the golfcourse won” because most of theearly leaders failed to adjust to thesubtle differences in course andweather conditions (such as mois-ture and wind), day by day, shot by shot.No player finished under par.• Leadership Lesson: The names and faces
atop your Leader Board in the early roundswill likely change over time as the leadersface new pressures and conditions.
Carmel lodging. We then drove southalong the coast on spectacular Highway 1 toCarmel and stayed at the third-generationfamily-owned and operated Hofsas Housewith a view from the room of CarmelBeach. Owner and GM Carrie Theis, grand-daughter of the founder, personally greetedus, gave us a tour of the 38 one-of a kindguest rooms and meeting facility, and toldus of area golf options. I noted that largelydue to such personal attention to her guests,the “no vacancy” sign was out.• Leadership Lesson: If you want to keep
your business in the coveted “no vacancy”status, personally attend to your guests’needs and interests.
Carmel area dining. While in the Carmelarea, we dined at three superb restaurants:• Mundaka. On a postcard perfect Saturday
evening in Carmel, we enjoyed authenticSpanish cuisine at Mundaka at the invita-tion of Marci Bracco, complete with a witha waiter from Barcelona. Every delicious
bite reminded me of my travels in Spain.• Grasings (Carmel): This cozy restaurant
features the finest in California cuisine anda fabulous wine list. Owner and former chefKurt Grasings greeted us at our table andtalked about the menu, meeting options, thewine list, and his annual food and winetour to Europe with his loyal patrons.• Fandango (Pacific Grove). This world-
class, New York Times reviewed restaurantfeatures the French artistry of Pierre Bain,who after 20 years of hosting the Club XIXat Pebble Beach, opened his own place withthe help of Al Shugart, CEO of SeagateTechnology. Pierre greeted my wife and Iand told us the story behind food and fun
at Fandango. Our great waiter hadworked there seven years.• Leadership Lesson: have a com-
petent chef in the kitchen (whoevermakes your product) and great cus-tomer-facing service personnel wholove being there.
Sight seeing. I put 300 miles onour “cool” rental car, a MitsubishiEclipse, to see Pebble Beach (17mile drive), Carmel Beach, dozens
of other parks and beaches, Palo Alto,Stanford University, and back in SanFrancisco Fisherman’s Wharf, GhirardelliSquare, and Golden Gate Bridge.
In stark contrast to the service excellencethat we experienced on this trip were theTSA “cattle corrals” for coach customers atthe San Francisco airport.• Leadership Lesson: Deliver quality ser-
vice. “If I could put my finger on the onething that Disney does best,” said GeorgeKalogridis, president of Disneyland Resort,“it would be that we exceed expectations inour service delivery. If you’ve ever been to aDisney Theme Park or Resort, you likelyhave a story to share about the CastMember who made you feel special. That’sby design—a key part of everyone’s job isto treat each and every Guest with respect,to treat them as an individual and not justpart of the crowd—to give them that feelingof being important.”
As the great Peter Drucker said, the key toLeadership Excellence (or winning customers orthe US Open) is delivering service excellence,day by day, guest by guest, hole by hole. LE
Win by keeping out of the woods.
by Ken Shelton
Volume 29 Issue 7
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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Service Excellence
E . D . I . T . O . R ’ S N . O . T . E
2 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
Editor since 1984
Peter Drucker
• By fanatic discipline, I mean the dis-cipline to make the 20-mile march daily.Amundsen set a goal of traveling 20miles a day, regardless of conditions;Scott tended to travel only in goodweather and tried to make up for losttime. As a result, he was overextendedand lacked essential provisions. Whilemany men on Amundsen’s team com-plained about the daily 20-mile march,it was the key to their success.• By productive paranoia, I mean con-
sidering every possible contingencyand planning for it. For example Scottactually took motorized sleds, andwhen the engines froze, had to aban-don them. His Plan B were ponies—not knowing that ponies sweat and inthe Arctic sweat means death. So themen had to harness up and pull theirown sleds. In contrast, Amundsen first
talked to natives, the Eskimos, to learnthat dogs are really the only way to goin the arctic, and he acquired fromthem some top sled dog teams.• By empirical creativity, I mean that
yes, you can be innovative and creative,but your creativity should be based onempirical evidence. If you lack this cul-tural software of the three-sided trian-gle, your team tends to suffer fromchronic inconsistency. All three parts ofthe triangle are necessary. I call it thegenius of the AND (not either/or, butboth/and). For example, without pro-ductive paranoia, you tend to makelethal mistakes. The only mistakes youlearn from are the ones you survive.
Since some people contend that suc-cess is more a matter of luck, I studiedthe role of luck in the results leadersachieve. While it’s true that some peoplebenefit from good luck, over time luck isnot a factor. It’s really what you do withthe luck you get. And I call that returnon luck. You can even achieve a goodreturn on bad luck by learning from
Great By Choice
SINCE GOOD IS THEenemy of great, when
leaders settle for good,they forfeit becoming great. I like tostudy contrasts to detect the differencebetween good and great leaders andteams, and 10X organizations—thosethat achieve 10X the industry standardon key performance measures.
This much I can assure you: you donot become great (and remain great)by luck. You become great by choice(decisions) and discipline—sustainedgreatness isn’t a function of luck, hap-penstance, circumstance, or conditions.
In my research, I’ve tried to identifythe X-factor of great leaders. It is notpersonality or charisma. Some greatleaders have a personality bypass—oth-ers are very charismatic.
I find that great leaders have thehumility to seek out people who arebetter and brighter than they are intheir field. Yes, these leaders have ego,confidence and ambition, but theychannel it outward—it is not aboutthem: it is about the cause or company.
They’re concerned first with the Who—getting the right people in the right seats,before they address the Where question.They pick the right people, with theright skill for the right job at the righttime—then serve a higher purpose.
One study of the contrast betweentwo leaders and teams that faced thesame conditions but achieved dramati-cally different results involved the 1911-12 Terra Nova Expedition to the SouthPole. The British team was led byRobert Scott, the Norwegian one byRoald Amundsen. All 25 members ofthe Scott team died just 11 miles awayfrom a supply station; the team led byAmundsen achieved all their goals.
After studying this case, and otherslike it, I conclude that the big differenceis always the choices or decisions madeby the leaders and the discipline to carrythem out. I find that 10X companiesare those that are led by leaders likeAmundsen. And to try to capture thisleadership style, I created a trianglewith fanatic discipline on one side, pro-ductive paranoia on the second side andempirical creativity on the third side.
mistakes. Again, luck is not a cause ofgreatness, but bad luck without produc-tive paranoia can mean the endgame.
I also studied the role of relationships.I discovered that the best leaders real-ize that life is people. They invest in keyrelationships, honor those relationships,and cherish the time they have with thepeople they love and work with. I learn-ed this lesson, as many leaders do, thehard way when my wife had a doublemastectomy. She’s now 10 years freefrom cancer, but as I look back, I realizethat it was an inflection point in ourlives—our relationship was madestronger and better because of thechoices we made in dealing with it.
Lately, I’ve been working with cadetsat West Point to develop leaders of char-acter—an entire generation of Level 5leaders. I find that the essence, the fun-damentals of leadership don’t changeover time, but great leadership is sofresh and rare that it always seems new.
Many people today complain aboutuncertainty and turbulence in our econo-my and society, but what I find abnor-mal is the 50-year period of post-WWIIstability. When you study history, youfind that turbulence is the norm, not theexception. Great leaders assume that badthings can and will happen and preparefor downturns. When the bad thingshappen, they have a shock absorber.The question is not if but when. Theyamass resources and reserves to absorbshocks. They also practice the ying-yangprinciple of preserve the core values andstimulate progress. The core principlesremain constant, but the practices areadapted to culture, conditions, tech-nologies, strategies, and economies.
For example, one common core valueis respect for the individual, and yet thismeans different things in different cul-tures. For example, in Idaho, that valuemight mean give me lots of space and leaveme alone. In China, it means almost theopposite. The core value doesn’t changebut the application does. It’s why lead-ership, although it has common threads,is more of an art form than a science.
The world works poorly when thosein power are motivated more by servingthemselves than by seeking the welfareof those they lead.
Uncertainty, punctuated by episodesof chaos, characterize most of humanhistory. Today, relentless technologicaldisruption, the global nature of compe-tition, and the instantaneous flow ofinformation all contribute to instability.The good news is that the risks ofuncertainty come with opportunity—environments characterized by turbulentdisruption can go hand-in-hand with extra-
by Jim Collins
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 3
LEADERSHIP GREATNESS
G o o d i s t h e e n e m y o f t h e g r e a t .
ordinary growth. There will be some bigwinners and lots of carnage along theway. We can’t predict which companieswill deliver astounding results in com-ing decades; but leaders can learn fromthe history of great companies, and in-crease the odds of thriving in uncertainty.
A mix of creativity, discipline and para-noia are needed to thrive. The 10X win-ners rarely out-innovate everyone else;they combine creativity with discipline sothat the discipline amplifies the creativityrather than destroying it, while remain-ing productively paranoid to stay alive inthe face of big, unexpected shocks.
During uncertainty/turmoil, leadersneed to place concentrated bets, but onlyafter gaining empirical validation thatthe bet will likely succeed. It’s aboutfirst firing bullets to gain empirical val-idation, then firing a cannonball. Thisallows you to get the exponentialresults of concentrated bets, while lim-iting your risk. When you engage inrisky activities, manage the risks, toachieve BHAGs (Big Hairy AudaciousGoals) and to stay above the DeathLine. Remember: the only mistakes youcan learn from are the ones you survive.
The 10Xers recognize changes andthreats early (due to their productiveparanoia), then make rigorous decisionsand take disciplined action. The keyquestion is not Should we go fast or slow?but How much time do we have before therisk profile changes? They go slow whenthey can, fast when they must. If theyhave time, they let events unfold, whilepreparing to act decisively when thetime comes. They keep an eye on thestorm and prepare for it. Rather thanreact instantly, they watch events unfoldbefore making deliberate decisions.
Try these 10 To-Do’s:1. Build a pocket of greatness (minibus).2. Get the right people in the key seats.3. Double questions-to-statement ratio.4. Confront brutal facts—not opinions.5. Find your personal Hedgehog (pas-
sion and drive) and focus on it.6. Be disciplined with your Hedgehog
principle (allocate time for it and doyour 20-mile daily march).
7. Get a high return on your nextluck event and honor your best luck.
8. Have a Stop Doing List as well as aTo Do List with no more than three priorities.
9. Create pockets of quietude inorder to think and learn.
10. Set personal visions aligned to life-time core values and purpose or 10-yearBHAGs that you share with others. LE
Jim Collins is author of Good To Great and Great by Choice:Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck. This article is adapted from hisASTD presentation/interview. Visit www.jimcollins.com.
ACTION: Become great by choice.
by Harry Hertz
results in benchmarking visits amongFellows’ companies, comments onpotential blind spots to explore, adviceon approaches to pursue, and the howsand whys of leadership and planning.
Some of the take-aways include:• Culture trumps strategy; you need to
set culture first or strategy accomplish-ment will be severely hindered.• Visionary leaders are passionate and
authentic; they walk the talk and theyhave very different styles, but their sin-cerity and clarity of purpose are visible.• Visionary leaders set aggressive goals
—and it’s amazing how often commit-ted employees will achieve them.• Engage employees; committed peo-
ple are the lifeblood of organizations.• Focus and discipline are essential.
Leaders need to be relentless in makingtheir aims clear and messages consistent.• Consumers/customers are wired, tired,
and focused. Delight them in a way thatrecognizes their situations and needs.They want honest relationships andsupplier agility.• Your employees are constantly lis-
tening to you for clues.• New employee orientation should
touch the emotions in authentic ways.Gaining emotional commit-ment of people early speedsup learning by six months.• Communication between
supervisors and employeesand among employees needsto be worth-based and nothurt-based. Too often wordsnot chosen carefully lead tohurt rather than help whenthe goal is open communi-cation to help a colleague
achieve high performance.• A framework for organizing thoughts
and processes is critical. Baldrige pro-vides that framework.
From exposure to Baldrige Awardwinners and their executives, Fellowsbring home added learning for theirstaffs, including how to: leverage corecompetencies; build on strategic advan-tages; address strategic challenges;make strategic use of the voice of thecustomer; segment data and use theanalysis; focus on appropriate metrics—selection, use, alignment; improvecommunication; and see with a sys-tems perspective in their culture.
The program puts leaders togetherand uses peer learning to work throughthe Baldrige Criteria, enabling organizationsto become more effective/profitable. LE
Harry Hertz is Director of the Baldrige Performance ExcellenceProgram. Visit www.nist.gov/baldrige/fellows/index.cfm.
ACTION: Design your learning experience.
ALL LEADERS HAVE Agap or challenge to
address—an area wherethey could benefit from gathering dif-ferent insights and perspectives fromother senior leaders. What if to fill thegap or attack the challenge, they couldlearn from and share best practices witha cohort group and with CEOs fromaward-winning national role models—and have a senior executive as a coach?
Graduates of the Baldrige ExecutiveFellows Program apply learning fromnetworking, benchmarking, and shar-ing with other executives on a projectof strategic significance in their firms.With capstone projects approved by theirleaders, Fellows expand their markets,engage employees, and introduce newproducts—all based on learningreceived in the program.
As part of a collaborativeyear-long learning experience,Fellows share strategies andengage in dialogue withsenior executives of MalcolmBaldrige National QualityAward winners. The Fellowsmeet at Baldrige Award re-cipient sites, participatingin tours and discussionsfocusing on the Baldrigesystems perspective and key aspects ofleadership. Fellows discuss topics thatalign with the Baldrige Criteria forPerformance Excellence (leadership;strategic planning; customer focus;measurement, analysis, and knowledgemanagement; workforce focus; opera-tions focus; and results) but throughthe lens of leadership. And they gaininsight into best leadership practices relat-ed to: setting directions, values, andexpectations to balance stakeholderrequirements, stimulate innovation,and ensure sustainability; managingfor innovation and operational excel-lence; developing and executing strate-gy; ensuring customer-driven excellence;and valuing team members/partners.
Fellows follow a process thatenables them to pose questions to eachother and other senior executives andgain input on a project of strategic sig-nificance to their organizations. Thisprocess, repeated at each meeting,
Peer LearningBring improvements home.
COMPETENCY LEARNING
4 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
stakeholders but in developing leaderswho constantly sense change, exciteothers about change, and implementchange faster.
The best way to get more leaders isto have leaders develop leaders.
Leaders pass on their experience toothers, who are expected to use it anddevelop their own leadership styles.
To develop others effectively, leadersmust have a teachable point of view(TPOV)—an opinion on what it takesto win in the business and what ittakes to lead other people. Once theyhave a TPOV, they think of creativeways to find teaching and learningopportunities. They turn every interac-tion with their people into a learningand teaching event and often set asidetime to teach leadership outside ofscheduled activities.
Leaders create stories about thefuture of their organizations. A TPOVbecomes the basis for leaders to pre-sent a dynamic, compelling story thatcreates a case for change, a vision ofwhere the organization is going, andhow to get there. Once leaders have astory, they take bold actions that bringabout lasting change.
In today’s global marketplace,pleasing customers and making a prof-it are functions of quick thinking andagile action. The only way to get speedis to have trust among leaders—peoplewho are prepared to make smart deci-sions and implement them.
How can you best develop leaders atall levels? Winning organizations areknown for preparing people to beeffective leaders. Great leaders aregreat teachers. Organizations succeedover time not only because of theircore competencies and use of moderntechnology and management tools, butalso because they continuously regener-ate leadership at all levels. Such leaders
Developing Leaders
THE BIG CHALLENGEthat organizations
face today is growingand developing a strong pipeline ofleadership talent for the future.
How are you doing as a leader? Youcan learn the answer by asking: Howare the people you lead doing? Dothey learn? Do they visit customers?Do they manage conflict and initiatechange? Are they growing and beingpromoted? Is their performance betterbecause of your interest in and dedi-cation to their development?
Respected leaders of organizationsthat constantly outthink and outma-neuver their competitors build largepools of talent. They personally devel-op leaders at all levels. In their teach-ing sessions, they discuss the role ofleaders in detecting trends and navi-gating turbulent shifts. They developleaders who can spot trends and whohave the courage to act. They encour-age people to lead in their areas. Theyparticipate in their company’s leader-ship development (LD) program—teaching their point of view (POV) onhow to grow the business and askingparticipants to come up with ideas forgrowing their areas. They might ask,If you were CEO, what would youdo? They orchestrate open and candiddiscussion. They talk informally withparticipants, as someone who hasbeen where they are, to impress onthem the leadership duties—the con-duct, honor, and teamwork.
For the past decade, customers,employees, investors and boards havedemanded such leadership. When theydon’t get it, they tend to overthrowleaders who fail to change ahead ofthe times and fail to reward theirinvestors with rising share prices.
In winning organizations, top leadersdevelop leaders at all levels as a priority,pursued with the same zeal as new pro-ducts, new customers, and competitiveedge. In these organizations, leadersfeel that it is their duty to develop oth-ers, and they do it personally insteadof delegating the task to others.
Leaders are judged by sustainedsuccess not only in adding value for
reinvent cultures, competencies, andtools at critical times. Experiencedmanagers are required to teach, andpart of their bonus is based on howmuch and how well they do it. Youcan only learn certain critical thingsfrom people who have been there anddone that.
A culture of leaders developing leadersisn’t limited to senior leaders. All man-agers must see teaching and trainingas a big part of their job. The mostpowerful experience is when leadersteach their own POV. In our approach,participants benchmark other compa-nies and leaders, examine their ownexperiences, then state their POV onleadership and how to win in theirbusinesses. This approach helps lead-ers develop a TPOV in four leadershipareas: ideas, values, edge, and energy.• Ideas. A business starts with ideas
about services/products in the mar-ketplace. Those ideas lead the businessto produce and deliver value to cus-tomers. Leaders must be able toexplain to all stakeholders how thebusiness succeeds in creating value.• Values. Winning leaders articulate
values and shape values that supportbusiness ideas. They avoid abstractterms, focusing instead on operationalvalues that affect the business.• Edge. Leadership is about making
tough yes-no decisions. Winning lead-ers face reality, and make decisionsabout people, products, businesses,customers, and suppliers—even withimperfect data.• Energy. Winning leaders are motivat-
ed, and they motivate others regardingchange and transition. Leaders mustteach people how to energize others,face-to-face and through large-scaleorganizational efforts.
Leaders with a TPOV have viewsabout budgeting, planning, investingcapital, and other things. Great leaderstake a POV and use it as a springboardto action. A leader engages other peo-ple by translating his or her POV intoa dynamic story. Most people think, re-call, and communicate with stories thatinclude a rise and fall, the overcomingof great odds, the upholding of princi-ples despite the cost, questions ofrivalry and succession. Leaders takethe foundation of a POV and build sto-ries about beating the competition, sat-isfying customers, and other successes.
We use the term story rather thanvision. To stay ahead of the competi-tion, organizations must act quicklyand decisively. That means that leadersmust offer more than a vision or staticsnapshot of where an organization
by Noel Tichy
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 5
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
H o w a r e t h e p e o p l e y o u l e a d d o i n g ?
wants to be. They must also fostermotivation and action. They do thatbest by creating stories.
Leaders’ stories have these elements:1) a case for change, 2) an idea wherethe organization is headed, and 3) howit will get there. Based on those stories,leaders take actions that transformtheir organizations.
At companies where leaders developleaders, a key role of HRD is to helpleaders craft their teaching approaches.That requires HR staff to collaboratewith leaders to create a culture in whichleadership and teaching are intertwined.
The agenda for LD has shifted drasti-cally in the past decade. Most of whathas been done in LD falls short. It hasbeen too rote, too backward-looking,and too theoretical. It has rarely beentied to a business’s needs nor preparedleaders for the challenges of the future.Companies that win now and developleaders so they can win in the futuretake a different approach. Their leaderspersonally and actively develop leaders.
The challenge to have leaders developleaders has profound implications forthe heads of business, line managers,and HR professionals. A company’sfuture is too important to outsource.Yet, when it comes to developing lead-ers, many companies rely on consul-tants or executive education programs.For leaders to develop leaders, executivesand managers must take an active rolein developing their TPOV and coach-ing people. That may involve runninga program, writing books, teaching,using business forums as teachingevents, or seizing teachable moments.
Executives, HRD people, and othershave to link initiatives for developingleaders with their business priorities.That means committing personally todeveloping leaders, making that com-mitment public, and ensuring othersare equally committed. It also meansensuring that LD programs provide arapid ROI as measured in cost savings,revenue growth, and positive momentum.
For HRD professionals, there’s anurgent message: Your role in developingleaders must change. You can no longerbe the contractors who develop leadersfor other people or the buyers of con-sulting services that do the same. Toooften, these become empty promises. Youcreate a tradition of leaders developingleaders by identifying key leaders toteach, helping them create a POV, anddesigning ways for them to teach. LE
Noel Tichy is Professor of Management & Organizations andDirector of the Global Business Partnership, University ofMichigan, and coauthor of Judgment. Visit www.noeltichy.com.
ACTION: Ensure that your leaders develop leaders.
by Susanne Biro
“No, I’m sorry I can’t have lunch withyou.” Why should the reality be so dif-ficult to say? Far too many people feelthey have to come up with an excuseor reason as to why they cannot—orsimply do not want—to do somethingthat’s not in their best interest personal-ly or professionally.
The implications of this disempow-ered state—the avoidance of a simpleno—is relevant to what occurs in moreimportant professional matters. And,that is to say nothing of what it’s like tobe on the receiving end of disempow-ered people. For example, if I ask youfor lunch and you claim you didn’t getmy voice message until too late, butwhen your story doesn’t add up, theresult is that I no longer trust you. Theoutcome you were hoping for—to notdamage your relationship because yousimply don’t feel like lunching today—is exactly what results. It’s sad so manytalented people feel so vulnerable pro-fessionally that they don’t yet know thesuccess that can result when they final-ly stake claim as to who they really are.
In the words of the late Steve Jobs:“We say no to 1,000 things to make sure
we don’t get on the wrongtrack or try to do too much.We’re always thinking ofnew markets we could enter,but it’s only by saying nothat we can concentrate onthe things that are reallyimportant.” Many of usadmire the contributionsand brilliance of Steve Jobsand wish we could be more
like him. We fail to recognize that thechance to be the kind of person worthyof our own admiration is always rightin front of us. And it’s summed up in atwo-letter word, no.
Now, let’s make this personal byanswering these questions: What areyour top five values? What is yourideal professional reputation? Write itdown. Do your answers to the abovealign with your organization’s brand?How well do your daily interactionsdeliver on your ideal professional rep-utation—your personal leadershipbrand? If I visited you and spoke withthe people with whom you most inter-act, how many could recite youranswer to questions 1 and 2? Given theabove revelations, what is the one thingyou most need to focus on in 2012?
Now, are you committed to saying noa bit more? I hope the answer is yes. LE
Susanne Biro is a senior leadership coach with BluepointLeadership Development and co-author of Unleashed! ExpectingGreatness. Email [email protected].
ACTION: Have a great yes, then say no.
WHEN WAS THE LASTtime you used this
powerful two-letterword—No? I believe that you shouldsay no more often—once you knowyour yes (the distinctive brand of yourleadership, product, and organization).
I consider Seth Godin to be one ofthe great marketing minds of our time.Seth is a clear and poignant communi-cator of big, important ideas. Simplyput, his messages matter not only toyour ultimate professional success, butto the success of your industry overall.
Recently, Seth posted the followinglist of no’s on his blog: No. No, we don’ttake clients like that. No, that’s not partof what we offer. No, that market is toohard for us to service properly. No, Iwon’t bend on this principle.No, I’m sorry, I won’t be ableto have lunch with you. No,that’s not good enough. Willyou please do it again? No,I’m not willing to lose myfocus, and no, I’m not will-ing to compromise.
A simple but effectivereminder of how critical it isto know who you—andyour brand—are, is served up in thepower of a single word: No. The cleareryou can be about who you are, thestronger and more valuable your offer-ing and your brand will be. When youknow who you are —what your valuesare, what you stand for, what you offerand how—the better you can setboundaries and say no to the manyopportunities in which you could par-take but probably shouldn’t.
As the artisan baker Lionel Poilânereiterated, “In business, it’s very impor-tant to be able to say no when you feellike saying yes would mean losing yoursoul.” Knowing who you are remainsat the core of our decisions and is apowerful place to come from when somany don’t know who they are or tryto become too many things to toomany people. When you know whoyou are, you can focus—and say: No.
I find it curious that many peoplefeel they have to be dishonest to otherswhen faced with a choice betweenmaking up a story or simply saying:
Leadership BrandKnow your ‘yes’ then say ‘no.’
LEADERSHIP BRAND
6 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
Ask three questions to determine ifthe issue is a problem to be solved or aparadox to be balanced: Have you triedimplementing solutions for a longtime—and nothing seems to help? Doyou see at least two viable alternatives?Is the issue important to you? If so, theissue is a paradox that must be balanced.
Most paradoxes have two polarities:long term/short term; right for me/right forus; invest/take profits; diverse points ofview/efficient use of time. Which polarityis right? Which is wrong? In a paradoxthey are both right and wrong. In ourpredicament, we may not see this soobjectively. Rather, we are likely to . . .• Choose one polarity over the other
by either advocating our solution orpassively withdrawing participation,assuming the issue has an obvioussolution. The danger is that our solu-
tion may create the next issue or deep-en the current paradox. The winner inany argument over a paradox tends tobe the individual or function with themost resources or political clout.• Accommodate both sides with a com-
promise that reduces the short-term ten-sion between those who hold differentviewpoints but does little to balance theparadox over time. The effective man-agement of paradox requires strongemphasis of both polarities simultaneously.• Stubborn emphasis on both polari-
ties. Each party feels that they are rightand won’t see the value of the other.The strain pulls the two sides furtherapart. A power struggle ensues, and ifa winner emerges, the organizationloses. The seeds of discord can survivefar longer than the original issue.
By understanding paradox, individ-uals and functions that hold opposingpoints of view are more likely to bothadvocate their own perspective and seethe potential value of the other’s per-spective. Each sees that the optimal path
Leader Paradoxes
IS THIS YOU? YOU USEtime management
tools, and yet youstruggle to balance your life. You andyour team try trust-building, but yourrelationships remain strained. Yourefforts to implement change are metwith resistance—placing great risk onyour ability to achieve strategic intent.
You seem to have few solid choices,few solutions. You wonder whetherthe issue is you, others around you,the job, or life itself. Seeing no options,you become frustrated. You want tospend more time on things importantto you AND worried that if you do,you won’t succeed professionally. Youwant to delegate responsibilities toothers AND worry that you’ll be heldaccountable if they don’t perform. Youare caught between the boss whowants you to think strategically ANDdirect reports who want you to focuson operations. You feel compelled tochoose one side or the other ANDsense that either choice will be wrong.
Problems have solutions—paradox-es do not. Paradoxes must be consis-tently balanced. To work through theissues, you have to change from theeither/or formula to both/and. There mustbe: long term and short term; profes-sional and personal time; stability andchange; team and individual; me andus; centralization and decentralization!
A paradox is a conflict between twoperspectives that appear incapable ofsimultaneously existing—yet they must.A paradox has at least two apparentoptions, called polarities (short and longterm). The effective management of aparadox requires balancing polarities.
The issue is not whether to chooseone or the other, but both polarities sim-ultaneously. What keeps you from doingthis? You hate uncertainty/anxiety andtend to avoid or reduce it. Paradoxescreate conditions that bring out fight-or-flight impulses. You feel compelledto take quick action to reduce tensions.You may choose to take an either/orapproach to ameliorate the situation.But if you treat a problem like a paradox, theproblem never goes away; if you treat a para-dox like a problem, the paradox gets worse.
forward may be to embrace totally oppositeviews. They leave their conversationwith a clear view of the strengths andweaknesses of the positions, and withan agenda that includes possibilitiesthat neither could have imagined at thestart, and with mutual respect.
DDrraammaa ooff UUnnbbaallaanncceedd PPaarraaddooxxUnmanaged and unbalanced para-
doxes foster employee cynicism, wast-ed resources, and missed opportun-ities. Here are the predictable stages.
Stage 1: Dissatisfaction and fear.Unbalanced paradoxes reveal them-selves in poor profits, high turnover,and in-fighting among functions. Withthe lack of a clear forward path, ambi-guity and tension trigger employeeawareness that the status quo is fraughtwith danger. Some employees cling tothe past while others realize that theirformer responses are insufficient.
Stage 2: Advocacy. To amelioratetheir anxieties, people believe that onlyone side can prevail. They lobby forthat side to the exclusion of the other.Leaders must then referee internal bat-tles or choose sides. However, theirdeciding in favor of one side hardensfunctional walls and prevents findingways to harmonize opposing interests.
Stage 3: Sub-optimization. Choosingone side comes with costs, such as afocus on short-term gains rather thanlong-term profits, a concentration on anarrow customer set, or the dominanceof one group over another. Well-inten-tioned choices sow the seeds of furtherdissatisfaction, sub-optimize the chanceof finding a range of options, and limitthe ability to respond effectively.
Stage 4: Negative consequences.Choosing one side over the other mini-mizes the ability to address present andfuture challenges. The same issues re-surface as unnecessary turnover, reducedprofits, lessened competitive strength,and a culture of cynicism. The dramacontinues as leaders seek to remedy theills of the past by choosing the other side.
Managing paradoxes requires bring-ing together those who hold opposingviewpoints and establishing commonground based on careful listening. Wiseleaders recognize the strengths in oth-ers’ perspectives and the deficiencies intheir own. They accommodate variousviewpoints. They balance paradox toaffect change. Bringing together oppos-ing perspectives enables the creation ofnew and more powerful possibilities.LE
Ralph Jacobson is author of Getting Unstuck: Power of Paradoxand Leading for a Change and founder of The Leader’s Toolbox.Email [email protected].
ACTION: Manage paradox to create change.
by Ralph Jacobson
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 7
PERFORMANCE PARADOX
T r y c r e a t i n g c o m m o n g r o u n d .
Here is the problem framed anotherway—visually. Imagine a graph withtwo trajectories. The first is that of theleadership industry, showing a nearlynon-stop rise over the past 40 years. Thesecond is that of leaders, showing a near-ly non-stop decline over the same time.Leaders of every stripe are far less respect-ed and trusted than they were when theleadership industry was in its infancy.I’m neither proposing a one-to-one correlation or directrelationship nor denyingthat some individuals andinstitutions have benefitedfrom their investment inthe leadership industry (eachyear billions of dollars arepoured into leadershiptraining/development).Rather I am saying is that ithas not had an obviousbeneficent effect on society at large.
It’s impossible to exaggerate the de-gree to which the word leadership andthe imagined ideal of becoming a leaderhave infiltrated our collective conscious-ness. My place of employment, HarvardUniversity, exemplifies the trend. Vir-tually all of its professional schoolsboast the words leader or leadership inits mission statement: the mission ofthe Harvard Law School is to “educateleaders who contribute to the develop-ment of justice and the well being ofsociety.” The mission of the HarvardMedical School is to “create and nur-ture . . . the best people committed toleadership in alleviating suffering anddisease.” The mission of the HarvardDivinity School is to “educate womenand men for service as leaders in reli-gious life and thought.” The missions ofthe Harvard Business School and theHarvard Kennedy School are more ofthe same—and other institutions ofhigher education share the fixation.
I think this leadership lockstep rather apathetic manifestation of a fad or fash-ion of mindless followership. Why doesthe Harvard Law School insist it edu-cates leaders? Does it no longer sufficeto excel at what you do, to be a con-summate professional, a lawyer, whochooses, for whatever reason, not tolead, but instead to hunker down to be,say, a legal scholar, or a local lawyer—
End of Leadership
OUR FIXATION IS ONleaders. We assume
that they have the keysto the kingdom, that they have most ofthe power, authority, and influence, andthat they make the decisions that mostmatter. Wrong! Leaders are increasing-ly vulnerable to forces beyond their con-trol—and followers are increasinglyentitled, emboldened, and empowered.Leaders are in decline, followers are onthe rise. Moreover, the context pertainsin historically unprecedented ways.
My new book, The End of Leadership,looks at this phenomenon from a par-ticular vantage point of someone, me,who’s been a fellow traveler, nearlyfrom the inception of the leadershipindustry—my catchall term for thenow countless leadership centers,institutes, programs, courses, semi-nars, workshops, experiences, trainers,books, blogs, articles, websites, webi-nars, videos, conferences, consultants,and coaches claiming to teach peo-ple—usually for money—how to lead.
Being a leader has become a mantra.It’s presumed a path to money andpower; a medium for achievement;and a mechanism for creating change,not always for the common good.
And, there are other, parallel truths:that leaders of every sort are in disre-pute; that the tireless teaching of lead-ership has brought us no closer toleadership nirvana than we were pre-viously; that we don’t have much bet-ter an idea of how to grow goodleaders, or of how to stop or at leastslow bad leaders, than we did 100 oreven 1,000 years ago; that the contextis changing in ways leaders seemunwilling or unable fully to grasp; thatfollowers are becoming on the onehand disappointed and disillusioned,and on the other entitled, emboldened,and empowered; and, lastly, thatnotwithstanding the enormous sumsof money and time that have beenpoured into trying to teach peoplehow to lead, over its roughly 40-yearhistory the leadership industry has not inany major, meaningful, measurable wayimproved the human condition.
or even, heaven forefend, a follower?To obsess about leaders at the expense
or exclusion of followers is wrong-head-ed—as it is to obsess about leaders andfollowers at the expense or even exclu-sion of context—especially at thismoment in history when contextualintelligence is of paramount importance.
The leadership industry is ahistori-cal. We do not make clear to our cus-tomers that followers have always beenimportant, and that today they’re moreimportant than ever. In the last 40 years,the years during which the leadershipindustry came to pass, evolutionarychanges in culture and revolutionarychanges in technology, social media inparticular, have greatly changed pat-terns of dominance and deference so as
to favor the ostensibly pow-erless over the apparentlypowerful. These changesare, moreover, transcen-dent—they affect each ofthe different sectors andevery country and culture.
The End of Leadership,then, tells two tales. Thefirst is about leadership andchange—how followers (forexample, political protesters
and shareholder activists) increasinglyimpact the course of human affairs; andabout how leaders, no matter howhighly positioned, increasingly are vul-nerable to those lowlier than they. Thesecond is about the leadership industry—about the problems associated bothwith leadership as a scholarly pursuitand as a pedagogy of practice. I ask:how can, how should, leadership educationand development be re-imagined, re-invent-ed, and re-configured to be in keeping withthe temper of the time?
It is not an idle or idiosyncratic ques-tion. Even blatant bastions of corporateconformity such as management consul-tancies are looking for new ways ofteaching leadership, drawing on fieldssuch as philosophy, psychology, evolu-tionary biology and even neuroscience.
I would not recommend teaching howto be a good leader without teachinghow to be a good follower. Nor would Isupport instruction on either leadershipor followership without instruction onthe immediate and distant context. Butin the end this is not about my prefer-ences; rather it is a call to action inresponse to the recognition that whatev-er the leadership industry is doing rightat the micro level, at the macro level itstill has a long way to go. LE
Barbara Kellerman is author of The End of Leadership(HarperCollins). Email [email protected].
ACTION: Reimagine your leadership education.
by Barbara Kellerman
8 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
LEADERSHIP FOLLOWERS
A t l e a s t a s w e n o w k n o w i t .
the separation of elite managers/leadersfrom their constituents; the attractionof most leaders to a cadre of social andpolitical admirers; leaders divorcedfrom line managers, front-line workers,and customers; leadership separatedfrom core principles like mutual responsi-bility, sustainability, stewardship, service,and shared sacrifice; leaders divorcedfrom nature and natural laws; leadersdivorced from product innovation andfrom those who make and sell productsand serve customers; leadership pro-motion/selection based on appearances.
His cries caused a host of adherentsto reinvent management and leader-ship—and LD programs, priorities,principles, processes, and practices.
RReeiinnvveennttiinngg LLeeaaddeerrsshhiipp aanndd LLDDHere are a few Drucker-inspired
shifts in leadership and LD:
Old Leadership New LeadershipEconomy: Profitability Ecology: SustainabilityCharacter: Situational Integrity: UnconditionalTalent: Compliance Talent: CommitmentPosition Power Influence PowerIsolation/Separation Connection/CauseProtective Custody Interdependency.
Old LD New LDSemi-academic Field performanceClasses/content Experience/applicationSolo and site learning Social/mobile learningMaps and charts Compass and contextTeacher/consultant Coach and mentorSkillsets/mindsets Social/political savvyDominance/deference Cooperation/synergyDraw from business Disparate fieldsFocus on managers Focus on followers
1100 DDeevveellooppmmeenntt MMiissmmaattcchheessDrucker debunked the mythology of
management. Ironically, many of hissalient lessons for leaders have no cor-relation to current development meth-odology! Here are 10 examples.
1. Creative abandonment. Druckertaught that leaders need to ask, Whendo we stop pouring resources into formercash cows that no longer generate the incometo justify their existence? He asked lead-ers, “Don’t tell me what you’re doing—tell me what you stopped doing.” Mostnew leaders are trained to milk sacredcows—not kill or abandon them.
2. Hiring, developing, promoting,
Reinventing Leadership
AS OUR CONCEPTS OFleader and leadership
evolve, our leadership de-velopment (LD) methods must evolvewith them to match the new nature ofwork and organizations and to makethese new leaders highly effective.
Some 25 years before Covey and Iwrote about the habits of highly effectivepeople, Drucker defined what disciplinesmade leaders (executives) effective.Today we need the same prescience.He once said, “I don’t predict—I justlook out the window and see what’svisible but not yet seen.”
As I look out my window, I see thatthe nature of leadership is changing tosuit the new nature and structure ofwork and organizations. This, in turn,is causing the best LD practitioners toredesign their LD programs/processes.
Since the who, why, what, where andhow of work now change by the year(not by the century as in times past),internal LD practitioners are dancingas fast as they can to keep up (andexternal consultants are pitching anew LD package a day). Managers andleaders must now cope with employ-ees who may . . . work at home or halfa world away; work for more than onecompany; mix parallel careers withspouses; be motivated by knowledge,passion, and purpose as well as pay;act as social entrepreneurs; and playmoney ball with their organizations.
During the 1950s and 60s, Druckerwas immersed in the organizationalmindset. Starting in the 1970s, hebecame disenchanted with much ofOB and its management practices.
For three decades, I’ve documentedwhat Drucker almost single-handedlycreated, albeit unintentionally—theleadership era. Ironically, Drucker wasnot a guru looking for groupees; in facthe repelled or expelled them. Like his con-temporary, Edwards Deming, Druckerworked alone. Isolation afforded himindependent insight—the flash of bril-liance that instantly illuminated theanswer to the pert question What’swrong (or different) with this picture?
Among other seedy aspects of man-agement and leadership, Drucker decried:
and firing. Drucker talked about theseas life-and-death decisions. He warnedleaders to be well acquainted with thecandidates and familiar with theirstrengths and values to ensure a goodfit. Yet few emerging leaders practicemaking such life-and-death decisions.
3. Outside-in perspective. Druckersaid that leaders must become outside-in champions who advocate initiativesthat focus on the customers and otherconstituents—and help staff people tosell and service clients better. Few LDprograms help leaders do this.
4. Marketing/sales. Drucker invitedleaders to ask, Who of our non-customers(missing customers) should we be doingbusiness with? Few LD programs ven-ture into this vital area.
5. Nurture innovation. Drucker wasaware of barriers that inhibit innova-tion. He believed that every brain shouldbe in the game. Few LD programs pre-pare leaders to be innovation champions.
6. Collaboration with competitors.Drucker encouraged collaboration withfirms that can perform the service bet-ter and cheaper (only marketing andinnovation were seen as sacrosanct in-house activities). Few leaders practiceforming such alliances.
7. Leader as conductor. Drucker com-pared leaders to conductors of an orches-tra—guiding professional players asmasters of their own domain. Fewemerging leaders have experience asconductors of professional talent.
8. Decision-making. Ducker knewmanagers needed experience in deci-sion-making to ensure they’re not afraidof failure, and know when no decisionis required. Few new leaders see that adecision made, even if wrong, is usual-ly better than no decision.
9. Strengths and priorities. Druckercoached leaders to ask, What needs to bedone?, to limit priorities to two tasks ata time, to ask, Of those things that wouldmake a difference, which are right for me?and to share purpose and priorities.Leaders must know their style/strength.
10. Engage in character development.When we speak of executive development,said Drucker, “we mostly talk aboutdeveloping people’s strength. Character isnot developed that way—it is devel-oped inside and not outside.” Leadersmust think expansively and responsiblyabout their footprint in the world, abouttheir core values and commitments.
Eliminating such mismatches willimprove LD programs. LE
Ken Shelton is editor/CEO of Leadership Excellence. [email protected].
ACTION: Match LD with new roles of leaders.
by Ken Shelton
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 9
LEADERSHIP REINVENTION
T h e e n d o f L D , a t l e a s t a s w e k n o w i t .
can expose leaders to a broad range ofperspectives, whether through reading,talking to experts and clients, explor-ing the power of metaphor, brainstorm-ing, or extracting lessons from theircustomer experiences and lives.
3. Hone vision and focus on the rightactions. Facing countless problems,effective leaders focus on the centralopportunities, threats, and solutions tobuild a compelling vision and strategy.By saying no to seductive distractions,strategic leaders position themselves tosay yes to the right actions. Mentorscan help leaders avoid pursuing inter-esting, secondary, or easy issues, andfocus on the central issues.
4. Empowerment and process man-agement skills. Leaders create synergy.They energize, mobilize, and focus
participant intelligence, talent, creativi-ty, and accountabilities. Mentors canhelp leaders build key relationshipsand exercise process leadership by:creating maps of problems and poten-tial solutions, leading processes thatgenerate strategic insight and focus,engaging key players by creatingexcitement, and building ownership.
5. Presence and entrepreneurialism.Presence and credibility are prerequisitesto be taken seriously. Entrepreneurialismenables leaders to see and seize oppor-tunity, develop and apply creativesolutions, take risk, tenaciously pursuegoals, and resiliently bounce backfrom defeat—valuable attributes in acompetitive world that values innova-tion. Mentors can help leaders developpresence and entrepreneurialism.
6. Build and maintain personal net-works. What people think about a leadershapes if and how they approach thatleader and what they offer—whetherit’s with information, opportunities, orcollaboration. To attract and capitalize
Strategic Leaders
AS THE WORLD BECOMES MORE COM-plex and interconnected, strategic
change must become multi-organiza-tional and multidisciplinary. And yet,many leaders lack the strategic mind-set and collaborative process skills andtools needed to drive strategic change.
Mentors play a key role in helpingleaders to hone strategic leadershipskills and harness the multi-organiza-tional and disciplinary synergies thatdrive strategic change. By workingwith leaders one-on-one, mentors canhelp them become more strategic byhaving them reflect on their experi-ences and relationships, set stretchgoals, try new behaviors, and gainand integrate feedback.
SSeevveenn WWaayyss MMeennttoorrss CCaann HHeellppWe’ve discovered seven strategic
leadership components that enableleaders to bring fresh thinking andperspectives to advance prioritystrategic initiatives. Here are sevenways mentors can help the evolvingstrategic leader develop in each area.
1. Gain self-awareness and manageemotions. To avoid making irrationaldecisions—especially under stress, timepressures, and information uncertainty—leaders need to quickly grasp theright action to take. Mentors can holdup a mirror and help leaders by facili-tating their reflection about mistakesand successes in judgment; identify-ing their decision-making and behav-ioral patterns; and 3) asking questionsthat open up honest assessment ofwhat they could have done differently.
2. Expand knowledge. It’s difficultfor leaders to capitalize on opportuni-ties and respond to threats unless theygrasp the technical and social domainsand societal trends relevant to theirbusiness. In our knowledge-intensivebut often siloed world, breakthroughscome by applying insights and solutionsfrom other spheres of work and life. Mentors
on the talents of others, strategic lead-ers need to have good networks and areputation as someone trustworthy.Mentors can help leaders build theirnetwork, profile, and brand with otherleaders, clients, partners, experts, andinfluencers by engaging these partiesin dialogue that explores for synergy.
7. Pursue personal development.Mentors collaborate with leaders theymentor in the design and implementa-tion of their personal learning anddevelopment plan. It begins by focus-ing on the future and where that leaderwants to be. Mentors help leaders inte-grate their career and personal aspira-tions and values.
Leaders must be learners and buildtheir strategic leadership capabilities sothey can inspire, mobilize, and createownership for the future. Mentors playa key role in making this happen.
MMoorree WWaayyss ttoo SSuuppppoorrtt SSLLDDBeyond mentoring, you can develop
strategic leadership skills in five ways.• Use a competency model. Using a
leadership framework, define the knowl-edge, skill, attitude, and personal andnetwork competencies for being aleader who can harness collaborativeprocesses to create strategic change.• Concurrently address organizational
strategy and personal capacity. Ensurethat any development process attendsto both external situations and internalpersonal capacities. Turn strategic initia-tives into opportunities for reflection, feed-back, and personal growth and turn pro-fessional growth into organizational benefit.• Demand structure. Build a demand
structure for showcasing what menteeshave learned and the practical implica-tions. This adds excitement, engagessenior leadership, and creates a healthytension and motivation for development.• Deploy tools and templates. Work
with leaders to ensure they developstrategic management tools and cus-tomized templates. This helps eachgeneration of leaders learn, apply thebest techniques, and enhance the tools.• Support communities of practice
(COP). Facilitate COPs that promotepersonal development, network-build-ing, cross-organizational learning, peersupport, rapid diffusion of innovativepractices, and a culture of collaboration.
Adapt these approaches to theleader’s context, budget, and culture.LE
Michael Miloff is president of Miloff & Assoc, focused on strate-gic planning and organizational change; [email protected] J. Zachary is president of Leadership Development Servicesand author of The Mentor’s Guide and The Mentee’s Guide;[email protected]; leadershipdevelopmentservices.com.
ACTION: Develop your strategic leadership.
1 0 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
LEADERSHIP STRATEGY
D e v e l o p a s t r a t e g i c m i n d s e t .
by Michael Miloff and Lois J. Zachary
(like money, space, support, time, andinformation) are always scarce. Youmust negotiate with your bosses andcolleagues for them. You also negotiatearrangements and expectations withothers—what will be done, how, andwhen. If there’s giving and taking to bedone, you can decide what to ask forand what to give up and who can cre-ate and join coalitions of like-mindedcolleagues in support of common interests.• You speak for your group. You are
your group’s official spokesperson, cham-pion, ambassador, lobbyist, advocate, andPR flack. Your people and the organiza-tion expect you to play this role. Howyour group is perceived by outsidersdepends largely on your efforts in spread-ing the good news and in personally ex-plaining to other groups involved thecause of any problem and the solution!Only you can do this.• You protect your group. You serve as
a buffer between your group and out-siders, including senior management.Your people expect you to challenge in-appropriate or unrealistic directives andprotect them from excessive bureaucracy.You act as a gate-keeper for pressures anddemands as you manage the sometimes
conflicting needs of your team/organi-zation. Aweak manager—one without influ-ence—can only pass on others’ demands.
Your job is to integrate your groupand keep all parties working together.You stand with one foot inside yourgroup, the other outside. This role comeswith your formal authority, which putsyou in charge and makes you the con-tact point for your group with outsiders.You must show competence in this roleto win the trust of others.
CCoonnsseeqquueenncceess ooff NNoonnppeerrffoorrmmaanncceeYou can’t avoid the political side and
still do your job. If you don’t exerciseinfluence effectively, if you hold your-self above the political push-and-pull,you limit your effectiveness and sufferseven dire consequences: 1) problems gounresolved between your group andothers; 2) disagreements get resolvedagainst your wishes; 3) your group andothers operate on incomplete or inac-curate information; 4) others misperceiveand misunderstand your group; 5) oth-
Political Roles
MANY MANAGERS UNDERSTAND THATdealing with political dynamics is
part of their jobs, but they’re reluctantto play the games. They dislike conflictand competition and consider politicalgive-and-take mostly an ego-driven wasteof time. To them, it’s all about coercingor manipulating others, a world wherewho you know matters more than whatyou know, where winners win becausethey’re better connected, not becausethe business case is stronger.
So they tend to deal with othersonly when there’s a problem or need.Otherwise, they focus on their groupand its work. Judge me by results, theythink, not by how many people I know orbacks I slap. Many managers becomedisillusioned, even cynical, about theway organizations work. So they stepback. That’s a wrong-headed response.They can’t do their jobs as managerswithout engaging the organization.
Consider your many political roles:• You troubleshoot for your group.
When you disagree with another groupbecause you have different priorities,you must deal with them to keep thework flowing smoothly. If you don’t con-front them quickly, they might blowup in your face. If a dispute betweenyour customer service group and thesales department festers, frustratedcustomers might shift to a competitor.• You act as information conduit be-
tween your group and the outside. You’rethe central clearing house of informationpassing into and out of your group.Your people deal with others for day-to-day work, but most non-routine infopasses through you. The new productin another division is failing. Not yourproblem? It will be when there are bud-get cuts. To get such info, you must beplugged in to the broader organization.• You negotiate for your group. Do you
think your bosses know what you andyour group need or that they’ll pro-vide it if you merely ask? Resources
ers distract your people because no onenegotiates, filters, or mediates outsidepressures; 6) your people lack theresources they need; and 7) your peo-ple think you’re letting them down—asa manager, you’re both incompetentand lacking in character because youdon’t care enough about them andtheir work to provide what they need.
In all organizations, there are unprin-cipled game players who derive satis-faction not from the work they do orthe purpose they serve but from plot-ting, scheming, and winning internalbattles. And, sadly, poisonous politicalclimates and cultures encourage suchbehavior. If you work in such a place,look for work somewhere else.
Yet, most organizations are politicalenvironments where decisions are madeand conflicts resolved through influence.To succeed in them, you need influence.And, to build and exercise influence,you must manage the inevitable politicaldynamics. You can’t focus on yourgroup alone, since no group can suc-ceed in isolation. You must influencepeople over whom you have no formalcontrol—to get what your group needsand to work for what’s best and right.Your people count on you to do this sothey can excel at their work; and theorganization depends on voices likeyours to keep it on the right track.
You develop influence by understand-ing how organizations actually work andembracing the political side. Do you seeorganizations as rational hierarchies inwhich information flows up the chainof command and directions come down?Do you believe influence should comefrom position or title, augmented bytrack record and expertise? Do youconsider any effort to gain influence inother ways to be an egotistical drivefor status or control to manipulate oth-ers or build empires? Do you believethat differences should be settled by arational search for the best or right solu-tion, which will be obvious to all intel-ligent, right-thinking people, all ofwhom share the desire to work togeth-er? Do you consider conflict a failure ofmanagement or organizational design?
Real organizations are more compli-cated because they’re composed of people.Management is largely about negotiat-ing paradoxes and trade-offs. Hence, allmanagers must recognize certain realitiesin order to deal with organizations asthey are—not as they should be. LE
Linda A. Hill and Lowell Kent Lineback are coauthors of Being theBoss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader. Reprinted bypermission of Harvard Business Review Press. Copyright 2011Linda A. Hill and Lowell Kent Lineback. All rights reserved.
ACTION: Perform your political role as leader.
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 1 1
LEADERSHIP POLITICS
This comes with being the boss.
by Linda Hill and Kent Lineback
Nothing is more vital—purpose is whatgenerates the difference that matters.• Sony started with a clear purpose as
a brilliant technological innovator. Thenit decided to build an entertainmentempire. Soon the company lost its dif-ference that mattered; management of itsengineering prowess fell between thestools of running the other businesses,and its innovative edge vanished.• Yahoo sank into decline because it
stuck with an outdated purpose.• Apple had one, lost it, and narrowly
escaped death before Steve Jobs return-ed to rebuild its purpose.• IKEA, by contrast, has continued to
prosper and expand because its founder,Ingvar Kamprad, had a powerful senseof purpose based on a deep compre-hension of his customers and industry.Kamprad created a system of value
creation—a clearly defined purpose tightlybacked by mutually reinforcing parts.
If leaders lack a clear idea about whatthey want their business to be, they can’tcreate such systems because they don’tknow what these should be designed to do.
Your purpose has to answer fourquestions: Who do we serve? With whatsort of products or services? What we dothat’s different or better? and What are wedoing today that enables us to thrive tomor-row? A good purpose puts a stake inthe ground. It says, “We do X, not Y.”Companies that don’t choose, risk end-ing up in no-man’s land—being noth-ing of distinction to anyone.
2. Live with your strategy daily. Anystrategy will eventually fail if leaderssee it as a finished product or solved prob-lem. Strategy is a journey of change andevolution that needs continuous lead-ership. Too often, managers zero in onecompetitive advantage, expecting it tobe sustainable; when it gets into trou-ble, they hunker down and protect thestatus quo instead of rising to meet the
Strategist-in-Chief
WHY DO SO MANYstrategies fail? In
recent months we’veseen sad stories unfold at Kodak,Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Yahoo, RIM,and Sony, to name a few. My answer isthat the strategies have not been dynamic.
Many strategies—and many leaders—get stuck because they see strategy asa problem to be solved and settled; in fact,leaders need to think of it as an open,not closed, file; something that evolvesand changes, not something that is sta-tic. Strategy needs constant, not peri-odic attention. That’s why leaders mustbe strategists. No one else can shoulderthe responsibility of setting its courseand seeing the journey through. Whoelse understands the company fully in all of its parts, from its financialresources to its organizational capabili-ties and its leadership pipeline? Whoelse can draw all of your people intothe process of creating a strategy andkeeping it up-to-date and vital?
Only you can be the steward of yourbusiness’s future. I learned this after myteaching shifted from MBA students toexecutive education, particularly a five-year stint in Harvard’s flagship programfor owner-managed companies. As Iworked on strategic issues with theseleaders, I saw how invested they werein making the right choices. Yet I sawtoo that much popular wisdom aboutstrategy wasn’t serving them well. Few,had a long-run competitive advantage thatis the Holy Grail of strategy.
As strategist-in-chief, your aim isthreefold:
1. Be clear about the company’s pur-pose: Most leaders struggle to explainwhy their companies exist. They can tellme about their industries and prod-ucts, but can’t articulate the specificneeds their businesses aim to fill, orthe unique points that separate themfrom competitors. Nor have theythought concretely about where theywant their companies to be in 10 years,and the internal and external forcesthat will get them there. Yet every con-cept of strategy—sustainable competitiveadvantage, positioning, differentiation,added value—flows from purpose.
needs of a new reality. But any oneadvantage, even a company’s system ofvalue creation, is only part of a biggerstory, one frame in a motion picture. Theneed to manage across frames makes aleader’s role in strategy vital.
Sustainable competitive advantagesare rare. Whatever constitutes strategicadvantage will eventually change, anddefending one that has outlived itstime will lock you into the past. As aleader/strategist, ensure that your com-pany continues to add value.
3. Be the strategic leader of your team.In setting the strategic direction andtone, you’ll be guiding team members—deal them in. Your ability to connectwith and motivate others is key. Man-agers in marketing, production, service,as well as C-suite executives mustmake decisions daily that should bebased on a shared sense of what the companyis trying to be and do. If they disagreeabout that or misunderstand it, howcan they make consistent decisions thatmove the company forward?
The communication has to be two-way. You need the input of those at thetop and on the front lines. You need theknowledge and insight of those whoface the customers, grapple with therealities of production and logistics, andcompete for the resources they need.
We discussed this in class recently.One leader said that strategy was prop-erly the exclusive province of a corporateelite—20 or so people who had the realpicture going to an offsite, from whichwisdom would then trickle down (theold view). Later in the session anothermember suggested that we hear from amanager whose company had made aremarkable turnaround in a toughindustry. He told his story: the idea wasformed, and everyone was brought onboard. I then asked, what did he meanby everyone? He said, “All 5,000.”
Becoming a strategist-in-chief cantransform your business. As strategist,you watch over the organization, guid-ing its course, making choices that bringit back to center day after day, even asyou choose when the center—the pur-pose—should evolve. You must decidewhether or not to lean into the wind, andwhether your strategy can withstandthe elements. Your purpose will changebecause the industry changes, tasteschange, and your people change andbring new strengths and skills to theenterprise. Ultimately, it will changebecause you make the call to do so. LE
Cynthia A. Montgomery is author of The Strategist: Be theLeader Your Business Needs (HarperBusiness).
ACTION: Become the strategist in chief.
by Cynthia A. Montgomery
1 2 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
LEADERSHIP STRATEGY
Ta k e c h a r g e o f y o u r s t r a t e g y .
TThhrreeee CCaatteeggoorriieess ooff CCoonncceerrnnIn 20 years in middle management, I
realized that cultural pressures placedon managers most in need of question-ing fall into three categories: Ownership,Superiority, and Systems dynamics.
1. Ownership matters. The commonbelief is that managers own everythingabout the work and the employees who do it.When employees feel no ownership ofthe work or the organization, it is diffi-cult for them to invest in itsquality or success. Whenthey feel their time and tal-ent belongs to manage-ment, they feel resentfuland guarded about sharingtheir ideas. To engage theimagination and commit-ment of employees, owner-ship must be shared. Manage-ment must view employeesas partners in the work andorganizational goals.
2. Superiority tango. Managementculture pressures leaders to view them-selves as superior to those they manage.Bosses do have superior authority, butthis does not mean that bosses are supe-rior in other ways. They don’t possesssuperior knowledge, intellect, insight,skills or judgment. Still, there is cultur-al pressure to pretend bosses knowbest what to do and how to do it. Don’tquestion management, Do as you are toldand Don’t outshine the boss are unwrittenrules in the culture of management thatrestrict employee engagement and roborganizations of vitality.
The superiority tango refers to the ten-sion caused by the presumed superiori-ty of bosses, and implied inferiority ofemployees. The most common tangosare coercion and compliance, control andresignation, domination and submission.
When managers are expected tohave better judgment than employees,employees feel forced to follow everydirective, idea and whim of the boss—even when it makes no sense, is awaste of time, or is blatantly wrong.
When leaders are perceived to pos-sess superior knowledge, they often feelpressured to control. Micromanagingleaders create resignation in employeeswho then disengage their creativity.
When managers assume a posture of
Management Culture
IMAGINE EVERYONE GO-ing to work every day
to do only and exactlywhat they love! All the work gets donethrough the diversity of skills, interestsand talents woven into a whole that ismuch greater than the sum of the parts!
For many people, doing work theylove is only a dream. Frustration, powerstruggles, drama and dealing with dif-ficult bosses are realities that impedeengagement, making people dreadMondays and live for the weekends.
With excellent resources available toleaders on how to manage talent andinspire employees, why are so manypeople still unhappy at work?
The cause of most discontent at workis management culture—rules, beliefs,expectations, and language that pres-sure managers to behave in ways thatundermine goals and the best think-ing. Culture is the collective personalityof a group. It guides behavior towardconformity, providing the principlespeople must follow to be accepted. Atits best, culture reflects human connec-tions based on shared values and identity.At its worst, culture reflects biases withthe power of collective exclusion and judg-ment toward those deemed unacceptable.Since we want to belong, most of usfollow cultural norms, even when theygo against our values or conscience.Culture changes when individualsquestion prevailing rules, assumptions,beliefs and language, and offeringalternative norms for a better future.
Management culture provides guid-ance about how bosses are supposed tobehave. Sadly, rules and expectationsplaced on managers are based on out-dated assumptions about human motivation.New thinking about how to engageemployees gets layered on top of theold, putting managers in contradictoryroles. Managers are expected to behard-nosed and soft-hearted, advocatesand disciplinarians, controllers andcoaches, supervisors and leaders. Theyare expected to provide the big pictureand know all of the details, to beexperts in their fields and in the art ofhuman relationships. They are oftenexpected to do the impossible.
superiority, they become the center ofemployee activity, dominating everyaspect of the work, which requiresemployees to submit to managementstyles, preferences and personalities.
When management asserts superiority,most employees accept their inferiorstatus. Those who rebel by refusing tocomply with directives that don’t makesense are cited for insubordination andpunished to elicit more docile responses.
Instead, we should listen to them.Employees who refuse to follow theunwritten rules may be our best hopefor transforming culture—for creatingcultures of inclusion and creativity, whereeveryone is engaged, working fromtheir strengths fueled by their passions.
3. Systematically speaking. Organi-zations are human systems that tend to
mimic other familiar sys-tems, such as families.People often say they wantto work somewhere wherethey feel like family (notproperty), but patterningwork relationships afterfamily relationships alsohas its drawbacks.
When managers act likeparents, employees often actlike children, creating a
vicious cycle that serves neither well.Managers must challenge behaviors andbeliefs that feed parental instinctsrather than treat adults as children.
Another model of management cultureis to view organizations as well-oiledmachines and managers as master engi-neers. But human elements such as cre-ativity, innovation, passion, enthusiasmand commitment require more than anengineering model of management.
Democracy as a system of gover-nance is gaining traction within man-agement culture. The global democ-ratization of information has put newexpectation on leaders for greateraccess, transparency and accountabili-ty. We must embrace Democracy tomove management culture forward tonew levels of engagement, productivi-ty, and collaboration.
Imagine a workplace where leaderslead with integrity, honesty and trans-parency, setting directions that makesense and making decisions that arebroadly supported. Imagine employeestrusting management, and managementtrusting employees. Imagine everyonegoing to work to do only and exactlywhat they love! Now, make it true! LE
Denise Moreland is the author of Management Culture:Innovative & Bold Strategies to Engage Employees. Visitwww.mgmtculture.com.
ACTION: Challenge rules that don’t make sense.
by Denise Moreland
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 1 3
MANAGEMENT CULTURE
L e a r n t o c o p e w i t h t h r e e p r e s s u r e s .
high performing team. Great leaderscreate more leaders at all levels by nur-turing their development. They don’tjust delegate work—they delegate deci-sion-making powers. When people havethe authority to make certain decisions,they feel more responsible and loyal.So, empower your people. Don’t micro-manage them—turn them loose to per-form the jobs. Explain the task, tellthem what needs to be done and why,but don’t tell them how to do it. Thenthey’ll take ownership, accept account-ability, think creatively and offer ideas.When they feel you value their ideas,they’ll find ways to boost performance.
D4. Delivery: They create a qualityproduct, brand it, sell it well, and satis-fy and retain customers and clients todeliver desired results. They seek tocontinuously improve their quality prod-
ucts/services, have high employeeengagement and customer satisfaction.They use their drive and ambition tomake things happen, to make a differ-ence daily. They’re excited about theirrole, always seeking ways to improveand motivate and inspire their people.They get things done in ways thatmaintain relationships and sustain results.To boost their self-esteem, catch people do-ing something right. When people believein themselves, they achieve amazingthings. Inspire them to provide out-standing customer service. The happieryour customers, the more they return.
D5. Communication/motivation:They listen with empathy and speakwith honesty to gain and maintain trustwith stakeholders. Make your commu-nication count. The late Sam Walton,founder of Wal-Mart, said, “Commun-icate everything to your associates; themore they know the more they care.Once they care, there is no stopping them.”Today, many people feel vulnerable.Open the lines of communication; let
Seven Disciplines
TODAY, THERE IS GREATdemand for a new
generation of highlyeffective leaders because of the competi-tive global marketplace and retiringsenior leaders. Where will they comefrom? How can they be developed?
Highly effective leaders practice 7Disciplines to achieve greatness:
D1. Alignment: They align theirmotive and mission, purpose and passion,with a market need and business strategy.To check alignment, seek feedback onhow your behavior affects your boss,peers and direct reports to learn howothers perceive you. Such feedbackindicates areas for improving yourrelationships. Since perception is reality,to lead well, you must manage percep-tions. By asking questions and seekingfeedback, you open up a dialogue soyou can receive feedback on yourbehavior. You also show humility andgain credibility as you ask: What canwe do to make the organization, team,group or department better?
D2. Casting: They hire smart—hirethe right people and put them in theright positions. They choose people forkey positions as carefully as a castingdirector. Recruit, hire, and promotepeople who fit the culture and brandand empower them to act well theirpart. Only the right people (talent whodo great work) are your greatest assets.Fire the wrong people, and take correc-tive measures with underperformers.Surround yourself with the best andbrightest people you can find—peoplewho are smarter and have better skillsthan you for their positions. Set highstandards, and never compromise them inhiring. Hire people with great attitudesand essential skills—they will lift theskills and mindsets of those aroundthem. Hire slowly, and fire fast. Leavea position open until you find the rightperson who is also the right fit for the job.
D3. Development: They train, moti-vate, build, empower, and retain anoptimal high-performing, creative andinnovative team. They invest wisely inpeople. Develop, recognize, reward andpromote from within. Keep on board a
them know that you care about theirpersonal lives as well as their work.Great leaders are great listeners who con-nect with people. Learn through listen-ing—listen openly, ready to learn, asopposed to listening defensively, readyto rebut. Communicate a clear, com-pelling and inspiring vision: 1) here’swhere we’re going; 2) here’s why; 3)here’s how we’re going to get there; 4) here’s your role; and 5) here’s howwe’ll work together to get there.
People are motivated in two ways:intrinsically and extrinsically. Extrinsicmotivation involves outside factors:money, power or position. Intrinsicmotivation comes from within: thedesire for pride, a passion for the workand the desire to do a great job. Learnwhat each person needs and provide it.
D6. Social/emotional/political intel-ligence: They network regularly, social-ize to maintain core relationships withkey stakeholders, and have some fun atwork. They develop healthy lifestylehabits and patterns and guide peopleusing their social/emotional/politicalintelligence. Working hard and havingfun are not mutually exclusive. So,appoint two CFOs; the traditional finan-cial officer and the chief fun officer, whocreates ways for people to have fun atwork. Fun breeds creativity, energy,productivity, innovation, and profitabil-ity. Humor helps people through toughtimes, reduces stress and absenteeism,and brings them closer together. Whenpeople are having fun, the brain pro-duces endorphins, which help heal thebody. People will take appropriate risksif they can laugh at their mistakes. Whenyou laugh at yourself, your employeeswill find you more approachable.
D7. Sustainability: They avoid com-mon mistakes and sins that often derailother leaders. They may be promotedfor their technical know-how and jobperformance, but once in a manage-ment or leadership position, they gainthe soft people skills required to sustainhigh performance. They maintain credi-bility and avoid pitfalls by being hon-est, forthright, and open—their values,allegiances and priorities are beyondreproach. Their strong character andintegrity are manifest by their walkingthe walk and talking the talk. They createa climate of positivity, punctuated withfrequent praise and recognition.
By utilizing these leadership skills,you can change attitudes and create apositive, nurturing culture. LE
Jeff Wolf is CEO of Wolf Management Consultants and authorof The 7 Disciplines of Highly Effective Leaders. 858-638-8260.
ACTION: Cultivate these seven disciplines.
by Jeff Wolf
1 4 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
PERFORMANCE DISCIPLINES
o f h i g h l y e f f e c t i v e l e a d e r s .
percent of chief marketing officers believethat customers trust their company’s brandas much as or more than they trust competi-tors’ brands! While we likely find thisstatistic less comical than the Spanishlottery winner’s rationale, is it any dif-ferent? Randomness and unpredictabilitycharacterize business more than ever—and leaders need to cope.
The most valuable asset that you canhave, when dealing with random eventsand unpredictable trends, is trust. Enjoy-ing the trust of customers is even morevital today. Trust is a long-term quality,conferring long-term financial benefits.When you focus on earning and keep-ing the trust of customers, you’refocusing more on long-term value cre-ation—so you’ll be less likely to fallvictim to the same self-serving, retro-spectively obvious biases that afflict all
short-term management decisions.People are human. You are human.And yet you need to be aware of yourown weaknesses.
In times of unpredictability, the mostlogical course of action is to do the rightthing and hope for the best. You can’t con-trol what people say, but you can con-trol what your company does. If youare trustworthy daily, you’ll create truecustomer advocates over time. Then whenone person whines about something ortries to make trouble, your best custo-mers will drown out the negative voice.
SSiixx SSttrraatteeggiieess ttoo SSuucccceeeeddTo succeed in an unpredictable
world, leaders need six strategies:1. Use analytic techniques that don’t
require high accuracy. Simple statisticalmodels are often more reliable for deal-ing with complex situations than moredetailed models. This is good advicefor marketing professionals. The prob-lem in dealing with social networksand other complex systems is that a
Trust Required
MANAGERS ALWAYS ASSUME THERE IS akey to managing events and situ-
ations. Engineers solve problems withmathematical certainty, while financialanalysts calculate values, tabulate costs,and predict sales trends with reason-able confidence. But as technology em-powers social relationships, throughsocial media platforms and smart-phone capabilities, the predictability ofevents and situations is diminishing,because social relationships depend oncomplex feedback loops that generateunpredictable outcomes.
This is difficult for many managersto accept. Traditional business is a dis-cipline, not a social conversation. Andthe discipline of marketing is manage-able. It could never reasonably becompared to the social dynamic at acocktail party, or to a freewheeling dis-cussion among many different partici-pants. But social interactions involveeach participant’s awareness of andindependent reaction to the behaviorsof other participants, and these feed-back loops subvert most efforts toimpose control, or to manage or pre-dict the behavior of the system.
While our interconnected age is char-acterized by more random fluctuationsand complex-system oscillations, ourbrains are not equipped to deal withsuch unpredictability in a rational way.We prefer control and order. We craveit. When necessary, we lie to ourselvesto preserve an illusion of control.
In the 1970s a man won the Spanishlottery with a ticket he’d chosen for itsending number of 48. Proud of his“strategy” for winning, he explained:“I dreamed of the number 7 for sevenstraight nights, and 7 times 7 is 48.”
The illusion of control serves as “apowerful mechanism to immunize againstharm.” And since we believe we’re incontrol even when we aren’t, mostmanagers believe the effects they gen-erate through their actions are greaterthan they really are. For instance, 90
sophisticated model is more likely to fitpast data well but fail to predict thefuture, while a more basic model is lesslikely to fit past data, but more likely toanticipate possible future scenarios.
2. Prepare for multiple outcomes.Don’t try to make the one right guess asto what will most likely happen, makemultiple guesses. Place many smallbets on a variety of options. This is theway any innovative process works,and innovation is a good analogy forprediction. Don’t bet the farm on theEdsel, without also having a Mustangor Thunderbird in your portfolio.
3. Find and rely on the predictableelements of the situation. You can’t pre-dict who the next Super-User will be forany social network, but you know thatall networks have them. Likewise, youcan’t know how long it will be beforetechnology makes it possible for a spe-cific customer to find out you trickedhim into paying more than necessary,but sooner or later technology will makeit possible. Just because you don’t knowwhich particular day it will rain does-n’t mean you should sell the umbrella.
4. Focus your evaluation of initia-tives on the inputs, not just the outputs.Randomness will confound even thebest efforts to produce results. Butwhen you assess a project or initiative’seffectiveness, evaluate the quality ofthe decision to undertake it. Don’t relysolely on the actual outcome of the pro-ject (bad or good), but examine thequality of the process that went into itsplanning and execution. A bad leadermight be elected despite the evidence,but as long as the election is fair, don’tthrow out the democratic process.
5. Remain agile, and strive to respondquickly. There’s no substitute for aware-ness, listening, and detecting events assoon as they happen. Focus on “senseand respond” as an organization, andempower your people to act quicklyand decisively. Have a social media pol-icy that is strong on principle but flexi-ble. And stage a social-media fire drillevery so often.
6. Trust-proof your business. Youhave to be prepared for failure, success,and everything in between. But if othersknow they can trust you, then you’ll neverbe on your own. As long as your focus isalways on doing the right thing, thenyour customers, your employees, andyour other stakeholders will all havean interest in seeing your companyweather whatever unpredictable stormmight come your way. LE
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., are coauthors ofExtreme Trust: Honesty as a Competitive Advantage.
ACTION: Practice these six strategies.
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 1 5
MANAGEMENT TRUST
by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
C o n t r o l i s n o t a n o p t i o n .
In fact, show any first grader two redapples and two yellow ones and they’llsay there are four apples. Over time,numbers come to signify rewards andrecognition. From measurements suchas outstanding report cards and sportsscores, we develop a comfort level withtheir mechanics, trust their results, andrely on them for motivation.
But what if that first grader is shownfour apples where one has a worm in it,and we ask how many he would eat. Nowthe child must form both aquantity and a value deter-mination. Add three hungryclassmates to the mix and thechild must determine whogets the wormy apple; socialdynamics come into play.
Regardless of how num-bers are perceived, we tendto use them for measuringend-product success.Several schools of thoughthave reinforced this idea. StatisticianW. Edwards Deming’s 14 Points forManagement has been used for 30 yearsas a tool designed to boost productmanufacturing. Yet, as champion of thequality measure of business productivity,Deming’s point 11 states, Eliminatenumerical goals. Deming recognizedthat quality was derailed by reliance onnumeric goals entirely. This phenome-non remains prevalent today.
Another example is Motorola’s SixSigma Quality Process, which stressesimproving product quality to increase out-put. Six Sigma’s focus on removing defectsfrom any production process has pro-pelled companies like General Electricto higher productivity. Yet, as business-es today seek to solve the complicatedproblems of people, they are realizingthat innovative ideation actually relieson the existence of defects in the systemsthinking process to have breakthroughmoments. The process of people at worktoday is in conflict with the qualityprocesses that defined the recent past.
CChhaannggiinngg WWoorrkkppllaacceeTo appreciate the need for updating
the productivity equation for service-based businesses, it helps to under-stand the changing business landscape.
In 1959, Peter Drucker coined the
Measuring Productivity
IN BUSINESS, NUMBERSrule—for good rea-
son: As a universal lan-guage, everyone understands numbersare ideal for measuring productivity.By calculating how much time andmoney is required to produce and sellproducts, numbers provide companieswith clarity of expected employee effi-ciency and effective success. While thisapproach works for goods-producingindustries, it often leaves service-basedindustries scratching their heads andwondering: “What is the gold stan-dard for measuring success when thetime-money-product equation is notcomplete? What replaces widgets?”
To redesign the time-money-productequation to reflect productivity in ashifting market, a change in mindsetneeds to occur. This begins by recog-nizing the surge in service-basedindustries. Only then can additionalvariables such as employee process,shared ideas, and innovation be con-sidered viable components in deter-mining success. Overall, a paradigmshift requires stepping outside the tra-ditional measurement box and adopt-ing a broader sense of the cognitivedetermination of how quality, valueand social dynamics create the picturesand stories of successful outcomes.
Changing our business adherencefrom traditional measurement demandsan intentional and concentrative refocusfrom employee output to employee contri-bution. Calculations become based onpeople strengths like problem-solvingand collaboration, in addition to num-bers on a clock, in a wallet, or from aproduction line. A transformation inthe way businesses view success in thechanging landscape of work requiresthe addition of quality, value, andsocial dynamics in equal measure tothe time, money, and widget numericmodel of productivity in existence.
OOuurr LLoovvee AAffffaaiirr wwiitthh NNuummbbeerrssWe are taught the value of numbers
at an early age. In grade school, welearn the basic principle of numberabsoluteness through simple visuals.
term knowledge work/er to describe theshift from physical to conceptual labor. Hefore-saw an emerging service-based econ-omy. Today, we see a surge in service-based businesses, and employment inservice jobs will increase 14 percent.
This shift from an objective (goods-producing) to subjective (service-perform-ing) economy has altered many practices,including hiring. With efficiency no longerthe only measurement of employee pro-ductivity, service-based companies arehiring people who are adept at ideation,innovation, critical thinking, and collaborat-ing for team initiatives. With peoplerelying more on each other’s strengths,the traditional manager/employee(parent/child) relationship has becomea barrier to service-performing produc-tivity. With the lines between employeeand management blurring, these new
dynamics factor into theproductivity equation.
Leaders must now cre-ate a balance between hardnumbers and the quality/ value/social dynamics measuresfound in all creative andknowledge work, reflectedin service-based markets.The resulting productivitymatrix combines people-focused qualities to provide a
complete portrayal of employee valueand performance measurement.
Asking the right questions is centralto adopting new behaviors toward bal-ancing over reliance on pure numericmeasurement. Businesses that measureproductivity including people dynam-ics, are attuned to the resonance of thecultural impact on business results.
Service-based businesses need to re-evaluate their motivation for success.Clarifying people-based motivation isessential to future productivity gains.
When employees are valued andtheir strengths respected, they tend towork more diligently for the company.This leads to an affirming environment,which ultimately entices more quali-fied employees and reduces turnover.As a result, the company can offer peo-ple better service and products.
As companies continue to do moreknowledge work and team innovationbased on collaboration, the metricsmust expand past the limitation ofnumbers. The way business redefinessuccess will lead to more positiveresults and more realistic expectationsof company value. LE
Brady Mick is an architect, a workplace strategist, and clientleader for BHDP Architecture, an experiential design firm.Visit BHDP.com or call 513 271-1634.
ACTION: Use new ways to measure productivity.
by Brady Mick
1 6 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
PERFORMANCE PRODUCTIVITY
R e t h i n k i n g t h e o l d n u m b e r ’ s g a m e .
manipulating them to get what we want.How can you be free of your fears?
By recognizing the needs that fuelthem and meeting those needs justenough—just as you would temper eat-ing to a healthy level. Greed can makeyou overdo it. Greed and fear are inter-twined, for greed is just the fear that Iwon’t have, do, or be enough. And the egothat has that fear is but a small subsetof our whole, true self. If we’resnagged by the fear, we mistake ourself for that small being. But if we flipthat around, become the fear—get soclose to it that it loses its leverage—aninstant sense of spaciousness opens upwherein we find the power to act.
You can do the flips of The ZenLeader by taking these three steps:
1. See into the mirror: when you feelstuck or a difficulty is happening outthere—a difficult situation or relation-ship, for example, look inside to inquirewhat it is related to “in here.” How areyou playing into it? When else in yourlife has something like this happened?
2. Find the root: Name the fear:What might happen? What might younot be enough? The fears listed above
(e.g., not safe enough, lovedenough, etc.) are a goodstarting place.
3. Claim your power: Foreach fear identified, moveinto it and meet the need thatfuels it just enough. From thatplace, declare what valueyou can add. For example, ifa difficult colleague relation-ship makes me fear that I’m
not likeable, a standing-on-my-fear dec-laration might be, “I have enough otherpeople in my life who like me. I will helpthis person be successful, whether she endsup liking me or not.” Or if my fear is notbeing good enough to handle a con-flict, my statement might be, “I am goodjust enough to be real and present in theconflict and let tempers fall where they may.”By moving into the fear, not beinggreedy, and declaring what value youcan add regardless, you claim your power.
As you practice these steps—onefear at a time—you experience freedomand see beyond the edges of ego. Andwhen you free up your own fears, youcan take away the fears of others. Bygetting out of your own way, you havemuch more energy for the visions youmanifest and those whom you serve. LE
Ginny Whitelaw, author of The Zen Leader: 10 Ways to gofrom Barely Managing to Leading Fearlessly (Career Press) is aleadership expert and roshi (Zen master). President of FocusLeadership and formerly a senior manager in NASA’s SpaceStation Program. Email [email protected].
ACTION: Practice these three steps.
Lead Fearlessly
THERE’S BUZZ TODAYaround what Zen
can bring to leaders,whether it’s the secret lessons of SteveJobs, or a popular meditation program.Can Zen bring us quiet amid the noise?Or calm in the thick of turbulence?Truly, Zen doesn’t bring us anything.Rather, it strips away our stuck points,gets us out of our own way, wherebywe realize the Zen leader in us.
Zen leadership is the freeing up ofour boundless nature, beyond the fearsof the ego. Getting out of our way iswhat moves us from barely managing toleading fearlessly. You get in your ownway when you get stuck on an opinion;become volatile, anxious, or worriedabout pleasing; insist onbeing the center of attention;or any of the other waysleaders derail. It means look-ing out for #1, being short-sighted and selfish, thinkingonly I can do this job, I needcredit, I want this promotion, Iam right. It’s all I, I, I.
When you introduce Zeninto this picture, thingsimprove markedly. You might thinkthis is because the core practice of Zen—meditation—reduces stress andimproves agility, self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, positivity, cogni-tive performance, and conflict man-agement. But these are the symptomaticreasons. The way Zen really helps lead-ers is by cutting the grasp of ego (I),freeing you to lead fearlessly.
The ego and its fears are like a bodyand its shadow. We come with a hier-archy of needs (Maslow). It’s naturalfor the ego to have fears around thoseneeds not getting met, for example,not being safe, loved, powerful, orgood enough. But if we get stuck inthe fear, we act in ways to get ourneeds met, which makes it all aboutme. Only I can do this. I’m right. I wantcredit. I want this person to like me. I’mnot safe if I’m not making a million dol-lars. Normally we deal with our fearsby trying to ignore them, distractingourselves, jumping into action (whetherit’s useful or not), blaming others, or
by Ginny Whitelaw
LEADERSHIP ZEN
A lesson from the Zen leader.
Engaged Is a Verbas well as an adjective.
WE OFTEN ASSUME ahappy employee is
an engaged employeeand that by conducting certain activi-ties managers/leaders can producemore happy and engaged employees, usingthe word engaged as an adjective, des-cribing the employee’s response to themanagers’ actions. Many activities areidentified by surveys that ask people torate how engaged and happy they are andhow often their boss does xyz activity oroffers abc benefits. Items that correlatehighly with satisfaction are assumed tocause the engagement.
Yes, sound management practices—involvement in decision making, train-ing, morale, open communications, mean-ingful recognition, equitable rewards, andrational procedures and policies—con-tribute to a motivating culture, but theyare not magic beans to be planted andwatered to harvest engaged employees.
One reason the term engaged is sopopular is that it means different thingsto different people. As an adjective,engaged can mean involved in activity.As a verb, it can mean to attract and holdby influence or power or to pledge oneself;to promise or guarantee.
What’s missing is a sense that peo-ple engage with each other. Leadershipis a relationship between the leader andthose who chose to follow. Each leaderdefines engagement in a particular con-text, as does each employee, whichcontributes meaning to the relationship.Often the experiences and contexts dif-fer. People may follow a leader in onecontext, but not in another.
If leaders see employees as engagedobjects, they miss the point: Leadershipis all about relationship. The leaders weneed engage with employees to createproductive, enduring, shared meaningand purpose that serve the common good.
Leaders who want employees tocommit their whole self—head, heart,and hands—to the mission, must do thesame. This is leadership of equity—encouraging self-expression, self-development, and accountability, andtreating others with dignity. LE
George "Skip" Casey is Principal at The Casey Group. [email protected]. Visit www.leadersweneed.com.
ACTION: Be engaged in leadership of equity.
LEADERSHIP ENGAGEMENT
by George Casey
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 1 7
FFoouurr DDiisscciipplliinneessTo get healthy, leaders need to take
four simple, but difficult, steps:1. Build a cohesive leadership team.
Get the leaders of the organization tobehave in a functional, cohesive way. Ifthe people responsible for running ateam, department, or organization arebehaving in dysfunctional ways, thenthat dysfunction will cascade downand prevent organizational health. Andyes, there are concrete steps a leader-ship team can take to prevent this.
2. Create clarity. Ensure that themembers of that leadership team areintellectually aligned around six simplebut critical questions. Leaders need tobe clear on topics such as why the orga-nization exists and what is the mostimportant priority for the next few months,and eliminate any gaps between them.Then people who work one, two orthree levels below have complete clari-ty about what they should do to makethe organization successful.
3. Over-communicate clarity. Afterthe first two steps (behavioral and intel-lectual alignment), leaders can take thethird step: over-communicating theanswers to the six questions. Leaders ofhealthy organizations constantly repeatthemselves and reinforce what is trueand important. They err on the side ofsaying too much, rather than too little.
4. Reinforce clarity. Leaders use sim-ple human systems to reinforce clarityin answering critical questions. Theydesign any process that involves people—from hiring and firing to performancemanagement and decision-making—in acustom way to support and emphasizethe uniqueness of the organization.
Healthy organizations get better atthe one activity that underpins every-thing it does—meetings. Without mak-ing a few simple changes to the waymeetings happen, a healthy organiza-tion will struggle to maintain its health.
Healthy organizations rarely fail.When politics, ambiguity, dysfunction andconfusion are reduced to a minimum,people are empowered to design prod-ucts, serve customers, solve problemsand help one another. Healthy organi-zations recover from setbacks, attractthe best people, repel the others, andcreate exciting opportunities.
Employees are happier, the bottomline is stronger, and executives are atpeace when they know they’ve ful-filled their most important responsibili-ty—creating a culture of success. LE
Pat Lencioni is author of The Advantage and Five Dysfunctionsof a Team, and a top-rated keynote speaker. Contact The TableGroup at 925-299-9700 or email [email protected].
ACTION: Gain and maintain org health.
Organizational Health
WHY IS MANAGEMENTsuccess so elusive
and ineffective manage-ment so prevalent? Why do 38,000 U.S.businesses go bankrupt each year, andmany more struggle? In turning aroundunderperforming companies, I observethat management allows the wrongthings to happen—problems then fester,persist, and multiply. If they go unrec-ognized, unaddressed, or unresolvedthey erode competitiveness and eraseprofits, causing the business to fail.
Usually, the difficulty lies not insolving problems but in recognizing them.George Washington said: “Errors oncediscovered are more than half amend-ed.” Amending problems makes theright things happen. But first the prob-lems must be identified.
Why don’t managers identify andunderstand problems? The practice ofmanagement is made of simple disci-plines; however, the practice of thesedisciplines is difficult. The difficultiesaccumulate and produce a friction orinertia causing them not to be practiced.Then managers stumble in frustrationand failure as unidentified and unre-solved problems persist.
Management disciplines must belearned and practiced. Managementeffectiveness is not innate—managersmust acquire a practical knowledge ofthe disciplines so their skillful practiceis made instinctive. This happens asmanagers recognize what the disciplinesare, know how to use them, and systemat-ically employ them. When practiced, thedisciplines function as tools to extendmanagement skill, allowing manage-ment to achieve more with them thanthey ever could do without them.
The management disciplines are notpracticed for three reasons: 1) managersdon’t know or neglect the seven learneddisciplines of management effectiveness; 2)they don’t know how to skillfully usethe disciplines and thus misuse them;and 3) the disciplines are not used sys-tematically and practiced consistently.
Seven learned disciplines make upthe practice of management.
1. Planning. Through this discipline,a plan, is born. The plan depicts thedesired end or aim and specifies the
The last competitive advantage.
ALL THE COMPETITIVEadvantages—
strategy, technology,finance, marketing—that we’ve pur-sued in the past are gone. The disci-plines haven’t disappeared, but theyhave lost their power as meaningfulcompetitive advantages, as real differ-entiators that can set your companyapart. Why? Virtually every organiza-tion has access to the best thinkingand practices on those topics. Asinformation has become ubiquitous,it’s almost impossible to sustain anadvantage based on intellectual ideas.
However, one simple, reliable andvirtually free competitive advantageremains—organizational health.
Healthy organizations all but elim-inate politics and confusion from theircultures. As a result, productivity andmorale soar, and good people almostnever leave. For those leaders whoare a bit skeptical, rest assured thatnone of this is touchy-feely or soft. Itis as tangible and practical as any-thing else—and even more important.
Even the smartest organization—one that masters strategy, finance, mar-keting, and technology—will eventuallyfail if it is unhealthy. But a healthyorganization will find a way to suc-ceed. Without politics and confusion,it will become smarter and tap into allof the intelligence and talent that it has.
So, why don’t more companies em-brace organizational health and reapthe benefits? For one, it requires realwork and discipline, maintained overtime. And, it’s not sophisticated or sexy—it doesn’t excite executives who seeka quick fix. Moreover, it’s hard to mea-sure in a precise, accurate way. It impactsso many disparate areas of an enter-prise that it’s challenging to isolate itas a single variable and quantify itssingular impact on the bottom line.
Creating organizational health alsorequires courage. Leaders must con-front themselves, their peers, and thedysfunction within their organizationwith an uncommon honesty and per-sistence—and walk straight intouncomfortable situations and addressissues that prevent them from realiz-ing the potential that eludes them.
1 8 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
Bad to WorseManagement’s dilemma.
PERFORMANCE CULTURE MANAGEMENT DILEMMA
by Jim Burkettby Patrick Lencioni
yourself strong so you can lead authen-tically, from the inside out.• Clarify your values and standards
and commit to them. The POWs had auniform code of conduct that everyoneknew and followed. Like signs alongthe road, it gave direction and provid-ed a framework for decisions, choices,and behaviors, helping them stay onthe right path in a difficult situation.
Sadly, most people have only gener-ic assumptions and a superficial under-standing about their moral values andethical commitments. Jeb Magruder,White House advisor who went to jail,said that he had been taught right butsomewhere along the way he “lost hisethical compass.” We are all cut fromthe same cloth as Magruder and with-out regularly clarifying our commit-ments, we will drift off course as well.• Confront your doubts and fears.
These take out more leaders than any-thing else, and they can be traced backto your identity—knowing who you areand being comfortable with yourself.Even the smartest, toughest, and bestleaders face insecurities and fears.
The POW leaders were tough war-riors. Commander Jim Stockdale
endured frequent physicalabuse and four years in soli-tary confinement; naturally,there were fears, but he didhis duty and suffered the conse-quences. Great leaders leaninto the pain of their fears to dowhat they know is right.Courage does not mean thatyou are not afraid, but that youdo what is right when it feelsscary or unnatural.
• Connect with your support team. Inyour struggle to lead with honor, don’tgo it alone. That’s why the enemy triedto isolate the POWs in North Vietnamand why the POWs risked everythingto keep the communication lines open.They relied on the encouragement ofteammates. You can’t see every situa-tion objectively. On tough choices, youneed the perspective of a few key advi-sors to help you evaluate the situationand navigate treacherous waters ahead.
Our culture desperately needs menand women who will lead with honor.Guard your character. Know yourself,clarify your values and standards, con-front your doubts and fears, and con-nect with your support team. Thenyou’re ready to lead with honor. LE
Lee Ellis is president of Leadership Freedom, a leadership andteam development consulting and coaching company, speakerand author of Leading With Honor: Leadership Lessons fromthe Hanoi Hilton. Visit www.leadingwithhonor.com.
ACTION: Lead with honor in your organization.
ARE YOU ALARMED BYthe frequent ethical
scandals in recent years?Ethical problems are just as prevalenton Main Street as Wall Street, as book-keepers, purchasing agents, and own-ers violate the trust others place in them.
What is happening? Does anyonecare about honorable leadership? Whatcan you do about it? What have othersdone that might guide those of us whoadvocate character-based leadership?
Some of the best examples of leadingwith honor come from the POW campsof North Vietnam, an environment sohostile that we might expect to see manyexamples of self-centered, self-servingleadership. But when lives were on theline, these brave leaders chose honorrather than comfort, humiliation ratherthan cooperation with theenemy. Their courageousservice shows us what isrequired to lead with honor.Let’s look at four lessons:• Know yourself. The
POWs’ leaders were experi-enced and strong yet com-pelled to be humble. Theenemy used torture and iso-lation to try to break theirwill and force them to coop-erate in making propaganda. They werevulnerable, stripped to their core; theycould not pose or pretend they weresomething they were not. Fortunately,they were solid—healthy people with astrong character that enabled them tolead with honor through humiliation.
If you don’t know yourself and havea peace about who you are, your fearsand insecurities will take you out. Ratherthan pursuing your passion and purposeusing your unique talents, style, andconvictions, you’ll constantly compareyourself to others and guide your lifeby someone else’s ways and standards.
When you know and accept yourself,you can be authentic, leading from yourown true north. Knowing your strengthsgives you confidence, while awarenessof your weaknesses gives you humility.
Like the POWs, you’ll face situationsthat expose who you really are. Acceptwho you are, but realize there’s alwaysroom for growth; work daily to build
Lead with HonorDo you have what it takes?
by Lee Ellis
CHARACTER HONORbest means for achieving it. 2. Organizing. This discipline seeks
to optimally organize resources to achievethe plan. This requires identifying allactions and activities and organizingthem to maximize resources and results.
3. Measuring performance. This prac-tice recognizes that what gets measuredgets managed and gets done. This disci-pline measures how well activities areperformed and signals managementwhen they are poorly performed.
4. Executing. This means assigningall of the plan’s activities to employeesto perform (nothing is left to chance).This leads to attaining the plan; execut-ing expectantly engages and empowersemployees to ideally perform theirassigned activities and holds themaccountable when they don’t.
5. Following-up. This practice gen-erates actionable feedback, aligns ex-pected outcomes with actual performance,instills cooperation and accountability,and reinforces making right things happen.
6. Real-time reporting. This takescollected feedback (timely, reliable andaccurate performance data), shares it,and makes it readily available so man-agers can take action to address problems.
7. Problem-solving. This occurswhen problems are identified, under-stood, addressed and monitored. Thisrequires a system that provides quanti-tative and qualitative feedback withwhich to resolve problems and improveperformance. This system ensures theconstant use of the seven learned disci-plines. Systems drive action, and theseactions produce certain outcomes.
Effective managers practice eachdiscipline, creating a management systemthat produces the feedback essential tomaking the right things happen. This feed-back frees managers from flying by theseat of their pants and assists them in cre-ating a laudable performance record.
The practice of management relieson feedback to measure performance,identify problems and take action toaddress them. Sadly, many managers lackactionable feedback because they don’tpractice the seven disciplines. Hence,they manage by the seat of their pants—relying on their intuition, instincts, feel-ings and opinions. Since these meansare inadequate to manage effectively,performance goes from bad to worse.
Management effectiveness stems fromthe systematic practice of the seven dis-ciplines to make the right things hap-pen and experience uncommon success.LE
Jim Burkett is president of Corporate Turnaround Consultingand author of The Learned Disciplines of Management, How toMake The Right Things Happen. Email [email protected].
ACTION: Practice these seven learned disciplines.
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e J u l y 2 0 1 2 1 9
changing your tone and inflection. Youthus engage the audience to follow youalong the ups and downs of your state-ment and story. We’ve all heard speak-ers say, “This is exciting news.” Charis-matic leaders don’t describe the emo-tion, the inflection and tone of their voicesays it all. The best way to do this is tochange your facial expression when speak-ing at that moment. If you are excited,your facial expression should be thatof someone who is excited and happy.
AArreeaa 22:: BBrraannddiinnggWhen I see a green Starbucks label
on the white cup, I know I am receiv-ing a quality cup of coffee.By developing a physicalbrand that is consistent,you become more recogniz-able and more charismatic inthe eyes of the listener.
1. Be consistent in yourattire and appearance. Thefirst step in branding is tomatch your attire andappearance to that of yourtarget audience. If you areDonald Trump, you are wearing themost expensive suit and are proud tohave a unique hairstyle. Steve Jobswore a black turtleneck with bluejeans. Develop a look that is consistentand easily recognizable by those whodo and do not know you.
2. Maintain a healthy lifestyle. Notall charismatic leaders are fit/healthy;however, the top ones appear to lead ahealthy lifestyle. You need not be a fit-ness machine (except in certain indus-tries). The goal is branding yourself,and by staying in a similar shape dur-ing your career; your brand will stayintact and consistent over time.
3. Create an image of being largerthan life and aura of confidence. Whenyou speak in a group, do you put yourhands in your pocket or cross your legs?These physical changes make you looksmaller and weaker in the eyes of youraudience. To become larger than life,stand on a stage above or below youraudience. When in the room withemployees or guests, stand tall withgood posture, maintain eye contact,and use small hand gestures. This mayinclude a small clap after hearing afunny story, or a strong handshake.
Charismatic Leaders
AT SOME POINT, YOURlife is altered by a
Charismatic Leader. Thisperson makes you believe anything ispossible. No matter your skill or expe-rience, success is the only option andyou go above and beyond to achievethe goal. Many consider charisma to beessential for leadership. Others believethat charisma is a gift that few possess.In fact, one dictionary uses the wordsmagic and divine in describing charisma.
But what if charisma was not a giftor innate ability, but a skill to be devel-oped and refined as part of a leader’srepertoire. For charisma to be definedas a skill, there must be a step-by-stepprocess to follow to improve charisma.
Charismatic leaders excel in threeareas. By applying the three steps ineach category, you’ll improve yourcharismatic leadership skills.
AArreeaa 11:: AArrttiiccuullaattiioonnA key function of charismatic lead-
ership is to articulate the message.Each word and phrase must createimpact and stick with the listener.
1. Create a powerful statement. At aseminar, you likely retain 5 to 10 per-cent of the speaker’s information. So,you need to ensure your audienceremembers a statement that is uniqueand powerful. Such statements tend tobe outcome focused, targeted at the audi-ence, and short. Jack Welch knew thepower of a strong, short statement.“Be number one or two in your market.”
2. Apply a visual and detailed story.Everyone loves a great story. If youread a book before seeing the story inmovie form, you likely enjoyed thebook more. This is because before themovie, you painted a picture in yourmind. As a charismatic leader, you usestories to paint a picture of the statementin people’s mind. The story can be fromyour life, another person’s experience,or even made up! The story must havea character we care about, a strugglethey overcome, and a successful endthat ties back to the original statement.
3. Use tone and inflection when speak-ing. You have your statement and story,now put emotion into each word by
AArreeaa 33:: AAffffeeccttiioonnBeing a charismatic leader is devel-
oping respect and admiration fromeveryone, whether they agree or dis-agree with your position. To improveyour charismatic leadership abilities,you need to strongly believe in yourmessage. As you do, you become morecharismatic in the eyes of your audience.
1. Truly caring about your position.If you plan on selling the impossible,you first must ask if you truly and deeplycare about your position. Whether youare religious, spiritual, or ethical, youmust make a decision that is 100 per-cent devoted to the message you’ll preach.Most likely, you are already instilledwith a value system that will help youmake these decisions. When we thinkof charismatic leaders, we often think ofpriests/pastors. One reason they arecharismatic is because they dedicatetheir lives to their religious beliefs.When you truly care about your posi-
tion, your words becomegenuine, which makesyour message believable.
2. Truly caring aboutmaking a difference. Next,desire to make a difference.Many of us believe in thevalue of community ser-vice, yet, not everyone isan active member. Onceyou have a strong position,asking three questions will
help you determine if you care aboutmaking a difference. Are you willing togive up your valuable time? Are you will-ing to sacrifice other areas of your life toachieve success? Are you confident yourtime will produce positive results? Thestronger you answer yes to these threequestions; you not only become believ-able, but genuine.
3. Truly caring about others’ perspec-tive. With a believable position and gen-uine decision to make a difference, learnto understand and appreciate all per-spectives. By truly caring about others,you ask meaningful questions anddesire to understand their decisions.Whether they fall inline with you ornot, your ability to understand andappreciate others enables you to devel-op connection. Charismatic leadersdon’t force their position on others—they connect so strongly and deeplythat others desire to be on their side.
Practicing the skills of charisma willhelp you harness the power to createchange and make you a better leader. LE
M. Alexander Kuhn is a coach, consultant, and speaker on lead-ership enhancement, peak performance, and personal develop-ment. Visit www.KuhnSolutionsGroup.com or call 434-944-8179.
ACTION: Excel in these three areas of charisma.
by M. Alexander Kuhn
2 0 J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m
LEADERSHIP CHARISMA
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