We Share Ideas Chief Executive Boards International

We Share Ideas

Chief Executive Boards International

We Share Ideas

Leaders:Strategies for Taking Charge

by

Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus

We Share Ideas

I. Six Important Considerations Concerning Leadership

A. Leadership is about character

1. Most leaders who are derailed are derailed by lack of good judgment or poor

character and not by poor technical knowledge, poor people skills or poor track record

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B. Leaders must be instrumental in creating a social architecture capable of generating intellectual capital

1. Organizations, especially today, are about ideas, innovation, imagination, creativity — intellectual capital

2. Leaders need to create structure that releases brain power

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C. Leaders have a strong determination to achieve a goal or realize a vision

1. The purpose has to communicate meaning and relevance to the followers — or else it is meaningless

D. The capacity to generate and sustain trust is the central ingredient in leadership

1. Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose

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E. Leaders have an uncanny way of enrolling people in their vision through their optimism

1. They believe they can change the world

2. Leaders are “dealers in hope”: Confucius

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F. Leaders have a bias towards action that results in success

1. Leaders translate vision and purpose into reality

2. “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” Wayne Gretzky

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II. The Context of Leadership Today

A. Commitment1. The challenge of commitment

a. Fewer than 1 out of every 4 job holders say they are working at full potential

b. One half say they do not put effort into their job over and above what is required to hold their job

c. 75 percent say they could be significantly more effective than they are

d. 6 out of 10 Americans say they do not work as hard as they used to

2. Leaders have failed to inspire workers through empowerment

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II. The Context of Leadership Today

B. Complexity

1. The problems of organizations are increasingly

complex

C. Credibility

1. The credibility of leaders is being challenged

more and more

a. “Impeach someone” bumper sticker

b. “Don’t vote. It will only encourage them.”

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III. New Paradigms Are ArisingA. 10 “mega trends” according to John Naisbitt

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Industrial society

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Industrial society Information society

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Forced technology

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Forced technology High tech/High touch

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National economy

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National economy Global economy

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Short term

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Short term Long term

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Centralization

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Centralization Decentralization

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Institutional help

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Institutional help Self-help

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Representative democracy

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Representative democracy Participatory democracy

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Hierarchies

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Hierarchies Networking

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North

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North South

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North South

Either/or

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North South

Either/or Multiple options

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IV. Management vs. LeadershipA. Management

1. To bring about

2. To accomplish

3. To have charge of or responsibility for

4. To conduct

B. Leadership

1. Influencing

2. Guiding in direction, course, action, opinion

C. Managers are people who do things right -- Leaders are people who do the right thing

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V. Wall Street Journal Ad by United Technologies Corporation

A. People don’t want to be managed,

they want to be led

B. Whoever heard of a world manager?

World leader, yes

C. If you want to manage someone, manage yourself

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VI. Study of 90 Successful Leaders in Private and Government SectorsA. A wide variety of leaders

1. Some right-brained and some left brained

2. Some tall, some short

3. Some fat, some thin

4. Some articulate, some inarticulate

5. Some assertive, some retiring

6. Some dressed for success, some dressed for failure

7. Some participative, some autocratic

a. One said he believed in “participative fascism”

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VII. Four Areas of Competency That All Those Leaders Who Were

Studied Exhibited

A. Strategy I: Attention through vision1. All 90 leaders who were interviewed had a

highly focused agenda a. They had a clear vision and were able to communicate that vision b. They could convince their followers that

the goal and vision were attainable2. Leadership is a transaction -- a transaction

between leaders and followers a. Neither could exist without the other

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Studied Exhibited

B. Strategy II: Meaning through communication1. The management of meaning, mastery of

communication, is inseparable from effective leadership

2. Leaders communicate “know why” rather than “know how”

C. Strategy III: Trust through positioning1. Trust implies accountability, predictability and

reliability2. Leaders are relentless in their quest of their vision

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Studied Exhibited

3. Leaders are persistent -- Calvin Coolidge said:• Nothing in the world can take the place of

persistence• Talent will not; nothing is more common than

unsuccessful men with great talent• Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost

a proverb• Education will not; the world is full of

educated derelicts• Persistence, determination alone are

omnipotent

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Studied Exhibited

4. Positioning is the set of actions necessary to implement the vision of the leader

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Studied ExhibitedD. Strategy IV: The deployment of self

through positive self-regard1. Recognizing strengths and compensating for weaknesses is the first step in achieving

positive self-regard

a. Leaders usually know what they are good at from an early age

2. The second element in positive self-regard is the nurturing of skills with discipline

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Studied Exhibited

3. The third element in positive self-regard is the fit between personal strengths and

organizational requirements

a. Leaders know when there is no fit

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VIII. Leaders Have Emotional Wisdom

1. The ability to accept people as they are, not as you would like them to be

2. The capacity to approach relationships and problems in terms of the present rather than the past

3. The ability to treat those who are close to you with the same courteous attention that you extend to strangers and casual acquaintances

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VIII. Leaders Have Emotional Wisdom

4. The ability to trust others, even if the risk seems great

5. The ability to do without constant approval and recognition from others

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IX. Leaders Don’t Fear Failure

A. They use synonyms such as mistake, glitch, false start, setback and error

1. Leaders welcome mistakes as learning opportunities

2. “Whenever I make a bum decision, I just go out and make another one.”

B. The only time Karl Wallenda feared falling from the high wire, he fell to his death1. His goal that day was not to walk the wire, but rather to not fall

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IX. Leaders Don’t Fear Failure

C. When Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, was asked if he was going to fire an executive who had just lost $10 million on a project, he said: “You can’t be serious. We’ve just spent $10 million educating him.”

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X. Empowerment

A. Empowerment does not involve releasing power

B. Empowerment gives followers an opportunity to develop

C. Empowerment gives followers a sense of family and community

D. Empowerment creates a culture of fun

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XI. Focusing Attention: Gaining Attention

A. Vision cannot be established in an organization by edict, or by the exercise of power or coercion

1. It is more an act of persuasion

B. Leaders often communicate vision by using metaphors

1. A chicken in every pot

2. Reach out and touch someone

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XI. Focusing Attention: Gaining Attention

C. Leaders communicate their vision by consistently acting on it and personifying it

D. Followers must feel they see the vision

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Organizational Alignment

Cost

Quality Service

Wal-Mart

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Cost

Quality Service

Target

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Cost

Quality Service

K-Mart

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Question

How effectively and consistently is my organization aligned with my vision?

ORHow could I be more effective and

consistent at defining, articulating and communicating my vision to my

organization?

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XII. Four Strategies Leaders Use to Position Their Organization

A. Reactive

1. Leaders wait for change and react — after the fact

B. Change the internal environment

1. Leaders develop effective forecasting procedures to anticipate change and

then “proact” rather than react

a. The toy industry uses orders received from January to March as forecasts of Christmas sales.

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C. Change the external environment

1. Leaders anticipating change act upon the environment itself to make the change

congenial to their needs.

a. This can be done through advertising, publicity, lobbying efforts, etc.

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D. Establish a new linkage between the external and internal environments

1. This can be done by establishing new linkages through vertical integration, mergers and acquisitions, or innovative systems

design

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XIII. Personal Qualities Needed for Leaders

A. When the 90 leaders interviewed were asked what personal qualities were needed to be a leader they never mentioned charisma, dressing for success or time management. They mentioned :

1. persistence and self-knowledge

2. a willingness to take risks and accept losses

3. commitment, consistency, challenge

4. a desire to learn

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XIV. Myths of Leadership

A. Leadership is a rare skill

1. Everyone has some leadership skills

B. Leaders are born, not made

1. Although it is not easy to learn to be a leader, the skills are learnable

C. Leaders are charismatic

1. Of the 90 leaders studied, few were charismatic

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D. Leadership exists only at the top of an organization

1. More and more large organizations are creating small, relatively autonomous units that require leaders

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Question

Who are my “subordinate leaders?

ANDHow effectively do they lead?

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E. The leader controls, directs, prods, manipulates

1. Leadership is not so much the exercise of power itself as the empowerment of others

2. Leaders teach followers how good they are

a. Pulling vs. Pushing

b. Inspiring vs. Ordering

c. Creating achievable, challenging & inspiring expectations

d. Rewarding progress

e. Enabling people to use their own initiative and experiences

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Organizational Movement

Friction

Push

Friction

Increase “Pull” and reduce Friction by:Inspiring

Rewarding

Enabling

Pull OR

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Organizational Movement

Friction

Push

Friction

Increase “Pull” and reduce Friction by:Inspiring

Rewarding

Enabling

Pull OR

Move in smaller pieces

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Question

How can I increase “Pull”

ORreduce “Friction”

in my organization?

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XV. Likely Model of Twenty-First-Century Leadership

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Few leaders, mainly at the top; many managers

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Leaders at every level, fewer managers

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Leading by Goal-setting; e.g., near-term profits, ROI

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Leading by vision—creating new directions for long-term business growth

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Downsizing, benchmarking for low cost, high quality

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Downsizing, benchmarking for low cost, high quality

Also creating domains of uniqueness, distinctive competencies

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Reactive/adaptive to change

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Anticipative/futures-creative

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Designer of hierarchical organizations

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Designer of flatter, distributed, more collegial organizations; leader as social architect

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Directing and supervising individuals

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Directing and supervising individuals

Empowering and inspiring individuals, but also facilitating teamwork

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Information held by few decision makers

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Information shared with many, both internally and with outside partners

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Leader as boss, controlling processes and behaviors

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Leader as boss, controlling processes and behaviors

Leader as coach, creating learning organizations

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Leader as stabilizer, balancing conflicting demands and maintaining the culture

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Leader as change agent, creating agenda for change, balancing risks and evolving the culture and the technology base

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Leader responsible for developing good managers

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Leader responsible for developing good managers

Leader also responsible for developing future leaders, serving as leader of leaders

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Question

How effectively (and how quickly) are we moving toward a 21st-Century

model of leadership?

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Leaders:Strategies for Taking Charge

by

Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus

Documents

We Share Ideas Chief Executive Boards International