Lesson
1 Being
responsible sometimes means pissing people off. Good leadership involves responsibility
to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your
actions and decisions. It's inevitable if you're honorable. Trying to get everyone
to like you is a sign of mediocrity: You'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll
avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering
differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might
get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying
not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of
their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up
angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization. Lesson
2 The
day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading
them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that
you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. If this were a litmus
test, the majority of CEO's would fail. One, they build so many barriers to upward
communication that the very idea of someone lower in the hierarchy looking up
to the leader for help is ludicrous. Two, the corporate culture they foster often
defines asking for help as weakness or failure, so people cover up their gaps,
and the organization suffers accordingly. Real leaders make themselves accessible
and available. They show concern for the efforts and challenges faced by underlings-even
as they demand high standards. Accordingly, they are more likely to create an
environment where problem analysis replaces blame. Lesson
3 Don't
be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment.
Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death
as soon as they are nicked by the real world. Small companies and startups don't
have the time for analytically detached experts. They don't have the money to
subsidize lofty elites, either. The president answers the phone and drives the
truck when necessary; everyone on the payroll visibly produces and contributes
to bottom-line results or they're history. But as companies get bigger, they often
forget who "brung them to the dance": things like all-hands involvement, egalitarianism,
informality, market intimacy, daring, risk, speed, agility. Policies that emanate
from ivory towers often have an adverse impact on the people out in the field
who are fighting the wars or bringing in the revenues. Real leaders are vigilant
and combative in the face of these trends. Lesson
4 Don't
be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard. Learn from the pros,
observe them, seek them out as mentors and partners. But remember that even the
pros may have leveled out in terms of their learning and skills. Sometimes even
the pros can become complacent and lazy. Leadership does not emerge from blind
obedience to anyone. Xerox's Barry Rand was right on target when he warned his
people that if you have a yes man working for you, one of you is redundant. Good
leadership encourages everyone's evolution. Lesson
5 Never
neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted the leader must
be doubly vigilant. Strategy equals execution. All the great ideas and visions
in the world are worthless if they can't be implemented rapidly and efficiently.
Good leaders delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to
details, every day. (Think about supreme athletic coaches like Jimmy Johnson,
Pat Riley and Tony La Russa). Bad ones, even those who fancy themselves as progressive
"visionaries" think they're somehow "above" operational details. Paradoxically,
good leaders understand something else: An obsessive routine in carrying out the
details begets conformity and complacency, which in turn dulls everyone's mind.
That is why even as they pay attention to details, they continually encourage
people to challenge the process. They implicitly understand the sentiment of CEO
leaders like Quad Graphic's Harry Quadracchi, Oticon's Lars Kolind and the late
Bill McGowan of MCI, who all independently asserted that the job of a leader is
not to be the chief organizer, but the chief disorganizer. Lesson
6 You
don't know what you can get away with until you try. You know the expression "it's
easier to get forgiveness than permission?" Well, it's true. Good leaders don't
wait for official blessing to try things out. They're prudent, not reckless. But
they also realize a fact of life in most organizations: If you ask enough people
for permission, you'll inevitably come up against someone who believes his job
is to say "no." So the moral is, don't ask. I'm serious. In my own research with
colleague Linda Mukai, we found that less effective middle managers endorsed the
sentiment, "If I haven't explicitly been told 'yes,' I can't do it," whereas the
good ones believed "If I haven't explicitly been told 'no,' I can." There's a
world of difference between these two points of view. Lesson
7 Keep
looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so (just) because you
might not like what you find. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the slogan
of the complacent, the arrogant or the scared. It's an excuse for inaction, a
call to non-arms. It's a mindset that assumes (or hopes) that today's realities
will continue tomorrow in a tidy, linear and predictable fashion. Pure fantasy.
In this sort of culture, you won't find people who proactively take steps to solve
problems as they emerge. Here's a little tip: Don't invest in these companies.
Lesson
8 Organization
doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories
of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people
involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
In a brain-based economy, your best assets are people. We've heard this expression
so often that it's become trite. But how many leaders really "walk the talk" with
this stuff? Too often, people are assumed to be empty chess pieces to be moved
around by grand viziers, which may explain why so many top managers immerse their
calendar time in deal making, restructuring and the latest management fad. How
many immerse themselves in the goal of creating an environment where the best,
the brightest, the most creative are attracted, retained and most importantly,
unleashed? Lesson
9 Organization
charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing. Organization charts are frozen,
anachronistic photos in a workplace that ought to be as dynamic as the external
environment around you. If people really followed organization charts, companies
would collapse. In well-run organizations, titles are also pretty meaningless.
At best, they advertise some authority an official status conferring the ability
to give orders and induce obedience. But titles mean little in terms of real power,
which is the capacity to influence and inspire. Have you ever noticed that people
will personally commit to certain individuals who on paper (or on the org chart)
possess little authority but instead possess pizzazz, drive, expertise and genuine
caring for teammates and products? On the flip side, nonleaders in management
may be formally anointed with all the perks and frills associated with high positions,
but they have little influence on others, apart from their ability to extract
minimal compliance to minimal standards. |
