Lesson
10 Never
let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your
ego goes with it. Too often, change is stifled by people who cling to familiar
turfs and job descriptions. One reason that even large organizations wither is
that managers won't challenge old, comfortable ways of doing things. But real
leaders understand that, nowadays, every one of our jobs is becoming obsolete.
The proper response is to obsolete our activities before someone else does. Effective
leaders create a climate where peoples worth is determined by their willingness
to learn new skills and grab new responsibilities, thus perpetually reinventing
their jobs. The most important question in performance evaluation becomes not,
"How well did you perform your job since the last time we met?" but, "How much
did you change it?" Lesson
11 Fit
no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates
which approach best accomplishes the team's mission. Flitting from fad to fad
creates team confusion, reduces the leader's credibility and drains organizational
coffers. Blindly following a particular fad generates rigidity in thought and
action. Sometimes speed to market is more important than total quality. Sometimes,
an unapologetic directive is more appropriate than participatory discussion. To
quote Powell, some situations require the leader to hover closely; others require
long, loose leashes. Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in
how they execute them. They understand that management techniques are not magic
mantras but simply tools to be reached for at the right times. Lesson
12
Perpetual
optimism is a force multiplier. The ripple effect of a leader's enthusiasm and
optimism is awesome. So is the impact of cynicism and pessimism. Leaders who whine
and blame engender those same behaviors among their colleagues. I am not talking
about stoically accepting organizational stupidity and performance incompetence
with a "what, me worry?" smile. I am talking about a gung ho attitude that says
"we can change things here, we can achieve awesome goals, we can be the best."
Spare me the grim litany of the "realist"; give me the unrealistic aspirations
of the optimist any day. Lesson 13 Powell's Rules for Picking People: Look for
intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see
around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced
ego and the drive to get things done. How often do our recruitment and hiring
processes tap into these attributes? More often than not, we ignore them in favor
of length of resume, degrees and prior titles. A string of job descriptions a
recruit held yesterday seem to be more important than who one is today, what she
can contribute tomorrow or how well his values mesh with those of the organization.
You can train a bright, willing novice in the fundamentals of your business fairly
readily, but it's a lot harder to train someone to have integrity, judgment, energy,
balance and the drive to get things done. Good leaders stack the deck in their
favor right in the recruitment phase. Lesson
14 (Borrowed
by Powell from Michael Korda): Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers,
who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody
can understand. Effective leaders understand the KISS principle, or Keep It Simple,
Stupid. They articulate vivid, overarching goals and values, which they use to
drive daily behaviors and choices among competing alternatives. Their visions
and priorities are lean and compelling, not cluttered and buzzword-laden. Their
decisions are crisp and clear, not tentative and ambiguous. They convey an unwavering
firmness and consistency in their actions, aligned with the picture of the future
they paint. The result? Clarity of purpose, credibility of leadership, and integrity
in organization. Lesson
15 Part
I: Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success
and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired. Part
II: Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut. Powell's
advice is don't take action if you have only enough information to give you less
than a 40 percent chance of being right, but don't wait until you have enough
facts to be 100 percent sure, because by then it is almost always too late. His
instinct is right: Today, excessive delays in the name of information-gathering
breeds "analysis paralysis." Procrastination in the name of reducing risk actually
increases risk. Lesson
16 The
commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved
otherwise. Too often, the reverse defines corporate culture. This is one of the
main reasons why leaders like Ken Iverson of Nucor Steel, Percy Barnevik of Asea
Brown Boveri, and Richard Branson of Virgin have kept their corporate staffs to
a bare-bones minimum. (And I do mean minimum-how about fewer than 100 central
corporate staffers for global $30 billion plus ABB? Or around 25 and 3 for multi-billion
Nucor and Virgin, respectively?) Shift the power and the financial accountability
to the folks who are bringing in the beans, not the ones who are counting or analyzing
them. Lesson
17 Have
fun in your command. Don't always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you've
earned it: Spend time with your families. Corollary: Surround yourself with people
who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play
hard. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Air and Anita Roddick of The Body Shop would
agree: Seek people who have some balance in their lives, who are fun to hang out
with, who like to laugh (at themselves, too) and who have some non-job priorities
which they approach with the same passion that they do their work. Spare me the
grim workaholic or the pompous pretentious "professional;" I'll help them find
jobs with my competitor. Lesson
18 Command
is lonely. Harry Truman was right. Whether you're a CEO or the temporary head
of a project team, the buck stops here. You can encourage participative management
and bottom-up employee involvement but ultimately, the essence of leadership is
the willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact
on the fate of the organization. I've seen too many non-leaders flinch from this
responsibility. Even as you create an informal, open, collaborative corporate
culture, prepare to be lonely. "Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than
the science of management says is possible." |
