Tom Peters’ Leadership2002: Leading in Totally Screwed Up Times Omnicom

The Context.

“There will be more confusion in the business world in the next decade than in any decade in history. And the current pace of change will only accelerate.” Steve Case

The Leadership 50

The Basic Premise.

1. Leadership Is a … Mutual Discovery Process.

Leaders-Teachers Do Not “Transform People”! Instead leaders-mentors-teachers (1) provide a context which is marked by (2) access to a luxuriant portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which (3) allow people to fully (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they” don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an extensive self-constructed network) by which those people (5) go to-create places they (and their mentors-teachers- leaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the leaders-mentors-teachers (6) applaud like hell, stage “photo-ops,” and ring the church bells 100 times to commemorate the bravery of their “followers’ ” explorations!

1A. Leaders … Cede Control.

“I don’t know.”

“The leader who says ‘I don’t know’ essentially says that the group is facing a new ballgame where the old tools of logic may be its undoing rather than its salvation. To drop these tools is not to give up on finding a workable answer. It is only to give up on one means of answering that is ill-suited to the unstable, the unknowable, the unpredictable. To drop the heavy tools of rationality is to gain access to lightness in the form of intuitions, feelings, stories, experience, active listening, shared humanity, awareness in the moment, capability for fascination, awe, novel words and empathy.” - Karl Weick

1B. Leaders Try … Not to Screw Things Up

“ Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists making it difficult for people to get things done.” – P.D.

The Leadership Types.

2. Great Leaders on Snorting Steeds Are Important – but Great Talent Developers (Type I Leadership) are the Bedrock of Organizations that Perform Over the Long Haul.

25/8/53* (*Damn it!)

Whoops: Jack didn’t have a vision!

2A. “Just One”: Great Leading = Great Mentoring.

T.A.: 3

2B. Great Leaders are … Great V.C.s.

“Basically [Omnicom’s John] Wren makes aggressive bets on entrepreneurs and gives them tremendous autonomy, on the assumption that the risk-taking will pay off in new ideas, connections, businesses, and, yes, revenues and profits. … ‘Omnicom operates like a venture-capital firm,’ says Sir Martin Sorrell [of WPP].” Fortune ( )

3. But Then Again, There Are Times When This “Cult of Personality” (Type II Leadership) Stuff Actually Works!

“A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon (+TP’s writing room pics)

4. Find the “Businesspeople”! (Type III Leadership)

I.P.M. (Inspired Profit Mechanic)

4A. All Organizations Need the Golden Leadership Triangle.

The Golden Leadership Triangle: (1) Creator- Visionary … (2) Talent Fanatic-Mentor-V.C. … (3) Inspired Profit Mechanic.

Project Team Golden Triangle (1) Champion-Maniac. (2) Implementer-Pol. (3) Schedule & Budgets Fanatic.

5. Leadership Mantra #1: IT ALL DEPENDS!

Renaissance Men are … a snare, a myth, a delusion!

6. The Leader Is Rarely/Never the Best Performer.

33 Division Titles. 26 League Pennants. 14 World Series: Earl Weaver—0. Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0. Walter Alston—1AB. Tony LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games. Sparky Anderson—1 season.

The Leadership Dance.

7. Leaders … SHOW UP!

P.S. … Mark McCormack: 5,000 miles for a 5 min. meeting !

7A. Leaders … LOVE the MESS!

“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti

7B. Leadership Is Improv!

Duct Tape Rules! “Andrew Higgins, who built landing craft in WWII, refused to hire graduates of engineering schools. He believed that they only teach you what you can’t do in engineering school. He started off with 20 employees, and by the middle of the war had 30,000 working for him. He turned out 20,000 landing craft. D.D. Eisenhower told me, ‘Andrew Higgins won the war for us. He did it without engineers.’ ” Stephen Ambrose/Fast Company

8. Leaders Groove on AMBIGUITY!

“Most of our predictions are based on very linear thinking. That’s why they will most likely be wrong.” Vinod Khosla, in “GIGATRENDS,” Wired 04.01

9. Leaders DO!

The Kotler Doctrine: : R.A.F. (Ready.Aim.Fire.) : R.F.A. (Ready.Fire!Aim.) 1995-????: F.F.F. (Fire!Fire!Fire!)

9A. Leaders Re -do.

“If Microsoft is good at anything, it’s avoiding the trap of worrying about criticism. Microsoft fails constantly. They’re eviscerated in public for lousy products. Yet they persist, through version after version, until they get something good enough. Then they leverage the power they’ve gained in other markets to enforce their standard.” Seth Godin, Zooming

He who has the quickest O.O.D.A. Loops * wins! *Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. / Col. John Boyd

9B. Leaders Are PLAYFUL.

“You can’t be a serious innovator unless and until you are ready, willing and able to seriously play. ‘Serious play’ is not an oxymoron; it is the essence of innovation.” Michael Schrage, Serious Play

Axiom: Never trust a “boss” with no toys in his/her office!

10. BUT … Leaders Know When to Wait.

Tex Schramm: The “too hard” box!

Axioms: (1) Pick your battles carefully. (2) Sometimes inaction promotes sorting out & preserves options.

11. Leaders … DELIVER!

11A. Leaders KNOW They Can Make a Difference!

“Leaders don’t ‘want to’ win. Leaders ‘need to’ win.” #49

11B. Leaders Are … Optimists.

Hackneyed but none the less true: LEADERS SEE CUPS AS “HALF FULL.”

Half-full Cups: “[Ronald Reagan] radiated an almost transcendent happiness.” Lou Cannon, George ( )

12. BUT … Leaders Are Realists/Leaders Win Through LOGISTICS!

The “Gus Imperative”!

13. Leaders FOCUS!

“To Don’t ” List

14. Leaders … Set CLEAR DESIGN SPECS.

JackWorld/ : (1) Neutron Jack. (Banish bureaucracy.) (2) “1, 2 or out” Jack. (Lead or leave.) (3) “Workout” Jack. (Empowerment, GE style.) (4) 6-Sigma Jack. (5) Internet Jack. (Throughout) TALENT JACK!

Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic Initiative Overload)

15. Leaders … Send V-E-R-Y Clear Signals About Design Specs!

Ridin’ with Roger: “What have you done to DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE quality in the last 90 days?”

It’s Relationships, Stupid.

16. Leaders Trust in TRUST !

Credibility !

16A. Leaders Infuse the Dreaded-All Important “Evaluation Process” with CREDIBILITY!

25 = 100

17. Leaders … Understand the Ultimate Power of RELATIONSHIPS.

“Women speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy, and men speak and hear a language of status and independence. Men communicate to obtain information, establish their status, and show independence. Women communicate to create relationships, encourage interaction, and exchange feelings.” Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret

17A. Leaders Wire the Joint!

Winners wire. Losers are slaves to rank.

“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more things at once? Who puts more effort into their appearance? Who usually takes care of the details? Who finds it easier to meet new people? Who asks more questions in a conversation? Who is a better listener? Who has more interest in communication skills? Who is more inclined to get involved? Who encourages harmony and agreement? Who has better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to do’ list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s events? Who is better at keeping in touch with others?” Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful Reasons Why Women Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy & Susan Kane-Benson

18. Leaders Know … Women Roar/ Women Rule.

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure” Title, Special Report, Business Week,

Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret

(17A. Oh Yeah … and Women Buy All the Stuff)

$4.8T > Japan 9M/27.5M/$3.6T > Germany

If It Ain’t Broke … Break It.

19. Leaders … FORGET!/ Leaders … DESTROY!

Forget>“Learn” “The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.” Dee Hock

Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the Class of ’17 were alive in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the market 1917 to S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market

“Good management was the most powerful reason [leading firms] failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms listened to their customers, invested aggressively in technologies that would provide their customers more and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and systematically allocated investment capital to innovations that promised the best returns, they lost their positions of leadership.” Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma

Cortez!

Leaders “dump the ones who brung ’em” — Nokia, HP, 3M, PerkinElmer, Corning, etc.

The [New] G e Way DYB.com

20. BUT … Leaders Have to Deliver, So They Worry About “Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater.”

“Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, Just Plain Damned.” Subtitle in the chapter, “Own Up to the Great Paradox: Success Is the Product of Deep Grooves/ Deep Grooves Destroy Adaptivity,” Liberation Management (1992)

21. Leaders … HONOR THE USURPERS.

Saviors-in-Waiting Disgruntled Customers Upstart Competitors Rogue Employees Fringe Suppliers Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision

CUSTOMERS: “Future- defining customers may account for only 2% to 3% of your total, but they represent a crucial window on the future.” Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants

COMPETITORS: “The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot.” Mark Twain

Employees: “Are there enough weird people in the lab these days?” V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)

Suppliers: There is an ominous downside to strategic supplier relationships. An SSR supplier is not likely to function as any more than a mirror to your organization. Fringe suppliers that offer innovative business practices need not apply.” Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

22. Leaders … HANG OUT WITH FREAKS!

The Cracked Ones Let in the Light “Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.” David Ogilvy

Axiom: Never hire anyone without an aberration in their background!

Leaders know … WE BECOME WHO WE HANG WITH!

23. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes – and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!

Sam’s Secret #1!

Read This! Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes: Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation

24. Leaders Make … BIG MISTAKES!

“Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.” Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)

24A. Leaders Honor Mistakes & Create “Blame-free ‘Cultures.’ ”

Accountability: YES! Never-ending witch hunts: NO!

Create.

25. Leaders Know that THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN “LINE EXTENSIONS.” Leaders Love to CREATE NEW MARKETS.

No one ever made it into the Business Hall of Fame on a record of “line extensions.”

“Acquisitions are about buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets. There is a big difference.” Peter Job, CEO, Reuters

The Top Creators of Shareholder Value Accept depressed earnings for several quarters to support hot product Expense rather than capitalize new venture costs Bonuses without caps Source: Fortune ( )

26. Leaders Pursue DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE!

1 st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.” Source #1: Personal Passion) 2 ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand & Deliver!) 3 RD Law: DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (Execs Don’t Get It: “intent to purchase” – 100%; “unique” – 0% to 5%) Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. Michelangelo

27. Leaders Push Their Organizations W-a-y Up the Value-added/ Intellectual Capital Chain

The Big Day!

: HP bids $18,000,000,000 for PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting business!

“These days, building the best server isn’t enough. That’s the price of entry.” Ann Livermore, Hewlett-Packard

HP … Sun … GE … IBM … UPS … UTC … General Mills … Springs … Anheuser-Busch … Carpet One … Delphi … Etc. … Etc.

“We want to be the air traffic controllers of electrons.” Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

“Customer Satisfaction” to “Customer Success” “We’re getting better at [Six Sigma] every day. But we really need to think about the customer’s profitability. Are customers’ bottom lines really benefiting from what we provide them?” Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

Keep In Mind: Customer Satisfaction versus Customer Success

Omnicom: 57% (of $6B) from marketing services

Who was the number one employer of architecture school grads in the U.S. last year?

The Pursuit of … Whatever: Accenture to “do” AT&T’s sales & customer service … for $2.6B/5 years … savings to AT&T of 50%. Accenture to “do” Avaya’s corporate learning & training. Source: BW ( )

“VISIONS OF A BRAND-NAME OFFICE EMPIRE. Sam Zell is not a man plagued by self doubt. Mr. Zell controls public companies that own nearly 700 office buildings in the United States. … Now Mr. Zell says he will transform the real estate market by turning those REITs into national brands. … Mr. Zell believes [clients] will start to view those offices as something more than a commodity chosen chiefly by price and location.” –New York Times ( )

28. Leaders LOVE the New Technology!

100 square feet

“There’s no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Lewis Carroll

I’net … … allows you to dream dreams you could never have dreamed before!

28A. Needed? Type IV Leadership: Technology Dreamer-True Believer

The Golden Leadership Quadrangle: (1) Creator- Visionary … (2) Talent Fanatic-Mentor-V.C. … (3) Inspired Profit Mechanic. (4) Technology Dreamer-True Believer

Talent.

29. When It Comes to TALENT … Leaders Always Swing for the Fences!

Message: Some people are better than other people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other people.

30. Leaders Don’t Create “Followers”: THEY CREATE LEADERS!

Brand You, Big Time! I AM AN ARMY OF ONE

31. Leaders “Win Followers Over”

WHAT AN IDIOT: “Instead of employees being in the driver’s seat, now we’re in the driver’s seat.”

PJ: “Coaching is winning players over.”

32. Leaders “Manage” Their EVP/ Internal Brand Promise.

MantraM3 Talent = Brand

EVP = Challenge, professional growth, respect, satisfaction, opportunity, reward Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent

33. Leaders LOVE RAINBOWS – for Pragmatic Reasons.

“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century. Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth and empowers nations.” G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge

Passion.

34. Leaders … Out Their PASSION!

!

G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

35. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!

BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”

36. Leaders Focus on the SOFT STUFF!

“Soft” Is “Hard ” - ISOE

Message: Leadership is all about love! [Passion, Enthusiasms, Appetite for Life, Engagement, Commitment, Great Causes & Determination to Make a Damn Difference, Shared Adventures, Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable Appetite for Change.] [Otherwise, why bother? Just read Dilbert. TP’s final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]

The “Job” of Leading.

37. Leaders Know It’s ALL SALES ALL THE TIME.

TP: If you don’t LOVE SALES … find another life. (Don’t pretend you’re a “leader.”) (See TP’s The Project50.)

37A. Leaders LOVE “POLITICS.”

TP: If you don’t LOVE POLITICS … find another life. (Don’t pretend you’re a “leader.”)

38. But … Leaders Also Break a Lot of China

If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not making a difference!

Characteristics of the “Also rans”* “Minimize risk” “Respect the chain of command” “Support the boss” “Make budget” *Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”

39. Leaders Give … RESPECT!

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.” Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

40. Leaders Say “ Thank You.”

“The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.” William James

40A. Leaders Are … Graceful.

“My favorite word is grace – whether it’s amazing grace, saving grace, grace under fire, Grace Kelly. How we live contributes to beauty – whether it’s how we treat other people or the environment.” Celeste Cooper, designer

Rodale’s on “Grace” … elegance … charm … loveliness … poetry in motion … kindliness.. benevolence … benefaction … compassion … beauty

41. Leaders LISTEN!

See Stephen! (Empathetic Listening)

41A. Leaders Are … Curious.

TP/ : The Three Most Important Letters … WHY?

42. Leadership Is a … Performance.

“It is necessary for the President to be the nation’s No. 1 actor.” FDR

43. Leaders … Are The Brand

“WHO ARE YOU [these days] ?” TP to Client

“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place more value on the one human ability that cannot be automated: emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual - the language of emotion - will affect everything from our purchasing decisions to how we work with others. Companies will thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will need to understand that their products are less important than their stories.” Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

The BRAND lives (OR DIES) in the “minutiae” of the leader’s moment- to-moment actions.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi

44. Leaders … Have a GREAT STORY!

“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective communication of a story.” Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

“Early in my career in the law I learned that … he who has the best story wins.” JQ Adams/A Hopkins to T Joadson/M Freeman

“Stories of identity – narratives that help individuals think about and feel who they are, where they come from, and where they are headed – constitute the single most powerful weapon in the leader’s arsenal.” Howard Gardner, Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

Leaders don’t just make products and make decisions. Leaders make meaning. – John Seeley Brown

45. Leaders Seed & Pursue & Recognize (Weird) “Demos.”

Demos! Heroes! Stories!

Each VP a V.C.: Portfolio of high-risk investments in people & ideas from all across the company.

Introspection.

46. Leaders … Enjoy Leading.

Warren’s “Whoops Moment” …

“Warren, I know you want to ‘be’ president. But do you want to ‘do’ president?”

46A. Leaders … KNOW THEMSELVES.

Individuals (would-be leaders) cannot engage in a liberating mutual discovery process unless they are comfortable with their own skin. (“Leaders” who are not comfortable with themselves become petty control freaks.)

46B. But … Leaders have MENTORS.

The Gospel According to TP: Upon having the Leadership Mantle placed upon thine head, thou shalt never hear the unvarnished truth again!* (*Therefore, thy needs one faithful compatriot to lay it on with no jelly.)

47. Leaders LAUGH!

47A. But … Leaders Know “It’s My Fault.”

You recruited ’em. You hired ’em. You trained ’em. You evaluated ’em. You “motivated” ’em.

48. Leaders … Take Breaks.

Zombie! Zombie!

The End Game.

49. Leaders ??? :

“Leadership is the PROCESS of ENGAGING PEOPLE in CREATING a LEGACY of EXCELLENCE.”

“ ‘It’s only business, not personal’ … IT ALWAYS IS PERSONAL.”

“Hire smart – go bonkers – have grace – make mistakes – love technology – start all over again.”

“LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR ON ROLLER BLADES”

50. Leaders Know WHEN TO LEAVE!

Tom Peters’ Leadership2002 Leading in Totally Screwed Up Times