Leading in Totally Screwed Up Times: The Leadership 50 Tom Peters/Linkage/01November 2001

All Slides Available at … tompeters.com Note: Lavender text in this file is a link.

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

Uncertainty: We dont know when things will get back to normal. Ambiguity: We no longer know what normal means.

BMcC: (1) Hierarchy vs. Network organization. (2) NWO = Doctrine as center of gravity/source of motivation; distributed support & decision- making;largely self-organizing; outside the military sphere.

Our military structure today is essentially one developed and designed by Napoleon. Admiral Bill Owens, former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

From: Weapon v. Weapon To: Org structure v. Org structure

The Leadership50

1. Leaders Cede Control.

I dont know.

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, mostlycaveat: they dont engage unless theyre 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 existedand 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!

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.

Model 24/7: Sports Franchise GM

P.S.: Jack didnt have a vision!

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

4. Find the Businesspeople! (Type III Leadership)

I.P.M. (Inspired Profit Mechanic)

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 Weaver0. Tom Kelly0. Jim Leyland0. Walter Alston1AB. Tony LaRussa132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy LasordaP, 26 games. Sparky Anderson1 season.

7. Leaders LOVE the MESS!

If things seem under control, youre just not going fast enough. Mario Andretti

8. Leaders DO!

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

9. BUT … Leaders Know When to Wait.

Tex Schramm: The too hard box!

10. Leaders Are Optimists.

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

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

The Gus Imperative!

12. Leaders FOCUS!

To Dont List

13. Leaders Trust in TRUST !

Credibility !

14. 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,

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

Boys are trained in a way that will make them irrelevant. Phil Slater

15. 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

16. 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

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 Innovators Dilemma

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

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Dont, 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)

18. Leaders … HONOR THE USURPERS.

Saviors-in-Waiting Disgruntled Customers Upstart Competitors Rogue Employees Fringe Suppliers Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

19. Leaders HANG OUT WITH FREAKS!

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

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

Fail faster. Succeed sooner. David Kelley/IDEO

21. Leaders Make BIG MISTAKES!

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

22. Leaders Set 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!

23. 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?

24. Leaders Know that THERES 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

25. Leaders Make Their Mark / Leaders Do Stuff That Matters

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

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

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

[These days, building the best server isnt enough. Thats the price of entry. Ann Livermore, Hewlett-Packard]

27. Leaders LOVE the New Technology!

100 square feet

Inet … … allows you to dream dreams you could never have dreamed before!

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

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

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.

We believe companies can increase their market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve Macadam at Georgia-Pacific changed 20 of his 40 box plant managers to put more talented, higher paid managers in charge. He increased profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2 years. Ed Michaels, War for Talent ( ) Ed Michaels

30. Leaders Win Followers Over

WHAT AN IDIOT: Instead of employees being in the drivers seat, now were in the drivers seat.

PJ: Coaching is winning players over.

31. Leaders Manage Their Internal Brand Promise.

MantraM3 Talent = Brand

32. Leaders Know Its My Fault.

You recruited em. You hired em. You trained em. You evaluated em. You motivated em.

33. 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.)

34. Leaders Out Their PASSION!

Lets make a dent in the universe. Steve Jobs

G.H.: Create a cause, not a business.

35. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!

BZ: I am a … DISPENSER OF ENTHUSIASM!

36. Leaders Know Its ALL SALES ALL THE TIME.

TP: If you dont LOVE SALES … find another life. (Dont pretend youre a leader.)

37. Leaders LOVEPOLITICS.

TP: If you dont LOVE POLITICS … find another life. (Dont pretend youre a leader.)

38. But … Leaders Also Break a Lot of China

If youre not pissing people off, youre 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 Dads 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

41. Leaders … SHOW UP!

Rudy!

42. Leadership Is a Performance. BELIEVE IT.

It is necessary for the President to be the nations No. 1 actor. FDR

43. 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

44. Leaders Seed & Pursue & Recognize (Weird) Demos.

L.B.I.W.D. (Leading By Inducing Weird Demos)

Leaders aimed on changing their world identify palpable heroes, who executed palpable projects they point to these people and say to the masses, See, here it is, done by one of your own. (And then they deep-dip a few of those heroes to demo their seriousness.)

45. Leaders Focus on the SOFT STUFF!

Soft Is Hard

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. TPs final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]

46. Leaders … SERVE.

Robert Greenleaf: Servant Leadership

47. 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.)

48. Leaders Are Graceful.

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

Rodales on Grace … elegance … charm … loveliness … poetry in motion … kindliness.. benevolence … benefaction … compassion … beauty

49. Leaders ??? :

LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR ON ROLLER BLADES

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

50. Leaders Know WHEN TO LEAVE!