tom peters’ leadership2002 leading in totally screwed up times v02.21.2002

Tom Peters’ Leadership2002

Leading in Totally Screwed

Up Timesv02.21.2002

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

Uncertainty: We don’t 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.”

From: Weapon v. Weapon

To: Org structure v. Org structure

“Our military structure today is essentially one

developed and designed by Napoleon.”

Admiral Bill Owens, former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

<1000A.D.: paradigm shift: 1000s of years1000: 100 years for paradigm shift

1800s: > prior 900 years1900s: 1st 20 years > 1800s

2000: 10 years for paradigm shift

21st century: 1000X tech change

than 20th century (“the ‘Singularity,’ a merger between humans and computers that is so rapid and profound it

represents a rupture in the fabric of human history”)

Ray Kurzweil

1 day 2001 = Year’s trade in 1949, year’s FEX in 1979, year’s

global calls in 1984.

Source: Charles Handy, The Elephant and the Flea

The

Leadership50

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!

I am inalterably opposed to “organization change,”

“empowerment,” “motivation.” The goal: to awaken the latent talent

already within, by providing opportunities worthy of the

individual’s investment of her or his most precious resources …

time and emotional commitment.

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 of 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

Goal of the Year No. 1*: Find-Develop-Mentor

ONE Extraordinary Person.

*CEO, large financial advisory firm, April 2001

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 (09.17.2001)

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!

Rudy!

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:

1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)

1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)

1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)

9A. Leaders

Re-do.

“Sony Electronics has a well-earned reputation for persistence. The company’s first entry into a

new field often isn’t very good. But,

as it has shown in laptops, Sony will keep trying until it gets

it right.”Business Week (5/01)

“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!

Leaders know when to …

RETREAT.

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

WILLPOWER RULES! (12.12.2001) “In the end the war is not about statistics, deadlines, short

attention spans of 24 hour news cycles. It’s about will, the projection of will, the clear, unambiguous

determination of the president of the United States and the American people to see this through.—DR.

Given our lack of knowledge, LT investments made on the basis of “animal spirits—a spontaneous

urge to action rather than inaction, not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied

by quantitative probabilities.”—JMK.

Texas’ “top ten percenters” GPAs > than those with SATs 200-300 points higher.

“A real superstar is mean in a particular way. He is Michael Jordan or

Cal Ripken, greedy for records and history. Armored and self-contained, his

inner core is a hard knot of physical talent and fierce will. Nothing penetrates that core, and anybody or anything that

gets too close is out of his life.”

Michael Sokolove, “The last Straw”

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 (08.2000)

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@T: (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!

14A. Leaders

Avoid … S.I.O.

Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic

Initiative Overload). Answer:

ONE-AT-A-TIME.

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!

Credibility: GWB/dc/dr/pw

(RR/bc, RN/hak) vs.

BC/ag/sb (JC)

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

17B. Leaders Are

Natural EMPOWERMENT

FREAKS!

17C. 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, 11.20.00

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

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

$4.8T > Japan

9M/27.5M/$3.6T > Germany

18. Leaders … Find & Feed Off

Supporters.

Jill Ker Conway: (1) On-campus renegades. (2) Alumnae: $$$$ to fund

programs that “the culture” wouldn’t

support.

Message JKC: (1) Leaders are Masters of the End Run. (2) Avoid the “Old Culture”—don’t confront

it. (3) You can’t change people, you can’t change “culture.” (4)

Instead you supplant them/surround them—We “select”

(DARWIN RULES!) “carriers” of the “new culture.”

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 1987.

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 1997.

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] Ge 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 CustomersUpstart CompetitorsRogue EmployeesFringe 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!

“I would like to think we could

attract students with green

hair. We will take pink and

blue and orange hair too.”

Shirley Tilghman, Princeton

Yikes: “What worries me is that I can’t see why any ambitious young person would want to

join my company, or stay here for long if they did join. My most important job is to change that

as fast as I can.”—CEO, giant multinational, to Charles Handy

Message: TAKE

SOMEONE NEW & WEIRD TO LUNCH

TODAY OR TOMORROW. [Inundate yourself with weird.]

Leaders know … WE BECOME WHO

WE HANG WITH!

23. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes

– and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!

Sam’s

Secret #1!

“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”

David Kelley/IDEO

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!

Winning By Acknowledging Failures

Wernher Von Braun, the Redstone missile engineer who “confessed” &

the bottle of champagne. Award to the sailor on the Carl Vinson—for

reporting the lost tool. Amy Edmonson & the successful nursing units with the highest reported adverse drug events.

Source: Karl Weick & Kathleen Sutcliffe, Managing the Unexpected

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 productExpense rather than capitalize new venture costs

Bonuses without caps

Source: Fortune (09.17.201)

“The highest performing companies have well-developed systems for killing ideas

their customers don’t want. As a result, these companies find it very difficult to invest adequate resources in disruptive

technologies—lower margin opportunities that their customers don’t want—until they

want them. And by then it’s too late.”

Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma

26. Leaders Pursue

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE!

1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.”

Source #1: Personal Passion)

2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand & Deliver!)

3RD 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 dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo

26A. Leaders … Make Their Mark /

Leaders … Do Stuff That Matters

Ideas > Leadership

“Today the problem is not how to produce more to sell more.

The fundamental question is that of the product’s right to exist. And it is the designer’s right and duty to question the

legitimacy of the product.”

Philippe Starck

NO: “Good gov’t”

YES: EFFECTIVE Gov’t (in altered/ambiguous

times)

“By combining powerful computer technology and other

modern information-based systems we could make a

revitalized, leaner military force that is designed to outsee,

outmaneuver and outfight any foe.” --Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War

27. Leaders Push Their

Organizations W-a-y Up the Value-added/

Intellectual Capital Chain

The Big Day!

09.11.2000: HP bids

$18,000,000,000for

PricewaterhouseCoopersConsulting 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

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 (02.04.2002)

“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 (12.16.2001)

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

33A. Leaders Pursue

Poets!

Gardner’s MI7: Logical-mathematical, Linguistic,

Spatial, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic,

Interpersonal, Intrapersonal.

“Expose yourself to the best things humans

have done, and then try to bring those things

into what you’re doing.”Steve Jobs

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.]

36A. Leaders Know …

“Culture Change” Takes But a Minute. (No Bull!)

What Do I “Do” First?

One Minute Excellence!*

*Thomas Watson

Culture Change is not “Corporate.”Culture Change is not a “Program.”

Culture change does not take “Years.”Culture Change does not start “Today.”

Culture Change starts Right Now!Culture Change

Lives in the Moment!Culture Change is

Entirely in Your Hands!

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”

Joe J. Jones Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2001 1942 – 2001

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME

REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT …

HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

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

“Leaders are living individuals whom employees smell, feel, touch their

presence.”#49

“It is impossible to claim that all good teachers use similar techniques: some lecture nonstop

and others speak very little; some stay close to their material and others loose the imagination; some teach with the carrot and others with the stick. But in every instance, good teachers share one trait: a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work. ‘Dr. A is really there when he teaches.’ ‘Mr. B has such enthusiasm for his subject.’ ‘You can tell

that this is really Prof. C’s life.’ ”

Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

40. Leaders Say

“Thank You.”

“The deepest human

need is the need to be appreciated.”

William James

“The two most powerful things

in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”

Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]

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.

41B. Leaders

Are … Great Learners.

TP/08.2001: 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

MBSA!*

*Managing By Story-ing Around/David Armstrong

Leaders don’t just make products and make decisions.

Leaders make meaning. – John Seeley Brown

45. Leaders Seed & Pursue &

Recognize (Weird) “Demos.”

45A. Leaders

Create BUZZ!

Demos! Heroes! Stories!

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.)

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?”

Thom Mayer: Docs who want to heal the

sick vs. Docs who want to be M.D.s.

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.

47B. Leaders Don’t Scapegoat /

Allow Scapegoating.

“When a plane crashes, they ask, ‘What

happened?’ In medicine they ask: ‘Whose fault was it?’ ”—James Bagian, M.D. &

former astronaut, now working with the VHA.

48. Leaders … Take Breaks.

Zombie!Zombie!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”

Bonus: Boss Talk

Branding: Kevin Roberts: “The great brands have mystery and

sensuality. Apple is the most sensual product since the

vibrator.”/ Tina Brown: “You should be able to throw a magazine on the floor at any page and know

whose magazine it is.”/

The Perils of “Me-too”: Stephen Hardis (Eaton): “Don’t have your

resources trapped in areas that are inherently zero-sum games with a very marginal return.”/ Phil Condit (Boeing): “Just doing what your competitor does

is the biggest opportunity to lose money. Douglas and Lockheed built

tri-jets to the identical specs and beat each other silly.”

Jeff Bezos: “It’s easy to let the in-box side of your life overwhelm

you, so you become a totally reactive person. The only remedy I know is to set aside some fraction

of your time as your own. I use Tuesdays and Thursdays as my proactive days, when I try not to

schedule meetings.”

Jeff Bezos: “I'm often encouraging people to go faster, even if it means a

worse initial product. I want us to start learning. The cost of trying to avoid mistakes is huge in terms of speed.”

Robert Miller (Federal-Mogul), on Turnarounds: (1) Tell the truth.

Play it straight. (2) Make decisions. Don’t study things to

death. (3) Listen to your customers. They are usually more perceptive than you are

about what needs to be done.”

Juergen Schrempp/DaimlerChrysler

“Digital decision making”/ “the danger of the deadly

wish for harmony”

Boss Talk/WSJ

Provide a simple, clear, exciting & energizing focus.Obsess on TALENT.Speed > Perfection. (Clarity, motivation, rapid adjustment.)

Leap > Line extension. (Beware “me-too,” perfecting yesterday.)

Tell the truth.Control your calendar.Get out of the office.Listen to customers face-to-face—at their place.

50. Leaders Know

WHEN TO LEAVE!

Tom Peters’ Leadership2002

Leading in Totally Screwed

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