leading in totally screwed up times: 35 in 35 tom peters/07 november 2001
TRANSCRIPT
Leading In Totally Screwed Up Times:
35 in 35Tom Peters/07 November 2001
All Slides Available at …
tompeters.comNote: 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 don’t know when things will get back
to normal.
Ambiguity: We no longer know what “normal”
means.
The
Leadership35
1. Leaders Cede Control.
“I don’t know.”
2. Leadership Is a …
Mutual Discovery Process.
Leaders 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 express
their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous discovery voyage 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!
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.
P.S.: Jack didn’t have a vision!
Model 25/8/53: Sports Franchise GM
4. 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 (05.17.00)
5. Leaders “Manage” The
Internal Brand Promise.
MantraM3
Talent = Brand
6. But … There Are Times When This “Cult of
Personality” (Type II Leadership) Stuff Actually
Works!
“A leader is a
dealer in hope.”
Napoleon
7. Find the “Businesspeople”!
(Type III Leadership)
I.P.M. (Inspired Profit
Mechanic)
8. Leadership Mantra
#1: IT ALL DEPENDS!
Renaissance Men are … a snare, a
myth, a delusion!
9. 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.
10. 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!)
11. BUT … Leaders
Know When to Wait.
Tex Schramm: The “too hard”
box!
12. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To Don’t ” List
13. Leaders
Understand the Ultimate Power of RELATIONSHIPS.
13A. Leaders Are
Natural EMPOWERMENT
FREAKS!
13B. Leaders Know …
Women Roar/ Women Rule.
Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative
leadership style; 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
14. 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
15. Leaders FORGET!/
Leaders DESTROY!
Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the Class of ’17 were
alive in ’87; 18 are in ’87 F100; the 18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the
market by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the market from
1917 to 1987.
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
16. 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)
17. 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)
18. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes
– and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!
Sam’s Secret #1!
19. Leaders Make BIG MISTAKES!
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)
20. 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
21. Leaders Make Their Mark / Leaders Do
Stuff That Matters
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
22. Great Leaders Have …
Great Ideas.
?????/!!!!!
Ideas > “Leadership”
“In an era when terrorists use satellite
phones and encrypted email, US gatekeepers stand armed against them with pencils
and paperwork, and archaic computer systems that don’t
talk to each other.”Boston Globe (09.30.2001)
“Our military structure today is essentially one
developed and designed by Napoleon.”
Admiral Bill Owens, former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
WANTED: GREAT IDEAS!
NO: “Good gov’t”
YES: EFFECTIVE/ RESPONSIVE Gov’t (in
altered/ambiguous times)
23. Leaders
LOVE the New Technology!
100 square feet
I’net …
… allows you to dream dreams
you could never have dreamed
before!
24. Needed? Type IV Leadership: Technology
Dreamer-True Believer
The Golden Leadership Quadrangle: (1) Creator-Visionary … (2) Talent Fanatic … (3) Inspired
Profit Mechanic. (4) Technology Dreamer-
True Believer.
25. Leaders Out Their
PASSION!
!
“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. TP’s final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]
26. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM
BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!
27. 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.”)
28. Leaders
LOVE “POLITICS.”
TP: If you don’t LOVE POLITICS … find
another life. (Don’t pretend
you’re a “leader.”)
29. 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”
30. 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
31. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
Rudy!
32. Leadership Is a
Performance.
“It is necessary for the President to be the
nation’s No. 1 actor.”FDR
33. 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
MBSA!*
*Managing By Storying Around/David Armstrong
34.
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.”
35. Leaders Know
WHEN TO LEAVE!