Tom Peters’ Leadership2002
Leading in
Totally ScrewedUp Times
Washington Speakers
Bureau/05.14.2002
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
“We are in a
brawl with no
rules.”—Paul Allaire
The
45
Leadership
(45 ideas in 45 minutes)
The Basic
Premise.
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual
Discovery
Process.
“I don’t
know.”
1A.
Not
to Screw
Things Up
Leaders Try …
“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!
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)
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!
7A. Leaders …
LOVE the
MESS!
“I’m not comfortable
unless I’m
uncomfortable.”—Jay Chiat
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just not
going
fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
8. Leaders
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!)
9. BUT … Leaders
Know When to
Wait.
Tex Schramm:
The
“too hard”
box!
10. Leaders Are …
Optimists.
“[Ronald
Reagan] radiated an
almost transcendent
happiness.”
Half-full Cups:
Lou Cannon, George (08.2000)
11. BUT …
Leaders Are
Realists/Leaders
Win Through
LOGISTICS!
The “Gus
Imperative”!
12. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To
Don’t ”
List
13. Leaders …
Set CLEAR
DESIGN SPECS.
Danger:
S.I.O.
(Strategic
Initiative Overload)
1@T: (1) Neutron
JackWorld/
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!
13A. 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.
14. Leaders …
Understand the
Ultimate Power of
RELATIONSHIPS.
14A. 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
If It Ain’t Broke
… Break It.
15. 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.
Jim & Tom.
Joined at the
hip.
Not.
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)
Axiom (Hypothesis): We have
been screwed by Benchmarking
… Best Practice … C.I./Kaizen.
Axiom (Hypothesis): We need
Masters of Discontinuity/
Masters of Ambiguity … in
discontinuous/ambiguous
times.
17. Leaders …
HONOR THE
USURPERS.
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Upstart Competitors
Rogue Employees
Fringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision
CUSTOMERS: “Futuredefining customers may
account for only 2% to 3%
of your total, but they
represent a crucial
window on the future.”
Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants
17A. 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
Employees: “Are there
enough weird
people in the lab these
days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)
“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
18. Leaders Make
[Lotsa] Mistakes
– and MAKE NO
BONES ABOUT IT!
Sam’s
Secret #1!
“Fail faster.
Succeed
sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
Read This!
Whoever
Makes the Most
Mistakes Wins: The
Paradox of Innovation
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes:
19. Leaders Make …
BIG MISTAKES!
“Reward
excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)
Create.
20. 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
21. 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 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
21A. Leaders … Make
Their Mark /
Leaders … Do Stuff
That Matters
“I never, ever thought of myself
I was
interested in creating
things I would be
proud of.” —Richard Branson
as a businessman.
22. Leaders Push Their
W-a-y Up the
Value-added/
Intellectual Capital
Chain
Organizations
The
Day!
09.11.2000: 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
“We want to be the
air traffic
controllers of
electrons.”
Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems
Systems
Integrator of
choice. Global Services:
Gerstner’s IBM:
$35B. Pledge/’99: Business
Partner Charter. 72 strategic partners,
aim for 200. Drop many in-house
programs/products. (BW/12.01).
“UPS wants to take over the
sweet spot in the endless loop
of goods, information and
capital that all the packages
[it moves] represent.”
ecompany.com/06.01 (E.g., UPS Logistics
manages the logistics of 4.5M Ford vehicles,
from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)
“No longer are we only an
insurance provider. Today,
we also offer our customers the
products and services that help them
achieve their dreams, whether it’s
financial security, buying a car, paying
for home repairs, or even taking a
dream vacation.”—Martin Feinstein, CEO,
Farmers Group
HP. Sun. IBM. GE/PS.
GE/IS. (GE/AE. GE/MD.)
UTC. Farmers. Delphi.
UPS/ FedEx/ Ryder.
Springs. Omnicom. IDEO.
Accenture. Equity Office
Properties. RCI. Etc. Etc.
23. Leaders
LOVE the
New Technology!
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!
…
Talent.
24. 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.
From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW]
to …
“Best Talent in each
industry segment to build
best proprietary
intangibles” [EM]
Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
25. Leaders Don’t
Create “Followers”:
THEY CREATE
LEADERS!
Brand You, Big Time!
I AM AN
ARMY OF
ONE
26. Leaders “Win
Followers Over”
WHAT AN IDIOT: “Instead
of employees being in the driver’s
seat, now we’re in the driver’s
seat.”
“Coaching
is winning
players over.”
PJ:
27. 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.
28. Leaders …
Out Their
PASSION!
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
“They [consumer goods company]
have acquired a bunch of
products, which is what
everyone is doing. But
what’s the point, the
message, the story line,
the Big Idea that makes ‘it’
all hang together?” —Exec,
major consumer goods company
29. Leaders Know:
ENTHUSIASM
BEGETS
ENTHUSIASM!
BZ: “I am a …
Dispenser of
Enthusiasm!”
30. 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.
31.
Leaders Know It’s
ALL SALES ALL
THE TIME.
If you don’t LOVE
SALES … find
another life. (Don’t pretend
TP:
you’re a “leader.”) (See TP’s
The Project50.)
31A. Leaders
LOVE
“POLITICS.”
If you don’t LOVE
POLITICS … find
another life. (Don’t pretend
TP:
you’re a “leader.”)
32.
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”
33. 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
34. Leaders Say
“Thank
You.”
“The two most powerful things
a kind
word and a
thoughtful
gesture.”
in existence:
Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna
Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]
35. Leaders
Are …
Curious.
35A. Leaders
Are … Great
Learners.
The Three Most
Important Letters …
TP/08.2001:
36. Leadership
Is a …
Performance.
“It is necessary for the
President to be the
No. 1
actor.”
nation’s
FDR
37.
Leaders …
Are
The Brand
The BRAND lives (OR
DIES) in the “minutiae”
of the leader’s momentto-moment actions.
“You must be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
38. Leaders …
GREAT
STORY!
Have a
“A key – perhaps the key –
to leadership is
the effective
communication
of a story.”
Howard Gardner
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership
Leaders don’t just make products
and make decisions.
Leaders make
meaning.
—John Seeley Brown
39. Leaders Seed &
Pursue &
Recognize (Weird)
“Demos.”
40. Leaders
Create
BUZZ!
REAL Org Change … The Dynamic
Demo Dance: Demos/ Models/
Heroes/ Stories/ Storytellers
(Props!)/ Chroniclers (Writers, Videographers,
Pamphleteers, Etc.)/ Cheerleaders/
Seekers/ Protectors/ Support
Groups
C.f., Bob Stone, Confessions of an Uncivil Servant
Introspection.
41. Leaders …
Enjoy Leading.
“Warren, I know you
want to ‘be’
president. But do
you want to ‘do’
president?”
42. 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.)
42A. But …
Leaders have
MENTORS.
Upon
having the Leadership
Mantle placed upon thine
head, thou shalt never
hear the unvarnished
truth again!*
The Gospel According to TP:
(*Therefore, thy needs one faithful
compatriot to lay it on with no jelly.)
43. Leaders …
Take Breaks.
Zombie!
Zombie!
Zombie!
Zombie!
The End
Game.
44. Leaders
???:
“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”
45. Leaders Know
WHEN TO
LEAVE!
Tom Peters’ Leadership2002
Leading in
Totally ScrewedUp Times