Tom Peters’
40
Leadership
Leading in Totally
Screwed-Up Times
APTA/Salt Lake/30September2003
“Uncertainty is the only
thing to be sure of. –Anthony Muh,
head of investment in Asia, Citigroup Asset Management
“If you don’t like change,
you’re going to like
irrelevance even less.” —General Eric
Shinseki, Chief of Staff,
U. S. Army
The Basic
Premise.
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual
Discovery
Process.
“I don’t
know.”
2.
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.
3. 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
4. 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)
5. Find the
“Businesspeople”!
(Type III Leadership)
I.P.M.
(Inspired Profit
Mechanic)
6. All Organizations
Need the Golden
Leadership
Triangle.
The Golden Leadership
Triangle: (1) Talent
Fanatic … (2) Visionary
… (3) Inspired Profit
Mechanic.
7. 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.
8. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
9. Leaders …
LOVE the
MESS!
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just not
going
fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
10. 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!)
11. 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
12. BUT … Leaders
Know
When to
Wait.
Tex Schramm:
The
“too hard”
box!
13. Leaders …
DELIVER!
“It is no use saying ‘We
are doing our best.’You
have got to succeed in
doing what is
necessary.” —WSC
14. Leaders Are …
Optimists.
Hackneyed but none the less
LEADERS SEE
CUPS AS “HALF
FULL.”
true:
“[Ronald
Reagan] radiated an
almost transcendent
happiness.”
Half-full Cups:
Lou Cannon, George (08.2000)
15. BUT …
Leaders Are
Realists/Leaders
Win Through
LOGISTICS!
The “Gus
[Pagonis]
Imperative”!
16. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To
Don’t ”
List
Danger:
S.I.O.
(Strategic
Initiative Overload)
It’s
Relationships,
Stupid.
17. Leaders
Trust in
TRUST!
Credibility
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, 11.20.00
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
20. Leaders …
HONOR THE
USURPERS.
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Upstart Competitors
Rogue Employees
Fringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision
21. Leaders Make
[Lotsa] Mistakes
– and MAKE NO
BONES ABOUT IT!
Sam’s
Secret #1!
22. Leaders Make …
BIG MISTAKES!
“Reward
excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)
Create.
23. 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.
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
Trends.
24. Leaders
“Get” the …
Big2 Trends
Trends I:
Women
Roar.
?????????
Home Furnishings … 94%
Vacations … 92% (Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel
equipment)
Houses … 91%
D.I.Y. (“home projects”) … 80%
Consumer Electronics … 51%
Cars … 60% (90%)
All consumer purchases … 83%
Bank Account … 89%
Health Care … 80%
Read This Book …
EVEolution:
The Eight Truths of
Marketing to Women
Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold
EVEolution: Truth No. 1
Connecting Your Female
Consumers to Each
Other Connects Them to
Your Brand
“The ‘Connection Proclivity’ in
women starts early. When asked,
‘How was school today?’ a girl
usually tells her mother every
detail of what happened, while a
boy might grunt, ‘Fine.’ ”
EVEolution
“Women don’t buy
They
join them.”
brands.
EVEolution
Trends II:
Boomer Bonanza/
Godzilla Geezer.
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47%)
“Marketers attempts at reaching
those over 50 have been miserably
No market’s
motivations and needs
are so poorly
understood.” Peter Francese,
unsuccessful.
—
founding publisher, American Demographics
“ ‘Age Power’ will
st
21
rule the
century,
and we are woefully
unprepared.”
Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
New Model.
25. Leaders …
Understand the
Enormity of the White
Collar Revolution.
E.g. …
Jeff Immelt: 75% of “admin, back
room, finance” “digitalized” in
years.
Source: BW (01.28.02)
26. Leaders …
Turn All
Departments into
“PSFs.”
Answer: PSF!
[Professional Service Firm]
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner,
HR [IS, etc.] Inc.
27. Leaders Push Their
W-a-y Up the
Value-added/
Intellectual Capital
Chain
Organizations
“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)
28. Leaders Know that
the “HVA/Solutions
Revolution” rests upon
creating … Awesome
Experiences.
“Experiences are as
distinct from services
as services are from
goods.”
Joseph Pine & James Gilmore, The Experience Economy:
Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage
“Club Med
is more
than just a ‘resort’; it’s a
means of rediscovering
oneself, of inventing an
entirely new ‘me.’ ”
Source: Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption
Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”
“What we sell is the ability for
a 43-year-old accountant to
dress in black leather, ride
through small towns and have
people be afraid of him.”
Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
Experience …
Cirque du Soleil
DO YOU MEASURE UP?*
*If not, why not?
Technology.
29. Leaders
LOVE the
New Technology!
square feet
Talent.
30. 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.
Passion.
31. Leaders Know:
ENTHUSIASM
BEGETS
ENTHUSIASM!
BZ: “I am a …
Dispenser of
Enthusiasm!”
32. Leaders
Focus on the
SOFT STUFF!
“Soft” Is
“Hard”
- ISOE
The “Job” of
Leading.
33.
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.)
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2002
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T
HIM!
LET
34. 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
35. 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]
36.
But … Leaders Also
Break a Lot of
China
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”
“Respect the chain of
command”
“Support the boss”
“Make budget”
*Fortune, article on
“Most Admired Global Corporations”
37.
Leaders …
Are
The Brand
“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
The End
Game.
39. Leaders
???:
“LEADERS NEED TO
BE THE ROCK OF
GIBRALTAR ON
ROLLER BLADES”
40. Leaders Know
WHEN TO
LEAVE!
It is the foremost task—
and responsibility—
of our generation to
re-imagine our
enterprises, private
and public. —from the
Foreword, Re-imagine