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Part seven
Extended
Talent &
Leadership
0618.07
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NOTE:
Master
Excellence. Always.
part one (of 7)
“all you need to know”
(dwelling on the obvious)
not your father’s world
introduction to excellence.
18 june 2007
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Master*
Excellence
part two (of 7)
innovate.
Or.
Die.
18 june 2007
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Excellence. Always./
part THREE (of 7)
up, up,
up, up …
the value added ladder
(solutions-experiences-dreams-lovemarks)
18 June 2007
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Excellence. Always./
part FOUR (of 7)
“new” Markets
(Stupendous Opportunity)
18 June 2007
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Excellence. Always.
part FIVE (of 7)
people!
(Brand you. Talent. Health.
Education. Leadership.)
18 june 2007
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Master*
Excellence
part SIX (of 7)
excellence.
summaries.
Lists.
18 june 2007
Slides at …
tompeters.com
Part
seven
NOTE:
The “Talent50”
and the
“Leadership50” are
staples of some of my
presentations; I have
added them to this set
FYI.
Talent
Tom Peters’ X25*
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Talent.
Mauritius/24 May 2007
*In Search of Excellence 1982-2007
People Power:
The Talent50
1. People
First!
Whoops: Jack
didn’t have a
vision!*
*GE = “Talent Machine” (Ed Michaels)
“Omnicom very simply is
about talent. It’s about the
acquisition of talent, providing
the atmosphere so talent is
attracted to it.” —John Wren
< CAPEX
> People!
2. “Soft” Is
“Hard.”
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
3. FUNDAMENTAL
PREMISE: We Are in an
Age of Talent/
Creativity/
Intellectual-capital
Added.
Agriculture Age (farmers)
Industrial Age (factory workers)
Information Age (knowledge workers)
Conceptual Age
(creators and empathizers)
Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind
“Human
creativity is the
ultimate
economic
resource.”
—Richard Florida,
The Rise of the Creative Class
“The
Creative
Age is a wide
open game.”
—Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
“THE FUTURE BELONGS TO …
SMALL POPULATIONS …
WHO BUILD EMPIRES OF THE MIND …
AND WHO IGNORE THE TEMPTATION OF—OR DO NOT
HAVE THE OPTION OF—EXPLOITING NATURAL
RESOURCES.”
Source: Juan Enriquez/As the Future Catches You
4. Talent
“Excellence” in
Every Part of
Every
Organization.
Wegmans:
#1/100
“Best Companies to
Work for”/2005
5. Talent
“Excellence”
Stretches Far
Beyond Our
Borders.
We become
who we hang
out with 1
Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality
Staff
Consultants
Vendors
Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality)
Innovation Alliance Partners
Customers
Competitors (who we “benchmark” against)
Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap)
IS/IT Projects
HQ Location
Lunch Mates
Language
Board
6. P.O.T./
Pursuit Of
Talent =
OBSESSION.
“The leaders of Great
Groups love talent and
know where to find it. They
revel in the talent of
others.”
—Warren Bennis &
Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
7. Talent Masters
Understand
Talent’s
Intangibles.
A Few Lessons from the Arts
Each hired and developed and evaluated in unique ways
(23 contributors = 23 unique contributions = 23 pathways =
23 personalities = 23 sets of motivators)
Attitude/Enthusiasm/Energy paramount
Re-lent-less!
“Practice is cool” (G Leonard/Mastery)
Team and individual
Aspire to EXCELLENCE = Obvious
Ex-e-cu-tion
Talent = Brand = Duh
“The Project” rules
Emotional language
Bit players. No.
B.I.W. (everything)
Delta events = Delta rosters (incl leader/s)
Visibly energetic /Passionate/Enthusiastic … about everything.
Engaging/Inspires others. (Inspires the interviewer!)
Loves messes & pressure.
Impatient/ Action fanatic.
A finisher.
Exhibits: Fat “WOW Project” Portfolio. (Loves to talk about her work.)
Smart.
Curious/ Eclectic interests/A little (or more) weird.
Well-developed sense of humor/ Fun to be around.
******
No. 1 re bosses: Exceptional talent selection & development
record. (Former co-workers: “Did you visibly grow while
working with X?” /“How has the department/team grown
on a ‘world-class’ scale during X’s tenure?”)
8. HR Is
“Cool.”
Chicago:
HRMAC
“support function” /
“cost center” /
“bureaucratic drag”
or …
Are you …
“Rock Stars
of the
Age of
Talent”?
9. HR Sits at
The Head
Table.
“HR doesn’t tend to hire
a lot of independent
thinkers or people who
stand up as moral
compasses.” —Garold Markle,
Shell Offshore HR Exec (FC/08.05)
A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but
two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd:
First: Separating financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on budgeting
leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance measurement is
divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do relative to your past
performance and relative to competitors’ performance; i.e., it’s about how you
actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not as compared to a
gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Putting HR on
a par with finance
and marketing.
Second:
10. Re-name
“HR.”
Talent
Department
“H.R.” to “H.E.D.” ???
Human
Enablement
Department
People Department
Center for Talent Excellence
Seriously Cool People
Who Recruit & Develop
Seriously Cool People
Etc.
11. There Is an
“HR Strategy”/
“HR Vision”
EVP/
IBP?*
What’s your company’s …
*Employee Value Proposition, per Ed Michaels et al.,
The War for Talent; IBP/Internal Brand Promise per TP
EVP/IBP = Remarkable
challenge, rapid professional
growth, respect, satisfaction,
fun, stunning opportunity,
exceptional reward, amazing
peer group, full membership in
Club Adventure, maximized
future employability
Source: Ed Michaels, The War for Talent; TP
12. Acquire
for Talent!
Omnicom's acquisitions: “not for
“buying
talent;” “deepen a
size per se”;
relationship with a client.”
Source: Advertising Age
13. There Is a
FORMAL
Recruitment
Strategy.
“Busy Executives
Fail To Give
Recruiting
Attention It
Deserves”
—Headline, WSJ, 1121.05
C
O*
*Chief talent acquisition Officer
14. There Is a
FORMAL
Leadership
Development
Strategy.
Crotonville!
DD: 0 to 60mph
in a flash (months)
15. There Is a
FORMAL STRATEGIC
HR Review
Process.
“In most companies, the Talent Review Process is a
farce. At GE, Jack Welch and his two top HR people
visit each division for a day. They review the top 20
to 50 people by name. They talk about Talent Pool
The Talent
Review Process is a contact
sport at GE; it has the
intensity and the
importance of the budget
process at most
companies.”—Ed Michaels
strengthening issues.
16. “People”/
Talent” Reviews
Are the FIRST
Reviews.
17. HR Strategy
= BUSINESS
Strategy.
Wegmans: #1/100 Best Companies to Work for
84%: Grocery stores “are all alike”
46%: additional spend if customers have an “emotional connection”
to a grocery store rather than “are satisfied” (Gallup)
“Going to Wegmans is not just shopping, it’s an event.” —Christopher
Hoyt, grocery consultant
“You cannot separate
their strategy as a
retailer from their
strategy as an
employer.”
—Darrell Rigby, Bain & Co.
Cirque
du Soleil!
Talent
(12 full-time scouts,
database of 20,000). R&D
Cirque du Soleil:
(40% of
Controls (shows are profit centers; partners like
Disney offset costs; $100M on $500M). Scarcity builds
buzz/brand (1 new show per year. “People tell me we’re leaving money
profits; 2X avg corp).
on the table by not duplicating our shows. They’re right.” —Daniel Lamarre,
president).
Source: “The Phantasmagoria Factory”/Business 2.0
18. Make it a
“Cause Worth
Signing Up For.”
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
19. Unleash
“Their” Full
Potential!
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company.”
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
“No matter what the situation,
[the great manager’s] first response is
always to think about the
individual concerned and how
things can be arranged to help
that individual experience
success.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“Firms will not ‘manage the careers’
of their employees. They will
provide opportunities to
enable the employee to
develop identity and
adaptability and thus be in
charge of his or her own
career.”
—Tim Hall et al., “The New Protean Career Contract”
20. Set Sky
High
Standards.
“The role of the Director is to create a
space where the actors and
become more
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.”
actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
21. Enlist
Everyone in
Challenge
Century21.
“One of the defining
characteristics [of the
change] is that it will be less
driven by countries or
corporations and more driven
by real people. It will unleash
unprecedented creativity, advancement of
knowledge, and economic development. But
at the same time, it will tend to undermine
safety net systems and penalize the
unskilled.” —Clyde Prestowitz, Three Billion New Capitalists
“If there is nothing
very special about
your work, no matter
how hard you apply yourself
you won’t get noticed, and
that increasingly means you
won’t get paid much either.”
—Michael Goldhaber, Wired
Distinct
…
… or
Extinct
22. Pursue
the Best!
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
Did We Say “Talent Matters”?
“The top software developers are more
productive than average software
developers not by a factor of 10X or
100X, or even 1,000X,
but
10,000X.”
—Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Scientist, Microsoft
23. Up or Out.
“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
—Ed Michaels, War for Talent
2
years.”
24. Ensure that
the Review
Process Has
INTEGRITY.
25 =
100*
* “But what do I do that’s more important than developing
people? I don’t do the damn work. They do.”—GK
25. Pay Up!
“Top performing companies
are two to four times more
likely than the rest to pay
what it takes
prevent losing top
performers.”
to
—Ed Michaels,
War for Talent
Costco
*$17/hour (42% above
Sam’s); very good health
plan; low t/o, low shrinkage
*Low margins (“When I started, Sears, Roebuck
was the Costco of the country, but they allowed
someone to come in under them”—Jim Sinegal)
Source: “How Costco Became the Anti-Wal*Mart/NYT/07.17.05
26. Training I:
Train! Train!
Train!
Divas do it. Violinists do it.
Sprinters do it. Golfers do it.
Pilots do it. Soldiers do it.
Surgeons do it. Cops do it.
Why don’t
businesspeople
do it?
Astronauts do it.
“Knowledge becomes
obsolete incredibly fast. The
continuing professional
education of adults is the
No. 1 industry in the next 30
years … mostly on line.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0
27. Training II:
100% “Business
People.”
New Work SurvivalKit.2007
1. MASTERY! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!)
2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!)
3. A “USP”/UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
4. Rolodex Obsession (From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to
horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty)
5. ENTREPRENEURIAL INSTINCT (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity!
6.CEO/LEADER/BUSINESSPERSON/CLOSER (CEO, Me Inc. 24/7!)
7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from
Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber)
8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On)
9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!)
10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E.g.: How Cool-Active is your
Web site? Do you Blog?)
11. EMBRACE “MARKETING” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer)
12. PASSION FOR RENEWAL (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer)
13. EXECUTION EXCELLENCE! (Show up on time! Leave last!)
28. Training III:
100% LEADERS.
“I start with the premise
that the function of
leadership is to produce
more leaders, not more
followers.”
—Ralph Nader
29. Training IV:
Boss as Trainerin-Chief.
“Workout” =
24
DPY in the Classroom
30. Training V:
The REAL
Bedrock of the
“Talent Thing.”
“My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher
conference and were informed that our budding refrigerator
artist, Christopher, would be receiving a grade of
Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How could any
child—let alone our child—receive a poor grade in art at such
His teacher informed
us that he had refused to color
within the lines, which was a
state requirement for
demonstrating ‘grade-level
motor skills.’ ” —Jordan Ayan, AHA!
a young age?
15 “Leading” Biz Schools
0
Design/Core:
Design/Elective: 1
0
Creativity/Core:
Creativity/Elective: 4
0
Innovation/Core:
Innovation/Elective: 6
Source: DMI/Summer 2002/Research by Thomas Lockwood
31. Wide-open
Communication:
NO BARRIERS.
“The organizations we created have
become tyrants. They have taken
control, holding us fettered, creating
barriers that hinder rather than help our
businesses. The lines that we
drew on our neat organizational
diagrams have turned into walls
that no one can scale or penetrate
or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez &
René Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits
32. 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
He was
seriously interested in
who you were and what
you had to say.”
college president.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“What creates trust,
in the end, is the
leader’s manifest
respect for the
followers.”
— Jim O’Toole, Leading
Change
“Don’t
belittle!”
—OD Consultant
33. Embrace
the Whole
Individual.
34. Build
Places of
“Grace.”
Rodale’s on “Grace” …
elegance … charm …
loveliness … poetry in
motion … kindliness ...
benevolence …
benefaction …
compassion … beauty
The Manager’s Book of Decencies:
How Small gestures Build Great
Companies. —Steve Harrison, Adecco
Servant Leadership
—Robert Greenleaf
One: The Art and Practice of
Conscious Leadership —Lance Secretan,
founder of Manpower, Inc.
“Be kind, for
everyone you meet
is fighting a great
battle.”
—Philo of Alexandria
35. MBWA:
Visible
Leadership!
MBWA*
*5,000 miles for a 5-minute face-to
-face meeting (courtesy superagent Mark McCormick)
36. Thank
You!
“The deepest
human need is
the need to
be appreciated.”
William James
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
37. Promote for
“people skills.”
(THE REST IS
DETAILS.)
“When assessing candidates, the first
thing I looked for was energy and
enthusiasm for execution. Does she
talk about the thrill of getting
things done, the obstacles
overcome, the role her people
played —or does she keep wandering
back to strategy or philosophy?”
Bossidy, Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution
—Larry
38. Honor
Youth.
“Why focus on these late teens and twentysomethings? Because they are the
first young who are both in a
position to change the world, and
are actually doing so. … For the first
time in history, children are more comfortable,
knowledgeable and literate than their parents
about an innovation central to society. … The
Internet has triggered the first industrial
revolution in history to be led by the young.”
The Economist
39. Provide
Early
Leadership
Assignments.
The
WOW!
Project
40. Create a
FORMAL System
of Mentoring.
W. L. Gore
Quad/Graphics
41. Diversity!
CM Prof Richard Florida on “Creative
“You cannot get a
technologically
innovative place … unless
it’s open to weirdness,
eccentricity and
difference.”
Capital”:
Source: New York Times/06.01.2002
“Diverse groups of problem solvers—
groups of people with diverse tools—
consistently outperformed groups of the
best and the brightest. If I formed two
groups, one random (and therefore
diverse) and one consisting of the best
individual performers, the first group
almost always did better. …
Diversity trumped
ability.”
—Scott Page, The Difference: How
the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups,
Firms, Schools, and Societies Diversity
“The
Bottleneck Is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma:
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
42. WOMEN
RULE.
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. —Judy B. Rosener,
America’s Competitive Secret
43. Hire (& Protect!)
Weird!
“Are there
enough weird
people in the lab
these days?”
—V. Chmn., pharmaceutical
house, to a lab director
Why Do I love Freaks?
(1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was
a freak who did it. (Period.)
(2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are
never boring.)
(3) We need freaks. Especially in freaky times. (Hint:
These are freaky times, for you & me & the CIA & the
Army & Avon.)
(4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midst
automatically make us-who-are-not-so-freaky at least
somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good Thing in freaky
times—see immediately above.)
(5) Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in,
make it into the history books.
(6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to
them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most
organizations are in ruts. Make that chasms.)
44. We Are All
Unique.
One
size NEVER fits
all. One size fits
Beware Standardized Evals:
one.
Period.
53 Players =
53 Projects =
53 different
success measures.
45. Capitalize
on Strengths.
“The key difference between
checkers and chess is that in
checkers the pieces all move
the same way, whereas in chess
all the pieces move differently.
… Discover what is unique
about each person and
capitalize on it.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“The mediocre manager believes that most
things are learnable and therefore that the
essence of management is to identify each
person’s weaker areas and eradicate them.
The great manager believes the opposite.
He believes that the most influential
qualities of a person are innate and
therefore that the essence of management
is to deploy these innate qualities as
effectively as possible and so drive
performance.” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing
You Need to Know
46. Bosses “Win
People Over.”
“Coaching
is winning
players over.”
PJ:
47. GOAL: Voyages
of Mutual
Discovery.
Quests!
“The organization would
ultimately win not
because it gave agents
more money, but
because it gave them a
chance for better lives.”
—Everybody Wins, Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan
C
O*
*Chief quest-meister
48. Foster
Independence.
“You must realize that how you invest your human
capital matters as much as how you invest your
financial capital. Its rate of return determines your
future options. Take
a job for what it
teaches you, not for what it pays.
Instead of a potential employer asking,
‘Where do you see yourself in 5 years?’
you’ll ask, ‘If I invest my mental assets
with you for 5 years, how much will they
appreciate? How much will my portfolio
of career options grow?’ ”
Source: Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH
49. En-
thus-iasm!
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander
50. Talent
= Brand.
The Top 5 “Revelations”
Better talent wins.
Talent management is my job as leader.
Talented leaders are looking for the
moon and stars.
Over-deliver on people’s dreams – they
are volunteers.
Pump talent in at all levels, from all
conceivable sources, all the time.
Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent
BRAND =
TALENT.
“I have always believed
that the purpose of the
corporation is to be a
blessing to the
employees.”
—Boyd Clarke
EXCELLE
ALWAYS
THE.END
leadership
version one
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
LEADERSHIP.
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
PURPOSE.
“I never, ever thought
of myself as a
businessman. I was
interested in
creating things I
would be proud
of.”
—Richard Branson
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to
be?’ Not ‘What are we going to
leader always is:
do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
“In 1933, Thomas J. Watson Sr. gave a
speech at the World’s
Fair, ‘World Peace through
We stood
for something,
right?”
World Trade.’
—Sam Palmisano
“People want to be part
of something larger than
themselves. They want to
be part of something
they’re really proud of,
that they’ll fight for,
sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first book?”
“Close your eyes and imagine me
immediately doing something about
what you’ve just said. What would it
be?” “Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a
better place’?”
EXCELLENCE.
THE STORY.
THE MESSAGE.
“To change minds effectively,
leaders make particular use
stories
that they tell and the lives
of two tools: the
that they lead.”
—Howard Gardner,
Changing Minds
Message clarity = CALENDAR +
MBWA + Language + Perceived
INTENSITY/ENTHUSIASM/
ENERGY + Concrete-Visible
support + Prototypes +
Tolerance for Failure/“Good
losses” + Promotions + Tempo +
Resilience + Celebration +
Perceived RELENTLESSNESS +
Training
EXCELLENCE.
BY INVITATION.
“If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM
culture head-on, I probably wouldn’t have. My
bias coming in was toward strategy, analysis and
measurement. In comparison, changing the
attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands
[Yet] I
came to see in my time at
IBM that culture isn’t just
one aspect of the game—
it is the game.” —Lou Gerstner, Who
of people is very, very hard.
Says Elephants Can’t Dance
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management
invites
the workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
EXCELLENCE.
OF SERVICE.
Servant Leadership/Robert Greenleaf
1. Do those served grow as
persons?
2. Do they, while being served,
become healthier wiser, freer,
more autonomous, more likely
themselves to become servants?
EXCELLENCE.
BETTER IS
BETTER.
Hire
up!
Source: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM.
ENERGY.
PASSION.
“Before you can inspire with
emotion, you must be
swamped with it yourself.
Before you can move their
tears, your own must flow. To
convince them, you must
yourself believe.”
—Winston Churchill
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Enthusiasm,
the ultimate
virus.”
“Whenever anything is
being accomplished, I
have learned, it is being
done by a monomaniac
with a mission.”
—Peter Drucker
“Most important,
upped the
energy level at
he
Motorola.”
—Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05
Q: “If it were your $100K
[life’s savings] and my $100K,
what sort of Waiters would
we look for?”
A: “Enthusiasts!”
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM.
ENERGY.
PASSION.
EXUBERANCE.
Ex-uber-ance!
Exuberance: The Passion for Life, by Kay Redfield Jamison+
“I believe exuberance is incomparably more important
than we acknowledge. If, as has been claimed,
enthusiasm finds the opportunities and energy makes
the most of them, a mood of mind that yokes the two of
them is formidable indeed.”
“The Greeks bequeathed to us one of the most
beautiful words in our language—the word
‘enthusiasm’—en theos—a god within. The grandeur of
human actions is measured by the inspiration from
which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within,
and who obeys it.”—Louis Pasteur
“Exuberance is, at its quick, contagious. As it spreads
pell-mell through a group, exuberance excites, it
delights, and it dispels tension. It alerts the group to
change and possibility.”
Exuberance: The Passion for Life, by Kay Redfield Jamison+
“A leader is someone who creates infectious
enthusiasm.”—Ted Turner
“‘Glorious’ was a term [John] Muir would invoke time
and again … despite his conscious attempts to eradicate
it from his writing. ‘Glorious’ and ‘joy’ and
‘exhilaration’: no matter how often he scratched out
these words once he had written them, they sprang
up time and again …”
“To meet Roosevelt, said Churchill, ‘with all his buoyant
sparkle, his iridescence,’ was like ‘opening a bottle of
champagne.’ Churchill, who knew both champagne
and human nature, recognized ebullient leadership
when he saw it.”
Exuberance: The Passion for Life, by Kay Redfield Jamison+
“At a time of weakness and mounting despair in the
democratic world, Roosevelt stood out by his
astonishing appetite for life and by his apparently
complete freedom from fear of the future; as a man who
welcomed the future eagerly as such, and conveyed the
feeling that whatever the times might bring, all would
be grist to his mill, nothing would be too formidable or
crushing to be subdued. He had unheard of energy and
gusto … and was a spontaneous, optimistic, pleasureloving ruler with unparalleled capacity for creating
confidence.”—Isaiah Berlin on FDR
Exuberance: The Passion for Life, by Kay Redfield Jamison+
“Churchill had a very powerful mind, but a romantic
and unquantitative one. If he thought about a course
of action long enough, if he achieved it alone in his
own inner consciousness and desired it passionately,
he convinced himself it must be possible. Then, with
incomparable invention, eloquence and high spirits,
he set out to convince everyone else that it was
not only possible, but the only course of action
open to man.”—C.P. Snow
“We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a
glow-worm.”—Churchill on Churchill
“The multitudes were swept forward till their pace was
the same as his.”—Churchill on T.E. Lawrence
“He brought back a real joy to music.”—Wynton
Marsalis on Louis Armstrong
EXCELLENCE.
RELENTLESSNESS.
RE-LENTLESSNESS
BLOOD-YMIND-EDNESS
Bloodyminded:
Unreasonably
stubborn
Source: The Random House Dictionary of the English Language
“It is no use saying
‘We are doing our
best.’ You have got
to succeed in doing
what is necessary.”
—WSC
"The reasonable man adapts
himself to the world. The
unreasonable one persists in
trying to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore, all
progress depends upon the
unreasonable man.” —GB Shaw,
Man and Superman: The Revolutionists' Handbook.
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is notable
not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless horsemanship and his
determination, but also it is the first known example of a very important
Grant had an
extreme, almost phobic
dislike of turning back
and retracing his steps.
peculiarity of his character:
If he
set out for somewhere, he would get there somehow, whatever the
difficulties that lay in his way. This idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one
the factors that made him such a formidable general. Grant would always,
always press on—turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
First-level Scientific Success
The smartest guy
in the room wins”
Or …
First-level Scientific Success
Fanaticism
Persistence-Dogged Tenacity
Patience (long haul/decades)-Impatience (in a hurry/”do it yesterday”)
Passion
Energy
Relentlessness (Grant-ian)
Enthusiasm
Driven (nuts!)
(Brutal?) Competitiveness
Entrepreneurial
Pragmatic (R.F!A.)
Scrounge (“gets” the logistics-infrastructure bit)
Master of Politics (internal-external)
Tactical Genius
Pursuit of (Oceanic) Excellence!
High EQ/Skillful in Attracting + Keeping Talent/Magnetic
Prolific (“ground up more pig brains”)
Egocentric
Sense of History-Destiny
Futuristic-In the Moment
Mono-dimensional (“Work-life balance”? Ha!)
Exceptionally Intelligent
Exceptionally Clever (methodological shortcuts/methodological genius)
Luck
“Whenever anything is
being accomplished, I
have learned, it is being
done by a monomaniac
with a mission.”
—Peter Drucker
Charles Handy on the “Alchemists”
“Passion was what drove
these people, passion for
their product or their cause.
If you
care enough, you will find out what you need to know.
Or you will experiment and not worry if the experiment
Passion
goes wrong.
as the secret to learning
is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works
passion
at all levels and at all ages. Sadly,
is
not a word often heard in the elephant organizations,
nor in schools, where it can seem disruptive.”
EXCELLENCE.
AGILITY.
“The most
successful people
are those who
are good at plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician, on chaos
theory, in The New Scientist
EXCELLENCE.
SHOWING UP.
MBWA
“You must
be
the change you wish
to see in the world.”
Gandhi
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars NEVER lie!!
5,000
miles for a 5
min. meeting!
Mark McCormack:
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’
‘organizational change
program’ is obvious—
dramatic personal
change!” —RG
Message clarity = CALENDAR +
MBWA + Language + Perceived
INTENSITY/ENTHUSIASM/
ENERGY + Concrete-Visible
support + Prototypes +
Tolerance for Failure/“Good
losses” + Promotions + Tempo +
Resilience + Celebration +
Perceived RELENTLESSNESS +
Training
EXCELLENCE.
STRETCH.
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
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10.
Avoid moderation!
Sir Richard’s Rules:
Follow your passions.
Keep it simple.
Get the best people to help you.
Re-create yourself.
Play.
Source: Fortune on Branson
EXCELLENCE.
KABOOM.
No Wiggle Room!
“Incrementalism
is innovation’s
worst enemy.”
—Nicholas Negroponte
“Beware of the tyranny
of making Small Changes
to Small Things. Rather,
make Big Changes to
Big Things.”
—Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo
Line Extensions:
86 percent of new
products. 62 percent
39
of revenues.
percent of profit.
Source: Blue Ocean Strategy, Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Five
MYTHS About Changing Behavior
*Crisis is a powerful impetus for change
*Change is motivated by fear
*The facts will set us free
*
Small, gradual changes
are always easier to
make and sustain
*We can’t change because our brains become
“hardwired” early in life
Source: Fast Company
EXCELLENCE.
OFFENSE.
“[other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than
anxious to win”
On NELSON:
"Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in one pretty
and well preserved piece, but
to skid across the line
broadside, thoroughly used
up, worn out, leaking oil,
shouting ‘GERONIMO!’ ”
—Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer (Cycle magazine)
You only
find oil if
you drill
wells.
—The Hunters, by John Masters,
Canadian O & G wildcatter
Insanely
great”
Leaders:
gotta
say it!
“No leader sets out to be a
leader per se, but rather
to express him- or
herself freely and fully.
That is, leaders have no
interest in proving
themselves, but an abiding
interest in expressing
themselves.” —Warren Bennis,
On Becoming a Leader
leadership
version two
Leadership
Excellence for
Totally Screwed-Up
Times: The
Passion
Imperative.
Lead It …
Loud!
“The Bottleneck is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma?
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/“Strategy or Revolution”/Harvard Business Review
Create a
Cause!
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
“the wildest
chimera of a
moonstruck
mind”
—The Federalist on TJ’s Louisiana Purchase
Think
Legacy!
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but
‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
“In 1933, Thomas J. Watson Sr. gave a
speech at the World’s
Fair, ‘World Peace through
We stood
for something,
right?”
World Trade.’
—Sam Palmisano
CEO Assignment2002 (Bermuda):
“Please leap forward to 2007, 2012, or
2022, and write a business history of
What will have been
said about your company
during your tenure?”
Bermuda.
“To win this race, Kerry needs to stop focusing on
Election Day and start thinking about his would-be
What does he
want his legacy to be?
presidency’s last day.
When sixth-graders in the year 2108 read about the
Kerry presidency, what does he want the
one or
two sentences that accompany his
photo to say?” —Kenneth Baer/Washington Post/092604
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first book?”
“Close your eyes and imagine me
immediately doing something about
what you’ve just said. What would it
be?” “Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a better
place’?”
Find ’em!
Jack
didn’t have a
“vision”!
“The” Secret:
From
sweaters to …
Les Wexner:
people!
Respect ’em!
Amen!
“What creates trust, in
the end, is the leader’s
manifest respect for
the followers.”
— Jim O’Toole, Leading Change
“Don’t
belittle!”
—OD Consultant
“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
He was
seriously interested
in who you were
and what you had
to say.”
or a college president.
—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“I wasn’t bowled over by [David Boies]
intelligence. … What impressed me was
that when he asked a question, he waited
He not only
listened, he made me feel
like I was the only person in
the room.”
for an answer.
—Lawyer Kevin _____, on his first,
inadvertent meeting with David Boies, from Marshall
Goldsmith, “The One Skill That Separates,” Fast Company, 07.05
“We behaved as if we were
guests in their house. We
treated them not as a
defeated people, but as allies.
Our success became their
success.”
—“How One Soldier Brought Democracy to
Iraq: The Mayor of Ar Rutbah” (MAJ James Gavrilis/USA Special Forces)
Resilience
Simplicity
Authenticity
(O.O.D.A.)
(K.I.S.S.)
(No B.S.)
Ed Sims/Air New Zealand (“Airline to Middle Earth”)
Mentor ’em
What I Learned
HWBjr: Excellence, Accountability, Initiative,
K.I.S.S., Leader Love
Dick: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship,
Challenge, Execution (Project > Paper),
Accountability, MBWA, K.I.S.S., Fanatic
Customer-centrism (Customer>Command,
Marines>Regiment),
Leader Love, Output, “Do”>“Be”
Nameless: “Tangible” vs “Palpable”
(Bureaucracy, Control, Tight Leashes,
Command-centric, Demoralization, Paper >
Project,
Product = Paper, K.I.C.S.)
What I Learned
Ben: Decency, Soft Power, Fanatic Customercentrism (“Do”>“Be”)
Walter: Fanatic Mission-centrism, Soft Power,
Relationship-management, Execution,
Accountability, Early to Bed …
Bob: Pos>Neg/Recognition, K.I.S.S., The Way of
the Demo (Execution), Hero-building, Missioncentrism, “Do”>“Be”
Bill: De-centralization, Recognition, Supportstaff Centrism, Measurement (K.I.S.S.), Soft
Power (Paint ’n Pride), Rapid Culture Change
Make It a
Grand
Adventure!
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to get
things done.”
– Peter Drucker
“If you have ten
thousand regulations
you destroy all respect
for law.”
—WSC
Quests!
“I don’t
know.”
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Leadership’s Mount Everest
“allow its
members to
discover their
greatness.”
Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
“The role of the Director
is to create a space
where the actor or
actress can become
more than they’ve ever
been before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance
“We are a
‘life Success
Company”’
founder, RE/MAX
“ If your actions inspire
others to dream more,
learn more, do more and
become more, you are a
leader." —John Quincy Adams
“Never doubt that a small
group of committed
people can change the
world. Indeed it is
the only thing that ever
has.”
—Margaret Mead
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management invites the
workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management invites the
workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
Alt: Grand
Adventure
The Nub of Leadership:
Helping/Inviting Others
to “Discover Their
Greatness”
Tom Peters & Friends/10.04.05
The Context
“The Creative Age is
a wide-open
game.”
—Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
“A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency
has helped many organizations weather
the downturn, but this approach will
Only
the constant pursuit of
innovation can ensure longterm success.”
ultimately render them obsolete.
—Daniel Muzyka, Dean,
Sauder School of Business, Univ of British Columbia (FT/09.17.04)
“If you don’t like
change, you’re going
to like irrelevance
even less.”
—General Eric Shinseki,
Chief of Staff, U. S. Army
“It is not the strongest of
the species that survives,
nor the most intelligent, but
the one most
responsive to
change.”
—Charles Darwin
The
Invitation
"If your actions inspire
others to dream more,
learn more, do more
and become more, you
are a leader."
—John Quincy Adams
“I don't think we inspire people to
‘become more,’ I think we help them
discover who they really are. In a way,
we help them become who they
already are. Who they were created to
be. We don't take them BEYOND their
being, we help remove unnatural
obstacles that keep them
from being.” —Dustin/Comment/tp.com/09.05
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when everyone in
is free to
do his or her absolute best.”
them, leaders and members alike,
“The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is
allow its members to
discover their greatness.”
to
Leadership’s Mount Everest!
“allow its
members to
discover their
greatness.”
Item #1 … from
Tom Peters’ “Leadership50”:
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual Discovery
Process.
Leaders-Teachers-Mentors 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 (alone and
in small teams, assisted by an extensive self-constructed network) by
which those people (5) go
to-create places they (and their
leaders-teachers-mentors) had never dreamed existed—and
then the leaders-teachers-mentors (6) applaud like hell,
stage “photo-ops,” and ring the church bells
100 times to commemorate the bravery of
their “followers’ ” explorations!
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management invites the
workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
Are you
Ready?
“Human creativity
is the ultimate
economic
resource.”
—Richard Florida,
The Rise of the Creative Class
Imagine …
“dream more, learn more, do more ,
become more”
“help them become who they already
are, who they were created to be”
“free to do his or her absolute best”
“allow members to discover
their greatness”
“allow people to fully express their innate
curiosity; to go to-create places they
had never dreamed existed”
“invite the workforce itself to change
the culture”
Go to the people
Live with them
Learn from them
Love them
Start with what they know
Build with what they have
But with the best leaders
When the work is done
The task accomplished
The people will say
“We have done this ourselves.”
Lao Tzu (700 BC)
End Alt:
Grand
Adventure
Trumpet an
Exhilarating
Story!
“Leaders don’t just make
products and make decisions.
Leaders make
meaning.”
– John Seely Brown
Best Story Wins!
“A key – perhaps the key – to
leadership is
the effective
communication
of a story.”
—Howard Gardner/Leading Minds:
An Anatomy of Leadership
Language Power!
“… the language we
speak determines how
we react to the world
around us …”
—Diane Ackerman/
An Alchemy of Mind
Wow!
Live Your
Story!
MBWA*
*HS/25+
“The first and greatest
imperative of command is
to be present in person.
Those who impose risk
must be seen to share it.”
—John Keegan, The Mask of Command
“Only Connect”
“I’m always stopping by our
stores— at least 25 a week. I’m also
in other places: Home Depot, Whole
Foods, Crate & Barrel. … I try to be
a sponge to pick up as much
as I can. …” —Howard Schultz
“I called 60 CEOs in the first week of
the year] to wish them happy New
Year. …” —Hank Paulson, CEO, Goldman Sachs
Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness,” 0320
“To change minds effectively,
leaders make particular use
of two tools: the stories that
they tell and the lives that
they lead.” —Howard Gardner, Changing Minds
“It is necessary for the
President to be the
nation’s …
No. 1 actor.”
FDR
“You must
be
the change you wish
to see in the world.”
Gandhi
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars NEVER lie!!
“Only Connect”
“I’m always stopping by our
stores— at least 25 a week. I’m also
in other places: Home Depot, Whole
Foods, Crate & Barrel. … I try to be
a sponge to pick up as much
as I can. …” —Howard Schultz
“I called 60 CEOs in the first week of
the year] to wish them happy New
Year. …” —Hank Paulson, CEO, Goldman Sachs
Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness,” 0320
“I’m always stopping by our
at least 25
a week. I’m also in other
stores—
places: Home Depot, Whole Foods,
Crate & Barrel. … I try to be
a sponge to pick up as much
as I can. …” —Howard Schultz
Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness,” 0320.2006
“Works 100% of the
time!” (Heads for the front-line
folks, asks them for input—and is
comfortable with them*)
*Didn’t hurt that he spoke Spanish
Source: CEO, security services company, Spain
Try It!
Sam’s Secret
#1!
“Fail faster.
Succeed
sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
“Success is the ability to
go from one failure to
another with no loss of
enthusiasm.”
—WSC
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Insist on
Speed!
“We don’t sell insurance
We sell
speed.”
anymore.
Peter Lewis, Progressive
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just not going
fast
enough.” —Mario Andretti
“Strategy meetings held
once or twice a year” to
“Strategy meetings
needed several times
a week”
Source: New York Times on Meg Whitman/eBay
Demand
Action!
“We have a
‘strategic’ plan. It’s
called ‘doing
things.’”
— Herb Kelleher
“The most successful
people are those who
are good at
plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician,
on chaos theory in The New Scientist
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!)
A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said,
“Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which
I will gladly sell you for $25,000.”
“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the
envelope, however if you show me, and I like it, I
give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you
ask.”
The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope.
JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He
gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper
back to the gent.
And paid him the
agreed-upon $25,000.
1. Every morning, write
a list of the things
that need to be done
that day.
2.
Do them.
Source: Hugh MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR
“ ‘Strategy’? In retail,
‘execution’ is ‘the last
ninety-five percent.’ ”
—Former BigCo CEO/Retail
“Most anybody can ‘sell.’
Damn few can ‘close.’ ” —Former
BigCo CEO/Retail
“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
Relentless!*
*Churchill, Grant, Patton, Welch, Bossidy, Nardelli (GE execs),
UPS, FedEx, Microsoft/Gates-Ballmer, Eisner, Weill, eBay, NixonKissinger, Gerstner, Rice, Jordan, Armstrong
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme, almost
phobic dislike of turning back
and retracing his steps. If he set out for
somewhere, he would get there somehow, whatever the difficulties
that lay in his way. This idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the
factors that made him such a formidable general. Grant would
always, always press on—turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
1 of 2,400
6:15A.M.
Cut the
Crap!
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“robust
dialogue”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“GE has set a standard
of candor. … There is no
puffery. … There isn’t an
ounce of denial in the
place.” —Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen,
on the “GE mystique” (Fortune)
Eat
Change!
“We eat
change for
breakfast!
—Harry Quadracci, QuadGraphics
Put Women
in Charge!
“AS
LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
Title, Special Report/BusinessWeek
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. —Judy B. Rosener,
America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
Dispense
Enthusiasm!
BZ: “I am a …
Dispenser of
Enthusiasm!”
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Most important,
upped the
energy level at
he
Motorola.”
—Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05
“A man without a
smiling face must not
open a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb*
*Courtesy Tom Morris, The Art of Achievement
“If
you’re enthusiastic about
the things you’re working
on, people will come ask
you to do interesting
things.”
James Woolsey, former CIA director:
“Before you can inspire with
emotion, you must be
swamped with it yourself.
Before you can move their
tears, your own must flow. To
convince them, you must
yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill
Excellence.
Always.
Leader Job No.1
Paint
Portraits of
Excellence!
Cirque
du Soleil!
And the Winner is …
1. Audacity of Vision
2. Innovation/R&D/Design
3. Talent Acquisition & Development
4. Resultant “Experience”
5. Strategic Alliances
6. Operations
7. Financial Management
8. Overall/Sustaining Excellence
9. “Wow!”
10. Lovemark!
ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com
DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,000
EI: $10,000 yields $140,050
*Excellence Index/Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks
Excellence =
*Tom Watson sr/1 minute
Engaged.
In
Search of
Excellence
What is
all about?
What is In Search of Excellence all about:
People.
Emotion.
Engagement.
Empowerment.
Caring.
“Tell me, what is
it you plan to do
with your one
wild and
precious life?”
—Mary Oliver
Radiate
Passion!
“Never apologize
for showing feeling.
When you so, you
apologize for
the truth.”
—Disraeli
“The eloquent man is he
who is no beautiful
speaker, but who is
inwardly and
desperately drunk with a
certain belief.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Charles Handy on the “Alchemists”:
“Passion was what drove
these people, passion for
their product, passion for
their cause. If you care enough, you will find out
what you need to know. Or you will experiment and not worry if the
experiment goes wrong.
Passion
as the secret to
learning is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works at
all levels and at all ages. Sadly,
passion
is not a
word often heard in the elephant organizations, nor in
schools, where it can seem disruptive.”
Stay Hungry.
Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs
Keep It
Simple!
Sir Richard’s Rules:
Follow your passions.
Keep it simple.
Get the best people to help you.
Re-create yourself.
Play.
Source: Fortune on Branson
JW’s “4Es”
Energy
Enthusiasm
Edge*
Execution
*Speed, RFA, Competitive
Avoid …
Moderation!
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
“One who does
less than he can
is a thief.”
—Gandhi
Free the
Lunatic
Within!
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
“You can’t behave in a
calm, rational manner.
You’ve got to be out
there on the lunatic
fringe.”
— Jack Welch
“I don’t know
if it’s ‘possible.’
I do know it’s
‘necessary.’”
TP/Chile:
ALT Ending
No Less Than
Excellence.
Ever.
Gaspworthy!
Remember
Lord Nelson!
“[Other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than anxious
to win”
Nelson’s secret:
leadership
version three
The Passion
Imperative: The
Leadership
50
I. The Basic
Premise.
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual
Discovery
Process.
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to get
things done.”
– Peter Drucker
Quests!
“I don’t
know.”
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their greatness.”
2. Leaders
DECENTRALIZE!
DECENTRAL-IZE!
2. Leaders
DePuySpine/J&J*
70/3
50+
game-changers!
*Still decentralized after all these years!
HP’s Big “Duh”!
Decentralize ($90B)
Undo “Matrix”
Accountability
Source: “HP Says Goodbye To Drama”/
BW/09.05/re Mark Hurd’s first 5 months
II. The
Leadership
Types.
3. Great Leaders Declaiming a Grand
Vision from the Mountaintop Are
Great Talent
Developers (Type I
Leadership) are the Bedrock
Important – but
of Organizations that Perform Over
the Long Haul.
“Leaders
‘do’ people.
Period.”
—Anon.
4. But Then Again, There
Are Times When This
“Visionary Stuff”
(Type II Leadership)
Actually Works!
“A leader is
a dealer
in hope.”
Napoleon
(+TP’s writing room pics)
5. Find & embrace
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) Creator-Visionary …
(3) Inspired Profit
Mechanic.
7. Leadership
Mantra #1: IT
ALL
DEPENDS!
Reg = #1*
Jack = #1**
*National exemplar
**National exemplar
Renaissance Men
are … a snare,
a myth,
a delusion!
III. The
Leadership
Dance.
8. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
MBWA
9. Leaders …
LOVE the
MESS!
“I’m not comfortable
unless I’m
uncomfortable.”
—Jay
Chiat
10. Leaders
DO!
“We have a
‘strategic’ plan.
It’s called
doing things.”
— Herb Kelleher
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
“If it works,
it’s obsolete.”
—Marshall McLuhan
12. BUT … Leaders
Know When
to Wait.
Tex Schramm:
The
“too
hard” box!
13. Leaders Are …
Optimists.
Hackneyed but none the
LEADERS
SEE CUPS AS
“HALF FULL.”
less true:
Half-full Cups:
“Ronald
Reagan radiated an
almost transcendent
happiness.”
—Lou Cannon
14. 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)
15. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To
Don’t ”
List
“The one thing you need
to know about sustained
individual success:
Discover what you don’t
like doing and stop doing
it.” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to
Know
16. Leaders … Set
CLEAR
DESIGN SPECS.
“Really Important
Stuff”:
of
Roger’s Rule
Three!
IV. If It’s Not
Broken …
Break It!
17. 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
18. Leaders Do
Not … Mindlessly
Bulk Up.
“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for
Buy
a very large one
and just wait.”
myself?’ The answer seems obvious:
—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail:
Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“Not a single company that
qualified as having made a
sustained transformation ignited
its leap with a big acquisition or
merger. Moreover, comparison
companies—those that failed to make a leap or,
if they did, failed to sustain it—often tried to
make themselves great with a big acquisition
or merger. They failed to grasp the simple truth
that while you can buy your way to growth, you
cannot buy your way to greatness.” —Jim
Collins/Time/11.29.04
19. Leaders Make
[Lotsa] Mistakes –
and MAKE NO
BONES ABOUT IT!
Sam’s
Secret
#1!
20. Leaders Make/
Tolerate/Encourage …
BIG
MISTAKES!
“Reward excellent
failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and Jack)
V. Create.
21. Leaders Put
INNOVATION
First!
“A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency
has helped many organizations weather
the downturn, but this approach will
Only
the constant pursuit of
innovation can ensure
long-term success.”
ultimately render them obsolete.
—Daniel
Muzyka, Dean, Sauder School of Business, Univ of British Columbia
(FT/09.17.04)
22. Leaders
Love the
Top Line!
“Analysts said we don’t care about revenue, just
give us the bottom line. They preferred cost
cutting, as long as they could see two or three
years of EPS growth. I preached revenue and the
analysts’ eyes would glaze over. Now revenue is
‘in’ because so many got caught, and earnings
went to hell. They
said, ‘Oh my gosh,
you need revenues to grow
earnings over time.’ Well, Duh!”
—Dick Kovacevich, Wells Fargo
(in ABA Banking Journal)
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
23. Leaders
Are Not
COPYCATS.
“To grow, companies need
to break out of a vicious
cycle of competitive
benchmarking and
imitation.” —W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne,
“Think for Yourself —Stop Copying a Rival,” Financial
Times/08.11.03
24. Leaders
Relentlessly Pursue
DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE!
25. Leaders Bet
the Farm on
the New
Technology!
Power Tools
for Power
Solutions/
Strategies!
—TP
“Beware of the tyranny
of making Small Changes
to Small Things. Rather,
make Big Changes to
Big Things.”
—Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo
The Golden Leadership
Quadrangle: (1) Talent
Fanatic … (2) CreatorVisionary … (3) Inspired
Profit Mechanic …
(4) Technology DreamerTrue Believer
26. 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.”
as a businessman.
—Richard Branson
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but
‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
VI. Value
Added
27. Leaders Push Their
Organizations W-a-y Up
the Value-added/
Intellectual Capital
Chain
And the “M” Stands for … ?
“Systems
Integrator of
choice.”
Gerstner’s IBM:
(BW)
IBM Global Services:
$55B
28. Leaders Turn Every
“Department” into an
Innovation leader/Value-
adding
“PSF”!*
*Professional Service Firm
“ ‘Disintermediation’ is overrated. Those who
fear disintermediation should in fact be afraid
disintermediation
is just another way of
saying that you’ve
become irrelevant to your
customers.”
of irrelevance—
—John Battelle/Point/Advertising Age/07.05
Answer: PSF!
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner,
IS [HR, R&D, etc.] Inc.
29. Leaders Know that the
Value-added Revolution” rests
Emphasizing
Experiences!
upon:
One company’s answer:
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
“We don’t have a good language to talk about
this kind of thing. In most people’s
vocabularies, design means veneer. … But to
me, nothing could be further from the
Design is
the fundamental soul
meaning of design.
of a man-made creation.”
Steve Jobs
30. Leaders Pursue
the “Big Two”
NEW MARKET
OPPORTUNITIES
Women!
1. Men and women are different.
2. Very different.
3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.
4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y
nothing in common.
5. Women buy lotsa stuff.
6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.
7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
8. Men are (STILL) in charge.
9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY
CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.
10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
Good Thinking, Guys!
“Kodak Sharpens Digital
Focus On Its Best
Customers:
Women”
—Page 1 Headline/WSJ/0705
BoomersGeezers
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47%)
44-65: “New
Customer
Majority” *
*45% larger than 18-43; 60% larger by 2010
Source: Ageless Marketing, David Wolfe & Robert Snyder
VII. Talent.
31. When It Comes
TALENT
to
…
Leaders Always Go
Berserk!
BRAND =
TALENT.
“We believe companies can increase their market cap
50 percent in 3 years. Steve Macadam at Georgia-
changed 20 of his 40
box plant managers to
put more talented,
higher paid managers
in charge. He increased profitability from
Pacific
$25 million to $80 million in 2 years.”
—Ed Michaels, War for Talent
Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
“HR doesn’t tend to hire
a lot of independent
thinkers or people who
stand up as moral
compasses.” —Garold Markle,
Shell Offshore HR Exec (FC/08.05)
DD$21M
32. Leaders
Know …WOMEN
RULE.*
*Duh.
“AS LEADERS, WOMEN
RULE: New Studies find
that female managers
outshine their male
counterparts in almost
every measure”
Title, Special Report, Business Week
????????
33. Leaders
Hire WEIRD
enough
weird people in
“Are there
the lab these days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director
34. Leaders Strongly
Urge All Employees
Follow the “BRAND
YOU” ADVENTURE
“If there is nothing
very special about
your work, no matter how
hard you apply yourself you won’t
get noticed, and that increasingly
means you won’t get paid much
either.” —Michael Goldhaber, Wired
Distinct …
or … Extinct
VIII.
Passion.
35. Leaders … “Sell”
PASSION!
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management invites the
workforce itself to change
the culture.” —Lou Gerstner
36. Leaders Know:
ENTHUSIASM BEGETS
ENTHUSIASM!
ENERGY BEGETS
ENERGY!
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Most important,
he upped the
energy level
at Motorola.”
—Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05
37. Leaders
Focus on the
SOFT STUFF!
“Hard” Is “Soft.”
“Soft” Is “Hard.”
—In Search of Excellence
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 EGGS.)
IX. The
“Job” of
Leading.
38.
Leaders Know It’s
ALL SALES ALL
THE TIME.
If you don’t
LOVE SALES …
find another life.
TP:
(Don’t pretend you’re a “leader.”)
39.
Leaders Groove on
POLITICS.
If you don’t
LOVE POLITICS …
find another life.
TP:
(Don’t pretend you’re a “leader.”)
40. Leaders
Give …
RESPECT!
“What creates trust, in
the end, is the leader’s
manifest respect for the
followers.”
— Jim O’Toole, Leading Change
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s
secret. He gained respect by giving it.
He talked and listened to the fourthgrade 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
41. Leadership
Is a …
Performance.
“It is necessary for the
President to be the
No. 1
actor.”
nation’s
FDR
42. Leaders …
GREAT
STORY!
Have a
“Leaders don’t just make products and make
Leaders make
meaning.”
decisions.
– John Seely Brown
“A key – perhaps the key –
to leadership is the
effective communication
of a story.
—Howard Gardner,
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership
Leader Job #1
Paint
Portraits of
Excellence!
43. Leaders abide by the
word …
Excellence!
"If your actions inspire
others to dream more,
learn more, do more and
become more, you are a
leader." —John Quincy Adams
44. Leaders …
Are The
Brand
“You must
be
the
change you wish to see
in the world.”
—Gandhi
“You can’t lead a
cavalry charge if you
think you look funny
on a horse.”
—John Peers, President, Logical Machines
Corporation
X. Introspection.
45.
Leaders …
ENJOY
LEADING.
“Warren, I know you
want to ‘be’ president.
But do you want to
‘do’ president?”
46. Leaders
LAUGH!
47. Leaders …
KNOW
THEMSELVES.
Step #1:
Buy a
Mirror!
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’ ‘organizational
change program’ is
obvious—dramatic personal
change!”
—RG
XI. The End
Game.
48. Great
Leaders Play
Offense!
“[Other]
admirals more
frightened
of losing than
anxious to win”
Nelson’s secret:
49. Great
Live
on the Edge!
Leaders
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
50. Leaders Free
the Lunatic
Within!
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
“You can’t behave in a
calm, rational manner.
You’ve got to be out
there on the lunatic
fringe.”
— Jack Welch
51. Leaders
(and Management Gurus)
WHEN
TO LEAVE!
Know
“In classical times when Cicero
had finished speaking, the
people said, ‘How well he spoke,’
but when Demosthenes had
finished speaking, they said,
‘Let us march.’”
—Adlai Stevenson
Let us
march!
“I don’t know
if it’s ‘possible.’
I do know it’s
‘necessary.’”
TP/Chile: