Leaders In London

‘Storyteller’ posted this as a comment on the Warren Bennis post, below. It’s such a great observation, and the comments aren’t publishing for some reason, so I’ve put it here as a full post for the rest of us to benefit from:

Storyteller writes:

“Warren has a good point. But after a lot of reading on the subject, I happened across Peter Drucker’s take on leadership in the context of what makes an effective executive. After 65yrs consulting with some the best executives, he says they are all over the map in terms of personalities, strengths, attitudes, values and weaknesses. He says that what made them all effective executives is that he realised that they followed the same 8 practices:

They asked: “What needs to be done?”
They asked: “What is right for the enterprise?”
They developed action plans.
They took responsibility for decisions.
They took responsibility for communicating.
They were focused on opportunities rather than problems.
They ran productive meetings.
They thought and said “we” rather than “I”.(Meaning that they have authority only because they have the trust of the organisation.)

The first two practices gave them the knowledge they needed.
The next four helped them convert this knowledge into effective action.
The last two ensured that the whole organisation felt responsible and accountable.

He added another practice and one which he elevated to the level of a rule “Listen first, speak last”.

Some people are born effective, but demand is much too great to be satisfied by extraordinary talent. To do that requires discipline and like every discipline, it can be learned and MUST be earned.

His summary was that for all their differences, effective executives “get the right things done”.

Hence no need to separate the leader / manager - the true leader sees what needs to be done and ensures it gets done - so to paraphrase Warren and Drucker, you can’t manage your way out, you have to see the way out.

Our Leaders in London 2007 speaker, Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, the marketing, advertising and media group, is profiled in the new book by our 2008 Leaders in London speaker Steve Tappin, author of The Secrets of CEOs, which was reviewed in the FT last week.

Martin Sorrell told Tappin and his co-author Andrew Cave:

“No-one has any magic formula” for leadership.

“Everyone obfuscates and makes it too sophisticated. Having a clear purpose, vison and strategy, having the right team and having them aligned to what’s important,” is the closest you can get to a formula for a successful leader, particularly a successful CEO, says Sorrell.

Richard Donkin of the FT says that although Sorrell says there is no magic formula, his (Sorrell’s) own formula for corporate leadership is still important. Sorrell likens himself “to a referee, a sort of consolidator or co-operator” who can bring all the parts of the company to work together,” says Donkin.

Tappin argues that the “idea of the solitary figure who tries to think through everything is no longer appropriate for complex international business.” Absolutely.

I also like this, from Steve Tappin’s book, where he quotes Archie Norman who, along with Allan Leighton and a close knit leadership team, turned around ASDA’s fortunes to move up from the bottom of the big four supermarkets in the UK to replace Sainsbury’s in coming (at the time - Sainsbury’s have since fought back, with the help of CEO Justin King, who was part of Norman’s ASDA leadership team) as second in the UK supermarket league table:

“I like businesses where people feel able

to shout at each other, in a professional way, of course.”

- Archie Norman

If your relationships with other leaders and the rest of the organization are strong enough to have ‘fierce conversations’ (see the book of the same name), based on passion for the business (not on ego and trying to get your own way) then you have a robust, healthy corporate climate that’s well-placed to make the right decisions in the current tough trading environment.

See a few posts ago for more on Steve Tappin and his core idea of the need to ‘build a fellowship’ of leaders. And you can learn from Steve direct at Leaders in London 2008.

Leadership lessons from Richard Branson

Not surprisingly he’s one of our most popular ever presenters at Leaders in London. Richard Branson has just published a new book, Business Stripped Bare. Hot off the press, here are a couple of insights from it:

“Inspire people to think like entrepreneurs, and whatever you do, treat them like adults. The hardest taskmaster of all is a person’s own conscience, so the more responsibility you give people, the better they will work for you.”

“One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes. When you are pushing the boundaries this is inevitable—and it’s important to realize this. Even when things are running well, there is always the prospect of a new reality around the corner. Suddenly, all the good decisions you made last week are doing you untold damage. … Failure usually occurs when leaders avoid the reality of business. You have to trust the people around you to learn from their mistakes. Blame and recriminations are pointless.”

And my favourite one…

“There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once. There are no rules. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it’s because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over. It’s the greatest thrill in the world and it runs away screaming at the first sight of bullet points.”

Hat tip: Michael McKinney’s Leading Blog

These are from the book The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, by Oren Harari, who is the source of a lot of material on Colin Powell’s leadership that people often assume comes direct from Powell himself. A lot of it does; the rest is Oren Harari’s interpretation of General Powell’s leadership. The next post down contains a video clip: 13 Rules for Leadership that do indeed come from General Powell himself.

1. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
2. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
3. Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
4. Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
5. Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.
6. You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
7. Keep looking below surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so (just) because you might not like what you find.
8. Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fall because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
9. Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
10. Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.
11. Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.
12. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
13. Powell’s Rules for Picking People: Look for intelligence and judgment, and most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done.
14. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
15. Part I: Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired. Part II: “Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.
16. The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
17. Have fun in your command. Don’t always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you’ve earned it: Spend time with your families. Corollary: surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
18. Command is lonely.

General Powell is a past Leaders in London speaker.

From past Leaders in London speaker General Colin Powell (rtd)

These 13 rules are from the back of Colin Powell’s book My American Journey, and are in Powell’s own words: