Leading in Totally Screwed Up Times:

The Leadership50Tom Peters/ALA/31October 2001

All Slides Available at …

tompeters.comNote: Lavender text in this file is a link.

“There will be more

confusion in the business world in the next decade than in any decade in history. And the

current pace of change will only accelerate.”

Steve Case

Uncertainty: We don’t know when things will get back

to normal.

Ambiguity: We no longer know what “normal”

means.

BMcC: (1) Hierarchy vs. “Network organization.” (2)

NWO = “Doctrine as center of gravity”/source of motivation;

distributed support & decision-making;largely self-organizing; “outside the military sphere.”

“Our military structure today is essentially one

developed and designed by Napoleon.”

Admiral Bill Owens, former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

From: Weapon v. Weapon

To: Org structure v. Org structure

The Leadership50

1. Leaders Cede Control.

“I don’t know.”

Leaders-Teachers 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 (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they”

don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) 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 mentors-teachers-

leaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the leaders-mentors-teachers (6) applaud like hell, stage

“photo-ops,” and ring the church bells 100 times to commemorate the bravery of their

“followers’ ” explorations!

2. Great Leaders on Snorting

Steeds Are Important – but

Great Talent Developers (Type I

Leadership) are the Bedrock of Organizations that Perform Over

the Long Haul.

Model24/7: Sports Franchise GM

P.S.: 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

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.

7. Leaders LOVE the

MESS!

“If things seem under control, you’re just not

going fast enough.”

Mario Andretti

8. Leaders

DO!

The Kotler Doctrine:

1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)

1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)

1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)

9. BUT … Leaders

Know When to Wait.

Tex Schramm: The “too hard”

box!

10. Leaders Are

Optimists.

Half-full Cups: “[Ronald Reagan] radiated an almost transcendent

happiness.”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 Trust in

TRUST!

Credibility!

14. 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: Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative

leadership style [empowerment > top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations;

comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender;

favor multi-dimensional feedback; value interpersonal & technical skills, group &

individual 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

“Boys are trained in a way that will make

them irrelevant.”Phil Slater

15. 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

16. 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

“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

17. 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)

18. Leaders …

HONOR THE USURPERS.

Saviors-in-Waiting

Disgruntled CustomersUpstart CompetitorsRogue EmployeesFringe Suppliers

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost

Customers, and Rogue Employees

19. Leaders

HANG OUT WITH

FREAKS!

“Are there enough weird people in the lab

these days?”V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)

20. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes

– and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!

“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”

David Kelley/IDEO

21. Leaders Make BIG MISTAKES!

“Reward excellent

failures. Punish mediocre successes.”

Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)

22. Leaders Set DESIGN SPECS.

JackWorld/1@T: (1) Neutron 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!

23. 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?”

24. 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

25. Leaders Make Their Mark / Leaders Do

Stuff That Matters

The greatest dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo

26. Leaders Push Their

Organizations W-a-y Up the Value-added/

Intellectual Capital Chain

09.11.2000: HP bids

$18,000,000,000for

PricewaterhouseCoopersConsulting business!

[“These days, building the best server isn’t enough. That’s the

price of entry.”

Ann Livermore, Hewlett-Packard]

27. Leaders

LOVE the New Technology!

100 square feet

I’net …

… allows you to dream dreams

you could never have dreamed

before!

28. Needed? Type IV Leadership: Technology

Dreamer-True Believer

The Golden Leadership Quadrangle: (1) Creator-Inventor-Visionary … (2)

Talent Fanatic … (3) Inspired Profit Mechanic. (4) Technology Dreamer-

True Believer

29. When It Comes to

TALENT … Leaders Always Swing

for the Fences!

Message: Some people are better than other

people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other

people.

“We believe companies can increase their market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve

Macadam at Georgia-Pacific changed 20 of his 40 box plant managers to put

more talented, higher paid managers in charge. He increased

profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2 years.”

Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

30. Leaders “Win Followers Over”

WHAT AN IDIOT: “Instead of employees being in the driver’s

seat, now we’re in the driver’s seat.”

PJ: “Coaching is winning

players over.”

31. Leaders “Manage” Their

Internal Brand Promise.

MantraM3

Talent = Brand

32. Leaders Know “It’s My Fault.”

You recruited ’em.You hired ’em.

You trained ’em. You evaluated ’em.

You “motivated” ’em.

33. Leaders have MENTORS.

The Gospel According to TP: Upon having the Leadership

Mantle placed upon thine head, thou shalt never hear the unvarnished

truth again!* (*Therefore, thy needs one faithful

compatriot to lay it on with no jelly.)

34. Leaders Out

Their

PASSION!

“Let’s make a dent in the universe.”

Steve Jobs

G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

35. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM

BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!

BZ: “I am a … DISPENSER

OF ENTHUSIASM!

”

36. Leaders Know It’s ALL SALES ALL THE

TIME.

TP: If you don’t LOVE SALES … find

another life. (Don’t pretend

you’re a “leader.”)

37. Leaders

LOVE “POLITICS.”

TP: If you don’t LOVE POLITICS … find

another life. (Don’t pretend

you’re a “leader.”)

38. 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”

39. 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

40. Leaders Say

“Thank You.”

“The deepest human need is the

need to be appreciated.”

William James

41. Leaders …

SHOW UP!

Rudy!

42. Leadership Is a Performance.

BELIEVE IT.

“It is necessary for the President to be the

nation’s No. 1 actor.”FDR

43. Leaders Have

a GREAT STORY!

“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective

communication of a story.”

Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

44. Leaders Seed & Pursue &

Recognize (Weird) “Demos.”

L.B.I.W.D. (Leading

By Inducing Weird Demos)

Leaders aimed on changing their

world identify palpable heroes, who executed palpable projects—they

point to these people and say to the masses, “See, here it is, done by one of your own.” (And then they

“deep-dip” a few of those heroes to demo their seriousness.)

45. Leaders Focus on the

SOFT STUFF!

“Soft” Is “Hard”

Message: Leadership is all about love! [Passion, Enthusiasms, Appetite for Life,

Engagement, Commitment, Great Causes & Determination to Make a

Damn Difference, Shared Adventures, Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable

Appetite for Change.] [Otherwise, why bother? Just read Dilbert. TP’s final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]

46. Leaders …

SERVE.

Robert Greenleaf: Servant Leadership

47. 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.)

48. Leaders Are

Graceful.

“My favorite word is grace –

whether it’s amazing grace,

saving grace, grace under

fire, Grace Kelly. How we live contributes to beauty – whether it’s how we treat other people or

the environment.”

Celeste Cooper, designer

Rodale’s on “Grace” …

elegance … charm … loveliness … poetry in motion … kindliness ..

benevolence … benefaction … compassion … beauty

49.

Leaders ???:

“LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR ON

ROLLER BLADES”

“Hire smart – go bonkers – have grace – make mistakes – love technology – start all

over again.”

50. Leaders Know

WHEN TO LEAVE!