Tom Peters’ Leadership2002

Leading in Totally Screwed-

Up TimesWashington Speakers

Bureau/05.14.2002

The Context.

“There will be more

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

change will only accelerate.”Steve Case

“We are in a brawl with no rules.”—Paul Allaire

The

Leadership45(45 ideas in 45 minutes)

The Basic Premise.

1. Leadership Is a …

Mutual Discovery Process.

“I don’t know.”

1A. Leaders Try … Not to Screw

Things Up

“Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it

difficult for people to get things done.” —P.D.

The Leadership

Types.

2. Great Leaders on Snorting

Steeds Are Important – but

Great Talent Developers (Type I

Leadership) are the Bedrock of Organizations that Perform Over

the Long Haul.

25/8/53*(*Damn it!)

Whoops: Jack didn’t have a vision!

3. But Then Again, There Are Times When This “Cult of Personality”

(Type II Leadership) Stuff Actually Works!

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Napoleon

(+TP’s writing room pics)

4. Find the “Businesspeople”!

(Type III Leadership)

I.P.M. (Inspired Profit

Mechanic)

5. Leadership Mantra

#1: IT ALL DEPENDS!

Renaissance Men are … a snare, a

myth, a delusion!

6. The Leader Is Rarely/Never the Best Performer.

33 Division Titles. 26 League Pennants. 14

World Series: Earl Weaver—0. Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0.

Walter Alston—1AB. Tony LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games. Sparky

Anderson—1 season.

The Leadership

Dance.

7. Leaders …

SHOW UP!

Rudy!

7A. Leaders … LOVE the

MESS!

“I’m not comfortable unless I’m

uncomfortable.”—Jay Chiat

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

going fast enough.”

Mario Andretti

8. Leaders

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 …

Set CLEAR DESIGN SPECS.

Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic

Initiative Overload)

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!

13A. Leaders …

Send V-E-R-Y Clear Signals About

Design Specs!

Ridin’ with Roger: “What have you done to

DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE quality in the

last 90 days?”

It’s Relationships,

Stupid.

14. Leaders …

Understand the Ultimate Power of RELATIONSHIPS.

14A. Leaders Know …

Women Roar/ Women Rule.

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers

outshine their male counterparts in almost

every measure”Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00

Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers;

favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power

as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure

“rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity

Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret

If It Ain’t Broke … Break It.

15. Leaders …FORGET!/

Leaders … DESTROY!

Forget>“Learn”

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative

thoughts into your mind,

but how to get the old ones out.”

Dee Hock

Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the Class of ’17 were alive

in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market

by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the market 1917 to 1987.

S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were

alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.

Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market

“Good management was the most powerful reason [leading firms] failed to

stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms listened to their customers, invested aggressively in technologies that would

provide their customers more and better products of the sort they wanted, and because

they carefully studied market trends and systematically allocated investment capital to

innovations that promised the best returns, they lost their positions of leadership.”

Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma

Cortez!

Leaders “dump the ones who brung ’em” —Nokia, HP, 3M, PerkinElmer, Corning, etc.

Jim & Tom. Joined at the

hip. Not.

16. BUT … Leaders

Have to Deliver, So They Worry About “Throwing the Baby Out with the

Bathwater.”

“Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, Just Plain

Damned.”Subtitle in the chapter, “Own Up to the Great Paradox: Success

Is the Product of Deep Grooves/ Deep Grooves Destroy Adaptivity,” Liberation Management (1992)

Axiom (Hypothesis): We have been screwed by Benchmarking … Best Practice … C.I./Kaizen.

Axiom (Hypothesis): We need Masters of Discontinuity/

Masters of Ambiguity … in discontinuous/ambiguous

times.

17. Leaders …

HONOR THE USURPERS.

Saviors-in-Waiting

Disgruntled CustomersUpstart CompetitorsRogue EmployeesFringe Suppliers

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision

CUSTOMERS: “Future-defining customers may

account for only 2% to 3% of your total, but they represent a crucial

window on the future.”Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants

17A. Leaders …

HANG OUT WITH FREAKS!

The Cracked Ones Let in the Light

“Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found

among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.”

David Ogilvy

Employees: “Are there enough weird

people in the lab these days?”

V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)

“I would like to think we could

attract students with green

hair. We will take pink and

blue and orange hair, too.”

Shirley Tilghman, Princeton

18. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes

– and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!

Sam’s

Secret #1!

“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”

David Kelley/IDEO

Read This!

Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes: Whoever Makes the Most

Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation

19. Leaders Make …

BIG MISTAKES!

“Reward excellent

failures. Punish mediocre successes.”

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

Create.

20. Leaders Know that

THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN “LINE EXTENSIONS.” Leaders Love to CREATE NEW

MARKETS.

No one ever made it into the Business Hall of Fame on a record of

“line extensions.”

“Acquisitions are about

buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets.

There is a big difference.” Peter Job, CEO, Reuters

21. Leaders Pursue

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE!

1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.”

Source #1: Personal Passion)

2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand & Deliver!)

3RD Law: DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (Execs Don’t Get It: “intent to purchase” – 100%; “unique” – 0% to

5%)

Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall

The greatest 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

21A. Leaders … Make Their Mark /

Leaders … Do Stuff That Matters

“I never, ever thought of myself

as a businessman. I was interested in creating

things I would be proud of.” —Richard Branson

22. Leaders Push Their

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

Intellectual Capital Chain

The Big Day!

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

“We want to be the air traffic

controllers of electrons.”

Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

Gerstner’s IBM: Systems Integrator of

choice. Global Services:

$35B. Pledge/’99: Business Partner Charter. 72 strategic partners,

aim for 200. Drop many in-house

programs/products. (BW/12.01).

“UPS wants to take over the sweet spot in the endless loop

of goods, information and capital that all the packages

[it moves] represent.”ecompany.com/06.01 (E.g., UPS Logistics

manages the logistics of 4.5M Ford vehicles, from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)

“No longer are we only an insurance provider. Today,

we also offer our customers the products and services that help them

achieve their dreams, whether it’s financial security, buying a car, paying

for home repairs, or even taking a dream vacation.”—Martin Feinstein, CEO,

Farmers Group

HP. Sun. IBM. GE/PS. GE/IS. (GE/AE. GE/MD.)

UTC. Farmers. Delphi. UPS/ FedEx/ Ryder.

Springs. Omnicom. IDEO. Accenture. Equity Office

Properties. RCI. Etc. Etc.

23. Leaders

LOVE the New Technology!

100 square feet

“There’s no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was

your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve

believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Lewis Carroll

I’net …

… allows you to dream dreams

you could never have dreamed

before!

Talent.

24. When It Comes to

TALENT … Leaders Always Swing

for the Fences!

Message: Some people are better than other

people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other

people.

From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW] to …

“Best Talent in each industry segment to build

best proprietary intangibles” [EM]

Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

25. Leaders Don’t Create “Followers”:

THEY CREATE LEADERS!

Brand You, Big Time!

I AM AN ARMY OF

ONE

26. Leaders “Win Followers Over”

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

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

PJ: “Coaching is winning

players over.”

27. Leaders LOVE RAINBOWS – for Pragmatic Reasons.

“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century.

Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the

blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting

the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity,

nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth

and empowers nations.”

G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge

Passion.

28. Leaders …

Out Their

PASSION!

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

“They [consumer goods company] have acquired a bunch of products, which is what everyone is doing. But what’s the point, the

message, the story line, the Big Idea that makes ‘it’ all hang together?” —Exec,

major consumer goods company

29. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM

BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!

BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”

30. Leaders Focus on the

SOFT STUFF!

“Soft” Is “Hard”

—ISOE

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

Engagement, Commitment, Great Causes & Determination to Make a

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

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

The “Job” of Leading.

31. Leaders Know It’s

ALL SALES ALL THE TIME.

TP: If you don’t LOVE SALES … find

another life. (Don’t pretend

you’re a “leader.”) (See TP’s The Project50.)

31A. Leaders

LOVE “POLITICS.”

TP: If you don’t LOVE POLITICS … find

another life. (Don’t pretend

you’re a “leader.”)

32. But … Leaders Also

Break a Lot of China

If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not making

a difference!

Characteristics of the “Also rans”*

“Minimize risk”“Respect the chain of

command”“Support the boss”

“Make budget”

*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”

33. Leaders

Give … RESPECT!

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He

talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a

bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

34. Leaders Say

“Thank You.”

“The two most powerful things

in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”

Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]

35. Leaders Are …

Curious.

35A. Leaders

Are … Great Learners.

TP/08.2001: The Three Most Important Letters …

WHY?

36. Leadership Is a …

Performance.

“It is necessary for the President to be the

nation’s No. 1 actor.”

FDR

37. Leaders … Are The Brand

The BRAND lives (OR DIES) in the “minutiae” of the leader’s moment-

to-moment actions.

“You must be the change you

wish to see in the world.”

Gandhi

38. 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

Leaders don’t just make products and make decisions.

Leaders make meaning. —John Seeley Brown

39. Leaders Seed & Pursue &

Recognize (Weird) “Demos.”

40. Leaders

Create BUZZ!

REAL Org Change … The Dynamic Demo Dance: Demos/ Models/ Heroes/ Stories/ Storytellers

(Props!)/ Chroniclers (Writers, Videographers,

Pamphleteers, Etc.)/ Cheerleaders/ Seekers/ Protectors/ Support

Groups

C.f., Bob Stone, Confessions of an Uncivil Servant

Introspection.

41. Leaders …

Enjoy Leading.

“Warren, I know you want to ‘be’

president. But do you want to ‘do’

president?”

42. Leaders …

KNOW THEMSELVES.

Individuals (would-be leaders) cannot engage in a

liberating mutual discovery process unless they are comfortable with their own skin. (“Leaders” who are not comfortable with themselves become petty

control freaks.)

42A. But …

Leaders have MENTORS.

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.)

43. Leaders … Take Breaks.

Zombie!Zombie!Zombie!Zombie!

The End Game.

44. Leaders ???

:

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

over again.”

“LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF

GIBRALTAR ON ROLLER BLADES”

45. Leaders Know

WHEN TO LEAVE!

Tom Peters’ Leadership2002

Leading in Totally Screwed-

Up Times