Harvard Business
Review
- 1.
Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve,
by Jim Collins (published January 2001)
- Best-selling author of Built
to Last and Good to Great, Jim Collins revealing article captures the
very essence of what it takes to be a Present Moment Leader - the
seemingly paradoxical blend of humble service combined with tough
commitment to personal vision & values.
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- HBR's Summary:
Boards of directors typically believe that transforming a company from
merely good to truly great requires a larger-than-life personality--an
egocentric chief to lead the corporate charge. Think "Chainsaw" Al
Dunlap or Lee Iacocca. In fact, that's not the case, says author and
leadership expert Jim Collins. The essential ingredient for taking a
company to greatness is having a "Level 5" leader at the helm--an
executive in whom extreme personal humility blends paradoxically with
intense professional will. Collins paints a compelling and
counterintuitive portrait of the skills and personality traits
necessary for effective leadership. He identifies the characteristics
common to Level 5 leaders: humility, will, ferocious resolve, and
the tendency to give credit to others while assigning blame to
themselves. Collins fleshes out his Level 5 theory by telling
colorful tales about 11 such leaders from recent business history. He
contrasts the turnaround successes of outwardly humble, even shy,
executives like Gillette's Colman M. Mockler and Kimberly-Clark's Darwin
E. Smith with those of larger-than-life business leaders like Dunlap and
Iacocca, who courted personal celebrity. The jury is still out on how
to cultivate Level 5 leaders and whether it's even possible to do so,
Collins admits*. Some
leaders have the Level 5 seed within; some don't. But Collins suggests
using the findings from his research to strive for Level 5--for
instance, getting the right people on board and creating a culture of
discipline. "Our own lives and all that we touch will be better for the
effort," he concludes.
- *
The W.I.N. Way provides a way and means to achieve Level 5 Leadership
skills.
- 2.
Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?,
by Robert Goffee & Gareth Jones
(published Sept, 2000)
- A great article that
captures the essence of personal leadership in one phrase "Tough
Empathy". This article identifies qualities of leaders that
are consistent with leaders who lead from the Present Moment -
revealing, intuitive, sensitively tough and doing what they do best (and
letting others do the same ...
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Harvard Business Review Online
- HBR Summary:
We all know that leaders need vision and energy, but
after an exhaustive review of the most influential theories on
leadership--as well as workshops with thousands of leaders and aspiring
leaders--the authors learned that great leaders also share four
unexpected qualities: 1) They selectively reveal their weaknesses; 2)
They rely heavily on intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and
course of their actions; 3) They manage employees with "tough empathy";
and 4) They capitalize on their differences. All four qualities are
necessary for inspirational leadership, but they cannot be used
mechanically; they must be mixed and matched to meet the demands of
particular situations. Most important, however, is that the qualities
encourage authenticity among leaders. To be a true leader, the authors
advise, "Be yourself--more--with skill.*"
-
*
The foundation of the W.I.N. Way is to be
accepting of who you really are, warts and all.
- 3.
How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead,
by Ralph Stayer (published
November 1990)
- When it's not about you, you
inspire others to reach their fullest potential. All you have to
do is learn how to let go of control. This is the central
premise of what it means to be "in the present" - you're in control of
you, and accept that you don't control others (though you influence
them).
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Harvard Business Review Online
- HBR Summary:
To combat poor motivation and lack of commitment, and
bridge the gap between performance and potential, the owner of
Johnsonville Sausage completely changed his management style and
redirected the structure of his company. By giving up his own authority
and getting employees to take full responsibility for decisions on
production, personnel, quality control, and company expansion, he was
able to increase performance standards and market share.
- 4.
The Hard Work of Being a Soft Manager,
by William H. Peace, (published Dec 2001)
- This powerful article nails
the essence of what Present Moment Leaders look like in action.
The trick is, how does a leader learn to lead in this way? The
W.I.N. Way is one proven means of getting there.
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Harvard Business Review Online
- HBR Summary
Soft management does not mean weak management,
says William Peace in this 1991 article. It means candor, openness, and
vulnerability, but it also means hard choices and responsible follow-up.
It means taking the heat for
difficult decisions and giving unhappy subordinates chances to unburden
themselves at your expense. In the early 1980s, when William
Peace had to lay off 15 people at Westinghouse's threatened Synthetic
Fuels Division, he insisted on meeting them in person, explaining the
reasons for the layoff and giving them a chance to object, criticize,
and vent their anger. In doing so, he also reassured the remaining
employees that the division would not be closed immediately.
His action so eased the
emotional blow for those laid off that when the division got the chance
to rehire some of them a few months later, every single one came back,
including those who had found other jobs. Peace was emulating the
general manager of another struggling Westinghouse division who had
delivered a series of informational presentations to a hostile
contingent of workers. The upshot of the meetings was greater
credibility for the general manager, a big improvement in
labor-management relations, and increased productivity and profits.
- This is the
price tag of Present Moment Leadership - taking the hit, even
when it's not your fault. This is the hallmark of a personal
leader who can absorb unfair blame, knowing it's not about them.
It's just giving people space to grieve the past so they too can get
over it and consider a different, hopefully brighter future.
-
5.
The Very Real Dangers of Executive Coaching,
by Steven Berglas, (published June 2002)
- This thought-provoking
article speaks to the dangers of executive coaches who merely teach a
traditional Leader how to be even more traditional!
Havoc follows...
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Harvard Business Review Online
- HBR Summary
A personal coach to help your most promising
executives reach their potential--sounds good, doesn't it? According to
Steven Berglas, executive coaches can make a bad situation worse.
Because of their backgrounds and biases, they ignore psychological
problems they don't understand. Companies need to consider
psychotherapeutic intervention when the symptoms plaguing an executive
are stubborn or severe.
Executives with issues that require more than coaching come in many
shapes and sizes. Consider Rob Bernstein, an executive vice president of
sales at an automotive parts distributor. According to the CEO,
Bernstein had just the right touch with clients but caused personnel
problems inside the company. The last straw came when Bernstein publicly
humiliated a mail clerk who had interrupted a meeting to ask someone to
sign for a package. At that point, the CEO assigned Tom Davis to coach
Bernstein. Davis, a former corporate lawyer, worked with Bernstein for
four years. But Davis only
exacerbated the problem by teaching Bernstein techniques for "handling"
employees--methods that were condescending at best. Although
Bernstein appeared to be improving, he was in fact getting worse.
Bernstein's real problems went undetected, and when his boss left the
company, he was picked as the successor.
Soon enough, Bernstein was again in trouble, suspected of embezzlement.
This time, the CEO didn't call Davis; instead, he turned to the author,
a trained psychotherapist, for help. Berglas soon realized that
Bernstein had a serious narcissistic personality disorder and executive
coaching could not help him. As that tale and others in the article
teach us, executives to be coached should at the very least first
receive a psychological evaluation. And company leaders should beware
that executive coaches given free rein can end up wreaking personnel
havoc.
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