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18 Lessons in Leadership
General Colin Powell
Outreach To America Program
SEARS Corporate Headquarters
Chicago, Illinois
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Webmaster Note: I have always enjoyed the leadership style and
principles of Gen Colin Powell. The following "18 Lessons in Leadership
"came from Outreach To America Program. I am awaiting the time when we
hear such grand insight from our own...
Lesson 1
"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off."
Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means
that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable -
if you're honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.
You'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need
to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on
differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by
procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and
by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of their contributions, you'll
simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative
and productive people in the organization.
Lesson 2
"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have 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."
If this were a litmus test, the majority of CEOs would fail. One, they build so
many barriers to upward communication that the very idea of someone lower in the
hierarchy looking up to the leader for help is ludicrous. Two, the corporate
culture they foster often defines asking for help as weakness or failure, so
people cover up their gaps, and the organization suffers accordingly. Real
leaders make themselves accessible and available. They show concern for the
efforts and challenges faced by underlings-even, as they demand high standards.
Accordingly, they are more likely to create an environment where problem
analysis replaces blame.
Lesson 3
"Don't be buffaloed by experts. Experts often possess more data than judgment.
The Elite can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death
as soon as they are nicked by the real world."
Small companies and startups don't have the time for analytically detached
experts. They don't have the money to subsidize lofty elites, either. The
president answers the phone and drives the truck when necessary; everyone on the
payroll visibly produces and contributes to bottom-line results or they're
history. But as companies get bigger, they often forget who "brought them to the
dance" things like all-hands involvement, egalitarianism, informality, market
intimacy, daring, risk, speed, agility. Policies that emanate from ivory towers
often have an adverse impact on the people out in the field who are fighting the
wars or bringing in the revenues. Real leaders are vigilant - and combative - in
the face of these trends.
Lesson 4
"Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard."
Learn from the pros, observe them, seek them out as mentors and partners. But
remember that even the pros may have leveled out in terms of their learning and
skills. Sometimes even the pros can become complacent and lazy. Leadership does
not emerge from blind obedience to anyone. Xerox's Barry Rand was right on
target when he warned his people that if you have a yes-man working for you, one
of you is redundant. Good leadership encourages everyone's evolution.
Lesson 5
"Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted the leader
must be doubly vigilant."
Strategy equals execution. All the great ideas and visions in the world are
worthless if they can't be implemented rapidly and efficiently. Good leaders
delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to details, every
day. (Think about supreme athletic coaches like Jimmy Johnson, Pat Riley and
Tony La Russa). Bad ones - even those who fancy themselves as progressive
visionaries - think they're somehow "above" operational details. Paradoxically,
good leaders understand something alcyon(?) obsessive routine in carrying out
the details begets conformity and complacency, which in turn dulls everyone's
mind. That is why even as they pay attention to details, they continually
encourage people to challenge the process. They implicitly understand the
sentiment of CEO-leaders like Quad Graphic's Harry Quadracchi, Oticon's Lars
Kolind and the late Bill McGowan of MCI, who all independently asserted that the
Job of a leader is not to be the chief organizer, but the chief disorganizer.
Lesson 6
"You don't know what you can get away with until you try."
You know the expression "it's easier to get forgiveness than permission?" Well,
it's true. Good leaders don't wait for official blessing to try things out.
They're prudent, not reckless. But they also realize a fact of life in most
organizations you ask enough people for permission, you'll inevitably come up
against someone who believes his job is to say "no." So the moral is, don't ask.
I'm serious. In my own research with colleague Linda Mukai, we found that less
effective middle managers endorsed the sentiment, "If I haven't explicitly been
told 'yes,' I can't do it," whereas the good ones believed "If I haven't
explicitly been told 'no,' I can." There's a world of difference between these
two points of view.
Lesson 7
"Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so (just)
because you might not like what you find.”
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant
or the scared. It's an excuse for inaction, a call to non-arms. It's a mind-set
that assumes (or hopes) that today's realities will continue tomorrow in a tidy,
linear and predictable fashion. Pure fantasy. In this sort of culture, you won't
find people who proactively take steps to solve problems as they emerge. Here's
a little tip. Don't invest in these companies.
Lesson 8
"Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish
anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or
fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you
accomplish great deeds."
In a brain-based economy, your best assets are people. We've heard this
expression so often that it's become trite. But how many leaders really "walk
the talk" with this stuff? Too often, people are assumed to be empty chess
pieces to be moved around by grand viziers, which may explain why so many top
managers immerse their calendar time in deal making, restructuring and the
latest management fad. How many immerse themselves in the goal of creating an
environment where the best, the brightest, the most creative are attracted,
retained and-most potentially-unleashed?
Lesson 9
"Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing."
Organization charts are frozen, anachronistic photos in a workplace that ought
to be as dynamic as the external environment around you. If people really
followed organization charts, companies would collapse. In well-run
organizations, titles are also pretty meaningless. At best, they advertise some
authority-an official status conferring the ability to give orders and induce
obedience. But titles mean little in terms of real power, which is the capacity
to influence and inspire. Have you ever noticed that people will personally
commit to certain individuals who on paper (or on the org chart) possess little
authority-but instead possess pizzazz, drive, expertise and genuine caring for
teammates and products? On the flip side, non-leaders in management may be
formally anointed with all the perks and frills associated with high positions,
but they have little influence on others, apart from their ability to extract
minimal compliance to minimal standards.
Lesson 10
"Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes,
your ego goes with it."
Too often, change is stifled by people who cling to familiar turfs and job
descriptions. One reason that even large organizations wither is that managers
won't challenge old, comfortable ways of doing things. But real leaders
understand that, nowadays, every one of our jobs is becoming obsolete. The
proper response is to obsolete our activities before someone else does.
Effective leaders create a climate where peoples worth is determined by their
willingness to learn new skills and grab new responsibilities, thus perpetually
reinventing their jobs. The most important question in performance evaluation
becomes not, "How well did you perform your job since the last time we met?"
but, "How much did you change it?"
Lesson 11
"Fit no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest fads. The situation dictates which
approach best accomplishes the team's mission."
Flitting from fad to fad creates team confusion, reduces the leader's
credibility and drains organizational coffers. Blindly following a particular
fad generates rigidity in thought and action. Sometimes speed to market is more
important than total quality. Sometimes an unapologetic directive is more
appropriate than participatory discussion. To quote Powell, some situations
require the leader to hover closely; others require long, loose leashes. Leaders
honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them. They
understand that management techniques are not magic mantras but simply tools to
be reached for at the right times.
Lesson 12
"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."
The ripple effect of a leader's enthusiasm and optimism is awesome. So is the
impact of cynicism and pessimism. Leaders who whine and blame engender those
same behaviors among their colleagues. I am not talking about stoically
accepting organizational stupidity and performance incompetence with a "what, me
worry?" smile. I am talking about a gung ho attitude that says "we can change
things here, we can achieve awesome goals, we can be the best." Spare me the
grim litany of the "realist;" give me the unrealistic aspirations of the
optimist any day.
Lesson 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."
How often do our recruitment and hiring processes tap into these attributes?
More often than not, we ignore them in favor of length of resume, degrees and
prior titles. A string of job descriptions a recruit held yesterday seem to be
more important than who one is today, what she can contribute tomorrow or how
well his values mesh with those of the organization. You can train a bright,
willing novice in the fundamentals of your business fairly readily, but it's a
lot harder to train someone to have integrity, judgment, energy, balance and the
drive to get things done. Good leaders stack the deck in their favor right in
the recruitment phase.
Lesson 14
(Borrowed by Powell from Michael Korda) "Great leaders are almost always great
simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution
everybody can understand."
Effective leaders understand the KISS principle, or Keep It Simple, Stupid. They
articulate vivid, overarching goals and values, which they use to drive daily
behaviors and choices among competing alternatives. Their visions and priorities
are lean and compelling, not cluttered and buzzword-laden. Their decisions are
crisp and clear, not tentative and ambiguous. They convey an unwavering firmness
and consistency in their actions, aligned with the picture of the future they
paint. The result? Clarity of purpose, credibility of leadership, and integrity
in organization.
Lesson 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."
Powell's advice is, don't take action if you have only enough information to
give you less than a 40 percent chance of being right, but don't wait until you
have enough facts to be 100 percent sure, because by then it is almost always
too late. His instinct is right. Today, excessive delays in the name of
information-gathering breeds "analysis paralysis." Procrastination in the name
of reducing risk actually increases risk.
Lesson 16
"The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong,
unless proved otherwise."
Too often, the reverse defines corporate culture. This is one of the main
reasons why leaders like Ken Iverson of Nucor Steel, Percy Barnevik of Asea
Brown Boveri, and Richard Branson of Virgin have kept their corporate staffs to
a bare-bones minimum. (And I do mean minimum-how about fewer than 100 central
corporate staffers for global $30 billion-plus ABB? Or around 25 and 3 for
multi-billion Nucor and Virgin, respectively?) Shift the power and the financial
accountability to the folks who are bringing in the beans, not the ones who are
counting or analyzing them.
Lesson 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."
Herb Kelleher of Southwest Air and Anita Roddick of The Body Shop would agree.
Seek people who have some balance in their lives, who are fun to hang out with,
who like to laugh (at themselves, too) and who have some non-job priorities
which they approach with the same passion that they do their work. Spare me the
grim workaholic or the pompous pretentious "professional;" I'll help them find
jobs with my competitor.
Lesson 18
"Command is lonely."
Harry Truman was right. Whether you're a CEO or the temporary head of a project
team, the buck stops here. You can encourage participative management and
bottom-up employee involvement but ultimately, the essence of leadership is the
willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact on
the fate of the organization. I've seen too many non-leaders flinch from this
responsibility. Even as you create an informal, open, collaborative corporate
culture, prepare to be lonely.
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