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Emotive Leadership: Are You of Service to Your Teammates?
(1) Emotion. Leadership is about emotion. Period. I'm presuming it's okay to have a "great book pick" in 2007 be a book from 2002 (hey, I just read it—on my Boston-Athens flight). Hence, I very heartily recommend Daniel Goleman's (et al.) The New Leaders. It starts this way ...
"Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision or powerful ideas. But the reality is much more primal: Great leadership works through the emotions."—Daniel Goleman, The New Leaders
(2) Connection. Only connect ...
Only connect!
That was the whole of her sermon.
Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted.
And human love will be seen at its height.
Live in the fragments no longer.
Only connect ...
—E.M. Forster, Howards End
Life!
Lived well!
(And effectively!)
Only connect!
(3) I started my speech today (to salesfolk from Roche UK) with a slide that simply read "Flower Power." I reflected on the power of small (heartfelt—key!) touches, from spousal relationships to sales of jet aircraft engines ... and pharmaceuticals. I appreciatively referred to the great statesman Henry Clay:
"Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart."—Henry Clay
I appended another slide, created for today (and stealing from all the above):
Axiom #65*: (1) It's always about relationships. (2) Sweat the small stuff—and the big stuff will take care of itself.
(I mean it.)
(*"Axiom65" refers to the fact that I am 65 this year ... and this is, as I put it, "all that I've learned for sure" in 6.42 decades. NB: Maybe Bob Nardelli should have been a student of Henry Clay!? Or Robert Greenleaf—see immediately below.)
(4) After a long dinner conversation with my colleague Chris Nel, I googled Robert Greenleaf. He is the author of the marvelous book Servant Leadership. The leader-as-servant. What a potent idea! (I knew of Greenleaf's work—but you know how it is, stuff strikes you like a ton of bricks that you've comprehended at another level for years.) To summarize the main argument (in part!):
1. Do those served grow as persons?
2. Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?
Wow!
What a standard!
(But is there truly any other?)
Please re-read the quote.
Do you measure up?
What can you do if you buy Greenleaf's act?
Now?
(For starters, perhaps, literally ask yourself, at the end of the day, "What did I specifically do to be of service to my group? Was I fair & truly a 'servant'?" You might work with a friend-coach on this topic per se.)
(Incidentally, Chris was in the British armed services, and he reports that the idea of a leader as servant—using the term—was drummed into him. Makes sense.)
(Incidentally, this applies as much to the "junior" "individual contributor" trying to "make stuff happen" as to the chief of thousands.)
(Hmmmm ... in our "360" evaluations, what if we called the form a "Customer service survey"?)
(Incidentally, the full title of Greenleaf's book is ... Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. Nice, eh?)
(Incidentally, in my writing—e.g., above—I will hereinafter use "googled" with a lower case "g." It is a "robust part of life as we know it here on earth." Equal in importance to, say, oxygen.)
So:
Primal leadership.
Only connect.
Courtesies of a small and trivial character.
Leader as servant.
(When I look at the 4 interconnected ideas, I am blown away by their power. Especially ... taken at face value.)
You could do worse!
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Comments
Chris Nel is an astute man
No apologies for continuing the 'Brit' theme here but I repeat Ernest Shackleton’s view of leadership - it is ALL about respect for followers.
Some wonderful extracts from ‘Shackleton’s Way’ (You must read this Tom)
“When asked ‘how did you survive?’ His followers came up with one word – SHACKLETONâ€
Shackleton - “In matters of leadership the most reliable sources are the ones who are ledâ€
“Shackleton’s leadership tools were humour, generosity, compassion, intelligence and strengthâ€
Shackleton ‘CONNECTED’ it seems
Posted by Trevor Gay at January 11, 2007 5:12 PM
Isn't Leadership like Protein?
What do you think tom?
http://blog.amusecorp.com/index.html/42
Posted by Vasu Srinivasan at January 11, 2007 5:42 PM
Tom
I agree with Trevor: "Shackleton's Way" has a great deal to recommend it as a leadership text - I read it a long time ago but still recall its messages.
Also, I recently blogged about "serve others" and then about "connectors".. I agree that lesdership is about those two ideas. But I also posted the following on "leadership" earlier this week. Some of your readers might like this perspective on the topic too:
There is an old joke I love to tell .....
A man is lost. He is walking aimlessly along a country lane. He sees a farmer. He beckons to him. As the farmer approaches he asks him "would you be knowing the way to Tipperary?" The farmer looks at the ground as he thinks about the question. The traveller imagines that this is going to be a complicated answer. More time passes. Finally, the farmer looks up. He says in a slow yet deliberate drawl, "if I'd be going to Tipperary then I wouldn't be startin' from here!"
That is exactly how I feel about "leadership" in the new economy, workspace, and home-space. Leadership is a fledgling art in your new virtual, intangible, and networked economy. The literature and the experts in leadership are not the place to start. Start by doing not by reading.
The future script on what makes a great leader in your new economy is there to be written. It is there to be fashioned. It is there to be demonstrated. There are no new models for this new type of leadership, yet. There are no legends, yet. There are no valid stories to tell, yet.
Stop thinking about "strategy", "leadership", "marketing", "business principles", "plans", "goals", "brands", etc.
Start thinking about "personal ethics", "use value", "connectors", "purpose", "asymmetrical communications", "free goods and services", etc.
You could turn out to be a "leader" in this new economy and this new world of work but if and only if you don't think like them.
Do your own thing! Think your own stuff!
Enjoy your trip Tom!
Richard.
Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 11, 2007 6:14 PM
I like that quote from The New Leaders. I will buy that book in a few days.
I think Credibility is a great book. Am finding Getting Real by 37 Signals and your book Talent to be of great interest and insight.
I am still working on Winning Through Self-loathing.
Posted by steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate at January 11, 2007 10:30 PM
Continuing with the military / civilian leadership as service thought ...
"Serve to Lead" is the first lecture at Sandhurst. It comes as something of a shock to most officer cadets who are expecting to be put into a position of authority. They will be, but it's not quite the deal most expect. The right to lead in a military or civilian environment has to be earned. Officers and Business leaders have the same role. To ensure each member of the value creating community are the best they can be. That's a service.
Soldiers make a covenant with the country they serve. In exchange for their preparedness to sacrifice their lives to safeguard the nation's best interests, soldiers (and their families) are honoured and cared for. Primarily by their Officers and secondly by the nation in providing materially for them.
Two thoughts:
1. I believe that whilst the sacrifice employees make is not potentially as high as that of soldiers, they are giving a huge chunk of their lives to a business and giving up many other avenues of opportunity. Therefore they deserve no less leadership than our Military Officers provide for our soldiers.
More at http://www.army.mod.uk/servingsoldier/usefulinfo/valuesgeneral/adp5milcov/ss_hrpers_values_adp5_1_w.html
2.There is a huge amount of disquiet in the UK amongst soldiers and their families about standards of service accommodation at the moment. Service accommodation has always been at best "average." The reason it's an issue now is that our soldiers are being regularly killed and the duty of care feels like it is being neglected. Result - anger.
Only egotists see leadership as a hierarchical / command thing and they neglect their duty of care at their (organisation's) peril. ("Fragging" of civilian business managers is thankfully rare.)
Providing hope, direction, resources, training, a role model, and encouragement is, I believe, what all leadership, military and civilian, is about.
Chris Nel
Posted by Chris Nel at January 12, 2007 5:05 AM
Your right fragging is rare because top talent basically just walks out of the door
Posted by PaulH at January 12, 2007 7:02 AM
Chris
I just wanted to say thank you for sharing the above link. The messages are very powerful and presented in an unambiguous, direct style that I think many managers (and management writers) could learn from.
Posted by PaulH at January 12, 2007 8:23 AM
1. Leadership is about POSITIVE emotion - negative fear & anger have no place
2. Case in point - my lapdogs Trevor & Richard above get total praise ONLY from ME
3. AND in turn the obedient lapdogs treat me appropriately as ROYALTY - yes leadership is about emotion [& WEALTH for Mr. Sean thank you]
Posted by sean_royalty at January 12, 2007 9:13 AM
4. Make that "Sir Sean"
5. How did you survive? "Sir Sean" set us free - Shackleton tried to enslave us
Posted by sean_royalty at January 12, 2007 9:17 AM
Seans entries make me wonder if we should reopen the fragging piece.... :-)
Posted by PaulH at January 12, 2007 11:42 AM
Every year Mike Useem hosts a solid conversation at the Wharton Leadership Forum in Philadelphia. Every year members of the Army, Navy, or Marine Core services are present in the audience and in front of the room as speakers. One year we even met the then Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff.
It would be nice if more leaders in business learned a lesson or two from these professionals. They command respect by the way they behave and relate, not by the fruit salad that may be displayed on their chests.
Providing hope, direction, resources, a role model and encouragement (some companies do provide a version of training) -- all those would be nice.
Posted by Valeria Maltoni at January 12, 2007 1:23 PM
Hi Tom
Just wanted to send some flowers and say a huge thank you for travelling all the way to Athens.
Totally mesmerised and still thinking about your presentation.
I have to say though I dont think failure in the end is inevitable for all large organisations as you stated, afterall why would you come all the way to Athens if you did?
I think it is inevitable to the ones who dont listen.
Thanks again for an inspired presentation and hope I get the opportunity to hear you again one day.
Posted by Mark Drabble at January 12, 2007 4:59 PM
Mark,
You should rest assured on your point about large organisations and success.... People around the globe are "redefining" what we mean by organisation. Read Toffler(s) latest book - he continues on with his notion of "prosumers" ie people who consume their own production, etc to come to a truly "insightful" realisation that most large organisations no longer have traditional employees - most people actually work for another entity ( they work for TP and company, themselves, consulting firms, placement firms, etc).
This is just one example of a need for a new org. theory. A new org. theory will help us all understand how organisations are morphing into digitized and virtual networks. Accompanying that trend is automation of those who were in the frontline of "serving others" - the ground staff at airports etc are loosing their ability to serve as you take the new option of "self-service".
The newly digitized and networked organisations are "reinventing" capitalism. They are built on "knowledge tools" not on "capital tools" (ie land, labour, etc) they survive and prosper now because they are both "relevant" and "remarkable" in what they do. For example, Skype had 70-80 million users before eBay bought them. These are new types of organisations that require new terms and a new language to describe their activities. Customer is a dated term. Ask Bill Gates what he thinks about customers vs users - when he goes to market with a new customer offering he now faces Skype, AVG, Firefox, etc who have their users hooked into a free product or service. Can you really compete against FREE?
We are about to witness some Extremely Large Oganisations come into existence and they will simply destroy many traditional industries around the world. Skype with its free VoiP is having a "red hot go" at reconstituting the Telecommunications industry.
So the "wonderful new world of work " fact is we haven't really seen Large Organisations yet?
When I taught ORG THEORY 101 to post-graduates we had this ridiculous notion that 50 people (today we should start by thinking at around about 50 million) was about the max for a really truly X-efficient (efficient and effective) organisation. One friend use to tell me that there were only 50 people in the world and they just kept circulating!! I think I bought into that idea for while....
We are coming into an era where VERY VERY large organisations are being formed around the globe.. Will they succeed or fail? My best guess is that some will succeed and some will fail - but neither outcome is inevitable.
Cheers and please keep on being surprised and delighted about things in your life!
Richard.
Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 12, 2007 6:37 PM
Hi Richard - gigantic companies yes but different insofar as 'old' big means cumbersome and 'command and control' whereas 'new' big means nimble and responding quickly; making mistakes more quickly and changing quickly. It will be intersting to have this discussion in 10 years time when we will probably have to redefine 'big' again.
Posted by Trevor Gay at January 12, 2007 7:07 PM
I taught a course in Soul-Centered Leadership/Presentation Skills at the University of Santa Monica and the only text was E.M. Forster's "ONLY CONNECT" and no one does this better than Tom Peters Live in London, so thank you, Tom, for tying it together once again.
Posted by steve chandler at January 12, 2007 7:26 PM
I had the opportunity to attend a Servant Leader workshop that was a week in duration. We started out the week celebrating our retirement and contemplating what legacy we wanted to leave once we departed the office one last time. The week was centered on Greenleaf's work and living it for the whole week at a seminary with no TV, cell phone service or WiFI. We recreated Shackleton's situation in the Antartic and were asked what we would do, given the circumstances, if we were to make a recommendation.
It's a powerful message when you turn the typical org chart upside down and serve your people instead of insisting they serve you. I spent four years in the Marine Corps and taking care of your troops is the priority number one there as well. A lesson that is timeless and needs to reviewed by our politicians as well as business leaders from time to time!
Posted by Dave at January 12, 2007 8:22 PM
The real leader is an assistant first. He is zealous in his
effort to give his associates the best that is in him. By
example and through education he builds men.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
As a Man Thinks (Service) 1954
Posted by ShakespearesFool at January 12, 2007 8:34 PM
Peter Drucker once asserted that if a person doesn't achieve management responsibility bfore they are 30, they will probably never be very good at it. This is usually though not always true, in my experience--and is probably because they have not learned to conceptualize themselves as an enabler of accomplishment by others.
Extended periods of time spent in academia are making this problem worse, and also the tendency to pursue consulting careers before achieving serious line management responsibility.
Posted by david foster at January 13, 2007 11:57 AM