Off the Cuff Series

We're happy to announce the start of our Off the Cuff video series. A few months ago we asked for you to send us questions you'd like us to ask Tom on camera. The first question was posed by longtime fan Dave Wheeler, about how it came to be that Tom realized the importance of front line supervisors. We find the timing of this particularly remarkable, since it dovetails so well with the latest part of the Mother of All Presentations released at ExcellenceNow.com, First-line Supervisors Rule.

TLBT Video #70
Leadership: Hire the Last One Percenters

The latest in the The Little BIG Things Video Series is posted at YouTube. Tom explains that, when hiring, you should look for a special class of people who can't rest until the job is finished—through that last one percent.

You can watch the video here (Time: 2 minutes 48 seconds). Also available, a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: Hire the Last One Percenters.

Tom on Baseball Management for the Washington Post

The Washington Post asked Tom his opinion about who the best manager in baseball is. As usual, Tom supplies an unexpected answer.

From Terry Francona to Tony La Russa, why there's no such thing as the best manager in baseball

Financial Times EXPANDED
First Things Before First Things

(Note: The Financial Times published a column of mine on 29 August. Editors must edit—and they did. All writers think editors are heartless; some writers, lucky enough to have blogs, can post the version they first submitted. Here it is, 1,200 words rather than the 700 that eventually appeared in print.)

There is no logic to this column.
Which is precisely the point.

I was initially trained as an engineer. (And have an MBA as well.) That essentially means that I am a slave to linear, logical analysis. Hence my presentations start at the start and I carefully build a logical structure for all that follows.

Fair enough. Except I frequently find that critical things I want to say get left out or buried. Hence, about a year ago I threw off my logical halter and decided to say what I thought was important, come what may, at the top of my remarks.

Consideration of business strategy, approaches to product development, and the like, are of the utmost importance to enterprise success. Yet there are other factors—perhaps mundane at first glance—that are the true differentiators between mediocrity and excellence. I'll touch upon four, which I call "First Things Before First Things." Most will agree that each one is important. But my goal is to induce you to convert them into strategic obsessions.

Front-line managers. If the regimental commander lost most of his 2nd lieutenants and 1st lieutenants and captains and majors, it would be a tragedy. If he lost his sergeants it would be a catastrophe. The Army is fully aware that success on the battlefield is dependent to an extraordinary degree on its sergeants. Does industry "get it"?

Research by the likes of Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, reported in First, Break All the Rules, demonstrates that the first-line manager is the single most important key to employee satisfaction, retention—and productivity. No matter how fine the organization, if the employee is sour on his immediate boss, her or his performance will significantly suffer. I am not suggesting that execs don't take the front-line boss seriously. I am suggesting that, unlike the Army, they are not obsessed with developing their full cadre of front-line managers as a primary strategic asset and engine of enterprise performance! For starters: Are your font-line boss selection and training and mentoring processes unmistakably "knock-your-socks-off"/"best-in-class"?

Cross-functional excellence. Look at any organizational failure, and poor cross-functional integration is more often than not the chief culprit. Within an engineering company, for example, research, marketing and finance are routinely at each other's throats. The result is a critical new product comes to market 18 months late. Or take the local police and federal police: Each have the fight against terrorism as their pre-eminent goal—but frequently refuse to share all their data with one another. I chose in introducing this topic the word "excellence," as in "cross-functional excellence." That is, the idea here is not merely about "removing barriers." It is about what I believe is no less than the #1 opportunity to achieve competitive dominance—e.g., cut new-product development by, say, 50 percent or even more.

I have the utmost respect for Oracle and SAP. But this is not primarily a software issue. Or, rather, it is—but a softer form of software. Secret #1 (yes, I'll go that far) is "Let's do lunch." In fact I insist that bosses literally measure their direct reports on the number of lunches per month they have with members of other functions!

It works like this: Joe in procurement invites Sam in finance to lunch. Odds are high that along the way they discover a host of connections—e.g., both have eighth-graders in the same school. Joe will still tenaciously represent his "function" and Sam his—but the tenor of interactions is likely to change significantly, if not dramatically, from "gotcha" to something approaching "How can we jointly add maximum value?"

I call thing like "doing lunch" the "social accelerants" of cross-functional excellence. I can muster a list of 25 in a flash—e.g., present small weekly awards to those in other functions who have helped your team-function move forward. One should not promise miracles lightly, but taken together these notions can lead to miracles of the first order.

"Strategic" listening. Harvard M.D. Jerome Groopman wrote a fascinating book titled How Doctors Think. Dr. Groopman claims, not terribly surprisingly, that the best source for a doctor concerning the patient's complaint is—the patient. Yet he goes on to cite research showing that on average the doctor interrupts the patient after ... 18 seconds. I'll bet you a bundle that the average manager does not surpass the 18-second mark!

Like developing first-line managers and trying to improve cross-functional coordination, most bosses would agree that listening is "important." But, again, do they make it a strategic obsession? Because beyond a shadow of doubt that is precisely what listening per se should be.

I made a list of the things that flow from effective listening ("strategic listening" or "aggressive listening" as I prefer to call it). Listening is ...

the heart and soul of engagement,
the heart and soul of recognition,
the heart and soul of strategic partnering,
the heart and soul of learning,
the heart and soul of customer connections.
And on.
And on.

As with all things important, the key is becoming a serious student and practitioner. In fact I'll go so far as to say that listening per se is/can be a "profession" ... as much as playing the cello or flying a commercial aircraft.

Meetings. Find me a boss (or non-boss) who doesn't constantly bitch about "too many meetings"—I've never found one. But here is the irreducible fact of "boss-world": Meetings are what bosses do. There is no escape. And if that is true, then, also by definition, meetings are therefore the principal platform, or theater, in which every boss projects her or his leadership skills.

Immutable "bottom line": Every meeting that does not stir the imagination and curiosity of attendees, and increase bonding and co-operation and engagement and sense of worth, and motivate rapid action and enhance enthusiasm is a permanently lost opportunity. Call that a stretch if you wish—but then please explain to me why it is not the self-evident truth!

Let me be clear: This is not a rant about "conducting better meetings." This is a rant about the heart and soul and hour-to-hour reality of leadership effectiveness. One obvious implication: Prepare for a meeting/every meeting as if your professional life and legacy depended on it. Because it does.

There they are: "First things before first things." None, I strongly suspect, would disagree with the fact that all four are "important," even "very important." But it is my claim here that the four are in fact the "guts" of effective organizations—and, in fact, sustainable competitive advantage. Make each of these an "obsession"—and watch the bottom line soar.

Little BIG Video #66
Brand You:
You Are the Company
You Keep

The Little BIG Things Video Series continues at YouTube. In the most recent video, Tom explains his theory that if you want to be more innovative, you must hang out with interesting people who pull you into the future.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute 56 seconds] And, of course, a transcript of the video's content is also available as a PDF: Brand You: You Are the Company You Keep. Enjoy!

So When the F___ Is This Going to Stop Being News?

I'm listening to an interview with the outgoing ambassador to Afghanistan, who was also the former Commanding General there. He says his breakthrough (he argues, realistically I think, that there's been progress) was when he started, and I paraphrase, "going out to the countryside." Likewise, in Iraq, when he was CG, General Petraeus apparently had a big poster on the wall with his guiding philosophy. The last item, in far bigger print than the others was "WALK."

So when the hell, in industry or the army, is "walkin' around," getting out and about, going to stop being a "breakthrough" leadership idea?

In 1979, on a visit to then-president John Young, Bob Waterman and I first heard about Hewlett-Packard's MBWA. Managing By Wandering Around. It was love at first sight. And it still is for me. (And, doubtless, Bob.)

Of course, HP was late to the party. By about 125 years.

In my opinion, General Ulysses S. Grant has been by far America's most effective general. (Unconditional Surrender Grant, as he was sometimes called.) Back in the 1860s, Grant was talking about, de facto, CWVA. That is, as he labeled it ... Commanding While Visiting About. On horseback, of course. In fact, better still, Grant was famous for CBWA-ing pretty much by himself. When other generals would "visit," it was invariably with a retinue in tow—loaded with colonels and other officers. Grant traveled with just one enlisted man accompanying him whose task was to ride off and deliver new orders from Grant to other commands.

Why?
Why?
Why?

Why is ... getting out and about ... MBWA-CWVA ... in 2011 ... still news?
It beats the hell out of me.
As one CEO put it, of my life's work, back in 1984 ... "a blinding flash of the obvious."
Indeed.

Twitter Takes

Success in 140 characters: Attack EVERY project you do with Reckless ENTHUSIASM and a Passionate Commitment to EXCELLENCE!

Leadership in 140 characters: Energy. Enthusiasm. Passion. "People first" in her bone marrow. Curiosity. Integrity. "Ready. Fire. Aim." Sense of humor. A good accountant.

Meetings Am Me!

Don't have a clue about what got me going on meetings. Maybe a book I saw on "Running Better Meetings"—or some such. Meetings, I argue in this Special Presentation, are not about efficiency/brevity-at-all-costs!

Meetings are "what bosses do."

Hence ... BY DEFINITION ... meetings are Leadership Opportunity #1. (No kidding. Think about it. If "how you spend your time" is the clearest statement of what you stand for and how you develop your people and your message—then meetings are the heart of the matter.)

FYI: All meetings are ... THEATER!

Hope this little presentation makes you ponder a bit ...

Meetings

Little BIG Video #64
Leadership:
Lead by Example

Here's the latest video at YouTube, #64 in The Little BIG Things Video Series. Tom says "It's always show time" (quoting David D'Alessandro) if you're in a leadership position. You lead by example whether trying to or not.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes 30 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: Lead by Example.

Little BIG Video #57
Leadership:
Key Question

Here's video number 57 from The Little BIG Things Video Series. Tom says, "When you become a senior leader, you're not supposed to be the number one strategist, you're supposed to hire the number one strategist... Who have you developed and precisely how have you developed them?"

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 3 minutes, 37 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: Key Question.

Pushups Till the Sunrise—
A Soldier's Journey from the Front Line to the Bottom Line

[Our guest blogger is John Durfee. John is an Operation Freedom War veteran and a manager for Airsplat. He offers a perspective not frequently articulated on leadership.]

I left the military as a noncommissioned officer and I hold that as a point of pride. That position meant that I was in charge of anywhere between 8-20 men during my deployments. Today, I find myself in quite a similar position working in an office as a department manager. Instead of patrols and firefights, I find myself working up reports and competing with other companies for customers—the mission still being to "win hearts and minds" and defeat the enemy. The leadership skills I learned in the military helped me become a driven and focused leader. Here are some pearls of wisdom I've acquired from drill sergeants, instructors, and commanding officers during my time in the service:

Being A Leader Is:

• Being a leader is a privilege not a right

I've seen many both in the military and civilian life who do not apply this mindset. They are the ones who think promotion to a higher position means less work. In the military, being promoted means you have the same duties you had as before plus new responsibilities. It's a privilege given to you by showing your potential for greater responsibility. A real example would be on my second deployment. I had just been promoted to squad leader in a new group and we needed to do vehicle repairs and maintenance. Instead of just assigning tasks to everyone else, I was lying on my back in the dirt changing the oil, fixing radiator leaks, and getting about as tired and sweaty as the rest of my crew.

• Being a leader is trusting the team you manage

Sometimes there are leaders who can do it all, and who very much try to do it all. It's not the fact they lack the skills (most are usually amazing multi-taskers), it's just they can't trust the work to anyone else. Working over someone's shoulder is not really letting others do work. It's working by proxy through your employees.

Here's a prime example from my first deployment. When clearing out a suspicious building, it's usually the squad leaders' jobs (those who work directly under an officer) to set up a perimeter immediately after. Due to proper leadership and training, the squad leaders know to do it without being told. If an officer needs to tell where to place every individual man, that's an example of micromanagement and poor leadership. They're wasting time tasking work that should have been the squad leader's job in the first place. Time and attention is taken away from the bigger picture. A good leader should know who to trust with positions of responsibility so they can manage the bigger scope of the mission/assignment.

• Being a leader is giving the best training possible

If you're a manager, there's a good chance you get to choose who to hire, or at least bear the responsibility of training them. If your employees make a mistake, the responsibility not only reflects on that worker, but also on yourself. For example, if I had one of my patrolmen caught asleep on guard duty, I would have to be out there with my patrolmen pulling a double shift the next night. Now in a workplace, such forms of reprimand rarely ever happen. But you will have to answer to your CEO or superiors when quarterly reviews or performance assessments come about.

• Being a leader is setting the standard

This leads me to my next point: You set the standard of performance that comes out of your unit or office team. If you're unsure in your decisions, you'll have a team that will question your orders, or not execute them with speed and determination. If you're a lazy leader, your team will reflect that. I make sure to be clear, level-headed, and determined—even at points when internally, I wasn't. Imagine getting caught by surprise in an ambush. Which would you prefer, a squad leader that shows his fear and hesitates, or the one that forces it aside and starts giving clear commands. To be a leader is to become the best possible version of yourself as a soldier, as a worker, and whatever your job requires of you.

Little BIG Video #51
Leadership:
The 3 H's

Here's video number 51 from The Little BIG Things Video Series. According to Tom, "If you understand the 3 H's, you you don't need to understand anything else about business success."

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute, 24 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: The 3 H's.

The Calm After the Storm?

[Our guest blogger is Madeleine McGrath, Managing Director of the Tom Peters Company.]

During summer 2010, we (Tom Peters Company) were sensing that among our clients that had survived the worst of the recession, the mood was becoming more buoyant. Our customer base tends to be more forward-thinking and adventurous than the norm, and is often a bellwether of new trends. We therefore decided to find out what this group was seeing ahead, and if there were lessons for other leaders.

Our recent survey involved a select group of clients located in 29 countries and 6 continents. Overall, we found they, particularly those in the private sector, are indeed ready to put the past behind them. One respondent summed it up this way: "We've been in survival mode and it has hurt our growth. We need to focus on the future and stop the survival mentality. But how?"

We used our Excellence Audit™ survey to identify the development priorities that participants now see as important. A sign that recovery is on the way was that the prior focus on cost and systems has been overshadowed by a realization that Leadership is now the key element for attention.

Managers in our sample realize that it is time to pay attention to the people that have brought them through the recession. "Now that the economy is on the up, we need to step back the pressure, to work on the experiences of clients and workers, and to use technology to help us to do that."

According to our customers, leaders must devote attention to two action areas in our Excellence Audit, above all others.

1. Find, deploy, encourage, and protect intra-preneurs, groundbreakers, and champions of change.
2. Get actively involved in the talent management process - strategy, tactics, and implementation!

Our survey participants know the value of focusing on their people, but realize they have been distracted:

"This is an area that has taken a back-seat to execution as we weather the current economic storm."

"Too often people engage in conducting the tasks we are assigned and forget about developing their people."

If you are looking for more ideas about how to develop a leadership action plan in these areas, see Tom's Working Master Slideset Part 3: Talent. More information about the Excellence Audit and how it can help you create your own improvement agenda can be found here. Contact team@tompeters.com for information about the Research Project Findings.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#15 Leadership
#16 Words

It's time for two new sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Leadership" and "Words." Both sections focus on respect, with Leadership encouraging you to serve those who you lead, and Words emphasizing the power of simple phrases that can completely change a relationship.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#15 Leadership
#16 Words

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

Mickey Drexler/J.Crew

I could teach an entire MBA course using as source material the 20 September 2010 New Yorker profile of J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler—titled "The Merchant: It's All About the Eye—And the Numbers."

In shorthand form, I have extracted a list of some of the items that are central to Drexler's approach. I present them here, and as a PowerPoint slide.

• Bias for instant action/Towering impatience with in-action
• Impatient but not brutal
• Relentless/Speed-of-light experimentation; more ASAP if works, drop if not
• Vibrates with energy (literally)
• Always on the prowl—anywhere, everywhere—for ideas
• Lots of team-standing-around-making-instant-assessments-decisions—all contributing
• Likes working with women more than men because F more intuitive than M
• Dresses like the brand—at 66
• Offense, not defense
• Communicates all the time [removes fear from hearing "famous" CEO]. Everyone, including most junior, made part of the decision-making team
• Listens attentively regardless of age/seniority
• Obvious in his transparent respect for young employees
• Trusts intuition plus fanatic about the numbers
• Expects everyone to know their numbers cold from memory
• Always aware of "the business case"—as well fashion-master
• Aggressive pricing
• MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around
• Open with everyone, from youth to folks at Earnings Call
• Constant customer contact/Dialogues with customer/Reacts instantly to customer feedback
• Willing to act (experiment) based on one datapoint
• Engages with most junior people
• At 66, comfortably uses "hot" words like "Cool" "Wow"

There is no doubt that these notions are especially fit for retailers. Yet I will unequivocally assert that this list with little modification applies to any flavor of business.

(For what it's worth, I'm also attaching this in PowerPoint.)

World Business Forum 2010
#wbf10

Our longtime friends at HSM put on their annual World Business Forum in New York last week. Tom has spoken at this event in the past and this year they invited us to attend via the Blogger's Hub, a special section monitoring the event.

The roster of speakers was impressive, to say the least. To name but a few: Al Gore, Jack Welch, A.G. Lafley, Joseph Stiglitz, Steve Levitt, Jim Collins, James Cameron, and Charlene Li. The presentations ran the gamut from economics to innovation, but there was no lack of commonality of message with what Tom has been espousing for decades. So what were the major themes and takeaways of the event?

Talent
The first day of the event seemed to have an underlying theme of talent. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, asked, "How many key seats are on your bus? How many have you filled with the right people?" Carlos Brito, CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, offered the equation, "Great people = Great companies." He advocated for creating a culture of owners, avoiding the "don't be gentle, it's a rental" mindset (you'd do things in a rental car you wouldn't dream of in one you own). Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, put it simply and definitively: "You get the best players, you win."

Experiment
Welch went on to say that "you have to create entrepreneurial innovators within your business." Renee Mauborgne, coauthor of Blue Ocean Strategy, went a bit more deeply into this argument. She said, "The more we benchmark, the more we become like the competition." And that certainly isn't going to inspire game-changing innovation. She emphasized the importance of shifting your focus from day to day productivity into creativity and thinking about the future. As A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble said, "Great innovators constantly disrupt themselves."

Lafley encouraged the audience to cocreate products with their customers. Charlene Li, coauthor of Groundswell, gave a specific example of how Starbucks cocreated a new customer experience (self-serve drip coffee) using social media, and despite the failure of the feature, strengthened customer relationships by including them in the process, start to finish. Steve Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics, also highlighted the importance of experimenting. "'I don't know' is the least common phrase in business today. ...Try to utter that phrase at least once a day." But he cautioned to not forget to measure the results of your experiments, as this happens all too often.

Storytelling
Spending two days watching such an impressive lineup of speakers provides ample opportunity for comparison and critique. What makes for the most compelling speech? Whenever Tom is asked for advice regarding speeches, he never fails to mention the importance of storytelling. Joseph Grenny, coauthor of Influencer, spoke of this outright. Cool Friend Martin Lindstrom showed the power of brand storytelling. The slides that speech-veteran former Vice President Al Gore used were almost completely text-free and only served to enhance his case for action against the devastating effects of global warming. James Cameron, director of Avatar and Titanic, described his journeys in storytelling and the techniques he used to make stories come to life. But it was a survivor of a plane crash in the Andes, Nando Parrado, that captured the audience's full attention and garnered the only standing ovation when he took us on his incredible journey, providing a compelling reminder of what really matters in life.

Aspiration
Tom frequently asks, "If not Excellence, what?" Several of the speakers shared this message of aspiration. Vijay Govindarajan of the Tuck School of Business and Renee Mauborgne presented clear arguments for lifting your focus from the daily churn so that you can take the essential step of plotting strategy for the future. Carlos Brito used the example of a high jump when discussing leadership. He said you must set the bar high, because like athletes training for the high jump who only just make it over the bar, people will only jump as high as is required to achieve the goal. And to leave you with the words of the last speaker of the World Business Forum 2010, James Cameron said, "The biggest risk is not to be bold."

Little BIG Video #43
Brand You:
GTHOOTO

In video number 43 from The Little BIG Things Video Series, Tom simplifies the Managing By Wandering Around strategy. If you're a leader, you need to do it now.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute, 40 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Brand You: GTHOOTO.

Little BIG Video #41
Leadership:
The Power of Apology

In video number 41 from The Little BIG Things Video Series, Tom encourages us to become students of apology. He says, "Learning how to apologize effectively is the real essence of strategic strength."

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 3 minutes, 2 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: The Power of Apology.

Cool Friend #150:
James Strock

Who are you serving? How can you best serve? Are you making your unique contribution? Are you getting better every day? These are the four questions central to the book Serve to Lead, by James Strock. Jim is our new Cool Friend. In the interview, he and Erik Hansen discuss how your thinking shifts when you start asking these questions on a regular basis and how they apply to current events. Read the interview and find out more about Jim at JamesStrock.com.

And She Called on Robin ...
And the Heavens Parted

In Intuition, a stunning novel about the politics of science by Allegra Goodman, "Marion," see below, is the head of a department where some powerful research is being conducted. Among many other things, near the end of the book, correctly or not, one of the post-docs becomes a whistle blower—and creates a godawful mess. As I said, the allegations may or may not have been warranted, but in a flash (below) the psychological problem which led to the post-doc's meltdown becomes clear, after years, to super-logical, demanding boss Marion. The play here is subtle. This may do nothing for you, but I carry the quote around with me. In my case, it is-was a bombshell upon 3rd or 4th reading, and its strength only grows—I've probably read it, no kidding, 50 times now.

Give it a shot:

Marion ... glanced at the raised hands [she was presenting a paper] and enjoyed the interest in her work. She ... gazed at her former post-doc, her rebellious child with her hand raised. 'What do you need now?' she asked herself. Strange, she'd never posed the question that way before. She'd always considered what her post-doc demanded, what she did or did not deserve. What did she need? That was the puzzle, but as was so often the case, framing the question properly went a long way. What did she need? In that calm, clear, nearly joyous moment after her talk, the answer began to come to Marion. Ah, yes, of course, she thought with some surprise. And she called on Robin.

Obviously (but not obviously to blunt Marion for years), the post-doc "simply" needed recognition. And I think there is an enormous message here. A lot of bosses are Marions. And a lot of employees are kin to our post-doc. Of course, you may just think I'm nuts about this one wee paragraph. Fair enough.

Leadership: The 4 Most Important Words

Tom says that if you're really interested in engaging your workforce, you'll use four simple words. Which four? To find out, watch the new video from The Little BIG Things Video Series.

You can find the video in the right column here at tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute, 51 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: The 4 Most Important Words.

Leadership: American vs Southwest

Tom gives a powerful example of what happens when you treat your employees like customers in a new video from The Little BIG Things Video Series.

You can find the video in the right column here at tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 33 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: American vs Southwest.

Helping.
The Manager's Job 1.

From a student of renowned Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz, as reported in Lane Cooper's 1917 Louis Agassiz as Teacher:

"I had assigned to me a small pine table with a rusty tin pan upon it. When I sat down before my tin pan, Agassiz brought me a small fish, placing it before me with the rather stern requirement that I should study it., but on no account talk to anyone concerning it, nor read anything relating to fishes until I had his permission to do so. To my inquiry, 'What shall I do?' he said in effect: 'Find out what you can without damaging the specimen; when I think you have done the work I will question you.' In the course of an hour I thought I had compassed the fish. I was anxious to make a summary report and get on with the next state of business."

But Agassiz paid no attention to his student that day, the next, or during the following week. So the novice, after suppressing his impatience, took another look, and then another. To his surprise, he learned more: "I set my wits to work upon the thing, and in the course of 100 hours or so though I had done much—a hundred times as much as seemed possible at the start."

Agassiz eventually responded: "On the seventh day came the question, 'Well,' and my disgorge of learning to him as he sat on the edge of my table puffing his cigar. At the end of the hour's telling, he swung off and away, saying, 'That is not right.'"

Reluctantly, the student went back to his rusty tin pan. After another week of hard, silent labor, he had results that astonished him and passed muster with his taciturn teacher. Agassiz acknowledged the student's success by bring him a big pile of bones, with the order to sort them out.

Much more agonized examination was in store, with stupendous results: "Two months or more went into this second task with no other help than an occasional looking over my grouping with the stereotyped remark: 'That is not right.' Finally the task was done and I was set upon a remarkable lot of specimens representing 20 species of the side swimmers. I shall never forget the sense of power which I felt in beginning the more extended work on a group of animals. I had learned the art of comparing objects, which is the basis of the naturalist's work."

The manager is in fact a teacher, akin to Louis Agassiz. She or he has, in effect, only one objective: pursuing improved performance by fostering long-term personal (and team) engagement, learning and continuous development. There is in fact no other path than deep immersion and indeed frustration to master any topic, in 1917 or 2010, from the nature of a lab specimen or the intimate workings of some small part of the firm's purchasing activity. Hence the de facto goal of the superior manager is to more or less create a workplace that mimics the peerless Agassiz's lab.

I have become obsessed with the idea and professional practice of helping, partially as a result of ingesting Ed Schein's magisterial book Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help , mentioned here before. Helping is a profession, in fact the primary task of the manager. Helping, like listening, can be mastered—through hard and sustained work, not unlike that of our budding professional zoologist.

The Manager's Job

Help/10X harder-more subtle than you think.
Listen/Engage.
Thank/Appreciate.
Apologize/Nurture accountability.

New Audio: Tom Reads The Little BIG Things

This week's additions to the audio files on the book page are in the section titled "Leadership":

#53. To Lead Is to Measurably Help Others Succeed.

#54. At Their Service.

#55. Have You "Hosted" Any Good Employees Lately?

#56. A Sacred Trust.

#57. Rat Psych Rules!-Or: Deploying Positive Reinforcement's Incredible Potency.

Collect them all, and when we're finished, you'll have an audio version of the entire book.

Leadership: Building Success

There's a new addition to The Little BIG Things Video Series called Leadership: Building Success. Tom shares Dave Liniger of RE/MAX's philosophy: your goal should be to make the people who work for you successful. That increases the odds of your own success.

You can find the video in the right column here at tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 2 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: Building Success.

Self-knowledge Reigns!
Every Interaction Unique!
Their Eyes, Not Yours!

I happened across a New York Times interview, from April 10, of Andrew Cosslett, CEO Continental Hotels Group. I was particularly taken by the following two quotes from Cosslett, as he explained his success:

"I think having a sense of self-awareness is very important, like how you impact each of the people you're with individually. ...

"The whole thing about staying alive on a rugby field is about reliance on the guys around you. You need to gel them as a team, but each one responds individually. So it's about dealing with them on their terms, not yours. I'm very sensitive to how people are feeling at any given moment."

The powerful notions, for me, are:

(1) "how you impact each of the people you're with"
(2) "sensitive to how people are feeling at any given moment"
(3) "dealing with them on their terms, not yours"

Many of the top leadership authorities, such as Warren Bennis and Marshall Goldsmith, have long put self-knowledge at the top of their lists of leaders' success traits. Fact is, research shows, the large majority of us are downright lousy judges of how we come across. Working on this self-knowledge is a big project, not to be taken lightly.

Major league baseball consists of a whopping 162 games in the regular season. To listen to the best managers, they field 162 different teams, depending on where the heads and hearts of their players are on any given day. The work year consists of about 250 "games"—and, indeed, each one differs from the one before and the next one to come. Conscious awareness of "where the heads are at" of our 25 colleagues on the project team on 25 May 2010 is of paramount importance to the leader; again, evidence suggests that many of us are found wanting on this score.

Finally is the paramount idea of "their terms, not yours." It is a commonplace, often ignored, that we deal with the world as seen through our own eyes, leaden with our feelings of the moment; and often are oblivious to the trials and tribulations of "the other"—alas, this seems to especially be the case with spouses, and for males. Seeing the world through the other's eyes does not in any way mean being a patsy, as so many seem to assume. It is possible to be just as tough, when necessary, looking through the other guy's spectacles. In fact, it can readily be argued that "being tough" (if necessary) is more effective when looking through the other's lenses; that is, many/most acts of toughness backfire precisely because they fail to account for the mental state of the other person.

All three of these ideas are near the core of effective leadership. And none of the three is easy to take aboard, let alone master. Yet it is not a stretch to say that success or failure on these three dimensions is the key to success or failure as a leader.

Thank you, Mr Cosslett!

Leo's Lesson.
(And Ken Kesey's.)

"Hermann Hesse's story, Journey to the East, tells of a band of men, each having his own goal, on a mythical journey to the East. With them is the servant Leo, who does their menial chores, sustains them with his spirit and his song, and, by the quality of his presence, lifts them above what they otherwise would be. All goes well until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray and the journey finally is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo."

It was this story, and there obviously is a lot more to it, that triggered Robert Greenleaf's adventure as the prophet of "servant leadership."

I spent a fruitful weekend, amidst Vermont's luscious Spring, re-reading The Servant-Leader Within, by Robert Greenleaf (edited by Hamilton Beazley, Julie Beggs, and Larry Spears). I was reminded anew of the power of the idea.

Here are a few of the highlights for me, in no particular order:

*The leader is servant—and is served. That is, the effective leader helps others and learns how to receive help in her or his own journey.

*The servant leader's Final Exam: "Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"

*"True leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others."

*The servant leader's premier trait is ... LISTENING. E.g.: "a deep commitment to listening intently to others," "seeks to identify the will of a group and helps clarify that will," "listens receptively to what is being said (and not said!)." "Listening is much more than just keeping quiet. Listening begins with attention and the search for understanding. ..."

*Ken Kesey knew! Greenleaf delightfully acknowledges that Hesse's fiction is not the only clue to servant leadership. He also cites Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. "Big Nurse" is "strong, able, dedicated, dominating, authority ridden, manipulative, exploitive." MacMurphy, on the other hand: "The net effect of his influence is to build people up and make both patients and the doctor in charge of the ward grow bigger, stronger, healthier." (Greenleaf acknowledges that MacMurphy dies for his troubles—as, of course, did Gandhi and King and others. Serving with heart and soul is no walk in the park!)

Servant Leadership
From The Little BIG Things

My take:

Our goal is to serve our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long haul.

Serving our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long haul is a product of brilliantly serving, over the long haul, the people who serve the customer.

Hence, our job as leaders—the alpha and the omega and everything in between—is abetting the sustained growth and success and engagement and enthusiasm and commitment to Excellence of those, one at a time, who directly or indirectly serve the ultimate customer.

We—leaders of every stripe—are in the "Human Growth and Development and Success and Aspiration to Excellence Business."

"We" [leaders] only grow when "they" [each and every one of our colleagues] are growing.

"We" [leaders] only succeed when "they" [each and every one of our colleagues] are succeeding.

"We" [leaders] only energetically march toward Excellence when "they" [each and every one of our colleagues] are energetically marching toward Excellence.

Period.

(Above: Spring GREEN/VT. Below: Baby chicks settling in.)

Life's Work!
Help!

What do managers do for a living?
Help!
Right?

How many of us could call ourselves "professional helpers," meaning that we have studied, like a professional mastering her craft, "helping"?

Not many, I'd judge.

I've got the solution!
Or, rather, Edgar Schein, emeritus Professor of Management at MIT, does.

Ed has been a pioneer in organization and personal change. At it since the 1950s. And now he's written his summa, a 157-page book titled Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help. Based on tested theory, it is very readable. And practical.

The last chapter consists of "tips" and 7 "principles." E.g.:

"PRINCIPLE 2: Effective Help Occurs When the Helping Relationship Is Perceived to Be Equitable.
"PRINCIPLE 4: Everything You Say or Do Is an Intervention that Determines the Future of the Relationship.
"PRINCIPLE 5: Effective Helping Begins with Pure Inquiry.
"PRINCIPLE 6: It Is the Client Who Owns the Problem."*

*TP: Love the idea that the employee is a Client!! (Words matter!!)

Employee as Client!
"Helping" is what we [leaders] "do" for a living.
STUDY/PRACTICE "helping" as you would neurosurgery.
("Helping" is your neurosurgery!)

Little BIG Things
Ways to Pursue Excellence #165: Boss as "Helper."

Bosses exist to "help."
Period.

Check your calendar.
Right now.

What have been your EXPLICIT "helping" activities today?

Little BIG Things
Ways to Pursue Excellence #166: Employee as "Client."

Your employees are your "Clients."
Duh!

Use the word!

Little BIG Things
Ways to Pursue Excellence #167: Become a Student of "Helping." Become a "Professional" Helper.

"Helping" is NOT (!!!) a "seat of the pants" activity.
Study it.
Practice it.
Master it.

Innovation Equality Video

The video series continues with this short (1 minute, 37 seconds) spot about Innovation Equality. Watch the video on YouTube to find out what Tom means by that. You can also see other videos in the series by going to this page of our website and choosing from the list of titles.

[If you'd like a transcript in PDF form, we provide it here: Innovation Equality.]

Leadership Quality

[Richard King, Managing Partner of Tom Peters Company, UK, has this commentary on the BloombergBW/Hay Group study we included in Link Roundup #13 last week.]

Commenting on their recently published study of the Best Companies for Leadership, Hay Group's John Larrere said, "Rapid changes in the world are impacting how organizations do business, and as a result, the old rules of how organizations select, develop and retain good leaders have been turned upside down causing the future of leadership to look very different. ... It's about getting them (people) to be passionate about their work and grooming them to handle the challenges ahead."

These findings fall in line with those of leadership researchers Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner who highlight "Inspiring" and "Forward Looking" as two of the four key leadership characteristics people look for in leaders they would chose to follow (see their book Credibility). But here's a twist, Credibility was published in 1993. So ... some might argue that it's not particularly earth-shattering news that "The Best Companies for Leadership" have now worked this out!

But I think there are more important characteristics to building contemporary leadership effectiveness. For example, Kouzes and Posner's classic research highlighted "Honest" and "Competent" as the other two characteristics people predominantly look for in leaders. I wonder whether these Top 20 Best Companies in the Hay study have figured out how to select, build, and maintain people's belief that they are being honestly and competently led in today's unpredictable business world? Or are we all now so bashed about and cynical that these latter characteristics no longer matter as much?

Leadership: Don't Use Standardized Forms

The latest in Tom's Little BIG Things video series is "Don't Use Standardized Forms." You can watch the video on YouTube to see Tom present his case that you should be choosing and assessing your talent like an NFL team or a Symphony Orchestra. Those groups would never use a standardized assessment vehicle, and Tom contends that neither should you.

[The video is 3 minutes, 14 seconds in length, and you can get a PDF transcript here.]

A Peerless Strategic Opportunity:
The First-line Manager20/1LM20

The evidence is clear: Employee satisfaction and like variables are significantly, even overwhelmingly, linked to the employee's relationship with her or his first-line manager. While first-line managers are considered to be of great importance, in my experience few companies truly obsess on every aspect of their care and feeding. In fact, my observations suggest that such things as first-line manager training regimes are often of questionable quality. This is a strategic mistake. More important, a lost strategic opportunity.

What follows is a long way from the "last word"—in fact it is the "first word" from me, and simply an indicative list aimed to stir your analytic juices.

Herewith, my First-line Manager20:

1. The selection process for 1st-line managers (1LMs) should be as rigorous as that of, say, vice presidents. "360" evaluations are a must. Perhaps a selection committee should be appointed, which includes other 1LMs.


2. New hires should be selected in part on the likelihood of subsequent promotion to 1LM, and this goal should be formally emphasized from the start of their tenure.


3. 1LM slots that are open should not be filled until an appropriate (superior beyond a shadow of doubt) candidate is found.


4. 1LMs should be given long probation periods—perhaps 6 months.


5. New 1LMs should "shadow" senior 1LMs for a significant period of time.


6. 1LM training programs should be evaluated far and wide, and, based on "best practices," a stellar/"Wow" 1LM training program should be developed. The "basic" course and intensive continuing-ed curriculum should aim to win "best in class" awards.


7. 1LM designees should receive superior evaluations in "basic training" or be put on probation.


8. Given the abiding importance of cross-functional communication and coordination and synergy, 1LM selection and training and subsequent evaluation should emphasize measurable performance on this dimension. (Poor marks on XF performance should be cause at any time for probation or, after fair notice, removal from the job.)


9. Senior officers (including the CEO) and highly rated-regarded 1LMs should present parts of 1LM training modules, especially the "basic training" program.


10. "People development" should be the central element of 1LM training. (The "people development" training modules should be award-winning.)


11. Success as precisely measured in "people development" should be the central element of 1LM evaluation.


12. "Business" training should also be a central part of 1LM training.


13. 1LMs should be treated as the company's principal "culture carriers" and principal "change agents"—and be treated and trained and "used" accordingly.


14. The abiding importance–Excellence of our portfolio of 1LMs should be considered a formal "core value" of the enterprise.


15. A portfolio of "outside" training courses for 1LMs should be available during the entire tenure in the job.


16. Every 1LM should have two assigned mentors, one from within the 1LM's department, one from outside. One of the two should be a fellow 1LM. The mentoring process should be carefully constructed, not "catch as catch can;" mentors should be evaluated on their results.


17. 1LM reviews should be monthly during the probationary period, quarterly thereafter; these reviews should be carefully designed and rigorous by any standard.


18. Every department head should evaluate her or his "portfolio" of 1LMs regularly; the quality and continuing development of the 1LM portfolio should in turn be a central element in the evaluation of department heads and division heads.


19. A senior HR exec and a senior "line" exec (and perhaps an outsider) should formally evaluate the company's 1LM portfolio annually.


20. After the 1st year of 1LM service, the 1LM should be trained for and become a mentor of new 1LMs. Henceforth, mentoring success or failure should be a central measure of the 1LM's performance.

Leadership: Milestones Matter

Tom describes his drive from Tinmouth VT to Boston MA with milestones (short-term goals) along the way. Do you have a milestone/goal for the next 24, 48, or 72 hours? According to Tom, it pays to master the Art of Milestoning.

You can watch the 3:40 minute video on YouTube. For a transcript, please download the PDF.

Leadership: The Problem Isn't the Problem

Tom argues that the reaction to the problem often becomes more of a problem than the original misstep would have been if dealt with honestly. As he's been known to say: "Foul up. Fess up. Fast. Fastidiously."

You can watch the 2:10 minute video on YouTube and, if you like, download a PDF of its transcript.

False Dichotomy!
(If Anything, Backwards!)

I was asked to contribute "a paragraph" to a writer who was doing a magazine article on "management" "versus" "leadership."

Herewith my contribution:

"It is sometimes said that the difference between 'management' and 'leadership' is 'doing things right' versus 'doing the right thing.' I think that's nuts. In fact, let's assume there is a 'doing things right' and a 'doing the right thing.' Well, both are of equal importance, and if anything 'doing things right' takes precedence. Another way to put it is that having an 'excellent strategy' is approximately worthless unless execution is equally 'excellent.' Far more things fail to come to fruition because of lousy execution than because of lousy strategy. ('Execution is strategy' is the way a boss of mine, Fred Malek, put it waaaaaay back in the 1970s.) Hence my 'take no prisoners' 'bottom line' is that 'doing things right' is as much a part of effective leadership as 'doing the right thing.'"—Tom Peters/1217.09

Comments ...

Toughness Does Not Preclude Decency

I applaud "toughmindedness." It's a requirement—especially in difficult times. But tough does not preclude graciousness in all its manifestations. Probably the most toughminded exec I've ever met is Milliken & Co.'s Roger Milliken. On the other hand, the South Carolina-based (Spartanburg) chief never fails to be a man of graceful behavior. At least in my experience.

Appreciation!
"Tool" No.1

The great American psychologist, William James, tells us, "The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated."

I have long thought that those are among the most profound words I've ever stumbled upon. For I do fervently believe that appreciation is indeed the most powerful force of nature and hence, practically speaking, the premier "motivational" "tool" available to bosses-managers-leaders (not to mention parents and teachers and spouses).

Gary Fenchuk, whom I met at an Urban Land Institute meeting in San Francisco last month, sent me a copy of his book, Timeless Wisdom. The "yield" from the slim volume was incredible, especially given my almost conceit that "I've seen it all." I shall share a few of the quotes that struck home, but first back to William James and Almighty Appreciation. In the Fenchuk book I found a wonderful (?) quote from, yes, Frankenstein himself—or, more accurately, from author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: "I am malicious because I am miserable; if any being felt emotions of benevolence toward me, I should return them a hundredfold."

I'm not entirely sure why that got me between the eyes, but it did. (Maybe in part because it was a gray, gray, snowy day.) In good times, let alone bad, many is the worker who longs for even a modest show of "benevolence." And fails to get it—in a career that may span decades. (Hence poll after poll informing us that something like three-quarters of workers are not truly engaged.)

Which in turn leads me to two more gems courtesy Mr. Fenchuk:

"If we could read the secret histories of our enemies, we would find in each man's life a sorrow and a suffering enough to disarm all hostility."—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity."—Dale Carnegie

And that pair in turn leads me to the last of this set, and back to the James brothers, this time the prominent novelist Henry: "Three things in life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind."

Tough times, which are still the context for many of us, provide the greatest tests of character. Tough times are the period when basic human decency matters most. From a commercial standpoint, tough times are the best of times to deepen relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and the communities in which we work and live. Yes, difficult decisions must be made ... again and again. But the way in which these decisions are approached and executed is the bedrock for the relationships that will re-ignite first and most fiercely and move us forward with alacrity when the worm does turn.

Relationships based on thoughtfulness and benevolence and kindness and appreciation are the sort that you "can take to the bank." Or, to use the strategy mavens' metaphor du jour, deep relationships make for the deepest of "blue oceans"—a/k/a, sustainable competitive advantage.

Believe it!

(Above, snowy snowy day on the farm ... 12.09.2009. Below, the all-important "plow truck"!)

Leadership: Listening

In a new video from The Little BIG Things video series, Tom uses an example from the healthcare industry to highlight the importance of listening. According to Tom, "the single most significant strategic strength that an organization can have is not a good strategic plan, but a commitment to strategic listening on the part of every member of the organization."

You can find the video on the top of the right column here on the front page of tompeters.com, or by clicking here. The transcript is available as a pdf. If you'd like to see previously posted videos in the series, be sure to visit our Video page (direct link to TLBT video series).

Leadership as a Sacred Trust

In the latest installment of The Little BIG Things video series, Tom describes leadership as a sacred trust. He says that the decision to lead is the decision to be responsible for the growth and development of your fellow human beings. You can find the video on the top of the right column here on the front page of tompeters.com, or by clicking here. If you'd like to see previously posted videos in the series, be sure to visit our Video page (direct link to TLBT video series).

Charisma, What Charisma?

[Our guest blogger is Madeleine McGrath, Managing Director, International, of the Tom Peters Company.]

Last weekend's German elections, won by a coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Free Democratic Party, have caused a lot of press comment about the leadership qualities of the successful candidate for the role of Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

There have been comments on her rather dour and austere demeanor. She is said to lack charisma, with her communication style described at best as calm and measured. She is not perceived as a visionary, and certainly does not have the public profile of the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. She had an uneasy relationship with the Social Democrats, her previous coalition partners. Some commentators say that the caution she learned growing up in Eastern Europe has led to a reluctance to take risks as a leader. All in all, she's scoring pretty low on leadership characteristics by my reckoning.

And yet her leadership of the German people through this troubled economic period has built for her an enviable reputation as a statesperson who is reliable and trustworthy. So much so that in a recent BBC Radio 4 profile on her successful election campaign, it was reported that many Germans affectionately refer to her as Mutti (mother).

So I wonder if there are any more general lessons for us here about what followers are looking for in their leaders in these difficult times. Is there a female leader dimension to this? Is the era of the superstar leader, both in business and in politics, firmly behind us now? Are followers looking for substance over style? If so, what does this mean for President Obama, Prime Minister Brown, and anyone leading a business today?

Carrot or Stick?

Two key ingredients of Excellence in any professional pursuit are to master the relevant disciplines and to apply them at every opportunity. A recent choral singing experience has left me rather thoughtful about the leadership practices most likely to develop and deliver Excellence through others.

I have been a member of a 200-person amateur symphony chorus for nearly 20 years, and during that period, the chorus's performance has steadily improved. For our latest concert, we were rehearsed by a stand-in chorus master whose approach was very different from that of the chorus master who has led us throughout my membership. Both men are equally well qualified and highly gifted musicians, and both expect equally high performance standards from their choirs. But we are used to a very critical and directive style of leadership which contrasted sharply with the stand-in master's much "softer" all round approach.

For example, he regularly took the time to tell us what we were doing well, as well as correcting us when we were getting things wrong. He was often quite generous in his praise, in stark contrast to our regular master. He challenged us to perform one of the movements in the concert from memory—no mean feat when the text is in Polish! He assured us from the first rehearsal that we were good enough to take this on, and kept reminding us of this throughout the rehearsal sequence. He even provided us with some novel support materials to help us all to practice our Polish at home.

On the day of the concert he cancelled the normal pre event "warm up" session, which is usually quite an ordeal for us to get through just before a live performance. He said he had been more than satisfied with our performance at the dress rehearsal in the morning. This is totally unheard of!

Our performance was one of our best ever and acclaimed by the critics. The movement we had learned by heart completely stole the show. But ... here's my question ... did the stand-in chorus master succeed because of the disciplines that had already been drilled into us by our regular leader? What would happen to our performance standards if we worked with the new chorus master in the long term? Would his approach result in a gradual reduction in standards?

I tried these questions out over a drink in the pub with my choir mates, and the opinion was divided 50/50. What do readers of this blog think?

The ONE Thing ...

In New Delhi a couple of weeks ago, I had a general in the Indian Army in the front row. I don't recall the details, but evaluating senior officers for promotion came up. I ventured, boldly, that there "was one issue that stood head and shoulders above the rest."

Namely: What is this candidate's track record—in exacting detail—in developing people. Though hardly locked in concrete, I posited that "the ONE question" might go something like this:

"In the last year [3 years, current job], name the three people whose growth you've most contributed to. Please explain in some significant detail where each was at the beginning of the year, where he or she is today, and where each is heading in the next 12 and 24 and 60 months. Please explain your development strategy in each case. Please tell me your biggest development disappointment this past year—looking back, could you or would you have done anything differently? Please tell me about your greatest development triumph—and disaster—in the last ten years. What are the 'three big things' you've learned about 'people development' along the way."

As I see it, it's not the boss' role, for instance, to make strategy. It's the boss's role to develop the best strategist—and the boss's role to ensure that the process thereof is moving along rapidly and imaginatively. And so on.

Finally, as I see it, this in some form applies to pretty much every promotion. And it even has a bearing on evaluating a non-manager on a 3-month project. That rather junior person will, for example, in several instances be responsible for accomplishing a milestone—and to do so, she must engage her team members, and engage them in a way that they go away with some learnings—that contribute a bit to their development.

What do you think about this riff?

A New Generation Gap

The leadership of today's organization is largely in the hands of baby boomers, my generation. It is a small leap of reason to say that we shaped, if not created, today's turbulent economy. The greatest generation gave us an economy that provided a solid foundation to build on. They moved beyond the war, overcame the great depression, and left us an opportunity—with the promise that "You can be anything you want to be." Being kind, I would say we haven't seized that opportunity. Being honest, I would say we flat-out failed to build a similar solid foundation for those who will follow us. We have made a mess. We are not the victims of changing economic conditions, we created them. We have maybe ten years to do something about it.

I have been researching the gap between the generations' impact on the economy of the United States and have not found an acceptable metric to quantify my conclusions. There are just too many variables. One thought hits me hard, though; the next generation may be the first in a long time (ever?) that are not be better off than their parents. I think we baby boomers own that.

Because this is a blog entry, not a white paper, let me offer a few bullet points that should start a little discussion:

• We didn't invent greed, but we took it to a new level. The pursuit of individual wealth has too often trumped the collective national good. And not just at the executive level; some labor rates grew beyond the ability of companies to pay them and remain competitive. The gap between haves and have nots has grown. We are beginning to pay a price for that greed, and many are finding their golden goose has cancer.

• We confused profit with value. Maximizing profit led us to cut costs so dramatically that we may have sacrificed the very survival of our enterprises. Our miserly investment in talent development, research and development, and our relentless push to lower supplier costs have weakened historically strong brands.

• Too many MBAs were in charge. Sorry about the toes I just stepped on. But running a business is a lot different from building a company. We became managers; we have to become leaders. Of course we must be fiscally disciplined and focused on metrics. A quick (albeit unscientific) look at some of our more troubled companies shows a career path to the executive suite that runs through finance. It is not working.

• We have been reluctant to accept responsibility. I hear often that we are just unlucky to be leading in a very tough economic time and are doing as well as can be expected. Baloney. We made this economy. I hear (and observe) a lot about operational excellence. Look back at your metrics; if they have improved continuously, it isn't a failure in operations ... I suggest it is a strategic failure. We own that.

• And one more that will probably incite the masses! I believe that our parents unwittingly made us soft. We had our needs and wants indulged by parents driven to make sure we had more than they had had as children. We can't leave a great legacy without honest-to-goodness hard work.

I'll let the blog discussion take this further. I have many more observations, but how about yours? I have high hopes for my generation, but there's not much time to get about it.

Alas, Yes.
But a Definite "Yes."

(1) I support the Obama pay cap for CEOs of companies on the dole.
(2) My choice would be to cap them at the rate of a 4-star general or admiral, with max seniority.
(3) If you sent all F500 CEOs and their #2s to St Elba, performance of their companies would not on average deteriorate. The "myth of the irreplaceable CEO" is just that—myth.

A Leader's Values

In working with leaders, we help them to be clear about who they are and what they stand for. The values of leaders should be easily recognized in what they do and in what they say. Yesterday, President Barack Obama was clear about what he values. I gathered that courage, hope, honesty, faith, collaboration, and unity were a few of those qualities. President Obama's actions in the past seem to reflect the values that he articulated yesterday and the expectation is that he will continue to live them out. The questions to think about today are, as a leader, what are your values? Are you living them out so that others can see them in you? As an individual, are you clear about your values and, more importantly, are you standing behind them and making decisions based on them? If you haven't thought about what you value, now would be good time to reflect on it.