Leading in
Totally Screwed
Up Times
Tom Peters
Linkage/09.12.2001
<1000A.D.: paradigm shift: 1000s of years
1000: 100 years for paradigm shift
1800s: > prior 900 years
1900s: 1st 20 years > 1800s
2000: 10 years for paradigm shift
21st century: 1000X tech change than 20th
century (“the ‘Singularity,’ a merger
between humans and computers that is so
rapid and profound it represents a rupture
in the fabric of human history”)
Ray Kurzweil, talk april2001
“Most of our
predictions are based
on very linear thinking.
That’s why they will
most likely be wrong.”
Vinod Khosla, in “GIGATRENDS,” Wired 04.01
CEOs appointed after
1985 are 3X more likely
to be fired than CEOs
appointed before 1985
Warren Bennis, MIT Sloan Management Review
=
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual
Discovery
Process.
The best leaders
are the best
discoverers.
“I don’t
know.”
Leaders-Teachers Do Not “Transform People”!
Instead leaders-mentors-teachers (1) provide a
context which is marked by (2) access to a luxuriant
portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which
(3) allow people to fully (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they”
don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express
their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous
discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an
extensive self-constructed network) by which those people
(5) go to-create places they (and their mentors-teachersleaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the
leaders-mentors-teachers (6) applaud like hell, stage
“photo-ops,” and ring the church bells
100 times to commemorate the bravery of their
“followers’ ” explorations!
2. Great Leaders on
Snorting Steeds Are
Important – but Great
Managers (Type I
Leadership) are the Bedrock
of Organizations that
Perform Over the Long Haul.
2A. “Just One”: Great
Leading = Great
Mentoring.
Priority #1.
3. But Then Again, There
Are Times When This
“Cult of Personality”
(Type II Leadership) Stuff
Actually Works!
4. Find the
“Businesspeople”!
(Type III Leadership)
I.P.M.
(Inspired Profit
Maniac)
4A. The Golden
Leadership Triangle.
The Golden Leadership
Triangle: (1) CreatorInventor-Visionary … (2)
Talent Fanatic … (3)
Inspired Profit Mechanic.
Project Team Golden Triangle
(1) Champion-Maniac.
(2) Implementer-Pol.
(3) Schedule &
Budgets Fanatic.
5. Leadership Mantra
#1: IT
ALL
DEPENDS!
Renaissance Men
are a snare, a myth,
a delusion!
6. The Leader Is
Rarely/Never the
Best Performer.
33 Division Titles. 26
League Pennants. 14
World Series: Earl Weaver—0.
Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0.
Walter Alston—1AB. Tony
LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons.
Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games.
Sparky Anderson—1 season.
7. Leaders
LOVE the
MESS!
7A. Leaders
Groove on
AMBIGUITY!
8. Leaders
“We are in a
brawl with no
rules.”
Paul Allaire
The Kotler Doctrine:
1965-1980: R.A.F.
(Ready.Aim.Fire.)
1980-1995: R.F.A.
(Ready.Fire!Aim.)
1995-????: F.F.F.
(Fire!Fire!Fire!)
“The leader who says ‘I don’t know’ essentially
says that the group is facing a new ballgame
where the old tools of logic may be its undoing
rather than its salvation. To drop these tools is
not to give up on finding a workable answer. It is
only to give up on one means of answering that
is ill-suited to the unstable, the unknowable, the
unpredictable. To drop the heavy tools of
rationality is to gain access to lightness in the
form of intuitions, feelings, stories, experience,
active listening, shared humanity, awareness in
the moment, capability for fascination, awe,
novel words and empathy.” - Karl Weick
A Bias
for Action]
[ ISOE #1:
9. Leaders
DELIVER!
“Leaders don’t
‘want to’ win.
Leaders ‘need
to’ win.”
#49
10. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To Don’t
” List
11. Leaders
Win Through
LOGISTICS!
The “Gus”
Imperative!
12. “Leaders”
Know:
‘POWERLESS’
IS COOL!
Find a
Fellow Freak
Faraway
“4Fs”:
World’s Biggest Waste …
Selling “Up”
Heart of the Matter
F2F!/K2K!/1@T/R.F.A.*
*Freak to Freak/Kook to Kook/
One at a Time/ Ready.Fire!Aim.
Opportunity ALWAYS Knocks
VFCJ* “Strategy”
*Volunteer For Crappy Jobs
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2001
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T
HIM!
LET
12A. Leaders Seed &
Pursue &
Recognize (Weird)
“Demos.”
L.B.I.W.D.
Inducing Weird Demos)
(Leading By
12B. Get ’Em Workin’
on
Projects
A.S.A.P.
Quests
13. Leaders Understand
the Ultimate Power
of
RELATIONSHIPS.
13A. Leaders Say
“Thank
You.”
“The deepest
human need is the
need to be
appreciated.”
William James
14. Leaders
Wire the Joint!
Winners wire.
Losers are
slaves to rank.
“Women speak and hear a language of
connection and intimacy, and men
speak and hear a language of status
and independence. Men communicate
to obtain information, establish their
status, and show independence.
Women communicate to create
relationships, encourage interaction,
and exchange feelings.”
Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more things
at once? Who puts more effort into their appearance?
Who usually takes care of the details? Who finds it
easier to meet new people? Who asks more
questions in a conversation? Who is a better
listener? Who has more interest in communication
skills? Who is more inclined to get involved?
Who encourages harmony and agreement? Who
has better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to do’
list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s events?
Who is better at keeping in touch with others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful
Reasons Why Women Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy &
Susan Kane-Benson
15. Leadership
Is Improv!
16. Leaders
Trust in
TRUST!
!
Credibility
17. Leaders Are
Natural
EMPOWERMENT
FREAKS!
“Empowerment”
is an attitude.
WOMEN
RULE
“AS LEADERS, WOMEN
RULE: New Studies find
that female managers
outshine their male
counterparts on almost
every measure”
Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00
The New Economy …
Shout goodbye to
“command and control”!
Shout goodbye to hierarchy!
Shout goodbye to “knowing
one’s place”!
Women’s Stuff =
New Economy Match
Improv skills
Relationship-centric
Less “rank consciousness”
Self determined
Trust sensitive
Intuitive
Natural “empowerment freaks” [less
threatened by strong people]
Intrinsic [motivation] > Extrinsic
Women’s Strengths: Link [rather than rank]
workers; favor interactive-collaborative
leadership style [empowerment > top-down
decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations;
comfortable with sharing information; see
redistribution of power as victory, not surrender;
favor multi-dimensional feedback; value
interpersonal & technical skills, group &
individual contributions equally; readily accept
ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure
“rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate
cultural diversity
Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
“Boys are trained in
a way that will make
them irrelevant.”
Phil Slater
18. Leaders
FORGET!/
Leaders
DESTROY!
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never how
to get new, innovative
thoughts into your mind,
but how to get the old
ones out.”
Dee Hock
Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the
Class of ’17 were alive in ’87; 18 are in ’87 F100; the
18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market by
20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the
market from 1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the
Class of ’57 were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500
outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction:
Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the
Market
“Good management was the most powerful
reason [leading firms] failed to stay atop
their industries. Precisely because these firms
listened to their customers, invested aggressively
in technologies that would provide their
customers more and better products of the sort
they wanted, and because they carefully studied
market trends and systematically allocated
investment capital to innovations that promised
the best returns, they lost their positions of
leadership.”
Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
“The difficulties … arise from the inherent conflict
between the need to control existing operations and
the need to create the kind of environment that will
permit new ideas to flourish—and old ones to die a
timely death. … We believe that most
corporations will find it impossible to match or
outperform the market without abandoning the
assumption of continuity. … The current
apocalypse—the transition from a state of continuity
to state of discontinuity—Has the same suddenness
[as the trauma that beset civilization in 1000 A.D.]”
Richard Foster & Sarah Kaplan, “Creative Destruction”
(The McKinsey Quarterly)
“The corporation as we know it,
which is now 120 years old, is
not likely to survive the
next 25 years. Legally and
financially, yes, but not
structurally and economically.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)
The [New] Ge Way
DYB.com
The Gales of Creative Destruction
+29M = -44M + 73M
+4M = +4M - 0M
19. BUT … Leaders Have
to Deliver, So They Worry
About “Throwing the
Baby Out with the
Bathwater.” [Life’s a
Bitch…]
“Damned If You
Do, Damned If You
Don’t, Just Plain
Damned”
Subtitle in the chapter, “Own Up to the Great Paradox: Success
Is the Product of Deep Grooves/ Deep Grooves Destroy
Adaptivity,” Liberation Management (1992)
20. Leaders …
HONOR THE
ASSASSINS … in
Their Organizations!
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Fringe Competitors
Rogue Employees
Edge Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the
Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors,
Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees
20A. Leaders …
HIRE [a Critical Mass
of] ASSASSINS!
QCC/Quick Culture Change
Hire Weird
Promote Deep
Rule of Three
(3 = Critical Mass)
Nasser’s Triad*: The Internet
Is the New Job 1
Brian Kelley, 40, head of global sales and
service (GE appliances); first non-“car guy”
in the job
Karen Francis, 38, eBusiness czar (Olds
brand boss)
Marv Adams, 43, CIO (Bank One’s IT
infrastructure consolidator)
* All three are “direct reports”
21. Leaders
HANG OUT
WITH
FREAKS!
The Cracked Ones Let in the Light
“Our business needs a massive
transfusion of talent, and talent, I
believe, is most likely to be found
among non-conformists,
dissenters and rebels.”
David Ogilvy
enough
weird people in
“Are there
the lab these days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)
Axiom: Never hire
anyone without an
aberration in their
background!
Would Craig
Venter
(Luciano Benneton)
come to work for
us?
“I would like to think we could
attract students with green
hair. We will take pink and
blue and orange hair, too.”
Shirley Tilghman, Princeton
Message: TAKE
SOMEONE NEW &
WEIRD TO LUNCH
TODAY OR TOMORROW.
[Inundate yourself with weird.]
22. Leaders Make
[Lotsa] Mistakes –
and MAKE NO
BONES ABOUT IT!
“Fail faster.
Succeed
sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
“Learn not to
be careful.”
Photographer Diane Arbus,
to her students
Sam’s
secret!
23. Leaders Set
DESIGN
SPECS.
Richard’s rules! (Innovative,
high quality, affordable, cheeky)
23A. Leaders Revise Design
Specs by Following Their Bliss,
Expressing Their Anger, and
Thence Riding the Hell Out of
Hobby Horses.
Ridin’ with Roger: “What
have
you done to
DRAMATICALLY
IMPROVE quality in the
last 90 days?”
24. Leaders Know
When to
CHALLENGE (BURN)
Design Specs!
“The ‘chump-tochamp-to-chump cycle’
used to be three
generations. Now it’s
about five years.”
Bill McGowan
25. Leaders Don’t
Create “Followers”:
THEY CREATE
LEADERS!
Brand You, Big Time!
I AM AN
ARMY OF
ONE
“If there is nothing very
special about your work, no
matter how hard you apply
yourself, you won’t get
noticed, and that
increasingly means you
won’t get paid much either.”
Michael Goldhaber, Wired
Minimum New Work SurvivalSkillsKit2001
Mastery
Rolodex Obsession (vert. to horiz. “loyalty”)
Entrepreneurial Instinct
CEO/Leader/Businessperson/Closer
Mistress of Improv
Sense of Humor
Intense Appetite for Technology
Groveling Before the Young
Embracing “Marketing”
Passion for Renewal
“The time seems
appropriate to rethink the
notions of self and
identity in this rapidly
changing age …”
Tara Lemmey, Project LENS, past president
Electronic Frontier Foundation
26. When It Comes to
TALENT … Leaders
Always Swing fore the
Fences!
From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW]
to …
“Best Talent in each
industry segment to build
best proprietary
intangibles” [EM]
Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
Home Depot: 7 new growth initiatives
($20B to $100B in 5-7 years)
Arthur Blank: BEST
PERSON
IN THE WORLD TO HEAD
EACH INITIATIVE
E.g.: COO of IKEA to head
international expansion
Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
“We believe companies can increase their
market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve
changed 20 of
his 40 box plant managers to put
more talented, higher paid
managers in charge. He increased
Macadam at Georgia-Pacific
profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2
years.”
Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
Message: Some
people are
better than other
people. Some people
are a helluva lot
better than other
people.
27. Leaders “Win
Followers Over”
WHAT AN IDIOT: “Instead
of employees being in the driver’s
seat, now we’re in the driver’s
seat.”
“Coaching
is winning
players over.”
PJ:
28. Leaders have
MENTORS.
Leaders MENTOR.
29. Leaders LOVE
RAINBOWS – for
Pragmatic Reasons.
“Where do good new ideas come
from? That’s simple! From
differences. Creativity comes
from unlikely juxtapositions.
The best way to maximize differences
is to mix ages, cultures and
disciplines.”
Nicholas Negroponte
“Diversity defines the health and
wealth of nations in a new century.
Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The
impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the
blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the
mix-and-match – these people are inheriting the
earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps
isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the
human spirit, spurs economic growth
and empowers nations.”
G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New
Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge
29A. Leaders Pursue
Poets!
“Expose yourself to the
best things humans have
done, and then try to
bring those things into
what you’re doing.”
Steve Jobs
Gardner’s MI7: Linguistic,
Logical-mathematical,
Spatial, Musical,
Bodily-kinesthetic,
Interpersonal,
Intrapersonal.
30. Leaders
“Manage” Their
EVP.
MantraM3
Talent = Brand
“We have
transitioned from an
asset-based strategy
to a talent-based
strategy.”
Jeff Skilling, CEO, Enron
What’s your company’s …
Employee Value Proposition, per Ed
Michaels et al., The War for Talent
EVP = Challenge,
professional growth,
respect, satisfaction,
opportunity, reward
Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent
Job1:
TALENT
31. Leaders Know “It’s
My Fault.”
32. Leaders
LOVE the
New Technology!
“Believe in the
Internet … MORE
THAN EVER.”
1
Andy Grove, Cover quote, Wired (June 200
)
33. Leaders Out
Their
PASSION!
“A leader is a
dealer in
hope.”
Napoleon
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
34. Leaders Know:
ENERGY
BEGETS
ENERGY!
BZ: “I am a …
DISPENSER OF
ENTHUSIASM!”
“Entusiasmatore”
Word invented by Silvio Berlusconi, meaning
enthusiast-salesman
“It is impossible to claim that all good teachers
use similar techniques: some lecture nonstop
and others speak very little; some stay close to
their material and others loose the imagination;
some teach with the carrot and others with the
stick. But in every instance, good teachers
share one trait: a strong sense of personal
identity infuses their work. ‘Dr. A is really
there when he teaches.’ ‘Mr. B has such
enthusiasm for his subject.’ ‘You can tell
that this is really Prof. C’s life.’ ”
Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach
35. Leaders Know It’s ALL
SALES ALL THE
TIME.
Sales2001
The Sales25: Great Salespeople …
1. Know the product. (Find cool mentors, and use them.)
2. Know the company.
3. Know the customer. (Including the customer’s
consultants.) (And especially the “corporate culture.”)
4. Love internal politics at home and abroad.
5. Religiously respect competitors. (No badmouthing, no
matter how provoked.)
6. Wire the customer’s org. (Relationships at all levels &
functions.)
7. Wire the home team’s org. and vendors’ orgs.
(INVEST Big Time time in relationships at all levels & functions.)
(Take junior people in all functions to client meetings.)
Great Salespeople …
8. Never overpromise. (Even if it costs you your job.)
9. Sell only by solving problems-creating profitable
opportunities. (“Our product solves these problems, creates
these unimagined INCREDIBLE opportunities, and will make you
a ton of money—here’s exactly how.”) (IS THIS A “PRODUCT
SALE” OR A WOW-ORIGINAL SOLUTION YOU’LL BE DINING OFF
5 YEARS FROM NOW? THAT WILL BE WRITTEN UP IN THE
TRADE PRESS?)
10. Will involve anybody—including mortal enemies—if
it enhances the scope of the problem we can solve and
increases the scope of the opportunity we can
encompass.
11. Know the Brand Story cold; live the Brand Story. (If
not, leave.)
Great Salespeople …
12. Think “Turnkey.” (It’s always your problem!)
13. Act as “orchestra conductor”: You are responsible
for making the whole-damn-network respond. (PERIOD.)
14. Help the customer get to know the vendor’s
organization & build up their Rolodex.
15. Walk away from bad business. (Even if it gets you fired.)
16. Understand the idea of a “good loss.” (A bold effort
that’s sometimes better than a lousy win.)
17. Think those who regularly say “It’s all a price issue”
suffer from rampant immaturity & shrunken imagination.
18. Will not give away the store to get a foot in the door.
19. Are wary & respectful of upstarts—the real enemy.
20. Seek several “cool customers”—who’ll drag you into
Tomorrowland.
Great Salespeople …
21. Use the word “partnership” obsessively, even
though it is way overused. (“Partnership” includes folks at
all levels throughout the supply chain.)
22. Send thank you notes by the truckload. (NOT ENOTES.) (Most are for “little things.”) (50% of those notes are
sent to those in our company!) Remember birthdays. Use
the word “we.”
23. When you look across the table at the customer,
think religiously to yourself: “HOW CAN I MAKE THIS
DUDE RICH & FAMOUS & GET HIM-HER PROMOTED?”
24. Great salespeople in great technology companies
can affirmatively respond to the query in an HP banner
ad: HAVE YOU CHANGED CIVILIZATION TODAY?
25. Keep your bloody PowerPoint slides simple!
36. Leaders
Give …
RESPECT!
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s
secret. He gained respect by giving it. He
talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids
in Spring Valley who shined shoes the
same way he talked and listened to a
bishop or a college president. He
was
seriously interested in who you
were and what you had to say.”
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
37. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
“Leaders are living
individuals whom
employees smell, feel,
touch their presence.”
#49
38. Leadership
Is a Performance.
BELIEVE IT.
“You must be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
--M.G.
39. Leaders Have
GREAT
STORY!
a
“A key – perhaps the key –
to leadership is
the effective
communication
of a story.”
Howard Gardner
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership
“He who has the
best story wins.”
Hopkins to Freeman
40. Leaders
Create
BUZZ!
41. Leaders Pursue
DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE!
1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT
(Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.”
Source #1: Personal Passion)
2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE
(Stand & Deliver!)
3RD Law: DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE
(Execs Don’t Get It: “intent to purchase” – 100%;
“unique” – 0% to 5%)
Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain,
Doug Hall
42. Leaders
Focus on the
SOFT STUFF!
Message: Leadership is
all about love! [Passion,
Enthusiasms, Appetite for Life,
Engagement, Commitment, Great
Causes & Determination to Make a
Damn Difference, Shared Adventures,
Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable
Appetite for Change.] [Otherwise, why bother?
Just read Dilbert. TP’s final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]
“Soft” Is
“Hard”
43. Leaders
KNOW They Can
Make a Difference!
mean
“A real superstar is
in a
particular way. He is Michael Jordan or
Cal Ripken, greedy for records and
history. Armored and self-contained, his
inner core is a hard knot of physical
talent and fierce will. Nothing penetrates
that core, and anybody or anything that
gets too close is out of his life.”
Michael Sokolove, “The last Straw”
Hackneyed but none the less
LEADERS SEE
CUPS AS “HALF
FULL.”
true:
44. Leaders
LISTEN!
See Stephen!
45. Leaders
LOVE
“POLITICS.”
46. Leaders SERVE.
Robert Greenleaf: Servant
Leadership: A Journey
into the Nature of
Legitimate Power and
Greatness
47. Leaders KNOW
THEMSELVES.
Individuals (would-be leaders)
cannot engage in a
liberating mutual discovery
process unless they are
comfortable with their own
skin. (“Leaders” who are not
comfortable with themselves become
petty control freaks.)
47A. Leaders
LAUGH!
48. Leaders Are
Graceful.
“My favorite word is grace –
grace,
saving grace, grace under
fire, Grace Kelly. How we live
whether it’s amazing
contributes to beauty – whether
it’s how we treat other people or
the environment.”
Celeste Cooper, designer
49. Leaders
???:
“LEADERS NEED TO
BE THE ROCK OF
GIBRALTAR ON
ROLLER BLADES”
“ ‘It’s only business,
not personal’ … IT
ALWAYS IS
PERSONAL.”
“Hire smart – go
bonkers – have grace –
make mistakes – love
technology – start all
over again.”
“Leadership is the
PROCESS of
ENGAGING PEOPLE in
CREATING a LEGACY
of EXCELLENCE.”
50. Leaders Know
WHEN TO
LEAVE!