300 Leadership Best Practices : Widely Admired & Spectacularly Unsuccessful

Please Note: The source material in this Leadership Practices series has been deliberately omitted in order to improve readability. If you wish to reference such, then please email us at info@pe-trick.com and ask for the scholarly paper TEN BEST PRACTICES OF LEADERSHIP.

When followers are not clay in the hands of leaders, organizational pathology follows. The resulting secrecy, blame, isolation, avoidance, passivity, and feelings of helplessness will begin to reinforce each other. Some companies even end up in a kind of death spiral.

The fate of Arthur Andersen, Rubbermaid, Tyco, Enron, and WorldCom was brought about by its senior leaders. Their destructive capacities went far beyond the scope of ordinary human beings. Their most destructive qualities were found in their unusual intelligence and talent linked to their personal magnetism in inspiring others. Their special gift was their ability to turn a modest failure into a gigantic one. Strangely their seven habits are widely admired in the business world:

Illusions of Personal Preeminence

Destructive leaders see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment - - truly successful leaders try to shape the future because they know they cannot dominate their environment - - they understand they are at the mercy of changing circumstances. Destructive leaders vastly overestimate the extent they actually control rents. Likewise, they vastly underestimate the role of time, chance, and the subsurface forces of change. They staff according to their belief that everyone in the company is there to carry out their personal conception of what the company should be. They see people as instruments to be used for their high performance. Rather than looking to satisfy customer needs, these leaders act as if their customers are the lucky ones.

Private Empire Mentality

Destructive leaders identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation's interests. Rather than treating their company as enterprises they need to nurture, they treat the business as a personal extension of themselves. They deceive themselves into believing they have the right to do anything they want with the company - - especially to carry out their personal ambitions. They lose their sense of proportion and restraint taking big risks with other people's money. Eventually they are found using corporate funds for personal reasons. Extravagance seems justified even while they preach ethics.

All the Answers Instinct

Destructive leaders think they have all the answers. In moments they size up situations that have stumped everyone else for days. The problem is they settle issues so quickly they have no opportunity to grasp the ramifications of their choices. Because of their self-certainty, they have no way or desire to learn new answers. Guarding their ego their instinct allows no uncertainty - - especially when complexity and uncertainty is a fact of life. Impressing underlings is important to them.

Compliant Agreement

Destructive leaders ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn't 100% behind them. They believe it is their job to get everyone to buy into their vision. Hesitancy is deemed to be undermining the vision. By eliminating all dissenting and contrasting views these leaders cut themselves off from their best chance of seeing and correcting problems as they arise. Those who don't leave the organization take their dissent underground. Buried conflict brings the entire organization grinding to a halt. Critics are silenced so as disaster approaches, no warnings are uttered.

Charismatic Dominance

Destructive leaders are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image. They regularly display their remarkable charisma before the media. Their public persona inspires confidence amongst all employees and stakeholders. The problem is amongst the addictive accolades, their management efforts become shallow and ineffective disguised by the appearance of accomplishing things. The line between talking good performance and demonstrating same becomes blurred. Devotion to public relations leaves little time to attend to the critical details of the business. Further, as the company's image becomes their top priority these leaders encourage financial reporting practices that promote that image. Financial accounting becomes a control tool. The culture becomes one of the entire company supporting public relations.

All Ahead Full

Destructive leaders underestimate obstacles. Typically they become so enamored with their vision of what they want to achieve, they completely underestimate the difficulty of actually getting there. When the real obstacles surface, they recklessly plunge full steam ahead into the abyss. Awesome expansion is rammed forward amidst a sea of bright red ink. They fail to hold back or reevaluate their course of action often because of an enormous need to be right in every important decision they make. Admitting to fallibility is not an option but believing in their own magic is. Recognizing that escalating commitment is getting out of hand becomes impossible. Courage in the face of adversity can be most devastating, and in fact, foolhardy.

Stuck in Past Glory

Destructive leaders stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past. When they find their company in decline, they revert to what they regard as tried-and-true methods. They do not consider how much the environment has changed. Instead of considering a range of options that fit the new circumstances, these leaders point to their past successes as the only point to reference. They cling to past "defining moments" - - what they are best known for and makes them special. They become unable to learn because they have learned one particular lesson too well.

Symptoms of Reckless Leadership

Do we know how close to failure we may be? Our relentless competitive quest for more power and status may be our own undoing. Leaders who are prone to recklessness are the ones that are adapt in creating scenarios that reflect their own optimistic values and forward charging inclinations. We are most in danger when we begin to take for granted benchmarks of past progress and personal success.

Genius-to-folly syndrome is incredibly difficult to avoid. Although there is no universal set of early warning signs foreshadowing recklessness, here are six key symptoms:

(a) much of our time is spent plugging holes and papering over cracks even as we work to put the best spin we can on nagging substantial problems;
(b) our disposition changes and we begin to punish the bearers of bad news;
(c) our loyal aides and advisers (our subordinates, our friends, and colleagues) feel unable to bounce ideas off us, or more importantly, cannot collaborate with us on much-needed reality checks - - we have become the emperor with no clothes;
(d) our self-importance brings on illusions of grandeur and infallibility - - we are defensive and so is everyone around us;
(e) we begin to feel entitled, to what we have and what we have achieved, as we seek yet more power and status - - we dismiss any notions of our own greediness;
(f) when we feel secure and in full control of our own destiny, we stubbornly refuse to take a timeout to take a look around and inventory our actual position.

Even the most level-headed executives and entrepreneurs are susceptible to cognitive biases. Decision-makers set themselves up for failure by exaggerating the benefits and discounting the costs of their plans. Delusional optimism undermines the outcomes of risky projects.

What is most difficult to cope with is success. Risk-taking leaders in particular often begin to consider themselves to be exempt from the rules that govern other people's behavior. Leaders who have demonstrated intelligence, resourcefulness, and the drive to succeed often become susceptible to uncharacteristic lapses in professional judgment and/or personal conduct. Further, success with risk-taking and rule-breaking frequently leads to a propensity to cast off self-restraint, prudence, and a sense of proportion. Often successful leaders become confused with the difference between nerve and talent.

Ecoheads

Ecoheads are followers of Umberto Eco and his unexpected theories of leadership and power. Telling us that we have a completely wrongheaded view of power, Eco challenges our beliefs in great men, good leadership and the truth. If we want to change the world, he says, we need to get over our fascination with power in the hands of leaders.

Power is in the structure and in the system - - there are not any leaders. For example, CEOs can be toppled instantly and easily; without their big organizations to prop them up, we can see leaders are never powerful in themselves, he says. Instead, Eco preaches power resides in "fakes" - - fakes and false ideas change the world. Imagination and visionary lies about the future produces our current history. By making up lies a leader can invent the future. Faith in the vision, not truth, is what mobilizes people to institute change.

Fidelity or faithfulness to our beliefs is more coercive than some "big truth" or following a powerful leader. "A person without the trappings of leadership can create wonderful fictions and live as if they were true. Over time, they will become true. The world.... rewards poets who lie only about the greatest things".

The people who deeply move us stimulate our imagination and our physical reactions. They feed our souls much more than those with a sublime voice or a brilliant strategy. Eco brags strategy is also a fraud. Strategy works because both players in a battle follow a set of rules. However, today there is no precise enemy, there are no clear intentions, and traditional rules are abandoned as innovators compete with new and different paradigms. Legitimacy is not a question for Ecohead followers.

The Duality of Followers & Leaders

Leadership to be adequately understood must be seen as part of a duality or a relationship. In other words there can be no leaders without followers. Leaders matter greatly but the expression of leadership effectiveness can only be understood in light of how well their followers follow - - if anyone follows at all. He states that what distinguish an effective from an ineffective follower are enthusiasm, intelligence, and self-reliant humble participation in the pursuit of an organizational goal. Some followers are motivated by ambition - - and they do not see followership as particularly attractive. What more particularly differentiate good followers from weak are two factors: (a) the degree followers exercise independent critical thinking, and (b) the extent followers are passive or active. There are at least five followership patterns. Four are more or less dysfunctional.

Dysfunctional Followership Patterns

Sheep: Sheep followers are at the low end of the passiveness and critical thinking scales. They lack initiative and a sense of responsibility. They perform whatever is assigned to them but going beyond that does not occur to them.

Yes People: Yes People depend on a leader for inspiration. They are less passive than sheep as they act aggressively deferential and servile. "Bosses weak in judgment and self-confidence tend to like them and to form alliances with them that can stultify the organization" (p. 143).

Alienated Followers: Alienated Followers rank high on critical thinking but low on passiveness as they carry out their responsibilities. It is easy to see that they are "turned off". They work in disgruntled acquiescence and although often cynical they seldom openly oppose a leader's efforts.

Survivors: Survivors have middle scores on both critical thinking and passiveness scales. They live by the slogan "better safe than sorry". They are distinguished by their adeptness at surviving upcoming change.

Effective Followers

Effective Followers score high on both scales. They think for themselves and they energetically and assertively carry out their duties and assignments. They are risk-takers, self-starters, and independent problem-soldiers. Their work and efforts are a source of pride and fulfillment. They are well-balanced and responsible - - they can succeed without strong leadership. These followers offer as much value to an organization as leaders do. They share four types of essential qualities:

(a) they manage themselves well;
(b) they are committed - - outside of themselves - - to a purpose and principles as well as to a person or organization;
(c) they are growing in mastering their skill set as they focus their efforts for maximum impact;
(d) they act in a courageous, honest and credible lifestyle - - they keep their leader honest and out of trouble.

What distinguish effective followers from leaders are not character traits but simply position. Effective leaders and effective followers are often "the same people playing different parts at different hours of the day". Effective followers are developed in the same way that effective leaders are honed and groomed. "If we agree that a leader's job is to transform followers, then it must be the follower's job to provide the clay". Followers fail when, as unmalleable clay, they stubbornly refuse to move up the scale of both critical thinking and proactivity.

Some followers ingratiate themselves with flattery, favors and frequent compliments. Too easily leaders, who naturally like those who like them, are most apt to let such influence them. Leaders can become very vulnerable to being led astray by their followers. Unless rooted in themselves, leaders can make very bad decisions when able and well-meaning followers are united and persuasive about a certain course of action. The lack of diverse critical thinking is the culprit.

An organization filled with effective followers will thrive. Demotivated followers are cause for great concern, for in fact they are not followers at all, but are rather counterproductive dead weights silently producing various degrees of chaos. Too often the cause of ineffectiveness is disappointing leadership in the form of managers dependent on Yes People and Sheep for ego gratification, or else condescending executives who punish their subordinates for exercising judgment, taking risks, and failing to conform. While management might preach independence and taking the initiative to subordinates, in practice followers who challenge their bosses run the risk of getting fired.

What followers long for are for leaders to create:

(a) feelings of significance
(b) community
(c) excitement

"Community occurs when people feel a unity of purpose around work and, simultaneously, a willingness to relate to one another as human beings". Followers will give their hearts and souls to authority figures who say "you really matter". When significance and community come alive, it becomes possible to get that buzzing feeling as followers begin to thirst for excitement, challenge and edge in their lives - - they crave to engage their world.

Leadership is a reciprocal process because it occurs between people, between leaders and followers. Successful leadership depends more upon the follower's perception of the leader's abilities than the leader's own assessment. Leadership is won when followers believe the potential leader is capable of meeting their needs. What followers are looking for in a leader is:

(a) integrity including honesty, trustworthiness, character, and conviction
(b) competence expressed in a winning track record demonstrating the individual is capable, productive, and efficient
(c) forward-looking inspiration that provides both direction and decisiveness.

The Hook - - The Need to Develop Leaders

There is a heightening the need to develop leaders within our own organizations. Prospective clients know what Tom Peters preaches: "leadership is confusing as hell". There is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. Leadership is about the right person with the right style for the right situation. The only place where there is a leader for all seasons is in our dreams!

Executives need to stop looking outside the company for help. The solutions to their problems exist inside their company and the beginning of that solution is to start trying to help the people within their organization to become more of who they already are. The solution will only come when they stop trying to change their people and instead of trying to standardize human behavior, they work hard to draw out the best that is in their people. Leadership development comes when we understand that the best talent is always irreduciblely unique.

How To Find and Keep Talent

Great organizations are built on great people. The key to it is surrounding yourself with good people, investing in them, listening to them, and keeping your commitments to them. Good leaders attract the right people, who then attract other good people. The first step to building a great organization is found in a "first who" model of leadership. The sad fact of leadership is that we not only must “get the right people on the bus” but that we must also help the wrong people off of it.

We need to think like the general manager of a sports franchise by being a person who is always thinking about talent. Here are 10 rules of how to find and keep talent:

(a) Be obsessed with the pursuit of talent.

(b) Look for greatness and hire only the best.

(c) Hold people to serious performance standards.

(d) It's a seller's market: fork over the dough.

(e) Seek out youth: grovel before the young.

(f) Emphasize diversity: messy rules!

(g) Women are born to lead!

(h) Let in the light: hire the cracked and weird ones!

(i) Provide Opportunity: make work a passionate adventure

(j) Genius is found in understanding we are all unique!

Leadership development efforts fail for three primary reasons.

1. Executives approach development with a control, ownership, power oriented mindset rather than understanding the need for shared accountability. Potential leaders can do little more than reflect the culture they find themselves in. The pathology of power - - including turf guarding, withholding information, and nonparticipation - - fosters competition, not accountability and not leadership.

2. Leadership development efforts fail when they are not aligned with the organization's strategic goals. The best programs on the planet are of little use unless deeply integrated into the real-life execution of business objectives. Rushing people off to training programs to fill important holes in the organization is a case of too little too late. Leadership seminars provide the "what" and the "how" but people turn into leaders by practicing those concepts in executing the corporate strategy.

3. Organizations of all types use metrics to measure success but metrics for leadership are most often "make-believe". Leadership is a hard construct to measure so metrics developed often have little to do with the growth of talented individuals. Metrics need to be organization-wide and measure executive capability; developing any ROI for leadership development has to be based on the whole organization rather than on specific individuals. It becomes critical to measure what matters and to invest in the processes of leadership development. Focusing on the training product "results" in the immediate is to completely misses the point.

The preeminent companies in leadership development follow five critical steps in tying development to corporate strategy. Those steps are:

(1) awareness by key executives of the latest thinking on leadership development and its practical application within the organization;

(2) anticipation of where the organization is heading and how developmental efforts need to be adapted to the that future;

(3) acting to tie executive learning to strategic initiatives;

(4) alignment between education agendas and the development of core competencies;

(5) regular assessment of leadership development activities in light of the aggregate body of leaders within the organization.

The five critical steps ultimately ask the question "is the leadership throughout the organization improving?"

The ultimate test of leadership is sustained success. Developing a leadership pipeline is a matter of instituting a flexible system oriented towards developmental activities. It is anything but a rigid list of high potential employees and the potential slots they might fill. Leadership development and succession planning needs to be an integrated activity that pays strict attention to developing the skills required for leadership positions. The most fruitful group to begin leadership development is usually found in middle management people.

Leadership development requires a large investment of the existing leaders' time and efforts. Input equals output. The more time leaders spend time developing leaders, the greater the organizational impact.

Leadership development requires three things from its organizational executive:

(a) a teachable point of view which means being able to talk clearly and convincingly - - with emotional energy and edge - - about who we are, why we exist, and how we operate;

(b) a well-defined methodology for teaching and coaching rather than a catch-as-catch-can haphazard fit-it-in approach;

(c) living stories for our organization which can be classified as "who I am", "who we are", and "where we are going" stories. Dramatic storytelling is the way people learn and the way they connect with one another. Storytelling gives powerful mobilizing life to know-how and dreams. It's the reason leaders write books.

Action

Leadership and followership cannot be separated. The combined duality is an organization may consist of an informal dyad or a formally organized complexity encompassing tens of thousands of people. "For the organization to perform to a high standard, its members must believe that what it is doing is that one contribution to community and society on which all others depend".

The ten best practices (i.e. actions) of leaders point the way to that high standard and faith. Let’s look at these ten in more detail.


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