The 15th Principle - Place Common Interest First

This last checklist precept  is expressed in our oft-used phrases of "servant" or "selfless" leadership...

To mark the moment of surrender of April 9, 1865 by the south during the civil war, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered a follow-up ceremony for April 12, with more than 4,000 union solders to be lined up at attention on one side of a field.  Robert E. Lee's defeated infantry units were then to march onto the field to place their regimental flags and firearms at the foot of a Union officer in charge.  For the honor of orchestrating the event Grant designated Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

As the first Confederate brigade approached Union forces at the field on April 12, four years to the date since the Rebel firing on Fort Sumter, Chamberlain ordered a bugle call that told Union solders to "carry arms" -- a posture of respect in which soldiers hold the musket in their right hand with the muzzle perpendicular to their shoulders.  Both Union and Confederate soldiers understood its meaning, since their military traditions had emanated from the same sources.

A Southern general riding near the front of the Confederate forces, John B. Gordon, appreciated the respectful signal that Chamberlain's soldiers displayed toward the Rebel soldiers on their day of ignominy, and Gordon ordered the same posture to be returned by his own troops.  As described by Chamberlain himself, "Gordon, at the head of the marching column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of the shifting arms, looks up, and taking the meaning," instructed "his successive brigades to pass with the same position."

The incident became known as a "salute returning a salute," a moment remembered for years by those who witnessed or heard of it, and one that implied reconciliation.  Some of Chamberlains fellow officers were angered by witnessing such a fraternal act after fighting the same soldiers on so many killing fields.  And for Chamberlain himself, it was a matter of saluting those who had tried to kill him only two weeks earlier.

For President Abraham Lincoln, the South's capitulation at Appomattox constituted not only an ending point for the armed rebellion but also a starting point for national reconciliation.  Even for him, however, the road to reunification was a bitter pill given the Union's grievous losses on the battlefields.  Events would take a horrible personal turn just two days after Chamberlain's salute to the Rebel army as the president and his wife watched a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington.

For both sides, though, gestures of reconciliation were more important than the hostilities that remained.  The latter were natural, the former learned, and Chamberlain's moment at the conclusion of the Civil War serves to remind us of the vital importance of a final Leader's Checklist principle: Placing common mission ahead of personal interest or animosity, especially when it seems least natural to do so.   This last checklist precept  is expressed in our oft-used phrases of "servant" or "selfless" leadership, and it is well captured in a U.S. Marine Corps dictum: "The officer eats last."

ACTION POINT: In setting strategy, communicating vision, and reaching decisions, common purpose comes first, personal self-interest last.

Study Leadership Moments

 a powerful reminder to examine whether you yourself are employing all the necessary principles.

A first step for learning to apply the Leader's Checklist is to become a self-directed student of leadership.  This study can take many forms:

• reading leaders' biographies
• witnessing leaders in action
• joining leadership development programs

What's critical is witnessing how others have worked with a full checklist or fallen short, often a powerful reminder to examine whether you yourself are employing all the necessary principles.

ACTION POINT:   Sharpen your leadership skills by learning from others in leadership positions.

Activating the Checklist

 Doing so for many managers is an acquired rather than a natural skill.

Would you have surgery performed by a doctor who routinely failed to confirm that the right patient was in the operating room and the correct procedure was about to be performed?  Or willingly fly with a pilot who regularly failed to check wind speed, flight plan, and all the other essential ingredients for ensuring a successful takeoff?

Obviously not.  Medical centers often require physicians to run through a specific checklist before commencing surgery.  Aviation authorities around the globe require the same of pilots before takeoff.   We take for granted a pilot's thoroughness or a surgeon's, but we too often give ourselves a pass on reviewing an analogous list, or merely have one to check,  even when we are facing moments during which a complete leadership inventory might be essential for sensibly directing or even saving the enterprise.

Even the best checklist has no value unless it is routinely activated to guide a leader's behavior.  Doing so for many managers is an acquired rather than a natural skill.  It has been found that managers fruitfully engage in six learning avenues that help them activate the Leader's checklist on a regular basis:

1. Study leadership moments.
2. Solicit coaching and mentoring.
3. Accept stretch experiences.
4. Conduct after-action reviews of personal leadership moments.
5. Endure extremely stressful leadership moments.
6. Experience the leadership moments of others.

ACTION POINT: Engage in the learning avenues listed to sharpen your leaderships skills.

Customizing the Checklist - Country

In a study of Indian executives it also revealed four distinct principles constituting a kind of "India Way" for leading business...

Core leadership principles of the kinds referred to earlier are much the same in many countries and have been found to be essential in running a business in all major economies.  Company leaders everywhere emphasize company strategy and motivating the work force.  In a study of Indian executives it also revealed four distinct principles constituting a kind of "India Way" for leading business on that subcontinent:

• Holistic engagement with employees.  Indian business leaders see their firms as organic enterprises where sustaining employee morale and building company culture are critical obligations.  People are viewed as assets to be developed, not costs to be reduced.
• Improvisations and adaptability. Improvisation is also at the heart of the India Way.  In a complex, often volatile environment with few resources and much red tape, business leaders have learned to rely on their wits to circumvent recurrent and innumerable hurdles.
• Creative value propositions.  Give the large and intensely competitive domestic market, Indian business leaders have of necessity learned to create value propositions that satisfy the needs of demanding consumers and do so with extreme efficiency.
• Broad mission and purpose.  Indian business leaders place special emphasis on personal values, a vision of growth, and strategic thinking.  They take pride in not only enterprise success but also family prosperity, regional advance, and national renaissance.

ACTION POINT:  Identify the cultural leadership principles within your organization.

Customizing the Checklist - Role

partner with and monitor company executives, guide company strategy, and create a bright line between delegated decisions and retained authority.

Distinct positions necessitate their own unique additions to the core Leader's Checklist.  The customized principles for top executives are different from those for front line managers.  They, in turn, are different for company directors.

In interviewing more than a hundred company executives and institutional investors--part of a study of how the two work together or are sometimes at odds with each other--I found a special demand for chief executives to build personal familiarity with their largest investors, articulate a compelling vision for where the company was going and a persuasive strategy for getting there, and generate steady quarterly and annual growth in company earnings.  In a separate study of company directors, a professional colleague  and I learned that many directors place a premium on partnering with--not just monitoring--management, establishing clear lines between decisions retained by the board and those delegated to management, and taking a active role in setting company strategy.

In sum, a customized Leader's Checklist for executives would include building relations with investors, making a persuasive case for how the company will create additional shareholder value, and then delivering steady and predictable growth in quarterly and annual earnings.  The customized Leader's Checklist for company directors, by contrast, might include an ability to both partner with and monitor company executives, guide company strategy, and create a bright line between delegated decisions and retained authority.

ACTION POINT: Build key relationships and a persuasive case for creating value internally and externally.

Customizing the Checklist

Every organization requires its own customized set of checklist principles. 

The 15 principles provide a solid foundation for a Leader's Checklist, suitable for most leadership moments  at most organizations at most times.  But "most" is not always good enough.  Customized checklists are required for distinct times and contexts.  Among the most important divisions are those of company, role, country, moment and personal place.

Company.  Every organization requires its own customized set of checklist principles.  In recent years, many of the largest have established such lists.

The Leaders Checklist for General Electric, according to those highly familiar with the company would include, for instance, teaching others how to lead their divisions, making tough--often wrenching--personnel decisions around performance, and continually innovating.   A checklist for Google, by contrast, would place greater emphasis on pursuing individual creative sparks, keeping teams small, and guiding others in an even-keeled manner.

A checklist for a major professional services firm might identify nearly a dozen special capacities that it holds to be vital for its managers, including seeing the world through clients' eyes, enthusiastically engaging with clients, and working with them to transcend conventional thinking.

ACTION POINT: Identify the key principles for your company checklist.

Principles 10, 11, 12

vital qualities are exceptional self-awareness, self-regulation, and personal empathy, a combination that he has termed emotional intelligence.

Manage relations, Identify personal implications and convey your character.  Frances Hesselbein, who led the Girl Scouts for more than a decade and then led an organization for nonprofit leadership, emphasized the value of personal mentoring, flattening the hierarchy, and hearing dissent.

For researcher Daniel Goleman, vital qualities are exceptional self-awareness, self-regulation, and personal empathy, a combination that he has termed emotional intelligence.  An academic team that studied middle managers in financial services, food processing, and telecommunications in 62 countries, ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe concluded that leaders should avoid developing autocratic, egocentric, and irritable styles.

ACTION POINT:  Seek to develop your emotional intelligence.

Principles 7, 8, 9

Peter Drucker deemed effective leaders to be those who delegated much but retained authority over what was most strategic for the organization.  

Motivate the troops, Embrace the front lines and build leadership in others.  Peter Drucker, who studied managers in action over six decades, deemed effective leaders to be those who delegated much but retained authority over what was most strategic for the organization.

But effective leaders also had a habit of personally visiting the front lines, giving rise to the title of one of Drucker's publications on the subject,  "Not Enough Generals Were Killed," a slighting reference to World War I army commanders who remained far from the battle lines while ordering soldiers into pointless rounds of trench warfare.   Noel Tichy, a university professor who also directed General Electric's leadership program for several years said building troop strength is a matter of creating other leaders throughout the organization. 

ACTION POINT: Stay close to the front lines and build leadership in others.

Mission Critical Principle 6- Communicate Persuasively

"I really want to listen.  I want to engage, but I have to shut up."

There is not shortage of leaders willing to reveal what has worked, or sometimes failed, in their own exercise of power.  Inevitable, some of these accounts are exercises in vanity, self-promotion, or self-justification, but the best of such self-reporting furnishes useful insights from the front lines of leadership.

CEO Dawn Lepore of online retailer Drugstore.com with revenue in 2010 of 450 million, offered that while she was "very comfortable with ambiguity," when "you're leading a large organization, people are not as comfortable with ambiguity, and they want you to be clearer about what's happening, where you're taking them.  So I had to get better at communicating what I was thinking."

Communicating must also be two-way, reported Carol Bartz, CEO of Internet provider Yahoo, who saw the act of hearing as essential, if not always natural: "I have a bad habit--you get half your question out and I think I know the whole question, so I want to answer it.  And so I actually had to be trained to take a breath.  I really want to listen.  I want to engage, but I have to shut up."

ACTION POINT: Communicate clearly and listen intently.

Mission Critical Principles 4 and 5

effective leaders were most often defined by a driving determination to reach a goal, an ability to generate trust and communicate optimism, and a bias for action when ambiguity prevails.

The U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidates School places great emphasis on taking charge and acting decisively.  To build an ability to make rapid decisions under stress with incomplete information, would-be Marine commanders learn to make do with a "70-percent" solution, not 100-percent consensus: explain unambiguous objectives and leave their subordinates to work out the details; tolerate mistakes if they point to stronger performance next time and are not repeated a second time; and view indecisiveness as a fatal flaw--worse than making a mediocre decision,  because a middling decision, swiftly executed, can at least be corrected.

In a similar vein, Warren Bennis, an academic observer and university administrator, concluded that effective leaders were most often defined by a driving determination to reach a goal, an ability to generate trust and communicate optimism, and a bias for action when ambiguity prevails.

ACTION POINT:  Act swiftly and decisively.

Mission Critical Principles

...common leadership threads included an exceptional ability to define a compelling vision for change, devise a strategy for achieving it, and honor those followers who were being asked to achieve it.

Multiple sources affirm the importance of the 15 core principles, including studies of the qualities of leadership by academic investigators, reviews of leadership development programs among well-established organizations, consideration of what leaders report has served them well.   Here is a brief sampling of of sources for principles 1 (Articulate a Vision), 2 (Think and Act Strategically), and 3 (Honor the Room).

Two well-informed observers, educator Howard Gardner and researcher Emma Laskin, explored historical sources on twentieth-century luminaries ranging from Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi to Margaret Thatcher and George C. Marshall, and concluded that their common leadership threads included an exceptional ability to define a compelling vision for change, devise a strategy for achieving it, and honor those followers who were being asked to achieve it.

ACTION POINT: Define your vision and devise the strategy to achieve it and then honor those that embrace it.

The Leaders Checklist

Friday's DD's for the near term future will be dedicated to the topic of leadership based on Michael Useem's recently published book, The Leaders Checklist.  

The Leaders Checklist is composed of 15 core principles applicable to most leaders, in most endeavors, in most circumstances.  A checklist is only as good as its underlying foundation, and the foundation is only as solid as the materials and engineering that go into it.

From development work with hundreds of managers and executives in leadership programs in Asia, Europe, North American and South America, from research interviews with many managers in the United States and abroad, and from witnessing managers  facing a range of critical moments, the Leaders Checklist points to a core of 15 mission-critical leadership principles that vary surprisingly little between companies or countries.

These principles constitute the vital foundation of universally applicable Leaders Checklist.

1. Articulate a Vision.  Formulate a clear and persuasive vision and communicate it to all members of the enterprise.
2. Think and Act Strategically.  Set forth a pragmatic strategy for achieving that vision both short and long-term, and ensure that it is widely understood; consider all the players, and anticipate reactions and resistance before they are manifest.
3. Honor the Room.  Frequently express your confidence and support for those who work with and for you.
4. Take Charge. Embrace a bias for action, or taking responsibility even if it is not formally delegated, particularly if you are well positioned to make a difference.
5. Act Decisively.  Make good and timely decision and ensure that they are executed.
6. Communicate Persuasively.  Communicate in ways that people will not forget; simplicity and clarity of expression help.
7. Motivate the Troops.  Appreciate the distinctive intentions that people bring, and then build on those diverse motives to draw the best from each.  
8. Embrace the Front Lines. Delegate authority except for strategic decisions, and stay close to those most directly engaged with the work of the enterprise. 
9. Build Leadership in Others.  Develop leadership throughout the organization.
10. Manage Relations.  Build enduring personal ties with those who look to you, and work to harness the feelings and passions of the workplace.
11. Identify Personal Implication.  Help everybody appreciate the impact that the vision and strategy are likely to have on their own work and future with the firm.
12. Convey Your Character.  Through gesture, commentary, and accounts, ensure that others appreciate that you are a person of integrity. 
13. Dampen Over-Optimism.  Counter the hubris of success, focus attention on latent threats and unresolved problems, and protect against the tendency for managers to engage in unwarranted risk.
14. Build a Diverse Top Team.  Leaders need to take final responsibility, but leadership is also a team sport best played with an able roster of those collectively capable of resolving all the key challenges. 
15. Place Common Interest First.  In setting strategy, communicate vision, and reaching decisions, common purpose comes first, personal self-interest last.

ACTION POINT:  Print the list and refer to it often.