Excellence

L E A D E R S H I P

THE MAGAZINE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

V O L . 2 4 N O . 11

AUSTRALIA EDITION

NOVEMBER 2007

Execution Excellence
Swinging right along in any
leadership position will bring
a smile to the face of even a
"bad egg." As we watch a
Humpty Dumpty leader
joyfully flying high into
the sky, we can only hope
that this time both he and
we can hang on for dear life.

PHIL GELDART

Execution Excellence
Think strategically and
execute effectively. . . . . . . 3

MICHAEL STALLARD
AND JASON PANKAU

Connection Cultures
Leaders create them by
inspiring identity. . . . . . . .4

Behave in ways that

build your credibility. . . . .7

JAMES K. DITTMAR,
KENNETH R. JENNINGS,
AND JOHN STAHL-WERT

Trust and Engagement

Assume responsibility for
worker engagement. . . . . 8

GARY HARPST
JOSEPH GRENNY

Six Disciplines

Expand Influence

Put in place your own

excellence program. . . . . .8

Make conversation safe

and motivating. . . . . . . . . 5

STEVEN FEINBERG

ANGELA HILLS

See Possibilities

Leading Innovation

Shift to vantage points

to see advantages. . . . . . .11

Reward for failure as

well as success. . . . . . . . .16

HOWARD M. GUTTMAN

JAMES M. KILTS

Moments of Truth

Selecting Leaders

Team members hold their

leaders accountable. . . . .12

MARC EFFRON AND

MIRIAM ORT

STEPHEN PARKER

Pool or Puddle

Six pitfalls lead to the

downfall of programs. . .18

Is there talent in your

talent management? . . . .13

DIANNA BOOHER
CHIP CONLEY

Peak Experience
Get your relational
mojo from Maslow. . . . . . .6

Cues, Clues, and Props

Own up to your mistakes
when you miss cues. . . . . 9

DAVID FINEGOLD

Advanced TM
A paucity of strategic HR
leaders will increase. . . . 14

Credibility

Leadership Excellence
Great leaders share
seven characteristics. . . . 10

Effective LD

CINDY TONKIN

Shift Perspectives
Discover multiple
perspectives. . . . . . . . . . . .19

GRAHAM KENNY

JOSEPH W. BERKERY
JAMES M. KOUZES AND
BARRY Z. POSNER

Five factors predict

selection success. . . . . . . 17

DAN HILL

Strategy Scorecard

Emotionomics

Measure outcomes
and strategy. . . . . . . . . . . 20

Assess emotional states. .15

E . D . I . T . O . R S

Leadership Excellence (ISSN 8756-2308)

is published monthly by:
Executive Excellence Publishing
1806 North 1120 West
Provo, Utah 84604.
Circulation: custserv@eep.com
Internet Address: www.eep.com

N . O . T . E

Best Minds on Leadership

Editor: Bruce Mills

Associate Director, Marketing: Yvonne Dobson
Customer Relations Manager: Jackie Hutson

W ho are the top 100 thought leaders?

by a friend and leadership

mentor, Dallin H. Oaks, now
a member of the Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spoke of the
conundrum of having more things expected
of us than we can possibly do.
He suggested that just because something is good is not sufficient reason for
doing it. The number of things we can do
far exceeds the time available to accomplish
them. As we consider various choices, we
should remember that it is not enough that
something is good. Some things are better
than good, and still others are best, and
these are the things that should command
priority attention. Even though a particular
option may cost more, its far greater value
may make it the best choice. Limited time
and resources dont allow us to do every
good thing. We need to evaluate its potential
for good, better, and best and put our priority
time and best efforts into those things that
will produce the more desired end results.
As I rank the best minds on leadership, I reflect on this notion, I recognize that best may
be in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.

Leadership Excellence. As Tom Peters recently

bemoaned, Its tough being a guru today.
Indeed, the standards and expectations
keep rising, as do the number of practitioners. The old qualificationsa pulse and
Ph.D., a business card and book, an ego and
outgoing nature, a sales pitch and speech, a
solution looking for a problem, and a need
(greed) to be rich and recognizedhave
mostly given way to a new set of qualifiers.
The gurus who make our Excellence 100
list today possess a rare combination of traits
and abilities. Here are the eight criteria:
1. Preparation: academic and professional preparation.
2. Character: values, ethics, beliefs, purpose, mission, integrity, walk the talk.
3. Principles: big message, point of view,
tenets, main points.
4. Personality: charisma, style, originality, authenticity, one of a kind.
5. Performance: inspiring action, realworld performance, work ethic.
6. Experience: beyond local and regional,
more national and international.
7. Expression: substance and style in writing, speaking, coaching, consulting, mentoring, training, or teaching.
8. Influence: difference, results, change,
transformation.

Eight Criteria

The Top 100 Thought Leaders

What does it take today to be considered

a top thought leader in the field of leadership? Well, I can say this: much more than it
did 24 years ago when we launched

For 24 years, weve published the best

minds on leadership around a Seven
Dimension Model. Heres our 2007 listing of
the Top 100 thought leaders on leadership:

by Ken Shelton

RECENTLY LISTENED TO A SPEECH

LEADERSHIP

e
c
n
e
l
l
xce

THE

E 100
EXCELLENCE

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

Gary Hamel
Dave Ulrich
James Collins
Warren Bennis
Tom Peters
Barbara Kellerman
James Kouzes
John P. Kotter
Marshall Goldsmith
Noel Tichy
Clayton Christensen
Peter Block
Kevin Cashman

14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.

Jack Zenger
Ram Charan
Peter Senge
James Loehr
Michael Porter
Marcus Buckingham
Meg Wheatley
Norm Smallwood
Bill George
James O'Toole
Max Bazerman
Jay Conger
C.K. Prahalad
Ichak Adizes
William C. Miller
Rosabeth Kanter
Gifford Pinchot
Carly Fiorina
Bill Isaacs
Nicholas Negraponte
Morgan McCall, Jr.
Jay Conrad Levinson

36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.

Michael Treacy
Kevin/Jackie Freiberg
Jack Welch
James Champy
Rob Lebow
Chip Bell
Dan Goleman
Renee Mauborgne
Beverly Kaye
Jeff Snipes
Ken Blanchard
Eileen McDargh
Nathaniel Branden
David Allen
Judith Glaser
David Nadler
Phil Geldart
Libby Sartain
Barry Conchie
Nigel Nicholson
Bill Byham
Ed Lawler

58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.

Charles Garfield
Josh Bersin
Joseph Grenny
Jon Katzenbach
Richard Chang
Michael G. Winston
Joel Barker
Frances Hesselbein
Karl Albrecht
Malcolm Gladwell
Patrick Lencioni
Andre Martin
Michael Hammer
Edgar Schein
Lois Zachary
Spencer Johnson
Christopher Rice
Barry Posner
Michael Feiner
Ira Chaleff
Jeff Sonnenfeld
Anne Mulcahy

80. Tom Crum

81. James Cabrera
82. Michael Quigley
83. Vijay Govindarajan
84. Dianna Booher
85. Larry Bossidy
86. Lance Secretan
87. Robert Kaplan
88. Dede Henley
89. Ian Mitroff
90. Bill Adams
91. Stephen R. Covey
92. Phil Harkins
93. Terry Bacon
94. Joseph Jaworski
95. Rudy Giuliani
96. Richard Leider
97. Richard Whiteley
98. Stephen Smith
99. Brian Tracy
100.Ken Shelton

LexisNexis Butterworths
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Article Reprints: available upon request
Contributing Editors:
Chip Bell, Dianna Booher, Kevin Cashman,
Jim Loehr, Norm Smallwood, Joel Barker, Joseph
Grenny, Jim Kouzes
Executive Excellence Publishing:
Ken Shelton, Editor-in-Chief, CEO
Sean Beck, Circulation Manager
Geoff Pace, Sales Manager
Nancy Low, Business Manager
Allan Jensen, Chief Information Officer
The table of contents art is a detail from
Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Swing (image cropped)
Scott Gustafson, and is courtesy of the
artist and art print publisher Greenwich
Workshop.
For additional information on artwork by
Scott Gustafson, please contact:
Greenwich Workshop
151 Main Street
Saymour, CT 06483
1-800-243-4246
www.greenwichworkshop.com
Full view of cover art.

Copyright 2007 Executive Excellence Publishing. No

part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher.
Quotations must be credited.

L e a d e r s h i p

E x c e l l e n c e

PERFORMANCE

EXECUTION

Execution Excellence
Its the sterling silver cord.
by Phil Geldart

HE STERLING SILVER
Cord is the vital
connection between
the ability to think strategically and to
execute effectively.
Strategic skills are crucial to formulate policy, establish direction, and
determine how resources should be
most effectively allocated in order to
achieve the larger vision. Strategic
thinking skills are important when
making broad decisions in terms of
time (5 to 10 years out); product (which
areas receive the greatest concentration); and impact (what do we wish to
achieve using our time and money).
Tactical skills put feet to the
plan. Clear vision and thinking
(strategic skills) are important but
without good tactical skills, the benefits of visionary thinking wont be
realized, and will slowly dissipate as
so many dreams. Strong tactical skills
enable people to understand the
objective and break it down into operational pieces. These can then be
planned for, have resources allocated,
and have clear steps outlined that
need to be taken to achieve specific
results. Tactical skills look at the
immediate details, additional details
around the corner, and details on
the horizon. With good tactical skills,
you can realize what can and cannot
be done in any context and thus utilize the available talent in the resource
pool to maximum effectiveness.
Clearly, if a person is strong in both
areas, there is a huge benefit: the strategic thinking takes into consideration
the tactical realities, and the tactical
realities are driven by the strategic
plan. This person can make decisions
along the execution path without
endangering the attainment of the final
objective. Great leaders who master
both skills can be said to be of sterling
quality, with the sterling silver cord joining the strategic and tactical skills consistently strong along its entire length.
Their leadership at any point along
that cord is maximally effective.
People tend to have strength either
on the strategic end (knowing what to
do) or on the tactical end (knowing how

L e a d e r s h i p

E x c e l l e n c e

to do it). World-class leaders of sterling

quality are equally strong in both areas.
And in effective organizations, individuals are correctly positioned along
the sterling silver cord so that their relative strengths in strategy or tactics are
most effectively used daily.

Five Categories
The first step toward ensuring
strength at both the strategic and tactical level is to analyze the current position in five categories:
1. Strong conceptualizers and good
strategic thinkers have trouble executing consistently with predictable results.
They have a well-defined position at the
strategic end of the cord but little substance at the other. They require strengthening at the tactical end.

2. Strong strategic thinkers, while

unable to implement effectively, appreciate the consequences of the tactical
implementation. They can modify the
strategies, reflect the realities of the marketplace, and bring a more pragmatic
approach to their strategic thinking.
3. Strong tacticians appreciate the
way tactical activities support the implementation of the strategy. They can
proactively modify their behavior at the
tactical level, by degree, when they see
that there is a better way to deliver the
strategy. They take initiative in making
changes in day-to-day operations to
improve efficiency and productivity.
They see clearly what is to be done at
the end, and at all points in between.
4. Strong tacticians who consistently
deliver the current priorities but cant
provide clear and motivating direction
to others. They have little understanding of the strategic framework. They
need to develop their ability to see and
shape the broader context.

5. The sterling leader who has mastery of both the strategy and tactics
and everything in between. These highpotentials have demonstrated strength
on both the conceptual strategy side (in
knowing what to do) and on the tactical side (in being involved in the detail
and doing what is required to implement the strategy). They can move up
and down the silver cord, modifying
tactics in line with the strategy, and
shaping the strategy as execution
pieces are delivered to make progress
toward the ultimate objective. They
keep that objective in mind, modifying
it when necessary along the way to
realize the final end result quickly and
efficiently. However, they have yet to
develop the strength to retain the clarity of vision between strategy and tactics in turbulent times. When the
pressures become intense, crises loom,
or major events occur, they cant move
smoothly between strategy and tactics,
and revert to their area of strength
either strategy or tactics. At that point
they depend on others whose strength
is in their area of weakness. They will
grow over time, but they have yet to
develop a thick enough cord to withstand intense pressures.
Using this diagnostic framework,
you can effectively assess people, provide them with opportunities to
strengthen their weakness, and position them appropriately. At any point
in time, organizations (and individuals) are at some point on the Silver Cord
between strategy and tactics. If seen
from the macro-view against a 10-year
plan, an organization may seem to be
half way up the cord, but a micro-look
at a single department may reveal that
they are at a different point, perhaps at
the creation of a new strategy, having
just delivered a previous objective.
Every activity, department, initiative, or group will be somewhere on
that cord, each perhaps at a different
place. The macro-view with regards to
where the organization sits relative to
strategy or execution can be identified.
This will differ from the micro-view,
when, instead of an average sense of
the whole, you see the detail of each
part and where they each sit.

F i v e V a n t a g e Po i n t s
To know what is called for at places
along the cord, consider five points:
At the Top: Strategy is required in its
purest form when the organization or
function needs vision and a motivating
long-term framework for action. At this
point, individuals want to know what
they are trying to achieve and the con3

text into which they can place daily

activities and events.
Step Below the Top: Plans, dreams,
and thinking need to be sketched in
enough detail to visualize a plan and
generate confidence in a perceived
pathway to achieve the strategies.
At the Middle: Here the execution of
the strategies and the strategies themselves must be in sync. Here you
determine if what is being done is
compatible with what needs to be
done. Does the way you go about your
tasks support what you ultimately
want to achieve? Is what you want to
achieve coming in view? Do you have
confidence that you will arrive there
because of the way you are performing
your daily activities, and because of
the things occurring around you?
Step Above Tactics: At this point, tactics predominate with most of the focus
on getting the job done. However, this
is where innovation occurs. Once the
strategy has clearly been passed to
those who must execute, it is at this
stage people initiate change to established ways. They recognize that doing
it differently, using different tools, or
applying different methodologies could
accelerate the achievement of the strategy. It is clearly a tactical focus, but one
that bears the strategy in mind, that
reshapes or reworks the tactics to realize the strategy faster.
Full Tactical Focus. Here excellence of
execution is crucial. True tactical brilliance allows nothing to fall between
the cracks. All possibilities are considered, charts are created for all contingencies, and plans are put in place for
each eventuality. Resources are allocated efficiently, detailed project plans are
made, experience in world-class benchmarking is captured, individual
strengths are properly aligned with
individual needs, frequent check points
are established, plans occur as intendedthe execution is seamless, flawless,
brilliant, and cost-effective. Excellence
of execution is almost an art form! It is
critical to the success of any outcome.
Knowing what is expected along the
Silver Cord enables leaders to provide
clarity, ensure that the right things are
happening at each point, and determine
where the company, group, team or
individual should be on the cord at any
point in time. The more skilled leaders
are at all points on the cord, the more
effectively they can move people to the
LE
appropriate points on the cord.
Phil Geldart is CEO of Eagles Flight, Creative Training
Excellence. Call 1-800-567-8079 or visit www.eaglesflight.com.

ACTION: Develop strategic and tactical skills.

CULTURE

CONNECTION

Connection Cultures
Great leaders create strong bonds.

by Michael Stallard and Jason Pankau

NE POWERFUL SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE

advantage exists when people

share a feeling of connection to the
organization and colleagues in a connection culture. It creates an emotional
bond among members that leads to
greater trust and cooperation, and a
palpable sense of energy that boosts
the organization and its members to
play at the top of their games.
Great leaders create connection cultures. Queen Elizabeth, George Washington, John Wooden, and Ann Mulcahy,
among many others, created connection
cultures. Relational connections are powerful. Connection affects us
in positive way: improves
our health, boosts our creativity and problem-solving
ability, and connection
(social capital) increases the
feeling of satisfaction in life
for individuals and boosts
the economic productivity
of nations. Emotional connection is four times more
effective at boosting
employee engagement than rational
factorsand it results in higher productivity, profitability, shareholder
returns, customer satisfaction, and
employee retention.

Three Elements
Leaders create a connection culture
by increasing three elements:
1. Inspiring identity. This exists in a
culture when everyone is motivated by
the mission, united by the values, and
proud of its reputation. During World
War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
traveled to Seattle, Washington to meet
with 18,000 aircraft workers at Boeing.
He brought with him a young pilot
who had escaped death thanks to the
resilience of his bullet-riddled B-17, a
plane built at that plant. Seeing and
hearing that pilot thank them for saving his life connected them to each
other and their cause and transformed
them into freedom fighters. Thats the

power of an Inspiring Identity.

2. Human Value. This exists in a culture when everyone understands the
basic psychological needs of people,
appreciates their positive unique contributions, and helps them achieve their
potential. Allan Loren, who led a turnaround of Dun and Bradstreet, showed
people he valued them in many ways.
To protect their time, he scheduled no
meetings on Mondays or Fridays if it
required people to travel over the
weekend. Loren matched everyone
with mentors who gave them feedback
about how they were doing relative to
their growth goals. Over his four-year
tenure, Dun and Bradstreet experienced
annual double-digit earnings growth
and its value increased 300 percent.
3. Knowledge flow. This exists when
everyone seeks the ideas of others,
shares their ideas and opinions honestly, and safeguards relational connections. A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter &
Gamble, uses Knowledge Flow to boost
performance. When he took over the
reins, P&G was performing poorly,
and morale was low. Lafley surveyed
employees to get their ideas, and
implemented many of
them. The results have
been stunning. In his first
12 months, Lafley led an
effort that resulted in a
nearly three-fold increase
in employees who approve
of P&Gs direction.
Heres a formula for a
Connection Culture: Vision
+ Value + Voice = Connection.
Connection transforms a
dog-eat-dog culture into a sled dog team.
Great leaders see the value of connection and foster a sense of community. The biotech company Genentech
brings in cancer patients to meet its
employees. Southwest Airlines improves its performance at the gate when it
maintains a 10-to-1 frontline employeeto-supervisor ratio because supervisors
can connect with and coach their people. Goldman Sachs makes its leadership training available to the promising
leaders of its client companies to connect with them. Ed Catmull, head of
Pixar Animation studios, created Pixar
University to increase connection. Its
crest bears the Latin phrase Alienus Non
Dieutius (alone no longer). Creating
connection cultures yields benefits. LE
Michael Stallard is president and Jason Pankau is a partner of
E Pluribus Partners and coauthors of Fired Up or Burned Out.
Visit www.FiredUpOrBurnedOut.com, call 203-422-6511 or
email info@epluribuspartners.com.

ACTION: Create a connection culture.

L e a d e r s h i p

E x c e l l e n c e

LEADERSHIP

INFLUENCE

have. Mistrust? Competence?

Reliability? High maintenance relationship? Ask them if they have disH a v e t h r e e c o n v e r s a t i o n s . cussed these concerns with their peer
in a way that led to solutions. If so,
you likely have an influential leader. If
by Joseph Grenny not, you likely have a garden-variety
leader who is resigned to managing
around problems.
Rather than act out their concerns,
HAT MAKES CERinfluential leaders talk them out. They
tain leaders so
hone skills for addressing crucial coninfluential? What
versations in ways that lead to breakenables them to change hearts and
through solutions and strong relationminds independent of their formal
ships. As a result their influence soars.
authority? What accounts for their
amazing influence? One vital skill set
is how they deal with crucial conversa- I n S e a r c h o f I n f l u e n c e
tionsthose emotionally and politicalWe observe leaders in crucial
ly risky issues that crop up daily.
momentsas they raise such risky
You can quickly get a measure of
issues as mistrust, incompetence, disleaders influence by asking them to
missal, and embezzlement.
describe how they handle three cruOnce, we saw a middle
cial conversations:
manager approach his CEO
about concerns that he had
First, ask them to identify a direct
report who chronically underperforms. violated the law in a way
that put the company at
Watch how the CEO behaves toward
risk. When influential leadthis individual. In most cases, if you
ers engage in crucial conwere to ask the direct report about
their CEOs view of them, youd get a versations, they are candid
but also so impressively
very different story. CEOs tend to
respectful that the most
make two mistakes in dealing with
disappointing subordinates. First, they common result is a dramateither sugarcoat feedback to people who ic improvement in the situation. Even
are untrustworthy and incompetent or when these leaders dismiss individuthey avoid them! Second, they mistake als, the quality of the conversation
abuse for conversation. When they offer leads to a more amicable separation.
Influential people find a way to be
criticism, they avoid discussing the
honest without compromising respect,
employees deficiencies or where the
and to be respectful without comproperson is coming up short; instead,
they make harsh attacks on individual mising candor.
Here are three key principles that
actions or decisions.
Second, ask them to describe a con- result in increased influence:
cern with their boss or board. We often
Learn to look. Those who are effecsee leaders act out rather than talk tive at crucial conversations are aware
out their concerns with people to
of their behaviortheir style under
whom they report. One executive, for stressand catch it quickly when their
example, had concluded that three
approach to a conversation begins to
members of his board didnt support
damage dialogue. They watch for
himan allegation that appeared
times when their behavioror that of
true. What undermined this leaders
the other personmoves to silence or
influence was not the lack of board
violencesome form of withdrawal or
support, but how he handled the situ- attack. When they notice their behavation. Rather than engaging in a canior degenerating, they mentally refodid discussion, he politicked around
cus on their real goals. To get back on
it. He swore his executive team to loy- track, they consider what results they
alty. The board members noticed the
really care about. When the other pernew wall of silence and concluded
son is reacting badly, they make it safe.
that the leader must be hiding someMake it safe. Have you ever noticed
thing. They became more aggressive
how some conversationseven about
in expressing their concerns and with- risky subjectsgo well and others,
in months drove a no-confidence vote over trivial disagreements, degenerate
in the leader.
into combat or retreat? Why is that?
Third, ask them to point out a peer We find that the antidote to defensivewho is tough to work with. Ask them ness is to make it safe. People can listo candidly express the concerns they ten to tough feedback so long as they

Expand Influence

L e a d e r s h i p

E x c e l l e n c e

feel safe with the person giving it.

How do you create safety? You help
others understand that you care about
their interests as much as you care
about your own. When they believe
you, they open up to your views.
When they dont, they shut down.
Secondly, you must help the other person know you respect them. These two
conditionsmutual purpose and
mutual respectcreate safety. Those
who master crucial conversations
watch for and repair safety concerns
the instant they occur. This enables
them to be far more influential,
because the other person can hear
what theyre saying rather than having
it muffled in a fog of defensiveness.
Make it motivating. How do you
talk to someone who doesnt care about
your concerns? Influential
leaders rarely face instances
where they cant engage
someone because they
know that the key to influence is empathy. They first
think how the problems
they want to raise either
affect or will affect the other
person. They think through
the consequences of the situation to others. For example, if people appear incompetent, their
incompetence is likely causing problems and frustrations to them and to
others. They dont see how their weaknesses are connected to their own concerns. When you are respectful in
crucial confrontations, you help people
see how their own interests are served
by addressing the problem and finding
solutions.
When you learn to look, make it safe,
and make it motivating, people wont
naturally roll over for you and give
you everything you want, but your
influence will increaseand solutions
will appear. Rather than contributing
to problems by acting out your concerns (which only embeds problems
and perfects the politics that keep
them alive), youll talk them out and
find a mutually beneficial solution.
If you want to change situations, you
have to change how people behave.
And if you want to change how people
behave, you have to first change how
they think. By learning to exert profound influence, you gain the power to
change anything and anyone.
LE
Joseph Grenny is a speaker and consultant who designs and
implements change initiatives, cofounder of Vital Smarts and
coauthor of Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and
Influencer. Call 1-800-449-5989, or visit www.vitalsmarts.com.

ACTION: Expand your influence as a leader.

PERFORMANCE

PEAK

progressive commoditization. When

customers have their desires met, they
are substantially more likely to come
back for moreand theyll tell others.
Fred Smith, CEO of Fed Ex, notes:
Get your mojo from Maslow.
We thought we were selling the transportation of goods, when in fact we
were selling peace of mind. Most
companies think too narrowly about
(social/belonging and esteem), and
by Chip Conley
who they are and whom theyre servTransformation (self-actualization). I
ing. Rarely do they consider researchcall these The Relationship Truths.
ing and meeting the Unrecognized
FTER 15 YEARS OF
Relationship 1: The Employee Pyramid Needs of their customers. Instead, at
growing Joie de
Vivre Hospitality into
Companies often assume that com- best, they create focus groups to listen
to their customers conscious wishes.
Northern Californias largest indepen- pensation is an employees primary
But, companies like Apple and Harleydent hotel group, I was hit by a peraspiration. Similar to Maslow placing
Davidson became highly successful
fect storm. In 2001, the dot-com crash, physiological needs at the base of the
cult brands by creating self-actualizing
fallout from 9/11, and the SARS crisis pyramid, Money (or, the full compenconverged upon the travel industry,
sation package) is a base need, but also experiences for their customers.
sending the San Francisco Bay Area
a base motivation for most employees.
Relationship 3: The Investor Pyramid
hotel industry into its biggest downLoyalty and inspiration are fostered
turn. I started looking for a solution.
further up the pyramid. Recognition is
There would be no employees or
Behavioral psychologist Abraham
not just about knowing someones
customers if there werent a capital
Maslow studied healthy people, look- name, but also their talents, goals, and source for the business. This Relationship
ing for commonalities in their outlook dreams. The main reason employees
Truth addresses what a company can do
and behavior. He believed wed been leave their job is the lack of recognition to meet the needs of its investors. Many
sold short by psychologists who sub- they feel from their direct supervisor.
think the only need an investor has is to
scribed to Freuds psychoanalysis and
At the top of the Employee Pyramid
make bucketfuls of money. No doubt an
B.F. Skinners behaviorism. He noted
investors base premise is to assure a
that we are motivated first by physiostrong ROI. To facilitate this they need
logical needs for sleep, water, and
to have Transaction Alignment with
food. As those needs are fulfilled, we
company executives or a start-up entremove to higher needs for physical
preneur, which builds trust.
safety, affiliation, social connection,
Yet, just being aligned on the key
and esteem. At the top of the pyramid
goals for an investment creates a shortis self-actualizationwhere people
term, transactional relationship. You
have transient peak experiences.
move beyond this level by creating a
A peak experiencecomparable to
collaborative partnership in which a
being in the zone or in the flowis
company or entrepreneur and the
investor see the relationship as being
when what ought to be just is. Peak
the core to why they do business
experiences are transcendental
togetheras opposed to having the
moments when everything seems to
is a concept that few employers talk
transaction act as the glue that keeps
fit together perfectly. Maslow wrote,
about. Finding Meaning in ones
These moments of ecstasy cannot be workboth in what you do and in the this relationship alive. At the core of
bought, guaranteed, or even sought,
companys missioncreates a more
Relationship Alignment is the idea that
but we can set up the conditions so
inspired employee. One of my most
an investor has developed deep confithat peak experiences are more likely. gratifying experiences is to help the
dence in the people they invest in.
Yet, I couldnt find one book that
companys housekeeping staffover
At the top of the Investor Pyramid is
applied Maslows theory to the motione-third of our employeesfind
the transformative nature of what
vational truths that define our key
meaning in cleaning rooms daily.
investing can mean in terms of making
relationships at work. I wondered: if
a difference. A self-actualized investor
Relationship 2: The Customer Pyramid sees the Legacy in their investing and
individually we aspire to self-actualization, why couldnt companiescolexperiences pride of ownership.
Just as money is at the bottom of
lections of peopleaspire to this peak, the Employee Pyramid, Meeting the
These Relationship Truths are the relatoo? What does a self-actualized com- Expectations of customers is the surtional mojo that make companies sucpany look like? And how could we
cessful. Creating peak experiences for
vival need for this Relationship Truth.
create the conditions so that peak expe- Most companies spend too much time key constituencies leads to peak perforriences are more likely? How could I trying to achieve basic customer satis- mance. Most of us spend our lives
translate Maslows pyramid into
focusing on what is, but Abe Maslow refaction at the base of this pyramid.
something actionable for my team?
minded us to focus on what could be. LE
Creating customer satisfaction wont
I started by defining three relation- necessarily tame your customers tenChip Conley is CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and author of
shipsemployees, customers and investors dency to wander in an increasingly
Peak: How Great Companies Get their Mojo from Maslow
promiscuous marketplace. Tapping
and then distilled Maslows five
(Wiley). Visit www.ChipConley.com.
needs into three: Survival (physiologi- into customer Desires can create differcal and safety), Success
entiation, which can be your cure for
ACTION: Create peak experiences.

Peak Experience
A

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LEADERSHIP

CREDIBILITY

tive about the future. Beyond having a

dream, a leader must communicate the
vision in ways that encourage people to
sign on for the duration, excite them
What followers expect.
about the cause, and make the context
meaningful. Whatever the circumstances, when leaders breathe life into
our dreams and aspirations, were more
willing to enlist in the movement.
Competent. To enlist in a cause, people must believe that the leader is
competent to guide them. They must
see the leader as having relevant expeby James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
rience and sound judgment. If people
EADERSHIP IS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN doubt the persons abilities, theyre
those who aspire to lead and those unlikely to join in the crusade.
who choose to follow. Strategies, tacLeadership competence refers to the
tics, skills, and practices are empty
leaders track record and ability to get
without understanding the aspirations things done. Such competence inspires
that connect leaders and constituents. confidence that the leader will guide
For 25 years weve asked people to the organization in the
tell us what they look for in a person
direction it needs to go.
that they would be willing to follow.
We first asked: What values, personal C r e d i b i l i t y I s K e y
traits, or characteristics do you look for
Three of these four key
and admire in a leader? Respondents characteristics of what peoidentified different values, traits, and
ple want most in their leadcharacteristics. Content analysis
ers make up source credireduced these items to a list of 20
bility. In assessing the
(each grouped with several synonyms believability of sources of
for clarification and completeness).
communicationwhether
From this list, we developed a sur- newscasters, salespeople,
vey Characteristics of Admired Leaders,
physicians, priests, managers, military
and sent it to 75,000 people worldwide. officers, politicians, or civic leaders
We distribute a one-page checklist, ask researchers typically evaluate them on
respondents to select the seven quali- three criteria: their perceived trustworthities that they most look for and
ness, their expertise, and their dynamism.
admire in a leader, someone whose
Those who are rated more highly on
direction they would willingly follow. these dimensions are considered to be
Our findings have been consistent. more credible sources of information.
These three characteristics are simiClearly, there are a few character tests
someone must pass before others will- lar to the essential leader qualities of
honest, competent, and inspiring.
ingly grant the designation leader.
More than anything, people want to
Four traits receive the most votes:
Honest. Honesty is selected 90 per- follow leaders who are credible.
cent of the time, emerging as the single Credibility is the foundation of leadership.
most important factor. If people are
We also must believe that leaders
going to willingly follow someone
know where were headed and have a
vision for the future (forward-looking).
whether into battle or into the boardroomthey first want to know that
Leaders must do more than be reliable
the person is worthy of their trust.
reporters of the news. Leaders make the
Forward-looking. About 70 percent news and make sense of the news. We
of respondents select the ability to look expect our leaders to have a point of
ahead, having a sense of direction and view about the future. We expect them
to articulate exciting possibilities.
a concern for the future. Whether we
Although compelling visions are
call that ability a vision, dream, callnecessary for leadership, if the leader
ing, goal or agenda, leaders must
is not credible, the message rests on a
know where theyre going if they
weak and precarious foundation.
expect others to willingly join them.
Leaders must be vigilant in guarding
They have to have a point-of-view
about the envisioned future, and they their credibility. Their ability to take
strong stands, to challenge the status
need to connect that point of view to
the hopes and dreams of constituents. quo, and to point us in new directions
Inspiring. People expect their leaders depends upon being highly credible.
Because these findings about the
to be enthusiastic, energetic, and posi-

Credibility

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E x c e l l e n c e

characteristics of admired leaders are

so pervasive and consistent, we created as our First Law of Leadership: If you
dont believe in the messenger, you
wont believe the message.

What Is Credibility Behaviorally?

Credibility is the basis of leadership.
But what is credibility behaviorally?
How do you know it when you see it?
Here are six common phrases people
use to describe how they know credibility when they see it: They practice
what they preach. They walk the
talk. Their actions are consistent with
their words. They put their money
where their mouth is. They follow
through on their promises. They do
what they say they will do.
When people decide whether a
leader is believable, they
first listen to the words,
then they watch the
actions. They listen to the
talk, and then they watch
the walk. They listen to
the promises of resources
to support change initiatives, and then they wait
to see if the money and
materials follow. They
hear the pledge to deliver,
and then they look for evidence that
the commitments are met. A judgment
of credible is handed down when
words and deeds are consonant.
This realization leads to a prescription for leaders on how to build credibility. This is our Second Law of Leadership: Do what you say you will do.
This definition of credibility corresponds with the two actions every
leader must take to build and sustain
personal credibility. To be credible in
action, leaders must first be clear about
their beliefs; they must know what
they stand for. Thats the say part.
Then they must put what they say into
practice: they must act on their beliefs
and do. This consistent living out of
values is a behavioral way of demonstrating honesty and trustworthiness.
Credibility makes a difference in the
attitudes and actions of employees,
customers, and other vital business
partners. Leaders must take it personally. Loyalty, commitment, energy and
productivity depend on it.
LE
James M. Kouzes is the Deans Executive Professor of
Leadership, and Barry Z. Posner is the Dean, Leavey School of
Business, Santa Clara University. This article is adapted from
their book The Leadership Challenge, 4th edition (Jossey-Bass)
and used with permission. Email Jim at jim@kouzesposner.com
and Barry at bposner@scu.edu.

ACTION: Learn ways to behave credibility.

CHANGE

ENGAGEMENT

Creating and maintaining an engaging culture is a challenge of trust

between individuals, groups, and
organizations. Warren Bennis says,
Use these keys to successful change. Trust is the emotional glue that binds
leaders and followers together. Trust
creates engaged employees.
Trust is a function of a leaders
capacity to close the credibility, or
say-do, gap between leaders and
colleagues. Employees develop trust
when they believe that they can
by James K. Dittmar, Kenneth R. depend on their leaders to do what
they say (aligned character), and
Jennings, and John Stahl-Wert
when their organizations show the
discipline and management capacity
to follow through with the plans and
HANGE IS THE NEW NORMAL. GAINcommitments (aligned execution).
ing and maintaining a competiEmployees who trust their leaders and
tive advantage requires the ability to
their organizations are creative, willrespond and adapt to market presingly take risks, and collaborate.
sures with agility and speed.
Beyond the communication gap
Yet most companies fail to achieve
lies the real tap-root of the problema
successful, sustained change 70 percent of the time. When leaders attend say-do gap. Communication alone
cant close this gap: it exists because the
to the relationship between trust and
things the leader communicates are not
engagement, they increase the suctrue! Closing this gap requires character
cess of their change initiatives and
and discipline.
secure competitive advantage.
Trust is a real and concrete resource,
Engaged employees are committed
as real as liquid assets, as concrete as
to and passionate about the vision,
infrastructure, as verifiable as product
mission, and values. They give far
inventory. Trust can be
greater discretionary effort
gained and earned. It can
and engage their talents to
grow, compound and appreensure team success.
ciate, and being trustworthy
Unfortunately, only about 25
can be learned and mastered.
percent of employees are
Credibility is also an opertruly engaged (and only 12
ational challenge. Can the
percent are fully engaged)
enterprise be trusted to hold
leading to lost productivity,
fast to its purposes, plans,
poor results, and failed
strategies, priorities, and
change efforts. Exceptional
timelines? If people decide to
companies with engaged
workers experience a 50 percent high- believe the strategic plan and serve it,
will this lead to reward down the line?
er employee and customer retention,
For example, if the value statement
38 percent greater productivity, and
says, Our customers come first, do
27 percent higher profits (Gallup).
those who put customers first get recogDisengagement cuts productivity.
nized and rewarded? Or, if manageDisengaged workers might show up
ment places priority on redesigning an
on time and do what is minimally
inventory system, does staff get the suprequired, but their psychological,
port and release-time they need, or does
emotional, intellectual and imaginait get pulled away to urgent matters?
tive selves never make their way
Extraordinary breakthroughs are
across the company doorstep.
Engaged employees are fully com- produced by engaged people who
mitted to organizational success, pas- wake up thinking: Im going to make
a difference today! My job is my
sionate about what theyre doing,
passion! A company that fosters such
and fully aligned with and supportthoughtand creates a culture where
ive of mission and values.
The best leaders assume responsibil- people bring their whole selves to the
jobhas the clear advantage.
ity for worker engagement: they create
LE
a culture in which workers choose to
Dittmar is chairman of Leadership Studies at Geneva College.
give their whole selves. Leaders dont Jim
John Stahl-Wert and Ken Jennings are the co-authors of The
engage workers! People engage them- Serving Leader and Ten Thousand Horses. Email Dittmar
(jkd@geneva.edu), Stahl-Wert (john@johnstahlwert.com) and
selves when they discern and discovJennings (ken@3rd-river.com) or visit www.tenthousandhorses.com.
er that the place they work and the
leader they serve is trustworthy.
ACTION: Create a culture of engagement.

Trust and Engagement

CHANGE

DISCIPLINES

Six Disciplines
Leaders seek excellence.
by Gary Harpst

S EXCELLENCE IMPOR-

tant to you? Do you

want it to be? Although
leaders vary in their definitions of
excellence, and how best to achieve it,
most agree that excellence is a neverending pursuit and that whatever their
challenges and opportunities are
today, they will be different tomorrow.
Leaders often face nine challenges:
Communicationpeople lack clarity
and direction, limiting innovation
Accountabilitymeasurements of and
responsibility for results are insufficient
Engagementpeople dont seem to
care as much or arent sure of their role
Alignmentactivities arent connected with mission and strategy
Directiondisconnect between
planning, strategy and execution
Transitiona desire to pass the
torch successfully
Controlthings feel out of synch
Frustrationexcess friction at work
Risk Managementprofit variability
versus growth rate.
Your challenge at the moment is a
symptom of a deeper need to systematically increase your capability to
address future challenges.
An excellence program is an organized approach to grow leaders ability to deal with an ever-changing and
challenging environment. The program needs to grow with the business
and enable leaders (and employees) to
align their plans and activities to support the strategies and achieve goals.

Master Six Disciplines

Learn to master six disciplines:
1. StrategyDecide whats important (and by implication whats not
important) so you can aim the allocation of resourcestime, money and
creativitytoward this end. In this
annual discipline, leaders systematically and regularly review and renew
their mission, values, strategic position, vision, their most vital few objectivesand agree what to stop doing.
2. PlanningSet goals that lead.
Well-defined goals are among the most
effective tools available to any leader
yet most leaders dont set goals that lead
their people in the right direction. The
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E x c e l l e n c e

purpose of this discipline is to produce

clear and measurable annual goals.
Pursuing these goals will lead people to
align their daily activities with the vital
few objectives set in the strategy. The
result is a brief goals statement that
every team member can support.
3. OrganizationAlign systems.
The systemspolicies, processes, technologies, measures, and peopleare
often at cross-purposes with the stated
priorities because most leaders lack an
organized approach to keep their systems aligned with their strategy. This
discipline taps the knowledge of the
entire workforce to identify the areas
where the company will get the best
ROI in policies, processes, measures,
technologies and people.
4. ExecutionWork the plan. One of
the best learning tools is the individual
quarterly plan. In this discipline, every
person works with the team leader to
develop Individual Plans for the coming
quarter. These goals are reviewed and
aligned with company goals. This plan
serves as a time-saving template for a
weekly status report. Every person
knows how to set goals, understand priorities, take responsibility for their goals,
become accountable, report progress, and
use their capabilities to solve problems.
5. MeasurementInnovate purposefully. Innovation means problem-solving, and everyone has the ability to
solve problems. This discipline provides principles and measurement tools
that are used in the other disciplines to
help leaders set clear goals and align
daily activities to meet them. These
goals should align with company priorities, and employees should use their
innate creativity to meet or beat goals.
6. LearningStep back. This discipline helps leaders gain perspective on
the factors that affect performance. It is
achieved through a series of discovery
exercises, exploring externals (competitors, industry, economic) and internals
(goal performance, stakeholder feedback, measures, SWOT.) All team members provide input on performance by
completing a 360 feedback survey and
annual performance appraisal.
Enduring excellence has: 1) a repeatable methodology to drive leadership;
2) external coaching for accountability;
3) a system to align the activities of team
members; and 4) a community of likeminded people to accelerate learning.
When these elements come together,
leaders expect to see enduring change. LE
Gary Harpst is CEO of Six Disciplines and author of Six
Disciplines for Excellence. Email gharpst@SixDisciplines.com.

ACTION: Develop these six disciplines.

L e a d e r s h i p

E x c e l l e n c e

COMPETENCY

COMMUNICATION

Cues, Clues, and Props

Face-saving or problem-solving?
by Dianna Booher

ELAYED ON A TRIP AND

sitting in an airline
club, I observe this scene:
Amy, Jeanne, and Bill arrive at the
club together, pile their luggage next to
me, and unpack their laptops. Bill
offers to buy hamburgers for all three.
While hes gone, Amy and Jeanne discuss a presentation theyve just delivered in Chicago. Amy says to Jeanne,
I hate it when he critiques my presentationsmy slides, the structure. I
dont think hes all that good himself. I
thought I did fine today.
Yeah, you did great, Jeanne says.
Amy leaves to get coffee and charge
her cell phone. Bill returns with the
food, joins Jeanne, and they start eating.
Bill gets interrupted by a cell phone
call. After the conversation, Jeanne asks,
Was that about the job?
Have you decided wholl
get the promotion?
Yes. Steve. Ill
announce it Monday. He
did a fabulous job today in
the meeting. Were sure to
win that contract.
Amy is intimidated
when you critique her presentations, Jeanne says.
Too bad. She could be
much bettershe should get help.
Jeanne agreed and their conversation moved on to other topics.
Two things struck me about that
snippet of conversation. 1) Jeanne told
Amy what she wanted to hearYou
did great. 2) Amy had likely missed a
promotion because she routinely
rejected feedback from her boss.
Emotional maturity and openness to
direct communication without defensiveness are key traits. Feedback feels
uncomfortable to people. As long as
face-saving remains the goal and culture, people will wonder: Shall we be
silent and save the relationship? Or
communicate honestly and solve the
problem? People tend to say what they
think others want to hear. When someone speaks candidly, relationships ripple
and projects grind to a halt until someone repairs the damage. This cycle
keeps organizations locked in mediocrity, and people stalled in dead-end jobs.

Three Helpful Strategies

Consider three strategies:
1. Give under-performers the straight
story. Allowing them to remain on the
payroll is a form of dishonesty that
harms the organization. Continuing to
pat them on the back and grant them
raises does not square with their reality.
They know their work does not meet
standards and does not match what
colleagues do. If you dont tell the truth
about how they perform, how can they
trust you to tell them the truth about
other things? Employees know who
isnt pulling their own weight. When
theyre all treated the same and receive
the same feedback despite the refrain,
we reward people based on performance, they discount other promises.
Trust dips even lower. So, deal honestly
with immature, defensive employees.
2. Offer great performers their props.
Some leaders fear praising star performers, thinking if they tell them how well
theyre doing, they may develop their
talents and move on. Whats worse?
That they grow and leaveor become
discouraged and stay? Without encouragement, valued employees may feel
that you dont care about them and go
where somebody cares
more or encourages them.
Great performers need honest feedback as well.
3. Own up to your mistakes when you miss your
cues. A manager for an oil
company reported that he
was about to close a large
gas contract with a net
profit of millions of dollars. When the deal fell
into jeopardy, he couldnt tell his colleagues. Quarterly, he presented vague
explanations about why the contract
remained unsignedyet insisted the
deal would close shortly. Since budgets had been based on his projections,
when the deal fell through, the loss of
projected revenues created havoc.
When people admit their mistakes,
they tend to say, Were fortunate
things didnt turn out worse. Facesaving rarely works. Silent message:
Self-protection at the expense of credibility. In such cultures, everyone gets
along, goes alongand sinks together.
Open communication and emotional
maturity foster trust and excellence.
Say itwith grace and sensitivity, yes.
But say it directly, firmly, clearly.
LE
Dianna Booher is president of Booher Consultants, a keynote
speaker, and prolific author of The Voice of Authority. Visit.
www.booher.com or call 817-318-6000.

ACTION: Practice openness to build trust.

LEADERSHIP

PRACTICES

Leadership Excellence
Ta k e

t h e s e

s e v e n

s t e p s

t o

s u c c e s s .

placing you in a position of weakness

from which it is difficult to recover.
The inability to focus on your successful and profitable activities is the priS BOTH AN OBJECmary cause of frustration, poor
tive outsider and
an intimate insider, the performance, and failure.
investment banker occupies a unique
3. Accept the inevitability of change.
vantage point. In analyzing and recIt takes discipline to confront reality,
ommending strategic and financial
clarity to focus on your strengths, and
options available to a business, we
courage to accept the inevitability
learn about every aspect of its operaand necessityof change. The biologitions, yet have no direct stake in it.
cal world is rife with examples of
Our role is to provide reliable,
species that failed to adapt to changing
informed advice and help the client
conditions and faded away. Likewise,
achieve the most favorable outcome.
in business, the ability to adapt to shiftEach business is unique, yet all share ing circumstances is essential to surcommon challengesand these have
vival. Whether the issue is shedding
everything to do with the way their
unprofitable operations, terminating
leaders think and act. Seven characteris- unproductive employees, or anticipating the obsolescence of our most poputics are present in great companies:
1. Confront reality. Abraham Lincoln
once asked, How many legs does a
dog have if you call the tail a leg? His
answer: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesnt make it a leg. For many of us, its
easier to wait for things to improve
than to admit theyve gone wrong. We
avoid an admission of failure. In the
context of personal aspirations, we can
cast our denial as a form of idealism
and, in so doing, make it admirable.
But executives with a fiduciary responsibility to stockholders, employees, and
other stakeholders have no such luxury. lar products, the successful operation
They need to recognize when somemakes moves early, empowers people
thing isnt workingconfront the reali- to experiment with new methods, and
ty of the present situationand accept encouraging junior staff to speak up.
responsibility to change or terminate it. Change is often the most daunting
challenge a leader will encounter, even
2. Focus on your strengths.
Confronting reality is the only way to as it offers the greatest opportunity.
identify which aspects of a business
4. Be passionate. Attitude deterare working, and which products,
mines outcome. If you dont believe
processes or businesses sap your
what youre saying, it will show. If you
strength, time, and energy. We often
dont believe in your ability to meet
hear about the turnaround artist who your clients needs, they will know.
applies great skill and tenacity to fixThe most common reason that a potening broken businesses. And given the tial customer decides against purchashero status often accorded them,
ing a product or service is the fear of
many executives spend much of their making a mistake. All thats required
time and energy addressing problems. to clear that hurdle is sincere confiSure, you might logically invest some dence in your ability to deliver on the
resources in underperforming assets
customers expectations, and the crediin the hope that you can correct the
bility to convince the customer that
problems and transform failure into
you can. Confidence builds trust. Trust
success, but in most cases your focus
builds relationships. Relationships
on problems diverts your attention
build sales. That doesnt mean being
from your more profitable operations, best in the world at what you do. It
by Joseph W. Berkery

10

does mean that you have to believe in

what youre saying and selling. If you
arent convinced that what you do has
real value, you should do something
else, or do what youre doing differently. Either way, if you dont feel good
about your work, it will be difficult to
excite the customer and all but impossible to find the motivation to succeed.
5. Be consistent. Like oxygen, consistency is easier to recognize when its
lacking, and easier to see in others. Yet
few things are more unsettling or disruptive than erratic behavior. Consistency builds confidence. It signifies reliability. It is the foundation of positive
relationships. And it provides a framework for coping with change. So, establish a consistent method of operation,
and adjust to changing conditions.
6. Value continuity. Anyone can do a
job once, but it takes experience and
know-how to do a job well and repeatedly over time. Executives who believe
they (or their consultants) have all the
answers overlook a most valuable
asset: the institutional knowledge that
resides in their workforce. When leaders start to know and listen to their
people, they often find diamonds in
the rough with deep insight into the
most basic operationspeople who are
often closest to the customer and in the
best position to identify what works,
what doesnt, and how best to fix it.
The foundation of a great company is
the way it taps that knowledge, develops its people, and builds a strong
bench of future managers and leaders.
7. Replace fear with faith. Fear is the
faith that things wont work out. When
you operate from a position of fear
that the product will fail, the deal
wont close, the competition will triumphyou validate a belief in your
inferiority. Fear immobilizes you and
impedes your momentum. Thoughts
of failure are destructive. They stand
between you and your goals. Faith is
the belief in your ability to succeed
the confidence to trust your intuition
and act on it. Success may elude you,
but the ability to let go of fearto
transform faith in failure into faith in
successcreates a culture of optimism.
These seven steps contribute to success. Leadership excellence is as elusive in essence as it is tangible in
result. We may not be able to define it,
but we know it when we see it.
LE
Joe Berkery is president of Berkery Noyes, the leading independent investment bank providing mergers & acquisition advisory services to companies in the information, media and
technology industries. Visit www.BerkeryNoyes.com.

ACTION: Take these seven steps to excellence.

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E x c e l l e n c e

LEADERSHIP

ADVANTAGE

See Possibilities
Are you an advantage-maker?
music, MP3 players were produced by
small companies that were unable to
provide content. Apple CEO Steve
MAGINE THAT YOU ARE Jobs orchestrated the network of interactions in the music industry to proa commander of a
duce the iPod and transformed how
fortress under a daily
music is delivered to customers.
siege for six months without any
By shifting perceptions you create
means to communicate with the outside world. Your supplies are down to winners. Former GE CEO Jack Welch
two bags of grain and one cow. With
shifted the hierarchy of how to win by
such scant supplies, starvation seems instituting a dictum to be number 1
inevitable. What would you do?
or number 2 in the industry or get
Expecting to hear ration as best
out. During his tenure, GE increased
you can, you can empathize with the its market cap by $400 billion.
quartermasters surprise and shock
By shifting structure, you shape
when his commander ordered him to behavior. Churchill once commented,
stuff the cow with the remaining grain First we shape the structures, and
and catapult it over the wall at the
then they shape us.
enemy during the next attack.
The best strategic shifts involve difWhat would you think of this
ferent elements. Our fortress commanbovine assault if you were on the
der shifted the time frame of the attackreceiving end? The field officer could
only assume that his enemy had
ample supplies. Assuming it would be
a long battle, he ordered an immediate retreat, and the fortress was saved.
As a leader, could you shift the
odds in your favor under the duress
of battle? Every leader endures difficulties, but where some fall apart, others come through in an even better
position. These advantage-makers transform challenging situations into the
best possible outcomes. They see posing army from a short to a long battle.
sibilities that others dont even know
He shifted the interaction from defendexist. It almost looks like luck, but it
ing to sending a counterattacking mesisnt. They arent any more creative,
sage. He shifted the perception from
intelligent, determined, optimistic or
goal-oriented, nor do they possess any inevitable loss to endurance. He shifted
the structural forces questioning the
specific personality type or traits.
credibility of this siege strategy.
Strategic shifting. Advantage-making requires a strategic shift, and these
can take many formsof time, interac- F o u r A d va n t a g e Po i n t s
tions, perceptions, and structures. The
Leaders can shift to four Advantage
key is moving to a vantage point
Points to see opportunities others miss,
finding advantage points: a superior
overcome obstacles, and influence outposition, condition, situation, or oppor- comes when others are stuck:
1. Adaptive Stretching. Two shoe
tunity that provides a comprehensive
salespeople go a foreign country to sell
view or commanding perspective.
By shifting time, you generate pos- their products. The first salesperson
calls headquarters and says, They
sibilities. JFK inspired a nation by
dont wear shoes here; Ill be on the next
moving the vision of lunar exploplane home. The second shoe salesperration from a far-off dream to an
son calls up headquarters and says,
achievable goal by challenging scienThey dont wear shoes here; send as
tists to send a man to the moon and
many as you can! Which person
return him safely within a decade.
By shifting interactions you change would you rather have on your team?
Often its not the best who wins
the game. In the early days of digital

by Steven Feinberg

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E x c e l l e n c e

its the individual or team that is the

most adaptive. Non-adaptive responses are costly. Managers tend to repeat
familiar and reliable patterns. They follow the dictum, It worked before, and
it should work again. New situations,
however, require new approaches. A
leader needs to shift to different vantage points or generate options that are
more of the same. Former CEO of Intel,
Andy Groves aptitude for adaptive
stretching facilitated his success.
2. Change the game. If you are in a
hole, stop digging and shift the game
180 degrees. First ask, hows your
approach working for you? Then
devise a 180-degree strategy. If you are
pushing, pull. If telling, ask. If waiting,
take action. If taking too much action,
do less. Most companies, for example,
assume that they should strive to be
number 1. Avis rental cars tried to do
just that, and almost went bankrupt by
going head to head against Hertz. Then
Avis made a shift and proclaimed, We
are number 2. We try harder. That shift
tripled Aviss market share from 11 to
35 percent in one year.
Hidden assets can be found by shifting convention. Forbes changed a conventional sick pay program into wellness pay. Employees could earn money,
and Forbes had a 30 percent decrease in
medical and dental claims. This is not
simply contrarian thinkingit is strategically shifting, like our fortress commander, to change the game.
3. Move or lose. Manage momentum to advance. Just as a riverbed
determines a rivers course of action,
your business has an underlying structure that determines your course of
action. Structure shapes behavior.
Most change efforts fail because the
underlying structure has an allergic
reaction to the change.
4. Strategic influence. Small influential moves can create big-leverage gains.
All Advantage-Makers tell vivid stories that create questions. The answers
influence perception. Our fortress commander catapulted a cow to suggest he
had plenty of food for a long battle.
His demonstration influenced the perception and won the day. Most arguments are won or lost based upon how
you frame the issue. The most powerful frame wins, regardless of the facts.
By applying these Advantage Points,
you can shift the odds any time.
LE
Steven Feinberg, PhD is author of The Advantage-Makers. He
is a consultant, speaker and leadership coach. Call 650-8520574 or visit www.stevenfeinberg.com.

ACTION: Become an advantage-maker leader.

11

PERFORMANCE

COMMUNICATION

the discussion involves setting priorities, you dont hear anyone jumping
into solution mode; if the conversation
focuses on identifying the root causes
of a problem, youre not likely to hear
Ta l k a n d w a l k p e r f o r m a n c e .
much about taking action to correct
them. On some teams, there is banter,
but people disagree without being disagreeable. One CEO asserted that on
performance
discussion
is
straight
talk.
by Howard M. Guttman
his team, Insult is the language of
Concerns are put on the table.
affection. But often it is the source of
3. Accuracy. Conversation is biased
affliction, which is why its not part of
toward facts, data, and observable
O ORGANIZATIONS,
leaders, and teams behavior. Youll hear: Its my opinion high-performance conversations.
communicate in a way that . . . signifying that the speaker
8. Openness. High-performance conwants listeners to know that he or she versations go there as a function of
that marks them as high performers?
is about to enter a no-fact zoneor
Listen to this definition of a high-perhigh-performance features: no silos,
On what do you base your judgment? accountability, decision-making protoformance organization by Robert
asking for factual back-up. When a
Gordon, CEO of Dairy Farmers of
cols, and a focus on results. If a team
problem is discussed, the first order of memberor leaderis underperformAustralia: It is a horizontal organizabusiness is to get the facts: What is the ing, or if a function is problematic, coltion in which everyone operates by a
clearly defined set of decision-making problem? Where and when is it occur- leagues will go there. Elephant
ring? Who and how much is involved? headsthose touchy issues that most
protocols; where people understand
what they are accountable for and then
teams pretend dont existare an
4. Efficiency. Theres little beating
own the results. It means moving to an around the bush and verbal foreplay
endangered species. High-performance
action-and results-driven workforce among high performers. Rather than
teams make tough calls on new hires,
not one that waits for instructions or
after a frank, fact-based discussion.
long preambles, youre apt to hear,
trips over functional boundaries.
John, I have a concern about your
9. Action oriented. At decision time,
Tucked away in this definition are
behavior, and we need to talk. Excuse- high-performing teams ask: What are
some trigger words for high perforthe key objectives? Who needs to be
mance: horizontal, decision-makinvolved? By when should the team
ing protocols, accountable,
review the decision? The words connote
results-driven workforce, and no
action. They also convey immediacy, as
functional boundaries. We would
when teams talk about the 24-hour
add two more key words: alignment
rule. This means getting back to a colleague with a response, if not a concluwhere an organization and its teams
sion, within one business day.
are in sync on everything from strategy to the way employees relate to
10. Depersonalization. High-pereach otherand engagedwhere team
forming teams go there, but they
dont go personal or get defensive.
members are fully committed to
Rather, they remind one another: Its
achieving team goals.
making is a great time waster, which is a business case: lets treat the discus10 Common Elements
why the conversation turns away from sion objectively. Also, theres little
member-to-leader discussion, such as
Over the past year, we interviewed Its not my fault or If I only had
more resources kind of statements
over to you for the decision or Im
40 high-performing leaders and
not sure, what do you think?
observed their team meetings. What is and more toward accepting responsibility and moving on to solutions.
Conversation is crucial during
striking is the consistent pattern of
moments of truth: situations in which
communication of these leaders and
5. Completeness. Youre unlikely to
teams. Here are 10 common elements: hear half the story. Instead, youll like- team members hold leaders accountable. One CEO was engaged in a small,
1. Clarity. High-performing players ly hear, Lets discuss the pros and
cons of the decision, or Here are the pet-project acquisition that drained his
demand clarity, not by shouting and
attention during a downturn in sales,
risks with my proposal, and heres
screaming we need greater clarity,
causing concern among team members.
but by closely questioning one another what we stand to gain. The aim is to
They called him on it, telling him that
inform, not to finesse.
when an issue is discussed or they
the acquisition had become a blind
have differences of opinion. Can you
6. Timeliness. Theres a just-in-time
spot and distraction. The input was
clarify that? What do you mean?
feature to high-performing conversafactual and dispassionate, causing the
Can you give us an example? What tions. Lets put the factsall of
CEO to quickly offload the distraction.
do you see as the consequence? You
themon the table, now. One of the
To the extent that leaders walk the
hear many such clarifying questions.
favorite questions youll hear is, By
talk of high performance, others are
2. Authenticity. High-performance when? Theres also plenty of If . . .
language sidesteps game playing. You then language: If Marketing executes likely to do the same.
LE
rarely hear team members asking
it plan by June, then Sales will have
Howard M. Guttman is the principal of Guttman Development
imposter questionsthose designed plenty of time to generate business.
Strategies, and author of Great Business Teams. Visit
to poke holes for the sake of exposing
7. Focus. Conversation is typically
hmguttman@guttmandev.com.
a colleagues Achilles heelor makstrictly business, driven by the outACTION: Excel in the moments of truth.
ing non-relevant statements. Highcome required in a given situation. If

Moments of Truth
D

12

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MANAGEMENT

TALENT

Pool or Puddle
Is there talent in TM?

by Marc Effron and Miriam Ort

HESE SHOULD BE HEADY TIMES FOR

Talent Management (TM). CEOs

fueled by Good to Great dreams are
investing in building leaders, recognizing that great talent is their only
competitive advantage and that growing their capabilities is the sure path
to success.
With talent issues like these, TM
practitioners should be all-stars.
Instead, many are underperforming.
Their bold promises to build leaders
more quickly and effectively, if given
the chance, are showing little effect.
Their practices still reflect the same
bloated, impractical approaches that
have long caused line managers eyes
to roll. Companies expecting their TM
professionals to deliver superior results
are discovering that theres simply not
enough talent in talent management.
Executives are looking to HR and
TM to develop great leaders. If we
meet this goal, well redeem HRs tattered reputation and change HRs seat
at the table from a high-chair to an
arm chair. Success will also establish us
as the driver of the talent engine. We
will shift our reputation from being
the provider of assessments and tools
to being trusted advisors on important
talent decisions and making a positive
impact on business results.
Our risk is as large as our opportunity. Failure to deliver will be seen as
yet another sign that HR doesnt
work. TM will be dismissed as another HR fad, another failed quick fix
brought to you by those folks who
just dont seem to get the business.
Lets be transparent about our challenges. We emerged from the soft side
of a soft profession. Few of us have
had accountability for a balance sheet
or responsibility to make a payroll.
We dont seem passionate about the
commercial aspects of our businesses.
We havent crafted HR processes that
consistently build great talent. Our solutions are too academic and complicated;
yet we insist these solutions, even if

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E x c e l l e n c e

rejected by our customers, are the

more value than the effort required to
right ones. We havent proven that we use it. If we can redesign our processes
add the value we know is possible.
to meet this value/effort balance, well
improve the effectiveness of our serThree Suggestions
vices. To get there, we must ask,
What is the business goal of this
Overcoming these challenges requires making difficult changes in who process? We then need to design a
we are and what we do. My three sug- simple process to achieve those results.
gestions arent easy, fast or popular, but At Avon, we call this One Page TM. We
used this approach to redesign every
they position us for long-term success
as the preeminent group within HR talent process and tool. Avons manthe true business partner whose contri- agers are using the toolsand thanking us for creating them.
bution is visible on the balance sheet:
1. Elevate the quality of practitionSecond, add value to each practice. At
ers. We must improve our capabilities Avon we applied One Page TM to both
and business orientation, injecting an
our new engagement survey and our
operations mentality into our TM
new 360 assessment process. In craftpractices. We must fall in love with
ing our survey report, we wanted to
business and teach others to do the
add value without adding complexity.
same, thus elevating our capabilities.
Our one page solution provides
This declaration is not
managers with the essenintended to disparage anytial information about
one in TM. I stipulate that
their groups survey
everyone in our field has
results, including exactly
good intentions, are good
which actions they could
people, and have the best
take to improve scores next
interests of the business at
year. Managers at Avon
heart. However, I see gaps
are now held accountable
between these good intento increase their survey
tions and what our busiscores by a set percent
nesses need. We can close
each yearan objective
these gaps if we know busihard-wired into every
ness, love business, and use a production VPs and GMs performance plan.
mindset to build leaders.
3. Define the field. We must define
To know business, we must underthe boundaries of what we do, staking
claim to those areas of HR where we
stand its financial, operational and
have the greatest potential impact. We
strategic realities. Everyone in TM
cant improve the quality of what we
should understand financial statedo until we agree on what it is. We
ments, how a product or service is
need to set boundaries. Our field is
produced, and one classic strategy
model. Attracting more line managers emerging without direction or a comand MBAs into this field will also help. mon definition of what we do. TM
To love business, we must believe it professionals might own any combinais a force for good in our communities, tion of talent reviews, succession planning, executive education, recruiting
be fascinated by it, and have an abidand coaching, with performance maning curiosity about how it works.
agement, employee engagement and
To have a production mindset, we
must start producing leaders the same training often in the mix. The sooner
we identify the key practices, processway we produce other products. We
es and outcomes we want to own, the
are not craftspeople, carefully assemfaster we can institute improvements.
bling one leader at a time. We are the
We need to address a few missing
shift supervisor at the talent factory,
things: business knowledge, passion,
ensuring that we produce a specific
production mindset, and simplicity. If
number of leaders over a specific time
we can change how we do TM, well
with a specific set of capabilities.
increase the effectiveness of what we
2. Simplify our work. We must simplify the work we do while simultanedo. If we set high standards, consider
ously adding value to ensure that TM
new ideas, and hold ourselves accountpractices are implemented by managers. able for TM practices, well progress. LE
First, simplify our processes. If impleMarc Effron is VP of TM for Avon Products and author and
mentation is the key to successful out- speaker on HR issues. Email marc.effron@avon.com or
marc@effrons.com, call 1-212-282-5503 or visit www.marcefcomes, then making processes simple
fron.com. Miriam Ort is Senior Manager of TM for Avon
is the key to successful implementaProducts. Email miriam.ort@avon.com.
tion. Most managers will gladly use
any HR tool or process that delivers
ACTION: Become a TM all-star.
13

MANAGEMENT

TALENT

need to rethink how to best develop

the next generation of HR leaders.
One option is to put effective global
line managers in charge of HR. It
D e v e l o p g l o b a l t a l e n t l e a d e r s . would be rare in marketing and out of
the question in finance to choose
someone with no experience in the
function for the top job; yet in HR this
by David Finegold
appears to be a growing trend as the
demands for good people manageEADERS TODAY MUST
ment increase. Microsofts choice of
face the complexiLisa Brummel, one of the firms top
ties of managing a
product managers, to revitalize the HR
global workforce and building effective function and stem the loss of talent to
global organizations. IBM and General new competitors provides a high-proElectric now derive more of their prof- file example. This approach has many
its from knowledge-intensive, high
advantages: identifying someone with
value-added services delivered by an
a strategic mindset, detailed knowlinternational workforce. IBM already
edge of the business, and the respect
has 60,000 individuals working in
of all workers to lead people manageIndia, targeting growth to 100,000 by
ment. What is needed, however, is a
2010. GEs back office business services means to bring this leader up to speed
operation was so successful that it
quickly on the most effective global
spun it out as a separate business.
approaches to people management.
As these trends continue, the peoA less radical alternative is providple who generate distinctive new
knowledge and build customer and
supplier relationships worldwide
account for more of the net worth.
Talent management (TM) is at the
core of many of the challenges facing
leaders: How to attract, develop, motivate, and retain individuals globally
with the core capabilities matched to
their firms strategy and needs?
Where to locate diverse operations to
get the best mix of talents at the best
price? How to quickly meld together
people from different continents and
ing HR professionals with the strategic
cultures into effective virtual teams?
capabilities, international and line manOften the people who have prima- agement experiences, and tools needed
ry responsibility for TMheads of
to become effective partners for busiHRlack the strategic capabilities to
ness leaders. They must also be equipbe a full member of the leadership
ped to manage their careers effectively.
team. The shortage of strategic HR
A New Approach
leaders is likely to increase in the
future because of the major transforWeve developed a unique approach
mation of the HR function. The comto developing HR leaders. The new
bination of internal restructuring,
global Executive Masters in HR Leadautomation, and outsourcing is elimi- ership (EMHRL) is designed to develnating many routine, transactional
op the capabilities of those charged to
positions and increasing demands on lead HR. It has a global scope, focuses
HR professionals to build their strate- on strategic HR, and builds a cohort of
gic capabilities. These same changes,
change agents who apply the knowlhowever, have disrupted the tradiedge in real-time for major impact.
tional career paths through which
1. Global in scope: The programs
individuals acquired the diverse expe- eight intensive modules are taught in
rience and skills needed to become
four, two-week blocks in key locations
effective business partners. In the
worldwide that facilitate understanding
short term, organizations may cope
the evolving global competition for talwith this challenge by hiring mident. Time in the classroom in Eastern
career individuals who have acquired Europe (Prague), India (Mumbai), China
the needed experience. But as the
(Shanghai) and the U.S. (New York) is
workforce ages and the supply of tal- blended with visits to organizations and
ent with the required skills becomes
their leaders in each location.
scarce, employers, and universities
2. Strategic focus. EMHRL focuses

Advanced TM

14

on the strategic aspects of leading people and measuring results, rather than
the traditional components of the HR
function. Anne-Marie Leslie, described
how her participation in an earlier version of EMHRL helped her to build the
capabilities needed to become the
Senior VP of HR for Cochlear, an
Australian medical device company.
Charlie Tharp, who was the SVP of
HR for BMS and Saks 5th Avenue
before becoming the President of the
National Academy of HR, was one
architect of the program. He notes:
EMHRL compresses into a ninemonth program a focus on the areas
that are the key priorities of Chief HR
Officers and blends top academic training with first-hand learning from top
HR leaders. The program was
designed by CHROs for the development of next-generation HR leaders.
3. Clear target audience. We select a
cohort of individuals from top companies and countries around the world
who have the potential to become global
leaders of HR and then bring them
together for eight weeks: Ive learned
so much from my fellow students, said
Kurt Roggin, an HR Director at Johnson
& Johnson. We function as a team and
a community and routinely contact each
other to get advice on how to handle
issues in our jobs and to share tools, best
practices, and experience. Ive learned so
much from them about different cultures and doing business in a global (not
just multi-national) environment.
4. Immediate impact. While building
more effective global HR leaders is the
long-term goal, companies expect to see
an immediate return on the large investment in time and resources that EMHRL
requires. Thus, all participants must
integrate what they are learning in realtime into a capstone project that
addresses some key elements of how
their firms manage the global workforce. The modules on Workforce
Strategy and Strategic Human Capital
have provided me with a framework I
can use to transform our business and
also develop the capabilities of my HR
team, said Roggin, whose project is
focused on building a talent brokerage
system for the region. This is one of the
highest-priority issues for our line leaders, and the fact that my project directly
correlates to a key business need illustrates what makes the GEMHRL program so unique.
LE
David Finegold is Dean of School of Management, Rutgers,
State University of New Jersey. Call 732-445-5993, 732-9324767, or visit www.smlr.rutgers.edu.

ACTION: Find gold in your talent management.

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CHANGE

PRODUCTIVITY

only 23 percent of mergers/acquisitions thing, lawyers and consultants dont

earn back their capital costs; over half
have a good feel for the internal
dont deliver on their financial promise. dynamics. For another, neither they
nor senior management have much
Productivity amid change.
Assessing Emotional States
aptitude or stomach to contemplate in
How does it feel to be an employee human terms the wrenching changes
amid change, even change as simple as involved. Senior management may
by Dan Hill
focus on the logistics of change and be
an internal re-structuring? The emoblind to the human dimension and the
tional reality: its scary. Think of the
emotional fallout that accompanies the
FFECTIVE LEADERSHIP scene in the movie Jaws when the
announcement of a merger, acquisimayor urges residents and tourists to
is visionary in
tion, or reorganization. To broaden the
get back into the water because its
nature, as executives
leaders knowledge of the emotional
focus on what will be, while their man- safe. Nobody leaves the shore. A
agers receive guidance to handle what major change in any company is a sig- environment and overcome overlyrational planning, you need to add
nal to employees that theres a corpois. But in times of great change, the
rate shark circling, with the likelihood middle managers and seasoned
vision of the change gets derailed if
employees to the planning mix.
employee emotions are not recognized of blood in the water imminent. All
and handled adroitly. Amid change,
employees feel emotionally, perhaps
Second, in preparing the case for
boosting employee pride is vital
even physically, vulnerable, given the change, identify the rationales you
because the alternativeengendering stress involved; its easy for them to
might use. People can then test the perfearis so destructive to productivity imagine that the blood
suasiveness of those ratioand profitability. Its a causal chain
could be their own.
nales by gauging the likely
that starts with the announcement (or
Because change is aided
emotional acceptance of
rumor) of change, followed by anxiety, by identifying and underthem by employees. If you
stress, and a slump in productivity.
standing the degree of resisarent in touch with the
To see how you can prevent this
tance involved, we study
emotional pulse of the comslump, lets examine how change, fear, the emotional response of
pany, but still seek change,
and results correlate. The two yardsticks employees at companies
you wont make much
are physical and financial in nature.
amid dramatic changes
progress. The most imporHow does the experience of change not through the usual surtant rationale to identify
affect the body biologically? Peoples
vey method, because
and communicate to
heart rates, blood sugar levels, and
employees wont dare state
employees will be the risks
cortisol hormone levels all shoot up.
or indicate their real reactions for fear
of sticking with the status quo. Peoples
Meanwhile, the psychological answer of retribution.
emotional desire for security will motiis that this trio of physical changes
We instead use a method known as vate them to accept change if they see
indicates that changes in a persons
facial coding. It involves using a web
the consequences for failing to change.
(work) environment causes the body
cam to create video files of the
Deliver hard truths softly so that people
to go into overdrive in order to cope
employees, not only verbally respond- dont panic, freeze, or surrender. Ease
with adversity. Given that this trio of
ing to questions but enabling us to
the pain by painting a picture of the
physical changes corresponds exactly study their body language to learn
future that is vividly clear and exciting.
to those that have been measured
how they feel. We find that facial musThird, when communicating the case
when people experience the emotion
cles are the best way to gauge peoples for change in front of employees,
of fear, no wonder only 25 percent of
emotions because these muscles attach explain credibly how change will delivemployees willingly accept change.
right to the skin, enabling quick, spon- er more benefits to them than the emoIn the short term, those physical
taneous reactions that are also univer- tional turmoil incurred. To make the
adaptations make peak performance
sal in nature. Indeed, muscle activity
case clear, you should focus on emopossible. Theyre natures way of
as reflective of ones emotional state is tional benefits, such as a sense of victohelping people rise to the occasion.
so intrinsic that even a person born
ry, greater job security or a fresh new
But typically changes take time to
blind will emote in identical ways.
direction, along with a clear synopsis
unfold; and in the process, the same
of facts and data. Rational analysis
Only 14 percent of the facial coding
biological tricks-of-the-trade that
emotional activity weve coded to date alone doesnt motivate people. They
make peak performance possible start has proven to be positive.
must grasp a truth that touches their
to undo it. For instance, over time,
feelings. The message should be simSteps to Bolster Results
high cortisol levels prove to be toxic
ple, heartfelt, and aligned with the
and capable of dulling the minds
emotional climate in the company.
Given those emotional results, how
receptive capacity. In short, biology
By taking those steps, you can betcan you succeed at transformation?
helps, then hurts. Anxiety starts to eat Clearly a new approach must be found. ter navigate change and keep employpeople up, as lingering change proves
ees emotionally on-board. Enact the
The first step is for executives to
to be a major physiological and psysteps as quickly as possible because
plan in financial, legal, operational,
chological, body/mind distraction
anxiety eats people up over time.
and emotional terms. Rarely during
LE
that lowers employee productivity.
the planning stage do leaders locked
Hill is the president of Sensory Logic, a research-based
No amount of planning has proven in rational mindsets devote much time Dan
consultancy specializing in emotions, and the author of
equal to the fear emotion. Change can or thought to the emotional dynamics Emotionomics: Winning Hearts & Minds.
cause a decline in work productivity
of change. They may lack the time, but
at levels approaching 75 percent. Hence, there are other reasons, too. For one
ACTION: Get the big changes over quickly.

Emotionomics

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CHANGE

INNOVATION

T h r e e I n n o va t i o n S t r a t e g i e s

Leading Innovation
Foster creativity and risk-taking.
then they are faced with all the work
that needs to be done day-to-day.
Pressure for productivity and quarterly earnings often takes priority.
UILDING A CULTURE
that fosters creativi2. The start-up effort is overwhelmty and innovation is a ing. For example, one multinational
critical strategy. Why is it so elusive
manufacturer is challenged with a disfor most leaders to achieve? Every
connect between R&D and Marketing.
leader wants innovation, but no one
Who should drive the process? Where
wants to deal with the failure that can should the next big ideas be generated?
sometimes come with taking risks.
They needed to help people in both
How do you create a culture where
functions break out of their comfort
innovation is everyones responsibili- zones and work through disruptions
ty? How do you build trust so people and uncertainties. This may have sloware comfortable trying new things
ed things down at first, but ultimately
whether they flourish or fail?
they created new ways of collaborating
Transformational leaders foster
that led to more big and little i.
healthy risk-taking at the grass roots
3. Fear of failure looms large. While
levels. Most leaders know that they
everyone wants innovation, not all
need to overcome directive styles,
leaders and cultures tolerate risk-takdeal with inertia, and tackle opposition to disruptive innovation. Leaders
must help their people find innovative
ways of working. If they dont meet
this challenge, they squander the
intelligence they want to keep and
risk being leapfrogged by competitors.
Innovation is not just about coming
up with big breakthrough ideas. It is
also about encouraging creativity in
daily activities. We define innovation in
similar terms used by Wharton professor George S. Day: The organizationing that doesnt deliver results. Failure
driven product or customer-focused
can result in lost time, wasted money,
breakthrough is innovation with a capi- and finger-pointing. Most attempts at
tal I, and new processes and creative innovation wont work. To live up to
work applications are innovation with a its mission statement Inventing the digilittle i. Both are important. Most orga- tal future, the leadership of Avenue A /
nizations dont innovate well, in part
Razorfish, led by Clark Kokich, tries to
because they avoid taking risks.
create a collaborative culture where
innovation is expected. He believes
F o u r C o m m o n P i t fa l l s
that to be innovative, his workforce
To create a culture that fosters inno- will inevitably make many mistakes
and that these will be forgiven. In fact,
vation and risk-taking, leaders need to
not making mistakes is seen as not
reward for failure as well as success.
making an effort to innovate.
Given one-in-three employees are neither praised nor criticized for taking
4. Innovators are disconnected from
risks, clearly many leaders are not
the business strategy. Creativity that
building cultures that can deliver on the isnt aligned to the business goals or
innovation and creativity they seek.
customer needs is likely to fall short.
The four most common pitfalls that One leader of a high-tech firm known
stifle innovation include:
for its growth noted that if the organization tries to mandate innovation as
1. Todays work gets in the way.
everyones responsibility, without a
There is tension between short- and
business context, they end up with
long-term priorities. Everyone wants
superficial ideas instead of something
to innovate so their company comes
up with new ideas for the future. But customers need. Thats not innovation.

by Angela Hills

16

Here are three ways to innovate:

1. Start with your culture. Behaviors
and business practices need to reinforce
risk-taking. Your culture, influenced by
your leadership style, can squash creativity and risk-taking. Reward responsible failure and calculated risks.
Consider previous innovations, assess
how they came about, and then create
the circumstances to help more happen.
2. Coach the right behaviors. Engage
in dialogue about how innovation is defined and what it looks like. Innovation
needs to be tangible and presented in
the context of what drives the business.
Coaching can help to articulate desired
behaviors and changes you want to
achieve. Employees need to hear stories
of risks that succeed and lessons from
those that didnt. For example, a national insurance company created a new
vision for innovation. We then defined
behaviors that they were looking for: 1)
generating innovative ideas, fresh perspectives, and creative solutions that
add value; 2) considering a wide range
of alternatives before making decisions;
3) standing up for the teams ideas with
conviction and supporting data; and 4)
encouraging the honest expression and
debate of different views and ideas.
This inventory gave the leaders a tool
for coaching the right behaviors, while
the employees had examples of what
was desired. Many of the leadership
attributes and behaviors that build productivity and engagement are essential
to fueling creativity and innovation.
3. Build trust through modeling.
Rigorously assess your own leadership
attributes. Do you have the characteristics that encourage risk-taking, bold
ideas, and inspiration? Lead and listen
with authenticity and have real conversations about what needs to happen.
These debates elicit authentic responses and open the door for innovation. If
your employees are in a place of trust,
have a strong and positive relationship
with you, feel comfortable to debate
ideas and express themselves honestly,
and are passionate about their jobs,
innovation will follow. Start small,
since often it can be the multiple little
i ideas that can build momentum
and provide competitive advantage.
Its harder to copy multiple great ideas
than one breakthrough idea. This will
also build trust in the process.
LE
Angela Hills is a Senior VP at BlessingWhite, a global consulting firm dedicated to reinventing leadership and the meaning of
work. Visit www.blessingwhite.com, email ahills@bwinc.com or
call 800.222.1349, ext. 8175.

ACTION: Cultivate a culture of innovation.

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LEADERSHIP

SELECTION

Selecting Leaders
Choosing the right team matters.
process part of decision-making includes the ability to drill down quickly
to find the relevant facts, look at things
EOPLE ARE THE MAKE- quantitatively, and proceed in a systematic way, even if others are urging you
or-break factor.
With the right people, to turn right or left, or maybe stop.
Next, you need to assume and manage
almost anything is possible. With the
risk. You have to step up to the possiwrong team, failure awaits.
bility that in spite of your best efforts,
When I was CEO of Gillette,
your decision may be wrong, and then
Nabisco and Kraft, I took my time in
go ahead and make it anyway. And you
making people decisions. But I also
need to have a feel for business. You do
realized the importance of moving
the analysis, but dont lose touch with
decisively. So over time I developed
something inside that says, I dont
criteria for selecting members for my
care what the numbers seem to say,
team, starting with brains and hard
something just isnt right here.
work. You need intellectual wattage
and a decent-size battery to function
4. Leadership potential. Leadership
at high levels of responsibility.
potential is like what jazz-great Louis
Beyond those essentials, five critical Armstrong said when someone asked
factors predict success:
him to define jazz: If you gotta ask,
you aint never gonna know. So I
1. Intellectual integrity. I define
intellectual integrity as the ability that a
person must have to hold up a mirror,
and view the reflection honestly. The
mirror must be held up to yourself
and your business or group. Youre
looking for people confront reality all
the timeevery day. Yet I find that
some people and organizations tend to
put off coming to grips with bad news.
The other aspect of integrity relates
to honor, ethics, and good practice.
They are givens for me. I believe in
honesty and openness in financial
wont try to wrap leadership up in
reporting. I wont allow cutting corsome neat definition. But you can
ners, shading the truth, playing fast
identify leaders by some telltale traits.
and loose with rules and regulations,
First, they see a target, and then orgaor overlooking infractions by others.
nize people and resources to hit it. You
None of these can be tolerated.
have to give dimension to a project and
2. Results orientation. You can spot create excitement, just as Herb Kelleher,
past CEO of Southwest, created a profpeople who know the importance of
itable airline in an industry where
results, because of the results in their
track records. They walk the walk and bankruptcy was the norm by adherence to being The low-cost carrier.
deliver what they promise when they
promise it. Such people are great comSecond, they communicate authenticalpetitors. They hate to lose and know
ly and effectively in writing, meetings,
that the winner is the one who gets
and presentations. They gain commitresults first and fast. So they are more
ment, and make people believers in
comfortable being doers than watchers. the common cause. Few great things
They also focus on solutions. A former can be accomplished alone. The team
mentor used to say: Rarely does some must be committed to the leader, and
blinding strategic insight or incredible the leader to the team and to goals that
technological advancement give you a go beyond self-interest.
sustainable advantage. It comes from
Leadership requires maturity and
out-executing the other guy. It comes self-confidence to deal with criticism.
from results-oriented people who focus Good leaders know how to listen to
on solutions.
the criticism that is helpful, ignore the
criticism that is not, and tell the differ3. Decision-making ability. The

by James M. Kilts

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E x c e l l e n c e

ence between the two.

A good leader also recognizes that
people, like organizations, fail when
they are static. When you have the
burning platform of a company in
trouble, a company deep in the Circle
of Doom, you have something that
everyone can rally around to accomplish the turnaround.
Attempting to sustain the momentum, avoiding the slide back into the
disaster scenario, is even more challenging. And thats why you must
institutionalize an attitude of continuous dissatisfaction. The status quo is
never good enough. The quest for
something better must be constant.
5. Conceptual thinking ability.
Conceptual thinkers can put pieces
together, and turn those pieces into the
right answers. They can see both the
forest and the trees. They look at a
problem and view it from all angles,
turn it over and inside-out, and then
analyze and frame it in a way that
allows them and their team to take the
right course of action. They are dedicated to a lifetime of learning and
learn from everything they doand
more from what fails to work.
These are the qualities I value and
look for in anyone who will be part of
the team. But I do not believe in mass
firings to put new people in place. You
have to see if and how people perform.
Those who meet the performance hurdles probably will be kept, but they
may not be in the right position.
A year after I joined Gillette as the
first outside CEO in 70 years, the managers in 66 of the top 100 positions
were either outside hires who were
new to the company, or Gillette people
who were new to their positions. I
wanted to energize and cross-pollinate
the Gillette culture with ideas, attitudes and beliefs from other companies. Gillette had been virtually a 100
percent promote-from-within company, but I never wanted to revert to
total promote-from-within practice.
Putting together a team is part
adherence to traits and qualities proven
to predict success (and avoiding traits
that result in trouble). However, it also
relies on gut instinct and chemistry. You
want to work with people whom you
enjoy, and that part is art and personal,
not scientific or book-learned. Making
the right choices is a big part of what
defines a great leader.
LE
Jim Kilts is the former CEO of Gillette and author of Doing
What Matters: How to get Results That Make a Difference.

ACTION: Make smart selection choices.

17

LEADERSHIP

DEVELOPMENT

Effective LD
Av o i d s i x c o m m o n p i t f a l l s .
by Stephen Parker

TS A FAMILIAR SCEnario: Senior leaders

and executives go offsite for a team-building or leadership
development program with noble
intentions and an ambitious agenda,
but weeks later they find little benefit
for their time and effort. Many organizations repeat the same mistakes that
cause these events to miss the mark or
provide ephemeral value.
LD programs often fail to achieve objectives because of six common pitfalls:
1. Urgency overrides preparation.
Seeing a pressing need to address key
issues, the CEO wants her team to
meet soon, often within two weeks.
Her HR advisors may have been trying for years to get this executive to
invest in her team. Yet while they are
thrilled that at last they have a convert, the zeal to deliver quickly may
supersede thorough preparation.
Often the LD component will be
tagged on to an already overloaded
planning agenda. There is rarely
enough time to involve all stakeholders in thoughtful discussions about
the true issues (and what issues they
have the energy to solve). The facilitators then enter blind. The sponsor of
the event may be inaccessible apart
from an initial briefing, so key decisions are left to the HR partners. The
content begins to lean toward the safe
and the sure rather than what is
required to make a difference.
We were once asked to run an offsite for a CFOs team (held on July 3rd).
We were told we couldnt access the
CFO or his assistant for two of the
three weeks lead time because they
were busy with an acquisition. We
passed, explaining that the ROI for this
session would be limited given that the
senior leaders had other urgent, business-critical issues on their minds.
Recommendation: Dont force-fit LD.
Sometimes delaying or postponing a
session is the best course of action.
2. Participants fail to engage emotionally. Unless you work for NASA,
LD is not rocket science. Its not that
difficult to get executives to intellectually agree with and understand what

18

they need to do to be more successful.

The challenge is getting them to personally engage and wrestle with changes
that they need to make to become better leaders. While everyone may nod in
agreement, they may not walk away
caring enough to overcome the discomfort of trying something new.
Leadership is personal. It must
begin with inward reflectiona willingness to confront the emotional
forces that cause us to behave in certain ways. This is not done without
some risk for leaders and
facilitators. Trust and time
must be built into a session
to enable this to play out.
Getting a senior team to
open up in five minutes is
not a recipe for success.
Recommendations: Data
can help build the case for
change, but dont stop
there. Make sure the program drives individual reflection of
personal values and taps into the motivation of the person behind the title.
3. The CEO cant contain himself. A
leadership off-site seldom begins without the CEO or senior leader calling
upon everyone to speak up! The
CEO mistakes his vehemence for leadership and can scarcely keep his forceful personality in check. While he
believes that he is exhorting everyone
to join in with candor, the group hears
a threatening ultimatum. Intimidated,
they close up, the CEO becomes frustrated, and the situation gets worse.
As Samuel Goldwyn once said: I
dont want any yes-men around me. I
want everybody to tell me the truth
even if it costs them their jobs.
Recommendations: Coach the CEO
beforehand. Discuss when and how he
should voice his opinions. Agree when
and how the facilitators will step in to
redirect the top leaders enthusiasm.
4. Awkward issues are not confronted. Few senior leaders consider how
their personal qualities or their teams
behavior may affect performance. Yet
effective leadership calls for selfawareness. In one session, the leader
asked everyone to set aside their daily
agenda and Blackberrys and focus on
getting value out of the event. He even
asked them to coach himto call him

out if they ever saw him using his.

Everyone applauded, but on four occasions when he went into Blackberry
prayer mode, nobody spoke upand
the moment was lost.
Recommendation: Help the senior
team practice discussing undiscussablesthe issues that no one wants to
talk about that are impeding the teams
effectiveness. Make sure the facilitators
have the competence and confidence to
challenge the group and leaders on
awkward issues and bad behavior
and then guide agreement on how the
leaders will hold each other accountable for better behavior in the future.
5. Trendy triumphs over consequence.
The latest business best seller often
becomes the catalyst for senior executive interest in LD. Books can provide
great food for thought and
inspiring stories to prompt
leaders reflection on their
actions. When translated
into a LD event, they rarely
provide lasting value, since
few books lend themselves
to practical application. This
approach falls short since
pivotal leadership moments cant be borrowed or
benchmarked. They reflect the authors
personal experience. A book may
prompt a lively debate, but participants likely wont leave the session
with action steps they can take in their
work. Worse, so much is written about
leaders and leadership that its tempting to regularly introduce the latest
methodology or insights. Hence, the
leadership style becomes a patchwork
quilt of fads and clichs.
Recommendations: Concentrate on
relevant challenges and behaviors.
Steer the conversation from the CEOs
fondness for the latest best seller to a
candid discussion of desired outcomes.
Go deeper into one school of thought
rather than ride the waves of trends.
6. Culture is not receptive to change.
Even the best LD programs will fail to
have an impact if your culture is not
receptive to change. Too often leaders
want to train away problems or use
development initiatives to raise the bar
on leadership behavior. But if the culture punishes risk-taking, or rewards
the same behaviors that need changing, then T&D are beside the point
unless they focus on culture change. LE
Stephen Parker is Senior VP, Consulting at BlessingWhite, a
global consulting firm dedicated to reinventing leadership and
the meaning of work. Visit www.blessingwhite.com, email
sdparker@bwinc.com, or call 908-904-1000 ext 8195.

ACTION: Avoid these six pitfalls in your LD.

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MANAGEMENT

PERSPECTIVE

forward. Its important that both Anna

and Ben to resolve the issue so that
they can work together in the future.
Step four: How can you give them
more of whats important to them?
Dont get stuck in a single viewpoint.
Anna returns to her own perspective.
She and Ben have coffee and she floats
effort involved. Further, Ben and his
the idea of him being responsible for the
by Cindy Tonkin
team have no intention of stopping.
problem. She believes if she is prepared
If you were Anna, wouldnt you be to give him the kudos for solving the
annoyed? Perhaps youve been in a sit- problem (and she is), he will fix it. This
HEN PEOPLE GET
stuck in a single uation where things seem to be going gives Ben what she thinks is important
well, and then they go wrong. The
view of a situation,
to him (acknowledgement). He wins
problems result. Take the perspectives more you get involved, the more you
because his career develops, and shes
feel sucked into the problem. The
of the following five people.
helped because the problem goes away.
more you work on the issue, the worse
Glen works in sales. Hes always
Tr y I t Yo u r s e l f
it gets. At the extreme, these are the
thinking about his customers busitimes when you comness (and rarely about his or his
Pay attention next
plain about it to colorganisations objectives), so he distime a team member
leagues, worry about it
counts everything he sells.
complains about
in the shower, or even
Andrew thinks that customers
another team, supplier
indulge in some light
should know that his telecoms busior customer. Usually
career sabotage.
ness isnt the same as the internet
complaints spring
business with the same brand.
from being stuck in
S h i f t Pe r s p e c t i v e s
Dils annoyed when suppliers
one perspective. A sindont use the correct transaction codes
gle perspective risks
We create this sort of
(which he knows by heart).
one-sided decisions
problem when we get
Margaret in sales doesnt see why
decisions which suit us
stuck in our own pershe should spend time with marketbut not our suppliers,
spective, situation and
ing, since she works in a sales-driven emotions. We cant step
customers or our
organization. She blames marketing for back from the situation and assess
organisation, and which work for
their inadequate marketing materials. what we need to do to move forward. management but not for team members.
Gita runs archives for a major pub- Its the root cause of a many problems.
Taking three perspectives into
lic service organization. They have no So lets find out what Anna did.
account, working out what we can all
storage left. She issued a memo
agree on, and where we can give a litStep one: What is important to you?
explaining this several months ago.
tle so everyone gets whats important
Anna considers the situation. She is
She doesnt understand why her inter- annoyed with Ben and his team, and
to them, can make a big difference.
nal customers keep sending her boxes. that she didnt anticipate that this might
To go back to the beginning:
All these people are stuck in a sin- happen. She considers whats important Salesman Glen must discover what
gle perspective. Sometimes they fail to to her in this situation. Above all, she
value he and his services add from an
put themselves in the shoes of the
organizational perspective. He cant just
wants to look professional.
other person; often they fail to look at
work from his customers perspective.
Step two: Whats important to the
it from an organisational perspective. other person? Shifting perspective,
Telecom Andre needs to discover
They have only one perspective.
the customers point of view.
Anna puts herself in Bens shoes:
Work-place peace happens when
Transaction-code Dil has to visit a
Whats important to him? She figures
we make the effort to discover multi- that the reason for his actions could
supplier and see their problems too.
ple perspectives on a given situation.
No-marketing Margaret needs to
include: his career, avoiding confrontaThere are four simple steps to gain- tion and making his life as stress-free as recognize the wastage caused by her
ing perspective: 1. Whats important
not communicating with marketing.
possible. By the way, its helpful to
to you? 2. Whats important to others? imagine that people are always after
Archiving Gita needs to see that she
3. Whats important to the organizais not her customers top priority and
positive things for themselves (for
tion? 4. What can you do to give othto remind them when things go awry.
example, they rarely want to sabotage
ers more of whats important?
So next time you are frustrated, or
you, only after make themselves look
Well walk through these steps
in a pattern where the more you get
better. They may hurt you in the
with Anna as an example.
process, but thats not whats important involved, the more you feel sucked
Anna and her team are given the
to them). Whats important to them will into the problem, remember to pull
responsibility to fix a problem, and
yourself out of your situation, and
be something which is good for them,
she engages Bens area to solve part of for example, acknowledgement, inforthen in turn go to each of the perspecthe problem. After several months she mation, calm, power or being heard.
tives, asking whats important here?
discovers that Bens area is also workYoull discover its as easy as 1-2-3. LE
Step three: Whats important to the
ing on other parts of the problem for
organization? Shifting perspective again
which her team is responsible. She is
time, Anna considers the issue from an Cindy Tonkin is the author of six books and works as an executive coach and influence trainer. Find out more about her at
annoyed, not only because Ben should organisational perspective, where it
www.cindytonkin.com.
have communicated this to her, but
matters little who solves the problem.
ACTION: See situations from three perspectives.
also because of the duplication of
Whats important is that things move

Shift Perspectives
W

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MANAGEMENT

STRATEGY

Strategy Scorecard
Stay focused on the right t h i n g s .
by Graham Kenny

CORECARDS ARE A

great way to get

managers to focus on
the right things and lift performance.
But only a sound scorecard design
method will steer managers towards
measuring outcomesand strategy. In
this article, I examine one of them
the balanced scorecard.

Fundamentals of the Scorecard

The balanced scorecard classifies
performance measures in four categories or perspectives: 1) financial; 2)
customer; 3) internal business process;
and 4) innovation and learning. These
categories, say balanced scorecard
authors, Robert Kaplan and David
Norton, are valid for all organisations.
Performance measures are developed within each perspective. The
technique is based on interviews with
managers by internal or external consultants to identify the three or four
strategic objectives for each perspective. Then, through meetings with
executives, specific measures are
developed for these objectives. This
list is then edited, leaving the performance measures in the final scorecard.
Robert Kaplan and David Norton
modelled the balanced scorecard on the
corporate scorecard of Analog Devices,
a company that had built a reputation
for technological innovation. Its scorecard contained measures relating to
finance, customers, manufacturing
processes and new product development. Clearly, these are similar to the
four perspectives of the balanced scorecard. While the four categories may
have been right for Analog Devices at
the time, are they necessarily right for
all organisations in all situations?

es are as varied as the situations.

The four categories are indeed a
strange set. The innovation and learning perspective is an internal business
process, so why does it warrant a box
separate from the internal business
process perspective? It doesnt, except
that this reduces the boxes to three.
One of the three boxes relates explicitly to a stakeholderthe customer
whereas the other two boxesfinance
and internal business processdont.
This seems inconsistent. Arent financial measures also relevant to customers? Why arent other stakeholders
represented? Every organisation has a
many internal business processes, so
which ones should be chosen for the
internal business process box? Arent
the business processes relevant to customers, for instance, represented in the
customer perspective as well?
The questions and apparent
inconsistencies go on.
Because the framework is
arbitrary, crucial measures
are inevitably overlooked.
There doesnt seem to be
any theoretical justification
for what appears to be an
ad-hoc collection of categories and measures. Since
many organisations cant get
answers to these questions, they refuse
to implement the balanced scorecard.
Others distort their measurement systems to suit the scorecard format.
In many cases, the balanced scorecard delivers improvements on what
existed before. But almost any intervention triggers the Hawthorne effect:
the fact that attention is placed on the
activities being measured invariably
leads to performance improvements.

1992 and distributed to 300,000 influential readers. There have been numerous articles and books on it since.
3. It was legitimised by a professor
at the Harvard Business School, rated
one of the best business schools.
4. It was latched onto by large
accounting and consulting firms as
another way to generate revenue.
5. Many software companies saw
the balanced scorecard as an opportunity to build software that would generate revenue, even if only loosely
connected to the original concept.
6. It was quickly adopted by CEOs
who were influenced by the high-profile marketing of the balanced scorecard. Weve encountered many
instances of the CEO having been
sold on it, while the rest of the management team remains dubious.
7. Lack of management
scrutinyas with many
new ideas, organisations
often rush in without fully
investigating the theoretical robustness of a method.
Managers frequently lack
the time and inclination to
test an idea, looking
instead for a quick fix.

Where to from Here?

Heres what we suggest:

1. Categorise measures by key stakeholder. Identify the key stakeholders of
your organisation, department, program
or project; for example, customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders.
2. Link your measurement activity to
corporate direction. Early in developing your measures, absorb what you
need of your strategic plan.
3. Develop measures of objectives and
strategic factors. We provide a way to
W h y s o We l l K n o w n ?
do this, the Strategic Factor System,
which identifies those few things you
Few managers know the balanced
scorecard in detail. Those who claim to need to get right in order to succeed.
have a balanced scorecard usually
4. Choose a short list of performance
mean that they have a combination of
measures for your scorecard. These
financial and non-financial measures in measures become your key perfora tablebut nothing like the format
mance indicators (KPIs).
the originators intended. The term
5. Set targets on your KPIs. Model
balanced scorecard has become
the cause and effect between key stakealmost generic, describing any tabled
holders and set targets.
Problems with the Scorecard
set of financial and non-financial meaBy following these steps youll produce a strategy scorecard that avoids
I am regularly confronted by man- sures. So, if the balanced scorecard is
the problems of the balanced scorecard
agers who have difficulty fitting what so flawed, why is it so well known?
There are at least seven reasons:
and produces key performance indicathey think they need as performance
1. It arrived at a time when mantors right for your organisation, are outmeasures into the balanced scoreagers had lost patience with the
come-focused and strategy-driven. LE
cards four categories.
detailed process measures derived
Where, they ask, do employees
Dr Graham Kenny, CEO of Strategic Factors, author of Surefit? Are students customers? Where from total quality management. They
Fire Steps to Small Business Success and Strategic Factors:
Develop and Measure Winning Strategy. Email:
were hungry for something new.
do suppliers come in? This does not
gkenny@strategicfactors.com or visit www.strategicfactors.com.
2. Great marketingit ran as an
seem to represent the rich set of stakeholders our hospital has. The respons- article in Harvard Business Review in
ACTION: Create a strategy scorecard.
20

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