Four o’clock on Friday afternoon. A time when all thoughts turn to the weekend. Bodies are still at work, but minds have long since left the building. As devoted as Maria Green was to her work, she too was not immune to weekenditis. Her last meeting of the day had long since concluded, and Maria was relaxing at her desk, contemplating a weekend full of quality time with her dogs. As much as she devoted her career to people, at the end of a long week, some time spent away from humans and with Luna, Harvey, and Hannah seemed pretty appealing. She was wondering if she should start coming up with a list of Dog Principles. That would be a much shorter list, she thought with a chuckle. Eating, running, getting affection, and sleeping are the only things that matter to dogs. If this was all she could think about late on a Friday afternoon, she should probably head home. She wasn’t going to be productive in the remaining minutes of the week. As she got up to leave, her phone rang.

Damn. I was almost out of here, Maria thought.

She debated making a run for it and ignoring the phone, but her work ethic got the better of her. She had given her assistant the afternoon off to begin his weekend early, so she had to answer her own phone.

“Maria Green,” she said with no enthusiasm.

“Maria, it’s Sandra.” Sandra was the no-nonsense assistant to the CEO. “Will has called an emergency meeting of the executive team.”

“When?”

“Right now,” she said. “He needs you in the conference room right away.”

“I’m on my way.”

Maria wondered what it could be. She couldn’t come up with any ideas, but she figured an emergency meeting called at four o’clock on a Friday couldn’t possibly be a good thing. She feared her weekend might end up being spent dealing with people problems instead of dog fun after all.

She entered the conference room with some trepidation. As soon as she opened the door, she was greeted with a loud shout of “Surprise!”

It worked. Maria was genuinely surprised, and more than a little confused. She saw the cake and wondered if perhaps someone had decided to throw her a going-away party. “What’s going on?” she said. “Today’s not my birthday.”

“No,” Will said, “but it is a special day, isn’t it Maria?”

I’m sure it is, Maria thought to herself, but I have no idea what it is.

Out loud, she said, “OK Will, I’ll play along. What is today?”

Will laughed. “Maria, how could you not realize that today marks your one-year anniversary with Capital View?”

Wow. Had it really been a year already? Maria tended to ignore milestones like anniversaries, a character flaw that her husband found to be equal parts frustrating and endearing. She also really didn’t like it when a fuss was being made about her. On the other hand, there was cake.

“Thanks, everybody.” She said. “I guess I’ve been too busy shaking up the company to realize that a year had passed.”

Will laughed the hardest. “I guess that’s my fault,” he said. “I challenged you to shake up the company when I hired you. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. If I had only known…”

“You would have done things exactly the same way,” Bobby finished Will’s thought for him.

“Yes,” Will conceded, “I would have. You’ve done a lot of good for this company, Maria, and I want to thank you.”

“I second that.” Maria was shocked to hear Karen Michaels offer her a bit of praise. “I know I may have been a little resistant to some of your ideas at first.”

“I’ve never known you to resort to understatement,” Maria said, laughing.

“Fair enough,” Karen said, she was laughing too. “I really didn’t like the new ideas you brought to the company—at first. But I can’t argue with results. I just wanted to publicly thank you for all you’ve done for the company.”

Maria was very gratified. Not just that Will and the company had embraced her, but also that Karen, who had been her chief rival and the biggest obstacle to implementing the Talent Management Principles, had finally come around.

“Thanks, Karen. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been fun.”

Karen said, “Not only have you really helped this company, I think you’ve made me and everyone else in this room better leaders.”

“I’m not so sure that I have,” Maria said; she just couldn’t bring herself to accept the compliment.

“What do you mean?”

There had been something that had been bugging Maria recently. She had made great strides in getting the company and the executive team to embrace the Talent Management Principles. But there had been one more idea that had been nagging at Maria. She knew this probably wasn’t the time or place to bring it up, but she just couldn’t help herself. Keeping her mouth shut had never been one of her strengths, and being outspoken had served her well so far at Capital View, so she figured she would take one more shot.

“I’ve been wondering if we really have been good leaders.”

“How can you say that?” Karen really didn’t want to get into yet another argument with Maria, but couldn’t she just accept a compliment and leave it at that? “The company has never been stronger. Profits are up, our employees are engaged like never before, and we’re poised to have the best year in the company’s history. Doesn’t that indicate that we’re pretty good at being leaders?”

“Not really,” Maria answered. “I think all of that stuff indicates that we’ve been good managers.”

“Let me guess,” said Bobby. “Now you’re going to educate all of us on the difference, right?”

Maria answered, “Well, as a matter of fact…”

Before she could finish, Bobby cut her off. “Since I have a feeling this might take a while, do you mind if I get a piece of cake before we start?”

Maria was always up for cake. “Bobby, I think that’s the best idea you’ve had yet. Why don’t we dive into this cake.”

As the executive team dove into the cake, Maria dove into her idea. “Karen, you’ve just recited a nice list of business outcomes that we’ve achieved. That’s terrific, but I don’t think those accomplishments are evidence that we’re good leaders. I think that makes us good managers.”

“Isn’t it the same thing?” asked Dave Marx.

“Not at all,” Maria was just getting started. “There’s a reason why they are two different words. Dave, what would you say is the job of a manager?”

“To manage people?” Dave asked without a lot of confidence.

“Yes, but why?”

“To get the job done, I guess.” He figured he should sound more professional, so he amended it, “to achieve business results.”

“Bingo. You’ve earned a second piece of cake. The job of the manager is to effectively achieve the organization’s goals by efficiently using the organization’s resources, both human and others.”

Dave took her up on the offer for a second piece of cake. While he was getting it, he asked, “So doesn’t that make us excellent leaders?”

“Not necessarily. Do you think it’s possible to be a good manager without being a good leader?”

Will didn’t want to see Dave put on the spot, so he decided to answer. “I suppose that if you tend to get results but always piss people off along the way, you can be seen as a good manager but a poor leader.”

Maria continued her questioning. “And do you think it’s possible to be a good leader without being a good manager.”

“Sure.” Will answered without having to give this one too much thought. “I have seen people in this organization who are exemplary leaders who are not even in managerial positions.”

“So…?” Maria left this one open-ended.

“So leadership and management are two different things. I get that. But…” Will paused to make sure he phrased his next question carefully, “are you trying to tell us that we’re bad leaders?”

“Not at all,” Maria answered quickly. “I’m saying that the company’s good results are a result of good management—by us and others. But simply getting good results does not make us leaders.”

“So what does? Tell me, Maria, because I want to be a good leader,” said Bobby, only half-joking.

“Well, what does it mean to be a good leader?” Maria recalled her discussion a few months ago with Ed Eddington about his leadership development program. She wondered if this conversation would follow the same path.

“Ooh, ooh, I know this one,” Bobby said, raising his hand and acting like an excited schoolchild. “A good leader is someone who has followers.”

Maria played along. “A gold star for you, young man.”

“But Dave got a second piece of cake.”

“OK, Bobby, you can have a second piece.”

“Good, because I want to grab that before I ask my next question. I’m afraid you’ll take away my gold star after I ask it.”

“Go ahead.”

“We’re the executive team of this company. All of our employees do what we say. Doesn’t that make us leaders?”

“Why do you think they do what we say?”

“Because they know Karen would want to fire them if they didn’t!”

“Hey, I’m not that bad,” Karen said.

“Really, Bobby,” Maria asked again, “why do our employees do what we say?”

“I guess it’s because we’re the executive team,” he said. “We’re their bosses.”

“Right. It doesn’t make us good leaders if people do what we say because of our positional authority.”

“So what does make for good leadership?” Bobby said.

“You tell me,” Maria responded. “Tell me what you think of when you think of great leadership?”

“The first thing that comes to my mind,” Bobby answered, “is Martin Luther King. He had a vision, he communicated it well, and he got people to follow him.”

“Did they follow him because they had to?”

“No. They followed him because they wanted to.”

“I think that’s a crucial difference. People here might do what we say even if they think it’s a bad idea, because we’re at the top of the org chart and it’s their job is to do what we say.”

Will intervened. “I would hope they would push back if they thought we were asking them to do something that was a bad idea.”

“Yes,” Maria agreed, “and that’s especially true if we as leaders have created a climate in which people can push back and disagree with us without fear of retribution.”

Bobby was still chewing on this. “But we can’t all be Martin Luther King.”

“Right. Can you think of any other examples of great leadership?”

To Maria’s surprise, it was Karen who not only responded, but gave the answer Maria was looking for. “I see great leadership here at Capital View all the time. When I send consulting teams out to clients, I frequently see one of the junior consultants emerge as the leader of the team.”

“How do they do that?”

“They come up with good ideas and convince the other members of the team that it’s a good idea and should be implemented. Then they influence the client to accept the ideas.”

“Sounds like leadership to me. And it has nothing to do with their positional authority or where they are located on the org chart, does it?” asked Maria.

“Not at all.”

“So Maria, are you suggesting that people at the top of the organization can’t be leaders because our employees are obligated to do what we say?”

“I got this, Maria.” Karen intercepted the question before Maria could answer. “No, Bobby, that’s not what Maria and I are saying.” She gave Maria a conspiratorial wink.

Maria loved it that Karen was taking the lead in a people discussion. Perhaps I really have made a difference in my first year at this company, Maria mused.

Karen continued, “I see excellent leadership from managers in my division all the time. Rather than giving orders, they discuss options with their people. Even when they do know what they want people to do, they ask nicely and say ‘please’ rather than giving orders.”

Dave Marx jumped in. “I may be old school, but when a boss needs something done, why does he need to ask nicely and say please and thank you? When I was in the Army…”

Karen interrupted, “Dave, this isn’t the military. People aren’t legally obligated to follow our orders and we can’t court martial them if they don’t.”

“Yeah, but we can fire them.” Dave said.

“I’ll tell you what,” Bobby said, “if I fired everyone who didn’t obey my orders, I would be awfully lonely.”

Karen said, “One thing I’ve learned about management—especially over the past year,” she gave Maria a friendly smile, “is that people are a lot more likely to do their best work if they want to do what we’re asking. If we give orders, they might follow the order, but only give the minimum effort to get the job done. If they really believe in what they’re doing, they’re much more likely to give discretionary effort and go the extra mile. That’s how you get excellent performance from our people.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, thought Maria.

“So bottom-line it for me.” Bobby was addressing Karen, not Maria.

“Leadership isn’t about getting people to follow your orders. It’s about getting people to buy into your vision and believe in what you’re doing.”

“I’m still dying to know,” Bobby asked, “are we good leaders or not?”

“It depends,” said Karen thoughtfully, “on whether our people really believe in the changes we’ve been asking them to make, or if they’re just doing what we ask because they have to in order to keep their jobs.”

It was time for Maria to rejoin the conversation. “From what I’ve observed, I think our people really do respect this executive team. And not to sound like I’m sucking up to the boss, I think Will has been an exemplary leader of this team and he is perceived by our people to be a great leader of this organization. Will, I think you’ve earned the respect of most of the people in this organization and that they are willing to follow you, not because you’re the CEO, but because they believe in you. That, to me, is excellent leadership.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” Will said, looking at his watch and noticing that it was 4:55, “but it’s been a long day, a long week, and,” he looked at Maria with a big grin, “a long year. Can you or your new buddy Karen tell us the Talent Management Principle so we can all finally get out of here?”

Karen turned to Maria, “I guess I’ll let you field this one.”

“Thanks, Karen.” Maria turned to Will.

“Thanks, Maria,” Will said in concluding the meeting. “You’ve certainly given us all a lot to think about today—and throughout this year. I look forward to seeing what you come up with in the next year.”

Me too, thought Maria. She reflected on her first year on the job. She had shared her 13 Talent Management Principles with the organization. She had gotten Karen Michaels to embrace her way of thinking about people. Overall, she was proud of what she had accomplished during her first year at the company. She knew that Capital View really had a competitive advantage simply by adopting the Talent Management Principles. She wished that every company practiced the principles as well as Capital View. Then again, if everyone did, there wouldn’t be much of a need for people like her; and those few organizations that really manage talent well would no longer have a competitive advantage.

Organizational Assessment

Questions for Personal Reflection

1.  Was there anything described in chapter 13 that seemed descriptive of your organization?

2.  Do you consider yourself to be a good manager? If so, what are the strengths and skills that make you a good manager?

3.  Do you consider yourself to be a good leader? If so, what strengths and skills contribute to your leadership abilities?

4.  Now that you have finished this book, what can you do to ensure that your organization practices the Talent Management Principles more effectively?

5.  And finally, now that you have finished this book, what specifically will you do differently in your job and career?