“A leader leads by example, not by force.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
ROUSING LEADERSHIP
Why are Rousers so important? They are the ones that put things in motion. They set off a chain reaction that propels the company forward, enabling it to grow beyond the ordinary to become truly great. To rouse people you need to lead them. This is not to imply that it only includes people at the top. Jobs do not come neatly packaged with a narrow range of required skills. No matter where someone is in an organization or what task they’re doing, they can be hugely influential – motivating and inspiring others around them. And because leadership exists at every level of the organization, so too do Rousers. Leaders at the top need to motivate and inspire everyone and they need to encourage others to do so throughout the organization. Rousers are critical to growth, innovation, employee engagement, value creation and much, much more. In short, Rousers are the people who drive success.
“IF YOU CAN DREAM IT,YOU CAN DO IT.”
Walt Disney
We’ve all experienced it: that moment when we hear something that inspires us so much we are instantly fired up and raring to achieve great things. It can be incredibly powerful. Now magnify that throughout an organization and for everyday: imagine how much progress that would lead to. All that buzz, excitement and enthusiasm results from a very special type of person: a Rouser. This person will:
• Put things into motion. They stir things up, agitate the status quo and not only create a sense of ‘can do’ but ‘want to’;
• Excite others through their lively thoughts and behavior. Their energy motivates and inspires people to excel;
• Pull others together and propel them in the same direction.
A Rouser leads. A Rouser inspires. A Rouser attracts and binds. A Rouser animates and compels. A Rouser sets off a chain reaction that leads to ideas, imagination, commitment, effort and achievement in many people, who pass this on to other people – and on it goes. This is the power of a Rouser. There is no doubting the impact these people have on their organizations.
LEADING PEOPLE THE RIGHT WAY
“OUTSTANDING LEADERS GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO BOOST THE SELF-ESTEEM OF THEIR PERSONNEL. IF PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES, IT’S AMAZING WHAT THEY CAN ACCOMPLISH.”
Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart
It is all in how you lead people. In today’s increasingly complex world, the Rouser requires something of paramount importance: to get the results they are seeking, they need to lead in the right way. This point is made by Martha Maznevski at IMD business school, when she argues that leaders have to lead responsibly. Before anyone dismisses this as a truism, we should examine more closely what this really means.
Responsibility is not as straightforward as it seems – it is multifaceted. Although, there are two things that underpin everything else: a strong sense of ethics and integrity. Without these, everything else will be built on an unstable foundation, vulnerable to every knock and ultimately viewed by others as hollow and disingenuous.
Why are ethics and integrity so important? Of course, your people and customers will benefit from the many policies that are born of ethical considerations. Significantly, though, integrity has such power because of what it says about you. Quite simply, it shows you care, and this means people will trust you, and people who trust you will follow you because they will believe in the place you’re taking them. This is not to imply any subterfuge. On the contrary, there is only one way to gain people’s trust and inspire them to join you and that is to be genuine.
The relevance for leaders to rouse their people is clear: values matter. As George Kohlrieser, author of Hostage at the table, observes, “[Leaders] set high personal standards of behavior for themselves to act as a role model for others. Responsible leadership starts with the leader as a person – his or her integrity. This helps to create an organization characterized by respect, honesty, trust and caring beyond the leader’s own self-interest.”
Making it happen
A Rouser may have values, integrity and ethics, they may be energetic, dynamic and enthusiastic – but how do they stimulate others and generate followership? By infusing ethics into all aspects of the organization, from activities and procedures to achievements and earnings, the whole company will be drawn together, given purpose, become energized and thus enabled, move forward in one direction.
Importantly, exceptional leaders focus on the long-term. In essence, they create shareholder value, raising their companies from the short-term and leading their organizations to a profitable, strong and successful future. If Rousers are anything, they are tireless: they are constantly developing their people, devising better ways of doing things and pushing the boundaries of what is achievable. They are also honest: integrity requires that people know they can trust what you say – and that depends on accuracy, openness and reliability.
What else is needed?
“YOU MUST ROUSE INTO PEOPLE’S CONSCIOUSNESS THEIR OWN PRUDENCE AND STRENGTH IF YOU WANT TO RAISE THEIR CHARACTER.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1715-1747
Rousers would not be able to draw people to them if they did not have credibility. People may think you are decent, supportive and fair, but if they feel you are ordinary, less than impressive or even incapable, you will not have much influence. Basically, credentials matter.
As Jean-Pierre Lehmann of the Evian Group argues, leaders also need business acumen. They need to prove that they can build wealth, that they are part of the ‘social group’ and that they appreciate and rely on the knowledge of others around them.
ROUSERS AT WORK: ALIBABA, LEGO AND ZAPPOS.COM
Alibaba Group
A pioneer in the Chinese internet industry, Jack Ma founded the Alibaba Group, in 1999. His vision was to build an e-commerce ecosystem that allows consumers and businesses to do all aspects of business online, to create one million jobs, to change China’s social and economic environment and to make China the largest internet market in the world. Ma says his goal is not to create “the most profitable company in China or the world, but to give China a global brand that will last, even if shortterm profits must be sacrificed ... If Alibaba cannot become a Microsoft or Wal-Mart, I will regret it for the rest of my life.” That is no small vision, and that is the point. A bold vision is inspirational and has the power to capture the imagination and gain commitment and loyalty.
His bold vision is matched by his approach to strategy. Asked about Alibaba’s goals, Ma replied, “we win eBay, buy Yahoo! and stop Google. That is for fun. Competition is for fun.” One thing stands out about this statement: how appealing it is. It attracts people to the cause and gets them on side. This is what Rousers do and why so many people get behind them – they rally, motivate and galvanize.
Vision and strategy are clearly powerful weapons in the Rouser’s armory, but there is another important aspect: leadership style. Alibaba’s success is in no small part down to Jack Ma’s style of leadership. He is certainly charismatic. More than that, people follow him because he is credible and they trust him. He values communication and transparency, keeping in constant contact with employees and being approachable. Significantly, opinion-sharing is highly encouraged and there is a strong talent-centric culture. All of this sends one clear message: he values his people. Nothing gets people on side more readily than knowing that they are valued and that their voices will be heard.
Lego
Lego was founded in 1932 and its brand name has become one of the most iconic children’s toys in the world. In 2004, however, the survival of this family-run company was at risk. For the first time in the company’s history, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (grandson of the founder) handed over the reins to someone outside the family. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp took charge. When he became CEO, he was only 36 years-old and had only been with Lego for three years. A former McKinsey consultant, he set about devising a seven-year strategy known as the Shared Vision, with the aim of rebuilding the company and revitalizing the brand. Three things stand out about how he turned this vision into reality: leadership style, company structure and corporate culture.
For the first three years he had to focus on surviving, halting sales decline, reducing debt and managing cash flow, which required tight fiscal control and top-down management. During this period, the key to success depended on his making sure that he was approachable – as puts it, “managing at eye level.” This makes a leader visible and promotes a sense of shared challenges – something not lost on employees. The camaraderie it instills inspires and generates trust and commitment.
As the tide turned, Lego focused on their core competencies and products. The management team decided to compete not by being the largest, but by being the best. This stage required a slightly different corporate structure to the one that was needed during the early turnaround period. The company structure was loosened and the top-down management style was relaxed to empower managers. This from-the-ground-up approach unlocked creativity and gave people the latitude to explore ideas.
Crucially, the corporate culture was also revolutionized at Lego. The emphasis shifted away from ‘nurturing the child’ to ‘I am here to make money for the company’ – managing to come back from the brink of disaster. The results speak for themselves. It is essential to get the culture right so that it works with your aims and not against them. Lego needed to make money – and make it fast. The softer, albeit commendable, mission to provide nurturing toys did not pay the bills! While Lego still produces high-quality, developmental toys, by re-orienting the employee mission statement to one of ‘we are here to make money’, both goals are satisfied. The case of Lego shows how important it is to ensure that corporate culture and goals support each other. Quite simply, by saying what you want, you will get what you want.
Returning to leadership style, for Knudstorp, the most fundamental aspects of leadership are to take responsibility and make things happen – “less talk and more action.” The importance of this is clear: people feel you are worth following. For these to work, though, they have to have meaning and purpose, they have to be born of your answer to two questions Knudstorp asked himself, “Why does the company exist?” and “What makes the company unique?” The journey for any Rouser starts by looking inside.
Being a Rouser is not just consequential for a company’s internal operations; Rousers impact the marketplace by attracting consumers and building customer loyalty.
Tony Hsieh is CEO of Zappos.com, an online shoe, handbag and clothing store whose success springs from their aim to provide a superb customer experience – and building outstanding customer relationships lies at the heart of this vision. To achieve this, Tony Hsieh has not only infused his passion and vision throughout the organization, his enthusiasm and energy spreads directly to customers.
There is certainly a revolutionary and strong corporate culture, with the entire business revolving around the concept of happiness and the long-term growth of employees. There is a fun and loose work environment and, unusually, financial reward is very definitely not the driving force. Instead, the company is filled with genuine enthusiasm that is summed up in Tony Hsieh’s approach to recruitment: “We hire for attitude. The rest (skills) can be trained.”
Zappos pays below market salaries, focusing instead on employees’ long-term growth. Employees are empowered and respected and the work environment is relaxed. It is all about having the right attitude. As Tony Hsieh says, “If you can get the employee to stay and be happy, inspired and motivated working for the company, then the long-term benefits are huge.” He leads from the front, taking an astonishingly low salary for a CEO ($37,000!) and his office is a simple cubicle. This is someone who leads by example, a key attribute of Rousers.
Customers respond enthusiastically to the unconventional and innovative approach. The reason the company constantly exceeds expectations and has such an emotional resonance with its customers is because the company is not focused on money., Instead, it is focused on the customer experience – similar to how the company treats its employees. This is not some subjective point, the reason it works is because Tony Hsieh genuinely believes it. Not only does his view permeate the company, this same vision inspires his customers to be drawn to the products and the brand. This reflects an overriding feature of Rousers: they are genuine and people both inside and outside the company respond positively to that.
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that the entire business revolves around happiness. Before anyone dismisses this as too idealistic an attitude to survive in the tough world of retailing, sidelining monetary reward and raising employee and customer happiness, far from being at the expense of profit, has provided a healthy return on investment precisely because people value, trust and get behind that enthusiasm and those ideals.
Business today is global. No one can escape it; what happens on the global stage affects us all. This raises an interesting question: are the principal dimensions of successful leadership universally applicable, or do different regions or countries display alternative approaches?
In Transformational leadership: an examination of crossnational differences and similarities (in Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 24 Iss: 1, pp.5 - 15), Karen Boehnke, Nick Bontis, Joseph J. DiStefano and Andrea C. DiStefano reveal two major leadership styles:
• Transactional leadership – defined as “a series of exchanges and bargains between leaders and followers”;
• Transformational leadership –“goes beyond exchanging inducements for desired performance by developing, intellectually stimulating and inspiring followers to transcend their own self-interests for a higher collective purpose.”
This reflects the work of James MacGregor Burns, who, in his book, Leadership (HarperCollins, 1978), described these two styles and concluded that the simple essence of leadership is a relationship between two or more people. How these relationships play out makes a great deal of difference – and while both leadership styles are needed, they are needed in different situations and with different people.
There are distinct differences between transactional leaders that view relationships as a series of exchanges – I’ll give you this, if you give me that – and transformational leaders that seek to change the playing field by moving beyond the usual approach, appreciating the subtleties involved – the inherent untapped potential, to generate new ways of working and new incentives.
Rousers instinctively deploy each approach, as appropriate. Yet there is no denying that transformational leadership has the potential to raise everyone’s game. The simple reason for this is that it taps directly into our instinctive need for fair play and social cohesion. When we feel we belong and are valued and when we feel we can trust is the person leading us, we will be motivated, we will be energized and we will follow. This is no small achievement: we only follow who we trust and trust is not easy to gain. For a leader, no matter at what level within an organization, to gain the trust and loyalty of those around them, matters – the long-term success of the organization depends on it.
Ben Bryant, professor at IMD business school, believes that there are certain core features (behaviors and personal characteristics) that define transformational leadership. He groups these into the following clusters:
“THE GREAT LEADERS ALWAYS STAGE-MANAGE THEIR EFFORTS ... WHILE THE REAL LEADERS ARE DOWN IN THE RANKS, QUIETLY CHANGING THE WORLD.”
Charles de Gaulle
Returning to the question of whether there is a pattern of leadership styles across geographies, transformational leadership is widely recognized as a trigger for exceptional operational performance on a global basis. According to the research team led by Karen Boehnke, despite needing to adapt to national differences, transformational leadership greatly improves performance.
At this point it is useful to highlight several points:
• Leadership is not just for formal leaders. It applies to leadership in its broadest sense. As already mentioned, leadership happens at every level within an organization.
• Transactional and transformational leadership styles are not mutually exclusive. It is not a case of one and only one – good leaders are a hybrid, possibly with one side more dominant than the other. Such leaders are adept at knowing which style to apply and when.
Interestingly, transactional and transformational styles can be leveraged. Leaders can transition in and out of one or the other, as required.
To be a Rouser, as Kim Cameron and Arran Caza argue, in Developing Strategies for Responsible Leadership (University of Michigan, May 2005), employee empowerment is fundamental. By adopting the following techniques, they suggest that leaders can greatly enhance the potential of their people.
• Promote a positive climate.Negativity creates more problems than it solves. This is achieved by emphasizing people’s strengths and dealing appropriately with weaknesses by resolving issues. Ensuring that this positive approach permeates the organization will boost morale and energize your people – also, by dealing effectively with any mistakes, you will ensure that problems do not become endemic.
• Promote positive connections. By developing close, trusting working relationships, you will bring people with you who will, in turn, bring the support of others.
• Promote positive communications. Being positive is not a soft option: it motivates and energizes people and has a direct impact on the bottom line. By emphasizing people’s strengths, they will respond positively, deal with issues and improve their performance. Blame is counterproductive; problems are best resolved from a positive, ‘let’s make this work’ position.
• Promote employee engagement. If employees don’t find their jobs interesting or useful, then your customers will eventually feel similarly disenchanted. Ensure that your people find their jobs interesting and meaningful by enriching the work environment by involving and motivating them and offering opportunities for creativity, advancement, achievement, recognition and personal fulfillment.
In light of recent shake-ups in the top ranks of major companies, responsible leadership is no simple matter. So what does the future hold? In Handbook on Responsible Leadership and Governance in Global Business (Oxford University Press, 2005), Jonathan P. Doh and Stephen A. Stumpf point to the need for an integrated approach to responsible leadership. They argue that there is a missing link: while “individual commitments to leadership, ethics and social responsibility are evident in most corporations, many companies appear to fall short in combining these duties into an integrated set of policies and culture that guides behavior and decisions.”
Here, integration is the key. By linking a wide range of internal elements, including social responsibility, integration establishes a framework that functions as a system of checks and balances. Having the proper foundation in place will support your aims and will help to address the many situations you will face. When a fully integrated approach is executed appropriately, it keeps the long-range interests of stakeholders at the front of the leader’s thinking
Rousers are charismatic, ethical, accountable and caring. They exude passion and enlist allegiance toward a shared goal. They motivate and communicate in a way that engages and encourages excellence in everyone. Significantly, they take a long and wide view, integrating and transforming purpose into action. Most importantly, they do not go it alone: they bring people with them.
The future that companies face is uncertain and will be difficult. The impact Rousers can make throughout a company is immense: they ignite an organization and its people to achieve greatness. In the next chapter we highlight the next foundation for successful businesses, brands and careers: the challenge of building and maintaining Reputation.