An Old Brand of Leadership

What was surprising is that this group of executive leaders had no idea about the reputation they were creating. Word spread regularly about how dysfunctional the executives were and how poorly they treated those that worked for them. Not all of the executives acted badly, but enough did that the whole group got tainted. No one wanted to make presentations to them, and everyone in the organization was clued in to their behavior.

These executives thought they were providing brilliant guidance and simply being tough when they did not get what they wanted. The truth was they were oblivious to the needs of anyone else. Staff used to call meeting with the executive team the “proctologists meeting,” and when one particularly vile female executive left, internal e-mails rang out with “Ding dong, the witch is dead.”

Soon, the tough culture was entrenched, and the company was going downhill.

These are leaders who see staff members as being there to make them look good. Their days are consumed with making sure they get the accolades and the next promotion. They come down hard on those who work for them if they make innocent mistakes, try new things, or just plain don't agree with them.

These are the command and control leaders of the past. Command and control leaders truly believe they have all the answers.

This style has been honed over the centuries through feudal systems, royal dominance, and bureaucratic organizations. It may well be unconscious behavior on the part of many leaders, which is why it is so hard to change.

Self-Focused Leadership

Some command and control leaders can be nice and treat people well but still make it clear they will have their way. They're not interested in new ideas or approaches. They are the benevolent dictators.

In the early twentieth century, this leadership style was alive and well. People came to work and did what they were told. When William Harley offered a new approach to a supervisor at the company he was working for, his boss literally smashed the invention and told him to get back to work.

What did Harley do? He continued his innovative project outside of his workplace, and the iconic brand was eventually born: Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Even though this dysfunctional management style was popular in the early industrial era, and for that matter through the centuries, it did not ultimately thwart human creativity. It just made it harder to bring innovation to the workplace.

Studies of the brain show that humans are creative by nature and when put in situations where they can be creative their brains actually light up. But we also know that when messages have been sent over the centuries that command and control is good and empowering others shows weakness, our brains have been unconsciously programmed to model that leadership style.

Greed

You don't have to read many business headlines to see greed in action.

Volkswagen cut corners on fuel emissions equipment and cheated on the tests and only confessed when caught. Mylan became a household word by upping the price of a life-saving medication. The CEO defended the action because of a need to make more profit, and gave herself a hefty raise as a result. It only became an issue when there was a huge public outcry.

Wells Fargo encouraged staff, 5,300 to be exact, to use customer data to create millions of bogus credit card accounts and move money to those accounts through a cross-selling program. Elizabeth Warren at a Senate hearing had this to say about the CEO of Wells Fargo: “And when it all blew up, you kept your job, you kept your multi-multimillion-dollar bonuses, and you went on television to blame thousands of $12-an-hour employees who were just trying to meet cross-sell quotas that made you rich.”

Not only are some of these acts unethical, they are illegal. They are fueled by personal greed, at the expense of those they lead.

It is this culture of greed that puts average, honest workers under stress to deliver results at all costs. In order to get compliance, leaders resort to command and control, and followers comply.

We've seen numerous examples in our work with leaders across the globe. While working with a Wall Street brokerage firm, we had the opportunity to talk to executives about a leadership development program we were creating for them. Three of the top leaders informed us that all they really cared about was profit. We were astonished at their blunt honesty, though, sadly, unsurprised by the leadership mantra being exhibited.

It later became apparent that the top leaders structured deals solely to avoid taxes and borrowed money from the company treasury for personal projects (signing promissory notes but not paying back the initial loans), which made them large sums of money.

They created a culture of make money at all costs, and it was pervasive throughout the company. A broker actually told us he could do anything he wanted and we could not stop him because he made too much money to be fired.

The leadership development program we designed for this company was a real eye opener to the participants. It's ironic that the program was designed to help leaders be more collaborative and to combat the poor employee engagement scores the firm consistently received. We taught leaders about the true nature of leadership, and they contrasted it to what they were experiencing every day. Many of the leaders in our training program resigned for greener pastures and better leadership values.

This firm no longer exists. It was bought out by another organization in a fire sale. The executives walked out with bundles of money after the sale, and many mid-level professionals were laid off.

The Consequences

Today with social media word gets out quickly about where to work and who to work for.

The emphasis on leadership over the past 30 years has grown intense. Organizations are trying to change the model to focus on empowerment and self-actualized achievement rather than control.

Jim Kouzes, author of The Leadership Challenge, cited a study he carried out in a recent conversation. He asked a group of leaders to rate themselves as leaders on a number of dimensions. They all gave themselves above-average marks.

Jim then asked their subordinates to rate them, and the marks were significantly lower. Leaders are still out of touch with how they are viewed and how well they are actually doing.

Command/control and greed often go hand in hand and aren't sustainable in a future-proof world of today and tomorrow. People are more educated, more quickly connected, and unhealthy social constraints are breaking down. People are no longer as afraid of speaking up and losing their jobs. Retirement savings are portable. Health care is more accessible. The “brilliant jerk” can no longer be tolerated.

The rules of the workplace are changing quickly. Expectations of new entrants are different. Today's workforce is not asking to be engaged, it expects to be engaged.

Twenty-First-Century Leadership

Of course, history and business are also full of examples of great leaders. But the nexus of command/control and greed worked in the past—producing obedience and productivity, albeit temporarily.

Because of this, great leadership has been rare. And the perennial debate has been whether great leaders are born or made.

Leadership of the future is really the same kind of leadership that's always been effective.

Cultural pressures and greed are like magnets, constantly trying to pull leaders off track. And today, there are new pressures and new changes. Staying on track is not only important—it is essential for survival.

Let's be honest. We know what good leadership is, but we often don't model it. Why? The purpose and measure of business has been too frequently identified solely as profit.

The twenty-first-century leader understands that business is also about values, purpose, and solving problems. We all have an opportunity to encourage leadership to blossom and become the norm.

Good leaders have a good purpose and are clear about their values.

The Privilege of Leadership

Leadership is a privilege. It is not bestowed on a certain few who are deemed wiser or by the luck of some draw. Some of the great leaders over the centuries have left lasting legacies and, in some cases, did not hold formal leadership positions. Great leaders lead wherever they are and whatever their career level.

If you ever watch the television show Undercover Boss, you see how out of touch many leaders can be from the day-to-day operation. But in these situations leaders are trying to learn what really goes on. They are not trying to catch someone doing something wrong; they are trying to catch people doing things right and reward them!

When they see obstacles in the way of good people trying to do the right thing, they remove the obstacles. They learn a lot from the experience and also understand how tough some of these jobs are. They build relationships that last.

Leaders who see their role as a privilege understand that they have a responsibility to the people who depend on the organization for their livelihood, their families, and communities.

What does it mean to have the privilege of leadership? As a leader you have a great responsibility—not to yourself—but to those you lead. You cannot trash a company like Enron did and not expect serious repercussions.

Personal Values Create Company Values

Leaders need to be clear on their personal values first before adopting and modeling company values. Values must be internalized.

Here's a personal story from Linda, from when she was in graduate school. A professor asked what her values were. She froze and felt a knot in her stomach. She honestly had no idea.

How many of you would have a similar response? Ever felt like a deer in headlights? In our work with leaders around the globe we will often ask this question as part of our leadership programs.

The component part of being a leader isn't platitudes but coming to grips with values on a personal level. Before you select inspirational-sounding phrases for your company or department, be solid on your own personal values.

Joshua Chamberlain, a Civil War colonel in the Union army, was faced with a pivotal leadership challenge. One hundred twenty troops had attempted desertion and were arrested. The typical punishment for this crime was to be shot by firing squad.

But he and his troops faced a daunting battle the next day. Colonel Chamberlain had a monumental decision to make. He gathered the deserters and addressed them. Here are some excerpts from that speech:

I've been ordered to take you men with me, I'm told that if you don't come I can shoot you. Well, you know I won't do that. Maybe somebody else will, but I won't, so that's that. Here's the situation, the whole Reb army is up that road a ways waiting for us, so this is no time for an argument like this, and I tell you. We could surely use you fellas, we're now well below half strength…

You know who we are and what we are doing here, but if you are going to fight alongside us, there are a few things I want you to know. This regiment was formed last summer in Maine. There were a thousand of us then, there are less than 300 of us now.

All of us volunteered to fight for the Union, just as you have.

Some came mainly because we were bored at home, thought this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of came because it was the right thing to do. And all of us have seen men die.

This is a different kind of army. If you look back through history, you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot…. We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, all of it, not divided by a line between slave states and free—all the way from here to the Pacific Ocean.

Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was…. It's the idea that we all have value—you and me. What we are fighting for, in the end, we're fighting for each other. Sorry, I didn't mean to preach. You go ahead and you talk for a while. If you choose to join us and you want your muskets back, you can have them. Nothing more will be said by anyone anywhere.

If you choose not to join us, well then you can come along under guard, and when this is all over, I will do what I can to ensure you get a fair trial, but for now we're moving out.

“Gentlemen, I think if we lose this fight we lose the war, so if you choose to join us, I will be personally very grateful.”

Amazingly, all but six of the deserters immediately rejoined the regiment, and another four joined shortly after. They went on to win the battle of Little Round Top, which proved to be a pivotal victory.¹

Notice how this leader operated according to his values in the face of literal life and death decisions. Kind of makes the next staff meeting seem a bit more manageable, doesn't it?

Life and business throw tests our way. Without values you won't be an effective leader.

Solid personal values give you the platform and the confidence to translate those convictions into authentic company values.

Authentic values create a vibrant company culture. Values are the DNA of culture.

This is where the DNA culture is born and grows.

No matter where you are on the organizational chart, begin applying and articulating your values.

Defining Values

Value is no longer defined by how much money a company makes but rather moving toward how much good it contributes to society.

There is a moral fiber in the new leaders of today. They do not start their discussions with financial charts but rather with how the company is living its values. Leaders who understand that it is a privilege to lead others have a very strong moral compass. They lack the hubris of the past and the trappings of the role.

When leading a session for a company's 140 global leaders, we discussed their values. They shared honestly about how well they lived their values at work. In some cases they were ashamed of what they did and didn't do.

The senior team did not blame them or punish them for telling the truth. They provided the space and time for their direct reports to discuss what they needed to change. Together they created peer-coaching groups to help support each other in learning how to engage with others.

The CEO did not redirect the conversation to financial outcomes because he knew that without this reflection the financial gains would be short lived.

We love the story Marshall Goldsmith tells about Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motor Co. Mulally started every staff meeting by asking who needed help with what they were trying to do.

In most organizations people would be afraid to admit they needed help. But not on Mulally's team. And the results were astounding. Real teamwork is not fake teamwork. Real teamwork has trust and camaraderie that runs deep and can be seen by all. For Mulally and Ford the message was, we are all in this together. What is also interesting is that Ford did not take any of the bailout money during the recent Great Recession and maintained a strong financial presence in the market.

This is leadership that understands it is a privilege to lead. Good leadership drives out fear, builds support for team members, and fosters relational connections.

Leaders with Heart

William Ewart Gladstone, four-time British prime minister during the nineteenth century, famously said, “We look forward to a time when the power of love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessing of peace.” Jimi Hendrix sang a similar message in the twentieth century.

In Linda's previous book, Winning with Transglobal Leadership, she and her coauthors Nazneen Razi, Peter Barge, and Rob Cooke set out to discover what exactly made great global leaders. They wanted to scientifically discover the key attributes of leaders that were directly correlated to positive business outcomes.

They defined positive business outcomes as: a provable great culture, high employee engagement scores, solid financial results, sustainable performance, and stellar marketplace reputation. They wanted to know what really drove results.

They found five critical dimensions that set these leaders apart from everyone else.

1. They are purpose driven even in times of great ambiguity.

   These are leaders that don't require a mountain of details. They can make sense out of the “trees” and create a compelling purpose for the future. They are purpose driven themselves. They have reflected on who they are and make it a habit. They act with a strong sense of personal purpose about what they are trying to achieve. These people make sense out of chaos and help others see a compelling path forward.

2. They act with heart and love toward those they lead.

   They do not expect others to cater to them. They take a deep interest in their teams and fellow employees. They see their role as helping others be the best they can be. They are personally engaged in the development of others. It is their mission and passion to help others meet their aspirations. They are not the benevolent dictator of the past, rather they create paths and opportunities for people to grow and achieve what they want to achieve professionally.

   It was a pleasure to meet with Suhail Bin Tarraf, CEO of Tanfeeth, a United Arab Emirates outsourcing company, and to tour his facility in Dubai. Here is a man who embodies heart. You walk into his facility and everyone knows him, and, as important, he knows his employees. He stops to chat and engages in real conversation with everyone he encounters.

   Every day Tanfeeth managers start the morning with a discussion of how their team members are feeling. If someone feels sad or is having a problem at home, they can talk about it. The team rallies around the person to provide support. If the person needs to go home to take care of a sick child or parent, for example, they can leave.

   People are grateful for the chance to take care of an issue that is sapping their focus. They come back more determined than ever to do a good job. The remarkable thing about Bin Tarraf is that he would never dream of interrupting one of these meetings for a concern he had, no matter what it was. Allowing people to think through the day and express personal concerns is so important to him that he waits. How many of us can say that?

3. They are team builders but not in the traditional sense.

   These leaders are not just about developing their own teams but developing a team spirit in everyone. They create and connect pods of people around the world to solve tough problems. They are boundary-less in how they develop teams. It is about getting the right people together to tackle issues no matter where they are in the organization, or who they report to.

   Organization charts do not bind them, and they don't operate in silos. They don't keep the people who report to them in a box. They willingly get them involved in important purpose-driven projects. When the project is over, team members move on to the next key project.

   Rich Sheridan of Menlo Innovations comes to mind when we think about a leader who lives this dimension. He has very few managers in his organization. People either work in pairs or teams to solve customer problems and learn from each other. When the problem is solved, they move on to the next group or team that needs their help or that they need to learn from. Not only is this a great development tool but it also builds strong relationships across the company.

   People naturally learn to support and help each other without the constraints of an organization chart and leadership hierarchy.

4. They are highly perceptive.

   These are leaders that pick up cues from others and know when others don't understand, or agree. These leaders don't just assume everyone is on board. They spend time understanding the other person's point of view.

   A great example of this is Mathew Yu, a team leader from Proctor & Gamble. His job was to go around the world and help bring Lean Six Sigma to all the P&G sites. At first he would give instructions about how to implement Lean Six Sigma. But it was not sticking. People did not follow through. Initially, Yu thought it was because people in the rest of the world were resistant to anything western (ironic given that Six Sigma is based on Kaizen philosophy, which came out of Japan). What he discovered, because he was perceptive enough to see that something else was going on, was that it was not resistance at all. People were anxious to learn, they just did not understand it in their own context.

   Yu started with a small “SWAT team” and met with the local teams to explain what they were trying to achieve. They then asked, “How is this done here?”

   This one question made all the difference. Teams worked through how they would achieve the goals and outcomes in their country, and embraced the tools. They wanted to learn but just didn't understand how it would work where they were. Yu was so successful that he received many promotions and his process was adopted around the world.

5. Leaders are crystal clear about their values.

   They live their values every day but do not impose their values on others. They will never do anything unethical. They have a very strong moral compass. But they understand that they may have to adjust their values slightly to reflect other social and cultural conditions relative to where they are at the time.

   Jackie Mitchell Wynn, an executive at Dell EMC, told a story about her son's training at West Point. The teacher posed a question to the class about a meeting that was to take place in Saudi Arabia.

   It was a highly sensitive meeting and a very serious situation for our country. The best person to conduct the meeting would be a particular senior officer who is a woman. “You value women's equal rights. What would you do?”

   The class had a long debate. Ultimately it was decided that they would not send the women, and they would adjust their values for this situation. They understood that if a woman led the discussion in this environment every Saudi man would walk out of the room, and they would not get to square one.

   This scenario is hard to believe, but sometimes you have to adjust your values for the greater good of what you are trying to achieve for others.

In fairness to the Saudis, we have personally seen change in their attitudes toward women. Conversations about women's rights in the workplace and beyond are starting to occur.

These dimensions are the ones that will carry you into the twenty-first century.

A Decision to Lead

Walter McFarland, of Windmill Human Performance, noticed that the greatest leaders had three things in common. “The first big theme was passion,” he told us.

“When you read the statements of the people who accomplished the most, it didn't happen by chance. They didn't achieve because they were obsessive or compulsive. They did it because they cared about it, right down to their very DNA.”

The second theme: “They seemed consistently able to attach whatever their task was to that higher purpose,” Walter said. “It was about changing something in a bigger and better way. It was about the opportunity for people to engage and make a real difference in the makeup of their organizations.

“And the third piece was always that somehow, in the midst of doing these global, galactic, big things, they found time to develop people. They did that without exception.”

We couldn't agree more.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” —Author unknown. (Probably because he or she was busy creating, leading, and empowering others!)

When you practice these three behaviors, not only will you help others and show you care, you will feel great about yourself. You can look yourself in the mirror and say, I lived my life's purpose. I helped others live their dreams and achieve their goals, no matter who they are, where they live, and what religion they practice.

This is the power, privilege, and purpose of leadership.

Future-Proof Your Company

• If leading with clear convictions were easy, everyone would do it. Here are some ways to begin. Ask yourself: What guides you in your daily life, and where did you learn those ideals?
• What nonnegotiables will guide you in life and work?
• Ask yourself these questions:
  1. How would others describe me as a leader?
  2. What is driving me to be a leader?
  3. What is the legacy I want to leave?

Reflect on your answers. Share them with trusted colleagues, and write their observations in a journal and see if you like the picture they paint.

Future-Proof Your Career

• Pick one behavior that you want to do more of, or less of, to be the leader you want to be. Think about what you are going to do to live that behavior. Start every day this way.
• At the end of the day, note how well you did and when you could have done better. When you have made that behavior a habit, move on to the next. Make this practice part of your lifelong learning process.