tom peters’ re-imagine ! the leadership 50 belo horizonte/27september2005
TRANSCRIPT
Tom Peters’
Re-imagine! The Leadership50
Belo Horizonte/27September2005
Slides at …
tompeters.com
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like
irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army
THREE BILLION NEW
CAPITALISTS —Clyde Prestowitz
26m
43h
The
Leadership50
I. The Basic Premise.
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual Discovery Process.
“Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it difficult for people to
get things done.” – Peter Drucker
Quests!
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its members to discover their
greatness.”
Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“free to do his or her absolute best” …
“allow its members to discover their
greatness.”
Go to the peopleLive with them
Learn from themLove them
Start with what they know Build with what they have But with the best leadersWhen the work is done The task accomplished
The people will say“We have done this ourselves.”
Lao Tsu (700 BC)
2. Leaders Decentralize.
2. Leaders DE-CENT-
RAL-IZE!
The SE22: Origins of
Sustainable Entrepreneurship
II. The Leadership
Types.
3. Great Leaders on Snorting
Steeds Are Important – but
Great Talent Developers (Type I
Leadership) are the Bedrock of Organizations that Perform Over
the Long Haul.
“Leaders ‘do’
people. Period.” —Anon.
Routinely Raided:
GEPepsiCo
4. But Then Again, There Are Times When This “Cult of Personality”
(Type II Leadership) Stuff Actually Works!
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
Napoleon
5. Find the “Businesspeople”!
(Type III Leadership)
I.P.M. (Inspired Profit
Mechanic)
6. All Organizations
Need the Golden Leadership
Triangle.
The Golden Leadership
Triangle: (1) Talent Fanatic … (2) Creator-
Visionary … (3) Inspired Profit
Mechanic.
7. Leadership Mantra
#1: IT ALL DEPENDS!
III. The Leadership
Dance.
8. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
MBWA
9. Leaders … LOVE the
MESS!
“If things seem under control, you’re just not
going fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
10. Leaders
DO!
“We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.” — Herb Kelleher
A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I
will gladly sell you for $25,000.”
“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope, however if you show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a
gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.”
The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope. JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper back
to the gent.
And paid him the agreed-upon $25,000.
1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day.
2. Do them. Source: Hugh MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR
11. Leaders
Re-do.
“If it works, it’s
obsolete.”
—Marshall McLuhan
12. BUT … Leaders
Know When to Wait.
Tex Schramm: The
“too hard” box!
13. Leaders Are …
Optimists.
Hackneyed but nonetheless
true: LEADERS SEE CUPS AS “HALF
FULL.”
14. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To Don’t ” List
15. Leaders Follow the
Rule of Three.
“I used to have a rule for myself that at any point in time I wanted to have in mind — as
it so happens, also in writing, on a little card I carried around with me — the three big
things I was trying to get done.
Three. Not two.
Not four. Not five. Not ten. Three.”
— Richard Haass, The Power to Persuade
“Really Important
Stuff”: Roger’s Rule of Three!
IV. If It’s Not Broken …
Break It!
16. Leaders …FORGET!/
Leaders … DESTROY!
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never how to get new,
innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to
get the old ones out.”
Dee Hock
17. Leaders Are Not
COPYCATS.
“While everything may be
better, it is also increasingly the same.”
Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness of Things,” The New York Times
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing
similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up
with similar ideas, producing
similar things, with similar prices
and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
“Companies have defined so much
‘best practice’ that they are now more or
less identical.”Jesper Kunde, Unique Now ... or Never
“To grow, companies need to break out of a
vicious cycle of competitive
benchmarking and imitation.” —W. Chan Kim & Renée
Mauborgne, “Think for Yourself —Stop Copying a Rival,” Financial Times/08.11.03
18. BUT … Leaders
Have to Deliver, So They Worry About “Throwing the Baby Out with the
Bathwater.”
“Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, Just Plain
Damned.”Subtitle in the chapter, “Own Up to the Great Paradox: Success
Is the Product of Deep Grooves/ Deep Grooves Destroy Adaptivity,” Liberation Management (1992)
19. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes – and MAKE NO BONES
ABOUT IT!
“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
Fail. Forward. Fast. –High-tech Exec
20. Leaders Make …
BIG MISTAKES!
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish mediocre
successes.”Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)
V. Create.
21. Leaders Put INNOVATION
First!
“A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency has helped many organizations weather the
downturn, but this approach will ultimately
render them obsolete. Only the constant pursuit of
innovation can ensure long-term success.” —Daniel
Muzyka, Dean, Sauder School of Business, Univ of British Columbia (FT/09.17.04)
22. Leaders Love the
Top Line!
Top Line, Anyone?
Point (Advertising Age), to Phil Kotler: “Who should the CMO [Chief Marketing Officer]
report to?”
Kotler: “Maybe a Chief Revenue Officer—the cost side has been squeezed, now companies have to focus
on top-line growth—or maybe a Chief Customer Officer. (TP: Or maybe both!)
CRO*
*Chief Revenue Officer
23. Leaders … Make Their Mark /
Leaders … Do Stuff That Matters
“I never, ever thought of myself as a businessman. I was interested in
creating things I would be
proud of.” —Richard Branson
“Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question
for a leader always is: ‘Who do we intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first book?” “Close your eyes and
imagine me immediately doing something about what you’ve just said. What would it be?” “Do you
feel you have an obligation to ‘Make the world a better place’?”
24. Leaders Push Their
Organizations W-a-y Up the Value-added/
Intellectual Capital Chain
And the “M” Stands for … ?
Gerstner’s IBM: “Systems Integrator of
choice.” (BW)
IBM Global Services: $55B
25. Leaders Turn Every “Department”
into a Value-adding “PSF”!*
*Professional Service Firm
Sarah: “ Mom, what do you do?”
Mom: “I’m ‘overhead.’ ”
Sarah: “ Mom, what do you do?”
Mom: “I manage a ‘cost center.’ ”
Answer: PSF![Professional Service Firm]
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner, HR [IS, R&D,etc.] Inc.
Point of
View!
26. Leaders Know that the Value-added Revolution”
rests upon: Putting the Intangibles FIRST!
Offer Scintillating …
Experiences!
“Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from
goods.”Joseph Pine & James Gilmore, The Experience Economy:
Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage
Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”
“What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride
through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”
Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership
One company’s answer:
CXO**Chief eXperience Officer
Understand that the BEDROCK is …
Gasp-worthy Design!
“Design is treated like a religion at
BMW.”Fortune
“We don’t have a good language to talk about this kind of thing. In most
people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. … But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design.
Design is the fundamental soul of a
man-made creation.”
Steve Jobs
“With its carefully conceived mix of colors and
textures, aromas and music, Starbucks is more indicative of our era than the iMac. It is to the Age of
Aesthetics what McDonald’s was to the Age of Convenience or Ford was to the Age of Mass
Production—the touchstone success story, the exemplar of all that is good and bad about the
aesthetic imperative. … ‘Every Starbucks store is carefully designed to enhance the quality of everything the customers see, touch, hear, smell or taste,’ writes CEO Howard Schultz.”
—Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness
Marketing “Magic”*
The “Missing 95%”: The Unconscious!
*E.g. ZMET/Zaltman Metaphor Evaluation Technique
“If you can’t win on ‘cost,’
then you’re left with ‘cool.’ ” —
Anon.
27. Leaders Pursue the “Big Two” NEW
MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
Women!
“Kodak Sharpens Digital Focus On Its Best
Customers:
Women”* —Page 1 Headline/WSJ/0705
*TP: The … “Big Duh”!
?????????
Home Furnishings … 94%Vacations … 92% (Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel equipment)
Houses … 91%D.I.Y. (major “home projects”) … 80%
Consumer Electronics … 51% (66% home computers)
Cars … 68% (90%)All consumer purchases … 83%
Bank Account … 89%Household investment decisions … 67%Small business loans/biz starts … 70%
Health Care … 80%
Thanks, Marti
Barletta!
The Perfect Answer
Jill and Jack buy slacks in black…
1. Men and women are different.2. Very different.3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y nothing in common.5. Women buy lotsa stuff.6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.8. Men are (STILL) in charge.9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
Boomers-Geezers
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%(55-64: +47%)
“Marketers attempts at reaching those over 50 have
been miserably unsuccessful. No market’s motivations and needs are
so poorly understood.” —Peter Francese, founding publisher, American Demographics
28. Leaders Pursue DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE!
Brand = You Must Care!
“Success means never letting the competition define you. Instead you have to define yourself
based on a point of view you care deeply about.” —Tom Chappell,
Tom’s of Maine
GH (+TP):
“Get better” vs
“Get different”
29. Leaders
LOVE the New Technology!
We all live in Dell-Wal*Mart-
eBay-Google World!
Power Tools for Power Solutions/
Strategies! —TP
30. Needed? Type IV Leadership: Technology
Dreamer-True Believer.
The Golden Leadership Quadrangle: (1) Talent Fanatic-Mentor … (2) Creator-Visionary …
(3) Inspired Profit Mechanic …
(4) Technology Dreamer-True Believer
VI. Talent.
31. When It Comes to
TALENT … Leaders Always Go
Berserk!
Brand = Talent.
32. Leaders Hire WEIRD
Employees: “Are there enough weird
people in the lab these days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director
Why Do I love Freaks?
(1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was a freak who did it. (Period.) (2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are never boring.) (3) We need freaks. Especially in freaky times. (Hint: These are freaky times, for you & me & the CIA & the Army & Avon.) (4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midst automatically make us-who-are-not-so-freaky at least somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good Thing in freaky times—see immediately above.) (5) Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in, make it into the history books. (6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most of us—and our organizations—are in ruts. Make that chasms.)
33. Leaders Don’t Create “Followers”:
THEY CREATE LEADERS!
“I start with the premise that the
function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” —Ralph Nader
“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find
that female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
Title, Special Report, Business Week
34. Leaders Demand That All Employees Follow the “BRAND YOU” ADVENTURE
“We live in a ‘Brand You’ world.” —Tom Peters
“If there is nothing very special about
your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself you won’t get noticed, and that
increasingly means you won’t get paid much either.”
Michael Goldhaber, Wired
34A (Bonus). Leaders Are Angry that the School
System Is their Enemy, Not Their Ally!*
*From Stem to Stern!
“My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher conference and were informed that our budding
refrigerator artist, Christopher, would be receiving a grade of Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How could any child—let alone our child—receive a poor
grade in art at such a young age? His teacher informed us that he had refused to color within the lines, which was a
state requirement for demonstrating ‘grade-level motor
skills.’ ” —Jordan Ayan, AHA!
15 “Leading” Biz Schools
Design/Core: 0Design/Elective: 1
Creativity/Core: 0Creativity/Elective: 4
Innovation/Core: 0Innovation/Elective: 6
Source: DMI/Summer 2002Research by Thomas Lockwood
VII. Passion.
35. Leaders …
“Sell”
PASSION!
G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’
”
36. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM
BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!
BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”
“Most important, he upped the energy level at Motorola.”
—Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05
“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be
swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow.
To convince them, you must yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill
“A man without a smiling face
must not open a shop.” —Chinese Proverb*
*Courtesy Tom Morris, The Art of Achievement
37. Leaders Focus on the
SOFT STUFF!
“Soft” Is “Hard”
- ISOE
VIII. The “Job” of Leading.
38. Leaders Know It’s
ALL SALES ALL THE TIME.
TP: If you don’t LOVE SALES … find
another life. (Don’t pretend
you’re a “leader.”) (See TP’s The Project50.)
39. Leaders
LOVE “POLITICS.”
TP: If you don’t LOVE POLITICS … find
another life. (Don’t pretend
you’re a “leader.”)
40. Leaders
Give … RESPECT!
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He
talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a
bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
41. Leaders Say
“Thank You.”
“The deepest human
need is the need to be appreciated.”
William James
42. Leadership Is a …
Performance.
“It is necessary for the President to be the
nation’s No. 1 actor.”
FDR
43. Leaders …
Have a GREAT STORY!
“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective
communication of a story.”
Howard Gardner, Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership
Leader Job 1
Paint Portraits of
Excellence!
44. Leaders …
Are The Brand
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Gandhi
IX. Introspection.
45. Leaders …
ENJOY LEADING.
46. Leaders
LAUGH!
47. Leaders …
KNOW THEMSELVES.
Step #1: Buy a Mirror!
“The First step in a ‘dramatic’ ‘organizational
change program’ is obvious—dramatic personal
change!” —LH/RG/??
X. The End Game.
48. Great Leaders
Play Offense!
Nelson’s secret: “[Other] admirals more frightened of losing than
anxious to win”
49. Great Leaders
Live on the Edge!
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!3. Hire crazies.4. Ask dumb questions.5. Pursue failure.6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!7. Spread confusion.8. Ditch your office.9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
50. Great Leaders
Free the
Lunatic Within!
The greatest dangerfor most of us
is not that our aim istoo high
and we miss it,but that it is
too lowand we reach it.
Michelangelo
“You can’t behave in a calm, rational
manner. You’ve got to be out there on
the lunatic fringe.” —
Jack Welch
51. Leaders (and Management Gurus)
Know WHEN TO LEAVE!
“In classical times when Cicero had finished
speaking, the people said, ‘How well he spoke,’ but when Demosthenes had
finished speaking, they said,
‘Let us march.’” —
Adlai Stevenson
Let us
march!