Forwarded with permission From:
Mark_A._Storey@aep.com
If you would like to praise Mark for his summary of this series, be sure
to drop him a line at the address above. Note: he is out of the office
for several days.
______________________
Great Optimism,
Dutch Driver
Abilene, TX
Hm. Telephone: 915.698.7217
mailto:
ddriver@cs1.mcm.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 09:24:58 -0500
From:
Mark_A._Storey@aep.com
To:
ODNET@tmn.tmn.com
Subject: ODNet: Second Annual Worldwide Lessons in Leadership Series
The following is fairly long post recounting the highlights of the seminar
listed in the subject of this message. Please scroll past, if this subject
does not interest you.
BTW, I will not be able to check e-mail 11/2-11/8, so if you respond,
please be patient.
Regards,
-Mark
Second Annual Worldwide Lessons in Leadership Series
On Thursday and Friday, 23 and 24 October, I used two days of vacation and
attended the seminar identified in the subject of this memo. The seminar
was locally sponsored by Franklin University, and was a closed-caption
broadcast across the United States as well as to 30 countries around the
world. The seminar was an excellent chance to hear from many of the
personal and professional development leaders. The purpose of this memo
is to share some of the key points made by the speakers. I hope you enjoy
this brief capsule of two full days of information. Please feel free to
contact me personally if you would like to discuss some of the points
mentioned in this memo, or if you want more information about the seminar
or any of the participants.
Participants:
Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Drucker, Gary Hamel, Rosabeth Moss
Kanter, Kenichi Ohmae, Tom Peters, and Peter Senge. Program moderator was
Geoffrey Colvin, editorial director of Fortune magazine.
FORTUNE 500 FORUM's CEO panel, comprised of Lewis E. Platt of
Hewlett-Packard, John M. Trani of Stanley Works, Inc., and Albert M.. Zeien
of The Gillette Company, plus John Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Harvard
Business School.
The broadcast emanated from historic Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA.
Highlights from the Participants:
Blanchard:
Three secrets that will send people's energy soaring.
1. People work hard when they believe their work is worthwhile.
2. Within the boundaries of mission, values and goals, no one person
should be in charge, i.e. individuals should have some control over
the work they do.
3. Don't wait for the final outcome to praise progress.
Covey:
We need to begin thinking in terms of "Abundance Mentality". This yields:
1. more for everyone
2. security from within
3. winning private victories
4. focus on trust building principles
5. bringing the marketplace to everyone in the organization
6. co-missions, or overlapping managers and employee missions.
7. alignment of societal values and laws with our principles.
"Personal leadership isthe ongoing process of keeping your vision and
values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with those most
important things."---Stephen Covey
Drucker:
Except for the military and the Catholic Church, developing leaders is
almost totally neglected.
Rewards should be based on how many employees are promoted to management
positions.
People with expertise should never be overridden by a manager, and should
not be berated for making the wrong decision. Admonition should only be
used when no decision is made.
Hamel:
Current leadership challenges:
1. Speed of change
2. Success is more tenuous than ever before
3. It's difficult to create a strategy without a map
4. The new contract says that managers must work their tails off
creating opportunity for their employees
Victims, (of bad leadership), must become activists.
1. change does not start at the top
2. train people to be activists, to have a passion for ideas
Activism should be institutionalized
Top-Down and Bottom-Up are not the only alternatives
"Strategy has to be subversive. If it's not challenging internal company
rules or industry rules, it is not strategy."---Gary Hamel
Kanter:
Skills of effective leaders are:
1. the ability to see the big picture, and feel the urgency about the
need for change.
2. kaleidoscope thinking, i.e., thinking that embraces change and new
ideas.
3. building and articulating a compelling vision.
4. building allies, backers and supporters.
5. the ability to create a team feeling and ownership of ideas.
6. the ability to follow ideas through to completion.
7. sharing credit and recognition.
"We have to switch incentives from careers, level and promotion to personal
reputation, teamwork and challenging assignments." Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Ohmae:
Communicating shared mission, rewards, and problems is key to successful
teams.
Japanese use blood type to determine the chemistry of teams. The following
table depicts the relationship of blood type to personality style used by
Japanese managers.
Blood Type Style
A Logical
B Emotional
O Accommodating
AB Wild, inventive
Japanese team builders make sure that people with each blood type are team
members. The leader preferably has blood type O, and ideally there is at
least one person of type AB.
Today, Japan has too much reliance on groups, (teams).
Teams are good during the growth phase, but they are overworked now.
"Thinking globally is the bottom-line price of admission to today's
borderless economy."Kenichi Ohmae
Peters:
To survive, companies need:
1. phenomenal agility
2. a shocking lack of arrogance
Corporate mergers are like two dinosaurs mating to produce a herd of
gazelles.
There are companies that like to play with things, companies that like to
screw around with things, and then there's the other 99%.
"Trust is the oft-ignored glue that holds the newfangled virtual
organization together."Tom Peters
Senge:
The single most important leadership issue is the nature of control.
Leadership is a phenomenon by which we determine our future.
Leadership is greater than vision.
1. it demonstrates what is
2. it helps move reality toward the vision, which is the creative
process, i.e. getting people to do something they aren't used to
doing.
Improve the quality of thinking in an organization so people can see
reality differently.
Vision and commitment to the truth are two cornerstones to leadership.
"Where there is a genuine vision, people excel and learn, not because they
are told to , but because they want to."Peter Senge
Fortune 500 Forum:
This part of the entire presentation was very informative and interesting.
Not only were the panel members' comments very interesting, but also the
questions from some of the 150 other CEOs in the audience were
hard-hitting. Because of the nature of the format, I just listed the
comments of each of the participants, on a couple of topics.
How do you keep politics out (of an organization)? [This entire discussion
was very interesting. One audience member, (paraphrasing), pointed out
that political game players are usually very good at covering themselves,
and insisted that the panel members' responses vague and not "real world."]
Platt: "Show you don't tolerate politics."
Trani: "It's a listening and trust exercise."
Kotter: "How you deal with a high producer who is political sends VAST
signals to others."
Zeien: "Create culture work on People, Product, and Purpose."
Assessing Leadership Ability [The panel members agreed that the best method
is to identify associates with some basic leadership skills, then give them
projects that required leadership, but which, if not successful, would not
ruin the company. Support through no admonition, and unconditional
approval of their decisions also were key points mentioned.]
Platt: "Assess on the job performance."
Zeien: "Find thost who exceed expectations; colleagues and supervisors.
Post mortems, (reports, feedback), cause people to alter how they approach
projects.
Kotter: "Assessment centers were tried and failed. Use on the job
(performance), but make sure it's a challenge."
Trani: "There must be a review of the human resource base, (especially
after there is a recommendation for a particular person). The number one
thing a leader does is pick people, (for specific projects and/or
positions).
Drucker:
Why are these initiatives not being done?
1. So many at the top are afraid of any strength in their associates.
a. jealousy, fear
b. real leaders glory in the strength of their associates.
2. Fear of people who are different.
Rank is a responsibility, not a privilege.
Don't abuse the use of teams in order to shirk responsibility.
Mark A. Storey
MAStorey@compuserve.com
Mark_A._Storey@aep.com