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Winning Leadership: A

Viking with a Mother’s

Heart

by David Parmenter

Winning Leadership: A Viking With A Mother’s Heart Page 2 Copyright© 2015 David Parmenter [email protected]

Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3

The People Leadership Traits That Need to be in the DNA of a Leader ........................... 6 Trait #1: Integrity and Honesty ....................................................................................... 6 Trait #2: “Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself” ................................................................... 7 Trait #3: Abundance of Positive Energy ......................................................................... 9 Trait #4 Crisis Management.......................................................................................... 11 The Other Traits That Need to Be in The DNA Of a LeaderError! Bookmark not defined. Trait #5 Self-Awareness ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Trait #6: Decision Making and Risk Taking................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Trait #7: Learning Agility ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Trait #8: Seeing the Future ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. The People Orientated Skills to Master ............................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

1. Mastering Communication and Public Relations . Error! Bookmark not defined. 2. Recruiting and Promoting the right people ........... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3. Develop and Maintain Stakeholder Relationships Error! Bookmark not defined. 4. Selling and Leading Change ................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 5. Provisioning for the Team .................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 6. Develop, Engage, and Trust .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

7. Valuing Results and People .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 8. Valuing Work Life Balance .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. The Personal Skills to Master ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

9. Have a Vision of Your Legacy ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 10. Embrace Abandonment (Letting go of the Past)Error! Bookmark not defined.

11. Define the Mission, Values, Vision, and StrategyError! Bookmark not defined. 12. Managing Through the Organisation’s Critical Success FactorsError! Bookmark

not defined. 13. Champion of Innovation, Quality and LearningError! Bookmark not defined. 14. A Focus on Execution ....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

15. Using Your Mentors and Safe Haven EffectivelyError! Bookmark not defined. Building a Band of Brothers and Sisters .......................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Score Yourself Against Winning Leaders ........................................................................ 14

Writer’s Biography ........................................................................................................... 18 Appendix 1: Leadership Lessons from the Paradigm Shifters ......................................... 19

Appendix 2 Effective Recruiting ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Appendix 3: Delivering Bulletproof PowerPoint PresentationsError! Bookmark not defined.

Appendix 4 Toyota’s 14 Principles .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Appendix 5: Locking in Good Leadership Habits ChecklistError! Bookmark not defined. Appendix 6 Jack Welch’s Strategy Slides ........................ Error! Bookmark not defined.


Introduction

“What makes a good leader?” I was asked across a dinner table. I have been thinking and researching about this for the last 15 years. It even resulted in my writing a book “The Leading -Edge Manager’s Guide to Success” published by Wiley & Sons.

Just recently I had the pleasure of working in a leadership think tank with two great New Zealand Leaders George Hickton and Don Tricker. They shared with me their viewpoint that one needs to separate those leadership traits that need to be in your DNA from those skills that can be learnt. In our think tank we came up with eight traits that need to be in your DNA and fifteen skills that can be learnt.

It is my belief that many leaders fail, when managing large enterprises, because some of the eight traits that needed to be in their DNA were absent. They may have been to managing smaller teams because their flaws were not fully exposed. Some very famous leaders, such as Sir Winston Churchill, were flawed because some of these traits were absent or compromised. In Churchill’s case, he was flawed in ‘love they neighbour as thyself’ and in self-awareness, whilst the other six traits were clearly in his DNA.

The eight traits are:

People leadership traits

1. Integrity and Honesty

2. “Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself”

3. Abundance of Positive Energy

4. Crisis Management

Personal leadership traits

5. Self-Awareness

6. Decision Making and Risk Taking

7. Learning Agility

8. Seeing the Future

This view is consistent with the early days of the theories into evolution. It was argued by Lamarcki that skills, knowledge and traits are passed down generation by generation through the DNA that we share (nature). We are then influenced in our formative years by our family, peers and teachers (nurture) arriving at a place where our collection of traits make us leadership material or not.

To excel as a leader of a large team or organisation you need these eight traits in place. In Jack Welch’s terminology these traits are “tickets to the game” a given, a must have. Leaders need to make sure you do not compromise these traits for your leadership will suffer.

For leaders of small teams missing one or two of these eight traits is not critical and they can still be a successful team leader. The key is to limit the extent of the team they need to manage.

When recruiting for a leader it is thus the job of the recruiter to pierce into the applicant’s past to assess the traits and values that drive them.


The good news is that leading small teams can be achieved without all the DNA in place provided you learn the people orientated and personal skills and have in place a support mechanism.

The fifteen skills to master are:

People orientated skills 1. Master of Communication and Public Relation

2. Recruiting and Promoting

3. Develop and Maintain Stakeholder Relationships

4. Selling and Leading Change

5. Provisioning for the Team

6. Develop, Engage, and Trust

7. Valuing Results and People

8. Valuing Work Life Balance

Personal skills 9. Have a Vision of Your Legacy

10.Abandonment (Letting go of the Past)

11.Define the Mission, Values, Vision, and Strategy

12.Managing Through the Organisation’s CSFs

13.Champion of Innovation, Quality and Learning

14.A Focus on Execution

15.Using your Mentors and a Safe Haven Effectively

My exploration into leadership has involved understanding the following leaders:

Jack Welch Greatest CEO of the 20th century. The CEO who took General Electric (GE) from being worth $12 billion to $280 billion. Forbes magazine crowned him the best business leader of the 20th century. I consider Jack Welch a “paradigm shifter.” His book written with Suzy Welch “Winning”ii is a must read.

Aung San Suu Kyi lead Myanmar to democracy. The daughter of a great leader of the independence movement in Burma, leadership was in her DNA. Educated in the UK, married with children, Suu Kyi answered the call by her people to return and break the military rule. After 20 years of house arrest, and an assassination attempt, she managed maintain her profile amongst world leaders, leading to her release and moves towards a democracy. Like Ghandi, she advocated peaceful protest against violent oppressors.

Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic Explorer. He saved the lives of the whole Endurance party that lived for two years in the harshest environment in the world. With turn of the century equipment, no support from outside agencies, he managed to make a home on a floating ice shelf, sail all his men to an uninhabited island (Elephant Island), and sail a small team across 800 miles of the roughest water in the world in little more than a life boat. On arrival at South Georgia he then crossed unclimbed mountains and glaciers in an epic 30


hour traverse. His feat of saving the whole Endurance party in Antarctica is accepted by many, as one of the greatest demonstrations of leadership. Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparelliii, have written a brilliant book called “Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer".

Sir Edmund Hillary, First to climb Mount Everest, Explorer, Humanitarian. Sir Edmund Hillary has been credited with many things, yet few have realized what a great CEO he was. Having climbed Mount Everest, as a team member, he subsequently achieved everything else as a leader. I have been fortunate enough to read “View from the Summit” by Sir Edmund Hillary and “Hell-bent for the Pole” by Geoffrey Lee Martin.

Eleanor Roosevelt, a dynamic First Lady who accomplished significant legislation in women’s and civil rights. She rewrote the role of the First Lady against much resistance of those who did not like women creating change. During the last years of Roosevelt’s presidency and illness, she worked behind the scenes as a de facto president.

Sir Winston Churchill, War time leader, Prime Minister, Historian, is so iconic that his statute facing the Houses of Parliament simply says Churchill. Yet his success came after many calamities that would have floored many other leaders.

Lord Horatio Nelson, In Trafalgar Square, amongst the pigeons, stands a large monument to Lord Nelson. It is said that much of the funds to build the 170-foot-high monument came from sailors who survived the many torrid battles Nelson masterminded. His leadership was a breakthrough and very relevant to the 21st century.

Florence Nightingale was a leader of social reform and modern nursing practices, changing nursing into a profession. Before her involvement in the Crimea war, many soldiers died of their wounds after leaving the battlefield. She transformed their care, using both nursing and modern management techniques, against great resistance, treating a patient based on their needs not their status.

George Hickton One of New Zealand’s most successful turnaround CEOs having transformed over four Government entities, grown over five CEOs and having lead over 10,000 staff who would all go over the trenches for him.

Don Tricker, Sports Coach, High Performance Manager for New Zealand Rugby (the All Blacks) How many coaches have coached a team that won two world championships in a row in a sport where major powers compete? Don Tricker, former coach of the New Zealand Black Sox softball team, is a gifted leader. His methods would take any team to glory.

Mother Teresa was a catholic nun who transformed the care of the disadvantaged in India. To achieve success, she galvanized many influential celebrities to bring the spotlight on her cause. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India’s highest honour in 1980 for her humanitarian work.

My research has also involved reading many of the great leadership books featured throughout this paper.


The People Leadership Traits That Need to be in the DNA of a Leader

The explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, arguably one of the greatest serving leaders ever, was a brave man, never afraid to make bold decisions, was calm when facing a crisis, spent time looking into the future and genuinely cared for his team members as if they were his own flesh and blood. He also had boundless positive energy and his integrity and honesty was never questioned.

Trait #1: Integrity and Honesty

Integrity and honesty are not traits you can grow easily or quickly. Many famous corporate collapses have unearthed a major shortfall in Integrity and Honesty. Mother Teresa is the epitome of integrity and honesty, she lived a very simple life mirroring the hardships of many of the poor that she lived to help.

Integrity—Set Values and Live by Them

In organisations where “money is worshipped,” you will constantly see a lack of values, and behaviour among executives and staff that is fit only for the wilds of the Serengeti. Great organisations with high-meaning values can become compromised if these values are not maintained. The CEO must always be looking for breaches and ensuring that these are pointed out to all staff immediately.

Shackleton set high values and lived by them 24/7. When these values were compromised by members of the team, he was unforgiving. The four staff members who had jeopardized the safety of his men were later severely punished on return to the UK by the withholding of the Polar medal.

As Jack Welch says integrity should be a given for a leader, a ticket to the game.

Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa and Suu Kyi, all possessed a servant style of leadership and carried out their roles for little or no personal gain, their motivations were purely to serve. Suu Kyi’s integrity lead her to forsake family life for years of repression.

Candour

Jack Welch was one of the first CEOs to talk about “candour”, meaning being honest and up front in your conversations. Jack Welch pointed out that candour is important:

• When giving feedback to underperforming staff • When evaluating a business proposal • In daily discussions with staff and colleagues • In contact with customers and suppliers

As Welch points out candour has many benefits:

• It allows more people to participate in the conversation • It generates speed


• It cuts costs • It encourages underperformers to reflect on their achievements and move

forward so they are able to perform to their greatest potential.

He said it is a leader’s obligation to tell their staff how they are doing and how they can improve performance in a candid way. One has to realise that underperforming staff members may well be in the wrong place at the wrong time and thus encouraging them to follow their passion, to find the job in which they will excel in is the kindest thing you can do for them.

Trait #2: “Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself”

This trait requires us to have some greater driving force than simply looking after our self. Many great CEOs exhibit some spiritual element that has assisted them on their journey. Love for the “common man,” hostmanship, and humility all form the building materials for this trait.

Love for the “Common Man”

While atheists can be great leaders, they must have a love for the “common man.” Worshipping the dollar will always limit the leader’s potential.

Many in the corporate world do not abide by “love thy neighbour as thyself,” and that is why we quite happily create conflict in our working environment. Corporate life is littered with examples of unnecessary litigation, which has led to poor health in those individuals who are caught up in this self-inflicted process.

It might be appropriate for the CEO or the senior management team to start bringing some spiritual elements into the business world that would reinforce good and sound business ethics. For example:

� Respecting your colleagues’ and your team members’ time (i.e. allowing them quality time to process initiatives rather than interrupting them with another meaningless task).

� Investing time to actively listen (even when you are on the verge of exploding with frustration).

� Conducting your working relationships effectively with all colleagues (even those whom you would never invite to your weekend barbecue!).

� Not setting demanding goals when they are unnecessary (e.g. avoiding asking for a report by 9 A.M. tomorrow when you will only get around to reading it three days later).

� Appropriate assistance to poor performers. � Better handling of your stress your staff’s and your colleagues’. � Taking control of your stimulant intake. (Do not underestimate the impact it has

on your work colleagues.) � Treating your suppliers better.

During World War II, Field Marshall Montgomery, unlike many of his peers in earlier wars, would never let his troops face the enemy in the desert unless they had better equipment, more firepower, and a larger force. He knew that these would ensure minimum casualties on his forces.

It is worth noting that Churchill, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great did not care for the lives of their troops; they frequently put troops in hopeless positions at


great cost to life. To this degree we can say that their foundation stones were not as sound as, for example, Shackleton’s foundation stones were.

Edmund Hillary is legendary for his small acts of kindness. On hearing that a two-year-old boy was seriously ill in the hospital, he immediately wrote an inspirational note to him. Naturally it was also inspirational to the parents and to their now-healthy teenage son.

Shackleton looked after the comforts of the team. He was a mother hen. He genuinely cared for his team members as if they were his own flesh and blood. He saw a leader as one who served rather than one who was served. He dutifully took his turn performing the most menial of chores and expected his leadership team to do the same. A member of the Endurance expedition described him as “a Viking with a mother’s heart.” This sums up beautifully what a servant leader is.

Florence Nightingale’s coffin was escorted by octogenarian veterans of the Crimean war, honoring their debt to the lady with the lamp. Mother Teresa left her family and comfortable life to create an international institution to help the poor which now covers 123 countries.

Ken Blanchard’s book, The Secret,iv neatly records the fact that a leader exists to serve others rather than being the one who is served. Shackleton would be the first to nurse an ailing member, he would be the first to brew a cup of tea if he knew his staff were at the end of their tether. Leaders need to perceive this kind of voluntary servitude as an asset, not a weakness.

A leader should never forget the small details. It is those small acts of kindness and consideration that will build your legend. Eleanor Roosevelt touched many lives by responding to letters by making personal connections with her empathy for other’s struggles whether near or far.

Hostmanship

Jan Gunnarssonv says that hostmanship is the way we make people feel welcome. In his book and accompanying website, Jan provides inspiration and direction to anyone who wants to make a difference, as an individual, as part of a team, or within an organisation. His hostmanship approach has had the approval of Tom Peters, and has had a profound impact on organisations applying it, on both the organisation’s culture and its interfaces with the outside world.

It is interesting to note that one’s ability to be a host is influenced by one’s past, both in experiences at home and with one’s role models. It is no wonder so many of us have issues here.

Jan sees hostmanship as having six areas: serving, maintaining the big picture, taking responsibility, caring, knowledge and dialogue. I have quoted from his work so you have a better understanding of his views.

On www.hostmanship.com Jan Gunnarsson defines the six parts of hostmanship as:

Serving is using your talents and experiences, first and foremost, because you have a genuine interest in someone else’s well-being: “What can I do to make you feel better at this particular moment in time?” It is a desire to help someone achieve their goals and thereby be successful in life.

The big picture in the world of Hostmanship is about seeing and understanding wholeness. The person who meets the guest is always the company’s outward face, right there, right then. Even if we can’t be


responsible for everything that happens in this entirety, it is important that we understand that it is the guest’s opinion of the entirety that affects their meeting with us.

Taking responsibility is about being courageous. We must take responsibility for how we choose to react to what happens. Taking responsibility is about standing on the other person’s side and helping them improve the world we are both living in: a position which isn’t always appreciated in “your own ranks,” but at the end of the day it creates stronger and more personal meetings.

Caring is the heart of Hostmanship. Allowing caring to prevail in a business is about seeing the human in the people that seek us out. Adapting our systems and our culture with the notion that the people we work with and the people we meet are human.

Knowledge is about opening up to all cultures and people, regardless of origin or background. Knowledge is far more than just knowing. It is the ability to use your knowledge in the context of another person’s needs.

Dialogue is being able to first listen, which is usually the toughest obstacle when a problem needs resolving. We need to listen and try to understand the context by entering into a dialogue. By opening yourself up for a dialogue at every meeting, you are taking all parties at the meeting seriously.

How often, when under pressure, have you frowned when a staff member came to your office to ask for help? The great leaders know the visitor in front of them is their most important task and are able to welcome the interruption!

Humility—Treat Everyone as Equals

Humility does not mean that you do not use public relations, nor does it mean you do not lay claim to what is rightly your achievements. It simply means that when dealing with individuals you treat them as equals.

While Shackleton loved the limelight, and enjoyed the public adoration, he was very humble when communicating with his team, whether in a recruitment confirmation letter or in day-to-day leadership issues. Time and again he gave up comforts for his men. During the Antarctic trip, he gave up his fur-lined sleeping bag, his bunk for a sick member and his gloves at a point when he risked severe frostbite. He always shared the provisions with all no matter what their contribution. In other words, through humility greatness can be achieved.

Trait #3: Abundance of Positive Energy

Jack Welch says that it is important that a leader has “positive energy, the capacity to go-go-go with healthy vigour and an upbeat attitude through good times and bad.”vi Shackleton had an abundance of positive energy. He worked the hardest, slept the least, and led from the front. He was fitter than all the others on the team, with the possible exception of Frank Wild.

How many potbellied CEOs can say that? Many would not last five minutes on a treadmill.


Never Give Up

Shackleton never gave up: He believed that “there's always another move, you just have to find it.” Having arrived at the whaling town on South Georgia, Shackleton made four attempts to rescue the men from Elephant Island and spent a further seven months rescuing his men who were stuck on the other side of Antarctic.

Shackleton was always a purveyor of hope and optimism. When setbacks occurred, he had to remain outwardly optimistic, despite his own feelings, to prevent a growing despair among his men. He knew that such despair could, in the face of adversity, lead to dissension, mutiny, or simply giving up.

� He kept the men so busy that they had little opportunity to brood over their predicament.

� When he sensed that the mood of the men was darkening, he would use a holiday observance or some other pretence to justify extra rations of food to boost morale.

� Hurley, a member of the Endurance expedition, said, “I always found him, rising to his best and inspiring confidence when things were at their blackest.”

There must be many a friend who has witnessed Jack Welch’s competitive streak. He is the type of golfer who would chip in from the bushes to “halve a hole” that the opposition had already counted as won. Welch was a ‘never say die’ leader.

“Energize” Others

Jack Welchvii puts this trait in his top-five must-haves for leaders: the ability to release the team members’ positive energy “to take any hill.” With the many take-overs GE did with Welch there was a major opportunity to utilise the talent acquired in the take-over. Welch unlike most CEOs avoided the conqueror syndrome and made it patently clear that this was a great opportunity for anyone who wanted to rise to the challenge. He saw take-overs as a talent grab and it was criminal if the acquired staff were not engaged ASAP.

Shackleton had the ability to energize others. The team was prepared to take on any task he wanted as they knew he would be working beside them. He energized them to; spend weeks in the futile task of trying to break the ship free from the ice, haul the lifeboats over the ice-floe, and make the seemingly impossible traverse of South Georgia’s snow peaked mountain range.

An Abundance of Passion

In his book “Buddha hunters” Bruce Holland points out that in all of us is a passion for something. The key for leaders is to ensure that you are in a business and sector that you are passionate about. Jack Welch, throughout his life has always exuded passion from all his pores. He has been the very epitome of a passionate leader. It is interesting to note that he always looked during the interview process for passionate people.

Shackleton, Nelson and Churchill were likewise very passionate about what they wanted to achieve. Their passion ignited the energy in the people reporting to them and attracted likeminded individuals to their inner core, their band of brothers.


Florence Nightingale had an abundance of positive energy and understood that emotions are contagious. She enforced a positive environment for nurses to work in as it was better both for the team and the healing of the patients.

Young at Heart & Celebrate

“The Boss was so young at heart that he appeared to be younger than any of us,” McIlroy, a member of his expedition, was quoted as saying. Shackleton was always looking for ways to amuse his team—plays, sing-a-longs, cards, moonlight football matches. Yet this trait is seldom seen in the modern CEO.

Peter Drucker pointed out that many leaders were unable to appreciate success. He believed most people brush the evidence of success aside because they are problem focused.

Jack Welch puts celebrations in his top eight traits of a leader that is how important it is. As he says “Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Grab as many celebrations as you can. Make a big deal out of them.” Welch was all about making business fun. Realising that it is not life or death but a game you want to win.

Shackleton loved a party. Every Saturday night they would celebrate and toast their loved ones. Birthdays were always honoured. He even went to the trouble of taking a Christmas pudding along on the arduous walk to the then–“furthest South” with Scott. On Christmas Day, out came the small pudding with a piece of holly. Through near-starvation he had kept this to share with Scott and his other companion.

Successful senior managers have the knack of making work fun—a quality that often can be seen in how teams perform and enjoy their work. However, for many organisations the “fun” is restricted to obliterating the week with several stiff vodkas or half a dozen beers on Friday night.

Some suggestions to make work more fun in the office are:

� Be brave and create a workspace that has colour and energy to foster a successful attitude.

� Celebrate success—one company has a newsletter called the Success Express. � Create “CEO bouquets” gifts of either flowers, theatre tickets, or restaurant

vouchers that are given out weekly for outstanding achievements. � Encourage innovation especially those ideas that will reduce the time invested in

management meetings, board papers, and so on.

Trait #4 Crisis Management

Martin Luther King summed leadership up perfectly

“the ultimate measure of a man (Leader) is not where he (the leader) stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he (the leader) stands in times of challenge and controversy”.

Leadership is a “Foul Weather Job”

As Drucker said great leaders anticipate the storm. They know that leadership is a “foul weather job” and thus are prepared for the crisis when it arrives.


Welch had a large realism streak in his body. He would take the necessary action, face the necessary music and move on. Jack Welch handled each crisis on the following assumptions:

� The crisis will be worse than it first appears

� The bad news will come out sometime so may as well face the music now

� The situation will be portrayed in the worst possible light by ‘the press’

� There will be carnage

� The organisation will survive.

The Old Dogs for the Hard Road, Every Time

Shackleton valued the older men on the expedition; he referred to them as the “old dogs”. On all his perilous journeys, where life and death were in the balance he always had the old dogs in the advance party. He made an interesting observation one day. The older team members ate less, complained less, slept less and were injured less!

In today’s business world, where recruitment is often run by young human resources officers and equally young managers, the old dogs find it hard to change jobs when they are over 50. This is stupid.

Much of one’s best work is done beyond the age of 50 (well, this is what I choose to believe, with of course a vested interest!). One is wiser, has seen it all before, knows where to conserve energy and knows when to put the hard yards in.

There can be no greater crisis than what faced Florence Nightingale and her 38 supporters. She was challenged with institutional carnage where the low ranked soldiers were left to die in blood stained uniforms. With no provisions supplied, she took hold of the situation and relentlessly moved it forward to organize treatment, resulting in many lives being saved. An entourage of those survivors marched behind her coffin.

Be Flexible in Tactics

Shackleton was always thinking ahead. However, some decisions would have to be reversed on a daily basis as conditions changed. The change in circumstances constantly meant a change in what could be taken along on the next leg of the return journey.

When they knew it was time to leave the breaking ice-floe, he had to assess what was the safest option, bearing in mind the various attributes of three potential destinations. The condition of the men and of the sea, and the fact that one lifeboat was only marginally seaworthy, had to be weighed. In a sequence over the course of just three days, the destination for their escape kept changing: Clarence Island or Elephant Island; King George Island; Hope Bay (on the Antarctic mainland) and finally Elephant Island where they landed safely.

The vagaries of business and those of an expedition are the same. You will never be able to accurately predict the future. We need to provision for worst-case scenarios and carefully assess what are the best options to take in the given circumstances.


Maintaining a Sense of Humour in the face of adversity

Shackleton’s sense of humour was always to the fore. He was in fact the life and soul of the group. He was constantly looking for ways to maintain morale. Sir Edmund Hillary was known for his sense of humour and always looked for it in others when recruiting team members.

As Tom Peters says about bad times, “I can say with conviction and confidence that this is when it gets fun for talented and imaginative leaders.”viii


Score Yourself Against Winning Leaders

This is my checklist for you to help you monitor your progress with adopting “winning leadership” traits. Score yourself against Shackleton and Welch who could have ticked many of these boxes in the affirmative.

Checklist on the leadership traits that need to be in the DNA of a leader

Is it covered?

Trait #1 Integrity and Honesty

Would those around you hold your integrity as an example for others to follow?

� Yes � No

Are you prepared to forsake personal gain for the greater good of your organisation and those people it serves?

� Yes � No

Are you known for your openness, honesty and frankness (candour)?

� Yes � No

Are you honest with underperforming employees? � Yes � No

Trait #2 Love thy Neighbour as thy self

Are you known for your small acts of kindness? � Yes � No

Do you often demonstrate a “genuine interest in someone else’s well-being”?

� Yes � No

Are you a good host, making people feel welcome whether they be guests of staff seeking your advice?

� Yes � No

Would your staff call you a caring person? � Yes � No

Are you well known for your ability to listen first? � Yes � No

Do you respect your colleagues’ and your team members’ time? � Yes � No

Would your suppliers say you are a pleasure to deal with? � Yes � No

Would staff say that you demonstrate humility? � Yes � No

Do you have a spiritual side to you that helps guide your direction?

� Yes � No

Do you seek a win–win solution with third parties rather than resort to litigation?

� Yes � No

When dealing with individuals do you treat them as equals? � Yes � No

Is your daily work consistent with the organisation’s values? � Yes � No

Trait #3 Abundance of positive energy

Do you have an abundance of positive energy? � Yes � No


When in difficulties do you believe “there's always another move, you just have to find it.”

� Yes � No

Can you energise the teams you work with � Yes � No

Would you be described by your staff as ‘young at heart’? � Yes � No

Would your peers say you are a purveyor of hope and optimism? � Yes � No

Do you have the knack of making work fun? � Yes � No

Are you in a job that you are passionate about? � Yes � No

Trait #4 Crisis management

Do you excel in times of crisis? � Yes � No

Would others say you handle stress well? � Yes � No

Do you anticipate the likely crisis and have some general and alternative plans discussed with your team?

� Yes � No

Do you have enough ‘old dogs for the hard road’ in the senior management team who you can trust in a crisis?

� Yes � No

Are you flexible in your thinking in a crisis � Yes � No

Are you known for your sense of humour during difficult times? � Yes � No

Trait #5 Self-Awareness - Minimise personal baggage

Do you know where you stand on the enneagram?

(See www.enneagraminstitute.com)

� Yes � No

Do you understand your thinking preference? (see Hermann thinking preferences www.hbdi.com)

� Yes � No

Do you know your Myers-Briggs Profile? � Yes � No

Have you attended a Neuro-Linguistic Programming course?

� Yes � No

Have you attended a Transactional Analysis course? � Yes � No

Have you attended an Intensive Life Skills Course? � Yes � No

Do you reprimand in a positive way, avoiding emotional damage?

� Yes � No

Do you embrace irregular people as their irregular ideas can be very valuable.

� Yes � No

Do you engage the dissidents and avoid needless power struggles?

� Yes � No

Can you suppress the urge to have an outburst of anger thus limiting any emotional damage?

� Yes � No

Trait #6 Decision Making Ability

Are you able to make the hard, and sometimes unpopular, decisions?

� Yes � No


Are you happy to rely on your gut instinct when information is not available?

� Yes � No

Would your peers say you are decisive? � Yes � No

Are you rigorous in the analysis of new business proposals before you make a decision?

� Yes � No

Do you run through risk scenarios with your team so that if the event occurs everybody will know what to do?

� Yes � No

Trait #7 Learning Agility - Knowledge of Peter Drucker et al.

Do you constantly seek ‘new learnings’ from the great leaders of the past to apply to your understanding?

� Yes � No

Have you read the recommended books in this paper? � Yes � No

Have you listened to webcasts from Drucker, Jack Welch, Peters & Waterman and Jim Collins?

� Yes � No

Are you an avid reader of management /leadership/ business literature?

� Yes � No

Are you planning your career to gather the experiences that you will need for a major leadership position?

� Yes � No

Have you undertaken formal leadership training? � Yes � No

Do you approach problems with an open mind (approaching problems with your ignorance as Drucker would say)?

� Yes � No

Trait #8 Seeing the Future

Are you constantly looking ahead for new business opportunities?

� Yes � No

Would your peers say you embrace new technologies and methods?

� Yes � No

Have you set some Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) which have energised the staff in the organisation?

� Yes � No

Do you spend time with your team looking at the business from outside-in? (some successful organisations have the senior management team work together in an operational unit once a year)

� Yes � No

Are you known for your sound perception of what the future may hold for your organisation?

� Yes � No

Are you bold in vision and careful in planning? � Yes � No

Do you discuss tactics with your direct reports so that they could make the right decisions when you are not around?

� Yes � No

Are you careful that the team does not develop excessive pride or self-confidence?

� Yes � No

Suggested score chart on leadership traits


More than 75% score on all eight traits

Get a few of your direct reports to also score you. If the scores are the same congratulations you are a serving leader, “A Viking with a Mother’s Heart”.

More than 75% score on most traits

Beware of your deficiencies, and ensure you seek active mentor support in these areas to minimise the downside. You still can be a successful leader of large enterprises.

50-75% score across the eight traits

Leadership roles should be restricted to small teams.

Less 50% across the eight traits

Look to specialise where leadership is not a key attribute for success.


Writer’s Biography

David Parmenter is an international presenter who is known for his thought provoking and lively sessions, which have led to substantial change in many organisations. He has spoken in 31 countries and in most continents in the world. Besides delivering in-depth workshops he has been a keynote speaker for the IBM Finance Forum, The World Capability Congress, TEC Malaysia, and Profiles International Romania. David is a leading

expert in: the development of winning KPIs, replacing the annual planning process with quarterly rolling planning, quick month-end processes and making reporting a decision based tool.

John Wiley & Sons Inc have published his four books, including “The Financial Controller and CFO’s Toolkit”, “The Leading-edge Manager’s guide to success – strategies and better practices”, “Key Performance Indicators – developing, implementing and using winning KPIs” and “Key Performance Indicators for Government and Non Profit Agencies”.

David has also worked for Ernst & Young, BP Oil Ltd, Arthur Andersen, and Price Waterhouse. David is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

He has written over 50 articles for the accounting and management journals. He has won two ‘article of merit’ awards from the International Federation of Accountants. (2007 and 2009). His published articles titles include: “Quarterly rolling planning - removing the barriers to success”, “Throw away the annual budget”, “Beware corporate mergers”, “Implementing a Balanced Scorecard in 16 weeks not 16 months”, “Convert your monthly reporting to a management tool”, “Smash through the performance barrier”, “Is your board reporting process out of control?” “Implementing winning Key Performance Indicators”, “Quick month end reporting” “Conquest leadership- lessons from Sir Ernest Shackleton” “Should we abandon performance measures?” “Putting the finance team on the map” etc.


Appendix 1: Leadership Lessons from the Paradigm Shifters

Peter Drucker’s Leadership Lessons

Best book to read Elizabeth Haas Edersheim “The Definitive Drucker” McGraw-Hill 2006

The more I read Peter Drucker work the more I realise that his wisdom will transcend time. We will be examing his work for years to come, the way we look at Shakespeare’s work and say, shaking our heads, ‘How did he do it?’

For management to undertake their role without an in-depth understanding of Peter Drucker is like deciding to sail around the world with your family without having completed a harbour masters’ course. Yes you can do it, yes you may arrive safely but, you have put everybody at risk.

Peter Drucker’s wisdom

Know your customers

Explicitly defining customer groups is the foundation stone of an outside-in perspective. One charity Drucker noted had 46 customer segments.

Have an outside-in focus to your business

See the operation from your customers’ perspective. Especially your important customers’ perspectives.

Focus on your noncustomers

Which of your noncustomers should you be doing business with?

Look for opportunities as if your life depended on it

Drucker emphasized the importance of innovation.

Difference between management and leadership

Management is ensuring that staff are doing things right and leadership is ensuring that staff are doing the right thing He talked about the need for more orchestration based leadership

Recruitment is a life and death decision

Drucker is emphasizing the importance of get the right people on the bus and that it deserves time and effort. Recruiting should be treated as the most important activity a manager does.

Do not give new staff new assignments

He referred to these jobs as widow makers. Jobs where the incumbent did not have a chance to succeed.

The scarce resource in an organisation is performing people

Drucker highlighted that these scarce resources need to be specifically monitored and not taken for granted. Their goals should be hard enough to stretch them and keep them interested.

Outstanding performance is inconsistent with a fear for failure


Without the will to take risks, to venture into the unknown and let go of the familiar past, an organization cannot thrive in the 21st century.

Today’s advanced knowledge is tomorrow’s ignorance.

Drucker saw it as very important to harness knowledge in every aspect of the organization.

Make obsolete your past success

Drucker is saying that we need to always look forward and recognize that the cash cows of today will be overtaken by technology.

Abandonment

Drucker said:

“The first step in a growth policy is not to decide where and how to grow. It is to

decide what to abandon. In order to grow, a business must have a systematic

policy to get rid of the outgrown, the obsolete, the unproductive.”

He also said:

“Don’t tell me what you’re doing, tell me what you’ve stopped doing.”

Measuring the extent of innovation and abandonment will help focus management’s attention on these two important areas. Abandonment is a sign that management are recognising that some initiatives will never work as intended and it is better to face this reality sooner than later.

Collaboration with other organisations even your competitors

Jack Welch turned General Electric into a power house by striving to focus on what GE was good at. This led Jack Welch to follow Drucker’s advice that “Your backroom is someone’s front room”. In other words, if others can do a job better than you can subcontract to them rather than diverting energy to be good at everything, a task that is impossible to achieve. We thus need to measure the extent to which we are utilising this opportunity.

Setting goals that stretch (Big hairy audacious goals as Jim Collins would say)

Welch liked to see goals that were a mix of between possible and the impossible. He went on to say “Effective leaders are not afraid to envision big results”. By raising the bar so high staff and management were forced to totally rethink the route plan. New ways had to be found to succeed and so often this was achieved.

Drucker was adamant that goals should stretch the team. They should be possible but were quite challenging. He was, however, equally adamant that they should not be used to beat up staff who were not achieving them. Drucker pointed out that it is only worth focusing on people’s strengths.

What information do I need to do my job? From whom? when? and how?

By asking these basic questions we can streamline much of the reporting formats. Dispensing with those reports that add no value.

Importance of self-renewal

Drucker was always preaching executives to constantly grow their knowledge and experiences. He was a supporter of having a second passion, outside work, as he recognized the self–renewal benefits of such work-life balance.

Have three test sites

Drucker pointed out that to do one test site was never enough.

Place people according to their strengths


Drucker was adamant that you focus on what people can do rather than focus on what they cannot do well.

Generate three protégés for senior positions

Drucker was adamant that the CEO and the senior management team should be home grown.

Do what you are good at (look to your strengths)

Peters and Waterman said “stick to your knitting”, Jim Collins said “focus on your flywheel”.

Execution first and always

Drucker, like all the other writers, did not follow the model of planning in such detail that execution of steps was seen as a secondary event.


Jim Collin’s Leadership Lessons

Best books to read:

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies”, HarperBusiness 1994

Jim Collins, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t”, HarperBusiness, 2001

Jim Collins “How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In”. Jim Collins 2009

I am a fan of Jim Collin’s thinking. His analysis, understanding and communication are without peer. His books are a must have on the thoughtful businessman’s book shelf.

Jim Collin’s wisdom

Importance of level five leadership

Jim Collin’s five levels of leadership are shown in Exhibit 6. The second chapter of his book “Good to Great” should be read after this paper. You will see the consistency between the facets of level five leadership and “winning leadership.

Exhibit 6: Jim Collins five levels of Leadership

Getting the right people on the bus

An organisation needs to place more emphasis on recruiting. Managers who have a record of failure should be retrained or relieved of recruiting duties.

Getting the wrong people off the bus

Collins is very consistent with Drucker. Move staff on if they are a poor fit with the organization’s values.


Find your hedgehog

Jim Collins tells the parable of the fox and the hedgehog and how every day the hedgehog is saved by simply rolling up into an impenetrable ball of spines. He points out that organisations need to find their own hedgehog, a place where the three circles collide. See Exhibit 7 below.

Exhibit 7: Jim Collins hedgehog concept

Staying focused on the flywheel.

Collins points out the importance to stay focused on your core activities and with constant attention and effort the large flywheel will gather momentum and start spinning freely without much effort, see Exhibit 8. Read chapter 8 of his book “Good to

Great”.

Exhibit 8: Jim Collin’s flywheel

Big hairy audacious goals (BHAGs)

Jim Collins and Jack Welch are at one here. They say incremental improvement will never stretch your thinking. With BHAGs we are asking what would we need to do at achieve this BHAG. It is not saying if we do not we will be unsuccessful, or that your bonus will not be paid.

The silent creep of impending doom

Collins warns us about the first stage of decline “Hubris born of success”. Excessive pride leading the management team down the slippery slope.

An organisation always needs to focus on its economic engine, make sure its flywheel is turning and maintain a profound understanding of the fundamental reasons for success.

Try a lot of stuff and keep what works


Collins points out that visionary companies often made their best moves not by detailed strategic planning, but rather by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and in some cases, by accident. Collins compared innovation to branching and pruning. Clever gardeners let a tree add enough branches (allowing variation) and then prune the unwanted wood (selection).

Undisciplined pursuit of more

Collins also warns us about the undisciplined pursuit of more. Whilst this is primary a private sector issue, the public sector and not for profit agencies can easily succumb to catastrophic management practices. Probably the worst is an addiction to reorganisations. A process that gets nowhere quickly while ensuring the talent is frustrated, disenfranchised and therefore moves on.

Ascertain whether risks are above or below the waterline

Collins specifies that when making decisions you need to know will they affect you above or below the waterline if they go wrong. The ‘below the waterline’ will obviously sink the organisation. Government and not for profit agencies are protected by their surety of annual income from the public purse and hence are so easily blind to these risks.

Grasping for salvation

Collin’s points out the propensity to bring in an outside CEO to be the saviour. These initiatives fail more than they succeed. As Welch observes to bring in a CEO from outside is a sure sign that your organisation failed to nurture protégés. In the public sector it is even worst where excellent protégés are deliberately overlooked to bring in a person from outside.

It is thus important for the public sector to revisit their values and to include a statement which indicates they should develop their own leaders.

In the private sector this stage of decline is categorized, as Collins points out, by the silver bullet. A massive merger that will turn the organisation around. Naturally enough less than one in six of these mergers ever break even.


Note

i To understand Lamarck work please read Lamarck’s Evolution“ by Ross Honeywell Pier 9, 2008

ii Jack Welch with Suzy Welch, “Winning” HarperBusiness April 2005

iii Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell, “Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic

Explorer", Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2003

iv Ken Blanchard and Mark R. Miller, “The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do”, Berrett-Koehler, 2009.

v Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm, "The Art of Making People Feel Welcome,” Dialogos, 2008.

vi Jack Welch with Suzy Welch, “Winning” HarperBusiness April 2005.

vii Ibid.

viii Tom Peters, “Thriving on Chaos: Bold Leaders Gain Advantage,” Leadership Excellence, February 2010.

Documents

Winning Leadership: A Viking with a Mother’s Heart by ...davidparmenter.com/.../2016/...Servant-Leader-whitepaper-Dec-2016.pdf · Winning Leadership: A Viking With A Mother’s