Tom Peters’
Leadership40Leading in Totally Screwed-Up Times
APTA/Salt Lake/30September2003
“Uncertainty is the only thing to be sure of. –Anthony Muh,head of investment in Asia, Citigroup Asset Management
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like
irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff,
U. S. Army
The Basic Premise.
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual Discovery Process.
“I don’t know.”
2. Leaders Try … Not to Screw Things
Up
“Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it
difficult for people to get things done.” – P.D.
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.
25/8/53
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
(+TP’s writing room pics)
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) Visionary … (3) Inspired Profit
Mechanic.
7. The Leader Is Rarely/Never the Best Performer.
33 Division Titles. 26 League Pennants. 14
World Series: Earl Weaver—0. Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0.
Walter Alston—1AB. Tony LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games. Sparky
Anderson—1 season.
The Leadership
Dance.
8. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
Rudy!
9. Leaders … LOVE the
MESS!
“If things seem under control, you’re just not
going fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
10. Leaders
DO!
The Kotler Doctrine:
1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)
1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)
1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)
11. Leaders
Re-do.
“If Microsoft is good at anything, it’s avoiding the trap of worrying about criticism. Microsoft fails constantly.
They’re eviscerated in public for lousy
products. Yet they persist, through version after version, until they get
something good enough. Then they leverage the power they’ve gained in
other markets to enforce their standard.”Seth Godin, Zooming
12. BUT … Leaders
Know When to Wait.
Tex Schramm: The
“too hard” box!
13. Leaders …
DELIVER!
“It is no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing
what is necessary.” —WSC
14. Leaders Are …
Optimists.
Hackneyed but none the less
true: LEADERS SEE CUPS AS “HALF
FULL.”
Half-full Cups: “[Ronald Reagan] radiated an almost transcendent
happiness.”Lou Cannon, George (08.2000)
15. BUT … Leaders Are
Realists/Leaders Win Through LOGISTICS!
The “Gus [Pagonis]
Imperative”!
16. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To Don’t ” List
Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic
Initiative Overload)
It’s Relationships,
Stupid.
17. Leaders Trust in
TRUST!
Credibility!
18. Leaders Know …
Women Roar/ Women Rule.
“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers
outshine their male counterparts in almost
every measure”Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00
If It Ain’t Broke … Break It.
19. 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
20. Leaders …
HONOR THE USURPERS.
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled CustomersUpstart CompetitorsRogue EmployeesFringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision
21. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes
– and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!
Sam’s
Secret #1!
22. Leaders Make …
BIG MISTAKES!
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)
Create.
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
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
Trends.
24. Leaders “Get” the …
Big2 Trends
Trends I:
Women Roar.
?????????
Home Furnishings … 94%Vacations … 92% (Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel
equipment)
Houses … 91%D.I.Y. (“home projects”) … 80%
Consumer Electronics … 51% Cars … 60% (90%)
All consumer purchases … 83% Bank Account … 89%
Health Care … 80%
Read This Book …
EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women
Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold
EVEolution: Truth No. 1
Connecting Your Female Consumers to Each
Other Connects Them to Your Brand
“The ‘Connection Proclivity’ in women starts early. When asked,
‘How was school today?’ a girl usually tells her mother every
detail of what happened, while a boy might grunt, ‘Fine.’ ”
EVEolution
“Women don’t buy
brands. They join them.”
EVEolution
Trends II:
Boomer Bonanza/ Godzilla Geezer.
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
“ ‘Age Power’ will rule the 21st century, and we are woefully
unprepared.”Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
New Model.
25. Leaders … Understand the
Enormity of the White Collar Revolution.
E.g. …
Jeff Immelt: 75% of “admin, back room, finance” “digitalized” in
3 years.
Source: BW (01.28.02)
26. Leaders … Turn All
Departments into “PSFs.”
Answer: PSF![Professional Service Firm]
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner, HR [IS, etc.] Inc.
27. Leaders Push Their
Organizations W-a-y Up the Value-added/
Intellectual Capital Chain
“UPS wants to take over the sweet spot in the endless loop
of goods, information and capital that all the packages
[it moves] represent.”ecompany.com/06.01 (E.g., UPS Logistics
manages the logistics of 4.5M Ford vehicles, from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)
28. Leaders Know that the “HVA/Solutions
Revolution” rests upon creating … Awesome
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
“Club Med is more than just a ‘resort’; it’s a means of rediscovering oneself, of inventing an
entirely new ‘me.’ ”
Source: Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption
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
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
Experience …
Cirque du Soleil
DO YOU MEASURE UP?*
*If not, why not?
Technology.
29. Leaders
LOVE the New Technology!
100 square feet
Talent.
30. When It Comes to
TALENT … Leaders Always Swing
for the Fences!
Message: Some people are better than other
people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other
people.
Passion.
31. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM
BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!
BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”
32. Leaders Focus on the
SOFT STUFF!
“Soft” Is “Hard”
- ISOE
The “Job” of Leading.
33. 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.)
Joe J. Jones Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2002 1942 – 2002
HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!
34. 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
35. Leaders Say
“Thank You.”
“The two most powerful things
in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”
Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]
36. But … Leaders Also
Break a Lot of China
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”“Respect the chain of
command”“Support the boss”
“Make budget”
*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”
37. Leaders … Are The Brand
“You must be the change you
wish to see in the world.”
Gandhi
38. 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
The End Game.
39. Leaders ???
:
“LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF
GIBRALTAR ON ROLLER BLADES”
40. Leaders Know
WHEN TO LEAVE!
It is the foremost task—and responsibility—of our generation to
re-imagine our enterprises, private
and public. —from the Foreword, Re-imagine