The Passion Imperative: The Leadership 50 Tom Peters/Singapore/04August2006

The Basic Premise.

1. Leadership Is a … Mutual Discovery Process.

“I don’t know.”

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.”

Leadership’s Mt Everest “free to do his or her absolute best” … “allow its members to discover their greatness.”

Quests!

The Leadership Types.

2. 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.

Whoops: Jack didn’t have a vision!

3. But Then Again, There Are Times When This “Visionary” (Type II Leadership) Stuff Actually Works!

“A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon

4. Find the “Businesspeople”! (Type III Leadership)

I.P.M. (Inspired Profit Mechanic)

5. All Organizations Need the Golden Leadership Triangle.

The Golden Leadership Triangle: (1) Talent Fanatic … (2) Creator-Visionary … (3) Inspired Profit Mechanic.

6. Leadership Mantra #1: IT ALL DEPENDS!

“Renaissance Men” are … a snare, a myth, a delusion!

7. The Leader Is Rarely/Never the Best Performer.

The Leadership Dance.

8. Leaders … SHOW UP!

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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

11. Leaders Re -do.

“We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again and again. We do the same today. While our competitors are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design perfect, we’re already on prototype version No. 5. By the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we are on version No. 10. It gets back to planning versus acting: We act from day one; others plan how to plan— for months.” —Bloomberg by Bloomberg

12. BUT … Leaders Know When to Wait.

Tex Schramm: The “too hard” box!

13. 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

14. Leaders … DELIVER!

“It is no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.” — WSC

15. BUT … Leaders Are Realists/ Leaders Win Through LOGISTICS!

16. Leaders FOCUS!

“To Don’t ” List

17. Leaders … Set CLEAR DESIGN SPECS.

Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic Initiative Overload)

JackWorld/ : (1) Neutron Jack. (Banish bureaucracy.) (2) “1, 2 or out” Jack. (Lead or leave.) (3) “Workout” Jack. (Empowerment, GE style.) (4) 6-Sigma Jack. (5) Internet Jack. (Throughout) TALENT JACK!

18. Leaders … Send V-E-R-Y Clear Signals About Design Specs!

Ridin’ with Roger: “What have you done to DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE quality in the last 90 days?”

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. 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)

21. Leaders … HONOR THE USURPERS.

Saviors-in-Waiting Disgruntled Customers Upstart Competitors Rogue Employees Fringe Suppliers Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision

22. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes – and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!

“ Fail faster. Succeed sooner.” David Kelley/IDEO

23. Leaders Make … BIG MISTAKES!

“Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.” Phil Daniels, Sydney exec

Create.

24. Leaders Know that THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN “LINE EXTENSIONS.” Leaders Love to CREATE NEW MARKETS.

“Acquisitions are about buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets. There is a big difference.” Peter Job, CEO, Reuters

25. 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

26. Leaders Push Their Organizations W-a-y Up the Value-added/ Intellectual Capital Chain

27. Leaders LOVE the New Technology!

28. Needed? Type IV Leadership: Technology Dreamer-True Believer

The Golden Leadership QUADRANGLE: (1) Talent Fanatic … (2) Creator- Visionary … (3) Inspired Profit Mechanic … (4) Technology Dreamer-True Believer

Talent.

29. When It Comes to TALENT … Leaders Always Go Berserk!

30. 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

31. Leaders “Win Followers Over”

PJ: “Coaching is winning players over.”

Passion.

32. Leaders … “Sell” PASSION!

G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

33. Leaders Know: ENTHUSIASM BEGETS ENTHUSIASM!

“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”

“A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.” —Chinese Proverb

34. Leaders Are … in a Hurry

“We don’t sell insurance anymore. We sell speed.” Peter Lewis, Progressive

35. Leaders Focus on the SOFT STUFF!

“Soft” Is “Hard” - ISOE

The “Job” of Leading.

36. 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.”)

37. Leaders LOVE “POLITICS.”

TP: If you don’t LOVE POLITICS … find another life. (Don’t pretend you’re a “leader.”)

38. But … Leaders Also Break a Lot of China

39. 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

40. 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]

41. Leaders Are … Curious.

The Three Most Important Letters … WHY?

42. Leadership Is a … Performance.

“It is necessary for the President to be the nation’s No. 1 actor.” FDR

43. Leaders … Are The Brand

“ You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi

44. 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 !

Introspection.

45. Leaders … Enjoy Leading.

46. Leaders … KNOW THEMSELVES.

Individuals (would-be leaders) cannot engage in a liberating mutual discovery process unless they are comfortable with their own skin. (“Leaders” who are not comfortable with themselves become petty control freaks.)

47. But … Leaders have MENTORS.

The Word According to TP: Upon having the Leadership Mantle placed upon one’s head, he/she shall never hear the unvarnished truth again!* (*Therefore, she/he needs one faithful compatriot to lay it on with no jelly.)

The End Game.

48. Leaders ??? :

“Leadership is the PROCESS of ENGAGING PEOPLE in CREATING a LEGACY of EXCELLENCE.”

“LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR ON ROLLER BLADES”

49. Leaders … Take Charge.

Nelson’s secret: “[Other] admirals more frightened of losing than anxious to win”

50. Leaders … Go for Broke

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and 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

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.