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WHARTON LEADERSHIP DIGEST
June, 2005, Volume
9, Number 9
CONTENTS
The Glass is Half Full: Good Managers Focus on
Employees’ Strengths, Not Weaknesses
Corporate Governance and Responsibility:
Birmingham Conference on July 4, 2005
Global Leadership:
A Study of Organizational Leadership and Culture in 62
Nations
Nonprofit Leadership: Donald Stewart of the
Chicago Community Trust
The Hallmark of a Great Leader:
Dr. William W. Forgey
The Glass is Half Full:
Good Managers Focus on Employees’ Strengths, Not
Weaknesses
 Marcus
Buckingham knows enough about good management to know
he’s not a good manager.
Before launching a career as a management consultant and
author of such books as First, Break All The Rules:
What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
and The One Thing You Need to Know...About Great
Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual
Success, Buckingham served as head of The Gallup
Organization’s strengths management practice. He was a
manager, and he didn’t much care for it. “I wasn’t
terrible, but I had no appetite for it,” said
Buckingham, who spoke about management and leadership at
the
Wharton Leadership Conference on June 9. This
article appeared in
Knowledge@Wharton, June 15-28,
2005.
According to Buckingham, the best managers share one
talent the ability to find, and then capitalize
upon, their employees’ unique traits. “The guiding
principle is, ‘How can I take this person’s talent and
turn it into performance?’ That’s the only way success
is possible.” And yet not everyone has that knack,
Buckingham said. If he has learned anything from his
years spent interviewing the best minds of the business
world, it is this: Truly great managers, and truly
inspiring business leaders, are rarer than many think.
“Some of you in this room may not have that talent,” he
said. “If not, management can become a thankless task.”
Checkers vs. Chess
How
to tell a good manager from a bad manager? According to
Buckingham, it’s simple: Bad managers play checkers.
Good managers play chess. The good manager knows that
not all employees work the same way. They know if they
are to achieve success, they must put their employees in
a position where they will be able to use their
strengths. “Great managers know they don’t have 10
salespeople working for them. They know they have 10
individuals working for them .... A great manager is
brilliant at spotting the unique differences that
separate each person and then capitalizing on them.”
It
may sound elementary, but a quick glance around the
business world indicates that many companies have yet to
grasp this simple concept of putting people’s strengths
to use, Buckingham said. That’s because the business
world -- and the world at large -- is obsessed with
weaknesses and finding ways to fix them. Buckingham
cited a recent poll that asked workers whether they felt
they could achieve more success through improving on
their weaknesses or building on their strengths.
Fifty-nine percent picked the former.
“A
great manager sees the folly in this,” said Buckingham,
who has interviewed some of the business world’s most
successful leaders for his books. “A great manager knows
he or she will get the most return on investment by
working on strengths.” Buckingham has seen this
management style work. He just doesn’t see it often
enough, and he believes too many workers spend too much
of their time doing things they don’t like to do or
simply aren’t good at doing.
Buckingham co-authored his book, Now, Discover Your
Strengths, in hopes of kick-starting a management
revolution that will push mangers to focus on strength.
In the book, Buckingham and co-author Donald O. Clifton
describe 34 distinct worker profiles -- “Learner,”
“Achiever” and “Developer,” among others -- and offer
advice on how those personalities can best be put to
use. “Most people are not using their talent at work at
all,” Buckingham said.
So
how can managers tap into the talent they have in their
organizations? Buckingham said a good first step is to
determine what employees are good at. The tasks they
learn quickly, the talents they naturally exhibit and
the jobs they feel good about doing are hints about
their inherent strengths. Once those strengths are
uncovered, a good manager will put them to use. “You can
only win as a company when you get your people into
positive numbers,” Buckingham said.
Optimism and Ego
Managing employees successfully is a rare talent. Even
rarer, Buckingham said, is the ability to lead. And all
good managers are not necessarily good leaders.
“I do
think there is a rather keen and distinct difference
between managing and leading,” Buckingham said. The
chief responsibility of a leader, for example, “is to
rally people for a better future. If you are a leader,
you better be unflinchingly, unfailingly optimistic. No
matter how bleak his or her mood, nothing can undermine
a leader’s belief that things can get better, and must
get better. I believe you either bring this to the table
or you don’t.”
Along
with that optimism, great leaders can also bring big
egos –
and
that’s not a bad thing. While some have blamed the
business world’s recent string of scandals
–
Enron,
WorldCom and others -- on bloated executive egos,
Buckingham disagrees. It’s not ego that ruined Ken Lay,
but rather a lack of ethics. There’s a big difference,
Buckingham said. And considering the responsibility
facing business leaders to build a future for their
companies, a big ego might be what is needed.
“If
you are going to lead, you better have a deep-seated
belief that you should be at the helm, dragging everyone
into that better future,” he said. “Virtually nothing
about a leader is humble. I’m not saying they are
arrogant, but their claims are big.” Buckingham said
successful leaders must find a “universal truth” to
rally their followers. These universal truths stem from
the basic human needs, fears and desires that unite all
people, across all cultures. They also happen to be
great tools for leadership.
Take,
for example, one of the great human fears
–
fear of
the future. “We all share a fear of the unknown,”
Buckingham said. “The problem for the modern-day leader,
of course, is that you traffic in the future.”
Buckingham says some the best leaders can overcome this
fear –
and
build confidence among their followers
–
with a
weapon of their own: clarity.
By
presenting a clear message, and backing up their message
with actions that support it, top managers of such
companies as Tesco, Best Buy and Wal-Mart have rallied
employees to their cause and enjoyed bottom-line success
as a result, Buckingham noted. “The best way to turn
anxiety into confidence is this: Be clear. Clarity is
the antidote to anxiety. If you do nothing else as a
leader, be clear.” Former New York City Mayor Giuliani
provided a good example of effective leadership through
clarity, Buckingham said. When Giuliani took office in
1993, he could have turned his attentions just about
anywhere; America’s largest city certainly had its share
of problems.
But
Giuliani set one specific, clear and focused goal for
his administration. He would reduce crime and improve
quality of life for residents. Then he laid out three
simple ways he was going to start making that happen: He
announced he would get rid of the window washers who
pestered New York City drivers; clean subways of
graffiti and then keep the vandals away; and make all
cab drivers wear collared shirts. The issues were, on
their surface, minor. But they were relevant to his
citizens. And by setting three immediate goals
–
and then
achieving them –
Giuliani
was able to build trust among residents and respect
among his workers. That trust carried over as he tackled
larger challenges, and within a few years of his
arrival, the FBI named New York the safest big city in
America. “You can do a lot worse than pick just a few
areas you want to take action on right now,” Buckingham
said.
Clarity of purpose has also been a driving factor in the
success of Tesco, the British food giant that has more
than 2,000 stores and 360,000 employees worldwide. When
Terry Leahy took over as CEO in 1997, he decreed the
company’s focus would be, from that point forward, to
serve the housewives of the world. Then he went out and
did something to prove he believed in his focus: He
added more checkout lines in all his stores, a move that
led to significantly higher labor costs but also won
over his customers and sent a message to his employees
that they were there, as Leahy had proclaimed, to
provide courteous, efficient service.
“That kind of
clarity builds confidence in people,” Buckingham said.
Today, Tesco is one of the three largest retailers in
the world, and Leahy’s success provides a handy
leadership lesson. “When you want to lead, start with
the future.” Buckingham said. “Get specific. And get
vivid.”
Corporate
Governance and Responsibility: Birmingham
Conference on July 4, 2005
 The
Birmingham’s Business School’s Centre for Corporate
Governance Research is sponsoring a one-day conference
on “Corporate Governance and Corporate Social
Responsibility” in Birmingham, England, on July 4.
 Keynote
speakers include Colin Melvin from Hermes Investment
Management Ltd, Bob Monks from Lens LLP, and Professor
Dirk Matten from Royal Holloway, University of London.
The Centre’s external advisor, Sir Adrian Cadbury, is
also participating.
Select papers
from the conference will appears in Corporate
Governance: An International Review. The
Centre, conference, and journal are directed by
Professor Christine Mallin (c.a.mallin@bham.ac.uk),
and information on the conference is available at
http://www.business.bham.ac.uk/cgconf.
Global
Leadership: A Study of Organizational
Leadership and Culture in 62 Nations
 Researcher
Robert J. House and a team of 160 scholars have produced
a comprehensive study of the common and distinctive
elements of organizational leadership around the world.
In his co-edited
Culture,
Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62
Societies,
House and colleagues
Paul J. Hanges, Mansour Javidan, Peter W.
Dorfman, Vipin Gupta, and others report the results of
their survey of
17,370 managers working in
951 companies in the banking, food processing, and
telecommunications sectors. They also compiled
information on cultures of the 62 nations surveyed
(including Albania, Ireland, the U.S., and Zimbabwe),
and they theorized that what would be valued among
leaders in each of these countries would depend much on
their national cultures.
House’s team finds that four
leadership attributes are valued universally; they are
considered important for organizational leadership in
all countries:
1. Being trustworthy, just,
and honest.
2. Seeing and planning ahead
3. Being optimistic, dynamic, and inspiring
4. Communicating, informing, and coordinating others
House and his team also
report that several attributes are universally disliked
in leaders, including being irritable, egocentric, and
autocratic.
But still other qualities are
extolled as leadership virtues in some societies but
less so in other, and much of that variation can be
traced to the societal cultures in which the
organizations operated. Countries whose cultures
place a premium on performance, for instance, are those
in which inspirational and decisive leadership is
valued; countries whose cultures stress group identity
and minimizing uncertainty are those where diplomatic
and collaborative leadership is valued.
A review of the book by Mary
B. Teagarden appearing in the Academy of Management
Executive in 2005 concluded that the vast range of
research reported in this 800-page volume represented
the “crowning glory of Robert
House’s significant life-long contributions to
leadership.”
Nonprofit
Leadership: Donald Stewart of the Chicago
Community Trust
By John
Joseph
For
those MBAs seeking a career in nonprofits, now is a
great time to apply those skills honed in business
school, according to Donald Stewart, former CEO of the
Chicago Community Trust and a distinguished national
education and public policy leader. He says,
“Nonprofits are facing greater competition for funding.
Business skills in this environment are a necessary
requisite for leadership success.”
 Stewart,
who served as CEO of The College Board for twelve years
and holds position on numerous not-for-profit and
corporate boards, has always been closely involved in
community issues and has personally experienced the sea
changes in nonprofit organizations. He says,
“Creating that distinctive niche or role is getting
harder as the level of overlap and duplication among
nonprofits increases. America’s nonprofits are
facing their most difficult funding years.”
Donald Stewart’s comments echo the results of recent
studies: nonprofits are increasingly turning to the
tenets of competitive strategy to survive in cutthroat
funding environments. According
to the American Association of Fundraising Counsel,
there were 575,690 nonprofit organizations (501-c-3)
organizations in 1993. Ten years later there were
964,418, an increase of 67 percent, which outpaced the
62 percent increase in dollars available over the
same time period. This and related trends
has resulted in
a ten-fold increase in the number of charitable requests
the average person receives each month.
The
intensifying competition for funds points to the need
for not-for-profits to pay more attention to strategy.
As a result, Stewart says, at the Chicago Community
Trust “we
went through the process of strategic planning to
understand our internal and external environment and
bring it all together in a plan that people understood.”
In order to do all that, Stewart notes the need for
nonprofit leaders to also have a sense of the bottom
line and how that relates to decision making and
motivating people.
Donald
Stewart also suggests that along with the increased
attention to competition comes greater pressure from
boards to address issues of governance. Since many
nonprofit board members come from the corporate
community, they’re more attuned to the issues of risk
and active monitoring. He also expects greater
attention from legislators: “We’re going to see
increased scrutiny and tightening of the requirements.”
Nonprofit executives must therefore ensure that
accountability is part of the practices and culture of
their organizations.
How
can MBAs help? MBAs understand the importance of
metrics and measurement, something donors and
foundations are much in need of, according to Stewart.
In addition, MBAs bring to the world of nonprofits the
tactics and language of business strategy, benchmarking,
financial analysis, partnerships and alliances.
Stewart observes, MBA graduates “understand” what makes
for “sustainability and competitive advantage” that all
nonprofits require for survival.
Stewart’s parting advice to MBAs aspiring to work at a
nonprofit: “You have to take,” he jokes, “a vow of
poverty,” and he notes that money cannot be the number
one motivating factor. “There has to be a certain
altruism and idealism and maybe a little naiveté to
bring you into this world. It’s an exciting world
and it needs good people.”
Note:
Prior to joining the Trust, Donald Stewart was a Senior
Program Officer and Special Advisor to the President at
the Carnegie Corporation. He is also the former
President and CEO of the College Board and the former
President of Spelman College. Stewart earned a BA from
Grinnell College, a MA from Yale, a Master of Public
Administration and Doctor of Public Administration from
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He is
currently a visiting professor at the Harris School at
the University of Chicago.
The Hallmark of a
Great Leader: Dr. William W. Forgey
By Scott
Power
It has taken me
too long to fully appreciate the fundamental role
accountability plays in great leadership.
Admittedly, this new understanding is a direct result of
working with many leaders of varying experience and
ability levels, many of whom were happy to take the
credit when times were good and pass the blame
otherwise. It seems the level of maturity and courage
necessary to be accountable often lies in opposition
with one’s own instinct towards self-preservation.
Most would agree
good leaders have, among other things, the ability to
organize, inspire and empower their team. However, in my
experience, good leaders can become great only when they
are willing to accept accountability for their decisions
and those of their team – for better or worse.
With today’s
media attention focused on the stories of failed
corporate executives like Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers and
Hank Greenberg, blaming everyone but themselves for any
mistakes, one could easily assume accountability among
today’s leaders is non-existent. No doubt it is tempting
to think great leaders are the exception to the rule.
They certainly are not. Popular modern examples of
exemplary leaders include Burt Rutan, Steve Jobs, Rudy
Giuliani, Eliot Spitzer, A.G. Lafley, Ken Carter, and
Jack Welch. And, operating under the radar of today’s
popular media, are many less famous leaders positively
affecting people’s lives in interesting ways.
 One
such person is William W. Forgey, M.D., of Merrillville,
Indiana. “Doc” Forgey, as he prefers to be called, is a
former Captain, Infantry, in the US Army; a Bronze Star
and Army Commendation Medal for Service recipient; a
Fellow of the Explorer’s Club of New York; past
president of the Wilderness Medical Society; and a
recipient of The Wilderness Medical Society Education
Award, The Wilderness Medical Society Founders Award,
and The Wilderness Education Association Paul Petzoldt
Award.
As a
well-respected family physician and travel medicine
expert, Doc Forgey is well known and greatly appreciated
for his kind, empathetic style and generosity towards
both his patients and the community at large. However,
despite owning a successful family medical practice, Doc
Forgey’s passion has always been the great outdoors. In
fact, Backpacker Magazine once named him, “The Father of
Wilderness Medicine.”
The author of
sixteen books related to outdoor and travel medicine,
Doc Forgey has served as a Scoutmaster for three Boy
Scout troops and as a Medical Explorer Post and High
Adventure Explorer Post Advisor. He completed his Boy
Scout Woodbadge training in 1969 and currently serves on
the National Health and Safety Committee and as an
Advisory Board Member for the Northern Tier High
Adventure Base for the Boy Scouts of America.
For over thirty
years, Doc Forgey has given young people the opportunity
to learn the educational and character building lessons
of wilderness adventure. Young people of different ages
and skill level with parental consent were given the
opportunity to participate in Doc Forgey’s sojourns.
But, to be clear, these were not your typical Boy Scouts
of America camping trips. They were generally long
distance canoe trips or sub-arctic winter camping
expeditions into remote and hostile wilderness areas
where emergency evacuation was not an option and danger
was imminent.
Doc Forgey
planned, funded and carried out these adventure trips.
He willingly put his reputation on the line in order to
give young people transforming wilderness experiences
impossible to have without someone willing to be
accountable for doing so. Ultimately Doc Forgey’s
ability to safely lead others in to and out of hostile
wilderness environments is a direct result of his
expertise as an outdoor leader. However, in my
view, it has always been Doc Forgey’s willingness to be
accountable for the responsibility of doing so that set
him apart as a great leader.
One of those
young people who had the rare privilege to participate
in Doc Forgey’s expeditions into the Canadian arctic,
both in the summer and winter, was me. It was my
distinct honor to have participated in four of Doc’s
trips between the ages of 19-21. Each trip was a
comprehensive exercise in planning, budgeting,
equipping, training, testing, traveling, executing and
managing. Each phase of the process – pre-trip, trip and
post-trip – created a cycle of anticipation,
realization, and wisdom. These trips instilled humility
and confidence. They shaped who I am today and taught me
powerful lessons about life and death.
Remote
wilderness trips are a great way to teach accountability
because there is no escaping the consequences of one’s
actions. Certainly the consequences of one’s decisions
are better considered when personal safety is in
jeopardy. In a wilderness environment, leaders and
followers alike cannot avoid the transparent cause and
effect of their decisions. The unforgiving indifference
of Mother Nature makes it impossible to “pass the buck.”
A team is forced to accept the consequences of each
person’s actions – for better or worse. Unlike
civilization where poor judgment and bad leadership is
sometimes awarded a platinum parachute, the wilderness
is not so forgiving. In fact, the lethal power of nature
and its indifference towards human life will quickly
expose and punish poor leadership.
Certainly, there
were many valid reasons to stay home and avoid the
risks. Perhaps Doc Forgey felt great reward demanded
great sacrifice? Perhaps he believed aversion to risk is
why mediocrity rules the day? Perhaps he feared no one
else would do it? Regardless of his reasons, Doc
Forgey’s courage to face the risk and be accountable for
leading explorations into remote wilderness areas made
us better people, which in turn, made him a great
leader.
Doc Forgey chose
to use his passion and expertise as a physician and
outdoor leader to make a difference in people’s lives.
He played to his strengths, thereby mitigating any risk
of failure. Certainly not everyone is a doctor or
outdoor expert. We all have our own unique theatre and
skills to help others be successful, effect change, and
demonstrate outstanding leadership, whether it’s in
business, politics, finance, education, or science.
As leaders it is
our obligation to provide others the opportunity to
learn, grow and empower themselves with knowledge and
experience. And, if we wish to be great leaders, we must
be willing to make decisions others are not willing to
make and be accountable for the consequences, for better
or worse. Yes, things can go wrong, and sometimes will.
Being a great leader matters most in difficult times.
Fear of failure is the price of admission some leaders
just aren’t willing to pay. Great leaders spin fear into
opportunities for outstanding achievement. Which type
are you?
Note:
Scott Power can be contacted at
scottpower@mac.com, and Dr. Forgey can be reached at
doc4g@aol.com.
Copyright 1996-2005,
Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management
University of Pennsylvania.
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