February, 2006, Volume
10, Number
5
CONTENTS
Leadership in Public and Non-Profit Organizations: Good to Great and
the Social Sectors
Leading with Resilience: Wharton Leadership Conference on June 13, 2006
Take
Command: Military Roots of Leadership
Megachurch Leadership: An Interview with the Leadership Network’s Dave
Travis
Leadership in Public and
Non-Profit Organizations: Good to Great and the Social
Sectors
By Andrea Useem
Churches, schools, non-profits,
public agencies – all are essential but the complaints about them are
familiar. They are slow to integrate technology. Unresponsive to
individual needs. Financially unaccountable.
If you’re heard those
complaints, you’ve also heard the commonly prescribed remedy. Those
organizations should become more like businesses: dynamic, responsive,
financially sound.
According to Jim Collins, the
prescription would be right – improvement is necessary – but the
metaphor would be wrong. Those organizations don’t need to become more
like businesses. They need to become great organizations.
So
writes Collins in Good to Great and the Social Sectors, a 33-page
monograph released last year. Collins said he was inspired to write
this extra chapter for his book, Good to Great (published in
2001), when he learned that more than half the people who read his book
belonged to non-business organizations. After conducting new research,
Collins has tweaked his Good to Great concepts so they ring true
for social sector organizations. He boils the content down to five main
points:
1. Defining “Great” –
Calibrating success without business metrics. Like businesses,
social organizations need to measure performance. Unlike a business,
however, a social organization cannot point to easily quantifiable
bottom-line profits. Some make the mistake of focusing on fund-raising,
but raising funds is not the ultimate goal of, say, an environmental
protection non-profit. Excellent performance in that case means
actually protecting the environment. How to measure such an amorphous
goal? Well, writes Collins, just do it. Push your organization to
create multiple measures of success.
2. Level 5 Leadership –
Getting things done within a diffuse power structure. Leaders of
social organization wield less raw power than a business-world CEO.
They must contend with complex constituencies, such as unionized
work-forces, membership bodies or elected trustees. As a result, social
leaders exercise what Collins calls “legislative” leadership, relying
“more upon persuasion, political currency and shared interests” to make
the right things happen. This distinction leads Collins to the
assertion that “more true leadership” may be found in the social
sector. “True leadership only exists if people follow when they have
the freedom not to.”
3. First Who – Getting the
right people on the bus, within social sector constraints.
Excellence derives first of all from human capital, Collins insists.
How can a social sector leader find and retain the best people while
constrained by factors like tenure, unions, and relatively low pay? Do
your best, Collins says. If it’s hard to get the “wrong people” off the
bus through firing, then double your efforts to get the right people on
through hiring. If you have only small salaries to offer, then find
people who are not primarily motivated by money. Here’s where the
social sector can shine, argues Collins. A noble purpose – such as
feeding the hungry or creating great art – “has the power to ignite
passion and commitment.”
4. The Hedgehog Concept –
Rethinking the economic engine without a profit motive. Greatness
means forward single-mindedly, like a hedgehog, Collins argued in
Good to Great. The “hedgehog concept” revolved around three
questions: What are you deeply passionate about? What can you be best
in the world at? And what drives your economic engine? Collins
discovered that the last question needed tinkering for the social
sector, where money is just one fuel for a larger “resource” engine. In
a volunteer-driven organization, for example, people donating time
can be as important, if not more, than people donating money.
Building brand in a marketplace of organizations can be equally
valuable.
5. Turning the Flywheel –
Building momentum by building the brand. When Hurricane Katrina
struck last year, a sympathetic public overwhelmed the American Red
Cross with donations. Was it the best organization to deliver
assistance? Not necessarily, as it turned out. But the organization’s
well-known name gave the public “an easy answer to the question, ‘How
can I help?’” writes Collins. A strong brand reputation provides
momentum for a virtuous circle of success, what Collins calls “turning
the flywheel.” In business, rational capital markets provide this
momentum: when a company succeeds financially, capital pours in. In the
social sector, a solid reputation, built on proven results and emotional
pull, draws in the funding and opportunities required for long-term
success.
Collins closes his monograph
with the observation that “people often obsess on systemic
constraints.” It might seem that leaders of social organizations face
particularly difficult circumstances: shoestring budgets or volunteer
workforces. But Collins says no: both business and social sector
organizations have a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. And
ultimately, he says, it’s not the environment that matters but the will
towards excellence. How else to explain why some institutions thrive
while others wither, even though they face the same challenges?
“Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and
discipline.”
Note: Andrea Useem
writes about religion for the Washington (D.C.) Examiner,
and the Religion News Service. Her articles have appeared in the
Washington Post, Dallas Morning News and other newspapers.
Based in Reston, Va., she can be reached at
auseem@hotmail.com.
Leading with Resilience:
Wharton Leadership Conference on June 13, 2006
Wharton’s annual Leadership
Conference on June 13, 2006 is focused on “Leading with Resilience:
Coming back from Challenge and Adversity.” 
Jim
Collins, author of Good to Great and Good to Great and the
Social Sectors will be speaking,
as will be Helen Greiner, co-founder and board chair of
iRobot, a provider of robots to the industrial, consumer and military
markets, and maker of the world’s best selling robot.
Information on the conference is available
here, and online registration for the conference is available
here.
Take Command: Military
Roots of Leadership
By Kelly Perdew
When Donald Trump pointed at me and said, “You’re hired!” on live
television a year ago, I felt
exhilarated. I had survived the many business
challenges on NBC’s reality show, “The
Apprentice,” and won the prize –
working as Trump’s real-life apprentice
for a year.
In the aftermath of my victory, I was asked the same question over and
over again: Did I think that my
military background helped me win “The
Apprentice?” Initially, I just said
“Yes.” It was obvious to me that the
discipline, attention to detail and
stress management I learned while a
student at U.S. Military Academy at
West Point, and later as a U.S. Army
officer, were critical to my win. But
when the question kept coming up, I grew a little irritated. Doesn’t
everyone know that the military trains you to be a leader?
I decided to write a book about
the leadership principles I learned in the military that have helped me
succeed in business and in life. But I wanted to write about more than
myself, so I asked six business luminaries to tell how their military
backgrounds shaped their later successes.
Here are some of the critical
points on leadership I took away from each of the interviews:
Planning really works.
Bill Coleman, who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and was
later founding CEO of the software company BEA Systems, confronts
challenges by identifying specific long-term goals, breaking those goals
down into intermediate objectives and then further identifying
short-term tasks. Many people associate planning with bureaucracies.
Coleman, however, said that a lack of good planning is what
creates bureaucracies. Effective planning enables massive
efficiencies.
Leadership means action.
Pete Dawkins has been aggressively studying leadership for over 30
years. As a Heisman Trophy winner at West Point, Rhodes Scholar,
retired Army Brigadier General and the current Vice-Chair of Citigroup’s
Private Bank, Dawkins has come up with one of the best one-line
definitions of leadership: “The ability to motivate others to action.”
The call to serve exists in
all of us. Each business icon I interviewed exhibited significant
philanthropic drive, but Marsha “Marty” Evans’ record stood out in this
regard. Evans left the Navy as an Admiral to be president of the Girl
Scouts, where she significantly expanded the reach of the organization
into inner cities and even prisons. She later became CEO of the Red
Cross (from which she recently resigned). Evans told me, “The call to
serve exists in everyone, and it is a leader’s job to determine how best
to bring it out.”
Leadership means “No
excuses.” Jim Kimsey, founding CEO of America Online, recalled his
days at West Point, where cadets can offer only one of three answers to
a question from a superior: “Yes sir!,” “No sir!,” and “No excuse,
Sir!” That last answer hit home for Kimsey while serving as a company
commander in Vietnam. If one of his soldiers was killed, he had to
explain that death to the soldier’s family – not a time for excuses.
Similarly, a CEO laying off 3,000 employees cannot offer excuses. A
leader is responsible for the lives of those who follow him.
It’s not the size of the dog
in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. As a young
man, Ross Perot wrote to his Texas Senator three years running, asking
for a nomination to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.; the
Senator finally granted the nomination based on the young man’s
tenacity. After leaving the military years later, Perot borrowed $1,000
from his wife Margot and founded EDS, originally a data processing
company, which he later sold to General Motors, Corp., for $2.5
billion. His perseverance and “never give up” attitude resulted in his
great success.
Integrity really is
everything. Roger Staubach won the Heisman Trophy as a junior at
the U.S. Naval Academy and was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. Before
launching his pro football career, however, Staubach fulfilled his
military commitment, serving four years in Vietnam before joining the
Cowboys. He built his 1,300-person real estate firm – The Staubach
Company – on the principles of trust and integrity. Character defines
you, both in your business and personal life.
Note: Kelly Perdew
served as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army and held
multiple chairman and CEO positions before winning the second season of
“The Apprentice.” A percentage of royalties from sales of his new book,
Take Command: 10 Leadership Principles I Learned in the Military and
Put to Work for Donald Trump (Regnery Publishing, 2006), will
go to the
United Service
Organizations. Perdew can be
reached through his website at www.kellyperdew.com,
and his interactive website is located at
www.kellyperdewforums.com.
Megachurch Leadership:
An Interview with the Leadership Network’s Dave Travis
Megachurches – churches whose
average weekly attendance exceeds 2,000 – are booming across the
country, changing forever the way Americans “do church.” There are an
estimated 1,210 Protestant megachurches today, more than double the
number five years ago, according to a new study released by the Hartford
Seminary’s Institute for Religion Research and the Leadership Network, a
Dallas-based organization that works with “high capacity” Christian
leaders.
“Leading a large church can be
more challenging than leading a same-size revenue company.” said Dave
Travis, executive vice president of the Leadership Network and one of
the study’s co-authors. “Not only is 90 percent of the workforce
volunteer, but most of these leaders have to give an hour-long public
address once a week to their constituencies.” Wharton Leadership
Digest spoke with Travis about the leadership challenges facing
megachurch leaders.
Wharton Leadership Digest:
Why does your organization think megachurches are important?
Dave Travis: In
the American Christian eco-system, smaller churches pay attention to
larger churches. Of the estimated 350,000 churches in the country, only
a small fraction are innovating in significant ways. The Leadership
Network works with innovative “flagship churches” that impact their
local communities and influence others regionally, nationally, or within
their denomination. These churches tend to be megachurches.
WLD: Are all
megachurches influential?
Travis: No, but all
megachurches have a high degree of influence in their local
communities. In some suburbs, it would take 30 smaller churches to make
one megachurch. The sheer number of people they touch and influence is
huge.
WLD: Are megachurches
the result of successful leadership?
Travis: That’s one
factor, absolutely. People don’t just show up at a church and say,
“Let’s all start going here.” Strategic leadership teams of these
megachurches have learned to adapt their styles and methodologies as the
church grows.
WLD: How do you turn a
small church into a megachurch?
Travis: Relevant
communication and the ability to build teams. Those are the factors
that differentiate between an average church and a megachurch.
Megachurch leaders are good not just at leadership themselves, but in
building teams of leaders. Second, strategic leaders of these
megachurches tend to be extremely good communicators, both orally and in
writing. That’s important because megachurches have a dizzying array of
options in terms of worship services and community life. But when a
newcomer arrives, he or she will find a very simple message: We think
you attend worship services and join a small group. Successful churches
offer a very clear path towards being a vital part of the congregation.
They have clear expectations.
WLD: Some scholars say that the
most successful churches hold high expectations for their members. Is
that true at megachurches?
Travis: Yes, but they
differentiate between the core and the crowd. For the core, and that
includes all the church leadership, they have very high expectations in
terms of belief, involvement and moral behavior. But successful leaders
are more accommodating for the crowd – the people on the outer fringes
who are there just kicking the tires.
WLD: Rick Warren, author
of the Purpose Driven Life and pastor of 20,000-member Saddleback
Church in California, is probably the best known megachurch leader
today. Do megachurches tend to revolve around charismatic leaders like
Warren?
Travis: Saying Rick
Warren leads Saddleback church is the same as saying Jeff Immelt runs
GE. Yes, there is a strong front man, a strong leader, at the center.
However, very close to that leader are strong teams of leaders who make
the meaning for the whole. Rick Warren and others like him are not
present at their churches every week. In Rick’s case he’s there only
about half the time. It’s his close associates that give much of the
leadership, not just day to day, but in helping to cast the long term
vision of the church.
WLD: What challenges do
leaders of megachurches face?
Travis: Internally, they
face the same types of challenges as leaders of large corporations:
selection and development of team members. Externally, megachurches
face difficulties in finding land and building facilities that can
accommodate large congregations. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear
about a megachurch fighting for a piece of ground. Some communities
would rather have a Super Wal-Mart than a church. But megachurches are
innovating ways around the problem, for example, by using a “multi-site”
model. [Sometimes called “church franchising” by secular observers, the
multi-site model allows one church to offer identical Sunday morning
content at different geographic locations, often using video or other
technology. Multi-site churches tend to hold worship services at
existing public facilities, such as schools or theatres, rather than
invest in bricks and mortar. – editor’s note]
WLD: “Bigger is better”
is a truism in the business world. Is bigger better when it comes to
church?
Travis: If the end goal
is to reach as many people as possible, then megachurches are better.
Attracting new people is one of their key strengths. But the Christian
ecology in each locale needs a mix of larger churches and smaller
congregations. Not everyone wants to attend a huge church, and
megachurch leaders recognize that. Ten years ago, one leader I know was
trying to build a big church. At that time he had about 1,000
attenders. He became convinced that his God-given job was not to build
the biggest church in the community. His job was to “church” that
community – that is, bring the maximum number of people in contact with
God’s word. So this leader planted 10 smaller churches within five
miles of his original church. Now he has 2,500 attenders at his church
and 10,000 at the smaller churches. At least half the megachurch
leaders I know share that philosophy: “Our job is to extend the body of
Christ in this community, not build the biggest church.”
Note:
Andrea Useem conducted the interview. The survey,
Megachurches Today 2005,
is available from the
Leadership
Network and the
Hartford
Seminary.
Copyright 1996-2006, Wharton Center for
Leadership and Change Management
University
of Pennsylvania
