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Wk3 D2 Leadership Theories Business Email

Write a business e-mail to the team that contains the following:

A summary that paraphrases the central idea of the leadership theory that you think is most appropriate for your organization (or an organization with which you are familiar). Provide a rationale to support why you think the leadership theory is appropriate for your organization and include specific lessons that can be learned from the theory, based on your observations and experience. Be sure to include the appropriate citation and reference for the reading from which you are paraphrasing.

You might want to start your summary like this: “Based on my analysis of various leadership theories, I think the passage that best captures the central idea of a leadership theory that is particularly relevant and important to our organization is found in Ulrich, Smallwood, and Sweetman (2008) on page X.” Then, include the appropriate reference at the end of your summary. For example:

Reference:

Ulrich, D., Smallwood, N., & Sweetman, K. (2008). Defining leadership code. In The leadership code: Five rules to lead by (pp 1–24). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

No plagiarism

APA 7th edition cites

Leadership Theories

For the Week 3 Assignment, imagine the following scenario:

You are part of a team at your organization where you are employed currently or at an organization with which you are familiar. This team is made up of members of the different departments at the organization. The executive director has tasked each member of the team to independently research the following two questions (respond with one full paragraph for each question):

(1) What theory of leadership most closely aligns with our current practice within our organization and do you think it is most appropriate or would another serve us better?

(2) What leadership theory would you recommend that might be more effective, and why? (Note: if you think the current leadership theory is a good fit and is effective, explain why you think it is working and should remain in place).

Also, you will have to conduct research on leadership theories and present a 2-paragraph summary of the central ideas of a leadership theory you believe is most appropriate for the organization.

You cannot believe your luck. The very week that you have to summarize leadership theories for work happens to be the very same week that leadership theory is being discussed in the first class of your Walden program! You already have been provided with four examples of leadership theories in Chapter 2 Michael Williams’ e-book Leadership for Leaders

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/waldenu/reader.action?docID=308984&ppg=43

See attachment.

You already have been provided with four chapters that review theories of leadership. Now all you need to do is read them and select the page (or pages) that you think captures best the central idea of leadership most appropriate for your organization. (Hint: As you review and think about the required readings, you will likely find a page or a passage that grabs your attention. Often this is because it says something you can “see and feel” about leadership in your organization (good or bad). This would be an ideal passage to focus on for this assignment!)

Paraphrase the passage that you believe is the most important to the chapter you have chosen. To paraphrase, you must take the main ideas from the chapter you selected and summarize why the passage is important—in your own words. It is not appropriate to repeat verbatim what the authors have written. See the document titled Academic Integrity for more instruction on how to paraphrase. This document can be located by clicking on the Learning Support Docs link in the course navigation menu in the online classroom.

Be sure to format your post as if it were a business e-mail. For guidance on writing a business e-mail, see attachment “How to Write a Business E-mail”.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post your business e-mail to the team that contains the following:

A summary that paraphrases the central idea of the leadership theory that you think is most appropriate for your organization (or an organization with which you are familiar). Provide a rationale to support why you think the leadership theory is appropriate for your organization and include specific lessons that can be learned from the theory, based on your observations and experience. Be sure to include the appropriate citation and reference for the reading from which you are paraphrasing.

Reference:

Ulrich, D., Smallwood, N., & Sweetman, K. (2008). Defining leadership code. In The leadership code: Five rules to lead by (pp 1–24). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

No plagiarism

Howto Write a Business E-mail

E-mail is a handy form of communication to your business associates as well as your
friends, but writing an e-mail to your boss or a colleague at work is not the same as e-
mailing a friend. There are a few practices that will help you get your message across in
your professional life. Take a look at the following items and incorporate them into your
business e-mails.

• The subject should be professional, brief, relevant, and attention grabbing. If
you have an ongoing dialogue with someone, be sure to change the subject
line as appropriate.

• Start the e-mail with a greeting.
• Use short and concise sentences.
• Clearly and explicitly state the purpose of your e-mail in the first sentence.

Use the body to provide information or request action. Do not bury your
information or request 3 or 4 paragraphs into the e-mail. Remember that your
goal is to give information to your reader that is easy to find and understand.
Consider using a numbered list or bullet points so your reader can quickly find
information.

• If you are responding to an e-mail, make sure that you address all questions
or points in the e-mail you received in a professional manner.

• Use proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and paragraphs.
• Proofread the e-mail before sending and remove anything that is not

absolutely necessary. People get many e-mails each day and do not want to
spend a lot of time finding out what the e-mail is about. If you are expecting a
response, be sure to state your expectations clearly. If your request is time-
sensitive, indicate your deadline clearly. If you do not get a response, follow
up in a polite way to inquire and confirm your e-mail was received and ask if
you can be of further assistance.

• Include a telephone number with your signature so the person can call you if
necessary.

• Always (and it bears repeating) watch your tone. Be respectful and courteous.
Remember that you never know what mood your recipient may be in (or how
many other e-mails he or she is dealing with) when he or she receives your e-
mail, and it may not read the way you intend, so be very careful that your
emotions have not influenced your choice of words or tone. If you are
concerned about that, save your message and come back to it later to reread
it for tone. It is sometimes helpful to read the e-mail out load and try to hear it
as if you were the recipient.

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 7

ONE
Close-quarter leadership

“Leaders go first

They set an example and
build commitment through simple, daily acts
that create progress and momentum.
Leaders model the way through personal
example and dedicated execution”

JAMES KOUZES & BARRY POSNER

For anyone in a leadership role the defining moment of truth is – “It’s
YOUR call. What are you going to DO?” Becoming a fully paid-up member
of the – ‘By my deeds ye shall know me’ school of leadership would seem,
therefore, to be an indispensable qualification for leaders who consciously
acknowledge the central nature of their role.

‘Say – do’ credibility, based upon the timeless obligation of leadership
by example – and delivery – remains at the very root of leader accept-
ability, influence and, ultimately, success. But it is not simply a matter
of action for action’s sake. Even more so, true leadership is about as
distanced as it can be from its grotesque parody – ‘macho management’.
Too easily, under pressure for results, a leader can fall into the seduc-
tive ‘activity trap’, in the often mistaken belief that ‘any action is better
than no action at all’. Equally, the myth of urgency and the confusion
about what is ‘urgent’ and what is crucial exerts its insidious pressure,
as a leader may feel the presence of some sneaky ‘sword of Damocles’
hanging over his ever-vulnerable head.

Williams, Michael. Leadership for Leaders, Thorogood Publishing, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/waldenu/detail.action?docID=308984.
Created from waldenu on 2021-01-24 12:54:37.

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LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS8

Fear of failure, or ridicule, rather than the real demands of the situa-
tion, so frequently become the arbiter of leaders’ decisions and actions
– or the trigger for inconsistent and inappropriate leadership ‘style’. The
influential findings of recent research by people like Jim Collins1 and,
in the UK, by Jane Simms2 suggest that the key behaviours of currently
successful leaders tend to be – strong professional will, but with personal
humility, high self-discipline, a preparedness to confront brutal reality,
a focused concentration on the business, strong communication, but also
an absence of narcissism, and – a largely low-key, low-profile approach.

Such findings appear to be at odds with traditional perceptions of effec-
tive leaders who are so often seen as – highly egotistical, ‘charismatic’,
high-profile, colourful personalities.

As more rigorous research now seems to indicate, some of those narcis-
sistic leaders, who set out to cultivate mythology about themselves, have
their ‘brief, gaudy hour’ and may achieve short-term successes, while
others may bring about necessary turn-around within their businesses.
Yet, not too many of them leave legacies of long-term transformation
and enduring success.

As Collins says: “…boards of directors frequently operate under the false
belief that they need to hire a larger-than-life, egocentric leader to make
a business great…”. In support of that view, Simms makes the point that,
the emergence of so-called ‘low-key leadership’ is partly a reaction against
the CEO celebrity boom of recent years, where ‘heroes’ can turn into
‘villains’ overnight, dragging their companies down with them. Enron,
Parmalat, WorldCom, Martha Stewart Living, Omnimedia, Andersen
Consulting and Equitable Life being recent high profile examples of top
executive greed, or financial gross misconduct. Simms further states: “The
greater focus on corporate governance is curtailing the power of the
individual and humility is replacing the pre-Enron megalomania.”

This is not a plea for self-emasculating, over-compliant non-entities, but
rather an acknowledgement of something capable leaders have always

recognized, namely that success in most walks of life – and especially

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ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 9

so in business – is usually the result of well-led teamwork, rather than
the star performance of one charismatic egomaniac. Kriss Akabusi MBE,
triple Olympic medallist and CEO3, writing in Director, cites the Greek
football team’s triumph, in the 2004 World Cup and comments “Greece
demonstrated how teamwork could achieve far more than individual
brilliance. Before the tournament began, the teams with flamboyant
players were predicted to win. But as it progressed, it was clear that those
teams who worked for each other were the ones winning the matches”.

Time and again, observation and research in the ten companies

referred to in the introduction to this book, confirmed the ability to engage,
mobilize and focus others’ brain-power, energy and commitment as being
core activities of those in leadership roles.

Leading at close quarters

Engaging, mobilizing and focusing people so often means opening up
possibilities for them that they may not even know about. More than that,
it involves making them feel that they have no limits – or, as Benjamin
Zander5 says: “taking them beyond the bloody impossible”.

A manager who remains addicted to the safe and familiar and who consis-
tently fails to look afresh – and objectively – at challenges, is hardly likely
to inspire others to listen for the sounds that are more powerful than
the voice that says “no”. That may be acceptable in businesses which
unconsciously support the practices of ‘reverse Darwinism’ – survival
of the weakest. It is not the mindset of a leader dedicated to creating an
environment where people do what they are best at and continually excel
in work they believe in passionately. Fundamental to such a mindset is
the imperative of getting to know thoroughly – and engage fully with –
each member of the team, in order to build trust and confidence and help
them to deliver to the very best of their ability. This is essentially what

‘close-quarter’ leadership is about.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS10

There are infinitely variable and diverse approaches to close-quarter
leadership, depending upon the circumstances and the people involved
in a particular situation.This does not mean that it can mean all things
to all people because, within the criteria of variability and diversity, the
process of full engagement is paramount – but it is also a uniquely personal
process. To that end, close-quarter leadership may involve delegation,
challenge, developing ‘buy-in’, coaching, nurturing and/or directing, as
appropriate, but the common threads of creating a climate for learning,
improvement – and results – will include, variously:

• Setting and re-affirming direction, with as much emphasis on the
‘why’, as the ‘what’ and ‘where to’.

• Increasing others’ awareness of personal responsibility, role-
commitment and ownership of results.

• Providing the stimulus to explore ways to think and behave
differently and do things better.

• The opening up of opportunities for challenge and ‘stretch’,
though new roles, job-enrichment, high-profile projects and
testing assignments.

• Encouraging people to experiment or take initiatives and break from
the past, where necessary.

• Empowering – and the often allied process of enabling – to build
confidence and facilitate accountable action.

• Providing an environment where failure is acceptable, but where
rapid learning from mistakes and the ability to recover and move
forward are the expected norm.

• Perhaps, above all – active listening, directed feedback and regular
opportunity for ‘quality’ dialogue.

• From the above close-quarter engagement – personal and
professional growth of the leader, as well as the team members.

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 1

Close-quarter leadership is about leading from behind, just as much as
it is a matter of leading from the front. As the Marquis de Lafayette, one
of France’s greatest ‘soldiers’ generals’, said: “I am their leader, therefore
I must follow them”, meaning that he saw his role, as leader, as prima-
rily that of someone responsible for doing all that he could, to enable his
troops to excel and succeed.

Leading effectively at close quarters also means that the leader is, more
often than not, there to serve team members – not merely be the ‘boss’
– in enabling them to cope successfully with the challenges of expected
results. In such a context, the leader’s power base becomes essentially
authoritative – the authority of expertize and competence – not simply
authoritarian, while the major source of influence stems from behaviour,
‘style’, consistency and trustworthiness.

Leaders’ power, traditionally, is seen as having its roots, variously, in:

1. Positional authority – that of role, job, or status and the extent
of authority conferred by superiors, in terms of available
resources, budget, headcount and decision parameter.

2. Expertize – vested in a person’s competence, in-depth or
specialist knowledge and skills, or particular – often unique –
expertize and abilities.

3. Information – access to facts, data and information, often
exclusive, or privileged, that enhance an individual’s influence and
power, personally and/or professionally.

4. Relationships – so-called ‘referral power’, based upon cultivated
alliances and connections with those in positions of power and
influence, who are prepared to give ‘political’ support or
sponsorship.

5. Commitment – people support and own what they create and the
‘territorial’ commitment that arises out of a sense of personal
ownership gives a person power.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS12

6. Integrity – an individual’s trustworthiness, honesty and both
personal and professional credibility give them ‘moral authority’,
i.e. they are identified with possessing the moral high ground in
a decision or event.

7. ‘Personal Power’ – arises out of an individual’s unique ‘persona’,
presence and ‘style’ and the ways in which they influence,
interact with, or dominate others. Includes ‘charisma’, vitality,
raw energy, ‘dynamism’ and temperament.

As with any other form of leadership, those capable of leading for effect,
at close quarters, will at some time draw upon all seven sources of power,
be they ascribed, bestowed, derived, assumed, or otherwise acquired.
In close-quarter leadership, especially, it is both the timing – as well as
the appropriateness – of the use of leader power that is critical. Awareness
of self and others, sensitivity and high empathy, the hallmarks of so-called
emotional intelligence, emerge as crucial attributes in the exercise of power
– especially in the conscious use of power, in whatever form – for optimal
effect. Managing people, where communicating the right message – at the
right time is critical to requisite understanding and commitment – to the
achievement of goals – means that the most appropriate channels must
be used to ensure:

• The message is transparent, resonant – and is fully registering with
the receiver.

• The intended signal is clear and as free from emotional ‘noise’
and clutter as it can be.

• The respective quality of transmission and reception are ‘in sync’,
so that the receiver hears and feels what he/she is intended to
hear and feel.

• There is ‘buy-in’, not by-pass.

When the relationships are face-to-face and leadership is literally at close
quarters, the challenges of clear, unequivocal communication are diffi-
cult enough.When ‘transmitter’ and intended ‘receivers’ are regularly out

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 1

of each others’ sight, the risk of miscommunication multiplies infinitely.
Two tools which can significantly reduce the chances of communication
going awry, but especially at close quarters, are:

1. The communication Stimulus – Response model which identifies
the linkage between the nature of an interaction and the intended
consequent outcomes of that interaction.

2. The Peak Communication concept emerges out of the idea of
a hierarchy of communication and social intimacy, whereby both
interpersonal payoff – and risk – increase, the further up the hierarchy
we choose to operate.

In more detail, these two processes are described, respectively, in
figures 1 and 2, below.

NATURE OF INTERACTION OUTCOMES OF INTERACTION

(Stimulus) (Response)

1. Cognitive Connects intellectually

The ‘factual information’ channel: Descriptive, interpretative, objectively
evaluative, with no emotional ‘baggage’. Principal characteristics of this channel
are – facts, logic, objective analysis and conclusion, rational thinking, realism

2. Emotional/affective Engages others’ feelings and needs

This channel involves the communication of values, feelings and emotions, e.g. –
‘passion’ for a business, or goal Principal characteristics are – subjectivity,
personal feelings, beliefs, values and needs

3. Energy/inspiration Hooks hopes and aspirations

The ‘I-will-lead-you-to-a-better-world’ channel, which focuses on hopes of a
brighter, greater future Principal characteristics are – personal/professional
aspirations and ambitions, indicative of wishes for a better life

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS14

FIGURE 1: CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP: STIMULUS AND RESPONSE
– THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF INTERACTION

Focusing people’s thinking and actions lies at the heart of leadership and
each of the four communication channels has its part to play in that process.
Each channel, used with intelligence and developed awareness, invests
communication, as appropriate, with factual authority, passion for a goal
or rightful cause, a compelling vision of what is possible, or much needed
fresh insights, when a solution seems impossible. Misused, or manipu-
lated destructively, facts become distorted or corrupted, positive emotions
succumb to cynicism, bigotry – or worse. Vested interests masquerade
as moral principles and the fine line between vision and hallucination disap-
pears, as fantasy assumes control and restrictive stereotyping stultifies
creativity, innovation – and progress. Perhaps most important of all, is
the recognition that these differing channels for communicating with
others do exist and to know which to use – and when – for optimum
resonance and impact, as a leader responsible for focusing people’s
thoughts and mobilizing their contributory energy and activity.

Whereas the communications process depicted in figure 1 describes the
messaging channels available in transmitting and receiving information
and knowledge, figure 2, below, identifies the extent of interactive

NATURE OF INTERACTION OUTCOMES OF INTERACTION
(Stimulus) (Response)

4. Insight/wisdom Releases talent and potential

The channel of communication which focuses others’ sense of direction,
purpose, goals and strategies Principal characteristics are – context and
perspective, valid options/alternatives and the questions – ‘why?’ and ‘why not?’
and ‘how best to…..?’

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 1

opportunities open to us, in communicating and building productive
relationships with others. Because of what are often felt to be personal
risks – looking foolish, making mistakes, leaving oneself vulnerable, or
being disadvantaged in some way – so many leaders (and others!) regularly
miss the opportunities offered, when communicating at the highest levels
of interaction. Frequently, our observations showed that fear of rejec-
tion and other forms of social ‘punishment’, outweighed the potential
benefits and advantages, for influencing others, to be gained by taking
the risks involved, at levels 4, 5 and 6 in the ‘Communication and Interaction
Hierarchy’. So often, the challenge to go higher and operate at ‘peak
communication’ levels, to open up opportunities for productive synergy,
was met with that most destructive of all rebuffs – ‘yes, but…’

By no means a 100% culturally dependent issue, a general reticence to
move beyond level 3 – into areas of personal uniqueness – was met working
with managers from the UK, the US, Canada, most of Western Europe
and also with those from Eastern Europe. The exceptions to the pattern
tended to come, in the main, from younger men and women, already in
key leadership roles, from various national cultures, who were often MBA
graduates from leading Business Schools, or were comparably well-quali-
fied professionals. They possessed a refreshing directness, which
sometimes needed ‘softening’, in order to persuade others to respond
in the same ‘open’, clear terms, free from emotional clutter.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS1

FIGURE 2: HIERARCHY OF COMMUNICATION AND INTERACTION

The model’s origins are obscure, but it was extensively developed in the
UK by David Gilbert-Smith, the Chief Executive of the Leadership Trust,
together with his wife Janet, at Weston-under-Penyard, as one of several
unique, ‘bespoke’ behavioural models, to provide context, focus and
‘shape’ to the powerful learning experiences, on the Trust’s many world-
class leadership training programmes.

In day-to-day management, where leading teams – and individuals – at
close quarters is a matter of course, the concept of an interaction
‘hierarchy’, indicating progressively closer profitable engagement
between people, helps to orientate and focus leadership style. Level 6
in the hierarchy represents, for practical purposes, the area of greatest
productive interaction between people. It is where synergy and shared
‘flow’ create the collective intellectual and emotional energy necessary
for outstanding contribution and job performance.

Peak
Communication

Values, Feelings
and Emotions

Ideas and Judgements

Facts and Information

Gossip and ‘Grapevine’

Social rituals and cliché conversation

Source of maximum synergy
and creative intellectual ’flow’

Areas of personal
uniqueness

Basis of much
of organisational
culture

RI
SK

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AY
O

FF
Interaction level

High

Low

6
5
4
3
2
1
Williams, Michael. Leadership for Leaders, Thorogood Publishing, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/waldenu/detail.action?docID=308984.
Created from waldenu on 2021-01-24 12:54:37.
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ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 17

‘Peak communication’ – where people alternately share, stimulate and
jointly build ideas and solutions together – also provides the necessary
positive arena, that allows for constructive challenge and disagreement.
Between leaders and supporters who regularly engage in dialogue, at
level 6, there is an easy spontaneity which facilitates productive debate
and the readiness to introduce and explore options and alternatives, as
an automatic consequence of just being together.

Interacting at such a degree of closeness, where there is little or no serious
emotional ‘baggage’ impeding dialogue, requires high levels of honesty,
forthrightness and mutual trust, as well as commitment to achieving the
task on hand. High mutual awareness and respect, and a preparedness
to subordinate self-interest to the needs of the team, or group, are also
critical elements in achieving the fruitful synergy so typical of level 6
communication and interaction.

The actual moments when peak communication occurs, whereby ideas
are jointly built upon, developed and carried forward to the action stage,
cannot be legislated for. Such synergy occurs naturally in relationships
where there is little concern about recrimination, little fear of failure or
threat of rejection. What can be learned, introduced and consciously
practised are the tools and techniques that reflect a leadership mindset
which is concerned to develop and use peak communication, as a crucial
means of getting the best out of people.

Some of the main keys to creating an environment and climate, in which
peak communication and close engagement become regular possibilities
in a relationship, include:

1. Find the shared ‘connectors’ that are critical to both (all) parties
– i.e. the important common concerns, hopes, fears and goals.

2. Focus attention first on the other person(s) and their ideas, wants,
values and concerns.

3. Look at the other person – NOT through, around, or over them.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS18

4. Naturally match, or ‘mirror’, the other person’s body language
and posture (this implies approval, responsiveness, concern and
interest – i.e. positive reactions).

5. Use ‘we’ and ‘you’, not ‘I’ – centred words and phrases.

6. Use language patterns that match those of the others, without
submerging your own identity.

7. Value and show respect for the differences that exist between you.
Remember! synergy comes from diversity, not uniformity, so look
for the complementary strengths.

8. Explore the differences between you to find the common ground
and the best mutually acceptable way forward (where the route
to progress is not mandatory).

9. Constantly build upon what the other person is saying and help
them, in turn, to add value to your ideas. Remember the positive
role of – “Yes, and…” and the destructiveness of – “Yes, but…”

Emotional intelligence – the basis of
close-quarter leadership

Both our own research – and that of many others in the field – has
confirmed the central importance of emotional intelligence in leaders’
behaviour and the development of leadership style. Just as there are
measures of cognitive intelligence (IQ) so, in emotional intelligence, there
is the parallel yardstick of EQ, which is defined as:

‘The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of other people,
for motivating and energizing ourselves and others and for managing
emotions effectively, in ourselves and in our relationships.’

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 19

Given that definition, the importance of high EQ in close-quarter leader-
ship, especially, becomes clear. Observation suggests that very emotionally
intelligent managers and leaders, typically:

• Generate positive emotions in their relationships with others.

• Sense and discern the important underlying issues in interactions.

• Readily create a climate of goodwill.

• Build sound relationships through awareness, empathy and
consistency.

• Exercise influence, through personal and professional integrity.

• Get things done, through the engaged commitment of others.

High EQ does not equate with stifled or suppressed emotion, neither does
it mean that those possessing it are naturally ‘soft’ and lacking in what
Tichy6 calls ‘edge’, which is the ‘steel’, essential to taking necessary tough
decisions. What seems to mark out those with high EQ, as being
different, is that they can – and do – use considerable cutting edge,
whenever they need to, but they use their steel constructively and positively,
without rancour and not as ‘punishment’. Typically, they:

• Have clear principles and values and stick to them.

• Exercise strong self-discipline in their judgement and decisions.

• Are manifestly consistent and honest.

• Challenge and disagree, but in a spirit of enquiry, exploration,
progress – and learning.

• Can be creatively abrasive, in order to provoke new/different
thinking and action.

• Engage in critical conversations and searching dialogue, to
establish shared meaning and commitment prior to taking
decisions.

and, in so doing, engage others – even in disagreement, or conflict – in
peak communication.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS20

As Dr Mike Bagshaw7 of the Consultant Group ‘Trans4mation’ states:

“These emotional competencies have been shown to have a positive
effect in business performance, over and over again. And organiza-
tions are beginning to sit up and take notice.”

Perhaps in the spirit of ‘Who cares wins’, Bagshaw and his colleagues
have developed a useful emotional intelligence mnemonic – C.A.R.E.S.,
which has high relevance in close-quarter leadership.

Summarized, but especially from a leadership standpoint, the concept
C.A.R.E.S. takes the following form:

C – Creative tension

This is a process of managing the inevitable pressures and tension
between the situation as it currently is – and how we need it to be. It
involves recognizing that many of the tensions surrounding necessary
change are both inevitable – and legitimate – and identifying the most
constructive, productive ways, to work through them – not dismiss them
as irrelevancies – to manage today better, in order to get to an envis-
aged tomorrow.

A – Active choice

It means making decisions where there are several options available to
us and where there are consequent competing risks and doubts.
Choosing one course of action usually means that we are forced to forego
others and rejecting some advantages that we prefer. Emotionally intel-
ligent leaders appear to be able to come to a decision – involving risk
and choice – and move on, without hankering after what has been lost.

R – Resilience under pressure

What so often lowers group morale, motivation and the will to overcome
adversity, is not so much the difficulties facing the group as the leader’s
perceived attitude towards the challenge and his/her ability and resolve

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 21

to deal with it. Nowhere, in leadership is this more immediate – and
apparent – than when leading a team at close quarters.

E – Empathic relationships

Empathy means having the capacity and readiness to step into other
people’s shoes and see things from their point of view, with their perspec-
tives and priorities. Empathy – like awareness of self and others – lies
at the root of emotional intelligence and would seem to be a critical factor
in successfully engaging closely and meaningfully with others.

S – Self awareness

This means being aware of how we feel and react in different situations.
It is about knowing our strengths and our weaknesses and acknowledging
the things that we both like and dislike about ourselves – especially in
our dealings with other people. Self-awareness is not about self-obses-
sion, nor is it self-consciousness. Rather, it is the necessary, realistic
foundation to self-confidence and the preparedness to learn, develop and
move forward in life – and as a leader.

An important distinction about emotional intelligence is that it can be
learned and enhanced which, arguably, differentiates it from cognitive
intelligence and so-called IQ.

This does not mean changing your personality – nor doing a DIY ‘spin-
doctor’ job, to re-invent yourself – yet again! As Jo Maddocks (8) of JCA
(Occupational Psychologists) says: “The important question is – how can
I be more effective? The answer is NOT to change who you are, but to learn
how to manage yourself and your relationships better.”

Many successful leaders, in interview, during the ten-company surveys,
stated that they never stop learning about leadership and management.
Most cited seemingly small incidents, that occurred during the course
of the working day, as frequently being the richest sources of their contin-
uing learning and growth as leaders. One senior Dutch banker made

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS22

the point that simply remembering to say ‘thank you’, using the person’s
first name and looking them in the eye, as he said it, had given a signif-
icant ‘lift’ to his relationships with his team members and colleagues.

An Austrian manager, in a major Italian insurance group, said that, for
him, asking people for their recommendations on important issues and
solutions, rather than simply telling them what and how to do their jobs,
had been a very necessary and critical learning experience. Other
respondents made the point that their key learning, as leaders, centred
around often quite simple issues such as:

• Always keeping promises made and therefore only making
commitments that they knew they could and would keep.

• Stating clearly “this is what we have to do” – NOT – “they have
decided we have to…”

• Being prepared to take the blame and say to their own staff (and
others) “Sorry, I got it wrong”.

• Asking their team members – “What do you need me to do, to
help you to…..?”.

• Not asking their people to do things that they, as the manager,
were not prepared to do.

• Not ‘cherry picking’ the choicest jobs for themselves and
delegating the dull ones to their staff.

• Ensuring that team members received due acclaim and praise
publicly and not ‘stealing’ the resultant kudos, for themselves,
as the manager.

• Regularly creating opportunities for mutual feedback, dialogue
and coaching, and actively managing people’s performance.

• Encouraging reverse coaching, i.e. – team members coaching their
boss on key issues.

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 23

• Where conditions allow, taking time out to ‘walk and talk’ with
team members, using the outdoors as a conducive medium for
discussion about sensitive or ‘difficult’ matters.

• Despite obvious time pressures, consciously making themselves
more available to their people.

• Leadership by example arose time and again, as a key learning
point, typified by the comments of a top investment banker from
Chicago who said – “If I failed to walk the talk, just once, my team
would never let me forget it. If I did it a second time, I’d be dead,
as their boss”.

Observations in the ten companies repeatedly confirmed the simple fact
that leadership is not about slavishly following some theoretical ‘style’,
or fad, but recognizing what is under our noses and dealing with it intel-
ligently. The leader with high EQ is someone who picks up more readily,
more deftly and with greater acuity, than others:

• Sensitive, urgent or significant issues that need to be dealt with
and should not be ignored.

• Areas of potential conflict that need to be carefully surfaced and
resolved.

• Less than obvious connections that suggest opportunity or
productive potential.

• Gaps in communication and relationships that either need to be
leapt over – or effectively filled.

• Veiled, subtle, or hinted at interactions that, if sensitively
developed and progressed, could prove to be winning connections
or relationships.

As Cooper and Sawaf 9 state in their excellent book – Executive EQ:

“Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand and effec-
tively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human
energy, information, connection and influence.”

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS24

EQ is, in effect, the basis of the emotional ‘alchemy’, so critical in close-
quarter leadership, that is about:

1. Going the ‘extra mile’ – and more than halfway – in initiating,
building, or mending relationships.

2. The readiness to embrace uncertainty – particularly productive
uncertainty, in taking decisions.

3. The preparedness to move out of ‘comfort zones’ and to take risks,
in order to move things forward.

4. Using intuition, or ‘sixth sense’, in going against the rulebook,
or convention that is no longer appropriate and realistic.

5. Expressing necessary constructive dissatisfaction and a readiness
to change a state of affairs.

6. The courage to go first into the ‘land-of-I-don’t-knows’, that lies
beyond known, familiar territory.

7. Leading in a spirit of exploration, experimentation, creative
innovation and enterprize.

As Maya Angelou says: “To live is not just to survive, but to thrive with
passion, compassion, some humour and style.”

Leaders with high EQ and ‘Cutting Edge’

Leaders can lead – after a fashion – simply by downloading habitual ways
of thinking and acting, but their influence and achievements are likely
to be, at best, mediocre. Rarely, however, will they initiate the necessary
breakthroughs, to move their worlds forward. Even less will they exploit
and capitalize upon them. They are likely, too, to lose the plot as leaders
– because they probably won’t even have recognized it in the first place.

This is what Tichy refers to as the ‘ultimate failure of leadership’ – the
lack of acuity, focus and disciplined edge, and the failure to recognize

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 25

and respond effectively to the real challenges of their environment. He
cites Arnold Toynbee’s 10 example of nations and societies failing, or
succumbing, once they have reached a ‘condition of ease’ and have lost
the will, cutting edge and self-determination to face reality and deal
decisively with it.

Leaders of high EQ, with the necessary will, focus and ‘steel’, give the
organization the speed, decisiveness, boldness and raw energy to
break the boundaries of conventional wisdom, add necessary crucial value
to the business – and its people – and move them forward. Their economic
decisions will focus on where to invest time, money and resources for
optimum payback and where – and how best – to add value to the business.
Their ‘people’ decisions, aligned to the needs of the business, will face
the realities of people’s jobs, contributions, careers and futures. In Jim
Collins’ terminology, they will face the brutal facts, as disciplined
leaders and, using a combination of professional will – and personal
humility – they will get the right people on the bus, in the right places.
Equally, they will get the wrong people off the bus, to set the right
standards, take the right actions and start to achieve outstanding results.

Successful leaders who commit to – and deliver – outstanding results,
do so as a result of the effective leadership and management of their teams.
They understand that their route to success is, inevitably through
engaging, focusing and mobilizing others’ brainpower, horsepower and
commitment.

Leadership is about taking people beyond what they thought they were
capable of – and creating jobs, roles, relationships and an environment
whereby people can excel in work that uses and extends their talents, and
about which they feel passionate. To do that, leaders need to engage closely
and fully with those whom they are charged with managing and leading.
In becoming effective close-quarter leaders, managers, more than at any
other time, will be leading by example and will be exercising power and
influence which are highly personal, as much as they are professional and
authoritative. Such engaged, close-quarter leadership relies for its

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS26

impact and success upon consistently clear, resonant communication.
Necessarily, this involves:

1. Recognizing and appropriately using all the right communication
channels, at the right times.

2. Understanding, acknowledging and using all levels of the
‘Hierarchy of Communications’ and being able to operate, at will,
with others at so-called ‘peak communication’ levels, to stimulate
necessary productive interaction and creative synergy.

The most important clues about what to change, or improve – and how
best to do it – are there, day-to-day, right under our noses. Developing
the necessary discriminatory perceptiveness, acuity and the ability to
‘sense’ when, or when not, to intervene, is central to professional and
personal growth, as a leader and manager. It is a matter of developing
the right mindset, as well as the right skills. It is essentially a selfless, not
a narcissistic process, where the main focus is upon the team and its
members, the organization and the results that are critical to ensuring
the future of the company.

Change the leadership mindset – and you change the whole business.

As Rijkman Groenink, Chairman of ABN AMRO 11 the highly successful
global bank, says:

“Effective leaders are leaders with the strength and courage to change
themselves, to grow, while retaining their essential self. If its leaders
have the ability to change and grow, so will the organization.”

ONE CLOSE-QUARTER LEADERSHIP 27

Chapter one references

1. Collins, J. Good to Great, Random House Business Books

2. Simms, J. Leadership – Low Profile Bosses, Director, Vol 57,
No. 7, 2004; Institute of Directors

3. Akabusi, K. Letter, Director, Vol 58, No 1, 2004; Institute of
Directors

4. 10 Companies in US, Canada, (food) Western Europe,
(Wood pulp, Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, banks, insurance,
electricity, service). Eastern Europe, (service, pharmaceuticals)
Author’s collaborative research, 1998-2004

5. Zander, B. Lanseer Productions, BBC TV, The Works Living
on one Buttock

6. Tichy, N. The Leadership Engine, Harper Collins, 1997

7. Bagshaw, M., Trans4mation Consultants, So what is EI?
Wiltshire Business, October 2003

8. Maddocks, J., JCA Occupational Psychologists, Emotional
Intelligence, Wiltshire Business, October 2003

9. Cooper, R. K. & Sawaf, A. Executive EQ, Perigee, 1998

10. Toynbee, A, quoted in Tichy, N. Ibid

11. ABN AMRO Chairman’s statement on management
development document

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THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 49

THREE
Leadership and the
achievement ethic

“Unfortunately, top people are often there
because they are expert in what was important
yesterday… We put more energy into developing
skill sets, rather than the right mindsets”

PROFESSOR JONAS RIDDERSTRÅLE, STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

“There must be a beginning of any great
matter, but the continuing unto the end until it
be thoroughly finished yields the true glory”

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

In their major study into the attraction and retention of high-performing,
talented people – ‘The War for Talent’ – in the late 1990’s, McKinseys found
that companies which had cultivated a strong, high-achievement culture
were frequently the winners in the ‘war’

Unsurprisingly, their findings
confirmed the obvious simple fact that capable, outstanding performers
wanted to be in similarly high achieving organizations.

As crucial aspects of high achieving cultures, McKinsey identified ‘great
jobs’, which allowed people both ample headroom and sufficient ‘elbow-

room’, to use their talents and to excel, often for up to 80% of their time
in their roles. One key factor associated with ‘great jobs’ was the presence

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LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS50

of comparably ‘great managers’, or great leaders, who provided suffi-
cient support, autonomy and directed empowerment for their people.
Such managers, it seems, operate in the style of close-quarter leaders –
hands-off, but eyes and ears on – and committed to making optimum
use of the talent available to them.

Acknowledging the reality that autonomy in almost any organization is
a matter of independence, within a network of interdependence, close-
quarter leadership involves defining the parameters of what is essentially
‘freedom within a framework’. Further, it requires leaders to enable
individuals – and teams – to operate to the very limits of the frameworks
and, indeed, to regularly test out the boundaries themselves, to validate
their continuing relevance to high achievement and progress.

The work of professor Tom Paterson
– a treasure unearthed

Some fifty-plus years before the McKinsey survey, Tom T. Paterson1

evolved a model aimed at developing leadership of high performing teams
– at that time, RAF fighter squadrons, whose morale had fallen signifi-
cantly, after the heady, ultimately successful months of the Battle of Britain.
In his later years, Paterson became Professor of Organizational Behaviour
at Strathclyde University and introduced his ideas on leadership to the
business world.

Unfortunately, his use of somewhat arcane terminology (an uncomfort-
able mixture of classical Greek and Latin) was the probable cause of his
otherwise very relevant concepts simply not catching on in industry. Very
few machine-shop foremen, assembly shop managers (or, for that matter,
CEO’s) are likely to identify whole-heartedly with the notion that they
are ‘methectic’ leaders, with both ‘indominus’ and ‘exdominus’ roles to
fulfil. Especially was this so in an age when ‘quid pro quo’ was gener-

ally interpreted on the shop floor as the going rate for a pre-Wolfenden

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 51

streetwalker, or optimistic shop stewards saw it as management’s offer
of an extra pound per week, all round! As a consequence, outside
academic circles , the model was generally not taken as seriously as it
deserved to be.

Put into plain English – or any other living language – and updated,
Paterson’s model makes good sense since it puts the leader at the centre
of an interactive process, of high interdependence, for defining, managing
and delivering requisite results, through other people. That centrality
of role also underlines the potential for influence of the leader, in fostering
and maintaining an achievement ethic, within the arenas of his/her respon-
sibility. Furthermore, it is a degree of centrality – and, hence, influence
– that can be reinforced and progressively consolidated, each time the
leader acts in an engaged, close-quarter role. Thus, the option and the
initiative to influence, or not, lie largely with the leader. The personal
and professional context of that option, as always, is one of risk versus
payoff.

Paterson’s concept of leadership uses the classical input – conversion –
output model of productive activity and achievement, shown in figure
8, below. In contemporary business practice, where the implications of
value-added and competitive/collaborative advantage have critical signif-
icance, updating of the original model takes the form of an ‘outcomes’
add-on.

FIGURE 8

Inputs Conversion Outputs Outcomes

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS52

In this simple model, representing both sequence and consequence,
‘inputs’ may, for example be rough castings, ‘conversion’ could, there-
fore, be machining and assembly and ‘outputs’ would most likely be
complete product units – for example – lawnmower engines. In turn,
‘outcomes’ could include customer satisfaction, an increased order book,
higher profits and sustained growth of the business – all measures of
requisite achievement.

As we export more and more of our manufacturing base to the East and
increasingly become service providers, the input-output-outcome chain,
more often than not, is one of data and information, in several forms,
being converted into data and information in many more very different
forms. Outcomes are then usually information intelligence and new under-
standing.

When the network of interdependence and leadership functions are
imposed upon the model, it takes shape as a series of potential interac-
tions and influences, with achievement as its central theme, as shown
in figure 9.

FIGURE 9

Inputs OutcomesConversion Outputs

Suppliers
Superiors and

other stakeholders
Customers Various

The team

Leadership

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 53

Leadership of any ‘conversion’ process, or stage, in the value chain neces-
sarily involves influencing supplier responses, in order to ensure that
the right inputs are available in the form and at the time needed. Bosses
and other stakeholders in the process need to be managed effectively
and regularly kept informed and customers and clients need to be supplied
and serviced, according to contract.

Both desired and unintended outcomes, similarly, must be profession-
ally initiated, developed and managed, to optimize the wider and
longer-term achievement implications of ‘conversion’.

In this network of function, roles and relationships, Paterson believed
that at least four leadership roles needed to be performed, as and when
conditions demanded. In addition, he saw a critical fifth follower/supporter
role that was crucial to effective output – and successful outcomes.The
four leadership roles are:

1. Inward leader role

The principal orientation and pre-occupation of this role is the ‘internal’
life of the team – its task performance, cohesiveness, morale, intra-
personal relationships, continual learning and development. The leader,
in this role, is most closely engaged with the team members themselves
and what needs to be done to energize and mobilize the group – or individ-
uals – from within the team. Close-quarter dialogue concentrates upon
‘you’, ‘me’ and ‘us’ and the ‘here-and-now’. The Inward Leader helps to
define and crystallize the team’s vision, mission, values and goals and
to secure buy-in from the members to these and to other critical initia-
tives. The functioning maturity of the team – and of individual members
– is a major concern of the Inward Leader, hence much of his/her focus
involves ensuring fitness for task and role, of the work group, including
the group’s internal communications and information sharing.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS54

2. Outward leader role

In this role the leader’s concern is to develop and maintain effective,
functioning relationships with key players in the team’s external world;
for example suppliers, customers (and customers’ customers) superiors
and other significant stakeholders whose activities impinge upon those
of the team. Of particular importance is the clarity, quality and timeli-
ness of the team’s communication – and level of engagement – with its
key external contacts.

The Outward Leader’s role is to represent the team’s best interests in
various arenas and ‘corridors of power’, within the rest of the organi-
zation and also in the world at large. Their task is to align the team’s aims
and objectives with those of the organization and the wider context of
its business. In the role of ‘outward leader’, lobbying on behalf of the
team, appropriately promoting its successes, sponsoring and opening
doors for members and building bridges for collaboration and synergy
with other functions or units, are all typical close-quarter leadership activ-
ities, designed to integrate the team’s direction and performance, with
its operational environment.

3. Exemplar leader role

Acting as an Exemplar leader involves a disciplined, analytical approach
to both task and process issues facing the team. Logic and rational factual
thinking – aimed at clarification, simplicity and clearer understanding.
It is a monitoring, regulating and stock-taking role, aimed at maintaining
focus, sense of purpose and direction – so keeping the team and its
performance on track.

In close-quarter mode, the Exemplar may, for example, stop a meeting
in mid-flight with the comment: “Let’s stop right there, please. I think we’re
in danger of losing our way, if we continue with this line of thinking. Let’s
get back to base one and start again from there.”

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 55

The Exemplar’s is a leadership role acting primarily in ‘left-brain’
thinking. It therefore injects structure, order, sequence, objectivity and
clarity into the team’s problem analysis, decision-making and selection
of courses of action. It is a form of thinking which seeks to strip issues
of both unnecessary mental clutter and diversionary emotional ‘baggage’.

4. Eccentric leader role

Intellectually and emotionally the opposite of the Exemplar, the Eccentric
Leader role functions primarily in right-brain mode. It is the role of the
creative, deviant (as opposed to convergent) thinker who stimulates or
injects new, different thinking into the group. Creating fresh insights and
perspectives and approaching issues from novel, or unorthodox angles
are the main contributions of the Eccentric Leader. What Edward
DeBono would describe as ‘lateral thinkers’, Eccentrics are the natural
option generators of the team. They have little reverence for ideas and
practices hallowed by no more than the mere passage of time and the
cry – “we’ve always done it this way” is anathema to them.

While they respect relevant logic, they are, nevertheless, the ‘boundary
busters’ of conventional wisdom and the mantra ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t
fix it’ acts as a legitimate challenge and timely invitation to start breaking
things and re-fixing them, in order to enhance capabilities and, ultimately,
achievement levels.

Acting in close-quarter style, Eccentric Leaders will involve people directly
in ‘brainstorming’ and the use of creative techniques such as ‘mind-maps’
and ‘spider-diagrams’, to free up thinking and to challenge conventional
stereotypes, in removing mental blocks to progress. The key questions
they so frequently ask are – ‘why?’ and ‘why not?’. They tend to see most
constraints as largely self-inflicted wounds, hence their concern to
challenge and change mindsets, in order to move forward and raise the
game.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS56

5. Facilitator/follower

This low-key role seems, at times, to be more that of a follower, than a
leader. In effect, it is ‘leadership from behind’, with the role-player acting
variously as prompt, catalyst, devil’s advocate, supporter or facilitator,
to influence outputs and outcomes.

Leaders acting in Facilitator/Follower mode reinforce others’ relevant
contributions that might otherwise be lost, or go unheeded, in the mêlée
of a noisy meeting – or if some red-herring is preoccupying the group
taking it away from the real business on hand. Typical close-quarter
Facilitator/Follower interventions would be: “Ian, I think it would be worth-
while repeating, more loudly, the point you just made. It struck me as being
very important and I don’t think everyone heard you.”

“I’d like us to come back to what Sheila said a moment ago and explore it
in some detail, before we move on and the matter is lost.”

“Allan, please develop that idea for us in more depth. It seems to me it has
possibilities that we should look at more closely, bearing in mind what
Product Development are planning to do.”

Paterson’s model is based on the premise that, at appropriate times, all
of these roles will be needed for a team to operate with optimum effect
and that different people – not necessarily the formal leader of the group
– will take them. Generally, experience suggests that the formal group leader
will be the predominant taker of the Inward and Outward leader roles,
because of their emphasis upon team effectiveness, performance,
mobilization and alignment with corporate goals and the operational
environment. The Exemplar and Eccentric roles usually appeal to
personality ‘types’ of very differing intellectual and skill preferences – who
tend to use somewhat polarized frames of reference – and so are usually
performed, in the main, by distinctly different individuals. The Facilitator/
Follower role is often best undertaken, for optimum impact, by percep-
tive people of high emotional intelligence and process sensitivity.

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 57

Both in his early work with the RAF and subsequently with the Civil
Service, after the war, Paterson concluded that the absence of any one
of the above leadership roles – when needed – was a major contributory
factor to poor morale, team dysfunction and inferior performance.Use of
the adapted, Anglicised version of his original model – in both team-
building consultancy assignments and within British Ceramic Tile –
continues to endorse Paterson’s conclusions about the critical impor-
tance of the five leadership roles in achieving high performance. The key
skill, however, remains one of sufficient awareness and perception, in
recognizing which particular role is likely to be most effective, in any
given set of circumstances – and fulfilling it. In that respect, everyone
in a leader role, it seems, needs to develop the level of acuity and skill
necessary to play the role required, at the time, or enable a more appro-
priately equipped team member to take it over. It requires a mature – and
confident – leader to acknowledge that, as situations change, the leader-
ship role inevitably moves around within the team and passes to the most
competent, in the circumstances, to take charge and move the group on.

Too often, the formal leader may fail to recognize the reality that individual
leaders are transient, while leadership remains a constant need. In today’s
business world, managers have long had to come to terms with the fact
that, at many times, their most useful contribution to the team, as a leader,
is in the role of servant – not superior, or as enabler – not autocrat.
Testosterone alone, generally, has a most unenviable reputation for success
and delivery, in leadership, unless it is effectively combined with suffi-
ciently high emotional and cognitive intelligence.

Paterson’s model – and those of the previous chapter – all have
relevance, as determined by the people and circumstances involved, in
all major arenas of leadership. Figure 10 below, offers four dimensions
to management and leadership where these constructs have significant
contributions to make in mobilizing people for higher productive
achievement.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS58

FIGURE 10: DIMENSIONS TO MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

All four dimensions to leadership , are involved in creating, developing
and sustaining an Achievement Culture within an organization, and each
provides arenas and scope for close-quarter

At strategic levels of leadership, crystallizing and communicating vision
and ensuring buy-in, not by-pass, is an essential part of the longer-term
engagement of people. Building the necessary achievement culture is
usually a slow, painstaking process often seemingly involving progress
of two steps forward and then one step back, in changing mindsets and
practices to get to the future, faster than the competition. Jim Collins’
findings emphasize the importance of persisting – and not giving up –
in order to create a ‘flywheel’ effect which slowly, but certainly, progres-
sively gains momentum company-wide. Leaders who possess so-called

‘helicopter’ perception and can see higher and wider than the situation

1. STRATEGIC
Vision & integration
Strategic direction
Business transformation
Shaping the culture

4. INSPIRATIONAL
Engaging people
Inspiring them
Mobilizing them
Building relationships

2. OPERATIONAL
Operating principles
Day-to-day management
Continuous improvement
Building the business

3. PERFORMANCE
Focusing brains & effort
Managing talent
Improving performance
Building new competencies

RESULTS

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 59

they are currently in, have a head start on their colleagues of more
restricted insight and vision in seeing the need to maintain the ‘flywheel’,
once it begins to turn.

In the context of continuous improvement, operational leadership, based
upon focused, disciplined thinking – and action – is aimed at moving the
business forward, day-to-day. This is the sustained tactical influence similarly
directed towards turning the flywheel and creating the necessary
momentum for sustained growth and increasingly raised performance.
It is the leadership – and management – that is essential to keeping mobilized
activity aligned and on-track, within agreed parameters and to established
or emerging, operating principles, or disciplines.

The third dimension – performance leadership – concentrates upon the
deployment, management and development of knowledge and talent,
in order to maximize individual and team performance. In Jim Collins’
terms, this is about getting the right people on the bus, ensuring that
they are in the right seats and getting the wrong people off the bus.
Performance leadership, at close quarters, involves constructive feedback,
coaching, empowering, sponsoring and enabling, to get the best out of
people and to create productive synergy, where none may have existed
previously.

The final dimension of inspirational leadership centres largely on a leader’s
personal ‘chemistry’ and professional style. It is understanding what inspi-
rational leaders actually do that is most helpful in developing more effective
close-quarter leadership, techniques, ‘alchemy’ and style. Typically, they:

• Make others feel good about themselves, their contributions and
their achievements. They build on others’ ideas, rather than
attacking or discrediting them.

• Recognize that most people (and especially high performers) know
what they want to achieve and so they work with individuals to
help them clarify and explore ways of meeting their objectives.

• Empower people and give them the space they need, in order
to deliver.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS60

• Ensure that others receive the recognition, praise and rewards
that they have earned and don’t steal others’ kudos for themselves.

• Focus on the ‘crime’, rather than the ‘criminal’, when things go
wrong, by separating the problem from the person, using
coaching – not blame – as their primary response. Their approach
is one of – ‘It’s ok to make mistakes, but learn quickly from them
and move on’.

• Ensure that significant achievements are recorded and properly
celebrated.

• Demonstrate that they trust their people.

• Be available, whenever they can and actively listen to people.

• Inject fun into work, recognizing that, in most walks of life,
laughter is one of the best tonics.

Accepting the Nike Company philosophy that, in corporate transforma-
tion, there is no finishing line, a critical and permanently ongoing aspect
of management is transformational leadership.

Leaders as ‘re-inventors’

In transforming a company, or even a business unit’s performance, leaders
necessarily become re-inventors, playing key roles in the change and
renewal. Taking examples from client companies and examples cited
elsewhere, re-inventors challenge the status quo and create the pressure
for transformation, when they:

1. Confront conventional wisdom, limiting assumptions and current
practices by constructive challenge (ABN AMRO, Hewlett Packard,
ABB-Brown Boveri, British Ceramic Tile)

2. Continually ask ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’ (Europ Assistance, NCM,
Huck International)

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 61

3. Actively encourage the challenging of superiors and colleagues
(Honda, BP, Ericsson,, Lucent Technology, Imatra Steel)

4. Regularly challenge the business model (Astra Zeneca, Novartis,
GE – “Destroy your business before others do” – Jack Welch,)

5. Challenge current ‘sacred cows’, taboos and values (McKinsey,
Ford, Toyota)

In making transformation successful, to raise achievements, leader
strategies and ‘do-how’ include:

• Building commitment and trust, through meaningful involvement
(‘buy-in’) (Wellstream Northsea, Quest, United Vintners and
Distillers, Holland and Holland)

• Making significant things happen, that otherwise would not
happen (Virgin, ING, Nokia, Tesco)

• Creating environments that intelligently source and build talent
and encourage people to excel (Novartis, ABN AMRO, IBM)

• Fostering innovation and encouraging risk-taking (Sony, Ideo,
Richer Sounds)

• Promoting a sense of community and belonging (Stora Enso, Ideo,
Ericsson, Toyota)

• Inspiring people and making having fun a priority (Richer Sounds,
South Western Airlines, Oticon)

Close-quarter transformational leadership involves generating, releasing
and mobilizing energy – so providing the necessary stimulus and
impetus to the ‘transformation flywheel’. That stimulus, in turn, needs to
be formed by a compelling vision, clear purpose and challenging achieve-
ments. A lack of the necessary helicopter vision and a communicated sense
of direction – that is, an absence of focused stimulus, from the leader –
creates a vacuum which, during company transformation, is usually filled
by anxiety, cynicism, or even passivity and indifference.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS62

Far more so than in static, or stable conditions, during change and trans-
formation, people need to be kept informed and engaged in what is going
on, by those leading them. They need to understand exactly why change
is necessary, what the intended outcomes are and precisely how and when
change will proceed. They need also, to feel that their contributions to
intended changes are being actively sought – and valued – by their
managers. During periods of change, especially, leadership style and
perceived leader competence are critical determinants of the strength
of follower commitment to and active support for transformation and
its intended changes.

As Karen McCormick, Associate Director, HR, GUS says: “At any time,
but especially during transformation, a leader who is not onboard is a major
liability.”

Figure 11 illustrates four different styles of transformational leadership,
derived from:

1. Helicopter vision of the intended future of the business

2. Degree of goal-directedness

FIGURE 11: TRANSFORMATION AND LEADER STYLE

SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE
Resisting the change
Non-co-operation & sabotage
Expecting & fearing failure
Seeing change as a lost cause

SURFING THE WAVES
Directing & leading change
Accepting the risks involved
Focusing on opportunities
Confidence in ultimate success

STAYING ON THE SHORE
Wishing change would go away
Expecting & fearing the worst
Delaying decisions
Avoiding taking action

DRIFTING WITH THE TIDE
Accepting change as inevitable
Anticipating disruption
Expecting conflict/compromise
Optimism about survival

D
eg

re
e

of
g

oa
l d

ir
ec

ti
on

High

Low

Low
Clear ‘helicopter’ vision of the intended future

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 63

Clearly, there are many ways of mobilizing energy and talent for change
open to managers. Five of them, which are ‘classical’ leadership arenas
are:

1. Open Forum

Invite and encourage ideas and contributions from everyone, but
especially those directly involved in the changes, concentrating on why
change is essential and the specific outcomes and goals which change
is designed to achieve.

2. ‘Organic’ Transformation

Bring together teams from across functions and the hierarchy, whose
interaction and combined activities are critical determinants of the
required transformation, to address key organizational and business
challenges.

3. Key Players

Key players who are jointly responsible for creating, improving or
changing a a particular set of conditions, come together, in order to trans-
form the current situation. ‘Process’ issues, of roles, relationships and
responsibilities as, well as task concerns, should be high on the discus-
sion agenda.

4. Complete Team

A complete team, with discrete accountability for specific changes, or
improvement, take ownership of the change and manage it, acknowl-
edging that their independent actions have interdependent consequences.

5. Networking and lobbying

Networking is essentially a matter of discussion and dialogue, frequently

aimed at building up critical support for a new idea, a different way of

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS64

doing things, or some other intended change. In a study, conducted by
London Business School, it was found that highly successful people
typically networked up to four times as much as those who were markedly
less successful in moving projects forward, making new things happen
and gaining regular promotion, within their companies.

Dr Patrick Dixon2 author of the currently prophetic ‘Future Wise’,
describes networking as creating informal ‘ideas factories’. In their
excellent book ‘The Expertise of the Change Agent’, Buchanan and Boddy3

intelligently explore the realpolitick of networking and lobbying, both
within and outwith organizations, to defeat resistance, cut through – or,
conversely, use – political influences, in order to get done what needs to
be done. Professor Carolyn Egri of Simon Fraser University, British
Columbia4 similarly has published extensively in the field of ‘political’
networking in companies, as an informal leverage process, to both take
advantage of – and to short-circuit – the organization hierarchy. To this
list of writers and researchers, Gifford Pinchot5 author of ‘Intrapreneuring’
adds several interestingly expedient thoughts, in the book’s section entitled
– ‘The Intrapreneur’s Ten Commandments’, including:

• “Circumvent any orders aimed at stopping your dream.”

• “Work underground as long as you can – publicity triggers the
corporate immune mechanism.”

• “Remember, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness, than for permission.”

Pinchot realistically balances the radical exhortations with some practical
common sense ideas on working intelligently within the political arenas
so typical of many organizations:

• “Follow your intuition about the people you choose, and work
with only the best.”

• “Be true to your goals, but be realistic about the ways to achieve
them.”

• “Honor (sic) your sponsors.”

THREE LEADERSHIP AND THE ACHIEVEMENT ETHIC 65

In Pinchot’s terms, an ‘Intrapreneur’ is someone who applies comparable
energy, resolve and expertize to reforming the organization and raising
its achievements, from within, that an entrepreneur would employ, to
achieve success in the external world of the business.

Perhaps the last pieces of practical advice on managing and leading
change should come from a Regional Director of the Dutch pharmaceu-
tical company Organon, who stated: “Find the right people to help you.
Find the ones who understand, who care, who can and will…”

Secondly, from Percy Barnevik, former CEO, ABB – Brown Boveri, who
confirms the continuity of change and transformation in organizations:
“Significant restructuring never stops. Perpetual revolution and perpetual
re-invention are the reality of business.”

Chapter three references

1. Paterson, T. T. A Theory of Methectic Organization in Glasgow
Unlimited (Out of print) and proceedings, Management
programme, University of Strathclyde, 1967

2. Dixon, P. Futurewise – Six Faces of Global Change, Harper
Collins, 1998

3. Buchanan, D. & Boddy, D. The Expertise of the Change Agent,
Prentice-Hall, 1992

4. Egri, C., Simon Fraser, University, British Columbia –
proceedings; IMD “Mobilising People” Programme, 1995

5. Pinchot, G III, Intrapreneuring, Harper Row, 1985

Blank page

TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 29

TWO
Leadership theories, role models –
and common sense

“There is nothing so practical as
a theory that works”

PROFESSOR BARRY TURNER

“Business leaders have the difficult
task of acting as role models every
hour of every day”

ANDREW BROWN

The world of business is essentially one where applied, intelligent common
sense, allied to the outstanding management of people, money, resources
and information, are seen as the critical executive strengths

It is prima-
rily a managerial arena where pragmatism, productive ‘do-how’ and
discipline – in the achievement of results – are regarded as the more
laudable managerial virtues. In such a world of forecasting, planning,
organization, mobilization and control, there is no gain saying the crucial
importance of reality, practicality and sound common sense, as key execu-
tive competencies.

Almost by default, pragmatism has inevitably assumed the dominant role,
in relation to theory, in the practices of management and leadership, within

the vast majority of organizations that make up the business world. In

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LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS30

recognition of that position of precedence and preference, it must be said
that the management philosophies and so-called practices taught at many
business schools, universities and by major consultancies, often bear little
relation to the managerial realities of shop-floor leadership, cross-
functional integrative management and corporate governance. Clearly,
there are exceptions to this criticism. In the UK, Exeter University,
Warwick, Cranfield, London and Ashridge are among those British
business schools whose teaching does have its roots in reality, while
INSEAD at Fontainebleau, IMD at Lausanne, Stockholm School of
Economics, Copenhagen Business School and Nyenrode, in Holland, offer
some of the most relevant – and creative – learning experiences avail-
able for business leaders, on a par with those of the best US business
schools.

D. O. Hebb1 an American psychologist, made the point that – “theory is
a sophisticated statement of ignorance” and in providing learning oppor-
tunities for leaders – be they managerial training programmes,
workshops, or face-to-face coaching – we need to remain conscious of
Hebb’s definition. Taking a different view, Professor Barry Turner2

suggests there is nothing so practical as a theory that works. Theories
that provides necessary context, perspective and understanding, to
practice, offer people both meaning and a sense of purpose, which they
might not otherwise find, by being excessively committed to utilitarian
pragmatism.

A great many gurus have entered the very testing arena of business leader-
ship and management, over the last hundred years. Their acceptance,
survival and professional longevity have depended upon their ability to
add perceived value to the body of knowledge, understanding and
evolving best practices that represent state-of-the-art leadership and
management.

Among those who have invested leadership theory with major signifi-
cance are John Adair, Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard, Noel Tichy,
Warren Bennis, Henry Mintzberg, Charles Handy and, most recently,

Williams, M. (2005). Leadership for leaders. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 31

Jim Collins. All have developed models or concepts of leadership, way
beyond mere fad, that have stood – or will stand – the test of time. All
have added major value to our understanding and practice of both leader-
ship and management.

This chapter explores some of the practical and applicable ideas of Adair,
Hersey and Blanchard, Tichy and Collins.

1. Professor John Adair

A former soldier and subsequently lecturer at the at the Royal Military
Academy, Sandhurst. John Adair3 held the first Chair in Leadership at
a British university. A prolific author and public speaker, he has devel-
oped and promoted the concept of ‘Action-centred leadership’ shown in
figure 3, below.

Action-centred leadership – the model and constructs

Adair’s model of leadership is based upon three key functions of leaders,
i.e.:

1. Achieving the task

2. Maintaining the team

3. Meeting the needs of the individual

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS32

FIGURE 3: THE ADAIR LEADERSHIP ‘TRINITY’

Adair’s model has been extensively used since the 1960’s and is acknowl-
edged as being a pragmatic and relevant basis for the day-to-day
leadership and management of tasks, teams and individuals, at any level,
from shop-floor to Boards of directors.

The central notion of maintaining equilibrium of focus, between – meeting
the demands of the task, maintaining the team and meeting the needs of
individual team members – is a major guide to leaders and provides a
practical yardstick for self-monitoring, self-development, training and
coaching. The model, as a whole, provides a relevant discipline in exercising
close-quarter leadership and lends both form and focus to that highly
engaged style of leading and managing.

Achieving the TASK

Meeting
INDIVIDUAL

needs

Maintaining
the TEAM

The leader’s role is to
keep the three functions
in balance, so that none
are neglected through
undue focus on either
of the others

TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 3

2. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard

Early in the 1970’s Hersey and Blanchard 4 developed their concept of
‘Situational leadership’.

The basic premise of their model is that the functioning maturity of the
team members is a major determinant of the ‘style’ and focus that need
to be adopted by leaders, in order to elicit the optimum productive
responses from people.

‘Functioning maturity’ is the degree to which people are sufficiently:

1. Competent to successfully undertake the task given them

2. Confident to cope with the challenges posed by the task

3. Committed and motivated to undertake the task

Plotting a range of leadership styles, based upon ‘appropriateness’ of
behaviour, against a comparable continuum of team member functioning
maturity, from ‘low’ to ‘high’, the Situational Leadership model is shown
in figure 4, below.

For example, leader style S1 (‘Telling’) where the leader explains, tells,
coaches, trains, as appropriate, is most likely to be the approach neces-
sary to help team members to understand exactly what is expected of
them, where their functioning maturity is low (M1).

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS34

FIGURE 4: THE SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

Similarly, where the team members are all competent, confident and
committed (M4), then the appropriate leader style would be

(‘Delegating’ and, one might add, empowering).

Had such a concept of leadership been understood – and practised – in
the ‘bad old days’, at British Leyland, it might have prevented some of
the ignorance, confused reactions and costly mistakes that followed one
senior executive’s public statement, at the company’s then newest plant,
composed largely of people with no experience of working in a car factory
– “With effect from April, we will adopt an open, participative style of
management” (i.e. level S3/S4).

April was two months off, the workforce was almost universally at a
functional maturity level of M1 and, with few exceptions, most managers
were operating, themselves, at levels M1 and M2.

DE
LE

TI
NG

P
AR

TIC
IPA

TING
SELLING TELLING

High Task
and

High Relationship

High Relationship
and Low Task

Low Relationship
and Low Task

High Task and
Low Relationship

S3 S2

High

Moderate
High M3

Moderate
Low M2

Low

Leader style to match follower maturity (S)

Functioning maturity of followers (M)

RE
LA

TI
O

N
SH

IP
B

EH
A

VI
O

U
R

High
Low
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TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 35

Leadership, as such, was virtually non-existent and the operators had
organized and marked off the areas under the overhead production line,
as a succession of badminton courts, mini football pitches and spaces
for other pastimes, during the frequent stoppages and consequent down-
time. What was desperately needed, short-term, was some very effective
S1 close-quarter leadership!

The Situational Leadership model is a relevant and practical tool. Like
John Adair’s ‘three circle’ concept, it can be used as another set of personal
development benchmarks, in building and giving necessary form to
managers’ evolving leadership styles.

Equally, as with ‘Action-centred leadership’, the ‘Situational leadership’
model is widely known in the UK and using its logic as a basis for leader
development is often a matter of revisiting previous learning.
Furthermore, it is a concept that lends itself readily to the development
of a common leadership language and practices throughout an organi-
zation, as does the Adair model.

3. Noel Tichy

Tichy 5 an American academic, who is well known for his study of trans-
formational leadership (see chapter 3) and leader development of other
leaders, evolved the concept of the Leadership ‘engine’. His model is
based upon the premise that leaders are essential, as the energizing and
driving force in collective activity. Tichy sees leaders, necessarily, as
committed, focused, tough individuals of high energy, who lead by
example. Tichy regards the effective mobilization of people – including
other leaders – as central to the leader’s role and primary contribution
to the organization.

The Leadership ‘engine’ has three distinct facets to it, as is shown in figure
5.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS36

FIGURE 5: THE LEADERSHIP ENGINE

In more detail, the three essential components of Tichy’s Leadership engine
are:

1. Leaders are responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient
ideas and information flowing, that are relevant to the task
on hand. The leader’s role may, variously, be to generate,
stimulate, trigger, or foster new or fresh thinking on an issue, or
problem. Leaders, themselves, are not the fount of all knowledge,
but their task is to make sure that sufficient insight, intuition, logic
and intellectual energy is made available to deal effectively with
the challenges facing the team.

2. In leading by example – ‘walking the talk’ – leaders provide
a continual living demonstration of the values which represent
the core culture of the team or group. Day-to-day, through

IDEAS
Know-how

Values
Beliefs

E
Emotion +

Energy + ‘Edge’

3
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TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 37

integrity and consistency, their role is to define and exemplify what
their group stands for and believes in.

In many cultures – including those which collectively constitute the British
way of doing things – there can often be a fine and subtle line between
integrity and pretentiousness. Usually those on the receiving end, sooner
rather than later, distinguish the real thing from the inauthentic and
spurious.

The third component is what Tichy defines as the E3 Factor. This,
in turn, is made up of three elements:

• Emotion and drive to get the job done well.

• Energy and the ability to energize others and create energy and
synergy where none existed previously.

• ‘Edge’ – which is the the ability to take necessary tough decisions
and remain resolute and resilient, in conditions of adversity or
high pressure. If leaders with ‘edge’ go down, they don’t stay
down, but rather live by a philosophy of – ‘So, life gives you lemons
– then make lemonade!’

In Tichy’s terms, ‘Edge’ represents the difference in leadership style
between those who will win – and those who will lose, in today’s compet-
itive world.

Leaders with edge give a business speed, decisiveness, boldness and ‘raw’
energy. Leadership edge can apply to decisions about where to invest
time, money and resources, for optimum payback and where and how
best to add value to the business.

Equally, edge may give the necessary reality to ‘people’ decisions, about
individuals’ performance, jobs, roles, careers and futures.

Edge is the very opposite of what Arnold Toynbee described as the ‘condi-
tion of ease’ – in essence, a leadership ‘plateau’ of:

• lack of acuity, focus and sharpness

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS38

• Absence of a will to win

• Failure to recognize and respond effectively, in time, to critical
challenges within their environment

As Tichy states – “This is the ultimate failure of leadership…”

4. Jim Collins

Author of the best-selling book, Good to Great, one-time McKinsey
research analyst, former Stanford professor and proponent of the contro-
versial ‘first who… then what’ principle, Jim Collins 6 emerges as one of
the most exciting and challenging of the current management gurus. His
findings on leadership are as surprising as the conclusions that he came
to about the ways in which ‘good’ companies achieve sustainable great-
ness and he has evolved from his extensive research, in over 1400
companies, what he defines as ‘Level 5 leadership’.

Working by logical, incremental steps, in a highly disciplined and
focused way, Level 5 leaders look first to get the right people onboard –
and in the right roles (and get rid of the wrong people) before they ask
the question ‘what?’. In other words, their first priority is the right people
and then they set the right direction. They are also consistent leaders with
a strong sense of accountability and high ‘say-do’ credibility. Collins and
his research team found that the so-called Level 5 leaders tended to work
consistently and diligently, over considerable periods of time, at devel-
oping a ‘flywheel’ effect, to create ever-increasing momentum, in
transforming their companies from good to great. Collins identified several
more unusual, or unexpected, characteristics, among the ‘good-to-
great’ leaders, including a readiness to confront brutal and often
unpalatable facts, such as, for instance:

“We’re at least 20% over-manned in our manufacturing operations.
Why?”

TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 39

“The pace, nature and direction of transformation of this organization
have overtaken the HR manager’s knowledge and competency levels
and are way beyond her professional experience. There is no longer
a place for her, in this seat, on this ‘bus’. We must find a replacement,
within 3 months.”

“This supplier has successively taken us for a ride, for at least the last
18 months. As a result, we’ve incurred avoidable losses of over £350,000.
How, precisely, did this happen?”

“Yield of first quality tiles, in production, has been running at around
73%, for the last 3 weeks, when it should have been consistently over
95%. What, exactly, do we need to do differently?”

Level 5 leaders focus just as much upon what they and the business need
to STOP doing and what should be abandoned, as they do on what new
practices and processes they need to adopt, in the interests of greatness.
Shedding much loved brands, products and practices (often hallowed by
little more than the passage of time) can be one of the toughest decisions
that CEO’s and their Boards have to make. These, too, are the decisions
that demand that leaders persist and don’t waver in the face of opposi-
tion and ridicule from those with vested interests in preserving the status
quo.

Confronting hard reality and working through the ‘Stop doing’ list, moves
a business closer to what Collins describes as the ‘Hedgehog Concept’
and, in turn, provides a further logical basis for necessary transforma-
tion. Hedgehogs provide the analogy because of their ability to recognize
the one big, critical factor facing them and so they are able to break down
the complex, and multi-facetted, into a fundamental and focused single idea
(as opposed to foxes, who know a great many varied and small things
and may diffuse and spread their efforts too widely). Most good-to-great
leaders it seems, from Collins’ study, are ‘Hedgehogs’, rather than ‘Foxes’.

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS40

In the form of another ‘unholy trinity’ (figure 6) the Hedgehog Concept
is best portrayed as three intersecting circles, representing much
needed, disciplined thinking, in the form of three pivotal questions:

• What can we be best in the world at? (and, equally important –
what can we not be best at?)

• What is the economic denominator that best drives our economic
engine, e.g. profit per ‘x’?

• What are our core people deeply passionate about?

FIGURE 6: THE ‘HEDGEHOG CONCEPT’

Level 5 leaders, according to Collins’ study are essentially disciplined
people who lead through an unusual combination of professional drive
(strong focus on the business – not themselves) and personal humility
(as opposed to arrogance and egotism).

Including our core
values, mission

and brands
What we are deeply

passionate about

What best
drives our

economic engine

What we can
be best

in the world at

TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 41

Figure 7 sets out the interplay of the two characteristics which underpin
the principal good-to-great leadership style and focus.

FIGURE 7: ‘LEVEL 5’ LEADERSHIP STYLE

All of the above models and concepts, from John Adair’s ‘Action-centred
Leadership’ to Jim Collins’ ‘Level 5 Leadership’, provide practical insights
into the functions, roles and processes which, together, make up organi-
zational leadership. Each one offers something that virtually everyone,
in a leadership role within the business world, can use as a basis for devel-
oping and enhancing their own competencies and style, as a leader –
especially if they are prepared to take on the challenges of becoming a
better close-quarter leader.

Close-quarter leadership, both as a mindset and as a series of carefully-
honed practices, is so-described because the process depends upon high
leader awareness, focus and commitment to others’ success. The parties
involved, necessarily, become professionally engaged, as closely as
possible, with very clear intended aims and outcomes, that might not other-
wise be achievable, through more ‘distant’, less focused leadership.

‘GOOD-to-GREAT’ – what makes the difference?

‘Level 5’ Leaders lead by:

PROFESSIONAL DRIVE X PERSONAL HUMILITY

Create outstanding results Show compelling modesty

Demonstrate unwavering resolve Act with quiet determination

Set and maintain standards Channel ambition into the company

Assume responsibility for poor results Credit others with success

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS42

Such styles of leadership are best developed by:

• Coaching by a competent, experienced close-quarter leader
with specific results-based feedback.

• Bespoke – as opposed to general – leadership training, with
participant and tutor feedback.

• ‘Reverse’ coaching, where team members, on the receiving end
of the individual’s leadership, give him/her feedback and
coaching on the felt impact of that leadership style.

• Regularly analyzed ‘incident-method’ self-review and feedback,
facilitated, explored and constructively built upon by a trusted,
credible third party.

• If and where available, appropriate role-models.

One problem is that there are, as yet, too few role-models of the kind needed
to provide sufficiently credible examples, for others to follow and
emulate.

The ‘classical’ leader role-models so often quoted – Mandela, Gandhi,
Churchill, Richard Branson, Archie Norman, Lee Iacocca, or Jack
Welch are all, in their differing ways, examples of great leaders. All are,
or were, charismatic leadership icons on a grand scale – several of them
being dynamic, larger-than-life personalities. A major factor with role-
models is recognizing when such icons actively corrupt, or simply no
longer represent, currently defining values, needs and realities. In other
words, at which point – and why – would you cease to follow Hitler,
General Custer, Napoleon, Ernest Shackleton, or even Winston Churchill?

TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 43

Low-key ‘thinking’ leadership

As we saw in chapter one, however, currently emerging highly successful
leaders, in the world of business, tend to operate in more low-key ways
to achieve sustainable transformation and greatness, for their businesses.
By and large, they don’t fit the outgoing, extravert stereotype of the tradi-
tionally accepted leadership role-model. They are leaders of a different
ilk, creating new, involving operational environments, where the cultural,
economic and social imperatives that determine leadership ability and
style are changing dramatically – where the traditional critical leader
message – “Follow me and I will lead you to a better world…” becomes
re-defined as – “Together, we will build a better world…” Among their key
directional competencies are:

1. The ability to reduce complexity to profound and manageable
simplicity.

2. Strong, clear sense of necessary direction.

3. The ability to identify the real priorities for concerted action.

4. Resolute single-mindedness in the dedicated pursuit of those
priorities.

5. The acuity to ask the sort of questions that will ignite necessary
change and transformation.

6. High awareness and insight in their ability to mobilize and move
others in the direction required.

Such leaders typically act like thinking people, while they think like action-
oriented individuals, focusing strongly on the requisite goals and outcomes
of the business – not their own image and personal standing. However,
there are some disadvantages – even dangers – in low-key, ‘quiet’ leader-
ship styles. Deflecting interest away from themselves and into the
business can make a leader appear as colourless, devoid of charisma and
lacking in personality. Communication skills – and the related demonstrable
ability to inspire others – remain as essential elements of a leader’s expected
repertoire of talents. Thus there is a fine line between professional low-

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS44

profile leader styles that do deliver – and acquiring a reputation as a ‘grey
nonentity’ who collects the rewards, while others, of higher visibility, are
assumed to be doing all the hard work.

In her very cogent article – on the UK’s more publicity-shy heroes, which
appeared in the February 2004 edition of the Institute of Directors journal
Director – Jane Simms7 identified some of Britain’s very successful ‘dark
horse’ CEO’s and Chairmen who generally shun the limelight. Most
appear to avoid becoming cult figures, or media personalities, and focus
their energies and commitment in very targeted ways on the business.
Her impressive list includes Terry Leahy, CEO of the highly successful
Tesco Supermarket chain, CEO John Peace, whose Company GUS outper-
formed the FTSE All Share by 134%, since his appointment in 2000, Julian
Richer, Chairman, Richer Sounds who is highly regarded by customers,
investors and his own people alike and Rose Marie Bravo, CEO,
Burberry, who has transformed an ailing brand the into a leading ‘must
have’ fashion item, growing capitalization from £200 million to £1.4 billion,
in just four years.

Maintaining a low profile and avoiding becoming an icon or symbol, when
clearly successful and under public pressure to assume the role of a cult
figure, may be difficult in the extreme. The City, the press – and
business in general- want successful role-models and frequently add their
own ‘colouring matter’ to make them appear larger than life. Manfred
Kets de Vries, Professor of Leadership Development at INSEAD business
school states – “People project fantasies onto them and they become a
walking symbol, which can be very hard to carry”.

It is also very human and very natural to want to receive recognition
and bouquets, in an age where brickbats and public criticism, often barely
short of defamation, have become an established occupational hazard
for CEO’s and other senior business leaders. ‘Good’ publicity, and culti-
vated leader ‘brand image’, can undoubtedly be good for the business
and some low-profile leaders have been criticized for not projecting their
personal profiles sufficiently, in the public interests of their companies.

TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 45

Clearly, it is possible to lead effectively, in a low-key and very focused
way, without unnecessary narcissistic ‘baggage’ contaminating the
process and so taking the leader’s eye off the critical ball. Leahy, Peace,
Richer, Bravo and many others, are living evidence of the success of under-
stated, but exceptionally talented, high-achieving leaders. Collins’
research and Simms’ findings – about leaders and leadership – would seem
to reaffirm, on both sides of the Atlantic, Alexander Pope’s adage:

“…Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul” – and, it would
seem, ensures sustainable longer-term business success.

Experience and theory –
a necessary synthesis

Nothing can entirely replace direct experience, as the most practical source
of learning for leadership.

However, when a manager says – “I’ve had 30 years’ experience of leading
and managing…” we need to know if those were 30 years in which the
most important lessons were continually drawn, explored and learned
from. Or – was it one year’s experience more or less repeated 30 times
over?

Theory, which is relevant – and which works – lends context and perspec-
tive to experience and helps to provide critical links and insights which
enhance, focus and give direction to learning. Moreover, theory may invest
experience with a significance that otherwise might not be there.

As was stated in the Introduction to this book, leadership is currently
one of the most discussed and yet least understood phenomena in the
world of industry and business. The theories, constructs and models
reviewed in this chapter are all offered as practical and essentially comple-
mentary tools for understanding more of the processes, skills and mindsets
fundamental to sound leadership practice. Furthermore, used in conjunc-

LEADERSHIP FOR LEADERS46

tion, they provide insights into the roles, functions and responsibilities
of leaders – and, therefore, some of the expectations people may legit-
imately hold of those who lead them. They are offered not as an ‘either-or’
selection of ideas, but as a collection of concepts and models which,
together – and used selectively – provide a practical basis for both progres-
sive coaching and managed self-development, for leaders

The first concept, John Adair’s Action-centred leadership model, empha-
sizes the importance of keeping in balance, the leader’s personal
direction of effort between achieving task objectives, maintaining effec-
tive, aligned teamwork and mobilizing individual team members’
commitment.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational leadership model is based upon the
leader’s need to recognize – and respond appropriately to – the degree
to which those involved can and will successfully achieve the task objec-
tives facing them. Thus the leader’s style needs to match and complement
the functioning maturity of those being led.

Noel Tichy’s Leadership engine highlights the importance of the
leader’s contribution to group performance, by generating/facilitating
ideas and solutions, identifying and crystallizing necessary group
values and, through what he terms the ‘E-3’ Factor, i.e. – leading with
emotion (passion), energy and ‘edge’ (toughness).

The fourth model is that of Jim Collins, which he terms ‘Level 5 leader-
ship’. According to Collins’ extensive research, Level 5 leaders are
essentially low-key, but disciplined thinkers who are dedicated to
making their businesses great. They succeed as leaders through a combi-
nation of high professional drive aimed at outstanding delivery – and
personal humility. They give due praise to others for success and take
the blame when things go wrong. Rather like the philosophy of
Wellstream Northsea, manufacturers of high quality steel tubing for the
oil industry, Level 5 leaders appear to lead by a personal code of – “We
commit. We deliver – and there are no excuses”.

TWO LEADERSHIP THEORIES, ROLE MODELS – AND COMMON SENSE 47

Currently, much of the most relevant research into leadership ‘best
practice’ consistently identifies strong directional sense, with its atten-
dant skills of acuity, focus and the ability to identify the real priorities,
as a critical competency ‘cluster’ of successful leaders.

Chapter two references

1. Hebb, D. O. Quoted in Proceedings, IMI Business School,
IAMP, 1989 Geneva

2. Turner, B.T. Proceedings, Rover Cars in-house Management
Programme, 1988

3. Adair, J. Action-Centred Leadership model, illustrated in
many of Professor Adair

4. Hersey, P. & Blanchard, K. H. Management of Organizational
Behavior, Prentice-Hall, 1977

5. Tichy, N. Ibid

6. Collins, J. Ibid

7. Simms, J.Ibid

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