Real Leaders Don't Boss (27 page)

Thompson facilitates success with an all-encompassing approach: he outlines his goals, obtains the backing of his superiors to help support those goals, and then organizes a team of experts to study, analyze, and suggest ways to accomplish the goals. By enlisting others in the process, he helps remove any barriers to implementing changes. Thompson will lay the foundation, which includes making sure roles and responsibilities of each team member are clearly defined, then he adopts a low profile. He steps out of the way so he doesn't interfere with the process that's been established. He lets his team members do what they were trained to do to accomplish the clearly defined goals. His team members know, though, that if they need counsel, a sounding board, or something more, Thompson is always there.

Two other superb leaders I have worked with are Navy Captains Ron Wildermuth and Jim Mitchell. I worked around the clock with the very accomplished Wildermuth during
the late 1980s when the Navy hit radar sites in Libya. During the early 1990s, I supported NATO operations related to the Bosnian War under the very skillful guidance of Navy Captain Jim Mitchell. Wildermuth and Mitchell were savvy, skilled, industrious, and excellent teachers.

Another real leader who facilitated success with his actions and approach is Adm. William J. Crowe, Jr., who, among other appointments, served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989 while I was on annual active duty in their Public Affairs Office. The office consisted of a team of public information officers, enlisted personnel, and civilians charged with serving multiple commands worldwide. The team members were required to have broad knowledge of current operations and events, great flexibility, and lightning-fast reaction time. The job also required a well-oiled operations machine that could do an incredible job no matter the task. The information team's superior efficiency was not solely due to the fact that it was a military operation. It was because of the leadership ripple effect: Crowe, one of the very few commanders I ever met who had a PhD, set the tone and the stage for the team to assist and support commanding officers across the globe on a moment's notice. The team members enjoyed doing the job and doing it well. The team was respected, appreciated, and treated well, and, in turn, did the best possible job. Not surprisingly, attrition on that team was low.

Enthusiasm is contagious. Real leaders use that to their and their company's advantage. Both Thompson and Crowe not only had the right idea about how to manage a team, but their enthusiasm toward their goals was infectious, with top-notch work as the result. Their team members wanted to do the best job possible because that's what their leader expected of them.
From a business perspective, that kind of enthusiasm provides nearly unstoppable momentum that propels employees and others to levels of achievement well beyond set goals. Those goals can be small and personal, or seemingly overwhelming with far-reaching effects. Whichever the case, real leadership can mean the difference between great success and great failure in accomplishing any goals.

Remember Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Paul Levy, mentioned in
Chapter 4
? The medical center was facing major layoffs during the current recession. Levy persuaded the entire staff to accept pay adjustments so that lower-paid employees could keep their jobs. As a real leader—one with inherent abilities of persuasion—Levy set a monumental goal, believed in the goal, worked with others to understand the importance of the goal, generated momentum to move forward toward the goal, and eventually achieved it.

No matter the scale of the goal or the degree of change required, it all starts with real leadership. After preparing their team, real leaders then work toward achieving their goals one step at a time, building on each successful accomplishment of those they lead.

Reading all the leadership books in the world doesn't automatically make someone a real leader. Knowing how to lead takes experience and experimentation with different solutions for different situations. After all, no two situations in the workplace will ever be exactly the same, and rapidly increasing changes in the world will ensure that this will continue.

Adversity and failure, too, provide some of the best experiences and the greatest lessons in life. The key, though, is to look at life's adverse lessons with a positive spin, and approach them with patience rather than panic. Then, you emerge from
difficult circumstances with more success and poise, and learn the important lessons of leadership in the process.

Academy Award winner for Best Picture,
The King's Speech
tells the story of a leader faced with a tremendous crisis of conviction. Trying to overcome a lifelong speech impediment and a timid spirit to answer the call of leadership at the outset of World War II, King George VI of England had to learn trust in others, admit and face his weakness, and persevere to reach a goal.

This kind of adversity can be a great motivator. If, at a job interview, you have ever been asked “What is the biggest failure or the biggest challenge you've ever experienced?” you have no doubt been faced with the dilemma of exposing a weakness at the time when you most want to promote your strengths. The truth is that many people are at their best and do their best work when everything else appears to be at its worst. The lessons of history have taught us that leaders and people in general often emerge from adversity better and more accomplished. How an individual deals with and emerges from serious challenges, adverse circumstances, or failures can often provide an insight into his or her individual capabilities and true persona.

Moreover, among the most fundamental tasks of a leader is to prepare the organization for a crisis, and then be able to function effectively when a crisis occurs. In his book
Managing the Non-Profit Organization
, Peter F. Drucker writes:

The most important task of an organization's leader is to anticipate crisis. Perhaps not to avert it, but to anticipate it. To wait until the crisis hits is already abdication. One has to make the organization capable of anticipating the storm, weathering it, and in fact, being ahead of it. That is called innovation, constant renewal. You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organization that is battle-ready, that has high morale, and also has been through a crisis, knows how to behave, trusts itself, and where people can trust one another.
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Rebounding from adversity is a skill that cannot be taught. An individual has to experience adversity firsthand, and struggle out of it, to understand what it is and to comprehend its value for success in life. Some of the greatest business leaders on record are people who faced tremendous adversity and emerged stronger, wiser, and with more passion and determination to succeed. These losers-turned-winners, with their indefatigable spirits, are able to nurture complete trust among their staff and, because of this, have an innate ability to inspire a workforce to reach new heights and do their best work.

Credentials, a top-notch education, a strong upbringing—even impeccable values—also aren't enough to make a great leader. Instead, it takes the added experience of enduring hardship—even failure—and persevering to learn the secrets for knowing what to do in any situation. A few real leaders I know of who have triumphed over adversities include:

Paul Orfalea, whom I brought to the Corporate Leaders Breakfast speaker series I started. The founder of Kinko's, he discusses his condition in his book,
Copy This: Lessons from a Hyperactive Dyslexic Who Turned a Bright Idea into One of America's Best Companies
(Workman Publishing, 2005).

Bill Walsh, legendary coach and general manager of the San Francisco 49ers. He was blackballed by Cleveland Bengals' coach Paul Brown in a move that nearly ended his NFL career.

U.S. Sen. John McCain. His Navy plane was shot down during the Vietnam War, then he was imprisoned and tortured in the notorious “Hanoi Hilton” in North Vietnam.

Hank Greenberg, baseball Hall of Famer. He performed magnificently despite constant anti-Semitic verbal abuse and death threats.