In anticipation of the possibility that week’s Seattle Times article about Interrelativity might generate increased interest in the company, I updated our web site … including my curriculum vitae (CV, aka resumé), both the short and long versions. I decided to include a section in the latter document about my approach to leadership, which I have assembled by consciously and unconsciously adopting the best practices, and avoiding the worst practices, of the leadership I have subjected myself to over the years … much as I believe my approach to parenting and teaching have evolved (which, I suppose, are simply instances of leadership).
My approach to team building is to bring together people with complementary skills, experiences and perspectives, who share a strong passion and aspiration toward a common goal, provide them with as many resources and as few constraints as possible, and essentially stay out of their way as they engage their creative energies in innovative ways that maximize the positive impact of the entire team.
As I mentioned in my recent post on Intelligence, Advice, Investment and Politics, I remember being inspired by a quote from Dee Hock, the founder of Visa International and co-founder of the Interra Project, that I read about in Guy Kawasaki‘s book, The Art of the Start:
It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
Googling around for the context of this quote led me to an article on The Art of Chaordic Leadership written by Dee in Leader to Leader, 15 (Winter 2000): 20-26. This is one of the most powerful, succinct and sensible descriptions of how to lead I’ve ever seen … and I was happy to see that the approach that I thought I’ve been making up as I go along had some firmer ground on which to stand. As with my recent post on entrepreneurial proverbs, I won’t go into a more full analysis here, but simply note the bullet points in the summary from the original article:
On Chaordic Leadership
Many convictions about leadership have served me well over the years. Although each of these few examples could benefit from pages of explication, a few words may provide insight to chaordic leadership.
- Power: True power is never used. If you use power, you never really had it.
- Human Relations: First, last, and only principle — when dealing with subordinates, repeat silently to yourself, "You are as great to you as I am to me, therefore, we are equal." When dealing with superiors, repeat silently to yourself, "I am as great to me as you are to you, therefore we are equal."
- Criticism: Active critics are a great asset. Without the slightest expenditure of time or effort, we have our weakness and error made apparent and alternatives proposed. We need only listen carefully, dismiss that which arises from ignorance, ignore that which arises from envy or malice, and embrace that which has merit.
- Compensation: Money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can rent the body and influence the mind but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and ethics.
- Ego, Envy, Avarice, and Ambition: Four beasts that inevitably devour their keeper. Harbor them at your peril, for although you expect to ride on their back, you will end up in their belly.
- Position: Subordinates may owe a measure of obedience by virtue of your position, but they owe no respect save that which you earn by your daily conduct. Without their respect, your authority is destructive.
- Mistakes: Toothless little things, providing you can recognize them, admit them, correct them, learn from them, and rise above them. If not, they grow fangs and strike.
- Accomplishment: Never confuse activity with productivity. It is not what goes in your end of the pipe that matters, but what comes out the other end. Everything but intense thought, judgment, and action is infected to some degree with meaningless activity. Think! Judge! Act! Free others to do the same!
- Hiring: Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength. It is stupid to replicate your weakness. Employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability and judgment are radically different from your own and recognize that it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
- Creativity: The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.
- Listening: While you can learn much by listening carefully to what people say, a great deal more is revealed by what they do not say. Listen as carefully to silence as to sound.
- Judgment: Judgment is a muscle of the mind developed by use. You lose nothing by trusting it. If you trust it and it is bad, you will know quickly and can improve it. If you trust it and it is consistently good, you will succeed, and the sooner the better. If it is consistently good and you don’t trust it, you will become the saddest of all creatures; one who could have succeeded but followed the poor judgment of others to failure.
- Leadership: Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia.
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4 responses to “Chaordic Leadership Principles”
The Dance of Leadership
A healthy community is like a dance, with different dancers stepping forward to take the lead at different times, and others following those leads. Even followers are leaders, as we lead ourselves along paths or sequences illuminated by those who
This gave me a name and a good writen description for a style of leadership that I have observed, but did not know how to communicate. I’ve seen it work, and produce some fantastic results.
Being effective when leading from below
With organizations under pressure to constantly produce short-term results there is a need to have leaders at all level within an organization. Leadership today is not about position or authority, it’s about influence and responsibility. And those who are leading from below, rather than from the top of an organization have a unique set of challenges. Middle and lower management need to deal with the day-to-day operational issues, whilst at the same time focusing on bringing about the necessary strategic change.
Make the decision to be a leader. “….In every case of successful leadership from below that we have studied, the manager made a conscious decision to move beyond the service and governance roles, without waiting to be told to do so…. [How?] ……. First, they reorganized their group to make themselves less essential to the provision of services or the exercise of governance. This began to free up time and energy for leadership…. Second, the managers we studied opened themselves up to influences from outside the company. In many companies, middle managers have been trained to focus on internal rather than external signals…… To take on a leadership role, managers needed to listen to the signals coming from outside — customers, competitors, suppliers, neighbors, and the media. Then they could begin thinking about what those signals meant for action inside the company. “
Focus on influence, not control. “Every successful case we have found of leadership from below involved a basic shift in thinking: The managers did their job with their colleagues — not to them or for them. People simply react more enthusiastically to being enlisted in a common cause than they do to being ordered around…… [How?] ….Adopt the perspective of the people you’re trying to influence; don’t make them adopt yours….. Expose others to your information; don’t hoard it….. Aim to influence existing work processes; don’t build new ones…… Don’t worry about being proved right….. Keep things clear and simple…… Keep a sharp focus. “
Work on your “trusted adviser” skills. “You have to earn the right to influence people. People have to want to talk with you, and value what they hear from you. This requires more than being seen as a technical expert. It requires being seen as a trusted adviser….. [How?] ….. The trusted adviser has skills that turn conversations into meaningful discussions that make people want to seek you out. Listen more than you talk; ask questions that broaden people’s perspective, instead of telling them how to think or what to do. Without violating confidences, share what others have seen and done in similar circumstances.”
Don’t wait for the perfect time, just find a good time. “There is never a perfect time to take the risks of leading from below. When times are good, everyone is too busy and no one seems bothered by the need to do things differently. When times are bad, everyone is too busy (or too scared) and there are too many other demands….. [How?] …. look for situations where the complacency that pervades most companies has been disturbed. In those situations, there will be less resistance to change. There may even be an active desire for new approaches. Mergers, acquisitions and divestitures all break the existing patterns in the way a company operates. “
I think these are really good insights, some of which I already use with effective results….
Kevin: thanks for sharing those inspiring ideas! I found the entire text of the original article at the MIT Sloan Management Review — Leading from Below, by James Kelly and Scott Nadler — and the excerpts you shared clearly cover the highlights.
A few of the items you noted resonate particularly deeply with me:
“To take on a leadership role, managers needed to listen to the signals coming from outside — customers, competitors, suppliers, neighbors, and the media”
I’d earlier reflected on the notion that everyone’s a customer … but in my most recent blog entry, on radical transparency, I started ruminating on the notion that everyone’s a partner, and that the distinctions between internal and external are eroding.
One distinction I do like is the emphasis on influence rather than control, and the promotion of an invitational and conversational approach to interactions.
Finally, at the risk of [further] exposing my soft side, one of the themes that I believe underlies all of the principles articulated by Dee, James, Scott and Kevin is love, or perhaps more specifically, bizlove (my paraphrasing of Tim Sanders’ book, Love is the Killer App).