The Leader of the Future 2

Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the New Era

Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780787986674
• eBook ISBN: 9781118047255
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

The Leader of the Future 2 follows in the footsteps of the international bestseller The Leader of the Future, which has been translated into twenty-eight languages, and is one of the most widely distributed edited collections on leadership to date.

In twenty-seven inspiring and insightful essays, this book celebrates the wisdom of some of the most recognized thought leaders of our day who share their unique vision of leadership for the future.

Returning Contributors: Ken Blanchard with Dennis Carey, Stephen Covey, Marshall Goldsmith, Charles Handy, Sally Helgesen, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner, Richard Leider, Ed Schein, Peter Senge, and Dave Ulrich with Norm Smallwood. New Contributors: John Alexander, Darlyne Bailey, Howard Gardner with Lynn Barendsen, Usman Ghani, Ronald Heifetz, Joe Maciariello, Jan Masaoka, John Mroz, Brian O'Connell, Jeff Pfeffer, Ponchitta Pierce, Srikumar Rao, General Eric Shinseki, R. Roosevelt Thomas, Noel Tichy with Chris DeRose, and Tom Tierney.

"Hesselbein and Marshall Goldsmith, one of the USA's top executive coaches, edited the collection The Leader of the Future 2. Its 27 eloquent essays provide a kind of hopeful, idealistic best-case scenario for future leaders of non-profits and businesses. This is not a cookie-cutter, how-to approach. The job of the essayists is to provide food for thought and goals. The high quality of writing here should inspire anyone who has aspirations for leadership."

—Bruce Rosenstein, USA Today

Part I
A Vision of Leadership

1
Peter F. Drucker on Executive Leadership and Effectiveness

Joseph A. Maciariello

Joseph A. Maciariello is Horton Professor of Management at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He has collaborated with Peter Drucker to publish The Daily Drucker (HarperCollins, 2004), The Effective Executive in Action (HarperCollins, 2005), three Internet executive development modules titled Leading Change (Corpedia Education, 2003, 2004), and two articles on management in the social sector. In addition he has written three articles providing a systematic, integrated description of some of the major works of Peter Drucker—“Peter F. Drucker on a Functioning Society” (Leader to Leader, Summer 2005), “Mastering Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive” (Leader to Leader, Summer 2006), and this current article. He teaches the course “Drucker on Management” for M.B.A. and Executive M.B.A. students and is working on The Peter F. Drucker Curriculum Project for use at the Drucker-Ito School and at universities throughout the world.

Peter Drucker’s writings on management and executive leadership are extensive and varied. Yet through all of his work a definite vision of what executive leadership and management is and how leaders and managers should operate does emerge. These intertwined and overlapping subjects can be distinguished, at least in theory, by separating the principles of governance of organizations, which Drucker refers to as the practice of management, from the principles of the conduct of leaders in these organizations, which he refers to as the effective executive.¹

A simplified systems representation is presented in Figure 1.1. This figure integrates Drucker’s views on executive leadership and management into a framework that leaders can apply in their own organizations. The elements of the figure interweave leadership skills and management practices, both of which are required to attain performance.

This chapter describes these interrelated elements as a system. Please use Figure 1.1 as a reference point as each element is described in an iterative manner. Seek to understand the system of leadership and effectiveness as an organic whole and not merely as a set of isolated elements.

Figure 1.1. Systems View: Executive Leadership and Effectiveness.

Because Drucker’s primary focus is on organizational performance and integrity of leadership, we start our discussion of the elements in Figure 1.1 with what he calls “the Spirit of Performance.” This element is located in the lower right-hand portion of the figure.

Executive Leadership and Effectiveness

Executive leadership is concerned with creating organizations that have a high spirit of performance. To attain such a spirit of performance, leaders must

• Exhibit high levels of integrity in their moral and ethical conduct
• Focus on results
• Build on strengths—one’s own and others’
• Lead beyond borders to meet at least minimum requirements of all stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, and the public, thereby serving the common good

An organization high in spirit of performance is one that is led by executives who are committed to doing the right thing and to getting the right things done. These executives possess integrity of character; have a vision for the purpose of their organization; focus on opportunities; are change leaders; and follow essential tasks, responsibilities, and practices of management.

Executive skills, practices of effective executives, and executive tasks are acquired through knowledge and experience. Although there may be “born leaders,” leadership principles and practices must be learned and can be learned. Executive leadership principles are required, first, to formulate purpose (the “theory of the business”) and to pursue performance objectives (for organizational results). These principles focus organizational resources on innovation and entrepreneurship, which must be learned, exploited, and integrated into an organization’s activities. Innovation is necessary to remain ahead of those changes imposed on an organization by an ever-changing environment.

Innovation is focused primarily outwardly, on opportunities, on the customer, on technology, on competitors, and so on. Results, such as customer satisfaction, revenue, and profitability, are always on the outside.

The elements in Figure 1.1 are not independent of one another; they interact and exert their own gravitational pull. The primary focus of executive leadership is formulating and implementing an organization’s “theory of the business.” This requires that executives be competent in performing certain “practices of effective executives.” Effectiveness also requires that executives perform certain tasks—specifically, “executive tasks.” To perform these practices and tasks, executives must learn and use a set of “executive skills.”

Implementing an organization’s theory of the business inevitably leads to “social impacts,” foreseeable consequences such as employment and purchasing practices, and consumption of natural resources that have an impact on the environment and create demands for public services. An organization is responsible for making certain that these and other impacts are directed in support of the common good.

The Spirit of Performance: True Test of an Organization

As noted earlier, the true test of an organization is the presence of a spirit of performance. An organization that is high in spirit builds on and develops the strength of each person, and this results in common people doing extraordinary things. To guard against weaknesses created by an emphasis on strengths, a highly spirited organization will cover members’ weaknesses by overlapping the strengths of others upon these weaknesses like shingles on a roof.

A demand for performance characterizes a high-spirited organization. Executives here will focus members’ activities primarily on opportunities and results. Careful attention is placed on people decisions; these decisions signal to employees what is really valued and desired. People decisions—selection, rewards, and promotion—are the true control of an organization. People decisions direct behavior because they indicate the actual values in action of the organization. These decisions reveal what is truly rewarded and punished, and therefore they direct human behavior.

Executive integrity is crucial to creating an organization with a high spirit of performance because the character of an organization’s management serves as an example for subordinates. Actions of executives are highly visible. Consequently, the actions of executives must be based on strict principles of conduct regarding responsibility, performance standards, and respect for individuals. These principles serve as examples for the entire management group and organization. “For the spirit of an organization is created from the top. If an organization is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of its top people is great.”²

An executive who establishes the spirit of performance in daily practice is a leader of his or her organization, for leadership involves

the lifting of a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, and the building of a person’s personality beyond its normal limitations.³

And there is no better way to create the conditions for the emergence of such leaders than to create an organization that is great in spirit.

The Theory of the Business

Drucker’s ideas about leading organizations all start with the organization’s “theory of the business.” A theory of the business is the way an organization intends to create value for its customers and is therefore applicable to all organizations, not just business organizations. It requires answers to the following questions:

• What is our mission?
• What are our core competencies?
• Who are our customers and noncustomers?
• What do we consider results for the enterprise?
• What should our theory be? (Which in turn focuses executives to look for opportunities for innovation.)

The theory of a business is often not obvious, nor can it be formulated without controversy. Formulating a theory of business requires executives first to look beyond the walls of the organization to the external environment. The environment is not limited to where the enterprise is currently operating, but also includes other “environments,” such as those where noncustomers are being served and where future customers are likely to be served. This means that formulating a theory of the business must be a forward-looking exercise—creating a mission that compels it to systematically evaluate emerging trends, future changes in its environments, and current or emerging social problems that may be turned into business opportunities.

In determining core competencies, an organization must ask, What are we really good at? and What should we be doing?

Assumptions about mission, core competencies, and customers not only must fit reality, but also must be consistent with each other. It is for this reason that a company’s theory must be constantly checked and updated, since, for example, one doesn’t want to be selling only mainframe computers, as IBM once did, when one’s customers are shifting their preferences to personal computers.

If the theory of the business is different from a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title page
• Copyright
• Preface
• Part I: A Vision of Leadership
• Part II: Leading in a Diverse World
• Part III: Leading in a Time of Crisis and Complexity
• Part IV: Leading Organizations of the Future
• Part V: The Quality and Character of the Leader of the Future
• The Editors
• Index
• End User License Agreement