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By his own admission, he does not play an instrument well, run a mixing board expertly, or likely sing or dance. He spends part of his working day, flat on a couch in a recording studio control room, listening. He is Rick Rubin, one of the most successful record producers in the business. 

His style is reminiscent of another successful individual – John D. Rockefeller, who like Rubin, was a perceptive listener. As Ron Chernow noted in Titan, his biography on the oil man, Rockefeller would often enter a room where his directors or senior executives were meeting and lie down on a couch. While he appeared to be sleeping, periodically Rockefeller would offer a comment here or there, proving that he was listening and able to give advice, too.

The art of listening

Consider Rubin, a metaphysical listener. As he told Anderson Cooper on CBS 60 Minutes, Rubin does not care what the audience thinks; he cares about what his artists create. Here Rubin is channeling another man from an earlier era, Henry Ford, who famously said, “If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

Rubin’s gift is listening and bringing out the best in the musicians he works with. His style, nurtured by his meditation practice, is not directive but reflective. Rubin responds to what he hears and makes suggestions. For example, one artist noted that he gave her a homework assignment to write an essay about her music. Rubin’s approach does not intimidate but enables the artist to see something in their work that needed to be more evident to them initially.

Leaders of high-performing teams can learn from Rubin’s technique. And here are some suggestions.

Listen deeply. Managers are deluged with information. It requires great concentration to tune out the extraneous to focus on the present. When individuals and teams struggle with choices, they need an outside perspective. Make them comfortable. Listen to them explain their ideas. Smile as they explain. Above all, be patient.

Reflect on what you have heard. Too often, executives tend to jump in and make suggestions. If time is short, and a decision needs to be made, sure. But how much better would it be to lay back and reflect? Ask further questions. Convene another meeting. Do not rush.

Suggest, but do not impose. Executives are hired to move projects along, and so their advice is to be expected. However, better to suggest than set. Let people build on what you say so they take ownership of it. Dwight Eisenhower used this technique as Supreme Commander in Europe and later as President. Suggest and let people build upon what you offer.

Rinse and repeat. Listen, reflect, suggest. Finally, integrate the process into your management style. It will be a way to bring out the best in others.

Discipline matters

Management, of course, is not art; it is the discipline of getting things done. And executives have every right to make changes, even if employees do not like them. However, the better choice is to enable others to see what you see so they can bring out the best in themselves. 

Doing so makes them true to themselves and in the process, successful contributors to the enterprise.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 2.23.2023

“He knew who he was, and he liked who he was. He liked Harry Truman. He enjoyed being Harry Truman.”

That is a description that Truman’s biographer, David McCullough, uses in an essay in the book Character Above All. For Truman, who had little growing up, never went to college, wore “coke bottle” glasses, played the piano and worked hard as a farmer, character may have been his strongest suit. And it suited him as well as the suits he wore – having been a haberdasher (albeit a failed one).

Test Under Fire

McCullough writes that Truman’s appreciation of himself was not a matter of hubris or arrogance. It was that he knew who he was and what he could do. The litmus test that marked him for life was his service as a middle-aged man serving in the U.S. Army as Captain of Battery D during the Great War. In their letters to their wife, Bess, Truman describes his first night under fire in harrowing terms; he was frightened, as were his men. But he rallied, pulled himself together and got his men, who had run from the fight, to regroup—courage under fire.

Although Truman entered public service as part of the corrupt Pendergrass Machine in his home state of Missouri, he did not enrich himself but gained a seat in the U.S. Senate. Truman made a name for himself as the crusading senator investigating war profiteering during World War II. He became Franklin Roosevelt’s running mate, and when Roosevelt died shortly after beginning his fourth term, Truman became President. 

Small Stature Big Character

Truman, who had not known just how ill FDR was, told reporters the day he was sworn in that he “felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.” Truman bore the weight admirably. He shepherded the nation through the final days of the war in Europe and later Japan – when it was his call to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. 

As McCullough writes, Truman was wedged between two giants of American history – FDR and Dwight Eisenhower, the General who had commanded Allied Forces in Europe. Truman never projected the gravitas of either man. He was often dismissed by his own Democratic Party and his mother-in-law, who felt her daughter could have married better. A couple of sayings sum up popular opinion of the man – “I’m just mild about Harry” and “To err is Truman.”

No matter, Truman knew himself and was steadfast in pursuing his own course, including winning the 1948 presidential election when his opponent, Thomas Dewey, the popular governor of New York, was favored by everyone—except the voters.

Mastering Self-Awareness 

The lesson leaders can learn from Truman is to be comfortable in their own skin, meaning to know their strengths and weaknesses. “Give ‘em hell, Harry” was a more favorable adage for Truman as he excoriated the “Do Nothing Congress” of 1947-48.

Truman did find a way to vent his irritation and anger. He would write a scorching letter, then set it aside and often not send it. Abraham Lincoln also followed this practice.

His temper, however, was not directed at staff. As McCullough notes, everyone who worked with him loved him, including one Secret Service officer who said that if he could have picked someone to be his father, it would be Truman. 

Self-knowledge, coupled with self-awareness, is essential to anyone in charge. It is necessary to have an ego, but it is equally important to keep it in check. Sam Rayburn, a friend of Truman’s and the long-time Democratic Speaker of the House, warned Truman shortly after he became President to be wary of people seeking favors, especially those seeking to flatter him. “They’ll come sliding in,” said Rayburn, “and tell you you’re the greatest man alive. But you know, and I know, you ain’t.”

This raises another point. Make certain that if you reach the top rung, you surround yourself with people who knew you when… when you had very little, but like Harry Truman, a will to persevere and a commitment to doing what it takes to make things better.

First posted on Forbes.com 00.00.2024

If I were to coach an executive about assuming a very senior leadership role, I would recommend they read The Making of a Leader: The Formative Years of George C. Marshall by Josiah Bunting III. Specifically, I would have them focus on a very short chapter simply titled “Teacher”—the only chapter. 

Author Bunting, himself a former Army officer and noted historian, tells of the time that Marshall, during his command of an infantry battalion in China in 1927, came across a young lieutenant, a highly-ranked Fort Benning graduate struggling to write an order. The young man—himself a Fort Benning graduate—was twisted into knots attempting to write the “formulaic rigamarole he had been taught.” 

Teacher as transformer

Marshall said, “I wanted to get my hands on Benning.” And he did, and in the process, he transformed military education, ripping away the formulas and enabling officers to think for themselves in alignment with strategic intent. This approach was one that senior officers of World War II—all of whom passed through Benning—had to be flexible and adaptable to changing conditions, that is, the very nature of combat itself.

Winston Churchill credited Marshall as the “great organizer” of the wartime effort, but he was much more than that. He was the mobilizer who engaged troops from top to bottom, which is how he led at Benning. He was a whirlwind of energy, in part to compensate for the grief he felt at the death of his first wife. 

Marshall would drop into lectures to observe, organized exercises in the field, and insisted that his officers socialize after hours to build camaraderie. As commander later in later posts, Bunting refers to Marshall as a “paterfamilia” – looking out for the welfare of his officers and their troops. And since wages were low, he would arrange for troops to purchase local foods at subsidized pricing, an ad hoc PX. Morale was critical to welfare, and when calling up soldiers before World War II, he insisted on providing the men (mostly men) access to entertainment. (This effort led to the development of the USO, which entertains troops worldwide to this day.)

Next generation developer

There is a lot of literature about Marshall, but this book focuses on his development as a leader, observer, learner, teacher and eventual “headmaster” of the U.S. Army. Marshall was responsible for choosing and developing the generals who commanded U.S. forces in Europe: Omar Bradley, George Patton, and Mark Clark. 

Having served as General Pershing’s chief of staff in France in World War I, Marshall would have wanted more than anything to command the Allied Forces in World War II. President Roosevelt wanted – and frankly needed – Marshall at the Pentagon. And so the job was awarded – with Marshall’s full support — to Dwight Eisenhower, another general Marshall had identified and developed for high command.

Man for peace

Marshall was military to his core, but it needs to be noted that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his efforts to rebuild a devastated Europe based upon the plan that bears his name. Only a man who was insightful about the human condition—and one who had experienced war first-hand—could realize how important it was to create conditions for peace to prevail. 

Bunting, who has emphasized literature and humanities as a university educator, brings Marshall’s development to life with expert storytelling and exquisite prose. Bunting’s vocabulary is as wide-ranging as Marshall’s own hunger for learning. The leadership lessons imparted will enable anyone seeking to “lead big” to learn to “lead small”—taking care of those who depend upon you for direction, counsel and compassion. 

Note: For further information about Marshall as U.S. Army Chief of Staff and as Secretary of State I recommend the biographies by Forrest C. Pogue (George C. Marshall: Education of a General) and Ed Cary (George C. Marshall: Solider and Stateman).

First posted on Forbes.com 8.01.2024

I love baseball.

But I am not blind to its condition.

A recent article in The Economist delineated the woes facing Major League Baseball. 

According to Commissioner Rob Manfred, the league lost $2 billion last year due to ballpark closures due to the pandemic. Fans are back at the stadium this year, but for how long? Delta variant may cause a thinner or a non-existent crowd. If so, it will mean another year of diminished revenues just as the league begins another round of collective bargaining with the players. Billionaires versus millionaires, as sports wags like to say. Little sympathy for either.

The league recently banned sprays that could improve a pitcher’s grip on the ball. This move was an effort to rejuvenate offensive production that has fallen recently. Some fans find the game much too slow; the average game lasts three hours, as much 50% as much longer as it did a generation or two ago. 

Among Gen-Z fans, only 32% said they were “casual fans.” By contrast, 50% of adults say they are fans of Major League Baseball. Young fans dig e-sports, and older fans have other sporting distractions: football, basketball, hockey, golf, and even European football (soccer). Yet, Jacob Pomrenke of American Baseball Research told The Economist, “The idea that baseball was somehow better in the past is one we should throw by the wayside. The golden era of baseball is now.” 

What baseball teaches

So much for griping. What fascinates me about the professional game is its similarity to life itself. Players come together to train in February and stick together as a team until the end of September or October if they make a playoff run. That’s a long time of living and working together. 

The game teaches us three things

Endurance. To play a nine-month season, you need to be physically fit. You must maintain your weight and stamina through coast-to-coast travel, hotels, night games, and hot, humid weather. (Not mention piercing cold in spring and fall). You also have to get along with players you may not like personally but need to work with because they are essential to a team’s ability to compete.

Resilience. Few, if any players, make it through a season unhurt. While they may not suffer a season-ending injury, every player plays through aching muscles, fatigue, and diminishing mental focus. Resilience is that ability to bend but break and emerge more robust and maybe wiser after being flattened by adversity.

Patience. The slump. The most dreaded word in baseball. Hitters suddenly cannot hit. Pitchers cannot throw strikes. Hitters say that when they are hot, the baseball looks like a grapefruit. When they are cold, they see BB’s. Pitchers who could break a curve leave it hanging. And fastballs lose their zip. What is required, in addition to the resilience above, is patience. Bid your time. Stay focused. You can work yourself back into the game.

The long game

The major league game has been played professionally since 1869, when a team from Cincinnati donned red stockings. It has survived wars, depressions, and pandemics. So it will survive today’s woes, but changes must be made, especially in the length of time it takes to complete a game.

But there is one bright light: Shohei Ohtani. Imported directly from Japan, Ohtani is the first true pitching slugger since Babe Ruth. Ruth was a pitcher (and an occasional batter) for the Boston Red Sox and an exceptional one before he was traded to the New York Yankees in 1920. There, Ruth, as a batter, invigorated the game with a new brand of baseball: the home run.

What Ohtani accomplishes this year, or in the future, is speculation. Already he is on pace to hit more home runs in one season than any other pitcher did in his entire career (save Ruth).* And I can tell you one thing. I’ll be watching. I love the game. And its lessons.

*Note: Pitcher Wes Ferrell hit 37 in his major league career.

Adapted from Forbes.com 7/30/2021

The man at the podium ruffles through his notes written in longhand on a yellow legal pad. Then he pauses and looks directly at the two key decision-makers in the room. 

The man is Colin Sutton, a veteran London police officer asking for assistance to track down a burglar who has committed over 100 break-ins and has sexually assaulted many of his victims, most of whom are elderly women. Sutton describes the latest victims:  an elderly woman in hospital, a war hero who has been robbed and molested, and a woman who has died of her injuries. 

Direct. Human. And very personal.

One of the decision-makers replies, “Colin, you are pushing on an open door.” Finally, finally, Sutton and his team will have the resources they are requesting. While Sutton was expected – and had fully intended — to deliver a full-blown presentation using video and PowerPoint, time did not permit such extras. (Note: This scene appears in season 2 of Manhunt, a British television dramatization of a real-life case that Sutton and his team cracked in 2009. The role of Sutton was played by Martin Clunes.)

Sutton’s chief instrument was his ability to speak from the heart. The officers in charge did not need a professional presentation; they needed a credible argument. And Sutton, who had a stellar reputation for his past crime-solving efforts, was able to deliver it. 

Making Your Case

The lesson for managers is this: when the stakes are high, escalate your delivery method. Here are some suggestions.

Own the subject. Know what you are talking about. Use facts and figures to augment your case, but not overwhelm it. Spoon feed facts and surround them with stories that resonate with the audience.

Tell stories. Add life to your presentation by imbuing it with the stories of people who are involved, either as those affected by a lack of something or those who will benefit when the service is added. It is also good to give a shout-out to the people on the ground who are doing the heavy lifting.

Ensure credibility. Provide proof of delivery that is the ability to do what you say you will do. Address how you will solve the issue or lessen the pain. Speaking knowledgeably gives your presentation a sense of authenticity. Play up the experience of your team.

Radiate confidence. Show humility in the face of adversity, but make certain you project authority. Act as if you have been in this position before. Keep cool when being questioned. 

Changing minds

Presentations from the heart are intended to change minds. Sometimes it is to procure resources, as it was in Sutton’s case. Other times it is to create awareness of the need for action to solve a problem. Changing minds is never easy, and for that reason, it calls to the presenter to use the tools at hand—chiefly his mind and his voice—to open a metaphorical window into what it will take to do things differently.

Speaking from the heart to engage emotions is a powerful tool, but it must be used with care and caution. Make sure that what you argue is rooted, has a sense of urgency, and can be delivered. Without such a foundation, your argument may evoke emotions but not provoke action.

First posted on Forbes.com 12.00.21

“For a few seconds at least, more seconds than that, there is no resilience in this material when it is at a temperature of 32-degrees. I believe this has some significance to our problem.” Those words were from Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate in physics, explaining to a Congressional committee why the O-rings in the Challenger space shuttle exploded upon launch in January 1986.

Feynman was one of many scientists and learned experts contributing to the report on the disaster. Still, his simple statement made the complexity of what happened crystal clear to the public.

Feynman knew how to get his message across clearly. This lesson is what all good leaders know. And while this idea is obvious, leaders often forget it, not because they are ignorant or stupid but because they are caught up in the moment and forget that simplicity is the better answer.

Presidential words

Here are some great examples from history.

When Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation in his first inaugural address in March 1933, the country was financially and emotionally prostrate. Millions were out of work. People wanted answers. What Roosevelt did was straightforward. His message was one of reassurance. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Doing so slew the dragon metaphorically. Yes, people were afraid, so they needed to get past the fear. Roosevelt offered a path forward. When John F. Kennedy addressed the media after the botched invasion of the Bay of Pigs in May 1961, he owned the problem. “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”

Kennedy said, quoting an old adage. Even though the invasion had been planned under the Eisenhower administration, Kennedy went through with it and held himself accountable. 

In the wake of the slaughter of nine Black parishioners by a racist gunman, Barack Obama stood at the pulpit of Emanuel AME church where the slayings had occurred and intoned the spiritual, “Amazing Grace.” His vocalization encouraged the audience to join in as a gesture of solidarity in the face of unspeakable loss.

In each of these moments, the words were clear, and the message was even more apparent. Each president used words that painted vivid pictures: fear, orphan, and a hymn. The challenge for leaders is to integrate simplicity into their presentations, especially when addressing challenges and crises. Here are some simple tips to follow.

Address the elephant in the room. Play it straight if people are worried about a disaster, a plant closing, or even a new competitor. Don’t dance. Get to the main issue immediately. Failing to do so makes the leader seem as if he is avoiding something. 

Avoid nuance. Speaking around issues, or being too clever by half, may be okay for meetings or one-on-one communications, but it is deadly when addressing significant issues. 

Show and tell. Illustrate the problem with words that conjure images, just like Richard Feynman did when testifying to Congress. Bring photographs or related images. Avoid charts. Please keep it simple and to the point.

Celebrate heroes. Talk about what people are doing to solve the problem. For example, an IT programmer working overnight to re-route the electricity grid, or a first-responder rescuing a child from danger, spread the good word. Let people know that some good is happening for their benefit.

Provide hope. When big problems occur—natural disasters, failing infrastructure, school closings—people want answers. Now. Sadly, the answers are not always forthcoming. What leaders can do is play it straight. Tell people that you are mobilizing resources, and you will provide immediate assistance. Give them the hope that you care, and others do, too.

No leader will get it right all of the time, and so then it is wise to remember the words of poet Maya Angelou, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

Simplicity in the fog of over-information, or more likely disinformation, is a virtue. It may not be easy to find, but it must be put into practice if the leader wants to bring people to her cause.

First posted on Forbes.com 00.00.2021

Remember the popcorn to get something important across to your team.

In an awards speech at Cinema Con 2023, Christopher Nolan, director of major motion pictures like Tenant, Dunkirk, Batman, and many others, stated his belief in the collective we in moviemaking. It includes “distributors, theater owners, marketers, [and] the people serving popcorn.” In that one statement, Nolan clarified that moviemaking is a team effort. “We all work in what is the greatest art form ever created, the one that combines pictorial beauty, two-dimensional, three-dimensional, sound, music, and language.”

Nolan’s nod to the distribution part of the motion picture is a welcome endorsement from a business that has seen its fortunes decline during the pandemic and due to the rise of streaming video networks.

Lessons from the speech

Nolan’s speech can serve as a template for any executive seeking to frame what the organization does, how it does it, and why it matters.

State the purpose. According to Nolan, those in the film business “are all engaged in a process that in some small way can make the world a better place.”

Iterate the why. “Does make the world a better place?” asks Nolan. “It’s an absolute good because we all work in what is the greatest art form ever created, the one that combines pictorial beauty, two-dimensional, three-dimensional, sound, music, and language.”

Touch the hearts. The film says Nolan “can combine the subjective experience of another human being the way a novel can, but it can combine that at the same time with the empathetic experience being in a theater and feeling what the rest of the audience is feeling. I’m often accused of magical thinking, nostalgia, of daydreaming as opposed to a sound business plan.”

Embrace the efforts of everyone. “It’s taken the last few years for us all to realize that when you’re talking about movies, magical thinking, nostalgia, and daydreaming, that is the sound business plan. It’s the only sound business plan. That’s what movies are. And whatever spires and aspirations and dreamlike stories are allowed to come out of this medium, stands on the foundation built in your theaters.” And that includes the people selling the concessions, like popcorn, to movie patrons.

Putting lessons to work

Managers who emulate what Nolan sketches are doing two important things. One, echoing purpose. Two, recognizing the contributions of everyone. Purpose becomes the lodestone; it is the rallying point for people to point to. Recognition fires the urge to contribute and do what is necessary to succeed. 

Or as Harry Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” 

Special thanks to Nolan Anlyst for these insights.

First posted on Forbes.com 00.00.2023

The other day while playing a new piece of music on piano, I realized that I had been augmenting the opening 32 bars with a left-hand accompaniment. The only trouble is that there is no bass accompaniment; the entire opening is for the right hand only. 

The opening certainly does not need any added accompaniment; it is “Ashokan Farewell,” a sparse and mournful tune (written by Jay Ungar) that Ken Burns repeatedly used throughout his epic docu-series, The Civil War. The melody is instantly recognizable to anyone who has heard it. The opening notes evoke another time, another place. It harkens recollection of a time gone by but still, as the series reminds us, evocative of our era.

Ignoring what’s in front of us

Why I had insisted on playing a non-existent accompaniment did not come to me until later. Three reasons. Inattention. Habit. Ego. Each of them has a role in my misinterpretation, and I think they give us a reason to discuss why sometimes we fall into those traps.

Inattention. Laziness is a failure to pay attention. Since nearly all music I play has parts for both treble and bass, I played the bass part, even though it does not occur until later in the composition. I was not paying close enough attention.

Habit. Because I have “always” played the bass part, why not keep doing it? After all, why stop doing what’s working? Or, more accurately, what I think is working? Some habits (exercise, proper diet) are good; other habits like sloth are not.

Ego. Even after I recognized the error of my playing, I kept playing the left hand. Why? Because I thought was making the piece better. Ahem. Playing the bass before when it appears in the score undercuts the spareness of the work. The opening highlights the beauty of the melody. My addition did nothing to enhance it. It may even have diminished the richness of the piece when the bass line finally does appear.

Invention for its own sake

Music is endlessly creative. Improvisation is to be encouraged. Jazz, many will argue, is nearly always played improvisationally, even when the score is written and arranged. Musicians are encouraged to do their solos as a means of expression and find new ways to bring a tune to life. What I was doing with my left hand was not “wrong” in a musical sense. It was unnecessary.

We all have moments where inattention, habit, and ego are present in our personal and private lives. Unfortunately, these negative traits are part of our human condition. Our challenge is to hold them in check. To avoid such habits, consider two questions:

Am I inattentive to the need for change? Doing something new is hard at first. There is comfort in our habits. There is virtue in them, but when we keep doing things repeatedly because we are not thinking or too lazy to change, we may be shorting ourselves.

Is my ego speaking louder than what people need to hear? Ego is essential to leadership. It can be the inner call to action, which says I am ready to take charge. But if you are always in control and deny others their right to assert themselves, ego precludes team growth. A boss who never shares authority is a boss who never learns.

Music is a process of interpretation, and so too is leadership. It would be best to learn when to improvise and when to hold fast to what makes the best sense. Experience can provide answers. And in time, we may gain wisdom for a chosen course. But to do that, we must keep a watchful eye on inattention, habit and ego.

Post-script. Watch Jay Ungar, the composer and fiddler, play “Ashokan Farewell.” (Note to self: Listen how Mr. Ungar plays the opening without accompaniment.)

First posted on Forbes.com 8.13.2021

Feeling stuck where you are?

I don’t know if you should go or stay.

Well, you are not alone. According to a Society for Human Resources study,  more than half of all employees surveyed are considering changing jobs. It’s part of a trend called “The Great Resignation.” 

As a result of the lockdowns caused by the pandemic, the unsettling feeling people have about where they are now and where they might want to go, many employees are considering changing jobs. A key reason is burnout and the sense that they are stagnating in their current position. 

Additionally, according to the 2021 Edelman Trust Survey, employees have “considerations such as the company’s stance on social issues, or its policies on employees’ ability to express their political beliefs.” Additionally, more than three-quarters of employees say they feel “more empowered, either by working within their organization or taking issues public.” 

And employers know this. According to a report cited in Axios, “60% say their employees have more power and more leverage than they had before the pandemic.” 

Making your choice

On the plus side, it’s an excellent opportunity to consider your options. There are many unfilled vacancies, and companies are engaged in a war for talent like never before. Bonuses are not uncommon.

Before you leap, however, consider where you are now. Making a move for money may be tempting. Still, if you are trading one position for another, you may soon be disappointed without an increase in responsibility or change of culture. You have three choices. The first two are obvious: leave or stay. The third requires some forethought: change.

Leave. Consider your next position. Ask yourself why you are leaving—more pay, bad boss, bad culture, change of scenery. All of these are valid reasons. What is not so obvious is what will be different. Yes, you make more money, which is a good thing, but if the only thing other is the scenery, you may become frustrated quickly. When leaving—assuming it is your choice—you want to make sure you will have the opportunity to pursue your skills and broaden them. You will want more responsibility as well as new challenges.

Stay. Remaining in place is what most people do. Saying you want a new job may be a matter of thinking out loud. It’s a response to a flavor of the month, a kind of restlessness. When you consider your options, you release that while the grass may appear greener on the other side of the proverbial fence, you have all the “green” (income, benefits, seniority) where you are now.

Change what you are doing. Rather than thinking about jumping ship, consider rocking the boat you are already in. Consider what you could do differently. You know the system, and as such, you may know ways to change things. You know the players, too. Whom can you enlist to help you make changes that would benefit the organization? 

Leave, stay or change are three options. The answer to each may require deep thinking. And in itself that is a good thing because you know what you do will be better for you. You may not be participating in the Great Resignation. But better yet, you will not be resigned to your condition. 

You will have made a decision, and that is a positive step. Your career depends on what you do, when you do it, and how you do it. You will have made the first in a series of changes that work best for you.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 9.17.2021

There are leadership authors, and then there are LEADERSHIP authors. I put myself in the former and Barbara Kellerman in the latter. As the author of 20 books on leadership and a professor at many institutions, including Dartmouth, Tufts and Harvard, where she is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Center, Professor Kellerman is one whose leadership writings have deepened my knowledge.

Now, her new book, Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers, is another one that spotlights what happens when leadership becomes toxic—as she has done previously. 

Professor Kellerman explained in a recent interview, “Why does humankind, forevermore, put up with what I call the social disease of bad leadership? We address physical diseases, cancer, heart disease and aids, and we address mental or psychological diseases such as schizophrenia. We attack all of those mental diseases, physical diseases, but we do not attack, we do not study, we do not think about what I call the social disease of bad leadership.” The consequences for a nation or an organization and its followers can be hazardous, not to mention dangerous.

4-step model

Kellerman sketches a four-part model that describes the journey from positive to negative.

• Phase I: Onward and Upward focuses on a better tomorrow
• Phase II: Followers Join In, attracted by the vision and its energy
• Phase III: Leader Starts In begins the crossing over into activities and practices that “left unchecked… will become worse leadership.”
• Phase IV: Bad to Worse – what may have started as benign has become malign and “dismal.”

The prologue clarifies that what constitutes bad leadership is not confined to autocracies. Kellerman writes that executives at WeWorks, Wells Fargo, Uber and Purdue “went from being bad to worse.” She also calls out the toxicity of executives like Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Martin Winterkorn at VW. Holmes was a scammer; Winterkorn was a denier of emissions scandals.

A key point of Kellerman’s book is that leaders are enabled by their followers, who join in the conspiracy of evil and support the individual in power. There are such things as “bad followers,” who fail to hold the leader accountable and, in doing so, harm the organization and benefit from the leader’s malfeasance. 

Be vigilant

However, there is a light at the end of the misery of bad leadership. Kellerman sketches a 12-step plan: “The purpose of this list is particularly to provide ideas, information and instructions on how to know when bad leadership threatens and on what to do when it happens.”

Notably, step 12 says, “Pay attention to the progression – the invariable, inexorable progression. Bad leaders who are not slowed or stopped in Phase I will proceed to Phase II…” right through Phases II, III and IV. In short, pay attention. Know the situation, context and behaviors of others. Proceed carefully and work with others to stop the slide into evil.

“We need to take a stand,” says Professor Kellerman. “And Leadership from Bad to Worse, I make very clear where I’m coming from. I make clear that I understand not every reader will agree with my values, my ideas, my opinions, but that’s all we can do. We can just say where we’re coming from, try to have some kind of minimal moral compass and forge ahead.”

By studying what is malign, Kellerman reminds us that the dark side of leadership is part of the human condition, and it behooves us to study and learn from it so that we are alert, aware and active for the betterment of leaders and followers.

Note: Watch my full LinkedIn Live interview with Barbara Kellerman here.

First posted on Forbes.com 5.08.2024