THE EXECUTIVE‘S TRINITY (STEPHEN BUNGAY (KEYNOTE)) - LKCE13

Beyond the Cult of the Leader

The Tasks of the Executive in the 21st Century

Stephen Bungay, Director Ashridge Strategic Management Centre

© Stephen Bungay 2010 2

The executive 1908 - 1977: a manager

•  Management = administration –  Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration

founded 1908

•  Administration is rational: Weber, 1947

‒  Not traditional (religious) ‒  Not charismatic (heroic)

•  Managers make organisations efficient –  Organise work and people –  Allocate resources –  Control


The executive 1977-2001: a leader

•  Leadership = inspiration –  Harvard Business School ‘educates leaders who make a

difference in the world’ (from ca 1990)

•  Leadership is emotional: Zaleznick 1977

‒  Not team players, but individuals ‒  Not acceptance, but love or hate

•  Leaders are change agents –  Tolerate chaos –  Shape goals –  Seek risk and danger


Leaders: great or toxic?

Visionary Ambitious

Charismatic Self belief Risk taker

Fantasist Megalomaniac

Conman Narcissist Gambler


Collins, 2001: the ‘level 5’ leader

•  Level 5 leaders have willpower –  Run every ‘good’ company transitioning to ‘greatness’

between 1965 and 1995

•  Level 5 leaders are humble

‒  Not charismatic, but self-effacing ‒  Not egocentric, but modest

•  Level 5 leaders build institutions –  Ambitious for the organisation –  Diligent tortoises not racing hares –  Thoughtful, sure-footed


‘MORE COLLINS MORE CLAPTRAP’?

‘In Jim Collins’ latest book, Good to Great, the author celebrates ‘self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy’ leaders who bring about the big transformations. Fine Jim… Michael Maccoby recently wrote of ‘larger than life leaders…e.g. egoists, charmers, risktakers with big visions. Exemplars he cites: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Edison, Ford, Welch, Jobs, Gates. He, of course could have added Messier and Middlehoff and Ebbers and Lay. Nonetheless, I’ll still take Michael’s list over Jim’s’

Tom Peters, Re-imagine!, p. 44


What are we talking about?

•  Personality?

•  Skills?

•  Behaviour?


The officer: 500 BC - present

Command

Management Leadership

Authority, responsibility and duty of direction

Organising and controlling resources to achieve objectives

Getting people to achieve objectives


Different mental attitudes

Command: intellectual

Managing: physical

Leading: emotional

Probing: ‘What should we do?’

Pragmatic: ‘Let’s get organised!’

Positive: ‘We can do it!’


Requiring self awareness

Command: intellectual

Managing: physical

Leading: emotional

Detached Calculating

Flexible

Engaged Pragmatic Realistic

Committed Passionate Determined


Different skills

Resourcing

Controlling Organising

Achieving the task

Developing individuals

Building the team

Building the organisation

Giving direction

Developing strategy

Command: Intellectual (conceptual)

Leadership: Human (moral)

Management: Technical (physical)


Directing as ‘command in business’

Directing: intellectual

Managing: physical

Leading: emotional

READY: I understand what I have to do and why

ABLE: I have the skills and resources to carry it through

WILLING: I am committed to making it a success


Great commanders


Masters of the trinity


Distinctive qualities of the commander INTELLECTUAL

Conceptual

Absorb information

Identify essential point

MORAL Willpower

Resilience

Openness

PSYCHOLOGICAL Self-confident

Realistic

Flexible

COMMUNICATION Writing

Listening/questioning

Speaking/directing


The executive’s trinity: propositions

•  Managing, leading and directing are different

•  Confusing them creates confusion

•  Organisations need all three

•  Mastering all three is very rare

•  Top teams need the combination


The commander’s ethos: ‘Viel leisten, wenig hervortreten, mehr sein als scheinen’

(‘Work hard, avoid the limelight, be more than you seem’)

THE EXECUTIVE‘S TRINITY (STEPHEN BUNGAY (KEYNOTE)) - LKCE13

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