A New Leader With Transferable Skills? Or More of the Same? A Case Study Robert A. Sellery, Jr.

Transcription

1 The Situation This nonprofit organization operates educational and music programs. Its budget is about $50 million. There is a staff of about 100, working for four departments: facilities, finance, human resources and internal audit. The organization is undertaking a search for a new CEO. The two previous CEOs came from a U.S. Government Department and from within the organization, respectively. There was no obvious internal candidate for this search. The search included candidates from other similar organizations, business, government, other nonprofits, and the military. Transferable Skills A candidate from the military, a recently retired major general, became the leading contender. 1 This person had past experience which was not directly related to the searching organization, but some board members thought that many skills were transferable. The candidate had had a tour as vice director for the Joint Staff, the largest and most complex part of the U.S. Department of Defense, comprised of 50 generals and admirals. The candidate was responsible for staff morale, fund accounting, automation, strategic planning, facilities management, and senior-level human relations functions. Most of these functions needed improvement at the hiring organization. During the interview part of the search, the general explained how he had worked with both the chief of the Joint Staff and the head of another service branch, to save face for the service branch head, but keep the chief s agenda moving forward. Four star admirals and generals do not like to lose face, the candidate explained. The search committee saw the candidate s ability to deal with strong egos as a desirable experience for their next CEO. Two other experiences the general had were helpful too. One was the ability to separate leadership from management. 2 The second was expertise identifying a clear direction for an organization, with stated goals and objectives, as well as developing a financial, best practice business model. 3 If there is a clear distinction between the process of managing and the process of leading, it is in the distinction between getting others to do and getting others to want to do. Managers get other people to do, but leaders get other people to want to do. Leaders do this by first of all being credible. That is the foundation of all leadership. They establish this credibility by their actions -- by challenging, inspiring, enabling, modeling, and encouraging. 4 Robert Sellery Institution, All Rights Reserved.

2 2 Leadership is about coping with change. Management, on the other hand, as learned by the author at Booz Allen Hamilton, is concerned with planning, organizing, coordinating, directing, and control. By contrast, leading an organization to constructive change begins by setting a direction developing a vision of the future (often the distant future) along with strategies for producing the changes needed to achieve that vision for leadership, achieving a vision requires motivation and inspiring keeping people moving in the right direction, despite major obstacles to change, by appealing to basic but often untapped human needs, values, and emotions... Motivation and inspiration energize people, not by pushing them in the right direction as control mechanisms do but by satisfying basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a feeling of control over one s life, and the ability to live up to one s ideals. Such feelings touch us deeply and elicit a powerful response. 5 Leadership, says Peter Drucker, requires basic attitudes...and nothing is as difficult to define, nothing as difficult to change, as basic attitudes... 6 The Results of the Transferable Skills As the general s transferable leadership skills began to take shape, there were noticeable, significant, and positive changes throughout the organization, such as: People Development. The new CEO coached his direct report team and some individuals in their current roles to improve performance, and prepare them for more responsibility in the future. He created a climate of trust missing before. Delegation is fundamentally a system of trust...when others are strengthened and enabled to accomplish extraordinary things on their own, the leader s own sphere of influence is enhanced...empowering others is essentially the process of turning followers into leaders themselves. Leaders wisely don t try to push people to change but rather try to...focus on getting people up to bat, grinding out hits, moving people into scoring positions, and then bringing them home. 7 Removed Underperformers 8 Although there were annual review forms before the new CEO arrived, they were not as comprehensive, or in some cases as detailed. Some examples of the performance competencies rated included: Business Acumen Understands business implications of decisions. Aligns work with strategic goals. Business Ethics Treats people with respect. Keeps commitments. Inspires the trust of others. Works with integrity and ethically. Upholds organizational values. Conflict Resolution Encourages open communications. Maintains objectivity. Uses negotiation skills to resolve conflicts.

3 3 Removed Underperformers (Continued) Diversity Commitment Shows respect and sensitivity for cultural differences. Educates others on the value of diversity. Promotes a harassment-free environment. Builds a diverse workforce. Judgment Displays willingness to make decisions. Exhibits sound and accurate judgment. Supports and explains reasoning for decisions. Includes appropriate people in decision making process. Makes timely decisions. Leading with Integrity Exhibits ethical and moral behavior in everyday business conduct. Earns trust of others by disclosing information and admitting mistakes. Encourages open discussion of ethical issues. Strategic Thinking Develops strategies to achieve organizational goals. Understands organization's strengths and weaknesses. Adapts strategy to changing conditions. Visionary Leadership Communicates vision and gains commitment. Displays passion and optimism. Mobilizes others to fulfill the vision. Organization and Planning. Planned, organized, scheduled, and budgeted in an efficient, productive manner. Job accomplishments closely matched goals. The new CEO was able to obtain commitment from the staff about new ways of doing things. People are likely to become committed...when three conditions are present: when they experience a sense of choice about their decision, when their actions (choices) are made visible to others, and when their choices are difficult to back out of... 9 Encouraged key reports to move quickly and take a forceful stand without being overly abrasive. Former CEO thought s/he had to attend every meeting. Who attends which meetings and who presents material can signal new approaches to management and reorient substantive directions. 10 Encouraged department heads to attend short-term executive courses on leadership, to help them step up to a higher level of leadership and planning. Two issues, present in past administrations strong egos on the board and board micromanagement were rechanneled into the board members more appropriate role, setting policy. The new CEO had enough experience with strong egos to push back in a professional manner, thereby letting board members save face. Transferable skills are not for every organization. In this case, the results were very positive.

4 4 Issues for Discussion: Military stereotypes. Board. Leadership versus management. People development. Delegation. Coaching individuals and whole team. Performance measurement. Additional training and education. Mr. Sellery is managing director of Robert Sellery Associates, LLC advisors to organizations and individuals in the nonprofit sector. Previously, Bob led his own executive search firm specializing in finding senior executives for not-for-profit organizations. Bob Sellery's professional experience also includes academic administration at Princeton University and management consulting and executive search at Booz-Allen & Hamilton. Contact information: web site: Telephone:

5 5 NOTES 1 Because some hiring organizations view military people as too structured, especially a command and control style, we intentionally probed the candidate for examples of flexibility. In addition we sought to predict how a senior military officer, who had managed sophisticated senior officers, as distinguished from managing the highly diverse constituencies at some nonprofits, would perform at this organization. The equation was to balance the transferable skills from the military with passionate care about the cause, a general characteristic of people from the nonprofit community. Mr. Gordon B. Silcox, president, Words on Purpose LLC helped with this issue. Mr. Silcox is an independent certified leadership coach and consultant in the areas of executive development, career planning, and job search. 2 For more about the differences between leadership and management, see Kotter, John P., A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs From Management. New York: The Free Press, 1990, p. 5, and Kotter, John P., What Leaders Really Do, Harvard Business Review, May- June p From discussion between author and new CEO about planning changes. 4 Kouzes, James M. and Posner, Barry Z., The Leadership Challenge: How to Get Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1987, p Kotter, John P., What Leaders Really Do, p Drucker, P.F. The Practice of Management. New York: Harper & Row, 1954, p Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, pp. 155, 224 and The new CEO shared two documents which, among other things, measured performance. The documents were: Annual Review Form, and Fiscal Year Goals and Objectives. 9 Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, p Ibid, p. 226.