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Personal Learning as a Source of Leadership
by Greg Merten
This is the second in a series of articles revolving around the topics that will be presented at the 16th Annual Leadership Summit scheduled for September 11-13, 2008 at the Resort at the Mountain (Mt. Hood) in Welches, Oregon. The program titled, ‘Exploring the Frontiers of Leadership in Local Government’ includes underlying themes of exploring change, collaboration, conversation, courage and the personal challenges of serving as a leader in local government.
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We live in dynamic times. The rate of information exchange accelerates as more and more of the world exploits the web and other communication technologies. That rate of information exchange fuels changes at many other levels, thus shortening the relevant “half-life” of organizations and institutions.
The path to continued leadership effectiveness is to constantly learn what changes are occurring in circumstances and to adapt people and oneself to those changes.
In one form or another, we have all read about or seen examples of leaders being incongruent with their cities, organizations, each other, or the circumstances important to their success.
Several years ago, three leaders of Xerox were featured, by name, on the front page of Business Week for having destroyed about two billion dollars of Xerox’s market cap as they got into a fight about company strategy for a year and a half. The author noted that they were not venal about it as they had no predisposition to such an outcome. However, they destroyed company value just the same. What weren’t they learning about self that allowed them to stay caught in such a destructive trap? Maybe you or other council members have been fighting publicly over a new project or a proposed change in direction for your city? Now, new factions, divisions or groups have emerged in your community, arguing with each other, rather than working together to build up your city and make it a more vibrant place to live and work.
A few years later, the CEO of Ford was finally dismissed due to a general “insurrection” of employees and corresponding poor results. What was it he did not understand about his employees that caused those programs he was trying to implement to backfire so badly? Maybe you had to dismiss your City Manager under similar circumstances.
Cisco Systems became a powerhouse in the network infrastructure business, right under HP’s nose, in a business HP had already been in for many years. What was it about the business circumstances that HP was not paying attention to that allowed Cisco to come along and “eat their lunch?” In today’s competitive economy, has your city explored all of its budding economic opportunities? Has the city or community next door developed a strong economic development plan that brought in a new company with several hundred new jobs, while your city languishes or slowly erodes with the rising price of oil and everyday costs for your residents?
Each of these examples demonstrates a gap between what was needed and what was being done. I contend that in each of those circumstances a disposition to learning would have allowed correction of behavior that would have yielded far better results. In dynamic environments, “it is not being right that is so important, it is the rate of correction (learning) that is so critical.”
Humberto Maturana, the famed Chilean biologist, who gave us the Biology of Cognition and other seminal understanding about how human beings operate, said that capacity, as distinct from understanding, comes from becoming aware of our experiences. This is consistent with the results of Warren Bennis’ research for a trait common among leaders reported in “On Becoming a Leader.” He found that leaders are people who learned from the experiences their lives brought them.
Dave Packard, one of the founders of Hewlett Packard, had his “11 Simple Rules.” These were rules of personal effectiveness he had collected over the years and at 47, when he recommended them to the first division managers in the Company, he still found them important to his very successful leadership. That disposition to learning was eventually lost to HP with disappointing results.
The lesson here is that learning has to be genuinely modeled at the top of the organization if it is to be practiced by those throughout the organization. Peter Senge, the author of “The Fifth Discipline,” told me that a mentor to him, a CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, said that as CEO his vulnerability was his greatest asset! Why? Because being vulnerable allowed him to “not have to know,” and so he was much more available to the contribution of others. That enabled him to lead in a much more creative and unified manner.
So how does this learning occur? In a word, through reflection, or the courageous willingness to examine what is actually happening. I suggest that reflection should occur along three fronts: oneself, one’s relationships with others, and the organization’s relationship to circumstances. Stated another way, given what has happened (facts), how can I be more effective, how can people in our organization be more effective with each other, and what circumstances are we not being attendant to? This can be done individually, and in relevant groups.
While this seems so obvious and almost trite, I’m continually surprised that councils or groups who manage a system such as a city, a business, or other organization so seldom examine their effectiveness as a leadership team. Some revealing questions you could ask are simply, ‘how effective are we at decision making and why is that,’ ‘what was the source of that failure,’ ‘what issues are we avoiding,’ and ‘what roadblocks do our residents perceive that are not being addressed,’ and many others.
In my own personal experience, having taken an entire day every month or 6 weeks to reflect, in a business that was doubling every 9 months or so for over a decade, and examine our effectiveness was time that very well spent and gave us personally a significant, several day return. And even more importantly, the team’s effectiveness was multiplied throughout a several thousand person organization. That had a lot to do with our taking and preserving market share greater than all of our competitors combined! How do you, along with your entire city council, reinforce personal learning for yourself and all city council members, as a source of leadership for your local community?
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Greg Merten was Vice President and General Manager, Inkjet Supply Operations, for HP, managing sites in Corvallis, San Diego, Boise, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and Ireland. In this role, he led a very large worldwide organization that grew from about 75 people in 1984 to nearly 10,000 in 2003. He leverages his own leadership experience and personal lessons to help leaders around the world deliver excellent results through more valuable conversations and relationships. He blends the needs of the leader to grow and learn with the needs of the organization and its culture.
The annual Leadership Summit is NLC’s premiere leadership development program for local officials. Designed as a leadership retreat, the Summit provides personal leadership development that is focused on community perspectives. For more information, contact the Leadership Training Institute at (202) 626-3127 or visit the NLC website at www.nlc.org
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