Resources

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“Leadership is defined as a relationship, not a person.”

Reading time: two minutes and fifteen seconds

I have always maintained that, if people weren’t so afraid of the process of disagreeing, they would have much better outcomes and more creative solutions to problems. Now, Mark Gerzon in Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences into Opportunities, provides sound arguments for why leaders need conflict and how to use it to their advantage to build relationships and organizations. This book is well worth your time.

Gerzon identifies three models of leadership: the manger, the dictator, and the mediator. It’s not hard to guess which comes out as most effective. The mediator model provides the most benefits to leaders and their organizations. Mediating a discussion instead of simply managing a process or dictating an outcome allows for full exploration of an idea, debate that results in more informed decisions, and a process that strengthens teams.

Gerzon also provides eight tools or approaches to help leaders “transform intractable differences into progress” including such approaches as systems thinking, presence, inquiry, bridging, and dialogue. The definitions of these approaches are a bit different from what we might expect from our standard definitions of these words, and they combine to form a fully-developed and consistent approach to working through disagreements to find their creative benefits.

Gerzon takes his ideas from his work as a mediator all across the globe and shows how these ideas can be applied to your own organizations and teams. In the chapter on bridging, for example, which he defines as building partnerships across boundaries, he describes how members of groups as divers as Sears and an international group called the Bridging Leadership Task Force used similar approaches to work through conflict.

The old model of “CEO as hero” has run aground. It leads to burnout, empty marriages, and second-rate decisions. The new-model CEO is not a savior on a white horse but a team that knows how to bridge. . . . Put bluntly, leaders who are Mediators will outperfrom those who aren’t because they know how to build the partnerships and alliances that are the key to enduring success.”

Mediation has become so closely associated with the legal system recently that its value in all areas of discussion and leadership has been overwhelmed. Gerzon points out the value of the approach in public areas of concern, education, business and international relations. Now, if we could only get people to learn how to use it.

This book, which is well worth your attention, focuses on process and approaches, rather than conflict management techniques, which you can find in other sources. Together, his general approaches and the specific techniques available from other sources can change the dynamic of your organization and vastly improve your success. In times like these, a new approach is most welcome.

Leadership: Visionary. Charismatic. Dull?

Reading time: two minutes and forty-five seconds

Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay, wants to be the governor of California, what is sometimes referred to as the “state CEO.” (LAT, 2/16/09, p. C1) She and her supporters argue that her corporate experience makes her an ideal candidate for “state CEO.”

The question is not, “Is Whitman qualified to be a CEO?” but “Is she qualified to be successful in a political environment rather than a business environment?” I think her corporate experience makes her an ideal candidate for another business CEO position, but maybe not for governor, a political CEO position. Moving from one management environment to another doesn’t make you automatically successful in the new environment no matter how successful you were in the old one. Your skills have to match those necessary in the new environment.

On the Op-Ed page of today’s New York Times, David Brooks writes interestingly “In Praise of Dullness” as a corporate leadership trait distinguished from leadership traits in other areas. (5/19/09, p. A23) He quotes from a study showing that the traits often praised as necessary for leadership such as being a good listener, team builder or communicator, didn’t really matter all that much for business CEOs. Rather, what mattered “were execution and organizational skills.” Skills like attention to detail, persistence, efficiency and the ability to work long hours were much more important than warmth, flexibility, and empathy. Emotional stability, dependability, and executing plans make successful business CEOs.

A new book on leadership makes these distinctions clear. Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading by Heifetz and Linsky points out some of these different skill sets and how they affect the ability to lead. This book focuses on the difficulty of decision-making and how it can alienate you from those who disagree with your decision. Getting the most from a disagreement is an important part of leading, and exploring how to do that and keep your sanity and commitment are discussed to advantage here.

This book seems to echo a gradual shift in how we discuss leadership that began with general ideas. For a while, books on leadership were titled just that: “on leadership,” or maybe “the leader,” or maybe the plural was used and the book was about “leaders” in general.

Then work on leadership shifted gears. First it focused on metaphors, and we got books that compared leadership with a “challenge,” a “new science,” or an “odyssey.” Another phase included descriptors like visionary, jazz, high velocity, and even “primal.” In general, I find these books very helpful, but when lessons on leadership drew on the writings of leaders like Attila the Hun I began to see a lot of these as brand extensions rather than interesting explorations of an idea.

More recently, the focus has shifted from metaphors and lessons to a more philosophical approach to processes, especially a focus on conflict resolution and the particular skills needed to find the creative opportunities in disagreements. Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader, Conflict Competent Teams, and Leading Through Conflict are all examples and excellent resources, and Leadership on the Line follows this path.

As Brooks says, “Business leaders tend to perform poorly in Washington [meaning, in politics], while political leaders possess precisely those talents – charisma, charm, personal skills – that are of such limited value when it comes to corporate execution.” Are you being the outgoing, social animal as leader when your organization needs someone to focus on the work and execute the plan? Are your behaviors consistent with the need? Are Whitman’s?

These new ideas about leadership are wonderful, but my favorite book is still If Aristotle Ran General Motors by Tom Morris. It’s a short, philosophy book about leadership based on beliefs about truth, beauty, goodness, and unity, and how they apply to business. Maybe the former CEO of GM should have read it. Maybe Meg Whitman should read it. Maybe you should, too.

Have a great week!

Maria

Maria Simpson, Ph.D.

PSM provides communications and conflict resolution training, executive coaching, and team and leadership development. We support executive teams in their efforts to become stronger and more effective, individuals in their efforts to improve their management and communications skills, and organizations in their efforts to effect the changes needed for a healthy and respectful workplace.

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