Each year, buoyed by the hope that leaders are made, not born, tens of thousands of budding executives traipse off to leadership development courses. Here they discover the many different traits and competencies that constitute the model leader. They receive feedback from their peers and direct reports, feedback that reveals the peaks and valleys of their unique leadership profile. Finally, after all the learning and reflection is complete, the hard work begins. Each willing participant is asked to craft a plan to fill in those valleys, so that he can reshape himself into the model leader, smooth and well-rounded.
That last step, according to great managers, is an unfortunate mistake. They agree that leaders should know all the roles that need to be played. They agree that leaders should look in the mirror and learn how they come across to peers and direct reports. But that last step, crafting a plan to become more well-rounded, is in their view woefully naive. If the individual comes to the training class a poor public speaker, he will leave a poor public speaker. If he is nonconfrontational, he will always be tempted to shy away from battle. If he is impractical, he will forever struggle with bringing his ideas down to land. A training class might help him learn why certain talents are important and how they work. But no matter how earnest he is, a training class will not help him acquire them.
This isn’t a depressing revelation. The most renowned leaders in the history of corporate America have always known it. As they struggled to carve out their success, the last thing on their mind was to become well- rounded. They may have been aware of their own shortcomings, but none of them worked at turning these shortcomings into strengths. They knew what a hopeless waste of time that would be. So they did something else instead: they looked for a partner.
Walt Disney didn’t have to look far to find his brother, Roy. Through the good graces of their Stanford professor, William Hewlett found David Packard. Bill Gates and Paul Allen were fortunate enough to bump into each other in their high school computer club. None of these extraordinarily successful leaders were well-rounded. They may have had a broad knowledge of their respective businesses, but in terms of talent, each one was sharp in one or two key areas and blunt in many others. Each partnership was effective precisely because where one partner was blunt, the other was sharp. The partnerships were well- rounded, not the individuals.
Even leaders who appeared to stand alone usually balanced their act with a complementary partner. At Disney the massively intelligent, insatiably competitive Michael Eisner benefited from the more practical, down-to-earth Frank Wells. And at Electronic Data Systems, behind the impetuous, inspirational Ross Perot you would have found the wise, guiding hand of the president, Mitch Hart.
The lesson from these leaders is quite clear. You succeed by finding ways to capitalize on who you are, not by trying to fix who you aren’t. If ‘you are blunt in one or two important areas, try to find a partner whose peaks match your valleys. Balanced by this partner, you are then free to hone your talents to a sharper point.
This lesson is applicable across virtually all roles and professions. Since few people are a perfect fit for their role, the great manager will always be looking for ways to match up one person’s valleys with another person’s peaks.
Jan B. had a highly creative researcher, Diane, who seemed to be congenitally incapable of turning in her expense reports on time. Instead of wasting time berating her for her constant failure, Jan simply told her: “Every time you get back from a trip, drop your expenses into an envelope and hand them to Larry. He’ll figure them out.” Larry isn’t an assistant; he’s a researcher like Diane. But he’s the most organized person on the small team, so he gets to handle his peer’s expenses. It may be unconventional. It certainly requires trust and respect between Larry and Diane. But in Jan’s mind, it is the only way to capitalize on Larry’s talent and simultaneously release Diane from her weakness.
Jeff B., the software sales manager, is not only a sincere, passionate, and conceptual man, he is also, it turns out, a rotten planner. “I’ve never been good at tactics,” he confesses. “I am excellent at ground zero, building trust face-to-face. And I am excellent at twenty thousand feet, finding patterns, playing out scenarios. But I’m terrible in between. That’s where Tony’s so good. When we look at a situation he asks different questions than me. I’ll ask, ‘What if?’ or, ‘Why not?’ He’ll ask, ‘How many?’ or, ‘When?’ or, ‘Prove it.’ If I went to the board with my half- baked ideas, I’d get shot down every time. But with the two of us working on the same idea, our case ends up looking so convincing, they haven’t been able to turn us down once. As I say to Tony, individually we’re not much, but together we have a brain.”
When you interview great managers, you are bombarded with examples like these. After a while the partnerships they describe begin to seem almost archetypal. Of course the creative but impractical thinker wound up partnered with the streetwise, business-savvy operator. Of course the administratively impaired salesperson teamed up with the “no detail too small” office manager. And of course the cocky, needy highflier found a mentor in the tough-loving veteran. It was inevitable. These things just happen.
But they don’t. The partnerships great managers describe are not archetypes. There is nothing inevitable about them at all. Each partnership is, in fact, an anomaly, a surprisingly rare example of one manager bucking the system and figuring out how to make the most of uniquely imperfect people. Great managers talk about these partnerships so nonchalantly, it is easy to forget just how difficult they are to forge in the real world.
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Find a Complementary Partner
- The Customized Business Plan
- Create Heroes in Every Role: How to Solve the Shortage of Respect
- The Right Message
- Making the Plan: What's Realistic?
- Targeting Your Audience
- Hate (Despair, Despondency and Depression) at work, how to Dealing Working Relationship
- How Will You Motivate Your Sellers?
- Franchising: The alternative option
- Project Collaboration Monitoring, Control and Information
- Love (Exciting, Depressing, Challenging, and Frustrating) at Work
