Hands-On Leadership

When I was young and new to the business world, I thought that the higher one rises in a corporate hierarchy, the easier it gets. Boy, was I wrong. I was probably thinking myopically about executive perquisites – the C-Suite, the corner office and all that goes with it. In fact, the opposite is true, as any senior-level manager will tell you.

In many ways, rising through a corporate structure doesn’t relieve you of unpleasant tasks. It just adds more. It means you learn how things work and what makes an organization excel. Sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty, even if you’re at the top. In fact, leaders who disdain the dirty work likely will fail because they grow out of touch with the organization they purport to run. I’ve seen instances of that, and they were not pretty.

A large component of the counsel I provide clients is based on those experiences – both good and bad leaders I’ve been exposed to. Business books that are full of real world anecdotes also provide valuable insights.

So when it comes to business books, I’m partial to those on leadership where the core message concerns the merits of good communications and hands-on leadership. That’s one reason I like John Kotter’s books on leadership so much. He recognizes the central importance played by consistent, relevant and continuous communications, and how hands-on leadership is the most effective kind of communications.

In that regard, among the best I’ve read are “Shackleton’s Way,” by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell, “Inside Steve’s Brain,” by Leander Kahney, and anything written by John Kotter. To this category, add a new one: “Walk The Walk,” by Alan Deutschman.

Deutschman’s counsel leans heavily towards hands-on involvement by leaders, and the truth of the expression “actions speak louder than words.” This book is full of relevant and telling anecdotes about real world business leaders who excel at direct involvement and communication.

One of my favorites concerns Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s. Deutschman relates how Kroc visited franchises frequently and, as he approached the restaurant, would pick up trash in the parking lot before even setting foot in the place.

Cleanliness was Kroc’s central tenet. He rightly believed that clean restaurants would appeal to his customers, bring them back for repeat visits, and build loyalty. Of course, he was right. He demonstrated his abiding belief in this truth by actually attending to it himself. As the CEO, he could have come into the restaurant and told the manager that there was trash in the parking lot. Instead, by demonstrating his willingness to do it himself, he elevated the importance of the task. Implicitly, he was saying that if something is important enough for the CEO to do himself, then it must be pretty darned important.

The chapter I found most insightful was the fourth, titled: “You Share The Struggle And The Risk.” Deutschman writes, “Sharing the struggle is vital for anyone who aspires to leadership, whether it’s the CEO of a company with hundreds of thousands of employees or a front-line manager with less than a dozen people.”

He cites Southwest Airlines, where supervisors are considered to be “player-coaches,” helping at times to get the job done, from handling baggage to serving as agents at departure gates. Even the founding CEO, Herb Kelleher, was known to pitch in. He notes that the arrangement has “strengthened the feelings of loyalty coming from teammates, who appreciate the extra help when they’re in a crunch, and it’s made the supervisors become better coaches because they understand the work’s pressures and challenges first-hand.”

Deutschman adds, “Leaders can’t fully grasp the situation until they’ve shared the struggle.”

He quotes a Whole Foods manager who spoke a core truth of successful management: “People don’t work for companies, they work for people.” That simple observation reveals much about successful leadership. The manager or leader who falls back on the vague concept of “the company” to drive loyalty and hard work rather than his/her personal and direct involvement has lost sight of the fact that the organization is, in fact, people working together toward a common goal.

To that point, he concludes the chapter by writing about the “royal visit,” where the “CEO and top executives drop in to see their workers or perhaps toiling in a front-line job on a single day a year, for a few hours at most.” Of such behavior, Deutschman writes, “The real difference comes when a leader is obsessive about getting the firsthand view,” unfiltered by those with an axe to grind, rather than putting on a show of being involved.

The impetus for such involvement must be first and foremost to learn from the first-hand experience, not to pretend to care. Believe me, employees can spot a phony a mile away. They know the difference between a leader who truly wants to learn something and one who just wants to fly the executive flag. If a leader’s reason for the front-line visit is the latter, he/she would be better off just staying in the corner office.