Seven Essential Behaviors

LAWRENCE BOSSIDY & RAM CHARAN

As people reflect on their experiences, or as they get coached, blockages crumble and emotional strengths develop. An organization can execute only if the leaders heart and soul are immersed in the company. Leading is more than thinking big, or schmoozing with investors and lawmakers. The leader has to be engaged personally and deeply in the business. Execution requires a comprehensive understanding of a business, its people, and its environment. The leader is the only person in a position to achieve that understanding. And only the leader can make execution happen, through his or her deep personal involvement in the substance and even the details of execution. The leader must be in charge of getting things done by running three core processespicking other leaders, setting the strategic direction, and conducting operations. These actions are the substance of execution, and leaders cant delegate them. What does a leader do? There are seven essential behaviors: 1. Know your people and your business. Leaders have to live their businesses. In companies that dont execute, the leaders are usually out of touch with day-to-day realities. They get lots of information delivered to them, but its filtered presented by direct reports with their own perceptions, limitations, and agendas, or gathered by staff people with their own perspectives. The leaders arent where the action is. They dont know their organizations well, and their people dont really know them. The personal connection is critical when a leader starts something new. The business world is full of failed initiatives. Good, important ideas get launched with much fanfare, but six months later, theyre abandoned as unworkable. Why? Most managers feel that the last thing they need is one more time -consuming project of uncertain merit and outcome. Result: the company wastes time, money, and energy, and the leader loses credibility. The leaders personal involvement, understanding, and commitment are necessary to overcome this passive (or active) resistance. They not only need to announce the initiative, but to define it clearly and define its importance. They cant do this unless they understand how it will work and what it means in terms of benefit. Then they have to follow through to make sure everyone takes it seriously. 2. Insist on realism. Realism is the heart of execution, but many organizations are full of people who are trying to avoid or shade reality. Why? It makes life uncomfortable. People want to hide mistakes or buy time to figure out a solution rather than admit they dont have an answer at the

moment. They want to avoid confrontations. Nobody wants to be the messenger who gets shot.Sometimes leaders are simply in denial. They may state their strengths fairly well, but either cant identify their weaknesses or dont know what to do about them. 3. Set clear goals and priorities. Leaders who execute focus on a few clear priorities that everyone can grasp. Why just a few? First, focusing on three or four priorities will produce the best results from the resources at hand. Second, people need a small number of clear priorities to execute well. Without clear priorities, people can get bogged down in warfare over who gets what and why. Youve got to have a few clear, realistic goals and priorities. Strive for simplicity in general. Leaders speak simply and directly, plainly and forthrightly about whats on their minds. They know how to simplify things so that others can understand them, evaluate them. 4. Follow through. Clear, simple goals dont mean much if nobody takes them seriously. Failure to follow through is widespread, and a major cause of poor execution. How many meetings have you attended where people left without firm conclusions about who would do what and when? Everybody may have agreed the idea was good, but since nobody was named accountable for results, it doesnt get done. Other things come up that seem more important. 5. Reward the doers. If you want people to produce specific results, you reward them accordingly. Many leaders do such a poor job of linking rewards to performance that theres little correlation at all. They dont distinguish between those who achieve results and those who dont, either in base pay or in bonuses and stock options. Leaders that dont execute dont measure, dont reward, and dont promote people who know how to get things done? Make it clear to everybody that rewards and respect are based on performance. 6. Expand peoples capabilities through coaching. As a leader, youve acquired a lot of knowledge and experienceeven wisdomand your job is passing it on to expand the capabilities of everyone else. Coaching is the single most important part of expanding others capabilities. Coaching is like the saying, Give a man a fish, and youll feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish, and youll feed him for a lifetime. Its the difference between giving orders and teaching people how to get things done. The most effective way to coach is to observe a person in action and then provide specific, useful feedback. Point out examples of behavior and performance that are good or that need to be changed. Asking incisive questions forces people to think, to discover, to search. Whatever your style whether gentle or bluntask the questions that bring out the realities and give people the help they need to correct problems. 7. Know yourself. Leadership requires strength of character. Without emotional fortitude, you cant be honest with yourself, deal honestly with realities, or give people forthright assessments. You cant tolerate the diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds that you need to avoid becoming ingrown. It takes emotional fortitude to be open to whatever information you need, whether its what you like to hear or not. Emotional fortitude gives you the courage to deal with conflict and opposing points of view and the confidence to encourage and accept challenges in group settings. It enables

you to accept and deal with your own weaknesses, be firm with people who arent performing, and to handle ambiguity. Emotional fortitude comes from self-discovery and self-mastery. Good leaders build on their strengths. They help team members deliver results, while expanding their own capabilities. We have pinpointed four core qualities that make up emotional fortitude:

Authenticity. Authenticity means youre real, not a fake. Your outer person is the same as your inner person, not a mask you put on. Who you are is the same as what you do and say. Self-awareness. When you know yourself, you are comfortable with your strengths and not crippled by your shortcomings. You learn from mistakes, and successes, and keep growing. Self-mastery. When you know yourself, you can master yourself. You can keep your ego in check, take responsibility for your behavior, adapt to change, embrace new ideas, and adhere to your standards of integrity and honesty. Humility. The more you can contain your ego, the more realistic you are about your problems. You learn how to listen and admit that you dont know all the answers. You exhibit the attitude that you can learn from anyone at anytime.

How do you develop these qualities in yourself? The ultimate learning comes from paying attention to experience. As people reflect on their experiences, or as they get coached, blockages crumble and emotional strengths develop. EE Larry Bossidy is chairman and former CEO of Honeywell International, a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader. Ram Charan is a highly sought advisor to CEOs and senior executives. Source: Execution (Crown). charanasoc@aol.com.