BOOK NOTES

“A leader is a dealer in hope.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” ~Max DePree. There are 1000’s of quotations about leadership attributed to great leader. The author John Foreman acknowledges up front that his book is about average people (which most leaders are) making good decisions over time. In fact, Foreman’s working definition of a great leader is “someone who makes who makes repeatedly good decisions over time…someone who makes decisions for a group of people to accomplish a goal.”

He offers this question—would you rather have a leader who has charisma, taste, unassailable character, sharp wit, and decisive but tends to make bad decisions? Or someone less awesome out front in a crowd, less charismatic, has a bad haircut, but makes consistently good decisions? Nothing, he argues, is more dangerous than someone who plays the idealized aspects of a leader well but chooses the wrong path over and over. Consider the infamous “Chainsaw Al” (CEO Al Dunlap) who was known for quick mass layoffs to make the books look good. But then in the late 90’s he got stuck at Sunbeam after again he had fired many employees to be profitable in the short term. Forced to be there for the long haul, he committed fraud to look good when his chainsaw no longer worked.

CASE AGAINST BUSINESS BOOKS

Foreman is irreverent towards business books for myriad reasons. I’ll get those out of the way now. Why do they—as he says—suck? These categories top his list:

1. Swoop and poop analogy books—these are books about the mountain climber turned entrepreneur, athlete turned venture capitalist, military hero turned motivational speaker, etc. They discharge little nuggets of leadership wisdom.
2. Great businessman books—these are books by folks who tell their story of lightning success mixed with a few learnings and takeaways. Takeaways are usually specific to that person’s personality. Remember “Chainsaw Al?” He wrote a bestseller entitled “Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies.”
3. Academic study (insight porn)—these books often take a single study or survey and blow it out of proportion. They can be helpful in a unifying theory of leadership, but you must guard against making this your singular chainsaw.

Foreman acknowledges despite his sarcasm that all these books may have a few helpful nuggets of perhaps limited applicability. You get in trouble when you try to take these small nuggets and make them everything. What is Foreman’s alternative?

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING

This is the premise of his book. Should you do this or that? IT DEPENDS! Context is king. There is no rigid framework. He offers examples of leaders who say to scale things and other successful examples of leaders who say don’t scale. They are both right…some of the time (like business books). People tend to buy books that confirm their bias. Guess who buys books that claim success comes from those who run in and work harder? Those who already drive hard. Foreman suggests a whole new genre of literature he calls “wisdom literature”. This brand creates humility in the face of the unsolvable. You build stronger muscles by struggling yourself and yes, sometimes suffering.

Sometimes people will offer conflicting pieces of advice. Wisdom literature doesn’t tell you what to think or do. Wisdom literature knows life is complex and situations require nuanced thinking. LEADERS GET TO DECIDE WHICH OPTION TO APPLY IN VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. Good leadership is both dynamic and contextual.

CONFLICTING CHOICES WITH WISDOM LITERATURE (WL)

A walk around any business naturally includes the people, the processes, and the products. In the people slot, we think A players versus B ones, far versus fast, inputs versus outputs. In process, we think speed versus order, top down versus bottom up, and specialization versus generalization. Product dilemmas include whether to build or buy, bundle or unbundle, and good or great.

Foreman offers many concrete examples of when one approach might be better than the other. For example, much of the WL says to go fast go alone but to go far, go together. But if you go together too much you won’t get very far because you can’t figure out how to move well together. So maybe go alone after all. The contradictions are endless.

In the world of specialists, the generalist is king. Until you need them to do one thing really well and then specialists are king. Or like when do you do it yourself or when do you hire someone else to do something? He offers many of these obvious dilemmas, finishing with good advice means options, not answers. And good leadership is getting comfortable with uncomfortable.

There is seldom one right answer to a problem in all situations and choosing rightly is the mark of a good leader. Unfortunately, we all also operate from places of singular options…one that comes naturally to us. That first option is the KNEE-JERK one. If it’s a customer-facing issue, consult customers and co-workers. Other options to consider include funding it, killing it, or consulting your network.

People love narratives so you might consider management by metaphor. In sports you might use blocking and tackling, in war it would be going scorched earth, in food having bigger fish to fry, in health to stop the bleeding, or in religion it might be robbing Peter to pay Paul. These idioms trigger emotional responses and might help while generating options. Here’s where books can be dangerous…if I just read one about the importance of focus, I might tend to use the kill option. Business literature should be used for creating options to consider.

WHAT’S YOUR OBJECTIVE?

Consider I drop you off blindfolded in a foreign area, and you had to choose one of two things to take with you…bear spray or 4 gallons of water. The decision might be a lot easier if you could see where you were! The objective might be to get out of where you were without dying of thirst. Your priority is highly contextual. That helps when you consider long-term or short-term goals, current or future customers, etc. It’s what you want to maximize. Collect options and select one based on your objective, the one likely to give you your best outcome.

Leaders often overestimate their ability to be right. So, use data where appropriate and not rely on single anecdotes from a few people. Quantitative data gives you more precise answers to imprecise questions while qualitative data gives you more imprecise answers to precise questions. Consider options that allow for learning and changing. Be careful as Bezos famously observed about walking through doors you can’t walk back out of. Consider pre mortems to gather ideas for criticism beforehand.

Remember that deciding and executing go together…they aren’t, according to Foreman, two distinct phases. Consider your criteria for success and failure and then move out. The quality of leadership lies in the quality of decisions. Commit to the actions, unify others around it, and define the roles of folks who must do their parts to succeed.

Ultimately, culture is the summation of a company’s held values. Every leader engages in shaping that culture. The values and resulting behaviors determine it. Great leaders check on the behaviors their values are creating regularly. That’s why culture does eat strategy for lunch. It’s why holding people accountable for their decision making and spending most of your time with your best leaders is fruitful. Create a team of good decision makers.

Remember we are all human and progress is rarely linear. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ~Truman Capote

Publisher: Wiley, New York, NY, 2023