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According to David Dotlich, Peter Cairo, and Stephen Rhinesmith, "whole leaders" are those who "use their head to set strategy, their heart to connect with the world, and their guts to make instinctive and intuitive decisions based on clear values." Nonetheless, for various reasons, "we still too often see top business executives attempting to solve problems or seize opportunities using only their head...or their heart...or their guts." That said, the fact remains that some decisions are best made primarily with reason, others primarily with emotion, and others primarily with instinct or intuition. Moreover, determining which is most appropriate for each decision requires highly-developed judgment in combination with sufficient real-world experience. This is what Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis have in mind in their book, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls, when asserting that what really matters "is not how many calls a leader gets right, or even what percentage of calls a leader gets right. Rather it is important how many of the important ones he or she gets right." They go on to suggest that effective leaders "not only make better calls, but they are able to discern the really important ones and get a higher percentage of them right. They are better at a whole process that runs from seeing the need for a call, to framing issues, to figuring out what is critical, to mobilizing and energizing the troops." According to Tichy and Bennis, there is a framework of three "critical domains" within which all decisions are made. Judgments about people are the most difficult, and most critical; the others involve strategy and crisis. They stress that good judgment calls are a process, not an event. Each begins when a leader recognizes a need and frames the decision to be made, with the process continuing through execution and adjustment. They also stress the importance of possessing sufficient self-knowledge because making a right call "isn't a solo performance; support teams are vital." Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith wholeheartedly agree.
With a unique combination of intellectual rigor and linguistic eloquence, they identify and then discuss nine ways for business leaders to "navigate" what they characterize as "a perfect storm," one that involves "a rare convergence of complexity and diversity, a convergence that challenges all our leadership assumptions. Imagine leaders as captains steering ships through this perfect storm. The old charts are outdated, and even the smartest strategists have not yet been able to adequately map a new world." Moreover, they go on to point out, "Every time someone conducts a study of the new territory, a storm starts shoaling the terrain and changing the navigation lanes. As fast as leaders develop new strategies, powerful external forces render them obsolete." Hence the need for leaders to rely on their own beliefs (i.e. be guided by their own moral compass, by what Bill George calls one's "True North") and instincts (a strong sense of what is correct, accurate, reliable, trustworthy, etc). "Like the best captains trying to keep their ships afloat during the fiercest storms, leaders have to depend on what they know to be true. They also have to depend on the advice and suggestions of others"; as Tichy and Bennis emphasize, "possessing sufficient self-knowledge because making a right call isn't a solo performance; support teams are vital."
After identifying the nine ways to navigate the perfect storm through whole leadership, Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith devote a separate chapter to each within clusters of three: Navigating the Wave of Complexity (Chapters 3-5), Navigating the Wave of Diversity (Chapters 6-8), and Navigating the Wave of Uncertainty (Chapters 9-11). Then in Part Three, they explain how to develop whole leaders and teams by aligning a company's talent to navigate the storm, aligning members of a team around whole leadership, how to develop one's self as a whole leader, and a "Final Thought" by which to explain why whole leaders will succeed.
When concluding their book, they review some of the challenges discussed: "Blowing up your business model, turning green without bleeding red, leading an unfamiliar workforce, relying on what you believe in." These are indeed formidable challenges. How must whole leaders respond to them?
1. Act Authentically: "The more confusing and uncertain the world becomes, the more people want leaders who are real...[What helps] is knowing that their CEO will be exactly the person they expect, will respect them enough to be authentic, and will deserve their continuing respect."
2. Balance Money and Meaning: "Leaders are confronting what we refer to as the [begin italics] money-meaning gap [end italics], and the future will make this gap wider and more difficult." Therefore, "To win the war for talent, to build brands, to function effectively in a global environment - all this involves managing meaning."
3. Develop the Capacity to Connect: "The best leaders in the future will be connectors and collaborators, not just in terms of bringing people together but also allying disparate ideas and organizations. Interdependence is the watch word for he future, and people who can facilitate connections will have a huge advantage over those who can't." Organizations that develop and retain an abundance of such people have a hue advantage over those that don't. "This means being able to connect the [right] dots - to figure out how seemingly unrelated concepts or views can be brought together in a synergistic whole."
Note my frequent use of the word "how." Those who read this book will especially appreciate the fact that David Dotlich, Peter Cairo, and Stephen Rhinesmith are diehard pragmatists who rely almost entirely on empirical, verifiable evidence when identifying the "what" of developing and executing whole leadership; they devote most of their attention to explaining how to achieve those separate but related, independent objectives.
Congratulations to them for collaborating so well on what I consider to be a brilliant achievement. Bravo!
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Praise for Leading in Times of Crisis
"Building on the solid base of their book Head, Heart, and Guts, Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith lay out the ways to become the kind of leader needed to navigate through today's complexities and uncertainties. Leading in Times of Crisis is a necessary guidebook to survive and thrive in the global perfect storm."—John Naisbitt, author, Megatrends and Megatrends 2000
"The risks and opportunities that confront today's leader have never been greater. Leading in Times of Crisis provides unique and valuable insights, along with straightforward principles, that will help point the way in an increasingly diverse and rapidly changing environment."—Ken Frazier, president, global human health, Merck & Co., Inc.
"This book blends practical business solutions with useful insights about leading people.It should help anyone looking for new ideas to deal with the uncertainty and complexityfacing leaders everywhere today."—Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN (formerly Home Shopping Network)
"The main message of this provocative book is that leadership as we have known it ischanging rapidly and dramatically. Moreover, research shows that well over half of people in leadership positions fail. The challenge for leaders today is daunting. But a carefulreading of what Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith have to say from their extensive experiences will help to reduce significantly this troublesome failure rate."—W. Warner Burke, Edward Lee Thorndike Professor of Psychology and Education; chair, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University
"Research demonstrates that the #1 leadership competency in shortest supply is 'dealing with ambiguity and complexity.' Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith give you the real-world tools to actually do it. This book helps us to reach deep inside ourselves, our organizations, and our markets to achieve dynamic, sustainable success. Get this book to effectively navigate change, inside and out!"—Kevin Cashman, senior partner, Korn/Ferry Leadership & Talent Consulting, and best-selling author, Leadership From the Inside Out
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