Book Club: The Leadership Crash Course by Paul Taffinder

I didn't like this book when I first read it - found it too, er, systematic and consequently rather dull. BUT, I just re-read it and found a lot of useful stuff in it, and didn't find it dull at all. This reminded me that our reactions to a book and what we take from it can be as much dependent on our mood at the time we are reading it - what else is going on and how we are thinking and feeling - as the actual content of the book. Like everything else, including leadership, what is happening between yourself and the book is not one-way causative (information being passed from the book to you) but interactive. you bring as much to the book (or the other person or people brings as much to a leadership situation as the person who is supposed to be the formal 'leader') as it brings to you. So, apologies to Paul Taffinder for my first reaction. Here's a selection of useful insights and features to help you decide if you want to get this book yourself:

1. Leadership is not always intentional. That's a powerful insight. It's on page 6 in my version.

2. A useful self-assessment framework. On page 28.

3. The First 100 Days. On page 29. Useful for new leaders. The prevailing line of thought for new leaders - the dominant new leader strategy, if you will - is to act fast and stamp your authority on the situation and people and make a difference as fast as possible. This is seen as particularly important to eradicate whatever is left of the long shadow of the person who was in your position.

I absolutely disagree with this and was pleased to hear Michael Eisner, a bullish, aggressive leader himself (former head of Disney and Paramount before that) say recently that your job at first is to listen and learn and it's a sign of insecurity, not strength, to go charging in to make your mark. Absolutely. That's me speaking, by the way, not Taffinder.

Here's Taffinder with an additional insight. It may seem to partly contradict what I've just said but leadership is about managing contradictions and paradoxes and, without wishing to sound purposely confusing, I think he is right, too, even though some of what he says seems to contradict the Eisner point that I also agree with (life's complicated; just accept it). Here's what he says:

"Many incoming leaders often have an extraordinary advantage, often referred to as 'the honeymoon period'. ..You have two fantastic opportunities. First, you are still an 'inside-outsider'. " This means, says Taffinder, you can get to know the enterprise in depth without being tied to or blinded by its habits and traditions and 'the way we've always done things.' Second, people will treat you as an outsider, so you can make changes an insider would have trouble even attempting.

He's right, of course. Here's an example of the power of 'outside-in' leadership: I've been doing some work with IHG, the hotels group, and their CEO, Andy Cosslett, is from outside the hotels industry. He started by asking questions like: "Why do we play Girl From Ipanema in the cocktail lounge of the hotels when no-one in there is over 40?" and "Why do we grab a bag from an exhausted business traveller to take it to their room for them; they get to the room exhausted and wanting their washbag. We take ages getting it up to them?" and, even more interestingly, "What does a Holiday Inn smell like and sound like?"

Being a new leader allows you to ask 'Why?' with a fresh perspective no-one else has. Maybe it is right to play Girl From Ipanema, Andy Cosslett's Communications Director, Leslie McGibbon told me. The point is to ask the question and get used to constantly asking it. Holiday Inn has just been re-branded with its own signature smell, directly because of the CEO's naive questioning.

No other hotel brand has a signature smell. And smell is our most powerful sense for evoking memory and emotion. So, Holiday Inn now has something distinctive to its brand that helps set it apart in a crowded marketplace where consumers have too much choice, and that helps bring Holiday Inn to the front of their memory when they are next booking a hotel room. That's directly as a result of the CEO's apparently naive questioning. Naivety has power.

If you are really smart as a culture, of course, you will allow every new recruit to say what they think and feel as an 'inside outsider' and pay attention to that as valuable intelligence, too, no matter whether they are the CEO or the bellboy.

Anyway, back to Taffinder...

4. Quick wins can mean slow deaths. Page 32. Absolutely! John Kotter's 8 step big change framework emphasises quick wins to prove change can happen. Taffinder spots the downside to look out for: If people aren't involved in the change from the start but have it presented to them, it's unlikely to change them or how they behave for any length of time.

5. Sometimes you DON'T need vision. Page 34. If there's a crisis or turnaround needed, that is, says Taffinder. Up to a point, he's right, of course. He quotes Lou Gerstner, legendary turnaround CEO at IBM, on first taking up the post, when the company was in crisis:

"There has been a lot of speculation that I am going to deliver 'a vision of the future of IBM'. The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision. What IBM needs is a series of tough-minded, market-driven and highly effective strategies that deliver performance in the marketplace and shrareholder value."

That's a very, very strong point and helps break the 'leader as visionary' cliche. Gerstner only returned to 'the vision thing' when he felt IBM had transformed enough to get employees to start thinking about a longterm future.

6. Leaders break rules. It's their job. Page 50. Couldn't agree more. Not in the sense of leaders break all the rules and make everyone else abide by them. That's standard top management hypocrisy. He means, of course, that the leader's role is no longer to enforce rules about how things are done, but to encourage people to break those rules and think more innovatively.

7. Beware learned helplessness. Page 57. Useful explanation of Martin Seligman's 'learned helplessness' concept and how you can unwittingly let it take hold in an organization without noticing it (people feeling helpless to make change, that is).

8. GE's Workout. Page 59. Nice explanation of the the Workout process Jack Welch introduced whereby anyone can call a meeting to present a problem that needs a solution, come up with a solution to the problem with the group, then take it to the manager to consider and the manager has to make a yes/no decision or, and only if they have a very good reason for not deciding immediately, report back with a 'yes/no' decision within a limited timeframe. GE actually trademarked 'Work-out'.

9. Surface disagreements. Pages 66-68. Good examples of how the best leaders want people to disagree with them, to surface the truth. He cites Bill Gates as an example of a leader brave enough to cultivate criticism, with the phrase 'don't make peace'.

10. Create adventure and excitement. Yes, that's part of the leader's job description and one we often fail on.

11. Different types of influence. Pages 129-131. Useful description of the different types of influence.

12. Commitment versus compliance. Page 132. Telling people what to do only achieves the latter. Involving them gains their commitment. You also have to partly be led by them to gain their commitment, by the way - tap into what people hold dear and are committed to (perhaps without even consciously knowing it) rather than try and impose something from outside and win their commitment to that (that's me, not Taffinder, again). Sometimes you only need compliance, of course. Both are legitimate, as Taffinder points out.

14. A meeting is not action. Page 145. Oh yes! As I think Bob Sutton at Stanford points out, one of the the most common leadership errors is assuming a meeting and a decision have been taken so a subject has been dealt with. "What did you do about this issue?" "We held a meeting" is not a valid exchange without 'and then what happened in the real world as a consequence of the decisions taken at that meeting?' as a follow-up.

15. Masters and servants. Page 146. "Too many leaders...begin to imagine that it is only owing to their own brilliance that they are successful. They forget that leaders are both masters and servants: they say how things should be, but serve their people in helping them to fulfil their goal."

Lot of other good stuff in this book, but I don't want to go on too much.

Overall, I'd recommend this book. Maybe not to read cover to cover in one go (perhaps my mistake when I read it first and found it tiring). But there is a lot of valuable insight and action tips and little tools like progress checklists to help you see where you are and plan what you do next.

The Leadership Crash Course

'A 6-step fast-track self-development action kit'

by Paul Taffinder

My edition: Kogan Page, paperback, published 2000, UK edition

ISBN 0 74974 3142 3

There's also a newer, revised, 2006 edition. Take a look on Amazon if you want to buy it.

Phil Dourado