Leading Your Way

Bobby Jones, one of the most famous and able golfers of all time, once said, “The game of golf is played in the five inches between the ears. Getting the most out of one’s talents depends entirely on what is going on between the ears.”1 I suggest that the games of business, nonprofits, politics, and indeed, almost any endeavor, are played in the same space, a space as unique to each individual as the face you see in the mirror. So why do so many⎯if not most⎯books on business and leadership try to suggest otherwise, offering innumerable how-to’s (how to be a more effective leader, how to win, etc.) and formulas for success? This book is about your “five inches”: how you can make the most of your unique self in whatever you choose to do, whether as a leader, a potential leader, or an individual contributor.…

Embracing Your Uniqueness

Consider the following leaders. What do the individuals grouped together have in common?

• Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin

• Unitas, Brady, Manning, Lombardi, Belichick

• Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison

• Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, Welch, Grove, Trump

• Cobb, Ruth, Mantle, Jackson, Aaron, Rodriguez

• Thatcher, Albright, Meir

• Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan

• Moses, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul

• Caesar, Constantine, Napoleon, Alexander the Great

• Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus, Sorenstam, Woods

The leaders in each group shared a very specific, challenging, and lofty goal: Washington and the others to form a more perfect union; the Roosevelt threesome to defeat Germany and Japan; Cobb et al. to be world champions of baseball; Caesar, Constantine, and Napoleon to rule an empire; Welch, Grove, and others to build a great business; Thatcher, Meir, and Albright to establish peace in the Middle East. Now consider all of these leaders together. All share one attribute: a very clear focus on their goals. These individuals charged toward their goals with an extraordinary single-mindedness. While one may question the merits of their goals⎯for example those of Napoleon and the other empire builders⎯and how they went about them, all of these individuals either accomplished what they set out to do or never stopped trying.

But there is another, more important question: What is different in each group? The leaders themselves. Persona, approach, style, intellect, raw talent, and entire being were unique to each individual. These leaders did not try to model or emulate others; rather, they were themselves, they achieved their goals in their own ways. Trying to emulate them⎯or any of the hundreds, if not thousands, of other “model” leaders whom you may have observed or studied⎯will only compromise your potential and possibly lead you to failure (most likely making you look very foolish in the process!). Remember: success is a function of your unique self, your own five inches.

My Career as a Leader

Although not a CEO rock star, having spent forty years working my way up the corporate ladder⎯ the last fifteen in a top-level position at one of America’s largest companies⎯I have a lot to say about leadership and business. I’ve led organizations ranging from just a few people to a few hundred to over 55,000. Additionally, I have thirteen years of board of directors’ work for ten companies (four public, six private) and advisory work with Bain Consulting. These interactions with CEOs and their teams⎯of companies ranging from start-ups to multibillion-dollar enterprises⎯have further expanded my perspective on leadership and business. In this book I share how my thinking and approach have evolved over the years to help you examine, understand, and leverage your own uniqueness.

My career track was unusual. I started on the shop floor, at the lowest level of the leadership ladder. My first job was as an individual contributor, an engineer. However, I quickly realized this was not for me⎯I wanted to lead others. Happily, I was soon given the opportunity to supervise a group of technicians, some very young new hires, others crusty old veterans who had seen numerous guys like me come and go. On my way up the leadership ladder I went through many different assignments, including a sojourn in middle management that lasted for eighteen years. This long period in middle management has given me a perspective not often presented in leadership books, written as they mostly are by well-known CEOs, researchers, academicians, and politicians. My time in middle management gave me the opportunity to both lead and stay very close to frontline employees and the customers we all served. The respect I gained then for the very real people of the company and the work that they do led to a humbleness that persists today. My leadership behaviors grew from this respect for people and their capability to contribute at very high levels, along with a passion for taking care of customers, and an obsession with taking cost out.…

Finding Your Own Way

The what’s and how’s of winning leadership are as different as the people trying to execute the leadership task. I think about leadership this way: First, you are born with certain genetic attributes. Over your lifetime, the thinking, learning, and action parts of your brain grow. Your beliefs, values, and emotions evolve. These elements, combined with your genes, add up to what I call your leadership DNA; this is the foundation of your uniqueness. Over your lifetime you also take in information from your experiences. All that you read, observe, and learn goes into your brain. Every bit of the input is stored for future use. I call these elements the tools of your tool bag; in any given situation you can draw upon these tools to guide your thinking.

Your leadership DNA and the tools in your tool bag work together. Think of the little black case stuffed with instruments that the doctors of the past carried when they made house calls. Leadership DNA is like the black case itself; it softens with age but does not change much in its essence. Inside the case were the doctor’s physical instruments—his tools—which, when combined with the knowledge in the doctor’s head⎯training, experience, and learning over a lifetime⎯gave the doctor the capability to address the unique needs of each patient.

But your innate leadership DNA and a well-stocked tool bag are not enough: you also have to be able to act…