Page 279 - The extraordinary leader

256 • The Extraordinary Leader

8. Management versus leadership. Do we emphasize the technical and
administrative issues or swing to emphasize people, mission, and vision?
9. Revenue growth versus cost containment. 20

The job of the leader is one of constantly dealing with complexity and
ambiguity. Leadership development processes must help them to deal with
that. Some mechanisms may be institutional, like the Procter & Gamble prac-
tice of limiting all memos to one page. That forces you to move complexity
into simplicity.
Our earlier discussion of the U.S. Marines Corps’ approach is yet another
way of going about it. Insist that every major problem or mission be distilled
to three alternatives, about which some analysis is performed and a selection
is made of the best alternative. Then detailed plans are made for the final
selection. The process of taking any problem or mission and winnowing it
down to three alternatives is a powerful procedure.

Involve Your Leaders as Teachers
Involving leaders as teachers has a number of benefits. First, you never learn
something more effectively than when you have to teach it. So the process of
engaging leaders as teachers is a powerful way to let them become highly con-
versant with any body of content or new initiative. Second, it is a great devel-
opmental tool. The teachers gain new skills, both in teaching and as a role
model of whatever it is they are teaching. Third, their presence lends high
credibility to what is being taught.
The use of leaders as coaches to action learning teams is one obvious exam-
ple of this practice. Each action learning team needs someone to be its offi-
cial sponsor, or “angel.” The team also needs someone to run interference
when required, as well as someone to mentor the group through the process.
In such a role, numerous opportunities arise for coaching on leadership
behavior for all of the participants.

Make Development a Longer-Term Process,
Not an Event

Leadership development activities have long been viewed as events. That
event could be a weekend, an entire week, or, in some cases, it could