Page 90 - The extraordinary leader

Simplifying Leadership • 67

‘Well, we have a consulting dermatologist downstairs who is considered to be
one of the best in the world—let’s go see him.’ So, this eminent dermatolo-
gist looked at it, took a culture from it, and when I returned from another
business trip, Kathy’s rash was gone. I asked what had happened, and she said,
‘Dr. Scholtz discovered that I had both a fungal and bacterial infection on my
arm. The previous doctors had treated one or the other. He treated them both
simultaneously and it cleared up.’ I learned from this experience that doing
two things together can work magic, while doing one alone often accom-
plishes nothing.”
In a study, we looked at managers who were in the top quartile on Focus
on Results but were not in the top quartile on Interpersonal Skills. The like-
lihood of being perceived as a great leader was 13 percent. Contrasting peo-
ple in the opposite position (e.g., in the top quartile on Interpersonal Skills
and not in the top quartile on Focus on Results), there was a 9 percent prob-
ability of being perceived as a great leader. When we found leaders who were
good at both Focus on Results and Interpersonal Skills, the likelihood of that
person being perceived as one of the top 10 percent leaped to 68 percent. This
fact powerfully reinforces the idea that effective leaders are not one-celled
people, who focus maniacally on just one thing. To the contrary, we have
learned that great leaders do many things well.
In his book Team Zebra, Steve Frangos described his efforts to transform
4
the black-and-white film division of Kodak. One powerful message in the book
was that success in changing the culture of the organization came from doing
several things simultaneously. No one thing, by itself, did much. But the com-
bination of training programs, surveys, team building, quality circles, and
coaching initiatives was extremely powerful.

Leading Organizational Change
What are the specific skills required for Leading Organizational Change
(Figure 3-6)? Here are the competencies:

● Has the ability to be a champion for change in the organization
● Leads projects or programs, presenting them so that others support them
● Is an effective marketer for his or her work group’s projects, programs,
or products
● Has a strategic perspective