A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part III

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part I

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part II

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part III 




This third part will cover the review of the last three principles, namely Creativity, Integrity & Community. True to the subtitle of the book, the author takes off from the individual introspection about these principles. 

Regarding Creativity principle, the author says about being creative first and almost all of us are creative. But a few who are considered the most innovative are ready to take risk with their new ideas and go against the existing norms to deliver results. The author identifies four competencies of creativity principle and they are Discovering People's Talents, Uncovering the Organization's Talent, Developing People Centered Technologies and Rewarding the Soft Innovations. As usual he brings very apt case studies for each of these competencies of Creativity principle. 

The case study on Todd Mannesfield, the then Executive VP of Disney Development Company takes us through how people's talents are discovered and nurtured to deliver great results. Disney Development, though is in real estate business, the stress is on the experience that too 'Disney experience', which calls for creativity from the sector which may not be as creative as entertainment industry. Todd believes in identifying the strengths of individuals and then he provides the right opportunities for the individual while reducing bureaucratic hurdles as much as possible. At the same time he provides, and emphasizes on, the right environment for the person and his talent to flourish to deliver great results. He particularly refers to Pareto's principle being used in wrong way generally, while leading people. Generally, 80% of the stress is laid on addressing the weaknesses of individuals while 20% is on leveraging the strengths. Here 80% stress is on leveraging individual strengths and 20% on overcoming or compensating the weaknesses, many time bringing the individuals with complementing skills and talents to compensate. Todd talks about his own nature of trusting people too early and too much and how he manages using the strength of his colleague. The case study also offers another instance, where in a financial executive who was a 'deal person' thrusted in detail oriented 'operational role'. The person was moved, wherein he could do the 'deals' rather than  manage the operations, not only the person started elivering great results he kept on enjoying his role! The author brings in the advice of the proponents of 'strength based leading', Gallup on how to recognize ones weaknesses. I am finding this specific case study and creativity principle generally as more effective, probably because I myself am inclined towards creativity.

For Unraveling Creativity the case study of Sun Hydraulics is offered. It is a typical example of highly creative research and development division. As the stress is on creativity, the team structure has been implemented. To get the optimum results the people with high self awareness are chosen and are given free rein to deliver highly creative output. The case study is too extensive and short to understand the underlying mechanisms at work to arrive at the take-aways. This is one of the failings of the book, as I have mentioned earlier.Though the author mentions that the organization has been delivering extraordinary results consistently compared to the peers, the period covered is not much. The scalability of the organization is not known.  I strongly suspect that the practices mentioned in the case study very specific to the research and development unit of the organization. In an instance an employee's frustration over one and half year's efforts to push her project is mentioned, though it was resolved. I believe 3M & Google's practices of intrapreneurs is more scalable model compared to the one mentioned here. I also believe Jim Collin's 10X Leadership model in his Great by Choice which talks of triad of Fantastic Discipline, Productive Paranoia and Empirical Creativity driven by Level 5 Ambition is a more definitive work.

Under Developing People Centered Technologies competency, Sidney Harman's Harman International Industries is covered. Harman's approach to infusing technologies is analysed to give an inside view into technology infusion in organizations. Harman notes that the technology infusion happens in 3 phases in organizations, first to speed up, later to increase efficiency or productivity in my view, lastly to increase the effectiveness. The implications on people, in my view are, initially further need of people for a given operation is curtailed, the people surplus in the organization are redeployed as much as possible and later different competencies are needed as the organization climbs up the value chain, respectively. Sidney Harman talks about providing continuous learning opportunities for the employees to be ahead of the technology infusion within the organization. Two specific instances of creative redeployment of resources are provided. One is about the wood punches being offered as clocks for charity and promotion purposes. And the other is about the people from production redeployed in their factory retail store to sell the products.Though these kind of initiatives offer solutions for the employees affected by technology infusion, this applies for the large non-managerial talent. Highly talented managers and leaders, in turn, the organization, will be benefited by intrapreneurial (in-enterprise entrepreneurial) initiatives like Google Labs, which in my view, is a rehashed version of what has been practiced for almost a century in 3M. In the high tech, internet, social media organizations, either the internal initiatives are addressing these aspects as in Intuit or the high growth or/and highly promising start-ups are being gobbled up for the talent or/and to have presence in the emerging 'White Spaces'. In a way, the book's in-depth assessment of underlying mechanisms is incidental on the availability of incisive analysis offered by the organizations in the case studies.

The case study of Beth Israel Hospital emphasizes on the competency of Rewarding Soft Innovations. It makes a strong case for leveraging the people's creativity for strategic advantage for the organizations. As everything else, whether technology, funds, etc., is available at the same cost for all the players in any industry. I believe, the management processes and systems dovetailed uniquely to leverage people's creativity so as to adapt to fast changing business environment determines the winners. At Beth Israel, to achieve respect and care for the patients, not only doctors, even the nurses and non-medical staff are respected. One of the ways adapted is to get the newly joined doctors to do the role play of the others ie. nurses & non-medical staff and let them in the hospital. That teaches the doctors the feelings of the other staff. Another way adopted is to make doctors, including the head, Mitchell T Robkin to serve the staff by donning their uniform once in a year. In my view, this mechanism helps in instilling real respect for the individuals. Additionally, it keeps the still-unconverted ones to be on guards! Robkin recounts an incident while he had food with one of his colleagues who had been a janitor in the hospital for almost two decades. It is heartening to note that the janitor had many children and all of them were highly accomplished professionals like doctors and professors. Though this digresses from the objective of   inculcating creativity specifically. The incident throws light on determination and grit on part of even the employees at lowest cadres. This insight reinforces the quest to seek creativity and commitment from employees from all levels.

The next principle covered is 'Integrity'. This section is lunched with a quote from Forbes who famously said, 'I bet on jockeys, not on horses.' The leaders' integrity is cumulative result of their commitment, ethics, sense of fairness and justice amongst others. If the integrity of the leader is unquestionable, then it doesn't matter in which industry the leader plays. Though integrity is difficult to measure and also co-relate with results, most of the times short term ones, it acts as the force to keep all the stakeholders, shareholders, employees, clients (customers), society in optimum equilibrium to ensure great results for all.  Different aspects of inculcating integrity, viz., promoting institutional fairness, fostering ethics, having courage and putting into action are addressed through case studies.

The case study of Donnelly Corporation under Dwane Baumgrdner illustrates how institutional fairness is promoted. The organization had been in shrinking market with shrinking vendor base in automotive component industry. Not only the consolidation amongst auto players was happening, the remaining players were keen to reduce their own suppliers. The industry was moving into providing higher and higher value added component systems to the large auto makers. The conflicting challenges are experienced from all the stakeholders, clients, suppliers, employees, shareholders and the society at large. The critical nature of integrity in establishing and sustaining trust between organization and all the stakeholders is emphasized. In my view, as society of human beings we need the shield of fairness to work in committed manner to deliver greater value for the fellow human beings. This shield is very much necessary while we look at the nature against us is largely unpredictable and jungle law prevails. Interestingly, there was an article about the research finding today (3Aug'13) about how mean and selfish individuals are weeded out in evolution of organisms. There is another study, which talks about purpose driven happiness called eudaimonic well-being is more beneficial to us at molecular level to ward off diseases and chronic sufferings! It looks like sermonizing has found a new channel, science! Dwane Baumgardner's advanced education in optics, psychology seem to have unique influence on his leadership style. He has access to employees at various levels and he has the knack of resolving issues between two layers much below him without imposing his own positional power in a fair manner. There is a mention of Scanlon's principles at play  viz. Identity, which covers what the organization stands for, Participation by all the stakeholders in realizing the organizational goals, Equity, the equitable treatment of all the stakeholders, Contribution, contribution to meet the organizational goals and larger causes. This case study is one of the best here, which offers multiple takeaways.

Fostering ethics and entrepreneurship is represented by the chapter on Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) headed by J Robert Byester. I personally have gained a lot in learning through this. I have been an admirer of 3M's practice of encouraging intrapreneurship by offering stake in the internal ventures which leverage building new markets and thus adding to the growth. I find Google and Intuit's similar practices are variations of 3M's practice. SAIC has similar practice which has led to about 90% equity is owned by the employees, of whom more than 70%  have advanced degrees! On ethics side, the case study covers how SAIC ensures that even inadvertent access to 'inside information' was shared with the organization concerned, though many times legally not required to share. This many times led SAIC to lose the orders. SAIC has a mechanism, where in at a time, thousands of projects are being entered into at any given point of time. A loss of a few projects which have potential ethical conflicts doesn't affect the organization much; meanwhile the organization maintains high ethical standards.

Having courage is represented by Roberta Achtenberg of US Department of Housing and Urban Development. the integrity and courage of the lady has been captured well to inspire the readers. Putting integrity into action is covered by the case study of George E Favre's Sacramento Bee.George voluntarily left two well paying jobs to keep his integrity intact though he didn't have a job and financial security for his family. His integrity is supported by his understanding family and also respected by his staff. In highly challenging news business the integrity is tested frequently. One of the mechanisms at play here is a monthly meeting of around thirty top people to address live issues. Integrity principle has been covered well in the book. It has good takeaways to use for leaders.

Community, to be precise, responsibility towards community is covered through different aspects ie., cultivating maturity, Inspiring pride and performance, Caring beyond self, being an environmental steward and transforming organization. Here, the author covers all social elements under community.

Under the chapter on cultivating maturity he takes up the case study of Leith Anderson of Wooddale church. Leith Anderson has achieved the maturity of seeing his own success through the success of others. He has the humility to admit that when 20 people may admire his work, even if one person considers him as a jerk, then that is a matter of concern for him. Not only the church is being well managed, it spun of many entities and helped many other churches to come up. Anderson is well aware of the modern business management principles. He applies them for the betterment of the members of the surrounding community.

Inspiring pride and performance is covered through Shirley DeLibero of New Jersey Public Transit Corporation. Galvanizing organizations, especially the service and that too governmental one is too difficult. Shirley did it very well and fast by bringing high discipline operations into the organizations. In my view, the critical task of quantifying success parameters, arriving at operational parameters, then communicating to the front end employees and ensuring adherence to deliver the best performance every day is no mean task! She was successful and went ahead to bring in a system to help community through alerts by the drivers! When an organization starts performing to the best standards through continuous operational efficiency and high effectiveness, then it can outreach to help the community too. Whereas the daily performance ensures pride in the employees, the pride drives them to help the community at large, voluntarily.

The case study on Caring Beyond Self provides insights on James Rouse's The Enterprise Foundation. His thoughts on the enterprises to be purpose driven first to deliver profits is an inspiring thought executed well. The foundation has proven beyond doubt in delivering living units to the downtrodden and yet making profits for the organization. Though purpose driven profits sounds to be oxymoron it isn't so for most of the organizations!

Being an Environmental Steward chapter covers Aveda's Horst M Rachelbacher. Aveda provides cosmetics based on natural ingredients grown out organic methods. They have been pioneers in such products thus caring for the ecosystem around us. Rachelbacher started as a hair stylist; from there he grew into an entrepreneur on cosmetic products after a visit to India. The concern for the environment is evident in every facet of the organization's operations!

Transforming Organization covers the endeavors of John Callahan in Allstate Business Insurance. It's an inspiring story of how,John Callahan turned around the insurance firm individual by individual in a painstakingly slow and depressing environment. It's a great example of perseverance and patience. In a way, though not a concluding chapter summing all the virtues and principles in the book. There are hints of such an effort. Journey of Callahan in changing the culture indeed offers inspiration for the reader to take up the journey of great leadership. The journey is not spectacular as one may expect; it's painful, extremely slow and most of the times a thankless job! But at the end of it, it is exhilarating! No doubt persistence and patience pay, ... handsomely. The insurance organization was highly resilient when the crisis in the form of Hurricane Andrew struck the insurance business.

The concluding chapter summarizes and connects the dots. Especially, the adoption of these principles by the leaders is likened to the leader's journey which begins in her/his mind and engulfs the whole organization to deliver great results. As I have mentioned elsewhere, though the book offers the laundry list of leadership principles; the case studies are captivating and inspiring. At the end, the author exhorts readers to adopt the leadership principles so that the employees chosen meet the criteria, the systems and processes need to develop leaders at every level. This is to adapt to the fast changing business environment.

It has been wonderful reading the book. many of case studies are inspiring ones and most of them are unusual ones.  Though the book lacks the rigour; it is compensated by the exhaustive cases.

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part I

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part II

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part III 

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part II

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part I

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part II

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part III


Participation is the third principle under leading the people. The author, talks about Michele Hunt, the then executive Vice President of Federal Quality Institute under US Government. One great aspect of the book is that the case studies are taken from almost all sectors,... and most of the time they are apt for highlighting the topic under consideration. Talking about 'Unleashing People's Potential', Rosen Robert tracks Michele Hunt's childhood experiences which formed her belief in people's willingness to contribute. This belief drove her initiatives within Government departments, which underlines the civil servants willingness to help the citizens. At the same time she could recognize the stifling bureaucracy faced by the civil servants in discharging their services. Once the right systems are put in place to allow the people to increase their 'discretionary efforts', they could unleash their potential; to deliver great results. Michele Hunt could encourage people to look in themselves for the dream of helping fellow citizens which brought them into the Government services. A business newspaper could measure substantial improvements over two years in the departments, where Michele Hunt's initiatives were implemented. 

Generally, the case studies start off with the problem statement and end up with solution achieved through the topic under discussion as the present one. But the next one regarding Boeing's 777 project starts off with the success. 'Building partnerships', topic takes up the traditional rival roles of manufacturing plant management and the leadership of the union. the bad blood between these adversarial role had led to the failure of the plant. Both 'the rivals' could see benefit in joining hands together to bring back high performance in the plant to achieve national distinction in quality and productivity. The story of Paul Nolan, the then plant head of Ford Assembly Plant in Wixom and the local United Auto Workers' leader Richard Greenfield is inspiring in terms of building partnership amongst traditional rivals for the benefit of the workers and the business.

'Nurturing a team environment' topic covers 'working together' spirit of the Boeing 777 project. Alan Mulally believed strongly his dream of building the next generation flights through 200 teams under his team of five. He strongly believed that if dream of achieving something big beyond individual capacity drives the teams of people together they will try to accomplish it. When the Boeing 777 was launched on 12th June 1994, Alan Mulally credited his team for the success rather than himself. The team's motto was reflected through the name of the project 'Working Together'!  Alan Mulally's team of five was leading more than 200 teams in the Boeing 777 project. The project was driven by shared mission, plan, involvement & responsibility. The executional aspects of shared mission and plan are the reflection of Alan Mulally's 'emotional resiliency'. The definition of 'emotional resiliency' seems be the result of equanimity achieved by Mulally, when the author quotes Mulally. While I read about Nicholas Taleb's 'Antifragile', which almost means 'super resiliency' (Nicholas Taleb offers his own fine distinction between 'super resiliency' and 'antifragility'!) another notable fact is that Taleb chooses airline industry as an example of 'antifragility'. I read a bit on Alan Mulally, thanks to wikipedia; Mulally moved ahead and is heading Ford now. He has the distinction of not taking Ford to the US Government in 2008 recession in stark comparison with the other two auto giants from Detroit! I consider this case study as a high point of the book; though the writing on 'Shared Involvement' looks more like promotional material for CATIA software. But, one needs to appreciate the genius of Mulally to leverage the technology to foster shared involvement. Under 'shared responsibility' customer focus by the team has been emphasized, I believe that it is extremely important for the leaders to nurture the culture of focus on end users or/and end results disregarding all other distractions including the leader's ego. And this is where the leader's 'emotional resiliency' plays critical role.

Under 'Promoting Employee Ownership', the author takes up case study of 'Republic Engineered Steels' which was owned by the employees, under Russell Maier. The case captures the spirit of the transition period when the employees became the share holders of the firm. They were educated by the CEO in a painstakingly slow process. But the efforts paid back well, when the company returned to profits and went on to invest on new technologies and also took over some other steel mills. The shared ownership and the shared responsibilities to deliver the right products and services to the customers at the right time delivers great results for the organization. To showcase 'Creating Winning Attitude' the author aptly chooses Barry Alwarez, the then head coach of University of Wisconsin's football team who reversed the loosing streak of the team. Alvarez brought the pride amongst the coaches and the players through series of small changes, like clean sports room, exchanging better looking bigger rings of the team against the rings from previous teams,... Additionally, objective assessments and necessary changes which were implemented gradually. These changes led to the winning streak.

The next principle is learning which is divided into Nurturing Personal Renewal, Identifying Strengths & Shortcomings, Mastering the Mentoring Processes, Liberating the Human Spirits and ultimately, Building a Learning Community. In a way, a leader's journey is full of learning opportunities. The biggest hurdle for learning is the acknowledgement by a person about his own shortcomings. In the fast changing world, continuous learning is the only approach to success. The highly effective learning organizations need to be institutionalized by the leaders to ensure long lasting success for the organizations. My personal favorites off this book are Toyota & General Electric.

The first case study about Nurturing Personal Renewal covers Carla Gorrell, who almost built Food & Friends NGO from scratch to serve the patients suffering from life threatening diseases in Washington area by providing them nutritional food through out year. Carla hadn't acquired any of the skills to build and grow the NGO, prior to the job. Through sheer grit she could surmount all the challenges to grow it from approx. 5,000 meals served per year to nearly 2,000,000 meals served per year within a few years. Her acknowledgement of shortcomings and sharing that information with her colleagues to seek complementary strengths and continuous renewal led her to achieve the feat.

Identifying Strengths and Shortcomings is exemplified by Anita and Gordon Roddick of Bodyshop. It's one of the few highlights of the book. The author delineates how Anita was more externally driven big idea person while Gordon was more operation oriented. Though they were diametrically opposite on these fronts due to the strength of their personal bonding they could complement each other well and build a great global business empire.The challenge before the organizations today is to offer seemingly opposed capabilities/features/facilities bundled  together. The same goes while building and managing the organizations. The challenge is getting more difficult day by day in terms of bringing seemingly opposite mindsets together to deliver great products and /or services and we need to institutionalize the whole process. This case study gives us an insight on how the same can be achieved. One may note that, for the mindsets which are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, they can be bonded on the other aspects, generally common personal and professional purposes and aspirations. The organizations need to deliberately work on this aspect.

Mastering the Mentoring Process has been highlighted through the sketch of Tom Johnson, who was President of Cable News Network (CNN) then. It is rather a good portrayal of how one needs to get mentored. Tom Johnson got mentored by a head of local news company, where Tom developed interest in news business. After his MBA from Haravard University, Tom Johnson worked with President Lyndon B Johnson (no relation) in various capacities to learn delivery of excellence in everything he did and that too within the given/available deadlines. While he worked with Los Angeles Times, Tom learnt shouldering journalistic, financial and operational burdens. When he was chosen as a President in CNN, his mission was turn the organization 'world class'. By leveraging his acquired capabilities in previous stints he could do a great job. This case study is a great lesson on how to seek mentor-ship from great people and grow to be a phenomenal leader. Liberating the Human Potential is exemplified by Kermit Campbell of Herman Miller who espoused the idea of learning and teaching environment within the organization to build the capability of the human resources continuously. foe Building a Learning Community the author sketches the educationist Tim Cuneo of Oak Grove School District, who could create a learning community out of parents, teachers and students. This is an inspiring sketch, the learning from this can be applied to business communities too!

The book addresses the diversity principle of leading people through the necessity of actively nurturing diversity to ensure innovation and addressing diverse target groups. The stages of acieving diversity in organization, according to the book are; Confronting prejudice head on, Cultivating full range, Managing differences and Creating a culture of respect.

For the stage 'Confronting Prejudice Head on', the case study of Kenneth Breecher of William Penn Foundation is provided. Kenneth Breecher worked with wide range of organizations and led diverse groups of people through his career. His experiences and views are shared. The experience of entering into a supposedly violent community with weapons opened his eyes into peaceful co-existence of the people in the community. Another experience portrays the learning of seeking help and solving problem together with the group constituting 90% women. The case also offers a peep into the psyche of different communities who are offered the same opportunity! The author advises that we need to confront our own prejudices before attacking the others' prejudices. The inherent prejudices, though may not be true are with everybody. So the journey of attacking the prejudices starts with examining our own prejudices and acknowledging and dispelling them. This process also gives us better insight in the ways and means of attacking the others' prejudices.

The next stage of 'Cultivating Full Range' is exemplified by Joan Claybrook who was heading Public Citizen, then. (She continued to be with the organization upto 2009.Courtesy: Wikipedia) The organization works involved interacting with multiple agencies with different outlooks, objectives, backgrounds,... For leaders of any organization, the work involves understanding of multiple perspectives and objectives. The understanding itself is not enough, it also involves patience, tolerance, tenacity, acceptance of limitations,... to deliver results to satisfy multiple constituencies with very limited range of results. Such work calls for engaging different personalities within us by deploying the required strengths to adapt in nimble manner. Though this sketch highlights the challenges, which is in public domain, the leaders of business entities also face similar situations continuously. The author brings the natural strengths of men and women and their relative weaknesses also to emphasize the need for leveraging and balancing of multiple personal strengths. In the process, the leaders get to exercise and nurture their own full range of personalities.

The next stage of 'Managing Differences' is highlighted by the case study of Caesar Odio, the then City Manager of  City of Miami. It's particularly interesting to note that Caesar Odio was subject of depersonalizing in  his childhood, which made him to identify and celebrate the uniqueness of each individual around him. The book covers three instances of managing differences in the case study. One is about how Odio built neighborhood improvement teams to cater to the unique needs of each area as the requirements of them changed vastly from each other. This is an example of leveraging the uniqueness of the citizens in collaborative manner. The vehicle maintenance teams of the local police were in disarray, Odio empowered them not only to solve the problem he also provided long term solution. Hurricane Andrew's impact and management of the emergency is provided in a blow-by-bolw account. The preparation and involvement of the citizens and mobilization of utility services could be done quickly and effectively. After the devastation looting was quelled and the hungry ones were fed almost immediately. The case study not only emphasizes on managing the differences and also the leaders being dynamically adaptive to effectively lead the organization. The author notes that the single purpose serves as the strong glue for various unique team members to contribute in spite of vast differences among them.

For the next stage, 'Creating a Culture of Respect', of implementing Diversity principle in leading the organizations, the author provides the sketch of Elliott Hoffman the owner of Just Desserts in San Francisco. The sketch covers the conviction of Elliott Hoffman in encouraging the respect for diversity within his organization. Elliott believes in respecting himself and the uniqueness of each individual. His employees come for diverse backgrounds yet are highly effective in handling their work along with their teams. The story provides impressive and inspiring account of diversity in the organization. In my view, it doesn't explicitly establish the link between the culture of respect and organizational effectiveness. But if we look from the perspective of accomplishing larger purpose, then one can connect.

In a way, the journey so far through the book provides inspiring accounts of different principles of leadership. Compared to the other books I have read, this book stands out from the rest in terms of bringing case studies from amazingly outstanding directions. Compared to the other books, the book lacks on depth which would have been achieved if it focused on a few organization. One needs to enjoy the diversity of the cases in the book to get the insights into the leadership principles proposed here.


A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part I

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part II

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part III

A Review of 'What Happy People Do Differently!'

It's a wonderful article. Recently, I was reading about Boeing 777 project. Alan Mulally talks about equanimity he achieved, which lead to 'emotional resiliency'. Reading the article, I feel happiness is all about conscious efforts put by the individual in attaining emotional resiliency and agility through good times and mostly bad times! Thanks to Vipul Patki for sharing this article. 

I have gone through the works of Martin Seligman, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi,... I can sense that the article concisely captures the 'happiness' in its completeness and prescribes that good life matrix includes 'happiness, occasional sadness, a sense of purpose, playfulness, and psychological flexibility, as well autonomy, mastery, and belonging.' How true!

The high point of the article is in quoting Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer "happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory." That's where the author shifts the gear from the 'pursuit of happiness' to  good life matrix. He mentions about how the pursuit of happiness alone may put us on a slippery path down quoting another study, which said the people pursuing happiness alone.

The beauty of the article is in deconstructing the 'happiness', into it's components and go deeper into each of them. Whereas happiness is lot more than drug induced burst of good feeling. It can be derived from anxiety generated out of curiosity which leads to optimal state of mind. Many studies done on this are quoted. The authors conclude that the happiness may be derived through curiosity induced adventures which take us out of our comfort zone causing bearable discomfiture leading to greater happiness.

The authors explore the attitude of happier people who forgo little successes here and there on their journey to attain happiness. The attitude to enjoy the success of others, finding the happiness even in the vicissitudes of life one faces and  being purpose driven are the elements which lead to contentment in life. 

The article is uplifting one. I hope, this review will influence at least a few readers to enjoy the original article. Go ahead read it! It's a wonderful article. 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201306/what-happy-people-do-differently

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part I

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part I

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part II

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part III

Leading People by Robert Rosen,- who helps many leaders of Fortune 500 companies, has influenced my management thoughts since I read it quite some time back. After I completed reading Good to Great, Organizing Genius and a preview of Great by Choice, I thought of revisiting the book. Though he didn't research elaborately as Jim Collins did for his books, Robert Rosen identifies the principles of leading. In view of the dilution of terms 'Leader' and 'Leadership' he chooses 'Leading' to stress on the action rather than on position.

He identifies eight principles of leading, and goes further down to elements of the principles. Each element is exemplified by the leaders. He has created the framework of these 8 principles as follows;

For 'Vision' principle, he comes out with the sub elements as Paint the Picture, Create a Common Purpose, Engage in Outcome Thinking,  Navigate the Change Process, Build High Performance Culture.

'Paint the Picture' element is exemplified by James DePreist, the conductor of Oregon Symphony in Portland. Robert Rosen takes us through the struggle of James DePreist struggle in raising the funds for the symphony, bringing the team together and delivering the great music to the community. James DePreist not only could hear the symphony in his mind, he could paint the picture of his vision to the stakeholders in the community and in the symphony.

'Create a Common Purpose' has another leader, C William Pollard. He is the CEO of ServiceMaster, which provides various facility management services to wide range of Fortune 500 organization. Serving the  clients with the right spirit by the employees will help the larger society and also helps employees find meaning of life in their work. Pollard not only looks at the people with the right attitude and belief system in his employees and he also ensures that such common purpose is nurtured within the organization.

Anne Bryant, who joined an NGO, American Association of University Women as an Executive Director shows the way by engaging her team in outcome based thinking and delivering the results. The story is dramatically captured by the author. The author draws a comprehensive picture of Terrence A Lawrence navigating the change process in CoreStates Financial Corp, which was caught between the small regional players and also the large global players. 

There is an account of how General John Michel Loh built high performance culture within US Air Force Air Combat Command, by turning typical military command and control system upside down! He instilled a sense of urgency by defining and measuring various aspects of improvement within ACC. The author mentions that the base pharmacy was bench marked for its remarkable medicine fill rate by Wal-Mart. The GE executives could learn a few lessons for effective mergers. One of the biggest take away of the case study is the following: the general says that the team succeeded not because he preached from Mount Sinai but the team's culture could make it possible. The humility is striking! If a team leader can create the culture and passes on the praise to the culture rather than himself, then the leader has attained the highest position.

The author touches the next principle, trust. The trust involves being trustworthy and the team has to actually trust. The gradual process can happen only when the leader is honest, genuinely keen to lead the team and he opens himself, in addition he needs to walk the talk before the team joins him. The principle is divided into 4 broad constituents to illustrate through case studies. Those 4 elements are sharing, developing deep listening skills, being predictable and being open.

John (Jack) Stack of Springfield Remanufacturing represents sharing part of trust. Jack dabbled many odd jobs before making it to GM's International harvester as a supervisor for the foremen, who were much older than him. John shared their performance figures and showed real concern for their improvements. He went ahead to turn around the unit to be posted at Springfield facilities. He turned around that unit which was losing  $200,000 to the one with $800,000 in the next year and $2Mn. in the year after. But, GM decided to sell the unit since the debt equity ratio was to the tune of 9:1. He took over the company and renamed as Springfield Remanufacturing. Within 3 years he tripled turnover and ran a profitable organization with more employees. One of the key elements in increasing the productivity has been 'the Game of Business' he shares with his employees. He shares the big picture with the employees and encourages them to be like owners. One of the touching stories he shares is that of an employee proudly telling his son about the engine he makes going into a huge truck to power it. He could bring pride to the work the employees used to do. Generally, not sharing the financial and big picture with lower cadres in the organizations is the result of distrust which leads to vicious cycle of further chasm between the management and employees. The challenge is in building the bridge and convert it into the virtuous cycle of trust. 

To illustrate the principle of deep listening, the author portrays the case study of Hanna Anderson's CEO Gun Denhart. Gun Denhart could sense from her own and friends' experience, the need for high quality garments for children at affordable price. She grew the business from almost nothing to $40Mn on the strength of listening to customers and the employees. The author emphasizes the deep listening through an instance of the Chief Designer going on maternity leave and Gun's genuine concern for the employee. While going through this case study and the others, I could feel that the book lacks the rigour of the other business management books written by Clayton Christensen, Geoffrey Moore, Jim Collins,... At the same time one can read between the lines in the book by leveraging the knowledge and skills gleaned from such reading.

For 'Being Predictable' part of the trust principle, the author chooses Douglas Meyers of San diego Zoo. The author does a good job in listing the challenges faced by zoos to operate efficiently and effectively. And these challenges are no less than the ones faced by for profit businesses. The employees are always apprehensive of bad news, the leader being predictable is a redeeming factor for the employees to work well and deliver results. The author has picked wide ranging case studies to illustrate the principles. At times like this, whereas the content provides the extensiveness for the topic, the intensive treatment is missing in co-relating the acts and the results. A discerning reader may figure out the connection but this can't be said for the others. However, the author does a great job in the next case study in 'Being Open', in my view.

To demonstrate 'Being Open', the author chooses Wal Mart's the then Vice Executive Chairman and COO Don Soderquist. The case study takes off with 'Store Greeter' suggestion implemented at a store level, then the concept bubbling up through out the organization. In the process it is delineated, how Don Soderquist as a person and Wal Mart as an organization ensure openness. The author covers the 3-5 stores a day, 3 days every week by the senior executives unannounced visits to the stores (probably) institutionalized by sam Walton and carried forward by the management. The author also enumerates the 4 steps to being open, they are: Sharing knowledge, Applying knowledge, Understanding the implications & ensuring desired results through conscious decisions in the light of the knowledge. One of the quotable quotes of Soderquist points out to deep truth. The top management might be there by being at the right place at the right time. The employees couldn't get the benefits of better education. But an average worker at lower echelons may be more intelligent than the one in management. This quote displays the deep humility  of Soderquist. This is something, I too believe strongly, I don't know whether I developed this understanding after reading it earlier or I thought on my own due to my observations.

    A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part I

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part II

A Review of 'Leading People' by Robert Rosen Part III