By Robert J. Herbold
If you want to move forward, it helps to know what is holding you back. Robert Herbold can help you identify it and change it.
Bob Herbold served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft. He spent years at Procter & Gamble, and now serves as the managing director of the Herbold Group, a consulting business focused on profitability, strategic and operational issues.
In his book, What’s Holding You Back: 10 Bold Steps That Define Gutsy Leaders, Herbold utilizes his forty years of business experience to address the importance of courageous leadership. His thesis:
The lack of courage to make tough calls is what destroys companies.
So why do leaders fail to make the tough call? Because they (1) avoid conflict, (2) strive for certainty, (3) avoid taking risks that might jeopardize their careers, (4) lack self-confidence, (5) lack a sense of urgency, (6) and are too worried about protecting their turf (16-17).
To help counter the courage deficiency, Herbold cites 10 principles that mark the gutsy leaders who get things done:
Principle 1 - Devise a demanding game plan to confront reality.
Principle 2 - Staff for success. Like Drucker, Herbold argues for putting your strong performers against specific stretch goals.
Principle 3 - Clean up the sloppiness. While he does not use the term, he lobbies for internal dashboards to provide clarity across the company. He proposes minimal systems and processes: (1) Simplify the process, (2) Train on the process, (3) Measure the process, (4) Report on the process.
Principle 4- Institutionalize tight-fisted cost control."Confronting the status quo and making tight-fisted cost control a key priority are hard; they require courageous leadership and backbone. People always want more: more people, higher salaries, more systems, more equipment, and on and on" (81).
Principle 5 - Insist on functional excellence. The higher one moves in the organization, "they simply can't immediately acquire all the in-depth knowledge required to fully understand every area that falls within their authority" (95). It is essential that those who serve as the next-tier leaders know their stuff. Live in the tension of centralization and decentralization. "Strong leaders focus on the few efforts that are of high value" (186).
Principle 6- Create a culture of innovation. This chapter was particularly helpful. Build innovation by: (1) Making it a ubiquitous part of the culture by communicating its importance regularly and thoroughly, encouraging it, rewarding it, instilling urgency, and refusing to get into a price battle. (2) Understanding that innovation is going to be a disorderly process (it won't play well in the sandbox with Six Sigma), (3) Remembering to apply process improvement to processes not to creativity; (4) Understanding that innovation takes risk, (5) Rewarding fresh thinking, particularly innovations that have measurable impact.
Principle 7 - Demand accountability and decisiveness; avoid consensus. Be decisive--Kill marginal projects quickly. "Strong leaders are decisive; they don't allow marginal efforts to drag on. You have to regularly review the portfolio of projects being pursued and close down the low-and medium-impact efforts. That takes courage" (135).
Principle 8 - Exploit inflection points. An inflection point is a significant shift in the technology or consumer habits and practices underpinning one's industry. e.g. digital photography; online education. "To achieve innovative excellence, you must spot inflection points early and develop products and services that will enable you to lead the charge" (143).
Principle 9 - Value ideas from anywhere. You never know where a good idea may come from. Staying close to the action and the customer are key. Watch customers use your product .
Principle 10 - Shake up the organization. It is essential for innovation. "When people are left in their current roles but asked to do new things, their first priority will be doing what they've been doing in the the past. New ideas don't have much of a chance (178). Organize around the new effort.
Strengths of What's Holding Your Back:
1. Practical: Herbold cites Fiat, GM, Microsoft, Vodaphone, Procter & Gamble, Sprint Nextel, Alcatel-Lucent, Avon, Nestle, Honda, Merck Pharmaceuticals and more.
2. Succinct: Herbold gets to the point while still providing context and explanation.
3. Usable: As my gleanings demonstrate, there is a great deal of readily usable information.
4. Experience: Herbold brings a wealth of experience and it shows.
Key takeaways from What's Holding You Back :
1. The importance of clear objectives: When leaders move into a new organization they should assess needs, fit key people to those needs, and provide clear objectives. Herbold writes: "As long as the leader's objectives are clear to the troops, they usually end up applauding the fact that the organization has a plan and is tackling it with gusto" (11). This requires: (1) a clear vision, (2) aggressive strategies, (3) actionable measures.
"Isolate one or two things that will dramatically improve the impact of your organization."
2. The necessity of making the tough decisions. These are decisions that (1) Have no ideal option, (2) Lack data, (3) Are guaranteed to disappoint someone, (4) Need a long-term perspective.
3. Providing rigorous performance ratings and reviews. His 5-point rating system was particularly helpful in light of higher ed's focus on documentation and institutional effectiveness. 5=genuine stars (10% of employees); 4=above average performers (close to 20%); 3=Valuable "average employees" (50%); 2=Clear improvement needed (15%); 1=Seriously lagging (5% given 3-9 months to improve)(42-43).
4. Use employee surveys to take the temperature of the troops. (51). "There is simply no substitute for a well-designed employee survey that generates quantitative measures (e.g. surveys using a 5-point scale) of a variety of different aspects of an organizations performance" (51). Report the results! (55).
5. "Courageous leaders know that single-person accountability is a must" (72).
6. Project management: "If the project isn't on course and meeting expectations, kill it. Remember, people will come up with ingenious ways to defend their projects" (89). Review projects regularly and kill what's not working. (111).
7. Good ideas: "One thing that seems to be true in the pursuit of innovation is that the closer you are to the actual use of a product, service, or process, the greater your chances of observing or experiencing something that might generate a new idea or insight that brings a new capability or big improvement" (153).
8. On Collaboration: Beware of potential partners who are vastly different from you or who have no track record of joint efforts. Don't underestimate cultural clashes (167). Joint ventures and partnerships are seldom simple, and they seldom endure over time.
9. On winning: Do business in a small number of industries where you can win (183).
Aphorisms and business wisdom:
1. Nothing atrophies like a performance assessment system (46)
2. Consensus kills innovation. "Requiring a consensus from all the people involved or affected would kill the innovation; it would strip away the unique and distinctive aspects that make the idea innovative" (129).
3. Leaders should make decisions, not committees (139).
4. You just never know where a bright idea is going to come from (154).
5. Strong leaders know there is no substitute for observing how customers are using their products (160).
I highly recommend What's Hold You Back?