The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. . - Books in Brief - book review

HR Magazine, August, 2002 by Mike Frost

The leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. (Books in Brief)

By Oren Harari

McGraw-Hill, 2002

278 pages

List Price: $21.95

ISBN:0-07-138859-1

Gen. Colin F. Powell's leadership style served him well in the military, helping him rise through the ranks to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, eventually, secretary of state. In fact, says author Oren Harari, in The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, aspiring business leaders would do well to adopt Powell's style.

Harari, a management professor at the University of San Francisco, says Powell engages in "the kind of practical, mission- and people-based leadership that ... has translated into performance excellence and competitive success."

Powell doesn't use bluster to inspire his troops. He is polite and "is not interested in intimidating people. He is convinced that frightened people don't take initiative or responsibility and that their organizations suffer as a result."

On the other hand, Harari says Powell doesn't mind making people angry--particularly in pursuit of organizational excellence. "Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off," Harari quotes Powell, who believes that good leaders must defy the status quo.

Being unafraid to ruffle feathers is one of 18 lessons Harari gleans from Powell's approach to leadership. Others include:

* Pay attention to details. Powell believes it's important for leaders to have a thorough grasp of operational details. Otherwise, they cannot effectively challenge existing processes.

* Deploy the best people. Powell's philosophy is: "In a brain-based economy, your best assets are people." Harari describes what he calls "Powell's Rules for Picking People: Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate." Powell also values loyalty, integrity, a balanced ego and drive.

* Trust those in the trenches. Powell's experiences in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf taught him that the people in the field were right more often than top military brass. Harari cites a number of businesses--including IBM, 3Com and McDonald's--that benefited from important new ideas emanating not from top leaders but from maverick units or franchises. "Most honest leaders in innovative companies will candidly admit that their most fruitful innovations have been hatched in places far from company headquarters."

* Recognize that the day your reports stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. "They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care," writes Harari. "Either case is a failure of leadership."

Harari closes The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell with this observation: "Leadership is not rank, privilege, titles or money. It is responsibility."

Mike Frost is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va.