How not to lead

Chief Executive, The, Oct, 2005 by William J. Holstein

Most CEOs are Republicans, so it's particularly painful to observe how seriously disconnected President George W. Bush and his team are from reality on the ground in Iraq. I don't want to engage in political polemics, which is boring. Rather I'd like to seek out the leadership lessons for you, which is far more interesting:

* It's a mistake to surround yourself with people who agree with you all the time. Any institution should tolerate a certain amount of debate about the right course of action. Once you shut down that internal debate, the organization is at great risk. Maintaining some creative tension requires the wisdom to surround one-self with at least some people who look and act differently than you do.

* Organizations must be able to listen. Every organization has a house orthodoxy or a house religion that is projected to outside audiences. But it's not enough to just project a message. An organization has to know how to respond to outside signals. This White House seems to shut down and engage in denial when confronted with messages it doesn't agree with.

* A leader needs multiple sources and multiple flows of information. A CEO or leader who is dependent on a single source or even a handful of sources for crucial information about what is happening on the ground, whether it's the marketing of products or the conduct of war, is in serious danger. A driving curiosity is essential to avoid being blindsided.

* Arrogance and false pride are hugely dangerous. The folks at the Hay Group, the consulting firm in Philadelphia, have joked with me about creating an "arrogance index" for different companies. But I think this should be more than a joke. It's a great idea. Every CEO ought to be able to test his or her organization for arrogance. Of course, an organization's tone is set at the top. If you display arrogance, you can bet that your whole team will.

* Be sensitive to the lessons of history. What the military learned in Vietnam was that it should have a clear objective, bring overwhelming force to bear, achieve the objective and leave. That was the Colin Powell doctrine, and it worked during the first Gulf War. History can't dictate our actions, of course, but it certainly can instruct us.

It appears to me that Bush has failed on all of these counts, which helps explain why his team keeps insisting that democracy is about to be established in Iraq when, in fact, the streets and cities outside the green zone of Baghdad are filled with danger and the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are locked in intractable conflict.

This episode should make every CEO in the land ask, "What are my blind spots? Am I getting the crucial information I need?" Andy Grove wrote that "only the paranoid survive." To which I would add a corollary: "Only those humble enough to contemplate uncomfortable truths will long endure."