Lessons for Leadership

Lessons for Leadership As an exploration into world of leadership, the study of disasters and how they are handled offer great insight into real leadership. This is a discussion of leadership as prompted by the BP Oil Spill and a analytical commentary offered by a prominent professor , Dr Donald H. Horner, of Jacksonville University.

Lessons for Leadership JU expert in leadership skewers BP, Obama over Gulf response Donald Horner Jr., an expert in management and leadership, explains how BP and Obama stumbled. By Wayne Ezell Donald H. Horner Jr. is professor of management and director of the Davis Leadership Center at Jacksonville University’s Davis College of Business. A West Point graduate who holds a master’s degree in transportation systems from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in sociology from Stanford University, he led Army units at the platoon, company and battalion levels. He was on the faculty at West Point’s Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. Prior to joining JU last year, he was appointed in 2005 to an endowed chair and served as distinguished professor of leadership education in the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the U.S. Naval Academy. Here are Horner’s observations about leadership as demonstrated in response to the Gulf oil spill.

Lessons for Leadership What are some key lessons business leaders should learn from the BP disaster, both leading up to the spill and in response to it? The first mission of leaders is “do no harm.” Do no harm does not mean “do nothing.” It appears that neither BP nor the administration understood this distinction. Another key lesson is to properly diagnose the magnitude of an untoward event. It is really, really important to get this right, because everything that follows is based on this assessment. Interestingly, neither President Obama nor President Bush “got it right” with regard to the sheer enormity of the BP spill or Hurricane Katrina, respectively

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Gather the facts – as many of the facts as time permits Its ok to gather more facts and change your mind - but never be without a plan

Lessons for Leadership Could you elaborate on that? If the senior leader misdiagnoses and underestimates the magnitude of the disaster, a slow, sputtering, disjointed response follows, and that’s exactly what we’ve witnessed. Negative momentum and negative perceptions build if leaders fail to diagnose the significance of the event at the outset. Leaders find it very difficult to ever catch up or get in front of perceptions that they’re not doing enough to address the situation. Better to overestimate the magnitude of the event and then back off instead of underestimating the event and having to ramp up.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Plan for the worst and anything less than that is gravy Cross Equipment and the Flood

Lessons for Leadership Another key lesson? The importance of what we call “leadership by presence.” The lesson for leaders: You must be able to determine where you need to be and when you have to be there. In the case of any extreme events, people want to see their leaders on-site.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Just be there! Be seen – there ain’t no such thing as absentee leadership

Lessons for Leadership Why is that? It’s comforting because being present gives followers a sense of security and sense of certainty that their needs are being met, that leaders care. Peters & Waterman popularized this approach and termed it “management by walking around” or “the technology of the obvious.” Regardless of what you call it, being on-site allows the leader to get a first-hand look at the issues at hand. There is no substitute for being there. Eisenhower’s saying for this was “just get there.”

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: In Search of Excellence – Tom Peters MBWA – Management by walking around Firestone plant walks – Cross Equipment Morning walks Hospital visits

Lessons for Leadership OK, but there’s much more than just being there — what else? The ability to see around corners and to anticipate second-, third-, and fourth-order effects is an essential ability for senior leaders. This is the bread and butter of strategic leadership. Managers live in the here and now, they work within guidelines and enforce procedures. Leaders are responsible for envisioning the future — for seeing where the organization is going, and for anticipating what future challenges might look like. Certainly, the BP disaster is not your routine oil spill any more than Katrina was a routine hurricane. Gifted, seasoned leaders have a knack for connecting future dots that the rest of us can’t see.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Have eyes in the back of your head Anticipate Avoid auto pilot

Lessons for Leadership How could effective, value-centered leadership have prevented this disaster? To be fair, even a strong, value-centered leader who created and maintained a culture of safety and minimal risk might not have been able to prevent the BP disaster. There is evidence, however, that BP’s organizational culture — or at least the culture on the Deepwater Horizon oil well — placed a higher value on expediency than safety, and on minimizing costs rather than minimizing risks. In the aggregate, the norm becomes the acceptance of unnecessary risks for the sake of delivering oil as fast and as cheaply as possible. The safety record of Deepwater Horizon would suggest that the workers responded to what the leaders valued — and that was speed over safety. Remember, all leaders are value-centered. The real question is: what values are they centered on? Selecting and promoting leaders with the right values is critical.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: The buck stops here The leader is the culture, embodies the organization’s culture, is the poster child for the culture As a leader, look in the mirror to see your organizations culture – you are it

Lessons for Leadership How can a strong leader or leadership team know everything is in place to preclude such a disaster? There are a few techniques that successful leaders use to avoid disasters and prohibit poor decision-making. The first is to avoid “group think” at all costs. Direct reports do not like to deliver bad news to senior leaders. As such, much of the news that senior leaders receive tends to be overly filtered and rosy. Knowing this, leaders must ask for and demand bad news — it has to become “normal” for subordinates to report bad news at all levels. A related technique is to formally appoint a trusted adviser to serve as the “honest broker” to the CEO. The honest broker has to be the one person who will give it to the leader straight, to essentially tell the emperor he has no clothes. Benchmarking with industry standards and relevant industry boards is also important. And, on occasion, an external consultant can be hired to give a fresh, unvarnished view of potential courses of action.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Ask for and demand bad news The best surprise is no surprise Subject the scenario to the laugh test

Lessons for Leadership That’s fine for big organizations and senior leaders. What about small businesses and their challenges? It is size-irrelevant. These tasks still have to be accomplished; somebody has to plan and ensure there’s a vision. It would be a fallacy to think that the principles of leadership don’t apply at all levels.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Exercise visioning! Where there is no vision the people perish!

Lessons for Leadership In terms of leadership, what was your assessment of the president’s address to the nation on June 15 regarding the oil spill? I think the president’s speech fell flat because he tried to link the oil spill to the need for a new energy policy. When the alligators are crawling in the boat, job one is kill the alligators. Stop the oil. Nothing else matters. You don’t worry about recidivism rates of inmates when the bad guys are kicking in your front door. You kill the bad guys first. Period. The president violated a fundamental rule of leadership: the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. The president didn’t do that.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Don’t sweat the small stuff! Identify the main thing – quickly!

Lessons for Leadership So this was an opportunity missed? Leaders at the strategic level — whether business, government or military leaders — are in the business of making meaning for their organization and subordinates. This is because human beings despise uncertainty. People feel more secure when they know what’s going on. Particularly in uncharted waters, subordinates want to understand what’s happening. Leaders provide this understanding. They make meaning. Great leaders make complex things simple, not vice versa.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Be confident – Appear Confident – Be transparent

Lessons for Leadership With so few successes in the aftermath of the spill, if you were advising the administration about the response, what should be done differently? How about BP? Each institution must go to battle stations. Containing the oil spill is the issue. Period. Setting up a command post in the region is essential. They must be present, amongst the affected population. Delegating all other initiatives to trusted officials and operatives is imperative. Daily information sessions with the press are a must. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen got it right: this is a siege. The entire Gulf region — the environment, the communities, the people, an entire way of life — is under attack. This is a crisis of unprecedented proportions. BP and the administration must respond as such.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Be in charge Delegate properly Communicate

Lessons for Leadership What do you find most curious? Hayward’s comment that “I just want my life back” and the president’s remark “I can’t just suck the oil up through a straw” demonstrate both their frustration with the situation and their relative desire for the situation to just go away. Hayward’s flying home to attend a yacht race and the president’s playing a rather public game of golf indicate their failure to grasp their role as leaders and the importance of appearance and perceptions to the public. Regardless of how much they may need a respite, senior leaders cannot be seen playing games when the troops are suffering. Rest and renewal are back-stage, not front-stage, activities for senior leaders.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: Regardless of how much they may need a respite, senior leaders cannot be seen playing games when the troops are suffering. Rest and renewal are back-stage, not front-stage, activities for senior leaders. And about those ethics – the fine line of ethical versus inethical

Lessons for Leadership How will or should the BP disaster change discussions in business ethics and leadership classes at JU? The BP disaster will add another chapter to our expanding list of case studies detailing how not to lead, how not to behave. It is but another excellent example for our leadership and business students to learn from the mistakes of others. Enron, Tyco, and now BP — that’s some ignominious company. On the flip side, Johnson & Johnson’s handling of the Tylenol poisonings in 1982 offers a compelling look at an enormously successful business response to a disaster.

Lessons for Leadership Leadership Principle to Adopt: It is but another excellent example for our leadership and business students to learn from the mistakes of others. Enron, Tyco, and now BP History does not have to repeat itself Leadership requires boldness, courage, ingenuity, sensitivity, and intuitiveness and the ability to surround oneself with people who have what the leader may lack

Lessons for Leadership Summary