Mike Levy talks to a chastened Tom Peters about how the real leadership heroes are the invisible figures leading small organisations through the economic crisis. And Peters also offers to answer your leadership questions!






 

For a guru of excellence, 2009 is hair shirt year for Tom Peters. "I had the chance and I remained silent – I could have screamed a lot louder than I did," says the co-author of the best-selling 'In Search of Excellence' and a dozen more. "What was going on around us was a level of wretched excess which in hindsight, one can say, 'I should have been blowing whistles'." This criticism of unfettered capitalism seems particularly pointed coming from a man regarded as one of the world's leading business thinkers – and a prescient one at that. In his book on leadership published in 2005, he wrote: "We fall back, in these crazy and chaotic times on the command-and-control model of leadership, a model that no longer accords with how dynamic leaders actually operate." He has also written many times that we live in an age where leaders confuse 'value' with 'profit'.

"Leadership is a sacred trust – that is not extreme language. Leadership should be seen as an honour – you have an astonishing responsibility to those in your care."

We are all to blame....

Is he being too harsh with himself for not speaking out against the greed of the Big Money Corp? "In a court of law I can trot out the right words to be declared 'Not Guilty' but I find myself, and my fellow 'gurus' must share some of the blame, as must the business schools. Though we can't be held responsible for man's greed gene which has been evolving for tens of thousands of years, those of us who have pulpits should speak out." In these turbulent times, Peters thinks it ever more important to hammer home the fundamentals of business, that never change. This, he says, is despite the revolution in networking communications - including ezines such as TrainingZone.co.uk. "The five-year-olds who are growing up with social networking tools as second nature may change the whole business game in 20-25 years. At 66, I am definitely an old 'old guy' but these days you are an old guy at 25!"

Servant leadership

Being in his seventh decade has not stopped Peters thinking new thoughts. Many of these came out of an invitation to be the keynote speaker at the commemoration on the life and work of Peter Drucker a few years back. "One of the many things I came across was Greenleaf's book on Servant Leadership which I had first seen 25 years ago but hadn't really taken on board. In the situation we are now facing, the notion of an organisation which exists only to serve and a leader who exists only to serve those in that organisation is a damned good starting point. I use that fundamental idea around which to weave my current presentations."

Peters, the realist, recognises that many successful business leaders haven't yet got the point about their true servant role. He describes - in an unprintable way - the nature of those who abandon their organisations in these times, lured by promises of fat golden hellos and seven-figure bonus packages. "Leadership is a sacred trust – that is not extreme language. Leadership should be seen as an honour – you have an astonishing responsibility to those in your care." When he sees leaders abandon that trust – by quitting, retiring or making large-scale redundancies, Peters feels that they have failed in their duty.

Leading through the recession

These are times, he says, to try the souls of leaders: "To state the obvious, one's mettle is tested in difficult times. But I want to avoid like the plague that motivational speaker's nostrum: 'This is a time of great opportunity – get on your feet!' There is a strong bullshit part of this but I do believe you can treat this recession as one to be gotten through and one in which you can dig deep and think about the people to whom you are responsible. It is a chance to inaugurate a period of significant renewal. It is bloody immoral if you don't."

Peters calculates that few leaders under the age of 50 will have experienced a tough recession like this one. Despite this, he is optimistic that change will come. "I find that people are more open now to new thinking in running business." Peters feels that acceptance of the new regulatory regime agreed at the recent G20 summit is a key indicator of this sea change in the way we operate the capitalist system.

It is also a time, he thinks, for coaches and trainers to reassess their methods. "We need coaches who are a little less Behaviouralist and a little more Freudian," says Peters with a smile. He means by this that it is a good time to reassess with our coachees and trainees and ask, 'what is the point of what we are doing?' It is one thing, he says, to coach people in giving a better presentation, but what about the content? "If you are a coach, you should have a hair shirt in your closet too," warns Peters. He means by this that we should focus on what people do rather than how they are doing it. "This is a great time to explore the underlying assumptions behind what we do.

“Leadership per se implies a moral value. Though the military model of leadership can often be misapplied, it does have a lot to teach us about the way people should be led."

'Invisible' leaders: the backbone of Britain

Peters urges caution in the way we role-model leaders. Are there business leaders that, even today, Tom Peters would regard as excellent? "There are indeed but you and I have probably never heard of them. They are the guys leading small organisations who are getting through this crisis. They get up in the morning, go to their hardware store, restaurant or brokerage, help their clients, serve their community and help those seven people who work for them." There has been, he says, too much attention to the chief executives of huge organisations and almost none on the guys who run the 50-person businesses – 'the backbone of Britain' – he (half) jokes. "Richard Branson and Jack Welch may have a lot to teach us, but there are an enormous number of effective and humane [he emphasises this word] leaders operating small organisations. 99% of them never make it to your website or the pages of my books."

This last self put-down is rather typical of Peters' recent hair shirt thinking. He has recently been giving presentations on the gaffs perpetrated by leading business gurus. One is focusing too much on 'sexy' businesses rather than dull but well-led organisations. He cites as a great success story a small-town American company that made concrete road-rock asphalt. "You can't get more basic or boring than that." Peters observed the training programme for the company. Everybody came – from the truck drivers to the receptionists. "The trainer had a genius idea: to ask everyone over a couple of weeks to make a note of the best – and worst - two or three customer experiences they have had. The idea was to look at good, and not so good, performance at a micro business level. It was a fabulous training session." Peters says that if you want to work out how to lead a giant aircraft company, look at how the local restaurant works.

Tell us about your invisible heroes!

I offer Tom Peters a title for his next book: 'Invisible Heroes'. "Let's do it," he says with huge enthusiasm, and let's ask TrainingZone.co.uk members to come up with their own examples of great leaders operating small, 'invisible companies'. Tom Peters, always in search of excellence, is now looking at you.

Many of Peters' ideas on leadership (and much else) can be downloaded free from his website

Mike Levy is a freelance journalist, author, writing and presentations coach
www.writestart.co.uk