Leadership—Examples of Good and Bad

Source: Insight

Leadership lessons include:

• New leaders must act in concert with the organization’s culture—a leader brought in from outside can be a revitalizing force. But if his style isn’t compatible with the existing culture, he’s headed for failure. An example is Robert Nardelli, who went from GE to Home Depot. He disaffected employees by his tough tactics that worked in GE’s culture but not in Home Depot’s.
• Lehmann Brothers had a corporate culture that disdained teamwork. Traders often perceived other Lehmann traders as competitors. But technology, in the form of electronic trading, offered a new kind of outside competition that encouraged teamwork at Lehmann. When leadership tied compensation to firm-wide results, teamwork became essential.
• The long term—Microsoft succeeded in the video game market because it built software into its Xbox that gave developers leverage to design games. Sony, on the other hand, has overly complex software issues.
• Teamwork and new ideas—Vertical SA, a Chilean company, teaches leadership through use of mountain-climbing experiences. Students are already well-informed on leadership principles, but when faced with the task of climbing to the summit of one of the highest mountains in the world, something unusual happened. Out of a group of 11, only three or four typically attempt the summit. But one group agreed they would all do it. The group split into two groups that would go up on different days. The reason for the ensuing success was that the leaders were open to alternatives. Team members relied on fresh ideas from other team members even though the task seemed unachievable.

From Insight, The Magazine of the Illinois CPA Society, September/October 2007. For the complete article, click here, select the September/October 2007 issue then select Lessons for Leaders.