Radical Leadership

In his search for what is really crucial in leadership, Reinhard K. Sprenger decided to gain some practical experience once again. For a period of three and a half years he assumed operational responsibility in the executive committee of a company which generates a turnover of approximately 21 billion euro in almost eighty countries. He wished to experience the daily routine of management again, separate the wheat from the chaff and the indispensible from the merely desirable.

Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger gilt als der profilierteste Führungsexperte Deutschlands. Geboren 1953 in Essen, in Philosophie promoviert, lebt er heute in der Nähe von Zürich und in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Zu seinen Kunden zählen zahlreiche internationale Konzerne sowie fast alle DAX-100-Unternehmen. Neben »Mythos Motivation« zählen zu seinen erfolgreichsten Publikationen »Das Prinzip Selbstverantwortung«, »Die Entscheidung liegt bei dir«, »Vertrauen führt«, »Radikal führen« und »Das anständige Unternehmen«. Der Bestsellerautor ist bekannt als kritischer Denker, der nachdrücklich dazu auffordert, neues Denken und selbstbestimmtes Handeln zu wagen. Weitere Informationen unter www.sprenger.com.

Introduction

What this book is not about

If you enter the word "management" in the search engine of a well-known mail-order bookshop, guess how many books would be shown? Five thousand? Fifty thousand?

In actual fact, it would be more than five hundred thou-sand. Just imagine book shelves for more than half a mil-lion books! Everything on this subject must have been said already, which raises the question: why on earth should you bother to read this book at all? The first answer is: be-cause it omits a lot.

For that reason, it is essential to state at the very begin-ning what this book is not about. It is not about a new lead-ership mode. Many authors only address specific aspects of managerial work and do so in great detail - but the overall picture remains blurred. A large number of books (includ-ing my early works) also lay claim to relatively abstract aspects of value in order to criticize management structures which actually exist for the sake of what ought to be. There-fore you will not find a whole collection of anecdotes, no examples of excellent management and no limitless range of strategies to be learned and implemented. Nor do I speculate on a possible connection between management styles, personality traits and managerial success. No dis-tinction is made between leadership and management. I assume that most managers interact with their employees, i.e. lead and that most staff at managerial level also carry out tool-based administrative tasks, in other words, manage. Moreover, a leader who possesses no management skills will soon run out of steam; a manager with no leadership skills lacks direction. At the same time I do not distinguish between staff orientation and task orientation. In practice this distinction is artificial - both are necessary.

What exactly is this book about then?

In order to answer this question I would like to give a few biographical details. In my search for what is really crucial in leadership, I decided to gain some practical experience once again. For a period of three and a half years I assumed op-erational responsibility in the executive committee of a company which generates a turnover of approximately 21 billion euro in almost eighty countries. I wished to experi-ence the daily routine of management again, separate the wheat from the chaff and the indispensible from the merely desirable.

I learned much about what executives do, but more than that, I learned what they do not do; what they in fact left out - because they considered it to be irrelevant or they simply did not wish to or were unable to do it. This, in turn, helped me to concentrate on the essentials.

At the same time I realized more and more that the ac-tual tasks to be performed are not discussed by the execu-tives but are taken for granted: "It isn't necessary for me to take care of these, as well - after all I am already an execu-tive because my boss thinks I am equal to the tasks." They do not see their actions in a wider context; they just "man-age," which means that they muddle through. Thinking about what they are doing is only disruptive. And even if they do reflect on their actions, then this is only in connec-tion with HOW, with adjectives such as "co-operative," "dialogic" or even "transforming"- but not with WHAT, whereby this WHAT is by no means obvious. In fact, it meets with astonishment when it is mentioned. These are not trifles which can be ignored. On the contrary! It is pre-cisely this blind spot in most executives which I wish to address. Therefore: leadership is the answer - what was that question you asked? Can you repeat it?

At the same time I take the following situation as a start-ing point: a group of people have got together for a specific purpose. It does not take long before someone establishes himself as the leader and depending on the size of the group and how long it has been in existence, leadership structures also evolve. Why? What are the "reasons" for leadership, reasons which arise from facts and not from arbitrary objectives? What is the problem to which leader-ship is the answer?

I am convinced that the tasks involved in leadership are universals - they will still be the same in many hundreds of years. After all, leadership has always existed - ever since people have lived in groups. Nor can I imagine the new world of networks and heterarchies without leadership. On the contrary: people long for nothing more than a powerful idea of leadership and a person who personifies this. For that reason we can speak of an "archaeo", a first principle, on which "archaeo-logy" focuses and explores. In any case, it seems to me that the search for sound "reasons" for lead-ership even in times of contingency and the absence of the final reason has not been called off.

I would, therefore, like to get to the bottom of leadership on the basis of archaeology and offer examples of its practi-cal application. And although the choice, of course, is con-nected to an unavoidable factor of subjectivity, it is by no means arbitrary but lays claim to the status of necessity - for that is the basic experience in the history of humanity where in the end so little changes and yet where almost everything has changed.

At the same time, anyone speaking of "radical leader-ship" has to expect to be misunderstood. In this country and in times of politically correct ambiguity, it is possible to be anything you like, but one thing you may not be and that is radical. This proviso, however, fails to recognize the origin of the word: the Latin word "radix" means "the root". In the case of radical leadership it is a question of the root of leadership - in which it is firmly grounded and from which it develops. An executive who really wishes to make changes within a company has to start at the root. The in-numerable initiatives for change fail because they - to stick to the imagery - remain on the surface and do not get down to grass roots. They would succeed if they were rooted in the core tasks of leadership.

Human beings within the organization

When I ask: "What is the problem to which leadership is the answer?" I am deliberately speaking of leadership - and I do not just mean executives. Leadership is more than mere action by individuals. Leadership also finds expres-sion in structures, instruments and institutions - in other words in organization. No one ever starts right at the very beginning. Something already exists and it is into this that you step and take from there.

This book is to convey the strength of the ego in the indi-vidual and the management of structures by the organiza-tion. In fact, it is not possible to make either of these disap-pear entirely (not even in a totalitarian system). I wish to do justice to both aspects because I am convinced that they are not mutually exclusive and that the stand taken in defence of the one or the other is artificial.

Consequently, I am going to outline, first of all, the insti-tutional framework as a requirement for leadership with respect to each of the core tasks of leadership and in a sec-ond step define the individual attributes which are suitable for the fulfilment of these management tasks.

What's new?

The experienced reader will ask me: Is there anything new in your book? Permit me to answer with a question: When has anything new ever been written? It wouldn't be the first time that I considered an idea to be new and then I read something similar or even identical in some old book. Genuine originality is extremely rare. It is not the content but the choice of words and the form of the presentation which make it appear original.

Nevertheless, in reply to the question about something new: Naturally I am following up on what I have already expressed in earlier books. However, it must be said: never before has there been a book which aims to delineate the core tasks of leadership archaeologically. There has never been a book which gives a comprehensive account of the timeless and essential aspects of leadership by imparting systemic guidelines and individual attributes. Therefore, anyone using this book as a basis for leadership will be a radical leader because he knows the roots of leadership. There-fore, I hope that what I write will be a seed which forms new roots.

ContentsIntroduction - What this book is not about 11What exactly is this book about then? 12Human beings within the organization 14What's new? 15Leadership 17Why leadership? 17The purpose of leadership 17That is not what you are being paid for 19Success - What is that? 21Does "good" leadership exist? 23What is leadership? 28Leadership as an incidental activity 28Leadership as a label 29In observation, who is observing who? 31Interdependence 34What shapes leadership behavior? 35Leadership - more than just being an executive 35The institution and the individual 37Good people? Or appropriate people? 40Work within the system and work on the system 42The manager: hero or victim? 43The system has a face 46How can leadership effect change? 47First core task: Organizing co-operation 51One for all and all for one 51A little natural history 51Co-operation as the core of the company 53What obstructs co-operation? 55The institution 57What enables co-operation 57Co-operation-supporting systems 68Small units 79Spatial proximity 82Altering the title 85The consequence for the selection of personnel 88The individual 92The otherness of the other 92When the other cannot co-operate 93Optimizing others 95Commitment to co-operation 99Second core task: Lowering transaction costs 103What are transaction costs? 103Shortage 103Efficiency 104From competitor to co-operation partner 105Internal markets 108Institution 112Checking planning and target agreements 113Increasing staff loyalty; reducing fluctuation 118Customer orientation 120Culture of trust 127The individual 132Seeing the invisible 133"Approaching the other" 135Risk awareness and self-confidence 138Third core task: Resolving conflicts 143Decisions 143A plethora of possibilities 143Ensuring decidability 145Decision or choice? 146"Right" decisions 150Goal conflicts and value conflicts 152The institution 154Dispensing with principles 154Putting up with contradictions 160Away from morality and towards the customer 162The individual 167Leadership - the art of 'as-if' 167Decisiveness 169Tolerating ambiguities 173Equanimity - the passion of balance 175Behavior when conflicts arise 177Decision-making with Sherlock Holmes' rule 179Fourth core task: Ensuring sustainability 181General Remarks 181We reactionaries 182The success trap 184Recipes for success: cause, effect and the problem ofthe future 186After the crisis is before the crisis 192Why resilience is gaining in importance 195The management's assignment to disturb 197The tension between sustainability and transactioncosts 199The institution 201Tents instead of palaces 201Experimenting 203Recognizing weak signals 205Thinking from the point of view of the future 208Project management 210Decentralized is stronger 212Mid-range planning 213Creating redundancies 214Disturbance 214The individual 215Awareness of opportunities and other requirements 216Recruiting the future 219Taking the offensive more often 222Interrupting yourself 224Developing trust in a common future 227Fifth core task: Leading staff 231Find the right staff! 232Who are we looking for? 233How do you recognize the best? 238Challenge them! 244What drives us on 244Being allowed to prove yourself 246Talk to each other frequently! 250Contact instead of praise 250Taking time 252Talking instead of writing 253" as yourself" 255Trust them! 256Why trust? 256What is trust? 258Creating trust 259Destroying trust 261Trust creates entrepreneurship 262Offer a good and fair salary! 264Get out of the way! 267Leadership to self-leadership 267What is to be done? 272Make your contribution! 274Literature 277Index