I see three solutions for many
positions. I first noticed this model when we were bringing up the
cellular industry, for CEO positions, but have since seen it for many
positions in many industries.
The Pirate
A leader in starts and turnarounds,
keeps the tribe together with vision, hacks, and personal examples.
Budgets are theoretical, because we’re working new situations.
There is never enough resource, so we have to apply whatever we’ve
got to what we need to get to the next step. Kara Swisher’s
AOL.COM: how Steve Case beat Bill Gates,nailed the netheads, and made millions in the war for the Web is
a great book showing this type of leadership
The Executive
Makes the most of an existing
operation, bringing economical systems and delegation. Has the
advantage of historical performance to improve against, often scaling
is a major accomplishment. Jack Welch in his heyday defines this
behavior for me.
The Administrator
Doing more with less has been
the mantra for over a decade. Occasionally I’ve seen fat
organizations, but more often I’ve watched poorly defined missions
exited. I’ve also seen how this mindset causes organizations to
disregard achievable, mission saving strategies. The Administrator often leads to entropy, and is followed by ceasing operations or transferring
assets to someone who can create more value with them.
I was explaining this to one of my
favorite Pirates last week. Times are hard, and he was trying to sell
himself into an Administrator position. Had he grown the company, he
would have created havoc. The owners had an emotional attachment to
tanking.
After I explained the model and what
was expected, he said, “Now why would I want to do that?”
What do your people expect?
