Order Now | Review | Excerpts

Excerpts from Cracking the Corporate Code

Gerald Adolph, a, management consultant, has made a study of leadership in many corporations. His job is to help corporate leaders understand where they should go, where they can go, and then how to get there. "The leader is the person who can make something happen. Can you get people to rally around and move in the direction you want them to move? Can you come up with something that is going to inspire them? You have to try to figure out where this crow would like to go and then how to tease that out of them. How do you make it explicit, so they can all go there together?"

"Many people think those in the corporate environment come up with ideas and then lead everyone in that direction. There aren't very many great leaders who lead that way. It is a flawed model of leadership that says, 'I have the answer.' That's not listening and figuring out, 'Where does this group, whether it's a client corporation or a group of senior executives, want to go? How can I get them to the intersection of where they want to go and where my analysis says they ought to go, taking into account their politics and all the other things they're trying to manage?' So it's getting them somewhere rather than trying to put them there. A person who goes in a room with all the answers and thinks he can give orders for everyone else to follow tends not to do well over the long term.

"Leadership over the long term is figuring out, 'What is it that the people I'm leading are naturally inclined to do? How do I make the best of the talents and the resources around me? I can't force them, even though I can give them some orders and maybe hold up a paycheck or two.' There is the illusion of authority, but it's just an illusion. If you look at the senior VPs of major corporations, they are not sheep. They're not going to roll over and follow the CEOs orders. You have to influence them."