[rating:4.0]
( San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011)
230 pgs
John Hamm is referred to as “one of the top leadership experts in Silicon Valley. He was named one of the country’s top 100 venture capitalists in 2009…a CEO, a board member in over 30 companies…a CEO advisor and executive coach to senior leaders…[teacher of] leadership at the Leavy School of Business.”
Hamm outlines his philosophy of leadership through his “Nine Skills of Leadership. They are, in many ways, common sense behaviors for leaders, but it appears there is a decided lack of common sense taught in business schools today. His book is filled with many examples of business leaders, current and past, who have modelled these skills, as well as those who have learned well from their mistakes. Hamm is good at pointing out mistakes are leadership killers only if a leader cannot learn and grow from them.
Part One of the book begins with “Credibility” or character issues with chapters titled, “Chapter One: being Authentic: the Courage to Be Yourself”, “Chapter Two: Being Trustworthy: the Consistency of Integrity”, “Chapter Three: Being Compelling: The Commitment to Winning” each dealing with the credibility factor of a leader. Hamm insists that each leader must earn the right to lead through their character, which is seen both in the company and outside of it. Hamm sees the importance of leading from a strong center within the leader, and character issues will always make or break a good leader. If who we are as a person is questionable or offensive to our employees, our competencies for leading will not be enough to hold their respect much less any admiration or loyalty. As a leadership coach Ham states, “There are three failure modes that I will decline to coach – integrity, commitment and chronic selfishness (that is, manipulating outcomes for individual gain at the expense of the larger opportunity) – because these are character traits, not matters of skill, practice, knowledge, or experience.” (p.52). It is interesting that Hamm begins the book with this chapter, but not surprising as the lack of good character has brought many top business leaders down in recent years both in the business community and in the church community.
Part Two of the book deals with issues of “Competence” and leadership skills. It covers such topics as developing teams, choosing people based on what they have to offer rather than where they are on the flow chart, developing strategies and plans for winning rather than coming in between second and last, and developing measurable indicators for success. Hamm encourages leaders to hire high-performers because they will set a different standard; they raise the bar for everyone. He says the leader’s role is to “Hire the best; Focus on “fit”; “Make it a team”; and, “Lead that team to victory” (p83). I appreciated Hamm’s insight in differentiating between a bad performer and a bad plan. He observes that sometimes it is not the employee that is under-performing; it is the plan that you have made them follow that is inhibiting success. Whether it is the leader’s competencies or the staff’s competencies, they must all work together in a complementary fashion if organizational goals are to be achieved. The leader’s primary task is to develop a talented team that can actually work together without jealousies or territorial protectionism for any company to succeed.
Part Three of the book spends time looking at the “Consequences” of leadership or the legacy a leader leaves behind in the culture he or she has developed, the values he or she has instilled in the company as well as other issues regarding effective communication, values-based choices, and the transfer of a leader’s influence to followers. Near the end of this chapter, Hamm offers 7 questions every leader must address when leading his people:
1. What are we doing? (Vision and mission)
2. Why are we doing it? (Purpose and goals)
3. What’s the plan to win? (What’s the strategy here?)
4. How are we doing? (Results and status – health of the business)
5. What is my part in the game? (What do you expect from me?)
6. What’s in it for me? (Why is this a compelling place for me to be?)
7. How am I doing? (Give me feedback, acknowledgment, appreciation.)
It is my experience that many leaders today never get around to answering all of these questions for their followers and their failure to do so hinders their effectiveness as a leader and limits what the organization could otherwise have achieved.
The many pertinent quotes Hamm includes throughout the book could easily be put into a file of leadership wisdom for future reference. From businessmen, soldiers and religious leaders, to athletes and politicians, there are many valuable insights. For example, “We can’t solve a problem using the same thinking that created it” (Einstein); “Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.” (David Ogilvy); “I had a plan, then I got hit.” (Joe Luis, boxer).
Hamm differentiates between “leadership” and “leading people”. Giving leadership may involve strategizing, setting goals, defining measurable outcomes, preparing reports, and answering to a board of directors, but ultimately leadership is judged on how well a leader can lead people to work together to accomplish their predefined goals. “Leader” is not an honorary title, it is a constant “24 X 7 X 365” activity.
The strengths of this book obviously come from a vast experiencing of leading companies, coaching leaders, and staying in the middle of the business community on every scale. The personal insights, conversations, anecdotes, and asides are informative, insightful and useful. We can learn much from other people’s successes and failures. We can pat ourselves on the back for doing the comparably right thing in leadership and wince as we see ourselves in the mistakes others have made. The strategies for “winning” can often be seamlessly applied to any organization because every organization depends on leaders who know how to lead people well. Although I have not worked in the business community as a career, I found myself constantly applying the principles and insights from this book to the Christian organization. Hamm offers little to no discussion on non-profits, but even non-profits and ministries need to ask the hard questions Hamm includes about leadership, results, effectiveness, competencies, and other leadership issues addressed in the book. I recommend this as reading to any pastor, businessmen, leader, who wants to grow personally to become more effective in leading people.
The weakness of this book would pertain to the limited inclusion of any cross-cultural anecdotes and the few international stories as it is primarily based on business leaders in the United States, as well as any real focus on leading non-profit organizations.
by Tom Blackaby