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 Tom Peters step aside
My introduction to formalized leadership came during the Korean War, as I served as an instructor in the U.S. Army Infantry Leadership Course at Ft. Dix, NJ. There it was a pretty cut and dried formula with no opportunity for innovation. In the ensuing years leadership innovations have leaped into the spotlight with ever increasing frequency. Hardly a year goes by without some professor or management guru promulgating the latest leadership theory and its applications.
In my reading of this literature, I find that many, if not most, of them offer little of substance and seem to focus on providing panaceas that seldom seem to be applicable to my or my clients' situations. They enjoy waves of popularity and then like the old soldier just fade away to be replaced by the next new popular leadership theory. Well, Tom Peters et al can step aside. The dynamic duo of Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner clearly demonstrate what effective managers need to learn to lead their organizations into the digital age. Rather than offering universal applications, these authors examine the nature of effective leadership in some depth. In specific situations they review the dilemmas of management and provide hardcore examples of how to reconcile fundamental issues of leadership. Utilizing their base data from thousands of surveys of leaders and followers around the world and with their seven dimensions of cultural competence they have interviewed global leaders as they cope with the dilemmas of leadership. Rather than presenting seven or more essential habits, they focus on how these leaders reconcile differences to attain more effective management. The authors suggest that business cultures are different, and that because business is run differently around the globe, we need different managerial and leadership competencies. What they call transcultural competence is their way of bridging those differences. It is a logic that tends to unify differences and that delineates the manager from the leader and the successful leader from the unsuccessful one. They call for a new way of thinking. Through-Through thinking is beyond either-or and even and- and thinking in that it synthesizes seemingly opposed values into coherence. Thus the main theme throughout this book is that effective leaders reconcile value dilemmas better than those who don't. In in-depth interviews with 21 business leaders that run the range from Richard Branson of Virgin through the former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, to corporate leaders throughout the West, we see the applications of transcultural competence through the use of the authors' seven dimensions: rule-making vs exception finding, that is universalism vs particularism; self-interest and personal fulfillment vs group interest and social concern, that is individualism vs communitarianism; preference for precise, singular, "hard" standards vs preference for pervasive, patterned. "soft: processes, that is specificity vs diffusion; emotions inhibited vs emotions expressed, that is neutral vs affective; status achieved through success and track record vs status ascribed to person's potential such as age, family, education, that is achievement vs ascription; control and effective direction comes from within vs control and effective direction comes from inside, that is inner-directed vs outer-directed; and time is conceived of as a "race" with passing increments vs time is conceived of as a "dance" with circular iterations, that is sequential vs synchronic. While not all of the 21 leaders address all of the above factors in their corporations, we do see that a number of these dimensions occur in varying issues of each organization. They include Kiriyenko working to reconcile dilemmas at the Nizhmy Novorod Oil Company (NORSI) such as that of inner direction (young Russians) vs outer directed (older Russians) or that of cronyism vs new rules or universalism vs particularism. Philippe Bourguignon of Club Med working to reconcile the dilemma of the unique, seamless, personalized vacation vs the reliable, affordable, segmented, standardized holiday with the specific ingredients going into the making of diffuse experiences. Other examples of the reconciliation of dilemmas appear in such case studies as: creating a hyperculture with Martin Gillo of Advanced Micro Devices; recapturing the true mission with Christian Majgaard of Lego; the balance between market and product with Anders Knutsen of Bang and Olufsen; keeping closer to the customer with David Komansky of Merrill Lynch; and much more. Each of the case studies in the book offers rare insights into how the dilemmas of leadership can be met and how transcultural competence can be applied to leadership in the digital age. To quote the book itself: "The central premise that evolved is that the propensity to reconcile seemingly different contradictory values is the key competence behavior required for a leader to be effective in today's digital world." This is a fascinating spellbinding text blending the intercultural dilemmas of management with the reconciling forces of leadership to create innovative leaders. The examples from 21 business leaders prove again and again that Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner have hit enough nails on the head to build a solid model for the future. David C. Wigglesworth an interculturalist is a management and organization development consultant and is president of D.C.W. Research Associates International in Kingwood, Texas. He can be reached at 281-359-4234 and dcwigg@earthlink.net.
Understanding dilemmas
Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars have been collaborating for many years to develop an understanding of how different cultures approach and resolve problems and the cross-cultural issues that arise from it. In the course of this collaboration they have developed a formidable database of responses from managers around the world, and a 'dilemma methodology' which they use to demonstrate how superior results flow from the way in which dilemmas are managed and resolved.This book is a direct successor to a series of books by one or both authors, which develop the methodology and its application. This one applies it to the question of effective leadership, and makes a valuable contribution to a generally overcrowded field. In particular, it adds to understanding of the particular skill of an effective leader and also helps to build an operational understanding of what is meant by 'managing a culture'. The book can be read and used without reference to the earlier works, but Building Cross-Cultural Competence is particularly useful in providing an extended statement of the principles and dimensions summarized in the first 2 chapters of 21 Leaders. The nine opening pages of the Introduction provide a succinct overview of the main thesis, described as a 'metatheory of leadership'. They argue that leaders 'manage culture' by fine-tuning and reconciling dilemmas and that that culture then runs the organization. Outstanding leaders are particularly adept at reconciling dilemmas - they make the necessary distinctions yet integrate them into a viable whole. The authors conceptualise apparently opposed values (eg individualism versus communitarianism) as being the opposite ends of a continuum and the test of successful reconciliation being that both values should emerge stronger from the interaction. The book and most of the examples are based on issues of cross-cultural in the sense of cross-national values, but the principles apply equally wherever there is a potential clash of values - for example in a merger or a major program of change. Through expanding their methodology and showing how it applies in a wide range of complex situations the authors seek to help leaders : "Elicit and become aware of major business dilemmas in cross-cultural environmentsSee dilemma resolution as a crucial ingredient of strategyUtilize dilemmas as strategic contexts for actionLearn the art of achieving one value through another in a virtuous circle (a process known as through-through thinking)Learn how transnational entrepreneurs take their stands (preneur) between (entre) contrasting values." Much of the book is devoted to case studies of the 21 selected leaders. These are not all the 'usual suspects' of the management literature, but include a former Russian Prime Minister and the heads of companies in a variety of industries and from a range of nations. Each is well-written and argues its particular points in a way that gives depth to the main thesis of the book.
One of the 21 books to read for the 21st century
This book should be read by everyone from young adults to senior executives. As a lay person, not only did I understand how to be successful in the business world, but how to improve my own life. The pages provided me with a fresh insight into leadership; one is not born as a leader, rather one must use leadership skills. Although this book provides examples with well known figures, it also points towards lesser known, but amply talented, leaders. However, albeit how successful some of these people are, some stories serve to remind us that even leaders cannot escape their own humanity. I loudly applaud Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner for giving me the tools to make my way through the 21st century!
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