Lead By Smiling

"The leader has to be optimistic simply because if he isn't, nobody else will be." -- Rudy Giuliani

Trust, But Verify

An old saying goes: To rise, be a man of your word. Sayings like this come to be because they counteract human nature. Ronald Reagan said "Trust, but verify." Though it's an uncomfortable thing to do, it is in the end what the people we serve are counting on us to do.

Study, Buddy

"Anybody who's going to take on [the leadership of] a large organization must put time aside for deep study." -- Giuliani

Is our confidence in a leader more, or less, who genuinely knows the subject matter he's talking about? Who understands what it is we do, how we do it, and why we do it that way?

Connect With People First

While being prepped for a political debate, Giuliani rehearsed his answer to the question: "Do you have an educational plan?" He replied "Yes, I do. One, reform the board, two, do this, three, do that, four, do this..."

It's at the same time a great plan and an inferior response. A better answer: "I care greatly about children. I have my own. And I realize that the future of our city is built around children. So the core of my concern will be to make the educational system around the children."

The second answer is not only the truth, but more memorable. More importantly, it understands that our core questions aren't about facts, but people.

As a leader, we succeed when we connect with people first.

Overabundant Input, Minus the "Over"

"...a leader who fails to act until every group has been heard from, every concern addressed, every lawsuit resolved, is a leader who's abdicating his responsibility." -- Giuliani

The fact is, abundant input is important! As leaders we seek teamwork, and know that two heads are better than one. Input is to be treated like gold. First, it's to be pursued passionately. Second, once gained, it's the least we can to do say "thank you," the most is to actually use it, and the middle ground is to explain in person why it was respectable and ultimately not used.

Marching-order, closed-door leadership works successfully, albeit manipulatively, in the short run while crippling teamwork in the end. Rudy notes that we're to be on guard against the opposite extreme too -- entangling ourselves in a web of "consensus-building." Put a time limit on the process -- but have a process, and communicate thoroughly.

Private Practice

"Just as a poker player tries to distuise his hand until he's called, often it's to a leader's benefit not to let others know what he's up to until the last possible moment." -- Giuliani

Huh? Why would a good leader be less than forthcoming with his team?

Rudy may have stated it differently, given the story he used to illustrate. The real lesson is to examine our visions with care when they first pop into our heads, and to announce plans in a way that's well-calculated, rather than brash. When a police chief sees the amount of murders down from 650 towards 610 (projected) during the first three months of the year, what are the drawbacks of announcing 600 as a goal at that point?

1. It's early and unsubstantiated.
2. It diminishes a significant and perfectly satisfactory accomplishment -- crime is decreasing!

Rightfully, Americans celebrate the memory of Kennedy's successful and uncharted dream of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960's. Still, it's just as American to achieve progress in any measure. Further, it's American to deliver on our promises. When temptation comes knocking to leap over tall buildings, we can privately check our emotions long enough to consider alternative ideas. Why not take a leisurely stroll around it instead? It's quicker, more relaxing, and much easier to convince people to follow you!

Promise Reality... Or A Shade Less

"A leader must manage not only results but expectations." -- Giuliani

My department at work has a file room that contains about two dozen cabinets stuffed with 20 years of memos and financial workpapers. As a small group of us planned for 2008, we wondered about becoming a more paperless office.

We considered setting a 2008 goal of "1 less file cabinet by year-end." The natural initial reaction was "well, we'd like to go down a lot more than that if possible!" That was certainly true, and in an era of "big, hairy audacious goals" such targets are often inflated -- and just as often missed. This is because, for one thing, twelve months seems like a long time -- until one actually starts living it, the phone starts ringing, unexpected projects materialize, and we find ourselves on December 15 staring at an unfulfilled dream on a piece of paper. Secondly, planning can go overboard with faith in pathless destinations. Starting with a "small" goal got us to asking how we might go about reducing that number. Before long, we actually did raise the goal -- to 4 cabinets -- after just a half hour of creative thinking. Who knows how much further we'll actually go?

It's easy to feel underachieving when aiming toward "reality" rather than a higher plane. But fortunately that pales in comparison to the satisfaction of meeting those goals, and the inspiration that comes from the potential to exceed those goals.

Firm and Flexible

"A leader has to be strong enough to make his own decisions, and stick to them even when they're unpopular; but he also must be self-confident enough to solicit opinions and change his mind without worrying that he'll appear weak." -- Giuliani

Recently IRS auditors requested certain information verbally. As it happened, on that same day an official IRS pronouncement came forth which specifically said that audits should not request such information. Who wants to say "no" to IRS auditors? But it just didn't make sense to act quickly and wastefully hand over information if it wasn't truly required. After consulting a national counsultant, and peers who had been through IRS audits before, I chose to ask politely for more time, and took more time, despite pressure. In the end, the information was required; in the meantime, the decision to be patient was unpopular yet prudent. Taking counsel of others before taking a firm stance allowed me to sleep better at night, even as the tension built.

Taking Debate

Conflict-avoidant is a common style, indeed my instinctive style, of management. The sense is that life's too filled with conflict naturally to waste time creating it artificially. However, debate can be beneficial like manure -- useful when applied properly.

Giuliani found staff debates enormously helpful, and would create them specifically so that he could hear more views on just about everything. What are some keys to productive debate?

1. Ask someone to take the other side.
2. The participants must believe that the outcome is not predetermined. As the leader, don't take sides until people have had their say.

Recently I told you about the condo roofing debate. It was hard to hold my tongue, but it was essential. Further, it was tough to give second and third chances for people to express their questions and concerns. Twenty people had taken time out of their schedule for a very personal and expensive vote. All deserved to be heard in an unbiased way.

I'm gifted with mental agility in some ways (math and vocabulary are a couple), but one-on-one debate has not been a strength. In a way, group debate is a blessing as a result. In group debate, the focus is on a task rather than an individual, so personal reputation is not so much at stake. Further, the time it takes for 2-3 people to voice their ideas to each other is often enough for me to collect my own thoughts. It's one of the blessings of a complicated world -- group dynamics make up for individual shortcomings, and help everyone to feel a greater sense of purpose.

Nice Tat

I've told Dena that I am much more likely to die from prostrate cancer than I am to take a digital rectal exam to diagnose it. As Giuliani was in the early stages of his battle with the disease, his Chief of Staff Tony Carbonetti let him know his thoughts on that exam:

"There's a tattoo on my rear end that says, 'Exit Only.'"

Three Ideas for Low-Budget Motivation

Giuliani suggests a few things to keep employees motivated:

1. Create a sense of adventure. "Let's go where we haven't gone before." Restrictive rules have their place -- for a while. But humans need variety.

2. Give new responsibility. In his case, young lawyers who ordinarily don't get much opportunity to argue in court, were given pro bono (charity) cases to gain experience while doing community service.

3. Remember that good people act from a combination of altruism (wanting to feel that their talents are doing good for society) and self-interest (the exhilaration of doing something important). Find ways to recognize people's successes in each of those areas. Giuliani held regular press conferences and used part of them to laud those who had done well.

Turnover, Yes!

Stability is key to success.

I've come to some dissatisfaction with the philosophy of rotating leaders arbitrarily for development. In the coming decades, U.S. demographics will create near historic waves of upward opportunity as retirees depart en masse. With so many holes to plug, today's eagerness to move people around may be replaced by a pining for the ability to keep some semblance of continuity.

Getting down to business here, Giuliani comments on one benefit of turnover. If performance is tracked over time, then replacements can find motivation in competing for the good of the organization against their predecessors' accomplishments. New York police commissioner Bernie Kerik made it a personal mission to keep the number of New York homicides below 629 -- the 1998 total of former commissioner Howard Safir, and the second-lowest since the 1960's.

In my corner of the world, this highlights the value of tracking things that have been untracked before. Tracking is time-consuming and unpopular. But if done properly, it's worth it.

The Third Degree

Paul Curran was Rudy Giuliani's one-time boss. He'd say "A kid who did well going to law school at night is worth three Harvard degrees." His point was that while a pedigree is nice, the full measure of a person's worth comes from factors deeper than paper. A person who overcomes adversity is a tremendous asset to an organization.

It Takes Two to Tandem

Giuliani comments on the unique chemistry and success of the New York Yankees' leadership:

George Steinbrenner, owner: The taskmaster.
Joe Torre, manager: The nurturer.

Together the two won 4 World Series in six years, and came within a couple outs of a fifth. Similarly,

Giuliani, U.S. Attorney: The person who holds people accountable.
Denny Young, assistant counsel: The big brother.

For years I've thought that the subordinate who manages without holding people accountable for their actions creates an inferior product. Maybe there's something to this complementary tandem approach. I plan to discuss it at work soon and see if there's a positive force to be unleashed here.

Jordan, Ruth, and Us

What I have in common with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth? Great failure, that's what. We all do. Jordan failing to qualify for high school varsity. Ruth growing up in an orphanage.

Giuliani lost his first race for mayor. "The greatest pitchers lose games, and lose badly. There are important skills to be learned from picking yourself up after something goes wrong, to keep moving ahead without letting it throw you off course." He also had to pull out of a U.S. Senate race due to prostate cancer.

We're tired, or ill, or down. It's an occasional reality of life. We take a breather, then get back up.

I Cannot Not Tell a Lie

Per Giuliani:

"Whenever there's doubt about whether to make public a damaging fact, err on the side of the disclosure."

"Whenever a convoluted explanation is offered in favor of not disclosing, overrule the advice and disclose."

Of course, the New York Daily News broke the story of his extramarital affair.

Capstat

Eventually, Giuliani's Compstat program for law enforcement spread to agencies throughout New York City. Four parameters were given to leaders to work with:

1. Data had to be collected regularly and reliably -- preferably on a daily basis, but at least once a week -- at a set time.

2. 20 to 40 performance indicators that got at the core mission of the agency had to be established.

3. A regular meeting must be convened -- with a minimum frequency of once a week -- including a floor plan that demonstrated exactly which agency leaders were required to be present at each meeting.

4. 10 or more representative performance indicators that the agency wanted on its web site must be submitted.

I think that the beauty here is somewhat in the process, but more so in that the leaders were empowered to develop their own system. Giuliani seems to have a sensitivity to micromanagement. Often times, buy-in = bottom-up.

Compstat

The essence of Giuliani's success as mayor of New York were the Compstat meetings. First, a look at the results:

Murders and robberies dropped over 15% during Compstat's first year.

In 1995, 419 police officers fired shots. By 2001, that number dropped to 175.

The number of slashings and stabbings in Rikers Island prison was 139 in July 1995. In September 2001, there was one.

The principles here may not be as applicable to small organizations as large ones, but they provide food for thought:

1. Crime statistics were collected and analyzed every single day. Meaningful ones. Arrest counts and reaction times to emergency calls aren't the goal of a police force: Public safety and reducing crime are.

2. A weekly summary of stats displays trends such as week-to-date, month-to-date, year-to-date.

3. The key: Once every 4-8 weeks, the command of a borough stands before the brass and defends their performance. Questions are posed by the brass: "Why are car thefts down 20 percent citywide, but up 10 percent in your area?" This meeting won Harvard's Innovations in Government Award.

4. Every time a performance indicator was added, there'd be a similar pattern of improvement. For example, graffiti arrests rose from 475 in 1995 to 1,485 in 2001. One agency had no less than 592 indicators.

The system was resisted by many who didn't want their performance to be measured (human nature). That is, until the results started to emerge. What gets measured, gets done.

Model What You Want, and Hire Wisely

Per Giuliani:

"Nothing builds confidence in a leader more than a willingness to take responsibility for what happens during his watch."

"Nothing builds a stronger case for holding employees to a high standard than a boss who holds himself to even higher ones."

These were good lines to read in his chapter "Everyone's Accountable, All of the Time." Of course I started mentally launching into ways to hold other people accountable.

In particular, the leadership team where I work holds itself accountable to the hiring of new employees. It takes tremendously long to remove a worker once hired, and twice the energy to overcome the attitude of a poor worker. Because of that, we shamelessly interview candidates for even the lowest level entry job with teams of multiple interviewers. No interview process is perfect, but since 15 or more years of potential productivity hangs in the balance, no effort is too small!

Giuliani on September 11

Looking up from ground zero shortly after the World Trade Center was hit, Giuliani saw people jumping from windows. They were making the conscious decision that it was better to die that way, than to face the 2,000 degree heat of the blazing jet fuel. Those who believe in hell, take note.

In surviving that day, he notes that "there was no time to actually experience an emotion. There were moments of anger, fear, and sorrow, but with so much to do it was impossible to dwell on those feelings."

There seems some similarity with Ben Franklin, who mused that it's better to be focused on our usefulness than our rights.

Giuliani was pressed by the media to estimate a death toll. He decided right away not to play guessing games with lost lives. He spoke the truth: "When we get the final number, it will be more than we can bear."

Regardless of pressure or temptation, may we likewise focus on the task at hand, and remain honest to the end.