How Great Leaders Think Read online

  Contents

  Preface

  Acknowledgments

  Part 1: Leadership in Four Dimensions Chapter 1: Introduction: The Power of Reframing The Curse of Cluelessness

  Framing

  Frame Breaking

  Four Leadership Frames

  Multiframe Thinking

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Part 2: Structural Leadership Chapter 2: Getting Organized Structure at United Parcel Service (UPS)

  McDonald’s and Harvard: A Structural Odd Couple

  Elements of Social Architecture

  Contextual Factors

  Applying the Structural Frame

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Chapter 3: Organizing Groups and Teams Lord of The Flies

  Saga of the Trapped Chilean Miners

  Comparing Leadership Dynamics

  Task and Structure in Teams

  Structures of Sports Teams

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Part 3: Human Resource Leadership Chapter 4: Leading People Treat ‘Em Like Dirt

  Semco: Investing in People

  Men’s Wearhouse: Getting it Right

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Chapter 5: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us Ellen and Don

  Self-Awareness

  Leadership Skills: Advocacy and Inquiry

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Part 4: Political Leadership Chapter 6: The Leader as Politician Political Skills

  A Case Example: The Troubled Auditor

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Chapter 7: The Leader as Warrior and Peacemaker Steve Jobs: The Warrior

  Enter Bob Iger: The Peacemaker

  Orchestrating Conflict: Raise or Lower the Flame?

  A Case Example: Lois Payne

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Part 5: Symbolic Leadership Chapter 8: The Leader as Magician Cultural Revival at Starbucks

  The Ways of Magic: How Symbolic Leaders Work

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Chapter 9: Seeking Soul in Teams The Eagle Group: Reasons for Success

  Building a Soulful Team

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Part 6: Improving Leadership Practice Chapter 10: Reframing in Action Benefits and Risks of Reframing

  Reframing for Newcomers and Outsiders

  Conclusion

  Note

  Chapter 11: Images of Leadership: Can Crooked Kites Fly? Metrics Maestro: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

  Leader of the Tribe: Zappos’s Tony Hsieh

  Authentic Engineer: Xerox’s Ursula Burns

  Warrior Artist: Apple’s Steve Jobs

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Chapter 12: Leadership and Change Limits of Leadership

  Carriers Versus Catalysts of Change

  The Frames and Change

  Resurrection at Ford Motor

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Chapter 13: Searching for Soul: Leadership Ethics Soul and Spirit in Organizations

  The Factory: Excellence and Authorship

  The Family: Caring and Love

  The Jungle: Justice and Power

  The Temple: Faith and Significance

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Chapter 14: Great Leaders, Great Stories Worldviews, Frames, and Stories

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Appendix: Leadership Orientations

  The Authors

  Index

  End User License Agreement

  List of Illustrations

  Figure 5.1. Advocacy and Inquiry

  Figure 6.1. Mulcahy’s Challenge: A Political Map

  Figure 11.1. Jeff Bezos’s Leadership Configuration

  Figure 11.2. Tony Hsieh’s Leadership Configuration

  Figure 11.3. Ursula Burns’s Leadership Configuration

  Figure 11.4. Steve Jobs’s Leadership Configuration

  Figure 14.1. The Leadership Process

  Figure A.1. Plot Your Leadership Orientation Scores

  List of Exhibits

  Exhibit 1.1. Overview of the Four-Frame Model

  Exhibit 2.1. Structural Contingencies

  Exhibit 4.1. Principles for Leading People

  Exhibit 12.1. Change: Barriers, Leader Roles, and Strategy

  Exhibit 13.1. Change: Barriers, Leader Roles, and Strategy

  How Great Leaders Think

  The Art of Reframing

  Lee G. Bolman

  Terrence E. Deal

  Cover design by Wiley

  Cover image © Tetra Images/Getty Images

  Copyright © 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Published by Jossey-Bass

  A Wiley Brand

  One Montgomery Street, Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94104-4594—www.josseybass.com

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

  Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is read.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Bolman, Lee G.

  How great leaders think : the art of reframing / Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal.

  pages cm

  Includes index.

  ISBN 978-1-118-14098-7 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-28450-6; ISBN 978-1-118-28223-6

  1. Leadership. 2. Organizational change. I. Deal, Terrence E. II. Title.

  HD57.7.B6393 2014

  658.4’092–dc23

  2014013595

  PREFACE

  This book has a simple messag
e:

  Good thinking is the starting point for good leadership.

  Leaders who can reframe—look at the same thing from multiple perspectives—think better. They create a lucid portrait of what’s going on around them and have a clearer vision of what’s needed to achieve desired results.

  Leaders can see and do more when they know how to negotiate four key areas of the leadership terrain: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic.

  This book answers a request we’ve often heard from readers and fans of our work who have asked for a shorter, more applied version of Reframing Organizations. This new book is a compact overview of our ideas about reframing and our four-frame model, with a focus on leadership. Because storytelling is often the best form of teaching, we use cases and examples, many of them from iconic leaders, to provide realistic lessons about how great leaders think and act.

  This work appears thirty years after we published our first book (with the ungainly title Modern Approaches to Understanding and Managing Organizations). Back then, we hoped we might be onto something. Our ideas were still evolving, but we believed that they captured much of the existing research on organizations and leadership, and we were encouraged by former students who were starting to send positive reports back from the field. We’ve learned a lot in the years since, and we’re even more confident that our framework has breadth and power. Readers, colleagues, students, clients, and workshop participants continue to report that our ideas are useful, even career saving, in the heat of practice. Their support and input has taught us and sustained us along the way. So has our long-term partnership. Book writing can be rewarding, but it’s hard work that intersperses epiphanies and moments of joy with roadblocks and dark times when nothing seems to work. It’s a lot easier with a partner, and our respect and affection for each other has helped us sustain a mostly long-distance writing relationship through the decades.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  We’d like to thank all the people around the world who’ve contributed to our work, but the list is too long and our memories too short. We’ve had wonderful colleagues and students at Berkeley, Carnegie-Mellon, Harvard, Stanford, University of La Verne, the University of Missouri–Kansas City, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt, and Yale, and we’re still grateful to all of them. They’ve given us invaluable criticism, challenge, and support over the years.

  Ellen Harris took time away from her work at Harvard and Outward Bound to support this project, offer insights and ideas, and generously give us feedback on our manuscript. As always, Lee is grateful to Dave Brown, Phil Mirvis, Barry Oshry, Tim Hall, Bill Kahn, and Todd Jick of the Brookline Circle, now in its fourth decade of searching for joy and meaning in lives devoted to the study of leadership and organizations.

  Many of Lee’s colleagues at UMKC’s Bloch School have provided invaluable support and input, including Dave Cornell, Nancy Day, Dave Donnelly, Doranne Hudson, Clancy Martin, Dave Renz, Will Self, Marilyn Taylor, and Sidne Ward. Bruce Kay continues to help Lee stay sane and productive.

  Lee offers special thanks to Henry Bloch for his friendship and for endowing the Marion Bloch/Missouri Chair that Lee has been honored to occupy since 1993. Henry created the chair in honor of his wife, Marion, a truly remarkable woman who died too soon in 2013.

  Terry continues to receive excellent counsel and advice from colleagues scattered in various places: Devorah Lieberman, Jack Meek, Peggy Redman, Donna Redman, and Julie Wheeler, University of La Verne; Sharon Conley, University of California, Santa Barbara; Kent Petersen, emeritus, University of Wisconsin; Warren Bennis, Gib Hentscke, and Stu Gothald, University of Southern California; Regina Pacheco, University of Phoenix; Patrick Faverty and Eric Prather, SLO’s Friday Afternoon Think Puddle.

  Our lives become more ritualized as we age, and we once again wrapped up a manuscript at the Ritz-Carlton in Phoenix. As always, the staff there made us feel more than welcome and exemplified the Ritz-Carlton tradition of superlative service. Thanks to John Beeson, Grant Dipman, Jean Hengst, Sharon Krull, Rosa Melgoza, Marta Ortiz, Jean Wright, and their colleagues.

  The couples of the Edna Ranch Vintners Guild—the Pecatores, Hayneses, Andersons, and Donners—link efforts with Terry in exploring the ups, downs, and mysteries of the art and science of winemaking. Two professional winemakers, Romeo “Meo” Zuech of Piedra Creek Winery and Brett Escalera of Consilience and TresAnelli, offer advice that applies to leadership as well as winemaking. Meo reminds us, “Never overmanage your grapes,” and Brett prefaces his answer to every question with “It all depends.”

  We’re delighted to be well into the fourth decade of our partnership with Jossey-Bass. We’re grateful to the many friends who have helped us over the years, including Bill Henry, Steve Piersanti, Lynn Luckow, Bill Hicks, Debra Hunter, Cedric Crocker, Byron Schneider, David Brightman, and many others. In recent years, Kathe Sweeney has been a wonderful editor and even better friend, and we’re delighted to be working with her again. Rob Brandt, Kathleen Dolan Davies, Mary Garrett, Michele Jones, Nina Kreiden, and Alina Poniewaz have done vital and much-appreciated work backstage in helping get all the pieces together and keep the process moving forward.

  We received many valuable suggestions from a diverse, knowledgeable, and talented team of outside reviewers. We did not succeed in implementing all of their many excellent ideas, and they did not always agree among themselves, but the manuscript benefited in many ways from their input.

  Lee’s six children—Edward, Shelley, Lori, Scott, Christopher, and Bradley—and three grandchildren (James, Jazmyne, and Foster) all continue to enrich his life and contribute to his growth. Terry’s daughter, Janie, a chef and TV personality, has a rare talent of almost magically transforming simple ingredients into fine cuisine. Special mention also goes to Terry’s parents, Bob and Dorothy Deal. Both are now deceased, but they lived long enough to be pleasantly surprised that their oft-wayward son could write a book. Terry’s sister, Patsy, and brother, John, have stood by him in past years when it wasn’t clear which direction his life would take.

  We say a special thank-you to Chris Argyris, a wonderful and influential colleague and teacher for both of us, who died late in 2013. Chris’s mix of playfulness, intellect, and willingness to confront anyone about anything were unique. He’s irreplaceable, and we’ll miss him.

  We again dedicate the book to our wives, who have more than earned all the credit and appreciation that we can give them. Joan Gallos, Lee’s spouse and closest colleague, combines intellectual challenge and critique with support and love. Her contributions (which included a very helpful nudge on the question of the book title) have become so integrated into our own thinking that we are no longer able to thank her for all the ways that we have gained from her wisdom and insights.

  Sandy Deal’s psychological training enables her to approach the field of organizations with a distinctive and illuminating slant. Her successful practice produces examples that have helped us make some even stronger connections to the concepts of clinical psychology. She is one of the most gifted diagnosticians in the field, as well as a delightful partner whose love and support over the long run have made all the difference. She is a rare combination of courage and caring, intimacy and independence, responsibility and playfulness.

  To Joan and Sandy, thanks again. As the years accumulate, we love you even more.

  Part 1

  Leadership in Four Dimensions

  Before we change the world, we need to change the way we think.

  —Russell Brand1

  A man cannot expect to progress without thinking.

  —Henry Ford2

  NOTES

  1. Brand, R. “Russell Brand on Revolution: ‘We No Longer Have the Luxury of Tradition.’” New Statesman, Oct. 24, 2013. http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/10/russell-brand-on-revolution.

  2. Quoted in Hoffman, B. G. American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company. New York: Crown, 2012, p. 126.

/>   Chapter 1

  Introduction

  The Power of Reframing

  Intelligence, talent, and experience are all vital qualities for leadership, but they’re not enough. They don’t make the difference between success and failure. It’s commonplace for businesses, once successful, to go into a funk. Then they need a turnaround because the smart, experienced people in charge who know the place better than anyone else have failed. The usual solution is to bring in an outsider with a stellar track record, but that approach doesn’t always work. It all depends on how a leader thinks.

  Take the case of an American institution, JCPenney, where generations of Americans had shopped for almost everything for more than a century. More than a few remember it as “the place your mom dragged you to buy clothes you hated in 1984.”1 By 2011, the firm was treading water, and CEO Myron Ullman retired after seven years at the helm. Ullman’s initial years had gone well, but the recession of 2008 hit Penney’s middle-income shoppers hard, and the company had been going downhill since.

  The board looked for a savior and found Ron Johnson, a wunderkind merchant who had worked his magic at two of the most successful retailers in America. He’d made Target hip and led Apple Stores as they became the most profitable retail outlets on the planet. Johnson moved quickly to create a new, trendier JCPenney. His vision went well beyond making the company more profitable. He wanted to graft an entirely new model of retail merchandising on old root stock: “to analysts and employees, Johnson was Willy Wonka asking [them] to go with him on a trip through his retail imagination.”2