THREE LEADERSHIP SKILLS

1.Productive Paranoia.

Bill Gates was hyper-vigilant about what could hit and damage Microsoft.
“Fear should guide you,” he said in 1994. “I consider failure on a regular
basis.” Herb Kelleher predicted eleven of the last three recessions. Andy
Grove ran around “looking for the black cloud in the silver lining.”
Productive paranoia is the ability to be hyper-vigilant about potentially
bad events that can hit your company and then turn that fear into
preparation and clearheaded action. You can’t sit around being fearful;
you must act, like Herb Kelleher, who insisted on cutting costs and
running lean operations in good times, so that they would be prepared for
the next storm, imagined or real.

2.Empirical Creativity.

Well, just staying alive does not produce greatness. You must also create.
So we should expect these leaders to be highly creative—to create new,
wonderful products. Yes, but here’s the rub. The leaders of the average
industry peers also displayed lots of creativity. We found that the
differentiating leadership principle was a certain approach to creativity,
what we call empirical creativity—the ability to empirically validate your
creative instincts. This means using direct observation, conducting
practical experiments, and engaging directly with evidence, rather than
relying on opinion, whim, and analysis alone (and, as a prior management
consultant, I would include pure market analysis void of testing in this
category). When Peter Lewis of Progressive, the car insurance company, had
the idea of expanding into the safe-driver market, he did not move in one
big swoop. Rather, he started with trials in Texas and Florida, then added
more experiments in other states, and finally, three years later, when the
concept was validated, he bet big on the new business. His idea was rooted
in empiricism, not analysis alone.

3.Fanatic Discipline.
Discipline can mean many things—working hard, following rules, being
obedient, and so on. We mean something else: The best-performing leaders
in our study exhibited discipline as consistency of action—consistency
with values, long-term goals, and performance standards; consistency of
method; and consistency over time. It involves rejecting conventional
wisdom, hype, and the madness of crowds—essentially being a
nonconformist. When John Brown of Stryker set the long-term goal of 20%
annual net income growth, year in and year out (he hit it in more than
90% during 21 years), he was so committed to this quest that it could
only be described as, well, fanatical. Markets down? Competition severe?
Recession? Market hype? He did not care. He built a system of fanatic
discipline to achieve the quest, no matter what. He was highly
disciplined by showing consistency between his words (the goal) and his
behaviors (everything he did to make it happen).
You need all three leadership skills in an uncertain world: Fanatic
discipline keeps you on track; empirical creativity keeps you vibrant; and
productive paranoia keeps you alive.
When I speak to leaders, I find it helpful to ask: When you consider these
three leadership skills, which do you perceive as your weakest one, and
how can you turn that into a strength?