2 The Strongman, Transactor, Visionary Hero, and SuperLeader

GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER had a high opinion of the potential of the common man. In 1967 he wrote: “In our Army, it was thought that every private had at least a second lieutenant’s gold bars somewhere in him and he was helped and encouraged to earn them…. I am inclined by nature to be optimistic about the capacity of a person to rise higher than he or she has thought possible, once interest and ambition are

aroused.”

Since he thought well of others, he intuitively understood the advantage of sharing information with subordinates. For example, he wrote that “The Army … as far back as the days of von Steuben, learned that Americans either will not or cannot fight at maximum efficiency unless they understand the why and wherefore of their orders.”

Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian-born American general during the Revolutionary War, found that American soldiers required something special to fight at maximum efficiency. In other words, these soldiers required leadership that matched their personal goals to reach the targets of the army. To that end, von Steuben modified his own European-based command practices, trying to understand the individual American soldier’s role and motivation.

This optimistic viewpoint of man-in-general is a fairly common characteristic of SuperLeaders. They seem to have unlimited faith that, if given the opportunity to perform, most people will come through.

What is your viewpoint of the “common man”? How do you think your followers are likely to react if given the opportunity for independent responsibility? How much time and effort do you spend preparing your followers for self-leadership? The way you answer these questions is likely to be very strongly predictive of your own leadership. Can you prepare your followers to work in a creative and independent mode?

Whenever we think of leadership, we typically think of some category or type of leader. Often we call this “leadership style.” What we are usually talking about is a pattern of behaviors that together we can think of as “style” or “type.” The previous story of Dwight Eisenhower represents a combination of types. Of course we think of him as a Visionary Hero type, but we also think of him as a Super-Leader.

In this chapter we define four prominent types of leaders: the Strongman, the Transactor, the Visionary Hero, and the Super-Leader. One purpose of this discussion is to ask yourself the question: “What type of leader am I?” And further, “What type of leader do I want to be?”

WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?

There is an old Norse word, Laed, meaning “to determine the course of a ship.” Our modern word “to lead” clearly is derived from this ancient Viking expression. And it’s easy to think of the CEO of our contemporary organization as one who determines the course of the ship or, in this case, organization. But in the business environment of the 21st century, how should this guidance take place? Today we describe many organizations as consisting of clusters and flows of “knowledge” and “information” and as being staffed by “knowledge workers.” This introduces a challenging question for leadership: What kind of leader do we need in order to create and lead the knowledge workers of the 21st century?

Clearly, the word leadership itself is value-laden. We usually think of the word in positive terms, one who has a special capacity. Most of us would rather be a “leader” than a “manager,” or a “leader” rather than a “politician.” Sometimes the word leadership refers to a role rather than behaviors. We recently heard an executive from Xerox, for example, refer to the Xerox managers as “the leadership.” Personally, we are not comfortable with this definition because it implies that those in the lower ranks are not leaders—and in fact, this book is about the diffusion of leadership throughout an organization, not just at the top. Some of the most remarkable leaders of all time have not had the benefit of formal position to support their leadership.

Mahatma Gandhi led for decades
without ever holding formal office.

There are hundreds of definitions of leadership. But to us, fundamentally leadership means influence—the influence of people. This is a broad definition, and would include a wide variety of behaviors intended to influence others. In this chapter we briefly define and discuss various ways of influencing others—that is, different types or “styles” of leadership. Later throughout the book we focus mainly on SuperLeadership, a particular kind of empowering leadership that concentrates on leading others to lead themselves.

Most leadership perspectives view the leader as the only source of influence. The leader leads (influences) and followers follow (are influenced). This leader-centric view of influence was adequate for hundreds of years but, especially recently, many limitations of this view have emerged. In the 21st century the challenge of influence has indeed passed over a new threshold that views leadership in a whole new light. In this chapter we trace some of the primary types of influence that have defined most leadership practice for several decades, and even centuries. Each of the types we discuss is still alive and well in many settings, and each still has a place in the leader’s repertoire. Yet, all too often, poor choices are made regarding which leadership types are used in specific situations and which are emphasized the most overall.

In the past, especially in our book Company of Heroes, we used the terms Strongman, Transactor, Visionary Hero, and SuperLeader to identify different leader types. Here we continue with these labels that capture the spirit of the primary types of leadership each of us can understand and identify.

THE STRONGMAN

Sometimes when we think of leadership, the rough-and-tough image of John Wayne comes to mind. He is not afraid to knock some heads to get followers to do what he wants them to do. We see a figure larger than life, who leads by commanding others. We can also think of this leader as the “Boss.” He uses the authority of his position to influence others, who mainly comply out of fear. If the job is not performed as commanded, some significant form of punishment is delivered to the guilty party. The most common behaviors of this leader are instruction, command, assigned goals, threat, intimidation, and reprimand.

Roberto Goizueta’s 16-year tenure as CEO of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola was a hard act to follow. Goizueta was highly regarded as a charismatic Visionary Hero, whose flamboyant style characterized his remarkable leadership. Coke’s value had increased from $4.3 billion to $147 billion before his untimely death. But the board was confident when it appointed Doug Ivester as Goizueta’s successor. After all, Ivester had been groomed by Goizueta over several years.

But Ivester lasted only two years. With earnings declines in both years, the board found it necessary to move on to a new CEO. According to Fortune magazine, the problem was not Ivester’s experience or intellectual capacity but a failure of “that ethereal thing called leadership.”

Ivester was known for his grasp of the tiniest detail. He seemed to be obsessed with doing things in an orderly, rational way. “He took pride in being a substance-over-style guy…. And while he was in command of a vast number of details, he seemed to lose sight of the big picture.” Ivester was high on discipline and control, telling Fortune, “We operate with a rigid control system.” While he invested significantly in developing technology for a modern data-driven information system, the information contributed to his isolation. The vision that Goizueta had established over the years seemed to have become lost.

To us, Ivester is an example of a Strongman type of leader. He was highly directive and intolerant of deviations from the prescribed way of doing things. Most of all he seemed unaware of the image, and encouragement of initiative and creativity, that are necessary with a market-driven company like Coke. While Strongman leadership may create a response in the short term, the longer-term effects can be quite devastating, especially when creativity is a necessary element for success.

THE TRANSACTOR

The second view of leadership is the Transactor, who enters into an exchange relationship with others. This leader type may trigger memories of pigeons pecking at levers in order to get food pellet rewards during experiments that were part of the behavior modification movement in the 1960s and 1970s, with its emphasis on positive reinforcement principles. This leader influences through the dispensation of rewards in exchange for compliance from followers. The behaviors most frequently used by this leader are personal and material rewards that are given in return for effort, performance, and loyalty to the leader.

Followers of the Transactor take a calculative view of their work: “I will do what he/she wants as long as the rewards keep coming.” Transactor leadership is a classic, time-honored type of leadership found in the corporate world. Transactor leadership is still widely practiced today and, combined with some Visionary Hero leadership and a bit of Strongman leadership, can still be effective within the short term. Consider the case of Lawrence J. Ellison, chairman of number-two software maker Oracle Corporation:

Oracle Corporation, with its market position in database software, has become a leading power in applying database software to the Internet revolution. According to Business Week magazine, CEO Lawrence Ellison has developed a system of leadership that he believes is critical in leading the company into the 21st century. The key to Ellison’s philosophy is the use of Internet and database technology to construct an organization that can be characterized as “centralized control.”

Ellison is clearly a Visionary Hero type of leader, as demonstrated by his aggressive mission of transforming Oracle from a database-specialized company into an Internet and b2b powerhouse. But Ellison also tends to favor Transactor methods to implement this changeover. Ellison has transformed Oracle into a tightly run company. “Larry has the people in this company screwed down tight,” says chief financial officer Jeffrey O. Henley.

Ellison personally rewrote sales contracts and developed pricing standards to reduce the control and flexibility of the field salespeople. According to Ellison, “All the individuality is bled out of the system and replaced by standards. People don’t run their own show anymore.”

The sales reps are paid well, but under tight control. According to Business Week, “Ellison’s approach is to use the carrot first, and then the stick.” Ellison’s main objective is to boost the profit margins, not sales goals, and he compensates his country managers well for meeting ambitious profit-margin targets.

Ellison’s leadership even intrudes into the work territory of some of his closest sidekicks. Oracle president Raymond J. Lane recounts the story of Ellison inserting himself into Lane’s consulting and sales responsibilities. “All of a sudden, Larry is in your mess kit drilling down for four hours.… Some days I’ll walk out of a meeting saying, ‘I don’t need this.’” But Lane doesn’t really seem to object. He’s quite happy with the bottom line results: “What Larry’s doing is working … look at the stock price.”

Certainly, at certain times and places, Transactor leadership has its merits. We think of President Lyndon Johnson, for example, who was the consummate Transactor leader in his successful attempts to guide Congress through the civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s.

THE VISIONARY HERO

The most popular current view of leadership is the exciting and charismatic leader who inspires and motivates others. We call this type the Visionary Hero. This type is characterized by an ability to create a highly motivating and absorbing vision of the future. This leader has the capacity to energize others to pursue the vision. For many, this leader is almost larger than life and sometimes attains a mythic reputation.

“… In a crisis, we tend to look for the wrong kind of leadership…. We should be calling for leadership that will challenge us to face problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions—problems that require us to learn new ways.”

—Ronald A. Heifetz

While many view this type of leadership very positively in terms of inspiring others to pursue a captivating cause, we sometimes forget that Visionary Hero leadership is mainly a top-down influence process. The leader is the primary source of wisdom and direction, and tends to occupy the spotlight while followers fade into the shadows. The leader’s power is based on a capability to generate a commitment by the follower to the leader’s vision and persona. The leader uses behaviors such as formulating and communicating a vision, exhortation, inspiration and persuasion, and challenge to the status quo. Other terms that have been used to describe this leader are “transformational” and “charismatic.” Consider the case of Richard Branson, one of the most remarkable Visionary Hero leaders of our time:

Richard Branson is the founder and CEO of the Virgin Group, one of the world’s most prominent global brands. Their business holdings include a wide variety of products and services, of which Virgin Atlantic Airlines is perhaps the most prominent. Branson is viewed by the public as a celebrity, entrepreneur, adventurer and risk-taker. These viewpoints are pivotal in interpreting the leadership of Branson, whom we believe to be a classic Visionary Hero.

Branson seemed to be marked for special achievement at a young age. At graduation, his headmaster said, “Congratulations, Branson. I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire.”

By nature, Branson is a shy man—but he has never hesitated to promote the Virgin brand through promotion of his products and his adventurous exploits. He has raced speedboats, flown hot air balloons, and jumped out of airplanes. He enjoys challenges, relishes being the underdog, and challenging the establishment.

Branson has often been praised for his skills in motivating his employees. His leadership, in fact, has been described as an extension of his personality. “Branson is good at surrounding himself with very talented people and creating the right environment for them to flourish.” He has a great deal of direct personal communication with his employees and a reputation for being very accessible. He is known as a corporate leader who loves his employees, treats them like family, inspires them to achieve great things, and empowers them to become great leaders.

Branson may have a touch of SuperLeadership but he’s mainly a Visionary Hero. The strength of his leadership of Virgin is based on people wanting to follow Richard Branson the persona. His power is primarily inspirational. Employees’ emotional commitment is based on Branson’s vision. The important decisions at Virgin are mainly made by Branson. “Although I listen carefully to everyone, there are times when I make up my mind and just do it,” he says of himself.

Branson has achieved great success with his Visionary Hero leadership. He is a billionaire who has fame, celebrity status, wealth, friends, family, and fun. He is a gifted entrepreneur. Through his visionary leadership, he is a great motivator of people.

THE SUPERLEADER

The fourth view of leadership is the SuperLeader, one who leads others to lead themselves. The SuperLeader is also known as an empowering leader. With this type of leader, the focus is mainly on the followers. Leaders become “super”—possessing the strength and wisdom of many persons—by helping to unleash the abilities of the followers who surround them. The SuperLeader multiplies his/her own strength through the strength of others.

The leader’s task becomes that of helping followers to develop their own self-leadership skills to contribute more fully to the organization. The SuperLeader encourages follower initiative, self-responsibility, self-confidence, self-goal-setting, positive opportunity thinking, and self-problem-solving. The SuperLeader encourages others to take responsibility rather than giving orders. One especially important part of the SuperLeadership challenge in the 21st century is to assure that followers have needed information and knowledge to exercise their own self-leadership.

The SuperLeadership perspective transcends heroic leadership. In the past, the idea of a leader implied that the spotlight was on the leader. With SuperLeadership the spotlight is placed on the follower. Followers, in turn, tend to experience exceptional commitment and ownership of their work.

SuperLeadership is not permissiveness. It’s an active form of leadership that encourages others to lead themselves.

Sometimes, people confuse empowerment with permissiveness. But the two are definitely not the same in the case of SuperLeadership. Follower self-leadership is not a permission or privilege, but a clearly focused strategy to empower through enhancing follower skill, confidence, and especially knowledge and information. Ensuring that knowledge and information is appropriately placed in an organization is critical to effective SuperLeadership. Bill Gates described the importance of “information … that enables knowledge workers to turn passive data into active information.” He emphasizes the role of information to empower rather than control. The leader of the 21st century is one who can create a company of self-leaders who have the knowledge and information to have a meaningful impact on their work and their organization.

IS ONE TYPE OF LEADERSHIP BEST?

We live in a competitive society and we often treat viewpoints and opinions in a competitive mode. For example, when discussing various types of leadership we often hear the question, “Which type is best?”

Well, we are clearly biased toward SuperLeadership, since this is what the book is about. But we recognize that the different types of leadership each have their own advantages. See the following chart for our views of the characteristics or outcomes generally found from each type of leadership.

Note that all of the four leadership types can be useful in influencing others. But only SuperLeadership has a long-term perspective that concentrates on the development of followers. Because leading others to lead themselves is such an important challenge for leadership in the 21st century, and the primary focus of this book, we will devote the remainder of this chapter to some overall Super-Leadership issues.

THE CHALLENGE OF SUPERLEADERSHIP

With SuperLeadership, the important twist in the leadership process is that followers are now treated as—and become—leaders. The apparent contradictions inherent in leading others to lead themselves require some mental adjustment. For example, if followers lead themselves, then is the leader really leading at all? Our answer is an emphatic yes, although the specific leader behaviors are quite different. The leader is leading followers to be the best self-leaders they can be.

The apparent contradictions inherent in leading others to lead themselves require some mental adjustment…. This approach challenges leaders to rethink their fundamental assumptions about leadership and authority.

In the long run, SuperLeadership can produce significant benefits in terms of increased performance, innovation, and fulfillment for leaders and followers (self-leaders) alike. Self-leadership is the engine and provides much of the energy required for success. Self-leadership is the essence of effective followership. SuperLeadership provides a context for self-leadership, a means of coordinating it among individuals, and a support mechanism for its development. In short, SuperLeaders inspire and facilitate self-leadership in their followers.

PUTTING SUPERLEADERSHIP INTO PRACTICE

How do we execute SuperLeadership? The ways for developing self-leadership in others can be divided up in many ways. One very broadbrush view for understanding the overall approaches for implementing SuperLeadership includes three general strategies: interpersonal strategies, team strategies, and organizational strategies. Empowerment can be implemented through interpersonal strategies. That is, on a day-to-day basis the execution of SuperLeadership is mainly vested in the interpersonal verbal and nonverbal communications that occur between a leader and followers. The purpose of this leader-follower interaction emphasizes placing knowledge and information in the hands of the follower so that the follower can act with authority when needed.

SuperLeadership can operate at three levels:
the interpersonal, the team, and the organization.

Empowerment can also be implemented through team strategies. In fact, teams are the primary vehicle that contemporary organizations use to implement employee empowerment. Project, task force, concurrent engineering, cross-functional, top management, and self-directed teams are all team approaches to empowering others. Teams can be an extremely useful vehicle for launching self-leadership.

Finally, organizations can be changed to enhance the empowerment and self-leadership of others. For example, the notion of horizontal or flat organizations pushes responsibility down to the lowest levels. Network and virtual organizational designs are also consistent with the idea of SuperLeadership.

In summary, the essence of SuperLeadership is the challenge of leading followers to discover the potentialities that lie within themselves. In the following chapters, we concentrate on this theme: How can SuperLeaders lead others to lead themselves? The heart of SuperLeadership is follower self-leadership—the behavioral and cognitive strategies that each of us uses every day to influence our own behavior. Follower self-leadership is the main target of the SuperLeader’s attention and action.