Such a topic is a bit unpopular, because the implication seems to be, I know what a good leader is, let me educate you. Not that's what it means, take your time.
Last week I did a one-year "performance review" with my boss, which is an evaluation of my work for the past year. Although I often did it at McKinsey, in this new position at the Gates Foundation, this is the first time that my leader has done 360-degree feedback collection, that is, collecting feedback on me from people up and down who have worked directly with me, forming an evaluation of my work.
outcome? Not bad.
Although performance appraisals are commonplace, when I was at McKinsey, I felt like doing it for myself every day, for others. But this assessment still has special significance for me, because beyond the external "aura", at the micro level, for me, this is a new job: new environment, new problem, new team, first year. At the end of July, I attended a week-long educational module at the World Economic Forum for Young World Leaders at Stanford, where I also talked about leadership. Put them together, some thoughts and encouragement.
First, let's talk about where I learned "leadership." To be honest, while there are countless books and research on leadership, for me, the three most useful sources are:
First, the good leaders I have met, including my family, my grandparents, and my mother, are all good leaders at work. The root of leadership is to be a person, so this is the earliest influence on leadership.
Second, in my own career development, especially McKinsey also has a number of mentors to promote, especially the Raj Parekh mentioned in the earlier article, is the most important leader for my career development at McKinsey, which day can write about him, I hope that he can understand Chinese at that time, hehehe.
Third, I have encountered various "bad leaders." In fact, compared with good leaders, I learned more from them, saw all kinds of strange behaviors and mentalities, and thought, Oh my God, I will not do this when I become a leader in the future. Avoid the bad, even if not the good leader, it is almost.
I conclude that good leadership has five qualities --
First, there is a sense of direction
The leader, the leader, speaking of the core, is a sense of direction. Everyone recalls the leaders they like, they all have ideas, insights, strategic visions, and a sense of direction, and they can have a point of view when everyone is confused, and when there is no point of view, they know how to get a point of view.
Compared with the "bad people" in the workplace, I am more afraid of the "good people" leadership, saying nothing, no direction, often in the name of "democracy", relying on the team to give direction. There was one of the "bad leaders" I've met. Every time I made something, I only changed some punctuation marks. Our team finished the project, took the time to tell him about it, and still didn't understand it. Finally, give me feedback, give me the opinion is to speak more clearly in the future, I am also satisfied.
This is actually not the requirement of leadership in the new era, all the good leaders in history, Hannibal, Liu Bang, everyone thinks, are very directional.
Where does the sense of direction come from, the Qin Emperor Han Wu is not born, how can we ordinary people become good leaders with a sense of direction? I conclude that there are 4 :
1. "More observation". Look forward to when the leader made what decision, why he made such a decision, and on what basis.
2, "not ashamed to ask". Why did the leader make such a decision, many times can not see it, then ask. Ask a few times to see the doorway. Asking this step is actually the most difficult, because asking seems to be very stupid and does not understand, especially when it seems that others understand. Therefore, admit that you just don't understand it as soon as possible, and there is no burden. The most taboo thing here is to "guess" and then justify yourself according to the rumors and clues in your respective offices, so that not only did you not learn the essence, but also took yourself to the ditch.
3. "Walk more and eat more." Many leaders are born and are talented leaders. I don't know how genius came about, but I know we're not. After working for many years, I also have a more useful inner compass, which is built in experience and mistakes, and there is no shortcut to this.
My second project at McKinsey, in Los Angeles, was to help a telecom operator do a retail store performance improvement. At that time, I graduated with a Ph.D. in molecular biology, and the only thing I knew about the U.S. telecommunications industry was the bills I received. When I entered the store, I saw the manager talking with the customer, and when I asked later, I learned that he was 18 years old and started working part-time at the age of 15. At that time, for me, this whole world was another world, and I remember asking a question at that time, and I felt that every question was stupid to ask.
Later I talked to him and asked how to do Sales well, and he said Everybody needs SOMETHING, it's your job to find out. (Everyone needs something," and your job is to find them.) I later did McKinsey customer service, which was arguably the first lesson of my training.
Later, there are many more, many embarrassing meetings, many problems that do not know how to start, many ideas that seem childish now, but do it, at least the face is thickened, and the sense of direction is slowly there.
4, think more, think more. I still remember flying with Yu Jin a few years ago, when I was an associate director and she had been a partner for several years. I asked her at that time what was the "secret" from deputy director to managing partner. She says the best partners she sees all have a common trait: "intellectually diligent" rather than just "physically dilligent."
Because of being an associate director, everyone is very "busy", meetings, business trips. Many people will get lost in "busy" and think that I have done some hard work, and there will be a reward. But in fact, this is just a symptom. What is really excellent is the batch that is constantly thinking deeply, what is the problem? Is it the best method we use? How should I see things from another perspective? Wait a minute. Good work always comes from deep thinking. Thinking more will become a habit and polish your inner compass.
Here to say more, people often ask me how to balance career and family, in fact, the essence, is not in time management (of course, this is very important), but how to arrange the work well in depth, that is, through "intellectually diligent", on big issues, early thinking, early discussion, in the core assumptions, the core relationship has a point of view, give advice. It takes 1 hour at this time, which is more effective than 10 hours when something goes wrong later.
Second, it will smash the wall
The advanced version with a sense of direction is to see where the walls are, both inside the big organization and in the external environment. Then be able to smash walls.
In fact, human society is best at building walls. Many ineffective organizations are due to irrational organizational structures. Many markets are inefficient because of the inefficient fragmentation and inaccessibility of resources.
Good leaders, first of all, must know the existence of the wall, many leaders can not see, in their own circle of whirling, can never solve the problem. Knowing where the wall is, the next step is to smash it. It's a technical job.
How to be a wall smasher, I have a few lessons:
1. Start with people. Realize that no matter how scary the name, behind it is a real person, get to know them, learn about their world, chat, and see the wall from his perspective.
2. Win-win. My success doesn't mean your failure, it doesn't have to be zero-sum. Smashing the wall not only helps me, but also helps you, so play together.
3. Know the internal structure of the organization and where the "power point" is. Who is the decider, who is the staff officer, where the hammer is.
4, the ultimate is to do things. I believe that in the end, everyone's purpose is to do things well and get them done. Sometimes there are walls because others don't know what you're going to do. So tell the story well, why, what to do, how to do it, and then use things to break down the walls.
As an example, a very important aspect of my job now is telling the Chinese story. The Gates Foundation works globally, with an eye towards eliminating inequality, starting with health and lifting people out of poverty. In both areas, China has a lot of experience. In the past 40 years, China has contributed the most to the changes in the basic living conditions of the people around the world. Although China still has a large number of problems, it has definitely submitted an excellent answer sheet on the basic issues of maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, malaria and other infectious diseases, and extreme poverty, which still plague many less developed countries today. But when it comes to telling the Chinese story, the big obstacle is the Western mindset about China.
How to break? It's not about arguing ideologically. The basic tone of the Get Smart on China, which I have been writing for a year, is to discuss things, look at the results, talk about experience, and find interesting angles that are of interest to ordinary people (for example, why there are 2.9 billion people on the road during the Spring Festival, whether China's education is a "secret weapon" or a "time bomb").
In April of this year, we invited more than a dozen Chinese and international experts in health, agriculture, and development to do the offline version of Get Smart on China for two days in Seattle, attended by hundreds of colleagues from the Foundation and our CEO and senior leaders, including Gates's wife, Melinda herself. This series of activities has played a role in smashing the wall. Let everyone put down the fixed formula in their heads and look at China from different perspectives, so in the past year, we have also cooperated more effectively with many teams and promoted a lot of china-related work.
Of course this is just the beginning, there is still a long way to go, a lot of walls to smash :-)
Here is more to say, pay attention to a soil school friends do not know whether to see it, do this school project, but also in the process of "smashing the wall", so that a lot of the original and education has nothing to do with the resources can be invested in basic education, can have the system, outside the system, education, management, technology, the Internet these areas of people and resources benign interaction, get 1 + 1 greater than N effect.
Third, be brave to be a bad person
The bad guys here have two meanings, and good leaders need to be both.
1, when the team has a challenge, you should be the one who blocks the gun hole. My favorite Raj classmate, I remember one of our clients meeting. The data we use should be data that takes away the company's name, because there is confidentiality protection, which is a basic literacy in the consulting industry. As a result, a slide was typed on, and hehe wrote the name of the company that should not appear, which should be the carelessness of an analyst BA. At that time, I was an associate director with the project, and I panicked, which was a basic mistake. I remember that at that time, Mr. R was very calm and said, I'm sorry, this is my carelessness, we will take it off immediately. One person carried it down. I still remember the tall image he had in my heart at that moment.
2. When there are differences within the team, both sides have reason, and at this time, they will definitely "offend" people. At this time, we must consider the problem from the overall situation, make a decision, and be the "bad person". In fact, the team is often not right or wrong, but sees differently, so there are different conclusions or feelings. At this time, first of all, I can't be high, I think I can make a decision, I must really understand the situation, and then communicate more, and then make a decision, the basis of the decision is not personal likes and dislikes, but the direction of the organization.
This seems to be very simple to say, in fact, it is not easy to do well, good leadership, are excellent in this regard, I still have a long way to go, and continue to improve.
Fourth, create an environment and conditions
In fact, everyone, even if they are super leaders, have limited personal ability and energy. So the essence of leadership is to create the environment and conditions for the success of the team. This is leadership that can be scaled.
How to create? I think there are these:
1. Create a culture of trust and honesty. In fact, for individuals and organizations, the biggest cost is due to various internal frictions and management costs caused by mistrust. So start with yourself, have faith in your words, have opinions in person, and create an organizational environment based on trust.
2. Be a person who removes obstacles. Internally and externally, the organization works effectively, with all sorts of obstacles that are seen and removed. And this is often a small thing, parking, working meals, computers, getting the experience right, is the highest input-output ratio. It is most unwise for some companies to move some employee benefits that are not actually very expensive in the name of cutting expenses. In fact, the strategic direction of the organization is done correctly, which is the most "money-saving" method. Looking at the small money on the books, it is the most desperate.
3. Do ramps. Only the sense of direction is not enough, as if you are pointing to a highway, but without a ramp, no one can drive up. The ramp is to do how to do it yourself first, if you want to write an email, you write one first, set a tone. If you want to do some kind of analysis, you give an example of what kind of analysis needs to be done. If you're going to have a meeting with a new external agency, you'll meet first to see how to communicate and bring the team along. Everyone's learning ability in an excellent organization is very strong, but it is naïve to let the team run fast just by saying one direction, and the good leaders around them are leaders who will build a good ramp.
Here is an example, Guo Xiaoyue, the principal of Yitu School, took a camp in Yunnan for two weeks at the end of July, and Yitu School discussed the need to write an article about the progress of our school, she just "went down the mountain", nestled in a small hotel in Yunnan in the middle of the night to write a piece, set the tone.
Fifth, grounded gas
There are also two meanings here:
First, you can not do specific work, but be aware of "folk suffering".
One category of bad leaders is the complete lack of concept of workload. I remember when McKinsey was working on a complex data model, starting with structural assumptions and taking shape, which was a lot of work. The most feared leader is that he did not give advice earlier, and then he downplayed it later, "Let's do it again." Do you know how much work it takes!?
So later I did the "leadership" myself, and the core assumptions behind the impact were discussed with the team early, and the opinions were given early, and the results were doubled with half the effort. Of course, this premise is that you have a grasp of the project, the core problem of the problem, have thinking, and use your brain, not just the superficial diligence. This goes back to how the sense of direction comes from earlier.
Speaking of "folk suffering", when I was a project manager at McKinsey, I took a Korean project, and all kinds of pain, customers, topics, teams, there were problems. So much so that I did a project in Korea for 8 weeks, except for the customers and eating, Seoul has never been anywhere, think about it is also a big loss. I remember once, the next day to have a conference, the first day to meet with the customer's general manager to have a meeting of the content. The general manager was busy all day and did not have time until 8 p.m. Once the content was over, he had a lot of ideas. Due to the circumstances at the time, we needed to make these changes. At that time, the team had already let go home, and after the meeting at 10 o'clock in the evening, my heart was broken at that moment, and I thought about it, and I didn't sleep at night.
After the meeting, The Raj leader said, you say a few points, let's do it together. I have to say it again, I can't forget the tall image he had in my heart at that time. Later, at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, the two of us met at the hotel, and he said that I was not happy with the PPT drawing now, and the data model brain was still clear. The result was that I was like a BA, with a big (partner/partner) model/model, and then draw Chart/PPT, and work until three o'clock in the middle of the night to finish.
Is it difficult for people not to love such a leader?
The second meaning is that you have to have basic living ability. Many leaders have become bigger, living in a world where countless people carry palanquins every day, thinking that this is the real world.
When I was an associate director of McKinsey, I once had a customer meeting in Shanghai, and there came a big mcKinsey internal leader, which I had never seen. 5 minutes before the meeting, we were all busy preparing, I got a call on my phone, it was this big leader, saying you come down. I'll go down. He got out of the taxi and said naturally, you pay for it. I was a little confused at the time, he said that I never brought money with me on a business trip to Shanghai, but today the car arranged for me by the secretary broke down halfway and I actually needed to use the money. I thought to myself, lean, yeah, actually.
So in the future, I often remind myself not to become such a person whose feet are not grounded.
The above five points are finished, to sum up, there is a sense of direction, you can see that the wall will smash the wall, be brave to be a bad person, create a successful environment and conditions for the team, and be grounded. More succinctly, it is that the upper eyes can see far, the lower feet stand firmly, there is a hard brain, a big heart, plus a thick skin.
Finally, there is the giveaway: There fun, life is short, fun is always important :-)
-End-
This article is adapted from the public account Slave Society (ID: nulishehui), which was first published on August 19, 2016.