Next Level Blog

Six Leadership Do’s and Don’ts From Oscar Night

There’s an old joke that my adopted hometown of Washington, DC is Hollywood for, well, um, not so attractive people.  So, of course, to see all the beautiful people in one place one watches the Academy Awards.  I’m a big movie buff (Witness my post from a few months ago on The King’s Speech.  You may want to bet with me in next year’s office Oscar pool.), so I usually watch the Oscars.  Last night was no exception.

One of my favorite parts of the broadcast  is seeing how people who spend their careers onstage respond when they have to get up to present or receive an award. Another aspect I enjoy is when the winners from the more minor categories give their speeches. Some of the most spontaneous remarks come in those moments. 

Since leaders find themselves “on stage” with regularity (actually, if you’re a leader you’re always on stage whether you realize it or not), let’s see what leadership do’s and don’ts we can mine from Oscar night.

Five Lessons in Leadership Communications from Governor Chris Christie

If you’re looking for a brilliant piece of analysis and reporting on a leader who’s making waves, check out Matt Bai’s feature article in The New York Times Magazine on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  No doubt, you’ve seen Christie on TV over the last year delivering “can’t believe he said that” zingers about what it’s going to take to solve the fiscal crisis in his state. As Bai explains in the article, the Governor’s basic message is that his state and its municipalities cannot fund the pensions and benefits of public employees and retirees at the current rates of commitment and remain solvent.   That position has put Christie in a battle royale with the New Jersey Education Association. It has also made him a rising star on the national political scene.

Bai’s article provides the background of the mechanics of the fiscal crisis in New Jersey but it main focus is on what Christie does that makes him an effective communicator. You can agree or disagree with the substance of Christie’s message. Either way, there are lots of leadership lessons to be gleaned from Bai’s reporting on Christie’s approach to delivering it. Here are five that stood out for me:

Five Ways to Avoid Being Fired in Five Months

The New York media world was abuzz last week with news of the termination of veteran publishing executive, Jack Griffin, from his job of CEO of Time, Inc. a little more than five months after he got there.  Just to make sure the situation was clear to all involved, Time-Warner CEO, Jeff Bewkes released a statement that said,  “Although Jack is an extremely accomplished executive, I concluded that his leadership style and approach did not mesh with Time Inc. and Time Warner.”  None of that leaving to pursue other opportunities and spend more time with his family stuff there.

If you’re interested in the back story, you can read all the details in the New York Times or Howard Kurtz’ column on The Daily Beast.  The quick summary is that Griffin quickly got himself cross-ways with an entrenched and proud culture at Time, Inc.  Julia Kirby of the Harvard Business Review offers six lessons from the Griffin episode. In the spirit of leadership learning, I’m offering my Five Ways to Avoid Being Fired in Five Months.  Here they are:

Would You Want to Work for You?

One of the regular features in the Financial Times is an interview with a business leader called Twenty Questions. The hook is that most of the twenty questions are asked in every interview so if you’re a regular reader of the FT (if you’re not, I recommend becoming one),  you can see how different CEOs answer the same questions. 

Today’s Twenty Questions segment is with the CEO of NCR, Bill Nuti.  I’ve known a number of people who have worked at NCR over the years and I’ve heard from them that it’s a pretty tough culture.  There was nothing in Bill Nuti’s answers that dissuaded me from that point of view. 

I mentioned the interview to my wife this morning (she’s very patient) and that I was thinking about writing a post about how leaders shape the culture of their organizations.  She said, “That’s nice.  How would you answer those same questions?”  I hate it when she comes up with stuff like that.  I started answering the questions for her and was a bit embarrassed that I didn’t like a lot of my own answers.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  So, in the spirit of Socratic self discovery, here are the questions from the FT’s Twenty Questions approach that hit home with me. If you answer them honestly, you might come up with an answer to another question, “Would you want to work for you?”

An Army Colonel’s Three Simple Rules of Leadership

Last week, I had the opportunity to join a small group of leadership coaches for dinner with retired US Army Colonel Steve Dwyer. Colonel Dwyer is enjoying a second career in the private sector after spending thirty years as a soldier, most of it in Army Aviation.  He shared a lot of interesting stories and insights with us that night.  The one that really stuck with me was the years long process he went through to get his philosophy of leadership down to three simple rules.

Steve told us that when he was promoted to captain, he went from commanding around 45 soldiers in a platoon to about 150 in a company.  He decided that with the broader scope of command that he had as a captain that he needed to make his expectations clear.  He spent a lot of time writing up a three page, single space list of rules and expectations for his company.  He posted it on the bulletin board and nobody paid any attention to it, not even Steve. 

Learning his lesson when he was promoted to a major in charge of 1,000 soldiers in a battalion, Steve decided to get all his rules on one page. With the help of a very small font and dramatically reduced page margins, he managed to do it. He posted the rules and everyone ignored them including Steve. 

By the time he was promoted to colonel and commanding a brigade of 5,000, Steve told us he finally realized that another page length list of rules and expectations wasn’t going to do anyone any good.  Reflecting back on what had worked for him and others in his career as an Army leader, Steve boiled it all down to three simple rules of leadership. They don’t require a lot of memorization and with a little adaptation apply to leaders in any field. Here they are: