48
Chapter Six
Moving from
plans to action
‘P aralysis by analysis is a decision-maker’s nightmare,’ I said. ‘I have known
companies with large planning departments where thinking and planning
ahead has become an end in itself.’
‘They produce plans, not actions,’ said the young manager.
‘Exactly,’ I replied. ‘What do you think it is that makes desirable, chartered and
agreed changes actually happen?’
‘The fact that they are agreed must help a great deal,’ replied the young manager.
‘I wrote down as one of the first principles of leadership that the more an individual
or group shares in making a decision that affects their working lives, the more
motivated they will be.’
‘Right, let us assume that your company is now agreed upon the core purpose and
its key aims. Some companies, incidentally, find it useful to write them down.’
‘Is it a good idea to do that?’
‘The people who benefit most from such mission statements, as they are some-
times called, are those involved in drafting them. If they are written on high and sent
down the line, managers tend to file them away in their bottom drawers.’
‘The aims of each section of your business now need firming up and breaking
down into specific objectives for each phase of the campaign.’
‘But isn’t that the work of operational leaders – middle-level managers – rather
than the strategic leader?’
‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘But you should listen to their objectives and be skilled in working
on them until you are satisfied with them. The first step is to ask your senior man
agers to write down their key objectives for the coming year and to fix a time when
they can meet you in order to agree them.’
‘In terms of the decision-making chart,’ said the young manager, ‘I shall be work-
ing towards the top end of the scale in this matter, won’t I?’
‘In effect you will have set certain limits. You are asking the manager to decide
upon his objectives within those limits. There is plenty of time. You are dealing with
Moving from Plans to Action 49
a very good manager. There should be no difficulty. It helps if both of you know what
are the criteria of an objective, as opposed to a general purpose, an aim or a long-
term goal. The hallmarks of an objective are:
Tick box if your objective meets the criterion
Is your objective:
CLEAR REALISTIC
SPECIFIC CHALLENGING
MEASURABLE AGREED
ATTAINABLE CONSISTENT
WRITTEN WORTHWHILE
TIME-BOUNDED PARTICIPATIVE
Agreeing objectives
‘You can see that I have put boxes for you to tick beside each hallmark, like a check-
list. When you receive each set of objectives, and are looking through them prior to
your meetings, it’s a good idea to check them against the list.’
‘What are the kind of things that can go wrong?’ asked the young manager.
‘Most objectives are too vague, too open-ended. They are really aims in thin dis-
guise. Sometimes they are no more than intentions. Objective is another of those
words borrowed from the military. It means objective point – the ground you plan
to occupy after a certain time in an attack. An objective must have a time reference
and be fairly concrete in nature.’
‘Granted that,’ said the young manager. ‘What else can I expect?’
‘You will find that some managers are over-ambitious. They set themselves and
their departments too many objectives for the time and resources at their disposal.’
‘Or too few?’
‘Not too few, but sometimes insufficiently demanding or challenging. That brings
me to you. Don’t be afraid to ratchet-up these low-performance targets. In those
meetings you must come across as knowledgeable, tough and fair. That will win you
respect.’
‘But supposing the manager involved disagrees with my suggested revision and
I cannot persuade him or her?’
‘Adjourn the meeting for a week. Ask the manager to go back and think about it.
Let him or her sleep on it. He or she will then talk to colleagues in the division or
department. His or her mind may change before you meet again.’
‘You make it sound a bit like negotiation,’ said the young manager, dubiously.
50 Not Bosses but Leaders
‘It is a form of negotiation. After all, a considerable amount of the resources of
the company are entrusted to that manager. You are trying to achieve the best bar-
gain for the whole enterprise.’
‘And what is he or she after?’ asked the young manager.
Relating the parts to the whole
‘The senior executive manager – who may well be an executive director – is wearing
three hats at the same time. As the head of part of the business, he or she must represent
the interests and concerns of that part. And as your subordinate and as a member of
the leadership team of the company as a whole, he or she should put first the interests
and concerns of the whole enterprise.’
‘That sounds mutually exclusive,’ said the young manager.
‘So it is. Just as the wave theory and the particle theory of light theoretically ex-
clude each other and yet remain equally essential for understanding light.’
‘You would have to have exceptional leaders,’ reflected the young manager. ‘They
would have to be able to go back to their departments or divisions and present the
consensus of the leadership team as if it was their own —’
‘It would be their own,’ I interrupted.
‘Even though its consequences were dire for their people?’
‘Not their people,’ I said. ‘Remember that these people work for the whole enter-
prise as well. As rational, intelligent and well-motivated people they are quite capable
of seeing where the interests of the whole enterprise lie.’
‘Yes, but their loyalty is bound up with their smaller group,’ responded the young
manager. ‘You have repeatedly stressed the power of groups, and obviously the
smaller the better. It’s not as easy as you think to get people to accept radical change
that affects their patch. I know because I have tried it!’
‘Alfred Sloan, the former President of General Motors, once said that the funda-
mental issue in any organization is the relation of the parts to the whole. It seems to
me that the linchpins in that interactive relation are the heads of the “parts”.’
‘As we have noted, you will find that fashions change in organizational thinking.
Once it was thought essential to be very big in size, in order to achieve economies of
scale. Then the “small is beautiful” movement gathered momentum. At one time,
centralization of decision-making was all the rage. Now decentralization is the order
of the day, and this applies as much, if not more so, to the public sector as to the
private.’
‘Have you any advice to offer?’ asked the young manager.
‘What seems to work best is as much decentralization as possible, with some high-
quality control and direction from the centre. Computers and financial management
information systems allow you to know what is happening in the “parts” and if the
Moving from Plans to Action 51
figures demand it, you can intervene. More particularly, strategic or corporate plan-
ning in the way we have explored enables you to provide strategic direction. Finally,
you have a watching brief over the process of setting objectives in the six or seven (or
whatever) major parts of the business. But no more! Once the heads have received
your blessing on their set of objectives they must be free to carry them out without
interference from you. If they come to you for help or support, you must give it to
them. They are the ones who are going to make things happen, not you.’
‘I see,’ said the young manager. ‘But how will I know if they want support?’
‘Won’t they ask?’
‘Some will. But others will be reluctant to ask for help. They may think it will be
interpreted as a sign of weakness.’
‘Well, get out of your office and visit them. Find out at first hand how things are
going. A British managing director once remarked to the President of Toyota that he
seemed to spend a great deal of his time out of his office. “We do not make Toyota
cars in my office”, replied the President with a smile.’
‘Having agreed objectives, shouldn’t I leave the operational leaders to get on with
it? Won’t it look as if I am not trusting them if I then visit their factories or offices?’
‘If you don’t,’ I answered, ‘it may appear that you lack interest. It’s an option of
difficulties. One safeguard of trust is to observe the principle of respect the line, as
the military used to call it.’
‘What’s that?’ asked the young manager.
Respecting the line
‘The concept of line-of-command, or chain-of-command, is yet another military in-
vention. It links the commander-in-chief with the corporal. The principle of respect-
ing the line means that a colonel does not tell a soldier what to do, he tells the major,
who tells the platoon commander, who briefs the non-commissioned officers, who
tells the men!’
‘What happens if the colonel is walking around the unit or watching it on battle
manoeuvres and he sees something he doesn’t like?’
‘He may be accompanied by the company or platoon commander. He will then
turn to him and request that the thing is done differently.’
‘Request?’
‘A suggestion or request in this context is taken as an order by any sensible and
well-trained subordinate.’
‘And if the colonel is alone?’
‘He may tell the soldier to ask his non-commissioned officer or platoon commander
how it should be done; he may go back to the appropriate point in the line-of-
command and reprimand someone for not passing down his orders or maintaining
52 Not Bosses but Leaders
commonly accepted standards of excellence. Only rarely, usually where safety is at
risk, will the commander-in-chief intervene himself with a direct order.’
Line and staff
‘I don’t want to divert you from the subject, but I have heard that in the military a
distinction is made between officers who are in the line-of-command and those who
are on the staff. What does it mean?’
‘That again is part of the military metaphor. In addition to line-of-command – the
leaders of units ranging from sections of about 10 men to army groups of many
thousands – there are staff officers responsible for performing the specialist functions
in the army that are – or should be – complementary to the line. Staff officers exist at
different levels. In the battalion, for example, the commander’s principal staff officer
is his adjutant. The intelligence officer, doctor and padre are all staff appointments.’
‘No personnel officer?’ asked the young manager.
‘Leadership, which includes looking after the soldier’s, sailor’s and airman’s
individual needs, is quite rightly a line responsibility in units of the armed forces,’
I replied. ‘But there are some staff officers specializing in personnel on the general
staff.’
‘With two kinds of manager – sorry, officer – isn’t there a danger of what you
called a tension, if not downright conflict, within the team?’ asked the young
manager.
‘That certainly happened in the British Army at the time of the Crimean War.
Two reforms were introduced. Firstly, staff officers were recruited from the line, and
returned to the line when their tour of duty was completed. So the staff understood
the problems of the line. For example, the major in the Parachute Regiment, much
decorated in the Korean War, who instructed me at the officer training unit I
attended during my conscript service (I take training to be a staff function) returned
to command his battalion.’
‘He must have been an impressive teacher,’ said the young manager.
‘Yes, he was. Management and leadership are practical subjects. They are well
taught by those who do them. They are better taught by those who have both the
experience and the power to teach well.’
‘What was the second reform?’
‘In order to train line commanders for staff duties, a staff college was established.
As only the brighter officers were chosen for staff duties (entry was conditional upon
passing an examination), it also came to be seen as the school for higher command.
It became increasingly difficult for an officer to rise to command anything more than
a battalion if he had not “passed staff college”. The next step was invariably a staff
appointment. Command came later, after experience of being a staff officer.’
Moving from Plans to Action 53
‘You can see how a good commander-in-chief would have developed an instinc
tive understanding of the needs and feelings of both his line commanders and his
staff officers.’
‘He can hold the team together,’ suggested the young manager.
‘Yes, there is a common vision of the army as a body with different members,
each having its distinctive function and contribution to the whole. Perhaps the most
important role of a military staff college is to form that vision in every officer’s mind
and to equip him with the knowledge necessary for him to carry out his immediate
part of the drama with complete effectiveness. Perhaps postgraduate business courses
such as MBA programmes try to achieve the same ends.’
‘It is rather like a drama,’ commented the young manager. ‘All players have to stay
in role and perform their parts according to the script —’
‘Which, like a film script, is partly prepared in advance and partly written as the
film proceeds,’ I said. ‘Or, to keep the analogy within that industry, people trained in
specific roles – such as cameraman, sound mixer, or producer – can easily transfer to
other films and quickly become members of a team. Everyone knows what to expect
from them. It’s much easier to lead a team if you have well-trained subordinates.’
‘In what ways?’ asked the young manager.
Two-way communication
‘Take communication in organizations, a key area for the strategic leader. From the
centre to the periphery it has tended to be broadly instructional in nature, whereas
from the periphery to the centre it tends to be informational. Communicating effec-
tively in both directions requires training and discipline. The length and detail of the
instructions, for example, will vary with the situation and the degree of training of
the participants.’
‘Can you give me an example of how it works in practice?’ asked the young
manager.
‘The secret of the relative military success of the German Army in Russia during
the Second World War was due to what they called “directive control”. A veteran of
that army, now a lieutenant-general, once explained it to me. “Fast forces need short
orders”, he said. The Russian military leaders (as their civilian counterparts do today)
issued far too detailed blueprint plans. They tried to plan too far in advance. “Think
ahead, don’t order ahead”, said the German general.’
‘It sounds to me a bit like “management by objectives”,’ said the young manager.
‘Yes, “directive control” is probably the source of what came to be called manage-
ment by objectives,’ I said. ‘In 1944, of course, it broke down on the Russian front
because Hitler began to issue detailed orders down to divisional level.’
54 Not Bosses but Leaders
The roots of morale
‘I have often wondered how the German officers maintained morale on the Russian
front,’ mused the young manager. ‘It sounds as if good leadership was the key.’
‘Without good leadership, the German veteran told me, the German Army could
hardly have sustained five-and-a-half years of war. As he said: “Any attempt to arouse
enthusiasm for the war would have been totally misguided and no one tried this in
the field. In the East the soldiers were convinced that the Soviets had to be kept a
long way from German soil. There was no mutiny and few desertions. A good spirit
was maintained to the bitter end. How was it done?” The German general answered
his own question thus:
“It was because those in authority shared all exertions and deprivations with their
men, and were exposed to every danger that might threaten. Food and accommoda-
tion were the same for all ranks.”
“I have already mentioned, too, the confidence that every soldier had in the com-
petence of his superiors and comrades. With them he felt he was in good hands and
none of them would leave him in the lurch. A very important factor was this sense of
security he got from being a member of his section, his platoon, his company. In the
abnormal times of war, human nature gives a man a special urge to surround himself
with reliable fellows and to put his trust in a leadership that will see him through
danger. This was the root of the soldier’s loyalty and steadfastness.”
“In sum, leadership rested on mutual trust and on leaders looking after those in
their charge. Caring for soldiers, in the fullest sense of that phrase, cut more ice than
going by the book”.’
Keypoints
●● Strategic leadership is not simply about strategic planning – that’s the easy part.
The difficult part is making things happen, converting vision into action.
●● If your subordinates are fully involved in the decisions that affect their work, they will
be committed to carrying them out. You cannot lead without winning their
commitment.
●● Help those that report directly to you to break down aims into clear and specific
objectives. Remember to review progress at agreed intervals.
●● If you will not accept anything but the best, you will be surprised at how often you get
it. Tell them how it has to be.
●● Try to delegate as much as possible. You will never have so much authority as when
you begin to give it away.
Moving from Plans to Action 55
●● Get out of your office and ‘walk the job’. But remember not to intervene directly.
Information may come directly to you this way but instructions should flow down the
line. That way you will not lose the trust of your managers.
●● Part of strategic leadership is building a sense of teamwork in which line managers
and staff specialists, white-collar workers and shop-floor workers all feel equally
valued – by you and by each other.
●● In order to lead you have to show that you are willing to live on a level with people –
eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, sharing the same hardships.
It is better to light a few candles than to complain about the dark
