principled leadership

Good morning all,

Good afternoon,

Tomorrow morning, I am going to post a summary of Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up on my personal blog, True On Average. My summary will focus on Kondo's principle for tidying and also briefly discuss her ability to motivate through writing (1).

I state in tomorrow's post that Kondo advocates a two-step process for tidying:

1) Ask- do I need this object? Discard if I do not.
2) If I kept the object- decide where to store it.

One reason this book requires over two hundred pages is because she considers many scenarios that one could encounter in a tidying project. In each case, Kondo seems to recommend a response. However, closer examination reveals that she is merely applying her stated principles. There are no exceptions.

In fact, her book is among the best examples of principled leadership I have come across. Kondo always ignores the details of an environment or the emotional context of possessions. The only question that counts in her work is 'do I need this?' (2).

I imagine that embodying such commitment to these principles requires tremendous patience and stamina.

Client: Marie, what should I do with these pictures?
Kondo: Ask yourself if you need each photo and, if you do, determine the place you will always store it.

Client: Marie, I have all these perfectly good outfits for the summer- I don't know what to do!
Kondo: Ask yourself if you need each outfit and, if you do, determine the place you will always store it.

Client: Marie, I've been meaning to read these books for years...
Kondo: Ask yourself if you need each book and, if you do, determine the place you will always store it.

The fact that she does not have repeat clients is telling. I suspect they see her commitment to her tidying principle and learn how to think like she does. There is no need to consult her further- they already know what the right course of action is.

The challenge of leading by principle is two-fold. First, the leader must clearly state the principles they choose to lead by. Then, the leader must commit fully to those. Any time a course of action which does not align with the principles is seriously considered, the leader should note this as a signal to review the principles or the realism committing to their application.

I imagine a counter-argument to the above would involve the concept of 'the exception to the rule'. I am inclined to see this a little differently because I see rules as a reflection of the principles that underlie them (3). If an established rule must be bent regularly or exceptions are acceptable under certain conditions, it suggests to me that the underlying principle on which the rule is based or the realism of asking for commitment to them requires further examination.

That said, a principled leader might have to accept rules-based leadership at times. The key is to always look for ways to discard the rule in favor of applying the underlying principle. Through this process, a leader can unlock the potential of the people or process that they oversee.

Perhaps the most significant reward of leading through principle is in this final idea. A leader is anyone who identifies potential in people or process. Understanding and applying rules, though critical in some cases, is not a leadership activity. By focusing on principles, the barriers to acts of leadership are removed and the ability of a team or organization to reach its fullest potential is unlocked.

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Thanks as always for reading.

A quick reminder before I go- next Thursday's post is my last for this 'season' of The Business Bro. Please see last week's post for more details.

Until then...

Signed,

The Business Bro

Footnotes / (additional) imagined complaints

1. Train or motivate...

Kondo's approach to helping her clients tidy is based on one of two techniques. She either trains her client to tidy properly or motivates her client to get started.

I recognized the approach instantly- it is the job description of a manager. I believe I first read the idea in Andy Grove's High Output Management- 'a manager can only train or motivate'.

This is because employees who do not complete a job properly do so for one of two reasons. They either cannot do the job properly or do not feel like doing the job properly. The response to these situations is, respectively, to train or motivate. There is nothing else that a manager can do.

Next week's post, my last in this first 'season' of posts for this blog, will cover the basic skills needed by any rookie manager in order to be successful. Understanding this simple job description is perhaps the preliminary step- a manager can only train or motivate. Once this is understood, mastering the rest of the role becomes a possibility.

2. Scotty Bowman, principled hockey coach

I'm reminded of Ken Dryden's The Game, a book in which the Montreal Canadiens goaltender reflects on his long career during his final season. In a memorable passage, Dryden describes his coach, Scotty Bowman, and lists all the things Bowman considers irrelevant within his decision making process about players.

From my limited memory, I recall the following as examples of questions considered 'irrelevant' in assessing players:

-Does the player show up early?
-Does the player show up late?
-Is the player mean?
-Is the player nice?
-Was the player good last year?
-Will the player be good next year?

Here is the list of what Bowman considers relevant:

-Will the player help the team?

3. Falling one step short...?

The continuum that captures 'principled leadership' probably looks something like this:

*Principled leadership
*Rules-based leadership
*Rule of thumb based leadership
*(other leadership principles...)
*Micromanagement

I place micromanagement at the bottom of the continuum because it seems the exact opposite of principled leadership in terms of how those qualities are used to describe leaders. That is, anyone described as 'principled' is being described positively while I have yet to hear someone use 'micromanager' as a term of endearment for a leader.