Tom Peters is a smart guy. Most know him as the über-consultant, detailing how leadership should really work in the pages of In Search of Excellence, one of the best books written (way ahead of its time) on empowerment, employee engagement, and real leadership impact.

What many don’t know, is that Peters is a former McKinsey-ite, a 4-square model practitioner from way back. His previous employer recently invited him back for an interview—sort of a “how do things look now?” The article, you can read it here, is typical Peters—irreverent, direct, almost “in-your-face.” I loved every word, and I’ll tell you why: This guy gets it. Like no other author on leadership, Tom Peters gets it.

Here’s my take-aways from the article:

  1. Confusion is here. And it’s ok. Tom recently took 18 months off (if “off” is the right word) to read up on nearly all recent business and leadership tomes. His conclusion? “I’m more confused than when I started,” he said. Leading business is hard work. It’s holistic in nature, and needs a constant, complicated barrage of consistency, innovation, congruent behaviors and kick-butt changes. There’s no 12-page guide to this stuff; you try, you fail, you blow something up… you get some stitches and you get better.
  2. To continue that theme, there’s no experts, only those who try, succeed, then go try again. Even the best experience failure; the difference is, to paraphrase Einstein, knowing that failure has clearly identified one more way that won’t work. In that way, failure is a success. If you look at it with a long-term lens. Peters thinks that no one really knows what they’re doing, so success means trying, succeeding, trying, failing, and then trying again. All the time. I think he’s right.
  3. You’re in a fast group—you’ll need to study. Development is non-stop. Read, listen, learn. Get a coach (ok, that was a veiled marketing thingy), attend training (another thingy), stay on top of your game—it’s evolving, folks, at a pace we can barely keep up with even if we try earnestly. To even think status quo is to rapidly fall behind. I’ve been studying, practicing, and teaching leadership for more than 30 years; I learn something—no kidding—with every new session or client, whether first-line supervisor or top-of-the-food-chain CEO.
  4. It’s the people, stupid. Culture drives organization success, and people drive culture. No office building has ever invented a breakthrough drug or cutting-edge chip. No stock ticker has ever convinced a customer to stick around even though we tried mightily to drive them away (are you listening, United Airlines?). It’s about the people. It’s only about the people. Says Peters, “You’re in the people-development business. If you take a leadership job, you do people. Period.”

I happen to think he’s right.

Organizations don’t succeed because of strategy—any company can buy a strategy from McKinsey, Bain, or even me. They succeed (or not) because of leadership. It’s that simple. And it simply hasn’t changed much in a couple thousand years.

Leadership is dead; long live leadership.

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