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A Leader Is Insightful

Let's look at a situation that faced Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) chairman Lodwick Cook. In 1989 State and federal legislators were pushing for solutions to California's smog problems through the use of alternative fuels in cars and trucks. They were close to passing laws that would change the basic chemical blend of fuel to an alcohol-fuel blend. This change would require the conver­sion of millions of cars, be extremely expensive, and require many years before any significant reduction in air pollution would be seen.

The management of the other oil companies dug in for a long legislative fight. Meanwhile, with the Exxon Valdez incident still in recent memory, Cook felt a head-to-head battle over pollution would make the oil industry look like villains. In March of 1989 a crash program was set in place to develop a cleaner-burning fuel. By September of that year ARCO stations across Southern California were sell­ing the new gasoline.

In the spirit of nationwide teamwork, ARCO's research was offered to its competitors. Since that time ARCO has added a second reformulated fuel to its line in Southern California. And reformulated gasolines have gotten official recognition as a bona fide alternative fuel.

Instead of coming off as environmental spoilers, ARCO has won top awards from the California Society of Professional Engineers and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, plus high praise from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Cook wasn't out to win friends. As a leader he was out to avoid the impending damage to his company and to make it prosper in the long run. He allowed everyone to win.

Leadership is action, not a position.
Donald H. McGannon

In the above example, Mr. Cook might agree with some of Attila's thoughts relative to impending difficulties. Attila would say "never kill the bearer of bad news," rather he would suggest killing those that refuse to deliver bad news. Bad news to a leader is but another challenge to be pur sued, it is another opportunity to be developed. Cook, like Attila, heard the bad news, looked at his options and allowed the experts around him to provide the answer that could benefit all.

The Importance of Self

Although corporate management is considered a serious business, few leaders take themselves seriously. It is important to be aware of ourselves and our own frailties perhaps even more than to be aware of others'. Not long ago, in a copy of Bits & Pieces, I read a short story that states this point quite well. It goes like this:

An executive who passed a mental hospital on his way to work used to stop every once in a while to watch one of the inmates going through the motions of winding up and pitching an imaginary ball. A frierid asked the executive what he found so interesting about the man's performance. "Well," said the executive, "if things keep going the way they are, I'll be there someday catching for that guy, and I want to get on to his curves."
Back at Centennial, Bill Arnold explains some of his less proud moments. Like many companies, Centennial has a quality improvement program. And, like many executives, Bill wanted to kick this important program off with a quick success to get the ball rolling. As he explains, he and his team were beginning to understand that the employees had to lead the quality effort, but they still expected that the "real quality leaders" would come from senior manage­ment.

As a result a QI Council was formed, comprised of several senior vice presidents, and this august group set out to "fix a problem."
After some investigation the QI Council soon settled on the "problem" in the mail room. After all, the Council con­cluded, this problem affects everyone. In addition, how hard can it really be, for this group, to find a way to get mail moved from point A to point B? To their credit, as Bill remembers, the group wanted to get information from the people involved. Therefore, a meeting was arranged with the mail room staff. On the day of the meeting, the QI Council set around a table waiting for the mail room personnel to arrive.
As they walked into the room, the employees were con­fronted with an unintended "them against us" situation. Although the QI Council tried to be interested, and the mail room workers tried to answer their questions, it was soon clear that any problems in the mail room would need to be resolved in the mail room. It is to Bill's credit that he and his QI Council discovered they did not have all the answers, and even more importantly, they were willing to admit that fact. This was admittedly a learning experience for both Bill and his staff.

"Accept the fact that no matter how many times you are right, you will sometimes be wrong."
Life's Little Instruction Book, Volume II

They both learned that they are perhaps not as important as they once considered themselves when it came to prob­lem solving. Attila would agree with their position. A leader must be more interested in the success of others than his own. It is the combination of their subordinates individual successes, that put together, allows a leader to reach his goal. Yet there is more to the situation than that. Communication must take place between a leader and his subordinates. Without communication situations arise similar to that at our aerospace firm, but communication can be risky.

To be Continued