THE TRUSTED LEADER: bringing out the best in your people and your company.
Robert Galford and Anne Siebold Drapeau
New York: The Free Press, 2002
ISBN 0-7432-3539-8
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Robert Galford is managing partner at the Center for Executive
Development in Boston. Anne Siebold
Drapeau is Chief People Officer of Digitas and held management positions with
Pepsi, J.P. Morgan, and FTD. It is hard
to believe that they conceived of THE TRUSTED LEADER before Enron, Worldcom, et
al.
But they did and we should be grateful.
The authors state that “trust is intangible, but it is useful to think of it as an ‘outcome’ that results from very tangible processes.”
This book provides some of the critical management tools to achieve that objective.
For example, there is a Trusted Leader Self-Assessment in Chapter 2. Based on your scores, you can then read the rest of the book as a whole or focus first on those Chapters where you want to build your competence.
What are the implications for Board members?
One of the critical roles for Board members is the annual evaluation of CEO performance. Many of us grew up with a Management by Objectives philosophy: state the outcome measures clearly and then leave it up to subordinates to figure out how to achieve those objectives.
In a world where institutional and individual investors/contributors have valid reasons to mis-trust leaders, the very concept of MBO needs to be changed. Boards must be concerned not only with what is accomplished but also how it is accomplished. Accomplishing objectives without breaking the law is a necessary but insufficient standard of CEO excellence. The Trusted Leader Self Assessment is a concrete tool which can be used by Boards to set quantifiable measures of performance for the critical intangible of trust. The vague concept of “trust” can thus be discussed in very specific ways.
On page 95, the authors extol the virtues of Doug Baker, curator and sexton of a Church. He is described as a quietly, competent “fixer” rather than a charismatic leader who draws attention to himself. The authors state that we need more Doug Bakers leading our organizations.
And to this we say, “Amen.”
Maryanne Peabody
Tel. 617 371 2990