Preface

This is a book about an aspect of leadership that leaders, or aspiring leaders, need to understand but is too often overlooked. It is what I call “context.”

My central premise is that the principles of leadership can be effective in a wide variety of situations, but they often need to be applied in a very different manner depending on the circumstances and the constituent groups involved. The principles of leadership and this context-driven approach to leadership form the book’s two basic themes. In other words, this book argues that for leaders to be effective—whether they head a multimillion-dollar corporation with thousands of employees or a small not-for-profit organization with half a dozen volunteers—it is important that they focus not just on the principles of successful leadership, but also on the context in which the principles are applied. Understanding the context enables leaders to execute effectively.

Though the concept of context sounds simple, in fact it has many dimensions, and I describe various contexts and the leadership styles that work in each. If you don’t find the specific context in which you operate, you should not assume that the book has nothing to say to you. Each of the contexts I describe can apply to related organizations and industries. I contend that there is no industry or organization that is exempt from the realities of leadership that I explore in this book. The leader who understands the demands of context is well-armed for the future no matter what it may bring.

There is another context that leaders need to be aware of. In today’s world, leaders are not infrequently called upon to serve in boards of industry associations, government policy advisory commissions, and other outside organizations that can require quite different leadership styles from what they are used to in the home office. I point out the pitfalls that await successful leaders when they are called upon to work outside their own organizations. These outside contexts can be quite different, and success or failure can often depend on modifying leadership styles to suit a different context.

What qualifications do I bring to an understanding of leadership? In my professional lifetime, I have had the good fortune to have had three very different successful leadership careers. The first was in the world of accounting, where I was named managing partner of Touche Ross, now Deloitte and Touche, at the age of 37. Next, during the turbulent 1980s, I became the Dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and served in that post for seven years. I also taught the leadership course to MBA students. Finally, since 1990, I have led The Palmer Group, a private investment firm, with the goal of “having fun and doing something meaningful.” All of our investments to date have been successful.

Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of General Electric, once told me that it is remarkable for one individual to combine three very different major careers during a professional lifespan. The advantage for me is that each of these careers has taught me a lot about the demands of leadership in different contexts.

An experience I had in my last year at Wharton led indirectly to my decision to write this book. A contingent from a very prestigious business school came to visit me. They told me they were setting up a school of leadership. These people knew that I had taught a leadership course at Wharton, and that I was going to be leaving in a few months. They visited me to get some ideas about teaching leadership, but I am sure the underlying thought was whether I might be interested in being associated with this new school.

I asked what they were trying to do in their school of leadership, and they looked at me as though this was not a particularly insightful question. Obviously, a leadership school was meant “to produce outstanding leaders.” “That is a noble goal,” I said. “I assume you will have a tracking system to see how effective the new school will be in doing that.” They said they hadn’t particularly addressed that problem, though it was certainly something to think about.

Next, I asked them to tell me the background for students to be admitted to this new school. This was an area they had briefly covered in their overview of the school. They said that students would be admitted from schools throughout the university. The students would submit an application, and the admissions office would look at grades and such to decide whether they could get in, but anyone who applied would probably be admitted. When I asked how they would determine the leadership potential of the students they were planning to admit, they said they did not contemplate doing that. The faculty, in setting up the school, had been adamant that they did not want to discriminate against those who wanted to join the school by trying to sort them according to their leadership potential. They thought the school should just make everyone better leaders than they would otherwise be.

“So how will you reconcile those two goals?” I asked. “How will you join the principle you just mentioned—of admitting anyone who applies and improving their leadership ability—with the other goal of developing outstanding leaders, and perhaps tracking how they did in the future?” The reply was that this too was a question that needed to be addressed.

The fact is that I had already decided not to go to another academic setting. But even if I had decided to stay in academia, this certainly would not have been an opportunity I would have pursued. It seemed to me that their idea of leadership was not based on the hard realities of the competitive marketplace that I had experienced at Touche Ross or the special demands on the Dean of the Wharton School.

The experience kept nagging me as I prepared to leave Wharton and embark on my third career as a corporate investor. I saw the disconnect between their understanding of leadership and mine. I believed that I had enough experience as a leader and teacher to put it all down in a systematic form that would help today’s leaders and tomorrow’s. I was helped immeasurably by the truly outstanding group of leaders who contributed to the book. It’s amazing how similar our ideas about leadership are. This book is the result.