The 8 Skills of Know How & Mr. Bush
I recently read Ram Charan’s Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform From Those Who Don’t, and although I am a total non-aficionado of business books in general, I found this one quite illuminating for many reasons. While it was very much directed towards high-level executives in charge of large, multi-faceted organizations, much of its information is adaptable to small, individually owned businesses, and interestingly enough, adaptable to facets of individual lives outside of the business mentality. Its points are clear common sense and provide pretty specific guidelines on how to live a life, not just run a business.
Charan’s precept in Know-How is to build leaders, specifically leaders of business who will successfully enhance the economic quality of capitalism and thereby enhance the quality of life for everybody. As America is presently struggling to keep from drowning in the domino effects of a falling housing market, it is easy to see that exceptional leaders are needed to maintain economic stability through successful, growing businesses that keep the dollar cycling through society.
It was through my eventual understanding of what Charan was trying to teach, that I was more than a little perceptive of John Dickerson’s recent article in Slate, “All the President’s Flunkies” (August 27, 2007). The article, as suggested by the title, covers Dickerson’s analysis of why President Bush seems to be losing his top-level aides. Charan fresh in mind, I began to correlate the 8 Skills of Know-How to our President—supposedly the Leader of our country. If one takes Charan’s wisdom to heart—and I do, for as in all of his books, it is broken down to basic common sense—one can totally fathom Dickerson’s thesis and recognize not only the practical value of the know-hows, but that Mr. Bush needs a hard lesson in nearly all of them.
Although Charan’s know-hows are all interrelated (each skill is a necessary ingredient to the mastery of all), his know-hows regarding people skills and social systems are the ones that come to mind. Charan states “Leaders often avoid conflict, hoping that a problem with one of their direct reports’ behavior will somehow resolve itself…The hard truth is that if you want to mold a team of leaders you must have the inner courage when an individual’s behavior is destroying the team to confront that person head on and say it isn’t acceptable and has to change.”
Dickerson counters this sage advice with, “As a broader management practice, though, Bush has made a fetish of loyalty even when unaccompanied by ability.”
Dickerson goes on to say, “Bush also feels the essence of virtue is resisting any public outcry. He does this for public as well as internal purposes. ‘A president has got to be the calcium in the backbone,’ Bush told author Bob Woodward. ‘If I weaken, the whole team weakens. If I’m doubtful, I can assure you there will be a lot of doubt.’”
Charan goes into great detail on the necessary psychological attributes of a great leader as well as the consequences of allowing the “dark side” of these attributes—over-confidence, narcissism, abuse of power, close-mindedness, or avoidance of reality—to cloud judgment or influence decision making. His 8 know-hows are like a progressive gym where one moves from one piece of equipment to another in order to strengthen individual parts of the body in order to strengthen the whole towards a healthy, robust body. It is not done in a single session and requires conscientious, consistent effort.
In looking at the political landscape against that of business, it makes me wonder how the concepts of team building, positioning, priorities, success, and leadership can be so different between the two.