I was struck by two contrasting styles of leadership as described in two different articles in the NY Times this weekend.
Alan Mullally current head of Ford Motor Company talks in the Corner Office section of the paper about what Collins and Porras would call a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), but in the tamer language you would expect of a CEO running a $100bn+ company, he says "…the higher the calling, the higher the compelling vision that you can articulate, the more it pulls everybody in."
On the other hand, in the cover story of the business section an article about Lego quotes Jorgen Vig Knudstrop, CEO since 2004, talking about the way he manages people: "…there's no place to hide if performance is poor. You will be embarrassed, and embarrassment is stronger than fear."
Now, there is no doubt that Knudstrop has seen success - toy sales in the US dropped by 5% last year, but Lego sales increased by nearly 19%. That's pretty amazing by most standards.
But, who would you rather work for, the visionary or the 'no place to hide' guy?
When we think of leaders who generated massive followership, we tend to name the likes of Churchill, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Khan. I don't think our history books give the non-visionaries much of a look in. And, I think that's because getting out of bed is a lot easier when one feels part of some grand vision, whereas 'no place to hide' is probably more of a reason to stay under the duvet covers. Leaders, more vision, please!
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