Leading from the Inside Out: The Power of Deep Blue Leadership
One of the most profound and difficult aspects of leadership is
instilling in individuals deeply held, and yet generally shared
principles to motivate a common purpose. Leading by influencing
one's sense of identity and purpose is both powerful and
mysterious. Like the deep blue sea, it is also a source of
energy and diversity. In this first of twelve articles exploring
the spectrum of leadership influence, I address the question:
what exactly is deep blue leadership?
The Story Part 1: The Conundrum When Lynn, the long time leader
of a growing organization, drove into the office parking lot at
7:41am, something didn't seem right. He had arrived home late
the night before after an extended overseas trip. He was still
experiencing jet lag but the parking lot seemed empty to him
when compared to six months earlier. He remembered feeling that
things were going well then, that everyone seemed motivated,
excited and happy. They came in early and stayed late. They were
genuinely happy to be back each morning and cheerful when
greeting co-workers. The pace of action was quick and efficient.
Now, in contrast, people seemed to be dragging. They were just
doing their jobs. Morale, it seems, had sagged. As he parked and
walked, he made a mental note: "Our leadership activity needs a
shot in the arm," he thought.
Analysis and Perspective In his leadership role, Lynn was
appropriately, if informally, monitoring a leading indicator of
performance when he noted the waning level of engagement by the
organization's members. He appropriately hypothesized that this
decline was related to a reduced "velocity" of leadership across
the organization, the amount of time spent on leadership
activities. Because reduced engagement and intrinsic motivation
are expected outcomes of a decline in a specific type of
leadership influence, called deep blue leadership influence, he
realized that he needed to initiate programs to reenergize this
type of leadership in the organization.
Lynn's experience and training had taught him that three steps
were required: first gather information about the current
situation and diagnose the issues; second, initiate specific
leadership activities designed to shore-up the deeply held,
social identity of the team members with respect to his
organization, the sense of purpose that provides intrinsic
motivation; and third, institutionalize change by integrating
these initiatives into the organization's culture.
Lynn realized this would not be easy. His leadership teams must
find ways to influence members' deeply held sense of identity,
toward an organizationally appropriate collective purpose. This
sense of purpose, identity and vision would provide the
intrinsic motivation to increase engagement, quicken everyone's
pace and fill the parking lot.
Case Study Examples Many organizations face periods where
weariness or ennui sets in, where motivation drops. Up and down
cycles naturally occur in individuals, even Lynn was dragging
that morning, but when reduced motivation occurs broadly across
the organization, leadership intervention is required.
Otherwise, the culture itself may change permanently.
When Lucent Technologies was preparing to spin-out from AT&T,
the employees felt discarded. Their identities were injured,
their motivation low. Although CEO Henry Schacht didn't have a
name for it at the time, he knew that deep blue leadership
influence was needed.
He began with an intense data gathering effort and a thoughtful
assessment and diagnosis of the situation. This was followed by
an organization wide identity creating effort that used as many
people as practical to develop a shared vision for the IPO "road
show". Over and over he and his team communicated the essence of
their collective experience using the theme "the opportunity of
a lifetime." They were careful to hone their vision statement in
a cascading effort that energized the organization.
In a matter of a few months, Lucent employees went from being
crushed to being enthusiastic leaders in their own right. Their
motivation soared and pushed the organization to a successful
IPO and years of strong growth1.
* * * When Steve Jobs returned to Apple after many years, he
found a demoralized team and a shattered identity. Apple had
lost the desktop wars. Collective identity was shattered. There
was no vision to motivate people.
Like Schacht, Jobs also recognized the need for deep blue
leadership. At Apple, deep blue influence was signaled through
an advertising program, "think different." This was aimed as
much at employees, Jobs says, as customers. The idea was to
reawaken the strong identity and purpose that had made Apple a
successful innovator in the past. Apple needed to recapture its
identity and its vision: to build the most innovative product
possible. To do this, people had to "think different," not just
building "the same old, same old".
You can't systematize innovation, Jobs says, "you hire good
people who will challenge each other every day to make the best
products possible.... When I got back, Apple had forgotten who
we were.... Fortunately, we woke up"2.
These stories demonstrate the power of deep blue leadership.
When leadership operates on people's deeply held sense of
identity and purpose, motivation comes from the inside out.
The Story Part 2: Resolution When Lynn arrived in his office, he
immediately asked some tough questions. "How often are teams
getting together to talk about opportunities to realize our
vision? Are we passionate about process improvements? How about
new ways of thinking? Do we critically review project plans and
budgets? Do we talk seriously about personal and career
development? Do people share a common vision? What is it? How
does the situation compare with six months ago? How engaged are
our people? These were difficult questions, but ones that could
be answered. The process took several weeks, but once the data
was gathered and preliminary analysis was completed, the trend
was clear—leadership activity aimed at identity and
purpose, deep blue leadershipSM activity, had fallen off in the
organization.
When he had these answers, Lynn called his leadership team
together to share the findings and express his concerns. "We
seem to have lost our edge," he said. "I don't feel the energy
that I did six months ago, and data that shows our lower
activity levels support my concerns. Our leadership velocitySM
in the areas supporting our collective sense of deep
significance, identity and vision has dropped off. To be the
strong company we need to be, we have to do better. How can we
bring back the excitement?"
The team had a difficult time at first, uncomfortable with the
meta-perspective Lynn brought to the discussion. "Isn't it
manipulative to target activities that influence deeply held
believes about identity and purpose?" one manager asked. What
began as a one-hour discussion, continued in a follow-up two-day
session, the second day of which included a much broader array
of leaders. It became clear from the interaction that even among
the leadership, cracks had formed in the common sense of
purpose. Renewal was needed. As Lynn knew, it had already begun.
In the course of the discussion, it was agreed that monthly
half-day sessions among members of the leadership team were
needed to evolve and communicate the collective identity. The
process cascaded into the organization until a consistent,
invigorating vision became evident to all members of the
organization. The quarterly cultural survey in use was modified
to include targeted questions about personal versus collective
vision, purpose and identity, to provide on-going feedback. The
vision was NOT developed by a small group, and communicated
downward, but left to emerge in the context of guiding
principles.
After six months, the vision meetings were integrated into the
organizations planning process again. Excitement was evident and
morale was high. To close out the cycle of leadership, Lynn
asked his teams to propose ways the interventions could be
proactive, with continuous feedback and action. He realized that
leadership is hard work, and nothing works forever. At the same
time, he didn't want to wait until something seemed wrong again.
Recently, Lynn told a reporter from a national newspaper:
"Sometimes I feel like we're all sailing on the open sea. At
once, what we do is both exciting and mysterious. But I must
say, leading from the deep blue is one of the most satisfying
parts of my job." When his teammates read his words, they
smiled. They knew exactly what he meant. They had been on the
journey with him. ___________________________________
1Nadler, D.A. A Success Story: The Case of Lucent Technologies.
(1999) In Conger, J. A., Spreitzer, G. M., Lawler, E. E. (eds.)
Leaders Change Handbook. Jossey Bass: San Francisco, 3-26.
2 Mandel, Michael. This way to the Future. (2004) Business Week.
October 11, p. 96.