Chapter 5: Make a Difference: The Big Challenge

OVERVIEW

Leadership is always a risky business. ^{[ 1]} The statistics are alarming for leaders taking on new roles or assuming more visible responsibility. Not only do they frequently fail to make a difference, they often do not meet their own goals or live up to the expectations set for them. ^{[ 2]} It is these times of pivotal change ”the shift from manager to leader and movement upward in an organization ”that our interviews chronicle .

The Catalyst study mentioned in the Introduction confirmed what many of the leaders we interviewed already knew. ^{[ 3]} Certain sectors of the economy and specific companies are more hospitable to women than others. Our commentators deliberately set out to find organizations where they could contribute and where those contributions would be recognized. In other words, they searched for environments that fit with their personal styles and their own internal value systems.

Linda Green, featured in Chapter Four, looked for and got reassurance on the hard- core ethics of Clarendon Capital's top management. "A principled atmosphere is very much set at the top," she says. She could undertake the turnaround confident that no one in the parent company would mislead her or pressure her to cut corners. Alice Lind, profiled in Chapter One, drilled deep to test whether the company's professed commitment to its employees was real. "Everyone says that. They all claim they value their people," she says. From personal experience Alice had learned the cost of working in environments that paid only lip service to this commitment. She had reported to some incredibly smart people, but found much of her time spent "managing difficult bosses." Any contribution she hoped to make on this new assignment ”which carried responsibility for pulling together the right team ”hinged on the congruence between what the company said it valued and the practical realities driving its operations. In interview after interview, she quoted the company's mission statement without disclosing its source. "Do you recognize this organization?" she would ask. She was reassured when people did. Recall June, the senior woman at Xerox, quoted in Chapter Four, who applauded Ann Mulcahy's leadership style. Against the advice of many, she decided to take on a major new assignment at the troubled company. Xerox was on the ropes , but she prized its culture.

This is a learning environment. People tap into that. They can be stretched. They enjoy being stretched . We had gone through a turnaround in 1981 when the Japanese came after American companies. I remembered that. I remembered my first assignment ”and being on a plane at least once a month to get to the University campus. I remembered going online at 4:30 in the morning because courses were offered at EST.

Not only did this learning environment forge strong bonds across company ranks, she reasoned, it would foster the hard questioning ”the intellectual honesty and realism ”needed to get the company moving again.

Leadership is difficult in any context ”but almost impossible when there is no link between core values and the organizational culture. These are the nonnegotiables that defined Linda Green's and Alice Lind's decisions on whether to accept new positions ; they tipped June's judgment in favor of remaining at Xerox. Each, in her own way, was trying to weigh whether the organization's culture was one that rigorously found and then supported good people. ^{[ 4]} Each was seeking out an organization where she could lead in ways consistent with her values. Donna Fernandes found that resonance at the Buffalo Zoo, as did Susan Vega at her consulting firm.

A sense of who you are ”your basic values and what you want to accomplish, where you can be stretched ”keeps you centered and focused when taking on tough new assignments. It provides direction as you make choices ”on what battles to fight and what causes to champion. The values that attracted you to the organization also galvanize other people, so they both fortify you against the inevitable testing and make difficult decisions easier.

Frances, the teaching hospital COO featured in Chapter Four, had no problem with raising the stakes for everyone in the organization if they did not get behind the cost-cutting regime needed to save the institution.

The hospital is here for kids. I am deeply involved in education and my kids ' school. I make a difference there. At Children's I could complete the package. Before my professional life had been a little disconnected from that focus. I was a member of the transition team for the new governor . We were talking about the end of people's lives and how much money the state could devote to it or would have to devote to it. I suddenly thought about putting those resources to work on the front end. All that came together for me at Children's.

These values frame her decisions on the job. Indeed, the women whose stories we have recounted all believed in what they were doing. Their commitment to that work and to their organizations made it possible for them to hold a vision and energize others. Donna Fernandes wanted to transform the Buffalo Zoo so that it could become a rallying symbol of community revitalization. Linda Green wanted to restore a failing organization's reputation and lay a solid foundation for future growth. Susan Vega wanted to help her partners adapt to difficult market conditions so that they ”and their organization ”could flourish. These women ”and the many others featured in this book ”were committed to making a difference.

By a high percentage, the women who made differences in their organizations knew early on what they wanted to accomplish. It was the how that often eluded them at first. If they directed their initial strategic moves at securing backing and resources, they soon moved beyond these enabling allocations and mandates . Actively enlisting buy-in for their change agendas , they helped shape their organizations' futures . Not only did they want to make a difference, they wanted their organizations to recognize and build on their contributions.

^{[ 1]} Martin Linksy and Ronald A. Heifetz, Leadership on the Line .

^{[ 2]} Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins, Right from the Start .

^{[ 3]} Catalyst, The Bottom Line .

^{[ 4]} On an anecdotal basis our commentators confirm the findings Jim Collins reports in Good to Great . Great companies, Collins discovered , are those that bring talented people together and enable them to make a difference ” simultaneously encouraging their contributions and valuing them.