Unnatural Leadership

DAVID L. DOTLICH, former executive vice president of Honeywell and Groupe Bull, is a partner of CDR International (www.cdrintl.com) and coauthor of Action Learning (Jossey-Bass, 1998) and Action Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 1999), both of which identify breakthrough ways to develop leaders and are used by companies throughout the world. He is a business adviser, educator, and coach to top executives of Johnson & Johnson, Intel, Siemens, Bank of America, Novartis, Sun Microsystems, The Gap, Nike, Sprint, Washington Mutal, and more.PETER C. CAIRO, former chair of the Department of Organizational and Counseling Psychology at Columbia University, specializes in the areas of leadership development, executive coaching, and business effectiveness. He is a partner of CDR International (www.cdrintl.com). His clients include Andersen, Avon, Bank of America, Colgate Palmolive, Lilly, and Merck. He is coauthor of Action Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 1999).

• Foreword ixStephen H. RhinesmithPreface xvAcknowledgments xviiIntroduction 1Part One: The Importance of Unnatural Leadership1 Ten Unnatural Acts 11Exercise: Assessing Your Unnatural Leadership 292 Adapting to an Increasingly Unnatural Environment 31Exercise: Breaking the Rules of Natural Leadership 463 Resistance Factors 47Exercise: Assessing Your Resistance to Unnatural Leadership 66Part Two: Personal Challenges for the Unnatural Leader4 Refuse to Be a Prisoner of Experience 71Exercise: Refusing to Be a Prisoner of Experience 865 Expose Your Vulnerabilities 89Exercise: Exposing Your Vulnerabilities 1026 Acknowledge Your Shadow Side 107Exercise: Acknowledging Your Shadow Side 1227 Develop a Right-Versus-Right Decision-Making Mentality 125Exercise: A Tool for Developing an Unnatural Decision-Making Mentality 137Part Three: Leading Teams as an Unnatural Leader8 Create Teams That Create Discomfort 141Exercise: Creating Teams That Create Discomfort 1589 Trust Others Before They Earn It 161Exercise: Trusting Others Before They Earn It 17410 Coach and Teach Rather Than Lead and Inspire 177Exercise: Coaching and Teaching Rather Than Leading and Inspiring 188Part Four: Leading the Organization as an Unnatural Leader11 Connect Instead of Create 193Exercise: Connecting Instead of Creating 20612 Give Up Some Control 209Exercise: Giving Up Some Control 22113 Challenge the Conventional Wisdom 225Exercise: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom 23914 Giving Yourself Unnatural Options 243Bibliography 251Index 257About the Authors 267

"...well presented challenging ideas..." (Long Range Planning, Number 38, 2005) Pity the CEO who thinks he can be a know-it-all micromanager and still succeed. In Unnatural Leadership (Jossy-Bass), executive coaches David L. Dotlich and Peter Cairo list 10 guidelines that today's best executives are adopting. Among them: inviting change, being approachable and considering the views of the mail-room kid with the green hair. "We tell our clients, 'You have to win your followers every day,' " says Dotlich. Some of the unnatural acts the authors recommend are: "Coach and Teach Rather Than Lead and Inspire," "Expose Your Vulnerabilities" and "Trust Others Before They Earn It." Cairo says what's missing from other leadership manuals are instructions on how to practice the techniques. So each chapter in this book ends with exercises like "acknowledging your shadow side" (the power-hungry, mircromanaging stuff) to smooth the transition from arrogance to unnatural humility. (Time Magazine, May 20, 2002) "...there is a lot here to stimulate you to review what you think is 'natural' and consider alternative courses of action which might prove, in the long term, to be more worthwhile..." (EDGE, Autuymn 2002)