InOneWeekend – Raising Up A Leader…In 24 Hours
July 14, 2008
Ever read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team? What a great, quick read on understanding the problems that surface in a team. And what a great study of a leader who can bring order and alignment to a dysfunctional situation. The team’s work with InOneWeekend, our effort to bring together 100 imaginative and driven individuals to create an idea and standup a full-fledged company in three days (July 11th – July 13th, 2008), could easily have suffered any of these dysfunctions. Somehow we didn’t. The group policed itself, shutting down any threat knowing we only had three days to get this done.
Sure, the folks at Neyer Holdings organized the event with Elizabeth Edwards as the primary cheerleader. Steve Boord provided some semblance of order with a booming voice from time to time, but he didn’t bark orders at us. They brought in Jeff Stamp to unlock our creative juices and Roy Gilbert to motivate our sense of destiny. JB Kropp spoke to us on the life of an entrepreneur. Still, none of them explicitly told us what to do. My guess is that they came in with a plan, which is the right approach, and then quickly threw away the plan as they handed over direction to the rest of us.
We split ourselves into a number of groups: Management and Ops, Tech, Sales and Marketing, Finance, Branding, and Business Strategy. In each group a leader bubbled to the top. We spent Saturday and Sunday working together in our teams, coming together from time to time in town hall meetings to update the group on our progress.
I worked on the Business Strategy team where Craig Froehle slowly (relatively) became the obvious choice as our leader. Not that we weren’t looking for a leader quickly, but no one took the proverbial bull by the horns. And not that credentials don’t help, but Craig’s background as a project manager, business owner, and associate professor of business ops lent credibility to his contributions to the team. Craig directed our efforts, helped us all develop an action plan, and then begin plugging the holes in our research. By Saturday’s end the team had established Craig as our leader.
Having others grant a leader authority makes a team much more effective than a leader taking and establishing authority. In fact, Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge describe the most effective leader as having characteristics of establishing a clear vision, trustworthiness, and competence. It is fairly easy to cede leadership to someone exhibiting these characteristics. Craig quietly established himself this way on the Business Strategy team. His influence was clear to anyone walking into our room. Unlike many of the other rooms, when you walked into our room you could hear a pin drop. We each had a small job to do, and we each worked diligently to get it done. Then piece by piece the picture became clearer. We knew what our product had to do to stack up against the economic and technological trends, and more importantly, against our competition.
The influence of the Business Strategy team permeated much of the work on the other teams as we became the research group finding answers that would allow other teams to complete their pieces. Craig didn’t come to the table with all the answers, rather, he brought the ability for our team to get almost anything done for any other team to the table. And our team eagerly followed Craig. By mid-day Sunday, the entire group backed Craig as he was not so much appointed as he quietly assumed a spokesman role for the entire weekend. Craig helped compile the final presentation to launch our product, *************, and when he presented we all cheered with delight.
Watching this process unfold amazed me. All together – all 100 of us – we all made this possible. I think our chances at the beginning were 1 in 1000. We hit the 1. Amazing. I’m honored to have had this opportunity to work with such a fantastic group of people. Here’s to our public launch in a few days.
- Andy
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[...] the IT consultancy where I work. I just posted InOneWeekend thoughts on the LUCRUM blog about how we raised up a clear and obvious leader in 24 [...]
Craig did a fantastic job leading our team. The revenue stream dilemma that popped up on Sunday and the debate that surrounded it was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend, though I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t hear the term “conversion rate” for a while. It was nice meeting you and thanks for picking up the Chipotle. Burritos are a great way to fight the post-Monster crash.
What an incredibly insightful post. You’ve really captured a great story here about the Business Strategy group, the Weekend, and leadership. I can’t wait to read the rest of the stories that come out of this!
Thank you for being part of the Weekend!
- Elizabeth
Blog post: InOneWeekend – Raise Up A Leader in 24 Hours – http://is.gd/TuJ . @CRA1G, I think you’ll like this one.
[...] 3 days, one company! A great blog by one of the participants gives great insight into this event. InOneWeekend – Raising Up A Leader…In 24 Hours 2400 hours of work went into this unbelievable piece of work. Stay tuned to see how the company [...]
I never saw a clear leader all weekend, to be quite honest. We had a lot of strong personalities, but one weekend is not nearly enough time to see a true leader. Remember, a leader is one of people, not necessarily of an idea. That’s the most important factor in any business larger than a sole proprietorship.
Craig did an outstanding job in the presentation, but until I read this post, I never even considered that he would be considered “the leader” that emerged from the weekend. Spokesperson, perhaps, but not the leader.
Nothing against Craig. I thought he did an outstanding job, but your accolades of his work are limited to the group he was in. Those of us in the other groups saw Craig only during the presentations.
The true leader of the group never surfaced. Not because of anything the leader was or wasn’t, but because the other 99 of us all thought we were that one and weren’t ready to follow anyone with a singular vision.
The true leader never surfaced because he/she knew there was no need for another leader if there were no followers. The true leader of the weekend was somewhere in the background doing what needed to be done for the good of the project and the good of the team, without any recognition.
Somewhere, someone quietly made sure everything was accomplished. Someone calmed the overbearing, and ignited the timid. The irony is that among a group of 100 leaders, the one true leader knows the best way to lead the group isn’t to be the 101st person to stand up and declare themselves the leader, but the first person to sit back and guide the group to its destination without anyone even knowing it.
As the strongest personalities start to wear off over time, this person inevitably stands up with the respect of the group, and leads them forward. There wasn’t near enough time for those personalities to wear off.
All that being said, it certainly wasn’t me! It was all I could muster to keep from slugging a couple of you people
I attended this event and tried to make time to see what other groups were doing thoughout the weekend. What I found was a number of possible leaders. Craig was one of the people I suspected would emerge as a leader when I first met him. Others I suspected also emerged. They all believed in themselves and had a willingness to listen to others. They took time to consider what they said before they said it. And finally they had enough experience to lead the functional areas they took part in.
“A leader is a good follower, one that understands the collective whole, and has enough experience to be the voice of the people he/she leads…To go that extra mile, have humility, and discipline, while inspiring others to do the same. The mission of a leader must be clearly defined by character; the passion to lead their people and to inspire others to greatness”
Sharon Louallen
“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”
— General Colin Powell
“Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
— Peter F. Drucker
“To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’”
— Lao-tsu
“Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers.”
— Dee Hock
Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa
“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
— John Kenneth Galbraith
“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”
— Henry Kissinger
“No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.”
— Peter Drucker
“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.”
— John Buchan
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”
— Admiral James B. Stockdale
“Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
— Harry Truman
“A leader is one who influences a specific group of people to move in a God-given direction.”
— J. Robert Clinton
“All Leadership is influence.”
— John C. Maxwell
Injoy, Inc.
“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”
— Sam Rayburn
“Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others may receive your orders without being humiliated.”
— Dag Hammarskjöld
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, ‘We did this ourselves.’”
— Lao-Tse
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
“Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.”
— Harold Geneen
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”
— Max DePree
“Four rules of leadership in a free legislative body:
First, no matter how hard-fought the issue, never get personal. Don’t say or do anything that may come back to haunt you on another issue, another day….
Second, do your homework. You can’t lead without knowing what you’re talking about….
Third, the American legislative process is one of give and take. Use your power as a leader to persuade, not intimidate….
Fourth, be considerate of the needs of your colleagues, even if they’re at the bottom of the totem pole….”
— George Bush
Former President of the United States
“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
— Stephen R. Covey
“He who has great power should use it lightly.”
— Seneca
“How do you know you have won? When the energy is coming the other way and when your people are visibly growing individually and as a group.”
— Sir John Harvey-Jones
“The leader must know, must know that he knows, and must be able to make it abundantly clear to those around him that he knows.”
— Clarence Randall
“You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.”
— Ken Kesey
“As a leader, you’re probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you’re not around.”
— Patrick Lencioni
“Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values.”
— Mike Vance
“The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.”
— Andrew Carnegie
“My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.”
— General Montgomery
“High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.”
— George Orwell
“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.”
— Wangari Maathai
“I think leadership comes from integrity – that you do whatever you ask others to do. I think there are non-obvious ways to lead. Just by providing a good example as a parent, a friend, a neighbor makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things. Leadership does not need to be a dramatic, fist in the air and trumpets blaring, activity.”
— Scott Berkun
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
— Jack Welch
“I think that the best training a top manager can be engaged in is management by example. I want to make sure there is no discrepancy between what we say and what we do. If you preach accountability and then promote somebody with bad results, it doesn’t work. I personally believe the best training is management by example. Don’t believe what I say. Believe what I do.”
— Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan
I hope the above statements help to clarify the components that we must search for in deciding who our CEO will be…I think a selection must be made carefully and intelligently as we move to position our company for success…
All The Best,
Sharon
The group that came to IOW had self-selected themselves as leaders by giving up their weekend in an attempt to learn something, improve themselves, and maybe…..just maybe….. build something of economic value by Sunday night. This was a group of 100 leaders, each with their own talents.
It did seem true that some helped organize, guide and energize their groups more than others. But with such a motivated and talented group, only a gentle nudge was needed at times, and it always came in the form of a helpful suggestion.
It seemed that role of leaders in a group like this was very different from the classic stereotype. IOW was a very fluid environment where the ideas came flying in from everywhere to fast to count and tended to build one on another. I will have lasting memories of so many people speaking up at just the right moment….. it was…. and is a wonder how that happened.
Anyway, it was tremendous fun to be part of such a high performing group. Bravo and thank you IOW partners!
You guys are all amazing! I’m glad all this perspective is coming through. I wrote about my little piece of the weekend from my limited perspective. It’s great being able to hear everyone else’s perspective lending a more complete view of the process as a whole.
Thanks everyone for commenting!