The One Thing You Need to Know: About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success.

Marcus Buckingham, Best-Selling Author and Expert on Outstanding Leadership and Management Practices, Interviewed by Richard M. Vosburgh, Hewlett Packard

RV: Marcus, in this interview we explore the key concepts in your recent book: The One Thing You Need to Know: About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success. Thank you for agreeing to share your ideas with the Human Resource Planning Society readership. I have to begin more personally, though: It has been a great pleasure to know both you and your father over the past 10 years. Having worked with your Dad in Europe, I can really appreciate what you, your Dad, and even your grandfather have given to the field of what we now call Human Resources. Would you like to say a few words about your father and grandfather?

MB: Richard, that's a surprising question, but thank you for asking! My grandfather and father had long careers in the HR field. My grandfather was one of the first graduates of the London Business School's personnel diploma after the Second World War and then went on to a career as a personnel officer for British European Airways (a precursor to British Airways). My dad was the chief personnel officer for both Gallaher and Allied Breweries. So I guess it's in the blood! RV: Clearly, the apple does not fall far from the tree. As a preface, can you tell us how you went about the research that resulted in your recent book?

MB: My research experiences at Gallup mostly consisted of surveying large numbers of people in the hopes of identifying broad patterns in the data. In my effort to get to the heart of things, I used this foundation as the jumping-off point for deeper, more immersive, more individualized research. I identified one or two elite players, one or two people who, in their chosen roles and fields, had measurably, consistently, and dramatically outperformed their peers. Having identified them, I spent time with them in search of--not theoretical patterns, but specific actions--their day-to-day practice. My question: What were these special people actually doing that made them so very good at their role?

These individuals ranged from the executive who transformed a failing drug into the highest-selling prescription drug in the world, the president of one of the world's largest retailers, the customer service representative who sold more than 1,500 Gillette deodorants in one month, the miner who hadn't suffered a single workplace injury in over 50 years, all the way to the screenwriter who penned such blockbusters as Jurassic Park and Spiderman. What intrigued me most about each of these people's endeavors were the practical, seemingly banal details of their actions and their choices. Why did the executive turn down repeated promotions before taking on the challenge of turning around that failing drug? Why did the retail president invoke the memories of his working-class upbringing when defining his company's strategy? The deodorant-selling customer service representative works the night shift. Is this relevant to her performance? One of her hobbies is weightlifting. Odd? Yes, but can it in any way explain why she is so successful so consistently?

RV: Intriguing questions and I look forward to exploring these with you. As a road map for our readers, we've agreed on the following sequence for this interview:

1. Definitions of managing versus leading

2. Talents of the manager versus the leader

3. What managers and leaders need to know

Definitions of Managing Versus Leading

RV: Let's start with some basic definitions on the differences between management and leadership. What does a manager do?

MB: A manager turns one person's talents into performance. A manager acts as a facilitator to speed up the reaction between the talents of the person and the goals of the organization. A manager's focus is on the success of each individual. This doesn't mean being soft on expectations for performance. Rather it is about genuinely allowing your employees to see that their success is your primary goal. Once that is clear, even if the manager is tough, expectant, and demanding about high standards, the person has confidence the manager believes in him/her and will then find a way to be successful.

RV: Well then, what does a leader do?

MB: A leader rallies people to a better future. The leader starts with the future, not with the person, and then uses the people to create the future. Leaders are restless for change, impatient for progress, and dissatisfied with the status qua. John F. Kennedy's winning U.S. Presidential debate with Richard M. Nixon was not just won over Nixon's shadowy beard! Kennedy earned strong leadership points when he repeated over five times "I am not satisfied" with various things that should be improved in the United States to make it have a brighter future. "I am not satisfied" is the mantra of a leader.

Talents of the Manager Versus the Leader

RV: Let's differentiate between the talent needed to be a great manager versus that needed to be a great leader. Let's start with the talents of a great manager.

MB: The great manager shows two main talents: First, a natural coaching instinct--in other words, the ability to see and to derive satisfaction from seeing small increments of growth in someone else. Second, a quality I call individualization: namely, the ability to see fine shadings of uniqueness among the different people he/she manages.

RV: What then are the core talents of a great leader?

MB: The core talents of great leaders are optimism and ego. Optimism is the unflinching belief that things can and will get better--the best leaders see the present for what it is, but the future seems even more vivid to them. And it's the friction between the "what is" and the "what could be" that gets them out of bed every morning and drives them on. In this sense, the opposite of a leader isn't a follower. The opposite of a leader is a pessimist. Effective leaders must also have powerful egos, by which I mean, not arrogance or egomania, but a need to stake outstanding claims to excellence and an unflinching belief that they should be at the helm rallying everyone to ensure these claims come true. After all, the "better" future requires not just someone with the optimism to see it, but also someone with the ego to believe that he or she is the one to make it real.

RV: What do you think of the concept of "humble leadership" that is so much in the literature today?

MB: I have a difficult time with the world "humble." Virtually nothing about an effective leader is humble. Leaders do not set humble goals. They don't have humble dreams. They don't have a humble assessment of their own abilities. I'm not suggesting that they are arrogant "know-it-alls"--in fact, when you study effective leaders, you find them to be inquisitive types, hungry for that one new insight that might give them an edge. Nonetheless, to tell leaders that the best route to improvement is to lessen personal goals, downplay their dreams, or make their self-assessment more humble is confusing, negating advice. Much better to tell them to keep staking outstanding claims to excellence and then, if they want to grow, simply to become better and better at persuading other people to rally around making these claims come true.

RV: What about the current focus on integrity as a leadership trait?

MB: I would say that integrity is a valuable human trait and certainly a requirement in business today. But it is not uniquely a leadership trait. Each of us should have it.

RV: One more summary, please: Compare and contrast the great manager and the great leader.

MB: The great manager's starting point is the individual. He or she seeks to understand the talents, skills, knowledge, experience, and goals of the individual and then finds ways to help make the person successful. Great leaders' starting point is the "better future" they see in their mind's eye. This future is what he or she ruminates on, defines, and refines. Guided by this clear image of a better future, he or she then rallies people toward it--but through it all, the future remains the focus.

What Managers and Leaders Need to Know

RV: Let's recap. So far, you have defined the differences between managing and leading and you have described the talents that it takes to manage versus to lead. Now we are moving on to talk about what leaders know in order to be effective. What does a great manager need to know?

MB: The best managers need to know that the key to success is to discover what is unique about each person and then capitalize on it. The best managers do not deal in generalizations such as "all salespeople are motivated by money" or "all accountants are shy and retiring." They know that each person brings to the table certain unique predispositions, and the manager's job is to set expectations, mete out praise, create partnerships, and offer coaching in such as way as to take greatest advantage of these unique predispositions. In short, the best managers know that their job is not to grind individual differences down and try to create well-rounded, homogeneous employees. Rather, their job is to channel each person's uniqueness toward performance.

RV: "Uniqueness" encompasses a wide range of qualities and styles. How can a manager get his or her head around it all? What exactly must a manager know about a person to be able to manage him or her well?

MB: My research would suggest that, at the very least, a manager should know three things about each employee:

1. Strengths and weaknesses;