Bob Behn’s Performance Leadership Report

An occasional (and maybe even insightful) examination of the issues, dilemmas, challenges, and opportunities for improving performance and producing real results in public agencies.

Vol. 10, No. 8, April 2012 On why all public officials need to learn how to Copyright © 2012 by Robert D. Behn

Exercise Leadership Without Authority Last September, the Boston Red Throughout his career, however, Traditionally, however, we have Sox collapsed. They didn’t just col- has been a clubhouse implicitly associated leadership with lapse. They Collapsed—with a capital leader. He never had any official au- authority. The leader is the person at C. It was the biggest collapse since thority. He was just one of twenty-five the top of the hierarchy: the mayor of the Berlin Wall. players. Yet, he exercised leadership. the city, the president of the firm, the At the end of last August, with just In September 2011, not one of the director of the department. Of course, 27 games to play, Boston had a nine- twenty-five players on the Boston Red when this hierarchical superior is game lead in the race to make the Sox was able to exercise that kind of absent, the deputy automatically playoffs as the “wild-card” team. Of essential leadership. becomes the leader. their remaining games, however, the , of the Cleve- Moreover, we assign to this hierar- team won just seven. Instead of going land Indians, is known as a motiva- chical head a clear and central role— to the playoffs, the team went home. tor—someone who can get the best the formal responsibility for the organi- The recriminations came quickly. It out of his players. Yet he recognizes zation’s future. For the rest of us, this was revealed that several starting the value of leadership from within is convenient. We have delegated (if were eating chicken and the team. “If you can have two or only implicitly) the guidance and drinking beer in the clubhouse during three guys in the clubhouse who put operation of the organization to the the games. The field manager was out the fires, that means a lot, be- individual at the very top. This dismissed, and the general manager cause players respond to their peers.” “leader” is responsible; the rest of us left. Red Sox Nation was not happy. Any team needs people who will tell are not. And if things go wrong, we In their collapse, what did the Red their colleagues, “I know you’re hurt. know who is to be held accountable. Sox miss most? Pitching? Hitting? But you got to play. We need you. We If the team doesn’t make the play- Defense? need you today.” Says Acta, “every offs, the players still get to stay. It is What the Red Sox missed most was team needs those guys.” the m anager— the hierarchical Johnny Damon. “leader”—who gets fired. In 2004, Damon played center field Heifetz, however, tends “to avoid and lead-off. He started more “Leadership is not the same as the term leader because it generally games (148 out of 162) and played authority,” argue Heifetz and connotes an authority figure (the more innings than any other member Linsky. Heifetz focuses on the leader of the band) or a specific set of of the team. He was a key member of activity of “exercising leadership” personal traits (He’s a real leader).” that 2004 Red Sox team that won the and avoids the word “leader” Instead, in Leadership without Easy for Boston for the first because we implicitly assume the Answers, he prefers “to use the active time in 86 years. leader is the person at the top of phrase ‘exercising leadership.’ ” Hei- But wait, baseball aficionados will the organizational hierarchy. fetz wants to “focus on the activity of say. How could the Red Sox have leadership and not on the role of au- missed Damon last September? He thority or the intrinsic qualities of any hasn’t played for Boston since 2005. Acta thinks this peer-to-peer lead- person.” And this “activity of In the past six seasons, he had played ership is most powerful: “If their leadership” can come from anyone, four with the , one peers are telling them, ‘You’re mess- anywhere in the organization. with the , and another ing up, stop it,’ then that sometimes So far in 2012, the with the . means more and is more effective have continued their mediocre play of Moreover, during his seventeen- than if the manager or the coaches last September. Meanwhile, Johnny year career, Damon was never the are saying it.” Damon is playing—and providing league’s (or even his team’s) best What the Red Sox needed most last leadership without any authority—for . He never hit the most September was Johnny Damon. Not Manny Acta’s . d home runs or had the highest batting necessarily the Johnny Damon. Cer- average. He never ranked at the top of tainly, however, they needed a John- Robert D. Behn, a lecturer at Harvard the clever statistics created by the ny Damon. They needed someone who University's John F. Kennedy School sabermetricians of the Society for would say, “You’re messing up. You’ve of Government, chairs the executive- American Baseball Research. got to stop it. Stop it Now!” education program “Driving Govern- Damon was never a MVP. He never “Leadership is not the same as ment Performance: Leadership Strate- won any fancy awards. He is unlikely authority,” write Ron Heifetz and gies that Produce Results.” He is to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Marty Linsky in Leadership on the working on a book tentatively titled Fame. Line. The PerformanceStat Potential.

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