Great Leaders Have No Rules

by Kevin Kruse

  Copyright © 2019 by Kevin Kruse

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Rodale Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  crownpublishing.com

  rodalebooks.com

  RODALE and the Plant colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Some content has previously appeared on the author’s blog, kevinkruse.com, and forbes.com.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kruse, Kevin, 1967– author.

  Title: Great leaders have no rules : contrarian leadership principles to transform your team and business / Kevin Kruse.

  Description: First Edition. | New York : Rodale Books, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018038787| ISBN 9781635652161 (hardback) | ISBN 9781635652178 (eISBN)

  Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Management. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Leadership. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Management.

  Classification: LCC HD57.7 .K7848 2019 | DDC 658.4/092—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2018038787

  ISBN 9781635652161

  Ebook ISBN 9781635652178

  Cover design by Sarah Horgan

  v5.4

  ep

  Amanda, Natalie, and Owen,

  who already lead with empathy, kindness, and love

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Foreword

  Introduction

  1: CLOSE YOUR OPEN DOOR POLICY

  2: SHUT OFF YOUR SMARTPHONE

  3: HAVE NO RULES

  4: BE LIKABLE, NOT LIKED

  5: LEAD WITH LOVE

  6: CROWD YOUR CALENDAR

  7: PLAY FAVORITES

  8: REVEAL EVERYTHING (EVEN SALARIES)

  9: SHOW WEAKNESS

  10: LEADERSHIP IS NOT A CHOICE

  CONCLUSION

  Resources

  About LEADx

  Acknowledgments

  Works Cited

  About the Author

  FOREWORD

  One of the most popular Dilbert comic strips in the cartoon’s history begins with Dilbert’s boss relaying senior leadership’s explanation for the company’s low profits. In response to his boss, Dilbert asks incredulously, “So they’re saying that profits went up because of great management and down because of a weak economy?” To which Dilbert’s boss replies, “These meetings will go faster if you stop putting things in context.”

  Great leadership is indeed a difficult thing to pin down and understand. You know a great leader when you’re working for one, but even they can have a hard time explaining the specifics of what they do that makes their leadership so effective. Great leadership is dynamic; it melds a variety of unique skills into an integrated whole.

  Great leadership often requires counterintuitive action in critical moments. This is where Kevin Kruse comes in. You see, Kevin has a remarkable ability to spot where leaders lead themselves astray and turn this knowledge into simple actions any leader can take to change the course of a career for the better. That’s the beauty of this remarkable (and sorely needed) book.

  It’s pretty incredible how often you hear leaders complaining about their best employees leaving, and they really do have something to complain about—few things are as costly and disruptive as good people walking out the door.

  Leaders tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave bosses. Most leaders have good intentions, but, oftentimes, what you think you’re supposed to do as a leader is a real morale killer.

  Organizations know how important it is to have motivated, engaged employees, but most fail to hold leaders accountable for making it happen. When they don’t, the bottom line suffers. Research from the University of California found that motivated employees were 31 percent more productive, had 37 percent higher sales, and were three times more creative than demotivated employees. They were also 87 percent less likely to quit, according to a Corporate Leadership Council study of over 50,000 people.

  Gallup research shows that a mind-boggling 70 percent of an employee’s motivation is influenced by his or her boss and 70 percent of employees consider themselves to be not engaged at work. It’s pretty easy to see the opportunity.

  Leadership is the art of persuasion—the act of motivating people to do more than they ever thought possible in pursuit of a greater good.

  It has nothing to do with your title. It has nothing to do with authority, seniority, or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company. Too many talk about a company’s leadership while referring to the senior-most executives in the organization. They are just that, senior executives. Leadership doesn’t automatically happen when you reach a certain pay grade. Hopefully you find it there, but there are no guarantees. You can be a leader in your workplace, your neighborhood, or your family, all without having a title.

  Leadership has nothing to do with personal attributes. Say the word leader and most people think of a domineering, take-charge, charismatic individual. People often think of icons from history like General Patton or President Lincoln. But leadership isn’t an adjective. We don’t need to be extroverted or charismatic to practice leadership. And those with charisma don’t automatically lead.

  Leadership isn’t management. You have fifteen people who report to you and P&L responsibility? Good for you; hopefully you are a good manager. Good management is needed. Managers need to plan, measure, monitor, coordinate, solve, hire, fire, and so many other things. Managers spend most of their time managing things. Leaders lead people.

  You’re not a leader just because you have people reporting to you. And you don’t suddenly become a leader once you reach a certain pay grade. A true leader influences others to be their best. Leadership is about social influence, not positional power.

  So don’t wait for the title. Leadership isn’t something that anyone can give you—you have to earn it and claim it for yourself.

  This book will help you do just that.

  Travis Bradberry, PhD, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0

  INTRODUCTION

  I know two things about leadership that most people do not believe.

  First, leadership is a superpower.

  Second, almost everything we’ve been taught about leadership is wrong.

  Lack of leadership at work drove my first two companies into the ground. And leading effectively enabled me to go on to start, build, and sell several multimillion-dollar companies.

  Lack of leadership at home ended my marriage. Family leadership enabled me to raise three amazing kids as a single dad.

  Lack of self-leadership had me walking around half asleep, overweight, and depressed. Leading myself first now has me healthy, focused, and energized.

  If you are following traditional old-school management advice, you will derail your career or derail your family or both. Today our budgets are smaller and head count is fewer but we are asked to do more. We must navigate an environment impacted by merciless change, ceaseless 24/7 communication, and younger generations who have dramatically different values than their parents.

  This book has one purpose: to teach you how to be both the boss everyone wants to work for and the high achiever every CEO wants to hire—all without d
rama, stress, or endless hours in the office.

  The advice you’re about to read is grounded in solid research and based on my entrepreneurial experience starting and growing companies for the last three decades. These are companies that have won Inc. 500 awards for fast growth, as well as “best place to work” awards for employee satisfaction.

  It’s also based on my interviews with over two hundred guests on the LEADx Leadership podcast. I’ve gleaned real-world wisdom from management gurus like Dan Pink, Liz Wiseman, and Kim Scott; CEOs like Jason Fried of Basecamp, Mike McDerment of FreshBooks, and Jim Whitehurst of Red Hat; military professionals like submarine commander David Marquet, combat pilot Vernice Armour, and US Army major Joe Byerly; and productivity experts like Rory Vaden, Jeff Sanders, and Craig Ballantyne.

  I started the LEADx Academy (www.leadx.org) with the vision of providing world-class leadership education to anyone, anywhere, free of charge. I believe leadership is the greatest force for good. Through online training, articles, and podcasts LEADx has already helped people in 192 countries to realize that leadership is not a choice. If leadership is influence, it means all of us are leading those around us every single day.

  To get the most out of this book, I encourage you to do three things.

  First, suspend disbelief. Every chapter is filled with advice and tactics that go against conventional wisdom. You will hear your inner voice exclaim, I could never do that—that would never work in my company! Pay that voice no mind. You can overcome that cognitive dissonance by questioning the effectiveness of your current leadership approach, and by testing out your new superpowers one at a time.

  Second, download the Great Leaders Have No Rules Action Plan (www.LEADx.org/​actionplan). It will provide a great overview to the content and will help you to apply new concepts at work and at home.

  Third, read this book (of course). Without disbelief, with the action plan, chapter by chapter you will soon become the boss you always wished you had yourself.

  Kevin Kruse

  Philadelphia, PA, 2019

  1

  CLOSE YOUR OPEN DOOR POLICY

  On May 10, 2017, TV talk-show host Steve Harvey broke the internet.

  Not literally of course. From social media to the nightly news, people expressed outrage over what Variety called a “shocking memo” sent by Harvey to his staff (Wagmeister 2017). With blunt language, he let everyone know to leave him alone. He wrote in part:

  I’d like you all to review and adhere to the following notes and rules for Season 5 of my talk show.

  There will be no meetings in my dressing room. No stopping by or popping in. NO ONE.

  Do not come to my dressing room unless invited.

  Do not open my dressing room door. IF YOU OPEN MY DOOR, EXPECT TO BE REMOVED.

  My security team will stop everyone from standing at my door who have the intent to see or speak to me.

  I want all the ambushing to stop now. That includes TV staff.

  You must schedule an appointment.

  While his memo went viral and there was universal shock, I was shocked that everyone else was shocked.

  Steve Harvey was right.

  Could he have phrased it differently? Absolutely. Even my teenagers know all caps is never a good idea.

  Realize that Harvey is sixty years old and hosts a radio show, a TV talk show, Family Feud, Little Big Shots talent show, and various other programs. He routinely travels between Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta to produce these programs. He is a father and a grandfather.

  I’m ten years younger and need a nap just from thinking about his schedule.

  Everyone on Steve Harvey’s staff should know better. They need him to be energized, funny, and creative. They don’t need him to micromanage show details or to be signing autographs.

  It’s shocking he had to send the memo at all. Doesn’t he have a highly paid assistant—serving as chief of staff—to optimize his time? Why isn’t the show producer acting as the gateway to the rest of the staff?

  You can tell that the memo was written with emotional honesty, in a time of frustration. But he wasn’t wrong.

  “GOT A MINUTE?”

  While I may not be a talk-show host I can definitely relate to the problem of unscheduled “pop-ins.”

  The three-word question that used to send chills down my spine: “Got a minute?”

  I’m working on next year’s strategic plan and budget. How will my company go from $5 million in annual sales to $10 million in a single year? That’s the goal set by my strategic partner—who will fund the growth—and it’s up to me to show how we’re going to do it.

  Let’s see…if I add two more sales reps in column X, at $90,000 a piece, and they each increase sales starting in month six by—

  Knock, knock, knock. “Got a minute?”

  I want to be supportive of my team members. I want to be a good leader. So…

  “Sure, Tracy, what’s up?”

  She steps in and displays a 3-D picture of a conference exposition booth. “I’m getting ready to approve the final booth design. They made the changes we asked for last week. Does it look okay to you?”

  “I told you last week it looked good to me with the changes.”

  “I know, but this is the final final design. Before I go spend $10,000 I thought I should check—”

  “Tracy, you got this. Budget is fine, design is fine.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  I sigh.

  Okay, where was I? Impact of hiring more sales reps. What column was the number of sales reps on this sheet? There—column X. If I add two reps—

  Knock knock. “Got a minute?”

  Really?!

  IN SEARCH OF COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPARENCY

  An open door policy refers to the practice of business or organizational leaders leaving their doors open so that employees feel welcome to stop by and meet informally, ask questions, or discuss matters that have been weighing on their minds.

  These days, with open office environments, coworking spaces, and remote team members working around the globe, the “open door policy” is more metaphorical than ever before. The equivalent of walking through a physical open door in many organizations is now: sending an SMS phone text message, a direct message on Facebook or Slack, an instant message on Skype, or a ping on Basecamp.

  Regardless of whether the interruption is through an actual door or a digital door, the theory is that an organization uses such openness to build a culture of trust, collaboration, communication, and respect regardless of an individual’s position in the hierarchy. Access to executives should reduce workplace gossip and rumors.

  The goals of an open door policy are admirable; who wouldn’t want that?

  But while the goals are noble the disadvantages are real. When I surveyed a hundred thousand subscribers to my newsletter and online community, I was flooded with stories of open doors gone awry from managers and individual contributors alike.

  BUT I DON’T WANT TO SPEAK UP!

  Do team members really want an open door?

  Over a decade ago, University of Virginia professor James Detert and Harvard professor Amy Edmondson set out to discover why some employees bring ideas to their managers and others don’t. They interviewed approximately two hundred people in a high technology company and discovered that about half of them chose to hold back from sharing information that could be beneficial for the company (Detert and Edmondson 2007). Why? The professors explain:

  In a phrase, self-preservation. While it’s obvious why employees fear bringing up certain issues, such as whistle-blowing, we found the innate protective instinct so powerful that it also inhibited speech that clearly would have been intended to help the organization. In our interviews, the perceived risks of speaking up felt ve
ry personal and immediate to employees, whereas the possible future benefit to the organization from sharing their ideas was uncertain. So people often instinctively played it safe by keeping quiet. Their frequent conclusion seemed to be, “When in doubt, keep your mouth shut.”

  Detert and Edmondson found that some workers referenced company myths of individuals who publicly shared their ideas and were “suddenly gone from the company.”

  Indeed, Gerry is one of my readers who emailed me to describe what happened when he used the open door policy of his manager’s manager.

  In a meeting with him, I told him about some of the problems of performance and communication we had with my immediate manager who was new and inexperienced. I also suggested some solutions…a few days later he told my manager what I said. That created a bad situation between the two of us. My manager soon left the company and a few months later I also was forced to leave.

  Is there any substance to these stories of being fired for using the open door? In reality, it doesn’t matter. If the perception is there, then the danger of employees holding back is guaranteed.

  Whether conscious or unconscious, employees are weighing the potential risk against the potential reward. Only if the benefit far outweighs the risk will they then proactively walk through the open door. Putting the responsibility on those individuals to openly communicate their problems or suggestions is keeping half your team members silent.

  LEAPFROGGING THE CHAIN OF COMMAND

  If only half the people in the corporate world feel comfortable with the open door policy, it may be even worse in the military, especially when the open door policy is used to leapfrog one’s direct leader and take an issue to a higher level.