Why do some managers succeed and why do others fail? Mediocre performance in management is born from a failure to understand that real leadership requires action and exceptional accomplishment in meeting goals and working well with others. Plain and simple-effective leadership is the key to building great companies.

David Reeves, a successful business leader who developed profitable agencies for a major life insurance company for more than twenty-seven years, shares principles that will help others identify the difference between management and leadership, learn how to effectively lead a group, and motivate others to accomplish goals. Through sharing his own personal experiences and the stories of successful leaders, Reeves teaches managers and future leaders how to:

• Develop personal integrity that is strong enough to make and keep commitments
• Find the courage to change the things that must be changed
• Listen and communicate effectively
• Recruit and hire only the best individuals
• Build a culture focused on excellence

The Character of Leadership guides managers through an in-depth thinking process that will help them become the kind of leaders who inspire others to achieve greatness.

The Character of Leadership

The Roadmap and Compass That Guides You through the Landmines of ManagementBy David W. Reeves

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 David W. Reeves
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-1262-5

Contents

Introduction....................................................................xiChapter 1 Do What The Best Are Doing...........................................1Chapter 2 Leadership Versus Management.........................................11Chapter 3 Courageous Leadership................................................21Chapter 4 What We've Got Here Is A Failure To Communicate......................31Chapter 5 What I Do Is Exceedingly Different...................................39Chapter 6 The Excellence Paradigm..............................................51Chapter 7 Quality Leadership Equals Quality Results............................61Chapter 8 We're Looking for a Few Good Men.....................................71Chapter 9 I Love Knowledge.....................................................79Chapter 10 The Power Of Discipline..............................................85Chapter 11 The Trouble With You, Dave, Is You Think Too Big.....................91Chapter 12 You Are Never Going to Be the Same...................................101Chapter 13 To Thine Own Self Be True............................................109Chapter 14 If I Don't Do it, Who Will?..........................................119Chapter 15 You Can Count on Me..................................................129Chapter 16 Understanding Business...............................................141

Chapter One

Do What The Best Are Doing

That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do, not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our power to do it has increased. -Heber J. Grant

Long before I became successful at agency building, I ran track for Brigham Young University. By the spring of 1966, my best time in the hundred was 9.5 seconds, which was good enough to win most meets in our conference, but it wasn't nearly good enough for me to be noticed in national meets.

Early in my senior year, I was sitting in the stands at a major national meet held in Southern California. I was feeling sorry for myself after having finished poorly in both the hundred and the two hundred races. Down in the infield sat Tommie Smith of San Jose State University; Tommy held the world record for two-hundred-meters, and was among the best in the world at one-hundred-meters. Though I had never met him, I went down to the infield, walked right up, and blurted out, "Tommie, I'm Dave Reeves from BYU, and I was just wondering if you could tell me what it is you do every day?"

He said, "You mean my workout?"

I said, "Yes."

He told me to get something to write on. I did, and he began to write. He wrote down what he did on Monday, Tuesday, and every day of the week, including the day before the meet and the day of the meet. He told me how he warmed up and how he warmed down. Then he actually showed me the best thing of all: the "Sprint Form Workout," which he'd learned from his coach, the great Bud Winter.

I took that workout back to Provo, and on the following Monday, I began to do exactly what Tommie Smith was doing in his workout. My sprint coach didn't think much of it, mainly because it wasn't his idea, but I had tried doing it his way for two years and the results were less than spectacular.

Every week, I was getting just a little faster and a little better as my own "sprint form" improved.

Five weeks later, Tommie and the San Jose State University Track Team came to Provo. I was about to learn whether the metamorphosis of Dave Reeves was complete.

We were called to our marks in the one-hundred-yard dash. The gun went off, and I was out of there like a shot. At twenty-five yards, I had him by one foot. At fifty yards, I had him by one yard. At seventy-five yards, I had him by two feet. At ninety yards, I had him by one foot. At ninety-eight yards, he was right on my shoulder, and I could see him in my peripheral vision, which is when I made a bad tactical error and lunged for the tape. Those of you who have run track know that the lunge broke my stride, while Tommie, still in erfect form, leaned into the tape and beat me by three inches. We both ran that hundred-yard race in 9.3 seconds.

As we got to the end of the straightaway and turned to walk back, I said, "Nice race, Tommie."

He said, "Yeah, Reeves, nice race ... I didn't tell you everything, did I?"

Even though I lost that race, I learned a valuable lesson. By implementing what one of the best sprinters in the world was doing, I improved my time for one-hundred-yards by two-tenths of a second. At that speed I had crossed the finish line six feet ahead of where I had finished my races in the past. The results of changing the way I had been doing things prior to meeting Tommie, produced an improvement of two-tenths of a second. Two-tenths of a second makes the difference between world class and average college speed.

Although hard work is a key ingredient to success, it is not necessarily the primary element. Before talking to Tommy, I had already been working harder than the other sprinters on my team. After I armed myself with Tommy's workout, what changed was the refining of my technique. That was the primary element necessary for me to accomplish my objective.

In track and in business, I have seen many individuals fail in their pursuit of success, not because they weren't working hard, but because the way they went about achieving total success lacked that primary element, and they never knew it. Those individuals didn't need to work harder; they needed to learn how to refine their technique.

My purpose in sharing this story is not to impress you with my athletic brilliance, but rather to illustrate the point that in order to be the best, all you have to do is what the best are doing. Refining technique is not as simple as it sounds, because it requires change. Change, in turn, requires personal discipline, and in the maze of "quick fix solutions" in which we live, many individuals struggle with discipline. The truly great ones in both athletics and business are totally committed to following the roadmaps that are put forth by the real winners in their particular fields. They do so with integrity and without concern for how long it takes to accomplish the objective. By following such roadmaps, without wavering, the disciplined ones become the winners they emulate.

The trouble with such lofty ideals is that today's world gives little fellowship to the virtues of commitment, integrity, and discipline. Nevertheless, those who claim the prize of real greatness in what they do are successful because they are willing to do the things that the unfocused, uncommitted, and undisciplined will not do.

I'm reminded of a timeless presentation by Albert E. N. Gray, the former Vice President of Prudential Life Insurance Company. In that presentation titled The Common Denominator of Success, Gray said: "The common denominator of success-the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful-lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do."

As you nod in agreement, perhaps you find yourself saying, "That's right!" Somehow, you always knew that was so, and this statement resonates within you.

My experience is that most great leaders have this uncanny habit of doing things that failures don't like to do. Not only that, but these leaders persevere without sacrificing any of he objectives they set out to accomplish in the first place. Somewhere along the way, as Gray said, they learned that the secret of every man and woman who has ever been successful is that they formed the habit of doing things that failures will not do. Gray went on to say:

"Perhaps you have been discouraged by a feeling that you were born subject to certain dislikes peculiar to you, with which successful men and women ... are not afflicted. Perhaps you have wondered why it is that our biggest producers seem to like to do the things that you don't like to do. They don't! And I think this is the most encouraging statement I have ever offered [to any group]. But if they don't like to do these things, why do they do them? Because by doing the things they don't like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to accomplish."

"Successful men and women are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do.

Why are successful people able to do things they don't like to do, while failures are not? Because successful people have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don't like to do, in order to accomplish the purpose they want to accomplish."

I discovered how true that was when I accepted a consulting assignment some years ago. At the time, the president of our company asked me to visit a young manager who couldn't seem to figure out why he and his sales team were unable to follow through on their goals.

When I visited with this young manager, trying to learn his perspective on the problem, he said, "I don't get it. I work hard. I show up early, and I stay late. What am I missing?"

I told him that even though it appeared that he was working hard and long enough, I wondered if there was a lack of purpose in the whole process.

His response was, "I have plenty of purpose and so do the members of my team. We have families to take care of and lifestyles to support. Isn't that a good enough purpose?"

I told him that it wasn't, because it appeared to me that their purpose wasn't strong enough to make them form the habit of doing the things they didn't like to do. Simply said, it was easier for them to adjust to the hardships of earning an average living, than it was to adjust themselves to the hardships of making a great living. Quoting Albert Gray, I continued, "If you doubt me, just think of all the things you are willing to go without in order to avoid doing the things you don't like to do." You have to realize that your current process is perfectly designed to give you the results you are getting.

To go back to the spring of 1966 when I was running track, the process I'd been implementing prior to meeting Tommie Smith had been perfectly designed to get the results I was getting-and I wasn't very happy about it. When I met Tommie and started doing what he did, my ability to compete at his level increased dramatically.

Emulating the best was not an easy concept for my young colleague to embrace, because it required him to follow principals that were new to him, and it also required him to excel in his management role at a faster pace than he had grown accustomed to. As I continued to mentor him in the hings he needed to do to become successful, I introduced him to the profound words of Heber J. Grant: "That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our power to do it has increased."

I told him that when this great truth became second nature to him, the things he needed to change would become less burdensome and a lot more rewarding.

And so it is with us. If we have a fire in the gut, the undying need to accomplish, a willingness to consistently do the things that successful people do, then the metamorphosis required to bring the desired results becomes easier.

But you must take care as you plan the necessary changes. Most of us have learned that meaningless plans promise failure, too much failure produces discouragement, and too much discouragement kills initiative. So be wise. Don't run faster than you're able, and don't try and do everything at once. Be patient with your process. Avoid negative self-talk and remember that the great ones you know have already gone through the pain you are now experiencing. That which you persist in doing really will become easier for you to do.

What if changing what you do seems unrealistic? What if the thought makes you say: "I guess I don't have what it takes." If that happens, you must step back, breathe deeply, and ask yourself if what you are doing looks anything like what the best are doing. If you cannot honestly say that it does, or if you really don't know what the best in your industry do, then you must find out who and where these people are and learn what makes them so successful. Doing anything else will put you on a path to mediocre results or even failure, where you will learn a new meaning to the words: "If you continue to do what you've always done, you'll continue to get what you've always got."

Are You Just Doing Good Enough?

Consider the opening lines from the poem Good Enough by Edgar A. Guest:

My son, beware of "good enough," it isn't made of sterling stuff; It's something any man can do, It marks the many from the few.

There's more to the poem, but the point of mentioning it is to clarify three things:

Doing what you've always done is simply not "good enough." The term "good enough" suggests that just getting by is acceptable. Believing yourself "good" (in comparison to others who lead) is precisely what's holding you back.

The poem's concluding lines clarify that doing only the best is "good enough." Consider the final stanza:

The flaw which may escape the eye ... shall weaken underneath the strain and wreck the ship or car or train. For this is true of men and stuff Only the best is "good enough."

Over the years, I learned that this was not just a nice little poem. Instead, it describes the philosophy that motivates real leaders to accomplish their plans and goals.

I learned that it simply wasn't "good enough" to get by, to just take care of the basics. I learned that great accomplishment happens by being exceptional, and I applied the lessons learned in my role as the leader of our exceptional organization. It was never "good enough" for us to finish in the top three agencies for the year, because the plan was to finish first. Doing what the best were doing became part of the way we went about building the best offices in the company, and eventually, one of the best organizations in the industry.

The real world of business is considerably more challenging than it has ever been. The "just getting by" mentality doesn't make it today. Great organizations must evolve if they expect to win in business.

Here's the lesson:

Hard work alone is not enough to achieve success. Technique refinement is the essential element, not just hard work. To be the best, emulate what the best are doing. You must form the habit of doing things that failures will not do. Your current process is perfectly designed for the results you're getting.

Chapter Two

Leadership Versus Management

Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination. -Alexander Haig

I attended a national management conference a few years ago. The keynote speaker was Alden Porter, one of the most successful agency builders in our industry. He gave a talk entitled, "There Are No Heroes Anymore." Initially, I was bothered by the theme; I had a whole list of heroes that included the speaker. What was he talking about?

As that presentation continued, it became clear that Porter was talking about the dearth of leadership in society, in general, and particularly in government and business. He pointed to the general lack of leadership and integrity that we encounter often, questioning where men such as Washington, Adams, Lincoln, Churchill, and a host of others had gone. As I listened, I thought of what we had all learned in our history classes about the decline and eventual collapse of the Greco-Roman world in ancient times, and then the focus shifted from government to business.

Porter listed a handful of companies that had been caught in that downward shift from great leadership to the mediocrity of managing the status quo and how that loss of leadership had led to the failure of those companies. He spoke of how corporate greed and the decline of traditional moral values throughout the country provided painful evidence that the culture of basic goodness and virtue was declining.

That meeting was one of the defining moments in my career. It was then that I decided that having a "pretty good" organization was not enough. I decided to find and develop a group of individuals whose personal integrity and character would be strong enough for my vision to make big plans, set goals, follow through, and keep every promise necessary to accomplish those plans.

Not only would our people be men and women of high integrity, but I would provide the kind of leadership in this organization that would be contagious, challenging, and positive in its application. I determined that what my people would get from being part of such an organization would be very different from what others were getting in the typical business. Our agency would be founded on a simple mission statement: "What I do is exceedingly different. I treat my client the way that I would want to be treated if the roles were reversed. Doing so, earns me the privilege of being totally referable."

It may be that as you read our simple (some would say, sophomoric) mission statement, you might be rolling your eyes as you say: "Oh yeah, right! That's just the sort of nave thinking that novices have when they first launch a new endeavor." Those who suffer from the cynical approach to building quality companies might also say, "In the real world of business, such lofty ideals cannot actually work over an extended period of time." If that's what you think, you're wrong; we lived our mission statement. Real leadership demanded it.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Character of Leadershipby David W. Reeves Copyright © 2010 by David W. Reeves. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.