seen by everybody. They can contribute quietly, but they can’t
say, ‘I’m not going to be involved in short-term thinking.’
Their obligation is to shareholders, and the shareholders are
represented by Wall Street, and that’s a vise they can’t get out
of. But if they can find a way to focus on it, the climate can
change, and then they can change with it.”
USING YOUR VOICE FOR CHANGE
Leading through voice, inspiring through trust and empathy,
does more than get people on your side. It can change the cli-
mate enough to give people elbow room to do the right things.
When they use their voices among their peers, leaders like
Burke improve the general climate as well as reshape their own
organizations to deal more effectively with the world.
The leader may discover that the culture of his or her own
organization is an obstacle to positive change, because as cur-
rently constituted, it is more devoted to preserving itself than
to meeting new challenges.
While at Apple, John Sculley talked about the need for or-
ganizations to change: “If you look at the post-World War II
era, when we were at the center of the world’s economy dur-
ing the industrial age, the emphasis was on self-sufficiency in
every sort of enterprise—in education, business, or govern-
ment. Organizations were very hierarchical. That model is no
longer appropriate. The new model is global in scale, an in-
terdependent network. So the new leader faces new tests, such
as how does he lead people who don’t report to him—people
in other companies, in Japan or Europe, even competitors.
How do you lead in this idea-intensive, interpendent-network
Getting People on Your Side