decision-making and teamwork, and decisions made alone must be communicated
to be understood – but in the storm, one must keep their hand on the rudder and
determine the course.
Executives must find new sources of security for themselves and their employees
in an uncertain environment. These include qualifications, skills and relationships,
which create a new, location-independent collective identity. Even mobile people
must be given a home, or as Reinhard K. Sprenger puts it: “Leadership can help to
compensate for those losses that accompany modernization: against the informal
homelessness on the Internet” (Sprenger 2000, p. 24).
Executives must be lighthouses and connect innovation and excellence with
dignity and respect, i.e. they must be unequivocal in their decisions, but fair and
humane in their tone (see Rosenstiel 2003). They must not break all traditions and
values, because old virtues are not necessarily outdated even if new ones are added.
The future needs background and experience (see Sprenger 2000, p. 24). Many
“dotcoms” learned this lesson painfully during the Internet hype of the late 1990s.
Although they had innovation, optimism and creativity, they had no experience
how to run a company, how to lead employees, how to operate economically, how
to manage efficiently, or how to survive crises.
Successful managers find the right balance between change and continuity,
flexibility and stability, and give other people security, even in change processes,
as Peter F. Drucker described in his book “Focus on Leadership”: “The vanguard of
change, however, drive changes forward. And yet this cannot work for them
without continuity. People need to know where they stand. They must know the
people with whom they work. They must know what awaits them. They have to
know the values and rules of the organization. They cannot fulfill their responsi-
bilities if their environment is unpredictable, incomprehensible or unknown. (...)
And also the company itself needs a “personality” that makes it unmistakable for its
customers and the market – and this is again not only valid for businesses” (Drucker
1999, p. 133).
It is absolutely essential that managers serve as role models. “Practice what you
preach,” as the Americans say. But “role model” is a big title, which many reject
because it sounds like big responsibility, idealization and hero worship, even like
self-sacrifice. In the end it is especially about your personal credibility and value
compass, which always has to give a direction that others can follow. If costs are
being cut across the organization, and perhaps even jobs are lost, but the executive
board approves a significant raise for itself, then this is an extreme example of
untrustworthiness to me. Significant and visible self-restraint on the part of the
executives would make them “role models.” They should be the first to tighten their
belts in such situations, and one hole tighter than everyone else.
This is because being a role model has nothing whatsoever to do with special
status – it has to do with fairness, responsibility, reliability and service. Good
leaders show that they can make personal sacrifices to achieve corporate objectives,
rather than letting others struggle or even lose their jobs. It takes courage to be role
model. Ernest Hemingway defined courage as “steadfastness under exterior pres-
sure.” People trust those who do not buckle under outside pressure. Peter F. Drucker
3.2 Leading with Your Head and Heart 181