LEE IACOCCA’S 9 Cs OF LEADERSHIP

by Paul Cormier, President, Cormier Strategy Advisors Inc.

March 2008

In his excellent 2007 book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca provides a great list of the nine qualities that true leaders should have:

 • Curiosity

• Creativity

• Communications

• Character

• Courage

• Conviction

• Charisma

• Competence

• Common Sense

All organizations should spend time assessing whether its leaders and its next generation of leaders possess these qualities. Below appear my views on what these characteristics entail and what to look for in leaders and potential leaders.

Curiosity

• A leader has a natural desire to understand what drives results, be it a football coach who wants to understand what must be done to win a game or a business leader who wants to know why people buy their product. By figuring out what drives results, you can understand the changes required to improve results.

• A leader must be open to new ideas.

• A leader must be able to listen.

Creativity

• The world is constantly changing and a leader must be willing to change with the times. Leadership is about managing change – things change and you adapt.

• A leader must be willing to try something different.

• A leader has the ability to think outside the box.

Communications

• A leader can communicate their vision – if you can’t tell people where you want to lead them, how do you expect them to get to where you want to go?

• Communications starts with telling the truth. You lose credibility when you don’t communicate honestly.

Character

• Character involves such traits as being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, fair and caring.

• A leader knows the difference between right and wrong and has the guts to say it.

Courage

• Courage separates leaders from the rest of the pack. Leaders are not afraid to make difficult decisions (they don’t defer such decisions or pass them off to others).

• Leaders are willing to take positions that might not be popular.

• Leaders take responsibility for a decision and are willing to live with the consequences, good or bad.

• Leaders are willing to put themselves in uncomfortable situations to get the job done.

Conviction

• Leaders have a strong sense that they want to leave a situation in a better state than they when they first entered it.

• Leaders want to get things done and get a sense of accomplishment out of generating desired outcomes.

• To do this they have to have a passion for what they do.

Charisma

• Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you.

• Leaders have the capability to inspire those around them.

• Much of that capability is derived from the fact that people trust you and your abilities.

Competence

• You have to know what you are doing and surround yourself with others who know what they are doing.

• The key aspect of competence is being a problem solver. You have to be able to define a problem and then chart the path to an ultimate solution.

Common Sense

• Leaders have an ability to make sound and prudent judgments without needing to analyze a problem to death or follow a pre-established protocol.

According to Iacocca, the biggest C is crisis and I have to agree. People become most acutely aware of leadership during times of crisis. Leaders have a tendency to jump into crisis situations in an effort to find solutions – they concentrate on what is important and rally the troops to get the job done. They run towards the fire, not away from it. They see it as both a responsibility and a challenge to do so and in doing so they provide reassurance to those around them that everything will be alright. In reality the leaders are already there, the crisis just provides them the opportunity to prove it.

Paul Cormier is President of Cormier Strategy Advisors Inc., a firm which provides clients with strategic consulting, project management and short-term management services.