Here is an article written by Dave Logan for CBS MoneyWatch, the CBS Interactive Business Network. To check out an abundance of valuable resources and obtain a free subscription to one or more of the website’s newsletters, please click here.
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(MoneyWatch) The most common feedback I get about my leadership seminars, whether at the University of Southern California where I teach or at corporations, is, “I thought this was going to be garbage, but I was surprised — it’s really good!” People say that as if they’ve given me a great compliment. But such faint praise is actually a serious criticism of my field, and one every leader needs to take seriously.
Would a surgeon feel about good a patient telling them: “I assumed you didn’t know what you were doing, being a surgeon and all, but you correctly removed my gall bladder, not my left leg!”
Except that the critics are right. Most of what passes for leadership advice is fluff — platitudes, repackaged conventional wisdom and broad principles that lack any rigor.
Prove your worth
In one sentence, here’s how to become a better leader and make your organization more effective: Do what the evidence says to do, and then go beyond what’s known and imagine what’s possible.
I’m an empiricist (in the same way some people are Republicans or Democrats). That means I make decisions based on data, not just on what others are doing, not on philosophy or intuition, and definitely not on what most people are doing. If the data says an action will get a better result, empiricists try their best to do it.
When leaders become empiricists, they are guided by all available evidence, letting that data tell them the right thing to do. When they reach the edge of the cliff of what is known, they jump off, creating visions or futures of what can be. The result is great companies, like Agilent Technologies (A), Intuit (INTU), or Edwards Lifesciences (EW) — all companies that have impressed me with their focus on empirical decision-making.
What often surprises people in “empirical leadership” sessions is that there is an emerging new way to lead. It doesn’t require believing anything other than empirical data. It gets better results than what’s dominated the field for the last century. Employees love it, shareholders enjoy the benefits and the methods delight customers.
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Dave Logan is a USC faculty member, management consultant, and the best-selling author of four books including Tribal Leadership and The Three Laws of Performance. He is also Senior Partner of CultureSync, a management consulting firm, which he co-founded in 1997. To read his other articles for CBS MoneyWatch, please click here.