The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative

305 Pages·2007·2.73 MB·English

by  Stephen Denning

Denning.ffirs 8/17/07 8:52 AM Page iii
The
SECRET
LANGUAGE
of
LEADERSHIP
•
HOW LEADERS INSPIRE ACTION
THROUGH NARRATIVE
STEPHEN DENNING
John Wiley & Sons,Inc.
Denning.ffirs 8/17/07 8:52 AM Page i
More Praise for
The Secret Language of Leadership
“Out ofthe morass ofstrategies leaders are given to transform
organizations,Denning plucks a powerful one—storytelling—
and shows how and why it works.”
—Dorothy Leonard,William J.Abernathy Professor ofBusiness,
Emerita,Harvard Business School,and author,Deep Smarts:
How to Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom
“The Secret Language ofLeadershipshows why narrative intelligence
is central to transformational leadership and how to harness its
power.”
—Carol Pearson,director,James MacGregor Burns Academy of
Leadership,University ofMaryland,and coauthor,The Hero and
the Outlaw
“The Secret Language ofLeadershipis not only the best analysis I have
seen ofhow and why leaders succeed or fail,it’s highly readable,as
well as downright practical.It should be mandatory reading for
anyone interested in engaging a company with big ideas who under-
stands that leaders live and die by the quality ofwhat they say.”
—Richard Stone,story analytics master,i.d.e.a.s
“A primary role ofleaders is to create and maintain meaning for
their organizations.Denning clearly demonstrates that meaning-
making comes from stories well told.”
—Thomas Davenport,President’s Distinguished
Professor ofI.T.and Management,Babson College,
and author,The Attention Economy
“Steve Denning is one ofthe leading thinkers on the power ofnarra-
tive in business settings.His latest book is a smart,useful guide that
can help leaders ofevery kind add value to their organizations and
add meaning to their own journeys.”
—Daniel H.Pink,author,A Whole New Mind
Denning.ffirs 8/17/07 8:52 AM Page ii
Denning.ffirs 8/17/07 8:52 AM Page iii
The
SECRET
LANGUAGE
of
LEADERSHIP
•
HOW LEADERS INSPIRE ACTION
THROUGH NARRATIVE
STEPHEN DENNING
John Wiley & Sons,Inc.
Denning.ffirs 8/17/07 8:52 AM Page iv
Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons,Inc.All rights reserved.
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Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Denning,Stephen.
The secret language ofleadership :how leaders inspire action
through narrative / Stephen Denning.—1st ed.
p.cm.
“A Wiley Imprint.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7879-8789-3 (cloth)
1.Leadership.2.Communication in organizations.3.Storytelling.
I.Title.
HD57.7.D49 2007
658.4'5—dc22
2007028784
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
first edition
HB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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[ ]
C
ONTENTS
Preface:My Leadership Journey vii
Part One: What Is Transformational Leadership? 1
Introduction:Ten Mistakes Transformational
Leaders Make 3
1 The Secret Language of Leadership 21
Part Two: The Language of Leadership: Key Enablers 51
2 Articulating a Clear,Inspiring Goal 53
3 The Leader’s Own Story:Committing to the Goal 65
4 Mastering the Audience’s Story 80
5 Cultivating Narrative Intelligence 92
6 Telling Truthful Stories 116
7 Leadership Presence:The Body Language of Leadership 132
Part Three: The Language of Leadership: Key Steps 147
8 Getting People’s Attention 149
9 Stimulating Desire 166
10 Reinforcing with Reasons 187
11 Continuing the Conversation 199
12 Epilogue 211
Appendix 1:Presentation to the Change Management
Committee of the World Bank:April 1996 221
Appendix 2:Templates and Exercises 229
Appendix 3:What’s Your Narrative Intelligence? 235
Notes 245
Acknowledgments 265
About the Author 267
Index 269
v
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Contents
The Secret Language of Leadership.
S
T Reinforcing Continuing
Getting Stimulating
E with the
attention desire
P reason conversation
S
Deploying body language
E
Telling authentically truthful stories
N
A
Using narrative intelligence
B
L
E Understanding the audience’s story
R
S The leader’s own story: committing to the change idea
Articulating a clear, inspiring change idea
vi
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[ ]
P
REFACE
MY LEADERSHIP
JOURNEY
My own leadership journey began abruptly late on Monday afternoon,
February 5,1996.That day,I’d asked for a meeting with one ofthe man-
aging directors ofthe World Bank—one ofthe three people who reported
to the president of the bank and were charged with running its opera-
tions.As the director of the Africa Region,I needed to see him because
that curious thing known as “my career”had just then taken a turn for the
worse.
The World Bank is an international lending organization located in
Washington,D.C.,and aimed at relieving global poverty.For several
decades,I had held a number ofpositions and functions,including pro-
gramming and budgeting, the West Africa riverblindness program,
population,health and nutrition programs,and the quality control of
operations. In the early 1990s, I had been director of the Southern
Africa Department,where I had overseen the work of several hundred
people working in ten countries.Now,as director ofthe Africa Region,I
was responsible for the operations of more than a thousand staff work-
ing in forty-three countries.After that much experience as an executive,
I believed that I understood management,although I was about to dis-
cover that I had much to learn about leadership.
Large organizations may look stable,but appearances are deceptive.
In the past year,the president had unexpectedly died.Last month,my
boss had decided to retire.Now someone else had just been named to
my post.
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Preface: My Leadership Journey
The office of managing director is just two grade levels above direc-
tor.To an outsider,those two grade levels might not seem like much,but
from the inside,the difference was an abyss.
Like most organizations,the World Bank has a hierarchical manage-
ment style.It’s the same “look-up-and-yell-down”style as in the private
sector.
At the beginning of the interview,I told the managing director that
I’d heard the announcement that someone else was to fill my position.
Did they have anything in mind for me?
“Not really,”he replied with a smile.
I wasn’t surprised.There had been inklings oftrouble afoot.Just one
month before,I’d been asked in the street if it was true that I was being
pushed aside.My boss had confirmed that the scene was turbulent:his
own decision to retire exposed me to the vagaries ofthe clan warfare that
pervades large organizations.
The managing director quickly explained to me the diminishing
range ofmy career options.The organization had no plans for me.There
were no specific positions available.There weren’t even any lists ofpossi-
ble positions on which I might figure.
He spoke to me dismissively,as though I had had no prior reputa-
tion, no credit for anything I had done over several decades, and no
prospects.His world was a personnel chessboard and I was no longer a
player.I had become a nobody.
When I pressed him, he said finally, “Why don’t you look into
information?”
Information? In February 1996,information in the World Bank had
all the prestige ofthe garage or the cafeteria—a wasteland from which no
traveler had ever returned.The message was unmistakable:I was being
sent to Siberia.
Although the interview was bad news,the imperial style of delivery
was something else.The managing director gazed on me as though he’d
just swatted a fly.
At the time,I had no way of knowing that his own vast power was a
facade.He had been chosen precisely because he was a loyal staffofficer.I
viii