Institute of Business Administration IBA, Karachi

Leading Quietly
Book Review Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Submitted to: Dr Nasir Afghan Submitted by: Khawar Ali Sher MBA I, Main Camus Morning ERP ID : 05003

Leading Quietly Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. Leading quietly questions the popularly and readily accepted notions such as leaders are visible, they make the tough choice, they have charisma, they dominate the landscape while shaking the ground and they lead from the front. All of these notions about leaders are put to the test. The author builds upon the theories of many philosophers and visionaries such as Aristotle and Albert Schweitzers views that leaders and leadership is not about individuals and their charisma or their being right and vocal about it. The author opines that leadership is not always visible it can be discreet and hidden in the everydayness of the tasks. Leaders are the ones which keep the machinery of this world going, they deal with complex problems every day; they solve these problems by developing rational and sustainable solutions.

Chapter 1: Dont Kid Yourself

The quiet leader is the one who knows the situation well, who does not take things lightly, and who explores and digs deep into situations, analyzes all the possible scenarios before making any move. Quiet leaders spend a lot of time analyzing the situation, they know people are unpredictable and therefore they do not make any assumptions. Their perspective is of the realist, neither of the cynics nor the pessimists. The quite leader knows that despite their thorough analysis there are still aspects and variables which are unknown to them. They do not work on assumptions about people, they do not rely on people to behave in a particular manner, and rather they know the world and the people in it to be very unpredictable and surprising. That is why, no matter what the turn of events, the quite leader always has a better chance of survival than they bull who charged head on. Understanding the dynamics and basic structure of every situation and the relationships which key characters have is core strength of the quite leader. Once again in order to correctly read who the insiders are; who the key position holders in the structure are and what is his or her relationship with all these players, the quite leader depends upon careful observations and detailed analysis of the situation. It is through the synthesis of virtues mentioned above that the quite leader is able to develop a sixth sense; they know what cards to play when and when to cut out the cards which should never be played. Rebecca Olson is a prime exemplification of all the traits that have been mentioned above, she had been given a very tough job, the board placed her in a tricky situation, it was a make or break situation in her career and she had to get it right with the only shot she had at it. If she had not been understood the strength and depth if her relationships with everyone around, if she had assumed anyone would behave in a particular way, if she had not studied Mr Miller closely and if she had not acted as a realist she would have failed to correctly analyze the situation and would have ended up making a carrier wrenching mistake. Her accurate reading enabled her to get rid of the offender, develop a strong relationship with the board and the members of the inner circle, gave her impression as a well thought out person who does not act in haste all the while ensuring that her own and the reputation of the institute remained intact and the person who had been hurt was fulfilled again Being a pessimist and a cynic never helps, quite leaders know this to be a fact and they live never let their assessment and thinking be influenced by such factors. It is because they have the ability to filter such bad code, that the quite leaders are able to solve complex problems. Olsen never let herself to believe anything which was not supported by real evidence, even when she has hard evidence she did not come out swinging, rather carefully evaluated her alternatives before making any move.
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Chapter 2: Trust Mixed Motives

Whenever anyone of us is faced with a complex situation we are evaluating different alternative, looking at various influencing factors and considering various possible solutions to the problems we are facing. There are many thoughts swirling inside the head and common convention is to clear those thoughts and then set aim for a single achievable objective, which is often at the expense of other equally important objectives. Trusting mixed motives stands against all this, by trusting mixed motives you give consideration to all the variables, factors and outcomes. It calls for taking action by considering those variables which we would usually shrug and shake off from our consideration set. This ability sets the quite leader apart from the lot, they do not shake off considerations, they persist in the line of fire and they develop holistic and all-encompassing solutions accommodating as many as possible. One of the criteria of traditional leadership is that it involves giving personal sacrifices. Leaders are those people who have the courage and the depth of personality to give these personal sacrifices, which make them in a way above or better then all of us. Quite leaders on the other hand have mixed motives, their personal objectives are as important to them as getting the job, they are even better than the traditional leaders, they get the job without sacrificing anything. This happens because they attach equal importance to all the variables and considerations at hand in a given complex situation. They take their time in making decision, but once they make the decision it is always the one which satisfies the maximum number of wanted outcomes. Quite leaders realize that self-importance or personal motives form an integral ingredient of successful life, they can see that great people end up at powerful positions, from where they not only bring out the good they intended but also often amass wealth and power. It is only personal objectives and preferences which lead to this result. Therefore when Elliot Cortez was faced with the dilemma of not marketing a drug for its intended purposed he knew that his personal objectives were also at stake. He wanted to excel in his job, he wanted a big bonus at end of the year and he also wanted to make sure that no one got hurt because of the side effects that may occur from the policies which his company was following. How can he go about achieving all these objectives while at the same time making sure that he was able to get his bonus? Apparently it seemed impossible, as achieving one of these objectives made achieving the other one less probable. He realized he did not have to take any drastic steps to save the world, and in the end it was his cautious approach, his talking to various stake holders that eventually got both the objectives achieved. He did not do anything heroic but still ended up not only ensuring that many lives were saved but also got himself a good yearly bonus.

Chapter 3: Buy A little time

Business managers or leaders in the business world in particular and leaders in general are always constrained by and pushed to show results in a limited span of time. Often businesses value fast results and business managers are always trying to develop the shortest possible ways to come with results in order to satisfy those to whom they are answerable. Quite Leaders on the other hand do quite something unconventional, rather than pushing themselves and everyone around them for results they push everything to buy more valuable time, then they utilize this time efficiently and end up delivering all the results on a much broader spectrum then was possible in the original time frame. Garrett Williams has been given the task of turning around the branch, he has been appointed as the branch head and now his boss is asking for results, fast results. But Williams is a quite leader, he understands that if he makes decision hasty all that he will end up making will be a waste, therefore he utilizes on the core traits of a quite leader. He buys more time. More time to analyze all the people so that he can get to know them better. More time so that he can properly evaluate all the complex motives that he has and also the people in the branch have. He needs to be sure that he does not take any wrong step, he wants to his conscience to be clear and he also wants to take those steps which are in line with organizational and business ethics. As in the case of Garrett and many other people he could only have used one of two possiable tools at his disposal. One was to develop a set of quick and easy tactics which enable him to buy time when he had to deliver upon some short things. The other was more complex and dealt with the overall objectives which he wanted to achieve. He needed to look through, well planned and careful in his executions; he needed to give the impression that he leaves no stones unturned before making any decision. He also wanted to keep his boss posted about all the progress he was making, thus giving his boss a justification and continuously buying more time. In this manner he was able to get so much of time that he was able to resolve all the issues concerning the bank. He was able to get rid of the customer unfriendly employees, he was able to motivate his loan officers and simply in due course of time the employee with health issues switched to permanent care. The example of Mr Garrett clearly shows how quite leaders are able to mix their strategies of achieving mixed objectives and bargaining for more time. This way they are able to achieve the maximum number of desired outcomes, a feat simply accomplishable for the traditional leader.

Chapter 4: Invest Wisely

Political capital is the amount of influence, the power of say, the overall image a person or an individual has within a group or an organizational settings. It is a difficult concept to grasp even for the seasoned financial analyst, it is intangible and it cannot be evaluated monetarily. Therefore it becomes quite an elusive entity, but the quite leader always knows how much political capital they are carrying around, and when there is a situation at hands which needs an expenditure of this capital they know if they can make the investment or not. Not only do they know if they have the capital or not, quite leaders go one step ahead, they also know which situation is worth them spending their political capital on. If you look at in terms of its constituents then political capital can be thought of as being made up of two basic ingredients. One is relationships and the other reputation. Both of these are only developed over time, at times reputation can be based on first impressions or previous performance in a new organizational setting. On the other hand relationships are only developed over time, therefore when one talks about investing political capital it simply means putting the depth of the relationships to a test seeing what they are worth and how they behave in a drastically changed environment. Investing political capital is a very narrow line to tread on; one has to be sure about a number of things before making any decisions about spending such a precious and rare entity. Firs thing is to make sure that the scenario at hand and the elements at stake deserve so much capital. Second before spending one has to be sure that the returns are worth the investment, returns may even be negative by intention, even then if the returns are justified then the investment is worthwhile. Captain Jill Matthews was on ordinary person in an extra ordinary situation. She had prepared well for her companys inspection, but the area which she was most worried, the weakest link of her chain of preparation has been totally overlooked by the inspectors. They gave a perfect score, even when she knew that it was not possible, they conducted a sham of an inspection. Giving her the feeling that if inspections are conducted like this everywhere then the supplies of all the units are in a bad shape and could one day lead to a potential disaster in a national emergency situation. Her assessments reveal that the matter at hand is worth investing al the political capital the same successful inspection has given her, and she uses it will. She brings the issue into the notice of the person most suited to take action. Here and with all such initiates, the burden is lifted but the final outcome can never be determined definitively.

Chapter 5: Drill Down

Complexity is an inherent property of everything in this world, but when we relate tales of heroic leadership that is the detail which we conveniently overlook, making traditional leadership only good for the story books and text books used to teach it. In reality though, leadership and leaders have to deal with complexity and it only the one who has an eye for detail who is able to deliver results. Quite leaders have high levels of attention to detail. That is they are able to observe each and everything with a complex environment, break the environment down to small bits and pieces and then not only get the big picture but also study the individual elements in detail. This process not only means studying the immediate environment, it also encompasses waiting for and identifying opportunities and variables in the extended environment which can a pivotal role in developing solutions for problems at hand. It is the quite leader who has the patience and the time to go through the tedious process and produce results; traditional trigger happy leadership model often fails to deliver results when the situation demands a thorough analysis, in depth analysis. Computer networks are complex and their complexity is often compounded by the policies which IT firms develop in order to ensure that their top of the line revenue generating products are sold in profit maximizing bundles. This is exactly what was happening to Mr Taylor as he was trying to get the best solution for his clients; his motives were clearly complex and interdependent. His constraint was the policy of the company and he had to break down this complex problem so that he could get a way around the policy and satisfy his complex and mixed motives. It was only his patience, his diligence and attention to detail that he was able to come across the testing policy that the same company had. It was only attention to detail and his ability to break the problem down in to various parts that enabled him to solve the problem. He only had one constituting factor, the policy which did not allow him to install the newer systems with the older networks, if he had not drilled the problem down he would never have been able to understand what he needs to do. The solution that he came up with was of the same nature, a policy using which he could override the WIN WIN policy which was the obstruction in the first place. In order to understand it fully he took the right approach he did not try to be the hero and make sense of it all by himself instead he consulted with as many people as possible, and due to so many brains working together he was able to come up with the solution which was workable.

Chapter 6: Bending the rules

Leaders are traditionally considered to be the people who uphold the rule of law even in dire circumstance and often go through great personal sacrifices but never compromise of rules. Quite leaders use their imagination and creativity to bend the rules, under no circumstance is it advisable to break them, but in situations which give a little room the rules can be bended just enough to deliver overall good. Bending rules is not an act which does not have any consequences. In practical terms even the simplest of deviations especially in todays workplaces can result in quite substantial decrease in a persons political capital. On the other front, there is immense moral and personal repercussion. Therefore whenever quite leaders are confronted by a situation they are mindful to evaluate which situation deserves that they bend rules for it and which is simply not worth it. Another perspective is the importance of the rule and the seriousness of the scenario itself. Some laws and rules are simply having a subject matter so serious that even a slight bending of them can have immense repercussions, such as zero tolerance policies for inappropriate workplace behavior. Often this question whether a certain rule can be bent or not is answered by the entrepreneurial ethics of the person. If the person deems it fit in the given scenario then he or she may take the risk. Then there are situations where bending a rule can mean taking a risk which can escalate into a serious matter. In such situations bending the rules is not advisable and only a situational assessment can determine the question whether bending the rules is viable or not. Nick Russo was an investment banker with a consciousness of giving back to the society. In his spare time he worked with the cities shelter houses for less privileged children. Jerome was a run away in dire need of someone to look out for him and Russo was trying to talk him into going with him to a shelter. Outreach directly to such subjects as Jerome was forbidden but Russo displayed leadership by trying to talk the boy into going at a shelter. In the process he probably saved the young boy from a lot of harm. But he knew that there was a limit to bending the rules and there were risks that could not be taken and rules that should not be broken, Russo was a quite leader and he understood that going after the kid was a rash risk and the center would also probably penalize him rather than listen to his tale of heroism.

Chapter 7: Nudge, test and Escalate Gradually

Most of the times the quite leader is not using only one of the tools at his or her disposal. They are using a combination of all of them to deliver results and keep things functioning smoothly. When faced with complex problems they buy more time, break the problem into various small pieces, look for places where they can slightly bend the rules and get away with it and all they while they keep on pushing and nudging the whole environment in the direction in which they want it to travel. These nudges and pushes can be very simple to extremely complex, a remark here and a serious conversation there, a pat on the back of someone to reinforce the desired behavior or taking a serious stand in a company meeting all account for nudging and escalating the situation towards their desired ends. It is prudence and modesty which are the key virtues underlying the quite leaders ability to systematically escalate a situation in the direction they need it go. The COO Ms. DeLand was causing a lot of trouble for a number of people in the organization and was misusing her power and authority and Eddy carter was the person who was not only directly reporting to her, but also his plans were being changed by her to make sure he herself got all the priority clients and got to travel the most on companies expense. He had talked about the problems he was facing with her to a partner at the firm, that been his first step in starting the company grapevine about her behavior and attitudes. This nudge produced exactly the result he intended, the senior partners took notice of the situation. An undesirable outcome was of course that Ms. DeLand was now all out looking for the person who was the source of this rumor. Eddy had to play his cards very wisely now; he had nudged the whole scenario in the direction he wanted it to go. Now all he had to do was waiting patiently and then give the final touch when the time was right. His nudge with the partners came in handy when they called him to the partners meeting; despite the fact that his confidant took a U-turn Eddy was able to use his political capital in getting the message across to the board as well as Ms. DeLand. The board used its discretion wisely and instead of jumping to action slowly moved her laterally in the organization. This is a classic example of how a nudge and patience was used to make sure that the problem gets resolved without any conflicts and hurt egos. Not only was the problem resolved Eddy was able to retain his position in the firm, he saved himself from being labeled as a whistle blower, his mixed motives were all achieved and it was only the result of quite leadership that enabled him to reap all the benefit.

Chapter 8: Craft a Compromise

Quite leaders view compromises as challenges to their imagination, as opportunities for serious hard work and as scenarios to employ their ingenuity to practical situations where they can not only achieve multiple objectives but also diffuse a potentially volatile situation into a WIN-WIN. This does not mean that they try to work out a compromise from every situation, they realize that there are situations which are beyond compromise and often can only be resolved by great personal sacrifices, when such an occasion arises they do not shy away from taking on the responsibility and lead from the front in the traditional leadership model. Shirley Silverman was a public health official in a large city. One of the biggest problems that the city was facing was a sharply increasing infant mortality rate and compounding this problem were women often young teenaged girls who were drug addicts. Often prostituting themselves to get money for the drugs they got pregnant and they were giving birth to children who were either born drug addicts or worst, they were born still. This complicated the problem the city was facing and after a famous got media attention the Mayors office was in trouble and with political agendas on his mind the mayor resorted to rooting out the cause and setting up a task force which would arrest all such women and enforce health measures on them. Shirley was on the task force and the direction the mayor was taking this whole operation, she was not satisfied with it at all. Instead of confronting the mayor head-on and scoring a small victory she decided to work through the details nudge the process in the direction she wants it to go and use her creative abilities to develop a compromise that would be beneficial for everyone. She started off with the political advisors for the Mayor and nudged them in her direction by making them weary of the political fallout from arresting women which belonged to a particular section of society. This resulted in the Mayor coming over to her side, a great achievement made possible just by nudging the flow of information. Then she started working on a plan that would deliver results, it was a life changing opportunity for her. It could make her career and she wanted to make most out of it. She gave it everything and worked hard on every detail, and finally came up with a comprehensive plan. Although she was not able to meet all her objectives but she was able to stall the infant mortality rate which itself is a huge achievement.

Chapter 9: Three Quite Virtues

In conclusion the author discusses three key virtues of quite leaders and how these play the pivotal and integrative role in the overall personality of these leaders. These virtues enable actions such as buying time and drilling down to not evolve into procrastination or cowardice in the views of world around the quite leader. Restraint: Exercising caution and controlling emotions in explosive situations is one of the keys to quite leadership, these leaders never let the situation get to the better of them, and rather they exercise restraint and hide their emotions. This does not mean that they are going to repress what they feel; rather they control their emotions and channel them through the most effective ways. In this way, they do not get carried away by the turn of events, intimidation never works on them and they always are able to maintain their calm and composure. Decisions clouded by anger and frustration are rarely good decisions, quite leaders realize this point ensure to never make this mistake. This concept builds upon the central themes of temperance and prudence as advocated by Aristotle. Modesty: Boasting and proclaiming their wins is not the trademark of a humble human being, and quite leaders are the last ones to engage in such a manner. Quite leaders never claim to have done anything more than their bit, they never say they out to change the world, which is in fact true. All they wished to achieve was a complex set of objectives, which they did, slowly but surely. They recognize that efforts have to long and patient, and success and failure are relative terms. Their objective is neither success nor someones failure; they are just making things better, one step at a time and for everyone. Tenacity: Quite leaders know that results cannot be achieved overnight, and the results achieved overnight are usually short lived and achieved just for their face value. They know that real leadership and real change is only brought gradually and in the long term. That is why they always play for time, they always try to nudge the conversations and the sequence of events in their favor, and they always are waiting for the right moment and observe everything and everyone in the environment. It is this tenacity and persistence in face of adversity that is the hall mark of quite leaders.

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