The Importance of Leading by Example

Kitchen & Bath Design News annually sponsors the Industry Leadership Awards to recognize leadership excellence among kitchen and bath industry professionals. According to the criteria for entries, "the categories focus on skills in business management, marketing, the use of showrooms, industry/community service and related areas."

The Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association (DPHA) was recognized in 2003 with first-place honors for providing a unified voice to represent the opinions and ideas of decorative hardware and plumbing professionals in the kitchen and bath industry. DPHA created a community that previously did not exist and contributed significantly to the industry's increase in stature and professionalism.

DPHA's early successes are due, in large measure, to the leadership provided by Jeff Burton of The Bath and Beyond, located in San Francisco, CA. Burton understood passionately DPHA's vision and was able to convert his passion into accomplishment. Under his leadership, DPHA became the premier organization of decorative plumbing and hardware professionals in the nation and produced deliverables that for many years had only been discussed as wishful thinking.

In as much as I am following in Jeff Burton's footsteps, I write about "leadership" with some trepidation. Nonetheless, having gotten my chops in the industry by re-engineering a 75-year-old company Colonial Bronze by observing many leadership styles, and being somewhat of a student on the subject of leadership, I have some irrepressible thoughts on the topic.

Effective Leadership
There is no uniform model that enables an individual to lead a company, an organization or a nation. Leadership styles vary depending upon the personalities of individual leaders. Some leaders are not very charismatic but are nonetheless capable of leading effectively. Alternatively, having excellent communication skills doesn't automatically translate to leadership ability.

Two figures who have gained much public notoriety because of their leadership styles are my old boss, Rudolph Giuliani, and Enron's Ex-CEO, Kenneth Lay. I worked for Rudy in the early 1980s and had the opportunity to experience his style of leadership firsthand. Giuliani has come to be viewed as a tremendous leader due to his ability to rally New York City in response to an epic crisis. Ken Lay dominates headlines because he was at the helm of the largest bankruptcy in the history of the U.S. Both Giuliani's and Lay's leadership styles teach important lessons.

I frequently think about what makes for an effective leader. Inevitably, I find that leaders must have a genuine concern for the well being of those they lead. Integrity and sincerity are absolutely critical and a rock-bottom minimum. Most of us developed early the ability to spot the disingenuous and phony.

At the heart of effective leadership is the ability to communicate a vision. People are willing to follow if a leader provides a clear sense of direction. Similarly, people won't follow if there is not an understood and shared purpose or a reason to do so.

The "Vision Thing," as General Electric's highly respected CEO Jack Welch called it in his autobiography, Jack, Straight from the Gut, generated $450 billion in market capitalization during Welch's tenure as chief executive officer. But, for Welch, it was not simply about making money. He wrote, "I wanted GE to become 'the most competitive enterprise on earth.' My objective wasto build an organizationthat would be high-spirited, more adaptable, and more agile than companies one fiftieth of our sizeI wanted to create a company where people dare to try new things where people feel assured in knowing that the only limit of their creativity and drivewill be the ceiling on how far and how fast they move."