Lindsay on Leadership for The Global Entrepreneur

March 20, 2009 story - Mandarin or English
December 20, 2008 story

Published in China on March 20, 2009. 

麦克·林孜专栏
D. Michael Lindsay on Leadership

权力的韧带
如何带领出新一代的公仆领袖？
“白宫学者”的做法值得学习

在关于领导力和建设有影响的组织方面，
今年初发生在华盛顿的权力交接有很多让我们学习的地方。

从小布什到奥巴马，这是美国总统历史上最顺利的新老更替之一。
这很大程度上要归功于前任政府。
就连小布什最尖刻的批评者也赞赏他的总统班底在实现无缝交班方面做出的努力。

然而，有一群比他们都更加年轻的领导者发挥的作用却同样重要，
这些人被称作“白宫学者”（White House Fellows）。

近来，我完成了对所有前任学者的调研，总数超过600人，
也对本年度“白宫学者”班进行了采访。

在很多方面，这个培训项目——
最初由时任卡内基基金会主席的约翰·加德纳（John Gardner）提出——
所显示的卓越之处在多年来总统交班的过程中成为最闪耀的亮点。

这个奖学金为年轻人提供了亲身参与美国政府高层运作的机会。
“白宫学者”在美国联邦政府中的位置颇为独特。

他们被选上是基于他们的资质（跟这个国家公共服务人员的遴选一样），
但他们更享有跟最高层政治官员共事的机会。

不光如此，跟自从这个培训项目创立以来的其它五次情形一样，
今年的“白宫学者”在他们的一个学年中要首先跟一个执政党的内阁部长和其他政府高官共事，
而如今又跟另一执政党的成员合作。这在美国政治中的确是非常独特的。

1964年，约翰逊总统设立了“白宫学者”项目，
这是执政领域的一大实验。在那之前，白宫权力内核中的位置只留给总统的政治盟友。
在加德纳的鼓动下，约翰逊看到了祛除白宫运作机制神秘面纱的价值所在，
至少对那一小群已经为担当公共领导职责做好准备的年轻人很有价值。

迄今，已有数千人申请过这个超越党派限制的项目，
“白宫学者”奖学金已经成为这个国家最具竞争力的培训计划之一，
虽然它的价值还没有得到公众的充分认识。

经历45年之后，这个实验已成果斐然，他们中间走出了国务卿鲍威尔（Colin Powell）、
北约总司令克拉克（Wesley Clark）、
参议员布朗巴克（Sam Brownback）以及可能担任奥巴马政府公共卫生署长的古朴塔（Sanjay Gupta）。

对任何人来说，头一天上班都可能是个挑战。
找到自己的办公室并通过安检的过程可能漫长的出奇，
尤其是在白宫这样一个地方。但在白宫西翼的总统办公室里，
令人头痛的事情要更多。

《总统记录法案》规定，白宫里的每一片小纸头都要被移出白宫，
以便最终作为历史文件归入总统图书馆的系统之中。然而事实上，
目前几乎所有的机构还都少不了纸质的文件与档案，
因为它们提供了该机构的大量信息。每到政府换班时节，
这些路标式的文档就会被人从白宫这个也许是世界上最大最复杂的办公室里一扫而光。

因而，在伊利诺伊州众议员拉姆·以马内利（Rahm Emanuel）出任白宫幕僚长的第一天，
他那位于白宫西翼的办公室里空荡荡的景象令人心悸。除了侍者和园丁，
他几乎找不到什么人可以就过去几个月的工作情况提供咨询。

幸运的是，大卫·罗林森（David Rawlinson）在那里。作为本年度的“白宫学者”，
他在过去四个月里一直担任前任白宫幕僚长约书亚·博尔顿（Joshua Bolten）的助理，
帮助协调白宫权力过渡期的有关事宜。

跟他的许多同学一样，年仅33岁的罗林森已享受到一堆好机遇。
他以全班最好成绩从大学本科毕业后，首先从事了几年法律工作，
随后就读哈佛商学院，同时还在他的南卡罗来纳州老家积极参与当地的公民活动。

坦率的说，除了罗林森之外，本年度其他13位“白宫学者”都让人印象深刻。
这些人中，有在新奥尔良州遭遇卡特琳娜飓风袭击后带领50多名学生度过难关的老师，
有核物理学家，还有与美国空军雷鸟战机共赴蓝天的首位女飞行员。
 
在今年的政治过渡中，
“白宫学者”给这些充斥着日常琐事的政治办公室带来了稳定。而从这样一个提升领导力的项目里，
我们也都能得到教益。

为发展年轻管理者的领导能力，你的组织在做什么？
你所在公司中的高层领导如何跟有前途的未来领导者打交道，指引他们，
提供给他们参与领导工作的种种机遇，从而使之切实获益？

“白宫学者”代表的不仅仅是美国最优秀最聪明的一面，
而是每个领导者都应拥有的最基本财富：
一群明白如何做事——如何顺利通过安检进入房屋——的行家里手。
           
（作者为美国赖斯大学社会学教授）

译者：侯嘉

反馈：promisehsu@gmail.com

Lindsay on Leadership: The Ligaments of Power

            The presidential transition that occurred in Washington last month has much to teach us about leadership and building an infrastructure of influence.  The exchange of power that took place between President Bush and President Obama was one of the smoothest transitions in American history.  Much of the credit goes to the former administration.  Even President Bush’s sharpest critics praised his team for their efforts in creating a seamless changeover in power. But there’s a cohort of younger leaders who played an equally important role: the White House Fellows.  I recently completed a survey of all former Fellows, now exceeding 600 in number, and interviews with the current class.  In many ways, the brilliance of the program—originally conceived by John Gardner, then president of the Carnegie Corporation—shines brightest during years of presidential transition. 
The fellowship offers a select group of young people the chance to participate firsthand in the workings of American government at very high levels. White House Fellows are uniquely positioned within the U.S. federal government:  they are selected on the basis of merit (as happens in this nation’s civil service), but they enjoy the access of top political appointees. This year, as has been the case five other times since the program’s inception, Fellows who worked directly with Cabinet secretaries and senior administration officials from one party during the first half of their fellowship year now are working with those from the other party.  That is very unique in American politics.
            The White House Fellowship was a grand experiment in government when President Lyndon Johnson established the program in 1964.  Up until then, the inner chambers of power in the White House were reserved only for political allies.  But Johnson, with Gardner’s prompting, saw the value in demystifying how the White House works, at least for a small group of young people poised to assume the mantle of public leadership.  Thousands applied to the nonpartisan program, and to this day, the White House Fellowship is one of this nation’s most competitive—albeit underappreciated—fellowships.  Forty five years later, the experiment has clearly paid off.  Alumni who benefited from the education and leadership development that the program provides include Colin Powell, Wesley Clark, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, and Surgeon General Designate Sanjay Gupta.
            The first day on a new job can be tough for anyone.  Finding one’s office and clearing security can take a surprisingly long time, especially when working at an institution like the White House.  But there are added headaches in the West Wing.  According to the Presidential Records Act, every single piece of paper must be removed from the White House so that it can eventually be archived by the Presidential Library system for historical record.  But nearly all organizations rely upon the institutional memory that papers and files provide.  The White House is probably the largest and most complex office in the world that is stripped of these guideposts every time administrations change hands.
So when Rahm Emanuel reported to his West Wing office for his first day on the job, it was eerily empty.  Aside from the stewards and gardeners, there was basically no one there he could consult on how things have been running over the last few months.  Thank goodness David Rawlinson was there.  He is the White House Fellow who has been working for former White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten for the last four months and helped to coordinate the White House’s transition efforts. Rawlinson, like many other Fellows, has enjoyed an array of opportunities, even though he just turned 33.  After graduating at the very top of his undergraduate class, Rawlinson practiced law for several years, studied business at Harvard, and has been active in civic life in his home state of South Carolina.  Frankly, though, all 14 of the Fellows this year are impressive.  They include a teacher from New Orleans who managed classes of more than 50 students in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a nuclear physicist, and the first female pilot to fly with the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds.
            In this year of political transitions, the White House Fellows provide stability in the offices where the nitty-gritty work of governing occurs.  Yet we can all benefit from the lessons afforded by a leadership development program like this.  What is your organization doing to develop the leadership of younger executives?  How can senior leaders at your firm engage promising future leaders who would benefit from mentorship and opportunities to lead?  The White House Fellows represent not just America’s best and brightest, but also the most fundamental asset of any leader: talented people who know the ropes—and how to clear security to get into the building.

D. Michael Lindsay is a sociologist at Rice University and is writing a book about the White House Fellowship.

Published in China on 20 December 2008.

领袖不仅要掌控自己的感情，
还要帮助下属驾驭他们别样的情绪

美国人当初票选这位伊利诺伊州议员
的很大原因要归于他们对奥巴马的竞选口号
—“相信改变”—的认同。可如今，
奥巴马面临的问题是：当资源丰富时，
改变难以操控； 当资金不足而需求甚众，
令领导者目不暇接时， 改变几乎就不可能了。

然而，有一种更根本的挑战是各种领导人，
无论国家总统还是公司总裁，都需驾驭和掌控的。
这种挑战，我称之为乘坐过山车。

在许多游乐园，比如美国佛罗里达州奥
兰多的沃特·迪斯尼世界，
过山车（roller coasters）都大受欢迎。
其命名与过山车的早期形象有关：
安上金属滑托的木质小车沿山坡滑上滑下。今天，
水电和气电驱动的过山车可以接近每小时150
公里的速度沿轨道滑行。
迪斯尼世界最受欢迎的过山车活动是一
种叫做“太空山”的：车在一片幽暗的环境中高速前进，
忽而爬高，忽而探底，
乘客们感觉仿佛在漆黑的外层空间进行攀岩。
由于常常无法看见前面的景物，
他们便只能根据前面乘客的尖叫和屏息来猜度未知的道路。

站在变化的前沿很像在过山车的前排就座。
领导者先于其他人看到未来，
先于其他人经历旅途的高峰与低谷。很多时候，
这是件好事，
它使领导者能先预期变化的出现， 然后再做回应，
通常他还能在整个机构真正遭遇下个路口的高
峰与低谷之前拿出相应的对策。

每当一个公司遭遇巨变时，随之而来，是感情的起伏。
新的机会要庆祝，挫败与失望则需克服。
由于领导者是坐在前座体验起伏跌宕的过山车的，
他与步其后尘者遭遇同一景物的时间差可能很大，
乃至于他升到顶峰时，那些人可能才刚刚跌入峰前的谷底。

领军人物，需要具备驾驭变化情绪的能力。领 导者必须意识到，
自己此时此地的所感所知与随后而至的人们的情绪可能差之千里。
这正是对领导力的挑战：
知道如何从过山车的前座来掌握和驾驭后边乘客的情 绪。
伟大的领导者能为未来一两年的工作进行策划和预期。
当大多数员工还在为如何保住下周的饭碗而殚精竭虑的时候，
领导者考虑的可能已是2010年打入市场的新产品了。
这会导致什么样的结果呢？让我们一起看看下面的例子：

有一位姓芮的商人，他的公司坐落在上海郊外，
有着长远的发展计划。
他知道当前美国面临的信贷市场萎缩将使他很难在未来
18个 月内获得贷款。
我们今天拥有一个丝丝相扣的国际市场，这意味着一
个国家出现经济下滑，
全球商业都会受到牵连。几周来，芮权衡了数个选择。
他最终决定必须裁 员才能维持公司的盈利水平。
好几天，芮走来走去，情绪低落。尽管公司业绩大致还可以，
但他将实行公司历史上的第一次大裁员。

然而经过一段时间的思考，芮开始把这次减员 看作一次机遇，
让他对公司机构重新思考的一个理由。
公司有几个不赚钱的部门，
现在他有办法提升公司的经营并把这些部门的副效应降到最低。
一周后，芮兴奋地他的经理们召集到一起，
想讨论这些已经或即将出现的变化。然而他忘了，
在过去的几个星期里，
屋子里的其他人可并没有跟他一
样也在考虑公司的裁员问题，因 而他们也无法像芮一样有机会对各种可能性进行权衡。
他们和芮位于变化过山车的不同位置：一路上，芮坐在前排。

芮的领导力将会遇挫，
除非他能帮助他的下属 驾驭他们在旅途的各个阶段
出现的不同情绪。
好消息是，芮已爬出了失望的低谷，
并找到了让人兴奋的未来之路。
如果他能帮助下属度过随低谷而来的伤痛期，那 么，
他就能令人信服地引领大家走向充满希望的未来。
挑战在于：此时此刻，
他不仅要掌控自己的情绪，
还要帮助下属驾驭他们别样的情绪。

引领机构的变革要求领导者拥有大量的情感储备。
有能力的领导会意识到，
变化就像坐过山车：巅峰与低谷固然是此行的一部分，
然而每位乘客到达那里的时间与状态却各不相同。
旅途本身会被大多数人记住，但领导者必须记住，自己坐在前面，
身后还有别的感念和观点。

（作者为美国赖斯大学社会学教授）

View from the States

As the economic outlook becomes bleaker across the United States—from Wall Street to Main Street, it is increasingly unlikely that President-Elect Obama will be able to enact much of the change he promised throughout his campaign.  Americans voted for the Illinois Senator in large part because they resonated with his campaign motto of “Change We Can Believe In.”  The problem the U.S. president-elect faces, however, is that change is difficult to manage when resources are plentiful; it is nearly impossible when funds are in short supply and other demands compete for the leader’s attention.  There is, however, a more fundamental challenge that must be mastered by leaders of all kinds—whether they be presidents of countries or of presidents of companies.  I call it the roller coaster of change.

Roller coasters are popular rides at amusement parks such as Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  They get their name because early versions were made of wooden cars that rolled up and down hills on metal coasters.  Today, hydraulic and pneumatic power allows roller coasters to glide along rails at speeds approaching 150 km per hour.  One of Walt Disney World’s most popular roller coasters is Space Mountain, a ride that climbs steep heights and then drops to dramatic lows in a nearly-dark environment, thereby resembling the feeling of ascending a mountain under the darkness of outer space.  Because riders cannot always see what lies in front of them, they rely on the shrieks and gasps of people in the cars ahead of them to anticipate what lies ahead. 

Leading change is much like riding in the front car of a roller coaster.  The leader sees what lies ahead long before others, and he experiences the peaks and the valleys of the ride sooner than other people.  In many ways, this is a good thing.  It allows the leader to anticipate changes before he has to respond to them, and often, he can devise a strategy for the organization before it actually encounters the high or the lows that await it at the next turn.

Any time a company experiences change, it involves emotional ups and downs.  There are new opportunities to celebrate as well as setbacks and disappointments to manage.  Because leaders ride the roller coaster of change in the front car, the lag between the leader and follower can be so great that the leader is reaching the crest of a peak as the follower is just entering the valley before it. 

Being the person in charge requires managing the emotions that accompany change.  Leaders have to realize that the emotions they are feeling at this moment may be very different from those currently felt by his or her followers.  That is the challenge of leadership: knowing how—from the front car of the roller coaster—to  manage the emotions of the followers that ride behind.  Great leaders anticipate what needs to be done a year or two in the future.  You are probably thinking about new products to bring to market in 2010, even though most employees are focused on getting their paycheck next week.  What difference does this make?  Consider the following scenario.

Rui leads a company outside of Shanghai with big plans for expansion.  He knows that the shrinking of the credit market in the United States right now will make it harder for him to get credit over the next eighteen months.  The intricate web of today’s global marketplace means that economic downturns in one country affect businesses around the world.  Rui considers a number of different options for several weeks.  He finally concludes that cutbacks will be required to maintain his company’s level of profitability.  For several days, Rui walks around depressed.  For the first time in his company’s history, he will have to fire a segment of his workforce, even though the company has largely performed well.

After that period of reflection, though, Rui begins to see this cutback as an opportunity.  It can give him the excuse to rethink the organization’s structures.  There were several unprofitable business units, and now he has a way to recalibrate the business and minimize the effect of these underperforming units.  Within another week, Rui has gotten so excited that he calls his management team together to discuss the changes.  What he forgets, though, is that the other people in the room have not had the last several weeks to process the decision to lay off a segment of their company.  And they, unlike Rui, have not had a chance to consider alternative ideas.  They are not riding this roller coaster of change in the same car as Rui:  he’s ahead of them on the journey. 

Rui’s leadership will be hampered unless he can help his followers manage the emotions that accompany the ride’s different stages as they encounter them.  The good news is that Rui has already passed through the valley of disappointment, and he has found a way to move on to an exciting future.  If he helps his followers walk through the grieving process that accompanies the valley, he can convincingly point them toward a more hopeful future.  The challenge is for him to manage the emotions he’s currently feeling while also helping his followers manage the emotions they currently face.

Leading organizational change requires a great deal of emotional energy.  The talented leader recognizes that change is like a roller coaster ride: peaks and valleys are part of the journey, but fellow riders experience them at different moments and to differing degrees.  The journey is what most people will remember, so we must keep in mind their perspective even as we experience the ride from the front car.