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The Power of Mandate: How Visionary Leaders Keep Their Organization Focused on What Matters Most
The book that reveals how today’s most successful leaders turn vision into reality―featuring profiles of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Reed Hastings, Mike Lawrie, and more.
Consensus. Negotiation. Compromise. A democratic approach to leadership drives most organizations today. Consensus based decision making may be popular, but it is far from the best approach in business. It’s also rarely the right approach for C-level executives―especially now that digital technology is driving real business disruption. Simply put, consensus is an innovation killer.
The most successful, disruptive companies are propelled forward by mandate driven leaders. These leaders are inspired by a compelling belief, idea, strategy or tactic. Through their willpower, organizations are thrust into the future. The mandate driven leadership model is the hallmark of visionaries who have changed entire industries and sustained consistent innovation in their own companies.
The Power of Mandate reveals what it takes to be an effective leader in today’s disruptive business environment. You’ll learn how the most audacious visionaries managed turn their visions into reality. This timely book will help • Discover your inner visionary• Avoid the pitfalls of consensus leadership• Create a mandate driven culture• Develop leadership skills in others, and more
Profiles of the most successful mandate driven leaders―including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, DXC Technology’s Mike Lawrie, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates―provide invaluable leadership lessons you can begin applying today.
Consensus. Negotiation. Compromise. A democratic approach to leadership drives most organizations today. Consensus based decision making may be popular, but it is far from the best approach in business. It’s also rarely the right approach for C-level executives―especially now that digital technology is driving real business disruption. Simply put, consensus is an innovation killer.
The most successful, disruptive companies are propelled forward by mandate driven leaders. These leaders are inspired by a compelling belief, idea, strategy or tactic. Through their willpower, organizations are thrust into the future. The mandate driven leadership model is the hallmark of visionaries who have changed entire industries and sustained consistent innovation in their own companies.
The Power of Mandate reveals what it takes to be an effective leader in today’s disruptive business environment. You’ll learn how the most audacious visionaries managed turn their visions into reality. This timely book will help • Discover your inner visionary• Avoid the pitfalls of consensus leadership• Create a mandate driven culture• Develop leadership skills in others, and more
Profiles of the most successful mandate driven leaders―including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, DXC Technology’s Mike Lawrie, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates―provide invaluable leadership lessons you can begin applying today.
- GenresManagement
304 pages, Hardcover
First published June 24, 2019
About the author
Scott Stawski
8 books6 followersA recognized expert in information technology, Scott is an executive with Hewlett Packard, the world's largest technology services company.
Scott brings a wealth of experience in both business outcomes and technology services delivery to his sales management ability. He directly leads sales organizations that have consistently delivered more than $500m revenue annually. Previous to sales management, he led numerous multi-million dollar business intelligence and technology solutions engagements for Global 500 companies within the Health and Life Science; Manufacturing and Hi-tech; Retail; Communication, Media and Entertainment and Consumer Packaged Goods sectors. He is a trusted advisor for CEOs, CFOs and CIOs in the Americas.
Scott is a recognized expert in Analytics and Data Management, Technology Strategy, Outsourcing and next generation Application Transformation to the Cloud. He and his HP team help companies transform their business through the vast amount of information available in their extended enterprise.
Prior to joining HP, Scott was a Senior Principal at Knightsbridge, a leading Business Intelligence consultancy, where he developed Business Intelligence strategies and platforms for Fortune 500 companies. Knightsbridge was acquired by HP in 2006. Prior to entering the field of technology consulting, Scott held executive and management positions at Inforte and Knight Ridder.
Scott brings a wealth of experience in both business outcomes and technology services delivery to his sales management ability. He directly leads sales organizations that have consistently delivered more than $500m revenue annually. Previous to sales management, he led numerous multi-million dollar business intelligence and technology solutions engagements for Global 500 companies within the Health and Life Science; Manufacturing and Hi-tech; Retail; Communication, Media and Entertainment and Consumer Packaged Goods sectors. He is a trusted advisor for CEOs, CFOs and CIOs in the Americas.
Scott is a recognized expert in Analytics and Data Management, Technology Strategy, Outsourcing and next generation Application Transformation to the Cloud. He and his HP team help companies transform their business through the vast amount of information available in their extended enterprise.
Prior to joining HP, Scott was a Senior Principal at Knightsbridge, a leading Business Intelligence consultancy, where he developed Business Intelligence strategies and platforms for Fortune 500 companies. Knightsbridge was acquired by HP in 2006. Prior to entering the field of technology consulting, Scott held executive and management positions at Inforte and Knight Ridder.
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July 18, 2020
How is a Mandate Driven Leader defined, and more important, how can each of us develop into this type of leader? How does the Mandate Driven Leadership model differ from the transformational, transactional, servant, authentic, or any other leadership approaches that pop up from blogs to academic peer-reviewed journal articles? Successful Mandate Driven Leaders have a vision, drive to an outcome, and are unrelenting until it is accomplished. Mandate Driven Leaders see a future that is better than the status quo. At the core, the Mandate Driven Leader recognizes that survival starts with a vision for a better future.
“A vision alone is not going to make a turtle run faster.”
Either you manage the culture or the culture manages you. If you want to change behavior, start by changing management systems inclusive of processes, metrics, and accountability. It is this ability to force culture change that is critical to a transformative Mandate Driven Leader.
One of the most important things Mandate Driven Leaders do is to develop a culture that opposes and prevents groupthink. Some people confuse this with group cohesion, but in fact, it is very different. The difference is that in groupthink, maintaining group cohesion becomes more important than making good decisions. The fact that the term originally came from George Orwell’s novel 1984 should be a pretty good indication that it is something to be avoided.
Avoid the Field of Dreams fallacy. This is the erroneous belief that “if you build it, they will come.” Mandate Driven Leaders under¬stand that you can’t just throw an idea out there and expect people to embrace it. No leader disrupts the market alone, and you have to create a compelling vision for people to follow and create an environment that enables them to do that. And given that Mandate Driven Leaders do not micromanage processes, they have to create a culture where everyone accepts the mission and socially motivates others to do the same. All members of the organization must realize that they only have two choices: get in the boat and row or get out and swim to a different shore.
There are many wonderful examples of Mandate Driven Leaders:
Steve Jobs will go down in history as one of the most challenging leaders to work with of all time. Shortly after his death, The Atlantic’s Tom McNichol referred to Steve Jobs as “a world-class asshole.” Biographer Walter Isaacson repeatedly talks about how there was Good Steve and there was Bad Steve. While Good Steve could inspire those around him to achieve groundbreaking innovations that the world didn’t realize it needed, Bad Steve could just as easily tear people down and make them hate life and run them off. Steve Jobs is the prototype of a Mandate Driven Leader, which begs the question: Could he have accomplished the same adopting a different leadership model? While there are some management gurus who will undoubtedly disagree, the answer is an absolute no. Jobs’s adoption of a Mandate Driven Leadership model was integral to his success. As he matured, it became very deliberate as Jobs recognized that Mandate Driven Leadership was essential to being “crazy enough to think they can change the world.” Susan Kalla, an investment manager, wrote in Forbes, “his high aspirations spilled over onto Apple employees who believed they too could accomplish anything.” The same traits that made Steve Jobs a “world-class asshole” were the traits that enabled him to achieve great things. The same passion that made him lose his temper was the obsession that drove him to relentlessly drive forward his vision. The same lack of self-awareness that made him think the rules didn’t apply to him was what allowed him to find ways to fill needs we didn’t know we had. Those same traits that made him a tyrant to work for also made him a Mandate Driven Leader. Steve Jobs was crazy enough that he did change the world.
Jeff Bezos, in a presentation in 1999 when Amazon was four years young, was asked about the vision for Amazon. He stated, “It’s customers helping customers make purchasing decisions. And that’s what is community . . . businesses cannot create community. All businesses can do is facilitate community.” Bezos’s vision was not to create the largest online bookseller or retailer. He was creating a community marketplace powered entirely by the community members themselves—their reviews, their rankings, their search results, and in many ways their product mix and their prices. Bezos still ingrains that vision into everything Amazon does.
Jack Welch, another consummate Mandate Driven Leader, was the CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. He quickly developed the nickname “Neutron Jack.” This nickname was earned through various strategies he implemented, including exiting any business where GE could not be the market share leader and firing the bottom 10% of all employees each and every review period. In a short period of time, Welch terminated more than 100,000 employees and exited businesses with revenue in the billions. The result was that he turned what at the time was a company in crisis into a global power and increased the company’s market value by more than $300 billion while achieving record revenue and profits.
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, was clearly a Mandate Driven Leader. Microsoft at its birth was singularly focused on transforming how society can use technology, specifically the desktop PC, to transform and better the world. This was not only Bill Gates’s vision but also his mandate. And during these early days, Gates was unrelenting in driving this vision forward. As time has gone on and he has been able to let Microsoft run without him, Gates has transferred this Mandate Driven Leadership approach to his charitable work. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is by far the largest philanthropic organization in the world, with an endowment exceeding $45 billion. The focus is on “improving people’s health and well being, helping individuals lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.” It is their belief that education coupled with technology enablers plays a critical part in this objective.
Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb: The President’s Room inside the Airbnb headquarters of the online home-sharing platform has a model ship that sits on a coffee table, a 19th-century sailing yacht. The model is the key to the President’s Room, and may be the backbone of the Chesky operation, for the sailing vessel works as a metaphor for Chesky’s leadership style. “If you think about it, Airbnb is like a giant ship,” Chesky told Fortune magazine. “And as CEO I’m the captain of the ship. But I really have two jobs: The first job is that I have to worry about everything below the water line, any¬thing that can sink the ship. Beyond that, I have to focus on two to three areas that I’m deeply passionate about - that aren’t below the water line but that I focus on because I can add unique value, I’m truly passionate about them, and they can truly transform the company if they go well.” For Chesky, those three focus areas that are above the water line are the product, brand, and culture, which are the crucial components beyond the technical aspects of an internet operation. It is in these three areas that Chesky shows his Mandate Driven Leadership style. Chesky understands that his role as captain of that ship is to establish the destination, chart the course, and propel the ship to that destination. Captains do not sail a ship by consensus. As the captain, Chesky understands that propelling an organization to achieve a vision requires directive stewardship.
“A vision alone is not going to make a turtle run faster.”
Either you manage the culture or the culture manages you. If you want to change behavior, start by changing management systems inclusive of processes, metrics, and accountability. It is this ability to force culture change that is critical to a transformative Mandate Driven Leader.
One of the most important things Mandate Driven Leaders do is to develop a culture that opposes and prevents groupthink. Some people confuse this with group cohesion, but in fact, it is very different. The difference is that in groupthink, maintaining group cohesion becomes more important than making good decisions. The fact that the term originally came from George Orwell’s novel 1984 should be a pretty good indication that it is something to be avoided.
Avoid the Field of Dreams fallacy. This is the erroneous belief that “if you build it, they will come.” Mandate Driven Leaders under¬stand that you can’t just throw an idea out there and expect people to embrace it. No leader disrupts the market alone, and you have to create a compelling vision for people to follow and create an environment that enables them to do that. And given that Mandate Driven Leaders do not micromanage processes, they have to create a culture where everyone accepts the mission and socially motivates others to do the same. All members of the organization must realize that they only have two choices: get in the boat and row or get out and swim to a different shore.
There are many wonderful examples of Mandate Driven Leaders:
Steve Jobs will go down in history as one of the most challenging leaders to work with of all time. Shortly after his death, The Atlantic’s Tom McNichol referred to Steve Jobs as “a world-class asshole.” Biographer Walter Isaacson repeatedly talks about how there was Good Steve and there was Bad Steve. While Good Steve could inspire those around him to achieve groundbreaking innovations that the world didn’t realize it needed, Bad Steve could just as easily tear people down and make them hate life and run them off. Steve Jobs is the prototype of a Mandate Driven Leader, which begs the question: Could he have accomplished the same adopting a different leadership model? While there are some management gurus who will undoubtedly disagree, the answer is an absolute no. Jobs’s adoption of a Mandate Driven Leadership model was integral to his success. As he matured, it became very deliberate as Jobs recognized that Mandate Driven Leadership was essential to being “crazy enough to think they can change the world.” Susan Kalla, an investment manager, wrote in Forbes, “his high aspirations spilled over onto Apple employees who believed they too could accomplish anything.” The same traits that made Steve Jobs a “world-class asshole” were the traits that enabled him to achieve great things. The same passion that made him lose his temper was the obsession that drove him to relentlessly drive forward his vision. The same lack of self-awareness that made him think the rules didn’t apply to him was what allowed him to find ways to fill needs we didn’t know we had. Those same traits that made him a tyrant to work for also made him a Mandate Driven Leader. Steve Jobs was crazy enough that he did change the world.
Jeff Bezos, in a presentation in 1999 when Amazon was four years young, was asked about the vision for Amazon. He stated, “It’s customers helping customers make purchasing decisions. And that’s what is community . . . businesses cannot create community. All businesses can do is facilitate community.” Bezos’s vision was not to create the largest online bookseller or retailer. He was creating a community marketplace powered entirely by the community members themselves—their reviews, their rankings, their search results, and in many ways their product mix and their prices. Bezos still ingrains that vision into everything Amazon does.
Jack Welch, another consummate Mandate Driven Leader, was the CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. He quickly developed the nickname “Neutron Jack.” This nickname was earned through various strategies he implemented, including exiting any business where GE could not be the market share leader and firing the bottom 10% of all employees each and every review period. In a short period of time, Welch terminated more than 100,000 employees and exited businesses with revenue in the billions. The result was that he turned what at the time was a company in crisis into a global power and increased the company’s market value by more than $300 billion while achieving record revenue and profits.
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, was clearly a Mandate Driven Leader. Microsoft at its birth was singularly focused on transforming how society can use technology, specifically the desktop PC, to transform and better the world. This was not only Bill Gates’s vision but also his mandate. And during these early days, Gates was unrelenting in driving this vision forward. As time has gone on and he has been able to let Microsoft run without him, Gates has transferred this Mandate Driven Leadership approach to his charitable work. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is by far the largest philanthropic organization in the world, with an endowment exceeding $45 billion. The focus is on “improving people’s health and well being, helping individuals lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.” It is their belief that education coupled with technology enablers plays a critical part in this objective.
Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb: The President’s Room inside the Airbnb headquarters of the online home-sharing platform has a model ship that sits on a coffee table, a 19th-century sailing yacht. The model is the key to the President’s Room, and may be the backbone of the Chesky operation, for the sailing vessel works as a metaphor for Chesky’s leadership style. “If you think about it, Airbnb is like a giant ship,” Chesky told Fortune magazine. “And as CEO I’m the captain of the ship. But I really have two jobs: The first job is that I have to worry about everything below the water line, any¬thing that can sink the ship. Beyond that, I have to focus on two to three areas that I’m deeply passionate about - that aren’t below the water line but that I focus on because I can add unique value, I’m truly passionate about them, and they can truly transform the company if they go well.” For Chesky, those three focus areas that are above the water line are the product, brand, and culture, which are the crucial components beyond the technical aspects of an internet operation. It is in these three areas that Chesky shows his Mandate Driven Leadership style. Chesky understands that his role as captain of that ship is to establish the destination, chart the course, and propel the ship to that destination. Captains do not sail a ship by consensus. As the captain, Chesky understands that propelling an organization to achieve a vision requires directive stewardship.
December 3, 2019
This book excels at providing an insider's look into the workplace cultures of some of the world's best-known organizations, but struggles to support the claim that one-sided, singularly conceived mandates are the best pathways to success. Perhaps hearing the voices of those on the receiving end of Bezos' profanity-laced diatribe humanized these tactics in a way that brought out too much empathy from the reader. Or living through the privacy-eclipsing efforts of Facebook that destroyed what was once known as an inviolable right greatly diminishes the admiration for these approaches. Neither observation is a critique of the text; Stawski's research was probably too good for the simple thesis to hold up in each profile. But having lived in an environment that plastered "None of us is as smart as all of us" on its agency walls, my affinity for Pittampalli's "Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds," was further strengthened after finishing "Mandate."
April 17, 2020
What do AirBnB, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix all have in common besides being technology enabled? They all were dominated by Mandate Focused leaders. The approach of mandate and directed leadership fell out of favor as bureaucracy, consensus and modern management theory took hold in the late 20th century. The book looks at a series of cases demonstrating the common traits and successes of Mandate Leadership, as well as many of the characteristics of the mandate driven leader. Generally easy to read and well written and researched, the book is a keeper on the leadership shelf and serves as a good reminder of the principles of leadership versus management, and the need to provide direction, development and risk taking as a leader.
June 26, 2020
Great book not only about a new type of leadership, but it also includes great very interesting biography of historical figures.
The book also compares different types of leadership and pro and cons of each.
The book also compares different types of leadership and pro and cons of each.
March 17, 2023
great anecdotes
Loved the interweaving of leader biographies. It kept it very entertaining along with great examples of the concepts applied in actual businesses. I enjoyed the contrary perspective to many other leadership books
Loved the interweaving of leader biographies. It kept it very entertaining along with great examples of the concepts applied in actual businesses. I enjoyed the contrary perspective to many other leadership books
December 7, 2019
Having read and tried many different Leadership styles and theories and practices I picked up this audiobook to learn about yet another one, I was somewhat sceptical at best!
Maybe something subliminal drove me to pick this up as I think I've discovered my new Leadership style or maybe its just a validation of the style I have and its raised my self-confidence and confirmed I'm on the right track and not alone!
I think all management and leadership theories are worth a read so each leader can form their own opinions and pick up what resonates best with them.
Maybe something subliminal drove me to pick this up as I think I've discovered my new Leadership style or maybe its just a validation of the style I have and its raised my self-confidence and confirmed I'm on the right track and not alone!
I think all management and leadership theories are worth a read so each leader can form their own opinions and pick up what resonates best with them.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews