Dave Ulrich - The Leadership Code

Copyright 2008 Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, and Kate Sweetman

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form,or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher.Requests for permission should be directed to , or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business SchoolPublishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

First eBook Edition: January 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4221-1901-3

Dave, Norm, and Kate have found a simple and compelling way to pull together the study of leaders and leadership. We areusing The Leadership Code with our high-potential leaders.

Majed al-Romaithi, Executive Director, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

Comprehensive, focused, and immediately useful, The Leadership Code is an articulate and highly readable synthesis of current thinking on leadershipand a framework to apply such thinking inreal-life situations. This should be recommended reading for all leaders and development professionals.

Peter Goerke, Group Head of Human Resources, Zurich Financial Services

Who knows if leaders are born or made? I know that leaders can become better. The Leadership Code shows them how! The best book on leading for the future that I have ever reada wonderful combination of idealism and realism!

Marshall Goldsmith, author of the Wall Street Journal number-one bestseller What Got You Here Wont Get You There

For current or aspiring leaders and those tasked with supporting and developing them, this book is a must-have. With inspiringleadership stories and wonderful frameworks and diagnostics, it provides a unique overview of what it takes to be a leader.

Lynda Gratton, professor, London Business School, and author of Hot Spots:Why Some Companies Buzz with Energy and Innovationand Others Dont

A valuable guide through the thicket of leadership thinking, The Leadership Code summarizes whats core and critical to your leadership effectiveness.

Herminia Ibarra, Cora Chaired Professor in Leadership and Learning, INSEAD, and Faculty Director, INSEAD Leadership Initiative

The concepts of leadership brand and leadership code are both developmental and useful. We have used these ideas at Ketchumto focus and define our leadership to better serve both our clients and colleagues. I heartily endorse this book as a usefulguide to improving and strengthening your organizations leadership.

Ray Kotcher, CEO, Ketchum

Not just another book on leadership, but a truly useful guide to what leaders can and should do. Integrates the researchon leadership and provides a what-to-do list of actions and useful examples.

Ed Lawler, professor, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, and author of Talent: Making People your Competitive Advantage

A hard-hitting, back-to-basics reminder of leadership fundamentals that are all too readily forgotten in todays taskdrivenculture. The commonsense approach of The Leadership Code provides some practical tools to guide and measure success. The five rules clearly define the critical pathway from creatingstrategy to delivering results, engaging both employees and customers along the way. A must for aspiring leaders and managerswho value their development and effectiveness.

Tony McCarthy, Director, People and Organisational Effectiveness, British Airways

Going beyond theories, The Leadership Code brings different ideas together under a single framework to develop organizational capabilities for business success. Refreshingand inspiring real-world examples make this book a valuable how-to guide for todays leaders. Simply put, its value-addedand it makes a difference.

Randy McDonald, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, IBM

In an environment where everyone is claiming to have the magic pill for effective leadership, Ulrich, Smallwood, and Sweetmanpresent an innovative approach that speaks for itself. A thoughtful spin on traditional content, the authors equip readerswith a personalized, pragmatic rulebook that simplifies a rather dense body of research and enables managers in any fieldto enrich their leadership skills. As dynamic as it is telling, The Leadership Code integrates theory, assessment tools, and practical examples in a way that encourages both introspection and incremental development.

Lynne Oldham, Managing Director, Head of HR North America, BNP Paribas

Is leadership an art or a science? Is leadership a hard or soft discipline? The great contribution of this book is thatit dismisses these tired dichotomies and proposes an integrated and actionable theory of leadership based on the art and thescience and the importance of both the soft and hard skills that are necessary to lead. It promises to move the field forward in a powerful and helpful way.

Fran Sussner Rodgers, Chair of WFD and recipient of the Ernst & Young/Merrill Lynch Entrepreneur of the Year award

Simple yet complex, conceptual and practical, The Leadership Code is a book designed to drive action and in that sense it a must for all managers and leaders. It is a great distillation ofpractical ideas, insights, and activities designed to grow great leaders at all levels in organizations.

Neil Roden, Group Director, Human Resources, Royal Bank of Scotland

An excellent, thoughtful read that extends the knowledge base of leadership by providing easy to understand and apply conceptsand frameworks. Importantly, this book differentiates itself in an overstudied field by driving the reader to the pure essenceof leadership and showing how each one of us, regardless of level or position, can become more personally proficient at leading.

Dennis W. Shuler, Chief Human Resources Officer, The Walt Disney Company.

Finallya practical, comprehensive framework about what leaders do and why they do it. This book rises like Everest aboveall other leadership books. The Leadership Code is destined to become as fundamentally important to leadership as Newtons laws are to physics or Magellans circumnavigationwas to geography.

Dave Weidman, CEO, Celanese Corporation

from Harvard Business Press

Results-Based Leadership

(with Jack Zenger)

Leadership Brand: Developing

Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance

and Build Lasting Value

To our fathers, who gave us our code:

Richard Ulrich, Ken Smallwood,

and Richard Sweetman

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a city to write a book. We hope here that we acknowledge everyone whohas contributed in so many ways to this book from its inception to its final realization.

We owe special thanks to Harvard Business Press for their ongoing support, especially Melinda Merino, who is our ever-graciousand insightful editor.

We owe a special thanks to Bob Eichinger, who has consistently provoked and encouraged us.

We also owe a special thanks to Omar Kader, who gave us invaluable feedback as we wrote various chapters of this manuscript,and Dean Weatherford, who provided new perspectives and encouragement.

Thanks to those who have attended our workshops, where we test our ideas and learn from their questions and insights.

Deep gratitude to all the folks we interviewed they are in the book already, but we acknowledge them here as well becausewithout them there would be no leadership code and no book. These generous thought leaders include Jim Bolt (working on leadershipdevelopment efforts); Richard Boyatzis (working on the competency models and resonant leadership); Jay Conger (working onleadership skills as aligned to strategy); Marc Effron (working on large studies of global leaders); Bob Fulmer (working onleadership skills); Marshall Goldsmith (working on global leadership skills and how to develop those skills); Gary Hamel (workingon leadership as it relates to strategy); Linda Hill (working on how managers become leaders and leadership in emerging economies);Jon Katzenbach (working on leaders from within the organization); Jim Kouzes (working on how leaders build credibility); MorganMcCall (representing the Center for Creative Leadership); Barry Posner (working on how leaders build credibility); Paul Thompson(working on current development styles) and Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman (working on how leaders deliver results and becomeextraordinary).