GEEKS & GEEZERS: HOW ERA, VALUES AND DEFINING MOMENTS SHAPE LEADERS

By Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas, Harvard Business
School Press, 2002

Book Review by Herb Rubenstein
CEO, Herb Rubenstein Consulting

Introduction

In 200 very readable pages, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas have put together a book that is more than a collection of stories about leaders and leadership. Geeks and Geezers is based in large part on the authors’ strong knowledge of the leadership literature and a total of 43 in depth interviews conducted by the authors (including an interview of the co-author Warren Bennis, one of the “Geezers” interviewed for the book). The book presents a new model of leadership that is discussed below. The title comes from the fact that the leaders selected by the authors fall into two groups: leaders who are under 35 and leaders who are older than 70. Through recorded, structured interviews, (with additional open conversation), the authors sought to figure out what has contributed most significantly to the subjects becoming leaders and their being very successful as leaders. The goal of the book, which was realized, was to formulate some generalizable truths about leadership that can assist others who want to improve their success as a leader.

The New Model of Leadership

Bennis and Thomas make clear from the outset that they are focusing their research on individuals, but that today no one person alone can become a leader. Leadership requires support, mentoring, assistance and to the author’s credit, they find that the younger leaders, the geeks, truly understand this. Bennis and Thomas are not trying to create heroes out of their leaders. In fact, they say “one is usually too small a number for greatness,” building on the earlier writings of Bennis who has written extensively on that the “Great Man (Person) theory of leadership is a false view. In this book, individuals constitute the authors’ “unit of analysis” so that the teachings of these individuals revealed through the authors’ research can become part of the literature on leadership and serve to guide others who seek to lead and lead well.

Bennis and Thomas discovered that while leaders have individual characteristics and traits, these did not seem to play a significant causal role in the leader becoming successful. The first key element of the Bennis/Thomas model is the recognition that “era” (which is a composite of the economic, social, military, technological, and environmental milieu in which the leader spends his or her formative years) is a very strong factor in shaping leaders’ views, outlook, behavior and will to succeed. Leaders from one “era” are different from leaders of another “era.” Time and again, Bennis and Thomas show how geeks and geezers read different books, are educated differently, learn differently, have different outlooks toward “life balance,” and raising families, relate to “time” differently and see their potential role in the world from dramatically different vantage points. For example, when the young Geeks were in their 20’s, if not their teens, they saw that they wanted to change the world and would have the chance if they applied themselves to changing the world. The Geezers growing up during war, planning for a career with one major organization or employer, did not in their teens or twenties even remotely think they could change the world. The Geeks are post internet, post computer folks where the world is a keystroke away. The Geezers grew up in a much more isolated set of circumstances, faced war head on and struggled financially when they were young.

The second major element of the Bennis/Thomas model of leadership is that each leader goes through a challenging event or series of events that directly impacts on their own personal identity, their values and ultimately, directly impacts their ability to be a leader. The authors call these transforming events through which the person is transformed into a “leader” the crucible and often refer to these events as “defining moments.” (This may be in tribute, in part to the excellent book “Defining Moments,” by Harvard Professor Joseph Badaracco published in 1997 by the same publisher or it may just be a coincidence since the authors did not reference this book in their text. The crucible or transforming event was discussed by each leader as part of the interview process. The interview responses, including each leader’s description of their own crucible, are woven together in the book to reveal the basic teachings of the book.

In sum, the new leadership model suggests that it is the combination of the individual attributes of the person, plus the era in which the person lives, plus the crucible through which the person goes through where he or she forms a leadership commitment and identity that ultimately leads to the leadership competencies that the person eventually exhibits.

The Basic Teachings of Leadership from Geeks & Geezers

The book yields at least thirty three important teachings about leadership, each of which makes a contribution to the leadership literature. The authors present these teachings because they represent the set of ideas that consistently came up in interview after interview with the geeks and geezers who shared their life stories with the authors. They are:

1. Adaptive capacity is one of the most essential qualities of a leader. Adaptive capacity means to be able to create “context.” That is, when an event occurs (like 9/11) or some knowledge is revealed (like the deforestation of the earth may make the planet unlivable for human beings in the future), a leader can successfully find a meaning in this event or knowledge and create seize opportunities for themselves and others that would not have existed but for this event or new knowledge. Leaders find meaning and strength in adversity and create plans to deal with the adversity.
2. Leaders must have strong adaptive capacities. Life does not work out as planned and leaders must be able to deal with the new and unexpected realities with skill, nerve, unfailing commitment and strength. Leaders must have “hardiness,” and a component of hardiness is optimism.
3. Both experience and having the “innocence of a child” (an open mind, an “uncontaminated wonder” per Walt Disney) are both important for leaders to possess.
4. Knowing how to learn (being able to learn to learn) and being willing to take on new challenges are essential for leaders to grow and improve as leaders. Similarly, leaders constantly develop new competencies and improve old ones.
5. Staying youthful throughout life is critical for one to continue to be a leader as one becomes older. The authors call this attribute “neoteny” (a real word that the authors “redefine” and mold in good fashion to fit their idea- the retention of youthful characteristics in adulthood. This includes the ability to recruit which youth have plus resilience, tirelessness, candor and curiosity – a hunger for experience and unwillingness to experience boredom.
6. Leaders must be excellent “noticers.” Through noticing they can hold others accountable, evaluate talent, judge the commitment of others and see patterns before they become obvious to others.
7. Leaders take informed, intelligent risks.
8. Leaders engage others through rapport and the creation of shared meaning
9. Leaders are excellent communicators for themselves and those they lead and have a distinctive, compelling voice.
10. Leaders have integrity and can be counted on when they give their word or make a commitment that they will do everything possible to do as they say they would do. They have a moral compass to guide their ambition.
11. Leaders set high expectations of themselves and others.
12. Leaders look forward with eagerness, and do not dwell on the past.
13. Leaders consciously seek out tests and challenges.
14. Failure is a friend, not an enemy of a leader.
15. Leaders dream and see themselves playing a crucial role in making the dream become a reality.
16. Leaders have a sense of humor.
17. Leaders read and write voraciously.
18. Leaders are catalysts who foster others to be creative and use their imagination to address challenges.
19. Great leaders emerge only when they can find the proper stage, a forum that allows them to exercise their gifts and skills.
20. Leadership is one of the performing arts and the leader must always sell him or herself to the audience.
21. Leaders see things through their own eyes and through the eyes of their followers.
22. Leaders respond quickly and generously to problems and challenges.
23. Leaders have genuine respect for others.
24. Leaders put the pieces in place before they make a move to change an organization.
25. Leaders know they can not accomplish anything worthy alone. Leaders recruit others to help achieve a common goal.
26. Leaders strive for greatness and settle for nothing less.
27. Leaders work for their followers, not the other way around.
28. Leaders are the authors and critics of their own lives. Leaders have the capacity for self-reflection.
29. Leadership can not be an “add on.” It must be embedded in very fiber of an organization.
30. Leaders build and maintain networks of people across generations, across diverse disciplines, and constantly learn from other people.
31. Leaders believe they are lucky.
32. Leaders practice and learn while they perform.
33. Leaders are unafraid of change.

Conclusion

Geeks & Geezers fills a void in the leadership literature. Not all of the lessons of leadership crafted by Bennis and Thomas are new. The idea of “era” has been discussed in the literature. The concept of “neoteny” is novel in its use of a term that the authors is a fuller description of a key element of leadership that sometimes is called “charisma.: The breakthrough of the book is the understated finding that while the leaders were as diverse in age, ethnicity, gender and occupations as you can find in this country, their stories were essentially the same. The came to a defining moment, they made a decision, they created a context, a meaning that was empowering to themselves and others, they charted a course, the recruited others to join them on their journey and they dedicated their life to realizing the dream that they envisioned. This is the story of a leader and Bennis and Thomas capture that story in their book.

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