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Leadership Lessons From 'Animal House'

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Ken Perlman discusses the very real  fear of leading many managers have, and how to get past it.

During his Oscar presentation Sunday, Bill Murray slid in a clever tribute to Harold Ramis, who died last week. Remembering Ramis’ work – he wrote or starred in so many great comedies featuring endearing, unsavory underdogs – I remembered the infamous scene (below) from "Animal House" where Bluto tries to rally the troops, gives a rousing speech, runs out the door, and nobody follows. That, I realize, is one of our client’s biggest fears.

We help our clients evolve from managers in control of everything to leaders that inspire their people. Transitioning from an overseer – making sure that nothing fails, no balls are dropped, and no issues are left unresolved – to the leader who empowers and motivates can be daunting. As each make this switch, most clients have a moment of real insecurity, wondering, “What if, at the end of my motivational ‘rally cry,’ I run out the door - and nobody follows?”

These successful people are exceptional at managing, defending, rationalizing, justifying, controlling, documenting, supervising, budgeting, allocating – all the things that got them the job. We ask them to flex a new, different muscle. We ask them to lead, to set direction, to motivate others, and to create an environment where their people will step up to the challenge without being told what to do or how to do it.

Their fearful vision plays like the scene in "Animal House": The team is demotivated, the group just got put on “double-secret probation” by Dean Wormer, they’re not showing results, they’re not winning. This is where Bluto (John Belushi) tries to rally the troops with an emotionally engaging and not-entirely-factually-accurate motivational speech, and it doesn’t work. In the end, Bluto’s approach doesn’t just fail, it’s embarrassing – well, it would have embarrassed anyone except Bluto.

But once our clients get over the fear of being Bluto – out front leading with nobody following - they realize that being inspirational is simply a matter of setting direction and communicating importance. Here’s how they do it:

STOP trying to manage:

  • “How” to do it: directing, allocating, budgeting
  • When it’s going to get done
  • Who’s going to do it

START asking people:

  •  “Who wants to help make this happen?”
  •  “How would you do it?”
  •  “What are you willing to do to get it done today?”

This is how you shift toward motivating to generate impact. When someone raises their hand, give them permission, give them protection, encourage them. When those people come to you to ask for something – a little help, a resource, or a budget – give it to them. Whatever their plan is to get it done – let them.

As soon as two, three, or four people start taking those first steps – and you make their effort public and visible – you show others what success looks like. People won’t just start to follow you, you’ll see followers getting out in front of the leader – going in the direction you wanted them to go.

Ken Perlman is an engagement leader at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. Follow Kotter International on Twitter @KotterIntl, on Facebook, or on LinkedIn. Sign up for the Kotter International Newsletter.