Great leaders need followers that do more than understand the purpose or vision. They need people to act upon it. They need to turn them into what Peter Drucker called, maniacs on a mission. You need to inspire.

I do my best to help others create a compelling vision. I think too much effort is being spent to craft a product; a vision statement. I believe that much more could be accomplished if we thought about working on being compelling. Being charismatic.

Unfortunately, there is no charisma in a can product available. Fortunately, there are skills that can be practiced and mastered. It comes down to powerfully communicating your message. It means communicating your passion (and I should add if you are not passionate about your message, forget charisma. Oh, you can also forget leading others.) Business schools rarely teach the skills to powerfully present your message. They seem to believe the numbers will present a compelling direction strong enough to get others on board. Here is a clue. The numbers are necessary, but boring. They are not enough.

There are a number of scholars and practitioners that are filling this gap in executive education. My recommendations include Carmine Gallo’s great book “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs”, Ron Crossland and Boyd Clarke’s great work on executive communication, “The Leader’s Voice”, and something completely different, poet David Whyte’s “A Heart Aroused.”

While you cannot be taught the passion necessary for charisma, you can learn the skills necessary to communicate it with charisma. That matters.

There is certainly truth that money matters. These economic times highlight how important a good and stable income have become. The pattern of rewarding those at the top while reducing the income of those at the front lines of producing the goods and services sends a clear message to the most talented. You need to find a path to become one of the haves, and stay away from jobs that may find you in the have not’s group. The quicker top talent can climb the ladder to the top tier (where the “haves” reside), the more attractive the employer.

One problem with the auto industry is that they have not broken the historic pattern of entitlement. Longevity plays an inordinate role in determining how far up the ladder a person gets. Check the biographies of the executives at the tops of these companies. An employee that meets his/her goals, or can make a compelling argument that circumstances beyond their control caused them to miss the targets, can count on step increases and incremental moves up the ladder. You need to pay your dues. The question becomes whether top talent is patient enough to go that route, or even whether the organization will be viable when it is your turn. You can increase the speed of how fast you move up that ladder by building relationships with the right people. The old boys network still exists.

Contrast that with the project oriented working life of financial firms or the consulting industry. Professional service firms have a much clearer defined path to the top of the ladder. You may start on a project as a junior member executing a contract or project a senior member has secured. Your work on that project will be far more visible than an engineer at the big three hidden in an archaic bureaucratic structure. You begin to build a portfolio, a project at a time. It doesn’t matter how long you have been with the firm, it is more a “what have you done for me today?” culture. When top talent performs, they are rewarded. Typically top performers end up working for top performers, not just the most senior. You can make partner far quicker than you can make VP in the auto industry and it is more likely to be merit based. Top talent wants to play in the game and prefer a high risk high reward environment.

There is another difficulty for our domestic auto makers. Sadly, the truth is that relocating to the Detroit area is not attractive. The city is broken, crime is off the charts, the school systems are the worst in the country and there is little visible effort to change that. It feels like a dying community. Top talent wants a vibrant, youthful, exciting place to work and learn.

I have long held the opinion that execution is the key component of excellence. There are many great ideas out there, but if they cannot be converted to a product or service someone will actually pay for, they won’t help a company. I read this morning that GM is already hinting at a schedule slip for the Volt. I understand the importance of a flawless launch, but it does concern me that perhaps the new GM is the old GM in new wrapping. They have got to execute this well.

The key to execution is translating plans to action, and this happens at the front line. I believe you can’t really appreciate the complexity of an organization until you have supervised the workforce on the front lines. Every new program, process, or system introduced in the organization must be implemented there. I also believe that many authors of these new initiatives have never supervised at the front line and have no idea of the difficulties they cause for the supervisors.

When I was a first liner, our main job was to lead our work teams. That meant getting to know them, communicating plans and directions, answering their questions, getting them resources…stuff you need to do to get stuff done.

These days, the front liners have seen their time with their team diminished by the never ending paperwork created by new initiatives. Many have become glorified clerks. On top of this, cutbacks have increased their span of control so much the best they can do is manage the exceptions. With little time for coaching, bossing has made a comeback! Each day becomes a battle to meet schedules with shrinking resources. It is a damn tough job.

Some companies I work with understand the importance of front line management and invest in their supervisors. McKinsey found that interpersonal skills and leadership training are critical at this level. I couldn’t agree more. It is difficult to free up the supervisors for training. I have a solution that might work. Have some of those folks making up these new initiatives fill in for them. They might learn something. Plus it would be fun to watch.

I agree with his conclusion, but don’t limit it to “the average” person. We live in terribly complex times, and everyone, including business leaders, want simple solutions. There aren’t any. The myriad forces at work demand careful study and thoughtful analysis. They also require understanding the interaction of forces at work, and the cause and effect relationship between short term actions and long term impact. This is especially troubling as businesses continue to take actions that may improve margins short term, yet cripple the next generation of leaders who will have to deal with rebuilding the basic foundations of the enterprise. While many business executives rail against government policies that build debt for the next generation (and I agree with them), they are doing the very same thing in their companies. The complexity of the issues facing our businesses provides cover for them to take these short sighted measures.

Talent management is one area that comes to mind. Human Resource departments have seen their missions morph from attracting, developing, and retaining talent to personnel administration focused on controlling the cost of human capital. It may appear to work short term as the options for employee mobility in tough economic times are limited. Once the economy rebounds, these companies will see their best talent leave as quick as someone can say “salary increase”. They will be left with talent that is simply not skilled enough to attract offers from others.

Brand management is another area of concern. Toyota stands as an example. They pressured suppliers to make annual 10% reduction in parts cost until it reached the predictable point of harming quality. Many goods manufacturers are doing the same and are relying on past reputation while harming the future reputation.

It boggles my mind why so many focus on the simple fix instead of the more comprehensive solution. Perhaps they know by the time the problems emerge it will be somebody else’s to solve. Perhaps they don’t have the knowledge and skills required. Perhaps they are pinning their hopes that a general economic recovery will carry them along. I don’t know. It’s not that simple.

The first problem is that too many folks believe, and I fear are taught, that your style justifies your behavior. The executive I was working with insisted that she just could not work with a peer because “I am an i-D, and she is a C-S”. What??? I have worked with the DiSC profiles for over 25 years, so I knew what she was talking about. The DiSC measures work style tendencies based on Jungian typologies. It does it well for a simple instrument. The focus should be on helping people understand their styles as preferences, not life scripts. Leaders should focus on how their preference actually limit their ability to form well rounded strategies, and as an executive it is their responsibility to seek the best strategy.

Problem two. You can find an instrument to validate your decision making if you look hard enough. This executive was well read, and over profiled. She had been firo-B’d, Myers Brigged, enneagramed, DiSC’ed, Belbin’d, etc. She had much knowledge, but was woefully lacking in wisdom. Understanding oneself is critical to great executive leadership. Wisdom occurs when you use this information to make behavioral choices that at times may run against your natural inclination.

Problem three. A sign of style testing fatigue is when people start referring to themselves by the inventorie’s labels. “I’m an ENTJ”. OK, but you are also an executive responsible for performance. While I might find your knowledge of personality styles interesting, it is your bottom line on results that determines whether I want you to stay on the team.

Problem four. The research for validation of some instruments is troubling. The National Academy of Sciences raised concerns over the validity and reliability of the Myers-Briggs instrument. It is probably the most popular one on the market, but we who are involved in looking at the human side of performance should take note. Too often, our work is looked at as “soft”. We must take care not to feed that perception by using tools that are not backed by good science and research.

The bottom line to me is simple. Ultimately the most reliable data to use as an executive is performance data on results. A great executive understands that the biggest impediment to organization performance just might be them. Using these tools can help them understand why they may tend to behave or think in any given fashion. The issue remains what one does with the information. It’s called free will. And executive judgment.

First impressions are critical. I visited two restaurants that were direct opposites. At the first one, I had to fight my way past the crowd to get into the front door. My first thought was that is was a good sign the restaurant was popular, but it turns out it was the designated smoking spot. Not pleasant. Once I did get in the door, the greeter appeared to be more interested in her conversation with the servers then acknowledging me. I just wanted to know where to sit. The second restaurant was wonderful. The entrance sparkled, the greeter friendly, servers were serving instead of clustered around a table talking, a very positive vibe!

Do sweat the details. I do an exercise in class where I put a black dot in the middle of a poster size sheet of paper and ask people what they see. They always respond with the dot, rather than the far greater area of white space. We see the blemish much more than the whole. Everything matters. Pay attention to it. Restaurant number one above had a featured wine on the special board. I ordered it. They were out of it. At 6 PM!

Customer facing employees are the primary brand ambassadors. Whether it is the front desk clerk at the hotel, the greeter at the restaurant, the server, they set the tone. If it is clear to me they don’t enjoy their place of business, neither will I. Attitude matters.

Don’t let an obsession with margins trump value. I understand these are tough economic times and appreciate how hard it is to make a buck these days. I have a friend who preaches that controlling food costs is the key to success in the restaurant business. He does a good job of keeping the costs as low as he can. I don’t eat there. His metrics tell him his margin, they don’t tell him how many people never come in. My client put me in the hotel I stayed in to get my opinion for a proposed client summit they are thinking of hosting there. I think the cheap linen, no in room coffee, one tiny bar of soap, might kill the deal.

Word of mouth has gone digital. I always ask my clients where I should eat and stay. This is the most important factor in my decision making. A very close second is the digital site called Yelp. I read the reviews and comments. In a new city, I tend to start with the highest rated establishment and work my way down the list. You need to know where you fall and what folks are saying about you.

If something goes wrong, I don’t really care who is to blame. I just want a solution. Even in the best of businesses, things happen. Acknowledge it, apologize, then offer a solution. And dear server, blaming the kitchen does not protect your tip.

Special note to hotels. Miss a wakeup call request, lose a business traveler. Period.

Enough ranting. It all matters. By the way, do try the Red Ginger in Traverse City, Michigan. The other restaurant? I won’t publicly bad mouth them….maybe they just had a bad day. You can check my reviews on yelp.com. Turns out there are many comments there. I should have checked them.

I learned a couple of key lessons about the world of work this year. First, when confronted with a problem, all too often the default action is to put a bandaid on the symptom and not treat the cause. Whether it was the financial bailout, the continued drama of GM, or the frenzied pursuit of cost reductions, it strikes me that we did not address the root cause. Until we do, there is a a great possibility that new leaks are going to spring up! The second lesson learned is related to the first. I sense a general weariness in the workforce. I often use the concept of “bad tired and good tired” when I work with client groups. Bad tired is that feeling at the end of a day after you worked your butt off only to know there is more where that came from tomorrow. It wears you down. A good tired is the same amount of energy, and often more, expended but with a measurable accomplishment. You can look in the mirror and say, “Today, I made a difference.” There is much bad tired out there.

My wish for the new year is that we all move beyond problem solving to achieving goals. We did what was necessary in 2009, but let’s learn from it. The chicken wire and duct tape fixes of 2009 need to be replaced with real, substantive change in our systems and real investment in longer term solutions. I am admittedly biased here, but one example is developing your people. Set a goal that every member of your organization produces greater return for their efforts in 2010, and then help them do that. A good place to start might be sitting down with each and every one of them and do some goal setting. Ask them what they would have to accomplish in 2010 to give them that satisfying, good tired feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing work that matters. Ask them what you can do to help them get there. Then make a plan, execute it, and measure it in progress gained, not problems fixed.

I wish all of you a happy and productive new year. We can do this. If we are to remain competitive in the world market, I believe we have to.