In this section we review books on leadership that are relevant to the trusted leadership style of managing people.

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Hitler and Churchill – Secrets of Leadership

by Andrew Roberts

Reviewed by Martin Edwards

What lessons can we draw from the leadership styles of Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill that will help us in our everyday roles? This is the intriguing question historian Andrew Roberts explores in his book Hitler and Churchill – Secrets of Leadership, recently published in paperback.

Although Hitler was monstrous and Churchill was recently voted greatest ever Briton in a major BBC poll, the two shared certain qualities that are common to many leaders. Both had a vision - Hitler’s founded on evil intent and the bitterness of a downtrodden nation, persuading them that they would one day dominate Europe, and Churchill's on warning of the dangers of Nazism in the 1930s and on the unswerving pursuit of victory in Britain’s darkest but finest hour. And both men communicated their visions with gifted oratory, trusting only themselves to write their speeches and practising their delivery extensively. But there, Roberts argues, is where their similarities as leaders end and where we can learn much from their differences.

Churchill, it is clear, was a tough boss to work for. In what would now be termed ‘micro-managing’, he involved himself in considerable ground level detail. Sometimes surly and difficult, he was nevertheless a hive of energy, something that his colleagues knew years before he reached Downing Street: ‘Winston, very soon, will become incapable from sheer activity of mind of being anything in a Cabinet but Prime Minister,’ wrote one prescient colleague. It was this energy and decisiveness that emerged as the vital leadership quality in wartime.

Hitler, by contrast, rarely worked to excess and cared little for detail, planning or economics. Moreover, whereas Hitler never wrote down instructions so that, in the event of failure, the trail would not lead back to himself, Churchill sought absolute clarity and insisted that all his instructions be in writing.

Their people skills are also insightful for modern day managers. Curiously it was Churchill who was the better at forcing out incompetent allies from his government. Hitler was loyal to a fault, tolerating liabilities and failure in his most loyal supporters, such as when Field Marshal Goring persuaded him to halt the German army’s armoured advance on Dunkirk in the belief that the air force could operate unaided, or when Goring was also instrumental in the pivotal German defeat at Stalingrad. Churchill, however, never hesitated to dispense with people who had become liabilities. And when mistakes were made, Hitler constantly blamed others but Churchill readily admitted his own errors.

Roberts also explores their approaches to teamwork and decision-making. Hitler fostered Darwinian competition between his subordinates, playing them off against each other. Departments and responsibilities overlapped to this end, ensuring that their loyalty was only to the Fuhrer. As the author observes, it was no way to run a government.

Churchill, on the other hand, always sought to couple responsibility with direct power of action. On becoming Prime Minister in 1940 he disbanded advisory committees, streamlined the War Cabinet from ten to five members, and cut out overlaps in areas of authority. And he actively encouraged inventive, unconventional people, such as the Enigma code-breakers at Bletchley Park, the press baron Lord Beaverbrook whom he appointed Minister of Aircraft Production, or people who would stand up to him. Whereas Hitler wanted cronies, Churchill employed Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke as his deputy, a strong and painstaking strategist who would stand up to Winston’s many wild ideas. As the author observes, ‘even the best leaders fail when they don’t allow others to disagree with them.’

Andrew Roberts has produced a very readable and relevant book that will appeal to anyone wishing to improve their leadership skills. Perhaps most of all, the author draws telling conclusions from the way that the two leaders sought to influence their followers. Hitler radiated charisma, but it was a studied charisma, with his deliberately unblinking stare, his determination never to show ordinary human weaknesses, and his unapproachability. The dictator cultivates an unchallengeable authority and an image of perfection, setting himself apart from all others. But Churchill was approachable, walking among the rubble of the blitz with tears in his eyes and radiating the same emotions as his fellow men and women.

When Hitler met his followers, he impressed upon them the belief that he could achieve anything. But when people met Churchill, they felt that they themselves could achieve anything.

Hitler and Churchill – Secrets of Leadership by Andrew Roberts is published by Phoenix Books priced £7.99

'Freedom from Command and Control: a guide to making the work work'

by John Seddon

Reviewed by Martin Edwards

If you have ever lost a customer and want to avoid losing another, this is a book for you. Drawing from the Japanese success story of Toyota, author John Seddon convincingly articulates a different way of running organizations that leads to higher profits and better customer relationships. But equally importantly, it makes employees more involved and more motivated.

The Freedom from Command and Control ethos:

• Think of an organization not as a command structure but as a system for customers
• Organise around the purpose of serving customers and let all decisions flow from that purpose
• Put decision-making at the point where the work is done
• The job of leaders is to involve the ‘shop floor’ in decisions, to better organize the system
• Don’t monitor the worker, monitor the planning

Seddon argues that the opposite applies with most UK organizations: control structures are created to avoid anarchy, workers are monitored with targets, and the emphasis is ‘achieve these numbers’ rather than ‘learn and improve.’ Decisions are taken in the boardroom or the office which are run by separate people than those who do the work. This stifles the flow of ideas, but more importantly fails to see the organization as a system for customers.

We can all relate to an example he uses: the dreaded Call Centre. Invented to achieve economies of scale, they have become the pet hate of customers. Seddon analyses that up to 60% of all their calls are ‘failure demand’: people calling because their problem remains unsolved, being put through to people who cannot answer their question, or simply selecting the ‘wrong’ number option on the menu (silly customers). Strategy decisions are neither taken nor influenced by the people answering the phones, who are monitored with efficiency targets for numbers of calls. The systemic solution, Seddon argues, lies in eliminating failure demand.

Toyota realized this fifty years ago and became a world leader in its field. Western car manufacturers only offer customers very few upgrade choices of each car model because it takes them ten days of down-time to change over an assembly line. Toyota’s solution was to reduce the changeover time to ten minutes. They did this by managers constantly walking the assembly line, seeking suggestions, acting on observations from the people who did the work. There was also a very high level of training before workers began any work on the assembly line. Errors and re-work were eliminated, the system sped up, and customers could demand any spec of any model they liked. The assembly line responded, producing the car in days. The western ‘we make, we sell’ ethos was overtaken by the Japanese ‘you ask, we make’ customer relationship. And their cars were more reliable too!

This brings to mind the recent TV documentary Back To The Floor, where UK bosses spent a week at the sharp end of their business: waiting tables, organizing weddings, dealing with frustrated passengers. Suddenly a whole new world opened up where they found out for themselves what was going wrong and what it felt like for the customer.

We need only look at the UK public sector to see where many organizations are going wrong. A whole raft of jobs have emerged whose role is not to provide a service but to monitor, evaluate, audit, schedule, report, and make demands on those who actually do the work – all in the name of control, quality and efficiency.

Seddon’s writing style, however, is sometimes dense and often repetitive. It’s also inherently self-promotional: I lost count of the numbers of times the author referred to his own management consultancy. And the book left me longing to read about the importance of integrity and values in leadership, which the author ignores. But don’t let this put you off from the valuable essence of the book. If your organization ever loses customers, or ever takes decisions separately from the people who do the work, you should read it. Ultimately Seddon’s point is that few organizations have achieved the level of competence he describes.