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Richard Lepsinger is president of OnPoint Consulting and has a 20-year track record of success as a human resource consultant and executive. He was a founder and managing partner of Manus, a human capital consulting firm, which he grew to over $4 million in revenue and sold to Right Management Consultants in 1998. At Right, Rick was the managing vice president of the Northeast and Eastern Canadian Consulting Practice, where he was responsible for 55 professionals and grew the region's revenue from $7 million to $20 million.
Rick has co-authored three books on leadership, including Flexible Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices (co-author with Dr Gary Yukl), The Art and Science of 360° Feedback (co-author with Toni Lucia), and The Art and Science of Competency Models (co-author with Toni Lucia), all published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Can you summarize for our readers the key points of your model of flexible leadership?
The model starts with the three drivers of organizational performance - efficiency and reliability, adaptation and innovation, and human resources and relations. These success factors however are not necessarily compatible, and frequently actions to address one area have an adverse impact on another. Motorola is a good example of this. They have found it difficult to balance innovation and low cost and have suffered fairly extreme ups and downs because of it.
A key premise of the model is that success is not just about leader behavior. The effective use of organizational systems and programs supports and "magnifies" behavior so it can affect an entire organization. With this in mind, we provide a road map for leaders, consisting of a set of leader behaviors and organizational systems and programs that focus on each success factor.
We then offer guidance on how leaders can determine the proper balance among the three success factors and bring the right behaviors and systems to bear.
Could you use a case study to demonstrate to us how this model has been successful?
A great example is Carlos Ghosn from Nissan Motor Co. When Ghosn was appointed the chief operating officer of Nissan in 1999 the company was in a state of serious decline, and it was only Renault's willingness to assume part of Nissan's debt that saved the...