G2 On Leadership


Tea party: No leader, no problem?


Has the recent success of the tea party come because of, or in spite of, the movement’s lack of a formal leadership structure? Along with Wikipedia, open-source software and organizations like MoveOn.org, is this another example of the power of distributed leadership?


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Donald F.Kettl is deanof the School ofPublicPolicy at the University ofMaryland.


Thedays of encyclopedia salesmenare long gone.They


usedto be a fixture across the country--super- cheerful invaders of living rooms everywhere,who campedout onthe couchuntilparents signedup for a set of bookcase-bending books tohelptheir kids throughschool.The salesmanhas been replacedbyWikipedia,where a fewquick keystrokes canhelpusers findout almost anything. It’s the grass-roots supply of research thathas, since 2001, become anindispensable first source for toughquestions. The grass-rootspower ofWikipedia is the secret


of the teaparty.Take a largenumber of very alienatedvoters.Addtheworst recessionsince the GreatDepression. Spicewithsuper-heated rhetoric, andproduce a game-changingpolitical movement.Only thedistributedleadershipof thousands of truly angry individuals, building on eachother,wouldhave fueledsomuchaction, moving so far andso fast.No leader couldhave done it, anymore thana centrallydirectedonline encyclopedia couldtellus allwewant to know aboutLadyGaga (witha bibliography and111 footnotes). Justhowfar cana broadlydistributed


movement like the teaparty go?We’re about to findout.Will the teapartyproduce a leader—or at least a strong, convincing voice—to give it enoughdirectionto keepit going?Orwill it stirup angry voters before spinning themoff ina zillion differentdirections? The answer to that questionwilldetermine


whether the teapartywill be a footnote ina very strange year or the beginning of a game-changing policy gambit.


REBECCA COOK/REUTERS


At a political rally of tea party supporters in Michigan in July, some attendees proudly let their message go to their heads.


Excerpts from On Leadership, a Web feature exploring vision and motivation by Steven Pearlstein and Raju Narisetti. To see videos and read the entire panel’s comments, go to www.washingtonpost.com/leadership.


AlainaLove is co-author of “ThePurposeLinked Organization” and co-founder ofPurposeLinkedConsulting.


The teaparty is a group


devoidof strong leadership, rather thanan example ofdistributedleadership.Many of the individualswho satellite aroundthismovement are eagerlyproviding evening-news soundbites that are focusedonplaying to the anxieties and fears resulting fromaneconomy inturmoil, without any realisticplatformfor improving the lives ofAmericans. There isno truedreamarticulated,no real goals


defined,no visionfor a future that embraces everyonewhile balancing thedemands onour nation’s economywiththeneeds ofher citizens. In short,whatwehavewiththe teaparty thus far is a distractionfromthe seriouswork thatneeds to be accomplishedwithour government. It’smore noise thanit is anevolution. What the teapartymovement best represents is


a cry fromtheAmericanpublic for our elected officials to showtrue leadershipinWashington andat the state level.


DeborahAncona is the Seley DistinguishedProfessor of Management at theMITSloan School ofManagement.


Contrary topopular belief,


the teaparty, likemost successfuldistributed- leadershipefforts, is enabledby strong executive leaders.Whilenot formal leaders,people like SarahPalinandMarkWilliamsprovide key ideas, publicity andinspirationto theparty fueling its engine. But there is cause for alarm.Most successful


distributed-leadershipeffortshavepeople, systems andstructures thatnot only inspire and motivate actionbut that also alignefforts, vet and challenge key ideas, andmitigate risk.There is an engine for energizingpeople but also brakes anda steeringwheel to avoidaccidents.Butwho is there to counter the teaparty claims?


SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010


PaulR.Portney is deanof the EllerCollege ofManagement at theUniversity ofArizona.


It’s interesting that the two organizations that best


exemplify “distributedleadership” (or at least get themost attentionformakinguse of it) are the tea party andal-Qaeda. Onthepositive side,havingno one leader at the


topempowersmanymorepeople andfosters more creativity thantraditionallyhierarchical organizations canmuster.This canresult ina morediverse set of strategies (“laboratories of the states,” if youwill) andinfusemore energy into a movement thanwouldotherwise be the case. It canalsomake itmoredifficult for opponents, enemies or business competitors tomount a counter-strategy, since theremay beno one strategy to counter. At the same time,distributedleadershipposes a


host of challenges thatmust be overcome. “Subsidiaries,” “factions” or “chapters” indifferent states or countries canwork at cross-purposes withone another, create confusionaboutmission that canfrustrate ordrive awaymembers and/or potential enlistees,duplicate efforts andsuffer fromlack of scale (infundraising, for instance). If you’reWikipedia andtrying toprovide free


informationtopeople, these liabilities are one thing andmaynot be fatal. It’s quite another to be aspiring to revolutionizepolitics (teaparty) or overthrowa secular,Westerndemocraticmodel of governing (al-Qaeda). I likeWikipedia’s chances muchmore.


Former comptroller general of theUnited StatesDavid Walker ispresident and chief executive officer of thePeterG. PetersonFoundation.


MostAmericans, includingme, relate favorably


to the teaparty’s ideas of limitedgovernment, individual liberty andpersonal responsibility. However, if the teaparty fails todevelopsensible solutions that canactually be implemented, its influencewillwane over time.


Death of a Salesman. Of lots and lots of them, actually. M


From1950 to 1980, sales repre- BY JAMES LEDBETTER


aybe Willy Loman was a little ahead of his time. His demise in Arthur


Miller’s 1949 play “Death of a Salesman” wasn’t intended to predict the downfall of an iconic American profession. But sur- veying today’s scarred employ- ment landscape, one fact stands out starkly: America has stopped


creating sales jobs at the frantic pace it once did. And whether you like dealing with salespeople or not, their economic health is critical to the health of the American economy as a whole.


sented one of the fastest-growing occupations in the country. In the 1980s, sales was by far the largest job-growth category, in- creasing 54 percent. That growth slowed in the 1990s, and, by 2007, the number of sales jobwas shrinking. No other job category has experienced a drop this sharp in the same time period. It’s important to keep this in perspective. Sales jobs have not


disappeared altogether. The most recent census survey indi- cates that there are more than 16million jobs in America classi- fied primarily as sales, represent- ing a little more than 11 percent of the workforce, the same per- centage as in 2000. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that the category has stopped its once-mighty expansion. So why have we stopped gen-


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STIFEL NICOLAUS July 22, 2010


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improved profitability and stellar asset quality leaves little to complain about…”


DAVENPORT & COMPANY LLC “(Cardinal’s) asset


quality and capitalmetrics remain significantly better than peers.”


SANDLER O’NEILL + PARTNERS, L.P.


(CNFL is listed in 2010 Bank&Thrift Sm-All Stars Report)


erating so many sales jobs? The answer varies from sector to sector. Motor vehicle sales have been flat or down for some time, but until Detroit completely col- lapsed in 2008, the number of car dealerships in America was kept artificially high by state franchis- ing laws thatmade themdifficult to shut down. Even so, the num- ber of new-car dealerships has been slowly dropping since 1989 and stands at 18,460, the lowest


figure in decades. Fewer than 1 million Americans now make a living working for a car dealer- ship, a drop ofmore than 10 per- cent in less than a decade. In other fields, such as phar-


maceuticals, legislative and cul- tural changes have taken their toll on sales jobs. Congress be- came concerned that drug com- panies had developed relation- ships with doctors that were too cozy, and in part because of new restrictions, Big Pharma firms have been shedding sales reps. A study by the consulting group ZS Associates indicates that phar- maceutical sales forces peaked in 2007 with 102,000 reps and proj- ects that number will fall to 75,000 by 2012. But the biggest culprit in kill-


ing off sales jobs is right in front of you: the Internet. There was a lot of talk in the dot-com era, mostly positive, about “disinter- mediation,” or creating direct connections between consumers and suppliers. Think of all the purchases you


make today online that once would have been accompanied by a salesperson: a sweater, a book, a compact disc, a small appliance or piece of electronic equipment, shares of a stock or mutual fund, airline tickets. Even in my own industry — media supported by advertising —some ad space can be booked online, as Slate writer Seth Stevenson demonstrated in a video earlier this year. The precise impact of Internet sell- ing on sales jobs is hard to


quantify, but it’s a big contribu- tor, and it’s irreversible. Why does any of thismatter?


One could look at the data and conclude that there was simply a surplus of sales jobs and the market is adjusting to new


realities. In addition, companies that


sell directly to consumers mightwell bemore productive, which at least theoretically frees up some room to hire


non-sales employees. And on one level, that’s true. But it’s also true that the salesman is a quintes- sentially American figure, which helps account for the popularity of theMiller play. In his classic 1976 book “The


Cultural Contradictions of Capi- talism,” Daniel Bell discussed how sales—and its close cousin, advertising — were at the heart of the cultural changes of 20th- century America. For better or worse, mass consumption be- came the engine that powered not only the American economy but also its value system and psyche. Getting people to spend their money became a kind of secular religion that was neces- sary to overthrow an older Puri- tan order. “Selling became the most


striking activity of contemporary America,” Bell wrote. “Against frugality, selling emphasized prodigality; against asceticism, the lavish display.” Wemight be better offwithout


that extravagance. But it’s still the case that for much of recent American history, sales jobs functioned as a pillar of the middle class. Over the past few decades, the American economy has generated a large number of high-skill, high-paying jobs and a large number of low-skilled, low- paying jobs. The middle, howev- er, is being “hollowed out,” in the phrase David Autor used in an economic paper published in April, and sales is a major com- ponent of that shrinkingmiddle. The strength of sales jobs is that they can be reasonably high-pay- ing but typically don’t require technical training or other spe- cialized skills. When those jobs disappear, the people who hold them will often be pushed down the wage ladder or even out of the workforce. Sixty years after Willy Loman, that is our tragedy.


James Ledbetter covers business and finance for Slate.


www.cardinalbank.com


“Selling became the most striking activity of contemporary America. Against frugality, selling emphasized prodigality; against asceticism, the lavish display.”


THE WASHINGTON POST


Cardinal Financial Corporation common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol CNFL.


Member FDIC CARDINAL: A COMMUNITY BANK WITH NATIONAL RESPECT


Robert Prosky as Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” in 1974.


LINDA WHEELER /


Daniel Bell, author of the 1976 book “The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism”


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