Jingkan Blog

Even the most ardent fan of Soprano-style leadership recognizes that it’s not a flawless style. If you were to adopt Tony’s methods religiously, you would end up committing a number of sins that you would pay for, both from business and career standpoints. What I hope you’ve learned is that Tony Soprano and his organization provide inspiration for a more effective form of leadership rather than a model that you need to mimic.

TONY ON ACKNOWLEDGING HIS WEAKNESSES

"You have bad tendencies, Ralphie, and I sympathize ’cause I got ‘em too."

But how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Though I’ve tried to point out the negative aspects of Tony’s style, I realize that you may need more help in understanding what makes sense to apply to your organization and what to avoid using. Fortunately, I can provide you with that assistance here. Or rather, I’d like to share the analyses of the well-known consulting firm, Oberprised, Nitpicki & Obvias (ONO). The good people at ONO have looked at Tony’s organization and leadership style from top to bottom, and they’ve generously provided me with insights about strengths and weaknesses. I’ll chime in with some of my own analysis as well as suggestions about how you can capitalize on Soprano strengths and avoid the weaknesses. Without further ado, let’s examine the ONO report, beginning with strategy.

SOPRANO STRATEGY

Strengths

• Sound business plan
• Diverse portfolio
• Focus on both top and bottom line
• Strong new business pipeline
• Customer focused

Weaknesses

• Lack of vision
• No evidence of three-year plan
• May not be maximizing growth potential in the 35–40 age group

ONO notes that Tony’s strategy is smart and pragmatic, but that he comes up a bit short in the vision department. They rave about his new business-generation skills and the quality of his execution, but they cite no less an authority than Carmela as evidence of his shortsightedness. She nagged Tony about the need to plan for the future with some type of investment strategy for her and the kids. The ONO people conclude that Carmela is absolutely right on the money when she warns Tony that if something—God forbid—should happen to him, she and her children would be left high and dry. Tony is very much a present-oriented person, in part because his present is so stressful and action-packed that he has trouble taking a step back and focusing on the future.

My experience is that leaders are either visionary or they are pragmatists. They usually are not both. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy were two of the most visionary leaders of our time but history continues to question their ability to execute, especially Kennedy. Visionary leaders usually surround themselves with detailed-oriented individuals, and pragmatists usually surround themselves with long-term thinkers and planners. Tony would be well advised to develop a three-year plan with projected growth, margin improvement, and perhaps an acquisition or two—maybe it’s time to make a move on the New York family. Because Christopher continues to lobby for increased responsibility and Tony seems to want to give it to him, it might make sense for Tony to work on a long-term development plan that would help Christopher grow into his expanded role.

If you’re like most people, you resonate to Tony’s business and execution skills, but I would caution you to be aware of the downside of his strategic approach. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you start entering new markets and implementing plans and programs:

• Are you moving forward quickly but not sure where you’re going to end up; are you so caught up in the excitement of creating new businesses and driving for results that you’ve lost sight of where you want to take the business in the next few years; do your people understand where you’re heading?
• Are you working with an outmoded three-year plan; have you become so wrapped up in killing the competition that you haven’t deemed it necessary to figure out if all this killing is really necessary, not to mention cost-effective; have you rationalized not updating the plan, figuring that you’re getting so much accomplished that you’re bound to be headed in the right direction?

SOPRANO STRUCTURE

Strengths

Current structure:

• Is clear and simple
• Has clear accountabilities
• Is adaptable to changes in the marketplace
• Has strong management processes

Weaknesses

Current structure:

• May not be able to handle increased complexity, especially with more alliances with overseas partners
• Overlapping areas of responsibility in key business lines may cause confusion with expanded operations
• Will need an expanded infrastructure to deal with information

While ONO admires the way in which Tony has pared down his structure to its essence and made it highly responsive to the marketplace, they also are concerned about the structure’s in-ability to function in an expanded or global organization. One consultant archly referred to Tony’s structural framework as "Organization 101" and made disparaging remarks about how the basic form of communication is a cell phone and that the structure is so simple that it doesn’t even have to be written down. Though I would enjoy watching this consultant give this information to Tony’s face, he does have a point. If Tony’s organization were to grow, it would have serious difficulties incorporating that growth into the current structure. If, for instance, it was to create more partnerships and projects with groups in Italy and elsewhere, it would encounter a number of difficulties.

First, the structure doesn’t clearly assign relationship management responsibilities to any one person, and Tony usually takes on this role. Tony would quickly be overwhelmed if he were trying to manage multiple partnering relationships with groups in other countries; the travel alone would consume huge amounts of time and take him away from his primary management responsibilities in New Jersey. Second, the structure is not geared for the increasing complexity that seems inevitable. As the Soprano family expands its holdings and becomes involved in more legitimate enterprises, it will need a structure that facilitates knowledge sharing and teamwork. To take advantage of the economies of scale and to capitalize on the organization’s growing knowledge base, it will need information systems and the type of structure that disseminates this information to the right people at the right time. Right now, it’s difficult to imagine a multicountry teleconferencing session involving Tony, Junior, their Italian contacts, and a representative from an organization in a Third World country.

If you’re attracted to the simplicity and flexibility of Tony’s structure and want to adopt certain elements of it in your group, do the following:

Don’t fall in love with simplicity for simplicity’s sake. In other words, while trimming the fat and reducing a bloated bureaucracy to its essential elements makes perfect sense, it can also lead to trouble when you’re expanding your operations or dealing with complex issues such as global marketing. Some organizational charts need to have more layers than others, just because of the nature of their businesses. Tony has the right idea in keeping reporting lines clean and minimizing layers, but don’t simplify in ways that are inappropriate for your particular business.

Ask yourself what problems you hope a simplified structure will solve. Some companies are desperately in need of simplification. Their infrastructures are bloated with duplication in many areas and with byzantine reporting responsibilities. Typically, these complex structures were set up to deal with complex issues, but over time more and more new positions and levels were added and now they’re bloated beyond belief. This is when someone like Tony and his eye for simple, clear structure comes in handy. If, on the other hand, you have a relatively spare structure, you may not benefit greatly if you make it even more spartan.

PEOPLE PRACTICES

Strengths

• Clear link between performance and rewards
• Defined career paths
• Criteria for promotion to capo are understood
• Criteria for becoming a made man are communicated
• Individual jobs appear to be challenging

Weaknesses

• No evidence of an annual performance management process
• Lack of bench strength.
• No ready backup for Tony
• Who will take over for Ralph who appears to be MIA?
• Who are the young up-and-comers in the pipeline?
• No evidence of a plan to build organization capabilities

Here the ONO consulting team identified one of the major flaws in Tony’s organization: a lack of attention to talent and talent development. They admit that Tony is a good coach and has done a masterful job in developing Christopher, but Christopher is a long way from being able to take Tony’s place as the head of the family. Who else is left, the consultants wonder? How many good years does Paulie have left? Their analysis reveals that leadership of the family does not seem to fit Sil, and Carmine’s son from Florida at the helm is an unlikely scenario. They also don’t see a logical successor for Ralph and note that if Sean and Matt were evidence of the up-and-comers, Tony is in big trouble.

TONY ON THE NEED FOR SELF-AWARENESS OF SELF-DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES

"I’m my own worst enemy."

Though ONO praised Tony for the way performance is linked with rewards—and how people are generally clear about how well they’re doing and if they deserve a promotion—they added that Tony’s organization has a cavalier disregard for building human assets. As an example of this disregard, ONO cited what occurred after Gigi suddenly died and Tony had to name someone to replace him. Tony surveyed the pathetic candidates and named Ralph because he was the biggest earner among them, though he was also an individual Tony didn’t like and who didn’t share Tony’s values.

Though Tony builds strong relationships with his people, he doesn’t encourage others to build equally solid relationships. The consultants challenged me to name one other relationship builder in Tony’s organization, and I couldn’t do it. The relationships between Paulie, Christopher, Sil, and Ralph (when he was alive) are weak, and they in turn don’t establish their own networks. Instead, they have lackeys who they give orders to. As a result, they don’t build the type of trust and diverse set of contacts that leads to exchanges of information and ideas; they also don’t create the types of networks that presents them with new opportunities.

ONO’s consultants suggested that Tony was on the right track when he brought Furio in from Italy, explaining that Tony went out and recruited and secured a top talent (Annalisa told Tony that Furio was her best employee). He was a young high potential, exactly what Tony’s organization needs more of to develop bench strength and to develop its future leaders. ONO criticizes Tony, though, for never developing Furio. Tony used him as muscle and as his driver, and Furio eventually left, ostensibly because he was in love with Carmela. If Furio had been properly developed, however, he might have avoided any involvement with Carmela because he was in love with his job and the way he was being groomed for a leadership position.

Though recruitment and development of talent seem to be Tony’s big challenges, he offsets the deficits in these areas because he’s such a strong, involved leader. Most executives who take on the type of workload and stress that Tony takes on quickly burn out, and this certainly is a danger for Tony. If he were wise, he would do everything possible to bring Furio back into the fold. He would also recruit with his family’s employment brand in mind. What sets the Soprano family apart; what can they offer to hot, young employees that the other families can’t? If Tony could answer these questions and recruit with the answers in mind, he’d be in a much better position, both in terms of talent and in terms of his own psyche. It would also help if Tony devoted more time to developing other people besides Christopher. While Paulie and Sil are probably too set in their ways to change, Bobby is a possibility. Tony might want to send him to an executive training program and hire an outside coach to help him recover from his wife’s death (which is impacting his work performance).

The consultants also observed that Tony lacks a performance management process, but I don’t find this a negative in Tony’s case. Performance management processes help people understand what they are accountable for and how they will be rewarded. Tony’s group already has clear goals and measures. They get results and then immediately see the reward—cold cash. If they don’t earn, they pay the consequences. You do not need a form to make it any clearer. Formal performance management processes are also about ongoing feedback related to how you are doing against your goals. This would be redundant in Tony’s operation, for people always know where they stand with Tony; he is a veritable fountain of feedback.

Much more so than the consultants—who aren’t aware of how effective Tony’s people skills are in areas other than recruitment and development—I believe that Tony provides an excellent model for getting solid performance out of people and creating strong relationships inside and outside of the organization. If you find yourself borrowing from Tony in these areas, my only cautions are these:

Put real time and effort into succession planning. Like Tony, many leaders don’t care much about this task. They view succession planning as a largely academic exercise in which human resources puts the names of likely successors in boxes, and these sit on a shelf and grow dusty. Like Tony, you may decide that things change so much, so quickly—people leave, position specs shift—that it’s better to decide who should replace whom on the spur of the moment rather than months in advance. In the vast majority of cases this isn’t true. Well-managed organizations like General Electric, Avon, Pfizer, and Colgate possess robust talent-development systems where talent review is just as important as the business-planning process. When senior managers regularly review their people and astutely analyze and adjust who is best for a given position—and how to develop people for different assignments—they end up leading a highly effective group of people.

Don’t assume your people will be with you forever … or even for a year. Tony operates on the assumption that his people aren’t contacting headhunters and interviewing for other jobs. He is more likely to be correct than you are if you make a similar assumption. Even though there’s been a lot of talk and media stories about the volatility of the workplace and the lack of loyalty to employers, leaders still can’t believe that their top people would ever leave them. Believe it. Assuming your people won’t leave for another five or ten years fosters a false sense of complacency; it will give you a great excuse to avoid developing successors for key positions. If you have three key people, face the fact that two of them will probably be gone within five years.

ORGANIZATION CLIMATE AND CULTURE

Strengths

• Strong, cohesive team
• Strong values and norms
• Free flow of communication at all levels
• High degree of trust
• High degree of candor and openness

Weaknesses

• Poor/slow response to change
• Signs of employee disloyalty and dissatisfaction
• A tendency to ignore or rationalize problems

Aside from the lack of a formal benefit plan, Tony’s organization is a good place to work. As the ONO consulting firm observed, compensation is high, employees are generally enthusiastic and productive, teamwork and camaraderie is excellent, and people feel comfortable enough with each other to express their opinions honestly and without editing. One of the ONO consultants remarked that many companies claim to treat their employees like family, "but Tony Soprano actually makes good on that promise." The Soprano family culture is a strong inducement for people to join and stay with the organization.

On the negative side, the culture seems less stable recently and has experienced trouble accommodating all the changes swirling within the organization and outside of it. Tony seems to be ignoring problems that he should confront, and the results are grumbling in the ranks and signs of disloyalty. The guys are speculating and concerned about what happened to Ralph; they’re gossiping about Christopher and his drug problem; they’re upset that someone among them is feeding Johnny Sack inside information. As the ONO people correctly observed, Tony must confront each of these issues and resolve them if he wants to restore and maintain the strong Soprano culture.

This is easier said than done. Like any company that is growing and changing, the Soprano family is vulnerable to an increasingly volatile environment and intense competitive pressures. Maintaining a stable culture in this environment is difficult. Still, Tony has made some mistakes that have exacerbated cultural problems. Certainly killing Ralph in a fit of rage was not a good leadership move by any standard. Tony, though, made a bad situation worse by intimating to his guys that Johnny might have hit Ralph. They don’t buy his explanation and seem concerned that Tony killed him because they had a disagreement. They’re thinking that if Tony could kill Ralph—his biggest and most consistent earner—he could also kill them if they dare to bump up against him. This fear threatens the candor and constant communication that is an essential part of the Soprano culture.

Similarly, Tony appears to be making a mistake, one which all leaders are vulnerable to making: playing favorites. Tony favors Christopher because "[he's] blood, and you can always trust blood," but Christopher has screwed up so much that others in Tony’s group are questioning his judgment. When Paulie was in jail and Christopher was the acting capo, Patsy referred to Christopher as a little Napoleon. Sil also gave Tony some feedback that Patsy might be unhappy because he felt passed over and that Tony was favoring Christopher.

I’ve worked with leaders who once they have decided on a successor, that’s it and everyone else’s development is forgotten. The stock options and raises go to the successor and even the good performers may be left with nothing or at least much less than they had before. Playing favorites and neglecting your team can only serve to disenfranchise and demotivate.

Tony’s willingness to allow questions to linger about the leaks to Johnny Sack is curious. In Tony’s organization, this represents a strict breech of the code. You keep your business within your family, and you don’t gossip outside the family. It’s uncharacteristic of Tony not to get to the bottom of this problem. One would think Tony would have leaned on each member of the family until one of them cracked (Paulie is the guilty party). He must realize how much uncertainty and trepidation this leak is creating.

I’m assuming that despite these mistakes, you find much to admire in Tony’s culture, especially the camaraderie he establishes and the open and honest communication. To maintain this type of culture, you’ll need to address the following issues:

Guard against unfair favoritism. While a family culture offers many benefits, it also comes with a built-in problem: People get to know each other so well that friendships form and favoritism naturally occurs. As in many families, parents naturally favor one child over another. In organizations, when bosses establish strong relationships with direct reports, one person generally becomes a "teacher’s pet." Typically, this is an individual who is a high performer and shares a similar background and work style to the boss. If this individual’s rewards and recognition are in line with her performance, favoritism will have a negligible impact on the culture. It’s only when rewards and recognition exceed performance—or at least this is the appearance—that people begin to protest and morale falls. Guarding against unfair favoritism is difficult, as Tony’s situation demonstrates. Because Christopher is blood and Tony genuinely likes him—and perhaps sees something of himself in him— he assumes that everyone else will share his perspective. In Tony’s eyes, Christopher is the chosen one and so deserves more of his time, attention, and generosity. His bias blinds him to how others are perceiving his treatment of Christopher. Therefore, you need to make a conscious effort to ask the following question: Is my successor or favored direct report receiving treatment that’s in line with his performance?

Deal with problems quickly and openly. Leaders in close-knit cultures tend to take their people’s loyalty for granted; they forget that candor and openness are the hallmarks of the culture and that if they violate these principles, they can easily lose their key people. Tony is usually brutally honest about most issues, but not about Ralph’s death. He underestimates the negative impact his feigned ignorance and misleading statements are having on his crew. He also underestimates the effect his failure to deal with the information leak is having. No doubt, Tony’s personal problems—splitting up with Carmela—are affecting his judgment. Otherwise, he would probably be much more up front with his people about these issues.

LEADERSHIP STYLE (OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF TONY SOPRANO)

Strengths

• Charismatic and competent
• Strong business acumen
• High emotional intelligence
• Results-driven

Weaknesses

• Often leads by intimidation
• Volatile
• Most likely a sociopath

While you might not want your daughter to marry Tony or your son to work for him, you might want to hire him to head your organization. A top CEO may not be a particularly good person, but within the confines of the organization, he does good for the organization and the people he works with. ONO tackled the succession issue (assuming Tony would want to succeed Carmine) and analyzed how Tony might fare as a candidate. They determined he was an excellent candidate, but they also raised some red flags.

TONY ON HOW HIS EMOTIONS CAN NEGATIVELY IMPACT HIS WORK PERFORMANCE

"My temper leads me to make mistakes in my work."

First, Tony relies heavily on intimidation to get results. The problem, of course, is that while he may use force to generate short-term results, his bullying presence sometimes can discourage people from making long-term commitments or to remain consistently productive. To a certain extent, the negative impact of Tony’s intimidating nature is muted by the business he’s in; people expect mob leaders to be intimidating. Still, Tony would be an even better leader if he developed a key aspect of emotional intelligence: self-regulation. Too often, his temper gets the better of him and he later regrets his boorish behavior. Tony’s typical behavior after his temper flares is to try to make it up to the person with a smile, a heartfelt apology, a piece of jewelry, flowers, or, if none of that works, cash. Sometimes, though, none of this is adequate compensation. In fact, his beating of Assemblyman Zellman over his affair with Tony’s ex, Irina, may have cost him dearly. The assemblyman was one of his key contacts and partners in several of his schemes, most notably the Esplanade and the HUD deal. After the beating, the assemblyman broke off with Irina because he was having difficulty "performing." It’s likely that no deal or amount of money will make up for this shame and loss.

Leaders can learn to self-regulate and prevent these disruptive behaviors only when they learn what their "triggers" are. For instance, Tony develops a sense of his trigger: he explodes when someone tells him a truth that hits too close to home. In these instances, his usual initial response is to go for the throat. When Carmela tells him their marriage is a sham and she wants him to move out, he smashes the wall instead of her face, thereby limiting the damage. Tony is learning to master a skill of all great leaders: managing your vulnerabilities while simultaneously leveraging your strengths.

As I’ve pointed out throughout these pages, Tony’s style has much to recommend it. His emotional intelligence, his charisma, and his results orientation all may appeal to you. If, however, you see Tony as a good leadership model, you need to do the following as you apply his style in your workplace:

Find a push-pull balancing point. In other words, don’t push people around more than you pull them toward the result you want. Though I doubt that you engage in bloody fights with your people, you may well beat them up verbally, especially if you have a hot temper. This may be part of your style, and it may have helped you achieve a certain amount of success. You’re known as a tough guy (or gal), and you like that reputation. Realize, though, that the more leadership responsibility you have, the less valuable intimidation is. As you move up the ranks, you’ll encounter more high performers who won’t be intimidated by you—or who will give as good as they get. Therefore, make an effort to use a wider range of behavior to achieve your team’s goals.

Practice using the carrot rather than the stick. Compliment and see if these compliments motivate certain direct reports to work harder and better.

Create stronger relationships. Understand that the more accountable people feel toward you, the harder they’ll try to achieve the goals you set.

Be aware of what triggers your temper. If you know what’s likely to set you off and make a conscious effort to be vigilant in these situations, you’ll probably do a better job of managing your temper and avoiding intimidating behavior.