10/23/95 HOW'M I DOING?

HOW'M I DOING?
This creative-management program uses tough love
It's not that C. Richard Truex was expecting rave reviews from his boss and colleagues. But the executive with pharmaceutical company Sanofi Winthrop Inc. certainly didn't think he would be blasted for being indecisive and not forceful enough in his job.
As he read through the results of a 360-degree evaluation in a classroom filled with strangers in Greensboro, N.C., he felt hurt and misunderstood. ``I thought I was decisive when I needed to be,'' says Truex. ``It was a real shock to me to find out I wasn't.''
Welcome to Leadership 101, a boot camp for wannabe leaders at the Center for Creative Leadership. Truex is one of 22 managers--3 women and 19 men--who recently spent six days analyzing themselves and how they interact with their colleagues. The goal: to transform themselves into creative leaders, not mere functional managers.
Leadership, of course, has been a hot topic in management circles for years, and the center has been the hottest place to learn it. The center believes that leadership can be nurtured and taught through quirky group exercises and an examination of an individual's strengths and weaknesses. ``Leadership is something we believe resides in almost everybody as a potential, and by better understanding yourself you can improve your way of leading,'' says Robert J. Lee, president of the center.
Though heavy on psychobabble and light on management theory, the center's Leadership Development Program is widely considered to be one of the most innovative executive education experiences on the market. Since 1974, more than 38,000 managers from all over the world have gone through the often-humbling experience, their companies paying $4,400 each for the privilege. Alumni say the program boosts self-confidence, helps managers put more balance into their lives, and teaches them to become more effective at work and at home.
VETERAN SELF-IMPROVER. For Truex, the New York City-based senior director of national accounts for Sanofi Winthrop Pharmaceuticals, the program is a welcome break from the day-to-day demands of his job. Forty-nine, he has been working in the pharmaceutical industry as a salesman, marketing researcher, and pricing strategist for 13 years, ever since gaining his MBA from the University of Illinois in 1982. Truex is a hard-driving achiever and a self-made professional. Son of a West Virginia coal miner, he worked as a barber in his early 20s while attending night classes at a local community college. Excited by chemistry, Truex went on to earn a PhD in biochemistry at West Virginia University before getting his MBA.
Throughout his corporate career, he's never lost his love for education. Truex is something of a management-education veteran, typically attending one program a year. This is his first time at the center, which is no corporate country club. The 20-acre campus is filled with trees and grass, but the classrooms are sparse, the corridors eerily quiet. And buffet meals are served in a cafeteria that could very well be in a high school.
``LIKE THE WIZARD OF OZ.'' Truex' fellow students are from a wide range of backgrounds, from a Prudential Insurance Co. sales director to a U.S. Army manager of maintenance. Unlike most of them, who arrived at the center on Saturday, Truex took an early flight from Newark, N.J., on Sunday morning and went straight to class for introductions, group exercises, and IQ and psychological tests. The main classroom, where three long tables formed a U-shape, featured an observation window in the back. Participants joked that they felt as though they were in CIA headquarters. In fact, two trainers from the intelligence agency were observing the program from behind the mirror.
What they saw on Sunday was lots of confusion. In one session, Truex' group argued when it had to compile a list of the ideal characteristics for a leader for Earth II--a new planet to which a portion of the earth's population was relocating because of dwindling natural resources. When a participant took too much time, a booming voice from behind the mirror filled the room: ``Time is up!'' Truex, who as a market researcher had surreptitiously watched focus groups, wasn't disturbed by it--but many of his classmates were. ``It was like the Wizard of Oz,'' jokes one manager stunned by the voice.
Far more disturbing to many was Monday's ``Valentine from home''--a bound packet of evaluations of all the participants prepared before their arrival in Greensboro by a boss, four peers, and six direct reports. The assessments asked colleagues more than 200 questions, from whether a manager was viewed as abrasive or encouraging, to whether he ``takes charge when trouble comes'' or ``has left a trail of bruised people.''
When the evaluations were handed out, the room fell silent. Managers, clad in khakis and polo shirts, sat highlighting all their strengths with green markers and all their weaknesses in pink. Truex quickly found himself marking in pink issues that focused on decision-making and assertiveness. ``Forcefulness was a question mark in the back of my mind,'' concedes Truex. ``It's confirmed that I am not forceful, and it is an area that I have to work on.''
Throughout the week, these two themes continued to crop up. In one assignment, managers were asked to pretend they were caught in a blizzard while hiking. The group theoretically made it back to their Ford Windstar, only to crash it into a rock. Stranded 35 miles from the main road, members had to debate which of 15 items, from beef jerky to a shotgun, were critical to their survival.
Truex, however, groused that he wasn't getting heard by the other members of his group. One manager told him he didn't speak up enough. Although angered initially, Truex later conceded it's true. ``I'd make a point and just let it drop off the table.''
The Outward Bound-type activities on Wednesday afternoon were also frustrating. Again, Truex found it difficult to get his opinions through to fellow group members. ``It was these old men competing to see if they could yell the loudest to win the ego fight,'' Truex complains.
After four long days of intense group sessions, sprinkled with lectures and still more test results, yet another day of reckoning arrived. The two trainers, who guide participants through the week, call Thursday ``feedback day.'' From day one, two to three fellow students anonymously observe each manager. On feedback day, they deliver their comments.
His peers again confirmed what he now already knew. It wasn't until Truex sat down for nearly four hours with a clinical psychologist, however, that it began to make some sense. The psychologist's assessment: Truex is a perfectionist who doesn't like to make mistakes. ``The reason I'm not decisive is that I won't give myself permission to be wrong,'' Truex says.
Back at his desk on Oct. 2, Truex confronted an overflowing in-basket and a ton of telephone calls. Still, he managed to find time to ask his boss if they could sit down together and find some noncrucial areas where Truex can experiment with making quicker decisions. ``I am going to try some things I haven't tried before,'' he says. ``I'm going to take more risks.'' Though Truex will probably never to be the person to scream the loudest, that's a crucial first step.

Diary of a Leadership Warrior

What's it like to go through the Center for Creative Leadership's $4,400 flagship program? Some 22 managers recently experienced the joys and pains of the six-day adventure, dubbed the Leadership Development Program.

SUNDAY
Interview person next to you and then introduce him/her to group. Take IQ and psychological tests, and participate in group exercises.

MONDAY
Receive ``Valentine from home''--feedback from managers, peers, and direct reports; toughest day for many.

TUESDAY
Breakout groups are videotaped as they rank the importance of items they'll need to survive an imaginary blizzard. Later watch video and critique one another.

WEDNESDAY
Outside activities include leading blindfolded partner through construction sites and stairwells.

THURSDAY
Get one-on-one counseling based on results of several hours of preprogram tests. Give and get feedback from colleagues.

FRIDAY
Prepare goals and share one with group; receive diploma signed by entire group. Rush to catch plane home.
By Lori Bongiorno in Greensboro, N.C.