CONCLUSION: THE JOB FOR YOU
TO DO NOW STARTS TODAY
IN THIS BOOK WE’VE SEEN how your people—the ultimate source of competitive advantage—can become highly effective leaders at every level of the organization. We’ve learned how leaders can create engagement by connecting to the “voice of the organization,” how critical it is to execute with excellence, how doing so will result in our talent contributing infinitely more than we could imagine, the economic value of becoming the most trusted company in our industry, how sales can create and increase revenue by focusing on clients’ success, and how and why increasing intense loyalty both inside the organization and in the market impacts results and growth. A culture that puts these practices in place will create a highly effective organization, and that’s the kind of organization we all want to work in and that you need to create now.
In the past, it was probably enough to be a good manager, figuring out how to do more with less, adding value, and making sure your customers and employees were satisfied. But no more. It’s time to move beyond the mindset that every team member’s role, and yours, should be prescribed and you all should subscribe to it. That way of thinking doesn’t ask enough of our hearts or brains. It’s more of a clock-in/clock-out mentality—insert your job description into your head in the morning and eject it in the evening. Under that system, the job to be done is programmed for you.
THE NEW JOB TO BE DONE NOW
That system had its place, but now our lives are far more exacting—and also more fascinating. Everyone can be a leader. In fact, individual leadership is an imperative! The way is open for people to make an infinitely more significant contribution than they ever imagined they could. The mission is to achieve your own great purpose by helping others achieve theirs. The maxim now is meaning.
The leader’s job has changed fundamentally. The mental operating system is no longer “control” but “unleash.” It’s founded in purpose and principles instead of compliance and calculation. Dee Hock, the innovative leader who created the Visa card, describes this mindset: “To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they’ll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organization will become a vital, living set of beliefs.”1
Too much of the old mindset persists. Until we choose to be empathic, we’ll continue to lead from an inner core of indifference, but people know instinctively when they’re being stage-managed. “Leaders are often tossed and turned,” said Stephen R. Covey. “Should they be more democratic or more autocratic? Firmer or more permissive? Tell more or ask more? What are the best techniques for getting things done through and with people? These questions are important and must be considered, but they are secondary questions. The primary question is: How much do you really care?”
Do you care enough to do what is required?
To make the choice to be a leader, not just a job description?
To help others become leaders? To install an operating system that enables leaders at all levels?
To unleash people to contribute infinitely more than you imagined they could?
To execute your most important goals with excellence and precision?
To become the most trusted of leaders?
To help your customers succeed in their own great purposes?
To create intense loyalty among the people you serve?
These are the tough but exhilarating choices leaders have to make now. In this book, we have walked through the principles, the paradigms, and the practices of this new kind of leadership. If you make good use of them, you’ll be equal to the challenge of becoming a true leader.
DON’T GIVE UP
But what if you don’t feel equal to the challenge? What if you’re afraid to make that choice because of the weight of organizational politics? You may be thinking, “What will they say if I suddenly become proactive and visionary and empathic? How will they react if I start saying ‘no’ to things that don’t matter much so I can say ‘yes’ to things that do? What will happen if I question a strategy or policy that won’t help the client succeed? Will they even let me be a leader?”
Whoever “they” are, don’t worry about them.
More than a century ago, researchers at Clark University did an experiment with a walleye pike, a very aggressive fish. The researchers placed the pike in a large tank filled with water and added several minnows, the pike’s natural food, then watched as the minnows were immediately devoured. The researchers then placed a transparent glass divider in the tank with new minnows on one side and the pike on the other. Again the larger fish went after the minnows, this time hitting its head against the glass with each attempt. Eventually, the pike stopped trying to eat the minnows, having learned that the effort would only bring a sore head.
After three months, the researchers removed the glass barrier. Now there was nothing separating the predator from its prey. Yet even with the minnows now swimming all around the tank, the pike made no attempt to eat them. The pike would starve to death before trying to eat its favorite meal.2 Such is the power of discouragement (or a sore head!). We may have tried and failed in the past, and because we learned that trying can occasionally bring failure and pain, we assume it will always be so.
Don’t believe it.
When you focus your energy on things you can’t control, your influence shrinks. You may still be worried about politics, your position with this or that person, who’s getting promoted or demoted, or who’s up, down, or sideways. But this is debilitating thinking that will only diminish your capacity to contribute. By contrast, if you choose to focus your energy on the things you can do something about, your influence grows—often dramatically. You can’t control what others do; you can only hope to influence them. You contribute what you can instead of exhausting your energy in futile political games because your allegiance is to the principles, not to the players.
You will make mistakes. All leaders do. You may feel awkward at first, but if you persist, you will eventually feel the excitement of real growth in yourself, your team, and the bottom line.
This book began with two stories: the heroic account of a highly engaged team in Thailand, and the story of a guy named Tom who had stopped contributing. His body was going to work but his mind and heart were elsewhere. He had allowed an autocratic system void of vision or purpose to siphon away his passion and energy.
You don’t have to be Tom. You can choose to be a proactive leader and bring vision and purpose to your work. You can be the leader of a team every bit as engaged as the people who resurrected Western Digital.
As noted author and Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter says, “A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.”3 So what is your picture of what could be? What is your “something more”?
Let’s get started.