Are you born to lead, or born to serve?

Last week's blog, Are leaders born or made?, generated lots of interest, discussion and passionate comments. It's one of those questions that has become a cliché, often inciting knee-jerk, over-simplified responses based on well-grooved prejudices.

My own view is that leadership, like many aspects of the adult human condition, is all about paradoxes. This was also the conclusion of Jim Collins' team in the well-known 'Good to Great' 5 year research study, published in 2001.  They found the No 1 quality of the highest performing businesses was what Collins termed "a paradoxical blend of servant leadership and a fierce resolve to do whatever it took to make the company successful".

Collins and his team resisted the instinct to label this critical characteristic of outstanding businesses 'servant leadership' because they felt it did not fully describe what they observed. On the one hand it was true that most of the top leaders they studied (by company performance) were underestimated because of their low-key, sometimes even shy and awkward, personal styles.  These people were the antithesis of our cariacature image of a great leader. However, without exception they were also passionate, driven, resolute and determined, and over time each of them presided over business transformations that led to sustained, stunning financial performance. So they did NOT conform to the archetypal, rather scornful and demeaning picture of a servant leader.

This week I met John Noble, Director of the Greenleaf Centre for Servant-Leadership UK. We had a lengthy, meaty discussion, getting to know one another and exploring each other's ideas and experience.

Robert K Greenleaf (1904-1990) was an American executive who founded the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, originally known as the Center for Applied Ethics, in the US when he retired in 1964 after 40 years of managerial experience in industry. His experiences led him to conclude that the best leaders were indeed servant leaders, but that they were servants first, leaders second, NOT the other way round. He understood that it was crucial to have an ethic of serving other people hardwired into your psyche, or running through your core DNA (my terms), in order to be a truly great leader.

This might all sound a bit airy-fairy and philosophical; believe me, it isn't.  Over the last 50 years the Servant-Leadership movement has grown in the US, where there are numerous Servant-Leadership companies, officially classified as such by the Greenleaf Center. Perhaps the best known is Southwest Airlines, a perenially famous case study. In the UK, John Noble told me that Jonathan Austin, founder and CEO of Best Companies Ltd, who run the annual Sunday Times Best 100 Companies awards, started out as a member of the Greenleaf Centre UK.

All the research I've read, along with my many and varied experiences of good and bad leadership, lead me to the compelling conclusion that the Servant-Leadership model is correct (you have to be a servant first, then a leader), as long as one also understands that this requires fierce, unyielding resolve and a smart giving, not naive giving, approach (see Adam Grant's 'Give and Take', 2013). There is compelling evidence that this gets better results, but it takes time, and that's where most leaders and organisations go wrong. Impatience, allied with greed and other forms of selfishness, do all the damage.

Whether you are prepared and able to be a Servant-Leader depends on a complex mix of variables, such as personality, upbringing, circumstances, role models, mentoring, and life experiences.  For me leaders are to some extent 'born', since their personality is largely determined at birth, but overwhelmingly 'made' - conditioned by what happens to them and, crucially, how they choose to respond.

Great leaders are forged on the anvil of adversity - beaten into shape under intense heat. That's why there are so few of them. There are no short cuts - ego, talent, bravado or charisma are no substitute for prolonged, humbling experience. 

Such experience is the only way to learn how to master yourself - the greatest challenge of all, as any leader deemed great by others, rather than by themselves, will tell you.

All of us must respond to our own particular circumstances, and find a way to excel within, or inspite of, those circumstances. It is a brutal fact that some people's circumstances are an awful lot easier than others - that was the core message of last week's blog. 

There were many interesting comments on it.  One that particularly impacted me came from a client whom I'm just starting to get to know. His honesty and insight inspired me. He spoke of his humble origins, and of a loving, strongly working class family whose relatively narrow environment and self-limiting beliefs restricted them, and potentially therefore him. However, what he describes as a 'fire' burned within him, and when, relatively late in his development, he began to meet people from working class backgrounds who had moved into professional careers and were not ashamed of it the flames inside him were quickly fanned and the direction of his life changed totally. Now his 18 year old daughter looks set for a career in international investment banking, and has caught the attention of a well-known female entrepreneur.

I have always said that I judge people on one thing, and one thing alone - character. All else is false, delusional and transitory. People who genuinely give of themselves, who genuinely serve others, but who are not stupid or naive, create a far better, happier, peaceful, more successful society, because they inspire others with the confidence and grit they need to overcome the odds, which for most of us, frankly, in most walks of life, are intimidating. That's why we need each other.

John Noble gave me a copy of the poem The Paradoxical Commandments, written in 1968 by Dr Kent M Keith, a leading figure in the Servant-Leadership community. He was just 19 at the time. 30 years later he discovered it had hung on the wall of Mother Theresa's children's home in Calcutta and everyone assumed she had written it! It goes thus:

People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centred – love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives – do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies – succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow – do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable – be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds – think big anyway.

People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs – fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight – build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them – help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth – give the world the best you have anyway.

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Thanks for reading this.  If you liked it please click on Like and share it. 

If you have questions on the subject matter you can connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message, or else you’ll find my contact details on my LinkedIn profile uk.linkedin.com/in/markashtonresolve.

I work with individuals and teams to help them become better leaders, whatever their role or position in their organisation.  The most effective leadership is enabling of others, and comes from anywhere; it is not top-down by default.

I also lead www.resolvegetsresults.com, a hands-on leadership and management company which supports different types of business – small or large, start-up, turnaround or mature. We’re passionate about helping to build great, customer-led businesses, and we know how.

You’ll find more blogs on leadership and management topics on my LinkedIn profile.

How to predict success in any walk of life

This week one of my business partners emailed our team at www.resolvegetsresults.com about Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos.  At 31 she is the world's youngest female billionaire.  

My colleague is also an associate with McKinsey & Co, and it was there that he heard the inspirational story of how Holmes dropped out of Stanford University in 2003 to start a company which is now revolutionising the cost and ethics of blood testing for the benefit of ordinary people rather than companies. She is passionate about making a lasting contribution to society; material success is incidental to her.

I confess I had not heard of Elizabeth Holmes - we live sheltered lives here in the Yorkshire Dales!  I watched with great interest the YouTube links my colleague sent, and was impressed and moved. There is no doubt that Holmes is inspiring many people, particularly young people, to believe they can make a difference and create a great company at the same time.

This year she was elected to the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.  Listen here to her eloquent explanation of her motivation that led to this outstanding and unusual recognition at such a young age and for her gender.

What struck me was the level of shock and awe she appears to have caused in rapacious, narcissistic America (I'm exaggerating for effect, but only slightly - I do love the place inspite of its worst excesses, and I had 5 great years there). It's as if she comes from another planet, which in some ways, like dozens of other Top 1% leaders with whom she is entirely consistent, she does......it's the planet Sanity.

What Holmes believes and does is wisdom personified.  It is validated by tomes of evidence for those with eyes to see, and the guts, humility and honesty to act. Sadly, precious few people do.  The majority find all manner of excuses.  After all, only naive and stupid people do that sort of stuff, don't they, and, well, we're scared.....scared mainly of looking naive and stupid and possibly losing the comfort blanket that excessive wealth brings.....  

As Jim Collins discovered in the 5 year Good to Great business research programme the majority are happy to settle for what Americans call 'good' or we Brits call 'mediocre' (or worse) because, well, they're lazy, and life is just too easy. Why put yourself out to help your fellow men, women and children? They're all after your job, your house, your money, your wife, aren't they?  The more you have, the more you have to lose, seems to be how the 'logic' goes.

Here comes another play of the gramophone record for those who know me. It is an incontrovertible, research-proven fact that THE most financially successful businesses over the long-term all have a compelling purpose BEYOND profit. Unfortunately it isn't always an altruistic purpose like Elizabeth Holmes's, though surprisingly often it is, but at the end of the day the highest performing businesses are motivated by more than money. Mind-bending, I know, but true, so get used to it and its implications!

In that context I contend that Elizabeth Holmes has not just landed from Mars. 

One other fact about her struck me straight between the eyes.  Whilst I admire her unflagging grit and determination to do whatever it took, and takes, to get her business off the ground and realise her purpose in life, in one sense she is immensely privileged and had a major leg up before she started.  She talks repeatedly about the influence her family had on her as she was growing up.They inspired her, and crucially they taught her to believe she could achieve anything she wanted to do.  It also appears that her family situation was highly stable - a priceless platform for future success.

My recent understanding of elementary neuroscience has helped me to see why life is so tough for those not born into families like Elizabeth Holmes's. Childhood trauma, abuse and/or neglect has a devastating, permanent effect on the wiring of people's brains.  This is now empirically proven.  What then happens is that they lack confidence, they are more vulnerable, and they are often 'problem children' at school, so they get into trouble, they struggle to perform academically or in sport, they don't fit socially, and many become branded failures at an early age.  It becomes increasingly difficult to break out of the spiral of negativity and under-achievement.

So in fact I admire people who overcome these sorts of obstacles even more than I admire Elizabeth Holmes.

Adam Grant's remarkable book 'Give and Take' (2013) instilled shock and awe in me.  With the use of powerful case studies he explains why the way people are treated ultimately dictates their success in life.  It's horrifying stuff. One example he gives is an American psychologist hired by the Israeli Army, who said he could predict which 20% of new cadets would be the successful ones.  He produced a list of them at the start of their year long training programme; at the end of the year he was proven 100% correct.  His superiors were stunned.  They were even more stunned when they asked him how he did it, and he told them he chose the top 20% at random.  He knew nothing about them in advance.

Go figure.....the implications are sobering.  

The bottom line is that it's the way we treat people that governs their degree of success or failure.  For me the definition of great leadership is ultimately simple -helping others to be the best they can be, not putting them down, not nit-picking, but nurturing self-confidence and gritty determination, no matter who the person is and how unlikely our prejudices suggest they are to succeed.  

Elizabeth Holmes illustrates what can happen when we do this.

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Thanks for reading this.  If you liked it please click on Like and share it. 

If you have questions on the subject matter you can connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message, or else you’ll find my contact details on my LinkedIn profile uk.linkedin.com/in/markashtonresolve.

I work with individuals and teams to help them become better leaders, whatever their role or position in their organisation.  The most effective leadership is enabling of others, and comes from anywhere; it is not top-down by default.

I also lead www.resolvegetsresults.com, a hands-on leadership and management company which supports different types of business – small or large, start-up, turnaround or mature. We’re passionate about helping to build great, customer-led businesses, and we know how.

You’ll find more blogs on leadership and management topics on my LinkedIn profile.

Stop worrying about what other people think! Here's why....

Two experiences in 48 hours have led me to reflect on whether cultivating one's personal image, or 'brand', is necessary to achieve wealth, status, and career success, and if so, how?

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In a fascinating, if sobering, conversation in the car yesterday my wife told me she thought both our careers had suffered because we are honest, decent people who find it hard to present a duck-like image to the outside world.  You know what I mean - all looks serene on the surface, everything we do eclipses the Jones's down the road, and we sport plastic Hello magazine smiles, though our webbed feet are paddlng away furiously under the surface.   All that matters is an immaculate front-of-house; the stresses, strains, and hot, messy 'kitchen' in which everything is 'produced' in our lives is kept well out of sight. 

My wife usually wears her heart on her sleeve, which she regrets, though she is loved for it by many, most of all by me.  I do the same, 'unfortunately' - in my case it comes with the red hair!  A recent BBC radio programme offered research evidence that redhaired people's DNA causes them to access their adrenalin faster, which explains their fiery tempers. Apparently red hair also signifies interbreeding over the millienia in remote corners of Ireland and Scotland.  So I am doubly cursed!  

My wife is uncomfortable when materially successful friends occasionally ask intrusive and insensitive 'loaded' questions about our finances and my business.  They, and others of similar means, post photos on Facebook of their exotic, long distance holidays, visits to the opera, and so on.  So I reminded her of a close American friend of ours who has lived in the UK for nearly 20 years, who rejected the chance to move back to the US last year with her British husband and two daughters.  The reason she gives is that in her down-to-earth community in the North of England she is valued for who she is, not what she has.  In the US, a place to which she returns at least annually, she feels people value you for how much money you have, and how you flaunt it.  Sadly she feels she could never return, though that is the North of England's (and our) gain....!

On Friday morning I witnessed Jürgen Klopp's remarkable first press conference as manager of Liverpool FC, historically one of the world's top football (soccer) clubs, though in recent years a shadow of its former self.  OK, I declare a vested interest!  I have supported Liverpool for 45 years since I was a schoolboy.  The then Liverpool captain's daughter was in my class in primary (elementary) school. We'd see players in our town, in the shops, or in pubs (bars) - so my father said, anyway, since I was too young to know!  I grew up steeped in football - it was more like religion in and around Liverpool.

I've read all the coverage of Klopp's press conference by the BBC, and by my preferred national newspaper.  It is remarkable stuff.  Most of the journalists who witnessed it aren't Liverpool supporters, though they love football.  Their reports speak of the traditionally cynical British football media, like the many thousands, if not millions, watching on TV round the world, being 'captivated', 'entranced', 'bewitched' and 'charmed' by Klopp. 

Klopp is an extremely intelligent, savvy guy.  It helps that he is tall, with film star looks, charismatic, and packs a superb, dry sense of humour.  He is a marketing dream.  He spoke passionately and eloquently, apologising first for his English, then speaking it beautifully, albeit in a typical, quaint Germanic style and accent. The one liners tripped off his tongue, accompanied sometimes by a broad grin. He will always be known as 'The Normal One' after his off-the-cuff quip in response to a question about how he compared himself with Jose Mourinho, the famously self-possessed Chelsea FC manager, who dubbed himself 'The Special One' when asked by the press in 2004 how he would like to be remembered for his time at Chelsea.

If you haven't seen Klopp's interview it's well worth listening to the highlights. Listen to the wisdom.  Above all, listen to the authenticity, and take heed.  In case you're cynical, I've also listened to a series of interviews with people who know him well in Germany, and read testimonials about him from others in German football.  Klopp is the real deal.  He is loyal.  He spent 19 years as player and then manager at a small, inconsequential club which he loved in SW Germany, Mainz 05, and then 7 years as manager at Borussia Dortmund, which he led to two Bundesliga (German Premiership) titles and the final of the European Champions' League in 2013.

Klopp is not perfect.  He wears his heart on his sleeve.  He gets angry.  He can be petulant with the press.  At heart he is himself a football fan, deeply passionate about the game, and openly emotional. When he left both Mainz and Dortmund though he tried he could not prevent himself from crying in front of thousands, who still revere him.  What's clear from listening to people who know him is that he doesn't worry about how people judge him, he is comfortable in his own skin, and he values relationships and people above all else.  He is REAL.  WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get.

Not a bad legacy to leave behind you, is it, wherever you've been?!  People are crying out for it.  And, you know what, research into the Top 1%, most sustainably successful organisations, shows precisely these qualities of leadership.

By contrast, visceral rejection of Tony Blair's manifest narcissism and spin, and unresolved fallout from it 8 years after he stepped down as Prime Minister, is what propelled Jeremy Corbyn to a wholly unexpected victory in the recent UK Labour Party election.  Like Mourinho, Blair craved a legendary reputation. Look what's happened instead - he is now vilified by so many.

The key to personal branding is authenticity.  Like it or not, many people will see through you, so don't fake it.  Real people like real people who aren't cosmetically 'perfect'. Do not try to chase something artificial.  Be proud of who you are, warts and all, and of your passions, whatever your apparent, so-called 'status' in the eyes of other people.  I'll let you into a secret - the people that matter will love you for it, and that's all that matters at the end of the day.....

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Thanks for reading this.  If you liked it please click on Like and share it. 

Constructive comments are welcome, and if you have questions on the subject matter you can connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message, or else you’ll find my contact details on my LinkedIn profile uk.linkedin.com/in/markashtonresolve.

If you need help growing your business, solving tough business problems, or finding and developing the true leaders throughout your business, take a look at www.resolvegetsresults.com and contact us for an informal, no-obligation conversation.  We give hands-on leadership, management, non-executive, coaching, advisory, and fundraising support to different types of business – small or large, start-up, turnaround or mature. We’re passionate about playing a vital role in building enduring great businesses, by applying the tried and tested, swim-against-the-tide principles of the Top 1% most profitable companies. When appropriate we share risk and reward with clients, so we're fully committed to their success.

You’ll find more blogs on leadership and management topics on my LinkedIn profile.

How to become a Top 1% business

In a nutshell the behaviour that sets Top 1% businesses apart is maddeningly simple - they focus on customers, not themselves or competitors.

Most businesses claim they put their customers first; in practice they don't.

Top 1% businesses systematically champion their customers.  They strive to create and sustain a culture which exceeds customer expectations every single time.

Is this possible, and if so, how?!

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If you're serious about putting customers first then you must (re-)design your business to do so, in every respect.  All of its key processes and KPIs (key performance indicators) must reflect this single, unerring priority; nothing else. Above all you must recruit, develop and promote people who share this passion.

How do your business and people stack up?  What score out of 10 would you give them?  Are you settling for 2nd, 3rd or 4th quartile performance?

I'm perpetually amazed and saddened at how Lean Thinking has been bastardised by what I call the 'cost (headcount) down brigade'.  These days the trendy word people might disparagingly use when speaking of Lean is 'austere' - cut to the bone!  The army of cost (and short-term profit) obsessives out there remorselessly strip capability and enthusiasm from businesses and thereby deliver stillborn long-term shareholder value.  For the Brits reading this I'm sounding dangerously like Jeremy Corbyn here, I know, but read on....

Between the 1950s and 1990s Lean Thinking gradually turned Toyota into the world's No 1 car company, with Nissan in hot pursuit.  In the 1980s I spent 6 years living in North East England.  When Nissan's car manufacturing plant opened there, in Sunderland, in 1986 there was widespread cynicism and scepticism that British workers could embrace Japanese productivity methods. However, Sunderland became Nissan's most productive car factory worldwide.  I believe the reason was the innate creativity, resourcefulness and problem solving ability which the British have in spades.

There is incredibly widespread ignorance, even amongst so-called Lean experts, of the content and sequence of Toyota's 5 Principles of Lean:

Where do we start?  With customers, and value, to them, not you!!!

The Top 1% understand what waste means (see Principle No 3), in the context of Lean.  It does not mean cost, or headcount.  Those are your myopic bean counters' obsessions.  Important note - not all accountants are myopic bean counters, and some myopic bean counters are not accountants!

Lean Thinking clearly defines waste as activity that does not add value for customers.  That's why it is so critical to understand, and measure, the value stream - the flow of activities that creates value for customers - from theirperspective, not yours.  As Peter Drucker so pithily put it:

"There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all".

My colleagues in Resolve Gets Results (RGR) with years of relevant experience and I are resolved (pardon the pun!) to practice what we preach and apply the 5 Principles of Lean in all areas of our work, externally and internally.   We are applying our skills and past track record to help businesses do the following:

• Get Closer to Customers - gather customer intelligence, understand value to the customer, and build closer customers relationships at all levels
• Install value stream-based Measures of Success  - KPIs that drive healthier, less risky behaviours and outcomes
• Develop people, and improve their motivation and sense of contribution, via Customer Improvement Teams - cross-functional problem solving teams focused on addressing critical areas of customer value and exceeding customer expectations.

Are you doing likewise?  Can we help with the challenge?

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Thanks for reading this.  If you liked it please click on Like and share it. 

Constructive comments are welcome, and if you have questions on the subject matter you can connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message, or else you’ll find my contact details on my LinkedIn profile uk.linkedin.com/in/markashtonresolve.

If you need help growing your business, solving tough business problems, or finding and developing the true leaders throughout your business, take a look at www.resolvegetsresults.com and contact us for an informal, no-obligation conversation.  We give hands-on leadership, management, non-executive, coaching, advisory, and fundraising support to different types of business – small or large, start-up, turnaround or mature. We’re passionate about playing a vital role in building enduring great businesses, by applying the tried and tested, swim-against-the-tide principles of the Top 1% most profitable companies. When appropriate we share risk and reward with clients, so we're fully committed to their success.

You’ll find more blogs on leadership and management topics on my LinkedIn profile.