Wayside sign at ultramarathon event
"There are leaders and there are those who lead.
Leaders hold a position of power or influence.
Those who lead inspire us.
Whether individuals or organisations, we follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to.
We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves."
Simon Sinek - Start With Why - How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action (Portfolio Penguin, 2009)
It's been two months since my last blog. For someone as garrulous as me that's a lifetime! This week one of my close business contacts, a Chief Financial Officer no less (they're generally not given to philosophising!), told me he'd read every one of my blogs and had noticed the deafening silence from me in the last few weeks, I told him I'd been busy, extremely busy - he said he'd guessed as much,
I'd already been thinking of getting back to it, inspite of the pressures and distractions, Then one of my business partners told me this week it was time we (that is I!) defined precisely what the Top 1% do differently, since the mission of our newly reborn company, Resolve Gets Results (RGR), is to apply the tried and tested, winning principles of the Top 1% to help create outstanding start-ups, turnarounds or other companies with great management teams and long-term growth potential.
The business partner in question, who shares my business values both intellectually and viscerally, went on to say it was no good offering philosophy; our definitions of Top 1% practice had to be actionable. This reflects his strong predisposition to task ('hard'), rather than process ('soft'/behavioural) priorities - I don't refer to him affectionately as our company's SOB for nothing!! :-)
The problem though, in a nutshell, is this - if you don't have the right business philosophy then you will never get anywhere near Top 1%, not even close. For many business people that's not a problem - as Jim Collins pointed out in 'Good to Great' the vast majority are content to be just 'good' (for 'good' read 'mediocre', or worse). When we say the vast majority what we mean in fact are the narcissistic, selfish minority (aka the 'takers' - see Adam Grant's 'Give and Take') who don't give a tinker's cuss what their company stands for or how it performs, particularly long-term, as long as they make a killing from it and it gives them a leg up to the next self-aggrandising opportunity. You see unfortunately a disproportionate number of the minority of society who are takers are of course to be found in leadership positions, which is not to say they know how to lead.
Collins describes presenting the 'Good to Great' findings to a conference of CEOs. When he had finished explaining the No 1 characteristic of the greatest financial performers - what he and his team had come to call 'Level 5 Leadership' - there was an awkward silence as the majority present in the conference hall silently sought to dismiss his discomfiting findings because the consequences were so horribly unpalatable and personally threatening.
Then one CEO, a relatively young woman, had the courage to speak up. She said "I've listened carefully to what you've said, and I know that I, for one, am not Level 5. Are you saying that my company cannot become great unless I become Level 5?"
Collins replied as follows. "Let's go back to the data. Of 1,435 companies listed on the NASDAQ exchange between 1965 and 1995 we found only 11 that met our strict financial criteria. These companies had cumulative stock (share) returns at or below the market for at least 15 years, followed by cumulative stock returns at or above 3 times the market for a period of at least 15 years. In every one of these companies we found Level 5 Leadership in place during the transition period from good to great, and in the companies we compared them with in the same sectors we did not find Level 5 Leadership in place."
The young female CEO's reply hit the nail on the head: "So can I become Level 5?"
In 'Start with Why' Simon Sinek gives an elegantly simple definition of what distinguishes great leaders and companies from those who aren't. Great leaders and companies inspire whereas the rest manipulate people - customers, employees, regulators, tax authorities, even shareholders - for their own ends.
Sinek describes in detail how great leaders and companies infuse people with a passionate desire to work with or for them, not because of money or status, but because of the many and varied intrinsic, human rewards. This is not to say that money and status are irrelevant, but that they are not the main consideration. Let me say that again - if you want to build a great company then money and status are NOT the main consideration. Sorry, that's not rank insanity; it's empirical fact. Why? It's simple - great leaders and their companies win, bigger and more often, because they get dramatically more out of customers, employees and business partners than merely good or mediocre companies do.
Why should this be such a surprise? Think about sport, music, education, or any other walk of life. Inspiration ALWAYS trumps manipulation. It's less risky, it's more effective - it's plain common sense.
What it all boils down to at the end of the day is this - how great do you want to be, and are you willing to pay the excoriating, and sometimes excruciating, price to get there? Most people aren't, especially if they are already comfortable or affluent. They want to make (even) more money and have (even) more power and influence in the easiest way possible.
Over the next few days I'll be working to specify the actionable steps to apply the tried and tested, winning principles of the Top 1%, to meet my business partner's challenge. I welcome discussion about it with anyone who wants to share their thoughts. But one thing is clear - if you don't start with an earnest resolve to improve yourself above all else, and to inspire others to commit themselves passionately to a purpose beyond profit by giving them quiet, humble, selfless, determined and visionary leadership, you're wasting your time and energy.
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The business I lead, Resolve Gets Results (RGR), provides hands-on leadership, management, problem solving, customer/market development, sales and fundraising capabilities to companies with long-term growth potential. I'm also actively involved in Linked2Success (L2S), a business which helps clients to use social media intelligently to build professional relationships and grow. RGR and L2S work together as a single team to leverage the benefits of our respective skill sets, giving tremendous business value to far-sighted clients.
I work with a superb small team of Board-level professionals, each a leader in their field with over 30 years’ business experience. We are based in the UK but have international business backgrounds, in my case including 5 years in the United States, where I ran a high growth machinery sales and service business.
You can find my contact details under the ‘Contact info’ tab near the top of my LinkedIn profile.
Mark Ashton
