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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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.
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