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?

__________________________________________________

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.....

_______________________________________________________

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?!

_________________________________________________

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?

_________________________________________________

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.

Whatever you do, don't be your own worst enemy!

Like millions of other English people who love the sport of rugby union I'm hurting this morning - badly!

Last night the English rugby team blew it against their mortal enemy and closest neighbour, Wales. They blew it in front of 90,000 spectators and millions on TV in a World Cup match, billed as the biggest game between these two ferocious rivals for years. They blew it on home territory, against a team who have suffered an appalling level of misfortune over the last few weeks with injuries to supposedly critical players.

This week, in the build-up to the game, England head coach Stuart Lancaster had been heavily criticised for his team selection.  However, his selections proved correct, and for the bulk of the game they entirely nullified the Welsh threat.  It was only when he substituted his two controversial picks, Sam Burgess and Owen Farrell, late in the game that things apparently went 'badly wrong'.  George Ford, the No 10 whom pundits said Lancaster should not have dropped in favour of Farrell, came on and idiotically insisted on kicking the ball straight back to Wales every time he got it instead of running with the ball and drawing in Welsh defenders.  He showed no vision whatsoever and kept handing the initiative back to the opposition, who by this stage had their tails up and were giving it all they'd got - they felt they had nothing to lose after an appalling sequence of injuries 3/4 of the way through the game.

Then came a decision that will haunt England for years.  With less than 10 minutes to go they were awarded a difficult penalty, but instead of kicking at goal to level the scores (by this stage Wales had unbelievably managed to take the lead for the first time since the first few minutes of the game) they kicked into touch down by the Welsh line in the hope of forcing a 5 or 7 point score instead of 3 points.  It was greedy and it was naive.  Wales won the subsequent lineout and cleared their lines of danger.

However, the main reason England lost the game was woeful indiscipline, and this is the critical lesson for us all.  Since Stuart Lancaster became head coach in 2011 he has done many good things. He has infused England, traditionally seen as a boring, technical team, with pride and passion.  He has filled the players, many of them very young, with confidence.  He has created intense competition for places in the team, and his coaching team have improved the fitness and technique of the players immeasurably.

There is one area, however, in which Lancaster has failed dismally, and that is the self-discipline which players exhibit on the field.  It is truly appalling.  I remember match after match after match over the last 4 years where they have given away stupid penalties with unnecessary infringements. You could say that they have sought to 'cheat', to break the laws of the game, without being noticed. Amazingly, inspite of all the points it has cost them over the years, they keep on doing it!!!!

Last night was the most brutal self-defeat of all, probably the worst I've witnessed in over 40 years of watching sport.  England handed the game to Wales on a plate.  England dominated the first two thirds of the game.  They were technically superior in every department.  For long periods they had a comfortable 10 point cushion - Wales needed to score twice to overhaul it.  Every time it happened however England sacrificed the two score lead by conceding a stupid and unnecessary penalty, and every time they did so Wales' star kicker, Dan Biggar, punished them by slotting it over.

It seems to me there are two crucial, universal lessons to take away from this game that apply to all of us if we are committed to excellence in whatever we do:

1. Self-discipline is the bedrock on which creativity and excellence must be founded.  Sadly, talent and technical proficiency are not always rewarded.  However mistakes are invariably punished sooner or later, so cut out the unnecessary ones.  Life is hard enough as it is!

2. Wales were utterly inspired in adversity.  They played with enormous heart, as they invariably do. They refused to give up, they were opportunistic, and they delivered what amounted to a smash and grab raid.  England got complacent.  At one point early in the second half, before disaster struck, England 2003 World Cup winning head coach Sir Clive Woodward told TV viewers of his concern that England appeared to be 'cruising' and that it was very dangerous.  His observation proved painfully prescient.

England can still qualify for the Quarter Finals of the Rugby World Cup, but they've given themselves a huge mountain to climb.  Four years of diligent preparation risk being thrown away through mindless stupidity.

Take heed, wise up, and don't take unnecessary risks!  What can you do to avoid spoiling your own chances of success?  It's certainly got me thinking!

____________________________________________

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.

Will your moral compass lead you over a cliff?

Neuroscience teaches us we are animals, hard-wired over 65 million years to look after No 1 and our own herd, capable of any form of negative, often disastrous behaviour.  It should come as no surprise.  

Wisdom teaches us that we have advanced as a species by collaboration, courage, generosity and selflessness.

Yet we constantly bury our heads in the sand and pretend otherwise.

__________________________________________________

It's been an interesting week.

Human stupidity knows no bounds.

One of the world's premier car companies is caught red handed, and confesses to fitting software to its diesel engined cars to cheat on greenhouse gas emission tests.  I find it inconceivable that other car manufacturers have not done the same thing - time will tell.

The company in question, VW Group, faces costs of many billions, the trashing of a proud reputation, the collapse of trust, years of uncertainty, and, more to the point, thousands of employees and their families will pay the greatest price.

The CEO has walked the plank.  He may not, as he claims, have known that his company practised systematic and cynical deception, but no matter - he is equally culpable.  He failed to instil a culture intolerant of such unthinkable behaviour.  At best there was a conspiracy of ignorance and convenient silence.

Let's call a spade a spade - this is theft.  It's time senior executives and others in business responsible for what, in truth, is criminal behaviour faced lengthy prison sentences, and not in cushy, white collar open prisons, when found guilty of abusing their office, or even presiding unwittingly over such abuse.  It would soon stop.

The threat of losing their jobs is woefully inadequate - the huge financial upsides they can achieve through misbehaviour mean that the risk/reward equation is currently rigged all one way in the eyes of the potentially unscrupulous.  All of us are prey to temptation, whether large or small - we should not be surprised at anything that happens if the rewards are great enough and the sanctions not real or punitive.

Meantime, more positively, a UK political party supposedly reeling after a catastrophic election wipeout in May when it was reduced from a high of 56 MPs in 2010 and a share in government to just 8 MPs and a berth in the political wilderness, holds its annual conference in Bournemouth and appears bizarrely upbeat and cheerful, according to political commentators. What's going on?

Firstly, they've seen dramatic percentage growth in membership since the election defeat.  The absolute numbers are relatively small; the trend is not.  Secondly, the space they naturally occupy on the radical, yet moderate centre left of British politics is apparently being vacated by the traditional juggernaut party of the Left, whose populist new leader wants to drag them much further left on the crest of the angry, anti-austerity tsunami currently engulfing the British and European electorates.

Their natural supporters, or people across the political spectrum who sympathise with them, have often kept their heads well below the parapet in that infuriating, introverted English manner.  It's not cool to support a 'no hope' political party, even if talks common sense and you agree with it.  Much better to run with the big dogs - don't want to risk standing out, even if you might stand out with a large silent majority.  Good job the little boy didn't think that like the rest of the crowd when he saw the emperor had no clothes on!

On Wednesday, their newly-elected leader, an outspoken firebrand with what one BBC commentator describes as a very particular brand of gritty Northern charm (he is no suave, well-groomed old Etonian or Fettesian member of the cravenly Murdoch-appeasing 'ruling classes'!), stakes a passionate claim for the middle ground of British politics.  He argues, (he is delusional, most would say), for the pursuit of power once more to change people's lives for good.  From humble origins himself, he makes a compelling case for a 'strange' paradox - the championing of the poor and vulnerable in society, and the championing of ordinary, struggling businesspeople, whom he says are essential to create the wealth the country needs to provide effective public services.  He argues for decency, community spirit and pragmatism - it is refreshing and uplifting.  He identifies squarely with the outsider versus the elite.

His plea that Britain should play its part in the European quota system to meet the current refugee crisis rather than opting out and sitting on the sidelines gets a spontaneous, cheering, standing ovation.  He presents a clear, inspiring and mature vision for a far better Britain, a country that cares, yet takes responsibility, a country with grown-up, selfless politicians and leaders in all walks of life, including business.

Yesterday I had another uplifting experience.  For the first time in many years I had an extended conversation by phone with a former colleague and friend, now working in Switzerland to develop and gain regulatory approval for modified reduced tobacco products (MRTPs) for one of the world's largest tobacco manufacturers.  He told me he had been headhunted a few years ago and had agonised over whether to take the job, since he had always vowed never to work in the cigarette industry.  In the end he took it in the end for these reasons:

• One third of the world's population (a figure that stunned me), disproportionately the poorer members of society, are smokers
• MRTPs bring specific health benefits for existing smokers - the research evidence suggests smoking MRTPs will have the same health effects for a smoker as giving up smoking altogether
• MRTPs will not be targeted at non-smokers as a way to get them into smoking - regulatory approvals will be tight and specific about that 
• His father died from lung cancer caused by lifelong smoking, and my friend believes his quality and quantity of life would have been significantly extended if he had smoked MRTPs.

Recently my friend's new boss asked him hypothetically if he would be willing to transfer to the conventional cigarette manufacturing division of the company, where his skills would be valuable. Without hesitation my friend told him that were he to be requested to do that then his written resignation letter would be on his boss's desk within 5 minutes. His boss, a company lifer since university, was stunned.  His tribal loyalty to the company, which fosters a cult-like culture, rendered him incapable of seeing the wood for the trees.  Golden, lobotomising handcuffs.

Courage is a rare commodity in all walks of life, sadly - people go with the flow.  "Don't draw attention to yourself" is the lemmings' charter!

In 'Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies' (1994) Jim Collins and Jerry I Porras studied iconic companies named repeatedly by US CEOs as the ones they most admired.  They discovered that enduringly great companies all have a compelling purpose beyond profit:

• Dave Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP) was derided and mocked by other company leaders for many years because he spoke often at conferences of his personal conviction that the true purpose of any business was not to make money, but to make a meaningful contribution to society.  He became a billionaire, but he never changed his values or his behaviours.
• George W Merck, President of pharmaceuticals giant Merck and son of the founder, famously said: "We try never to forget that medicine is for the people.  It is not for the profits.  The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear.  The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been". 

My passion is applying actionable insights from neuroscience and the wisdom of the Top 1%, most sustainably profitable companies, to create great organisations infused with great behaviours. 

Neuroscience teaches us that we are animals, hard-wired over 65 million years to look after ourselves and our own herd, and capable of any form of negative behaviour.  It should be no surprise.

Wisdom teaches us that we have advanced as a species by collaboration, courage, generosity and selflessness.

I know which route I prefer and trust.  It's well worth the struggle.

____________________________________________

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.

Leadership lessons: Labour isn't working

With less than two weeks to go in the UK Labour Party leadership election the atmosphere is febrile. The so-called Corbynistas can barely conceal their jubilation, whilst those on the Party's right sound increasingly plaintive, like a jilted lover imploring their partner to return. This morning I read the latest overture to Labour supporters from former Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose language is armageddon-like.

The polls suggest the so-called 'looney left' candidate Jeremy Corbyn will comfortably be elected leader of the Party, which suffered two crushing defeats in the last two UK General Elections (2010 and 2015) after 13 years in power under Blair and latterly his arch-rival, Gordon Brown. Labour has been annihilated in its traditional power base in Scotland by the Scottish Nationalists, who brazenly stole its clothes in a supposedly all-new, social media-savvy, seductive brand of Anglophobic Scottish socialism.

Over many years Blairism has proven divisive - it has polarised the Party to such an extent that many commentators are predicting it will split if Corbyn is elected.  Arguably it should split anyway, irrespective of who becomes leader.

On Friday night the BBC's Newsnight programme carried an extended analysis of two focus groups of former Labour voters which the BBC carried out last week with pollsters MORI.   Most of them voted for Tony Blair in the past, now see either Andy Burnham or Yvette Cooper as the best choice, and think Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable.

Afterwards in the studio Lord Danny Finkelstein, Conservative peer and former Executive Editor of the Times newspaper, now one of its political columnists, correctly pinpointed the fundamental problem facing the Labour Party. Stripping out Conservative mischief makers who've mirthfully signed up to vote in the Labour leadership election (whether or not the Labour Party manages to weed them all out they won't determine its outcome) the blunt reality is that a very large consitutuency of Labour activists will vote for Jeremy Corbyn, irrespective of the electoral consequences.  They do not want power at any price, especially when it involves the sacrifice of principle, which, they believe, is the Blairite formula. They will never forgive Blair and his acolytes for taking Britain into an illegal war in Iraq as America's poodle, and they're determined to punish the right wing of the Party for that and for what they see as its many other egregious transgressions ('crimes' would not be too strong a word in their vocabulary).  To them Tony Blair betrayed core Labour values, and they hate the fact he held power for 10 years before handing over to Gordon Brown.  It wasn't New Labour; it was Not Labour!

This is a civil war, and it has been rumbling on since the then Labour leader Neil (now Lord) Kinnock expelled extreme left wing Militant Tendency members from the Party 25 years ago and in 1995 Blair neutered Clause IV, the Party's 1918 founding commitment to quasi-Marxist public ownership of the means of production.  The current leadership contest has unleashed the blood-letting and score-settling that has brewed for years - believe me, it's only going to get uglier.

The deep irony is that it could so easily have been the Conservative Party in this terrible predicament. It remains in similar danger of being rent in two over the incendiary topics of Europe and immigration. Had the 'Yes' campaign won the Scottish independence referendum, or the Conservatives' terror campaign about a Labour/Scottish Nationalist coalition (which was never going to happen in reality) not so spectacularly hoodwinked English voters in May, then the Night of the Long Knives we're now seeing in the Labour Party would have been happening instead to the Conservatives.  Sliding doors.....

The two main UK political parties are prime examples of how not to run a sustainable organisation. They are currently being outflanked by smaller, nimble, more coherent and far more adaptable competitors - the SNP, UKIP and, I'll wager, the rejuventated LibDems in the centre ground, who are content to fly beneath the radar screen for a few years and regroup at local level.

So how does the behaviour of Top 1% organisations and their leaders differ?

1. They focus outwards, not introspectively.  They put the needs of those they serve above all else, especially self-interest.  They seek to retain the moral high ground and inspire people. The purpose of a great organisation is NOT to perpetuate itself come what may, but to serve others. This is the mistake the Labour Party is now paying dearly for.  If it is to revive its fortunes it must start putting the country's interests first, not its own.  Perversely that's why Jeremy Corbyn appeals to so many core Labour activists - to them he's a welcome breath of fresh air.
2. They are humble and show appropriate contrition.  Tony Blair may have been credible to the electorate at large, but he remains one of the most transparently narcissistic political leaders in recent UK history. Ironically the other was Gordon Brown, and their combined personal impact on the Labour Party's electoral prospects for the foreseeable future has been devastating.  In Blair there was always a whiff, sometimes a stench, of naked self-interest from the outset.  He lacks authenticity, and as I've said elsewhere people have highly tuned cr*p (bs) detectors. I had indirect personal exposure to New Labour's seamier side when he was leader and believe me, their ends justified dubious means, putting it mildly.  By contrast leaders who build enduring success and leave positive legacies show humility and contrition, two words that don't exist in most politicians lexicons! 
3. They listen carefully and ask questions.  They avoid the unwarranted dogmatic certainty and evasive responses to questions of so many politicians who feel forced to toe the party line to advance their personal careers.
4. They instinctively understand neuroscience and they apply it.  Since the primitive brain (brainstem) is dominant in all of us it drives human behaviour.  Wise leaders and organisations understand they cannot appeal to people's rational brains if they are not also tapping straight in to their fears and insecurities.  They do this not by cynical manipulation, which is all too common elsewhere, but by what I call 'healthy parenting'; in other words taking people's concerns seriously and helping them to develop to their full potential and to strive for higher goals.  For more insights on the critical importance of neuroscience in organisational success see How the brain works and why you should know and Why selflessness is good business.
5. They accept that adult existence is about accepting and managing challenging paradoxes. There are no simplistic answers to the overwhelmingly difficult problems the world faces, only timeless principles with which to confront them. You have to find a way to explain that to people, and in order to do that you have to take them seriously and act on their concerns - see (4) above.
6. They confront brutal realities and tackle them, head on.  They exhibit moral courage and never bury their heads in the sand.  See The truth may hurt, but seeking it sets you free.  

Neuroscience shows us that there's an unavoidable heirarchy of forces driving human behaviour.  Top of the pile is primordial, involuntary, hard-wired instinct.  This is an inescapable fact!  No 2 is emotion, and in distant 3rd place are ideas and logic.  Clever salesmen like Tony Blair may win the battles of ideas at different times, but they cannot win the wars of instinct and emotion. Wise leaders carry people with them, head, heart and soul, for the long haul.

I believe there's a need for a fundamental re-alignment in politics, in which healthy, open debate between people who disagree respectfully but share a common goal replaces tribalism, spin, over-simplification, groupthink, fear-mongering, and the irresponsible demonisation of political opponents which serves only to destroy the credibility of the whole system, your own faction included.  The level of debate on most critical issues is puerile. For that reason I welcome Jeremy Corbyn's meteoric rise to prominence, and I hope he will prove yet another key trigger for an essential, long overdue, but deeply painful, restructuring of the British political system.

______________________________________________

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 to get active doing business on social media, or to do more by improving your skills, I strongly recommend Steve Phillip at www.linked2success.co.uk and his online training packages at www.linked2training.co.uk.

If you need help finding and developing the true leaders throughout your business, solving business problems, or growing your business sustainably, 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 many different types of business – small or large, start-up, turnaround or mature.  Our passion is applying the tried and tested, contrarian principles of the Top 1%, most enduringly profitable companies to help build and sustain great businesses. Where appropriate we seek to share risk and reward with clients.

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

How badly do you want to be the best?

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.

________________________________________________________________

I’m grateful you’ve taken the time to read this post. If you find it helpful please share it. 

Recent blogs you may find helpful include:

Leadership - can you master it?

High business growth - gold at the end of the rainbow?

10 reasons to stick your neck out!

Do you ever think you've got it tough?

Be wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove

How the brain works and why you should know

Was Tesco's Terry Leahy really such a great leader?

Stop your company's demons coming back to haunt you

Do organisations thrive without the 'old timers'?

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