Issue 20 (emailed version), Sunday April 1, 2001
Made in New Zealand - twice winners of the America's Cup

An email magazine dedicated to making you a better leader, by providing:
— provocative thinking about what it means to be a leader
— the tools, techniques and best-practices that drive leadership improvement

"In order to survive in these wild times, you're going to make
a total fool of yourself with incredible regularity.
If you can't laugh about it,
then you are doomed."

Tom Peters, author and speaker



In this issue
WarmUp
Ten Minute MasterClass – Purpose. Passion. Sucess!

To access Portable Document Format (.pdf) files you'll need Adobe's® free Acrobat® Reader.
WarmUp® Last issue's article on hiring and firing – when to let people go – raised the ire of several subscribers. Alan C Clark of Key Business Improvement emailed to say:

I would suggest that a leader who can only talk in terms of "A players" and "C players" will seriously damage the wealth and well-being of an organisation. The problem is the perception that the difficulty is "out there" and not in me (the leader) or the system (which I am responsible for).
A two-month deadline to shape up or ship out will, as Geoff Smart says, often get the desired result, if that is to set somebody up to fail and then remove them. It will at the same time help to propagate fear, secrecy, cover-ups, buck passing, politics, etc, etc in the organisation, and can land you in an industrial tribunal. This is classic management by objectives/management by results.
Why two months? An arbitrary numerical target that means nothing. The sweeping generalisations that Smart makes help nobody. If you find someone who is being "...disrespectful toward others, disorganized, undependable, damaging to customer satisfaction, or a culprit of some other behavior that undermines the value of your company." why is two months the magic number?
Would you wait two months if you found someone bullying or discriminating against others or being dishonest? Suppose they are the victim of poor training or systems or working procedures – can you change those in two months? Of course it is so much easier to come up with nice convergent solutions to divergent (ie human) problems. But heavens, don't let us look at the system or at ourselves - the leaders.
Ten Minute MasterClass – Purpose. Passion. Success

Do you sometimes get the impression that those highly analytical, deeply psychological, check-list packed, guru-authored tomes on Leadership (with a big L) are using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut? Is leadership, really, rather simple. Far from rocket science. Are we, maybe, over-egging the custard? Find yourself nodding? Here's a viewpoint that'll add lead to your pencil.

“I've been a CEO for 26 years in an industry that mostly serves other businesses,” wrote Dick Brunton of Colmar Brunton Research (in Vol 3, No 1 of the University of Auckland Business Review).
Over recent years, Brunton said, I've discovered a new thing about leadership and organisations, something I think is of profound importance.

As market researchers, Colmar Brunton builds maps or models of consumer needs – needscapes. On these they overlay brands and organisations – the platform from which to make targeting and positioning decisions.
To help clients use this information, CBR developed a workshop on building their brand's functional properties, how it makes you look and feel, its persona or attitude, core values, brand essence, proposition and so on.
This workshop gets CBR pretty close to lots of businesses. That intimacy has convinced Brunton many organisations lack passion. They have no true vision, no mission, no purpose other than to make money, no respect for the customer, no drive, no point of view, no character, no integrity.
They are under extreme pressure to make money, often for overseas owners. They have lost the reason the brand existed. Confusion, lack of direction, disillusionment result; they don't know who they are.
“It is my considered opinion,” CEO Brunton wrote, “that we have a crisis of leadership.”

Who cares? Why is this important?
Firstly, there is a direct business cost. If you're confused on the inside, then you become confused on the outside. If you lack leadership on the inside, you lack leadership on the outside. So it is no surprise that consumers see the brand as wishy-washy and undifferentiated.
It is expensive to maintain such a brand – marketing costs are high. Brands can weaken and even die. Confusion saps energy. It results in bad briefings to suppliers. How can you make an ad without understanding what the brand or company stands for?
Secondly, there is the people cost – the wasted potential of employees who need a vision they can support and identify with. In a driving, profit-focused company, it's difficult to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, because, as a matter of principle, what a company wants its customers to feel, its employees must feel first.
If you want your customers to feel nurtured, cared for, inspired, then employees must first feel nurtured, cared for and inspired.
Sam Walton put it this way: "It takes about two weeks for employees to treat customers the same way the employer is treating the employee."
“Through the workshops I discovered the passionless business,” Brunton wrote, “but I also observed the transforming power of purpose.”

Organisations fall into three types, according to Brunton.
The first are inward focused – concerned with 'what we're going to do for us'. Their mission statements are about being the biggest, the best, the leader. What's wrong with that? There's little recognition and celebration of the human spirit, no passion, low energy levels. It's hard to get passionate about making profits for other people.
The second are customer-focused – concerned with 'what we're going to do for you', the customer. These companies are striving to create a sense of contribution. They have higher energy levels. Henry Ford said: "The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give, is bound to succeed."
But purpose alone is not enough and customer-focus alone is not enough. Both are necessary, but not sufficient. Third is the meaning-focused organisation. It is concerned with why: why we're going to do – for you, the customer – what we're going to do.

Which of the three banners will an organization's staff would most like to walk behind? Consider the story of two workmen on a construction site. The first worker, who looked disgruntled, when asked what he was doing, answered: "Laying bricks" – a level one response. The second worker, who was whistling a tune, answered: "I'm building a cathedral" – a level two response. The story usually finishes there, but Brunton would have a third worker, who might answer: "I'm building a cathedral where God will be glorified and His people blessed."
Human beings need to live with a constant sense of meaning and purpose. We are meaning seekers and meaning makers. If we attach meaning to what we do, we feel significant and connected to the organisation and our co-workers. People need to feel that who they are and what they do have significance.

Meaning unleashes energy. Brunton argues that it is a responsibility of leadership to imbue their followers' lives with meaning at work. And, customer-focused purpose with meaning unleashes energy, which delivers excellence.
So how do you turn your organisation into a meaning-focused organisation? You turn it into a crusade.
Many successful businesses are crusades. Anita Roddick created a huge global business, The Body Shop, out of a passion for the environment, not testing cosmetics on animals, etc. Henry Ford had a passion to make an automobile affordable to anyone who wanted one ... "to democratise the automobile".
Here are four magic questions:
  • What do I see in my industry that grieves me?
  • What do I want to change or put tight?
  • Where can my organisation make a difference?
  • What do I want to create?

    The answers to these questions are the stuff crusades are born out of. And many of the brand essences developed in workshops could so easily be crusades. Take the food company that makes cheap products kids like; CBR developed a brand essence of "happiness". The idea is that this company brings cheer to kids in low-socio-economic households and relief to their mothers. Or the bank with a brand essence of "freedom", the public utility with "simplicity", the beer brand with "camaraderie", local government with "stewardship", and many, many others. All could so easily become crusades.

    Finally, connect your people to the crusade. Then see your organisation grow in passion and energy and excellence. Providing you observe the fundamental rules of business, you may indeed become the biggest or best, and make lots of money. Plus you will know the priceless satisfaction of having deposited something of value into the lives of others.

    And that's it. Not rocket science, eh? Like many important and liberating ideas, Brunton's thesis is real simple.
    Next issue Thursday, April 12, 2001 - reader contributions warmly received
    Copyright © 2001, Macpherson Publishing All rights reserved
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