I’ve met exceptionally smart and talented leaders who, when confronted with adversity, crumble like a house of cards in a windstorm. I’ve also met other leaders whose talent and brilliance is less pronounced, but who will persevere through unimaginable adversity in order to be successful. After all of my coaching and consulting work I’ve concluded that when it comes to transformational performance, talent is overrated and perseverance is underestimated.
Perseverance is prominently displayed in the world of politics, business, and sports. In politics, Abraham Lincoln failed to be elected or reelected 12 times before finally being elected President of the United States. Sir Eric Dyson experimented 5,127 times in five years to develop his cyclone vacuum cleaner and now has a net worth of five billion pounds. Dallas Mavericks basketball team owner and multi-billionaire Mark Cuban was known for working until 2 a.m. and not taking a vacation for seven years. And then there are the talented athletes who were not expected to become the mega stars they are because of talent or stature. Think of Michael Jordon, Serena Williams, Russell Wilson, and Wayne Gretzky. Are they talented? Absolutely. Were they or are they currently the hardest-working athlete in their sport? Absolutely.
Each of these athletes was born with gifts and talents, but without a disciplined work ethic and perseverance their gifts and talents would never have reached the potential they did. Russell Wilson is too short to play in the NFL, but he won a Super Bowl in this first three years because of a mindset of “My 2016 goal is just to win. Win in everything I participate in.” Wayne Gretzky was the right height and weight for a hockey player and he had good instincts. But his instincts were honed from an immense number of hours on the ice. Serena Williams once said about success, “Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.”
Of all the principles we’ve covered so far the Perseverance Principle is where the rubber meets the road. It’s the principle that asks “How badly do I want my purpose? Will I overcome all the obstacles that will surely come? Will I not take no for an answer? Will I look through the fear of failure that will likely show up and be courageous anyway?” My contention is that when you articulate a big idea, hope, dream, or aspiration, you feel passionate about your perseverance.
The term “war for talent” has been bandied about for the last two decades. It is an admonition to executives and entrepreneurs that no matter what great idea, product, or service you have, the achievement of your strategic goals will only happen when you have the right talent. Yes, talent is an essential element in all leaders’ success, as success is never a solo activity.
If you are like many of the leaders I work with, you have talented employees who lack the perseverance necessary to overcome adversity. You may have recruited the best talent and skill set, but neglected to recruit the best mindset. A hospital CEO I know recruited one of the most prominent surgeons in the state. His talent was exceptional as was his love of his craft. What was equally exceptional was his disdain for collaboration with colleagues. His mindset was one of “I’m the best surgeon in this specialty on all the eastern coast.” Although true, his belief about his talent and repute as an exemplary specialty surgeon left others seeking medical care of their own. Yes, talent is important, but equally important is what happens in between the ears of each person.
Your job as a transformational leader is to recognize that talent, although essential, pales in comparison to perseverance. Yes, you want to have talented, smart, gifted employees on your team. You also want to look around the room and know that the talent you have will run through the teeth of battle if need be to accomplish strategic initiatives. You can help them do that first and foremost with a compelling purpose. You too will never achieve transformational results without deep reserves of grit and determination. In the sections that follow, you’ll learn how to persevere in the face of adversity and how to overcome the four barriers to doing your best work.
There are no easy magic bullet steps, however. What you’ll find is that the muscle you need to train more than any other is the muscle resting on your shoulders and in between your ears. In the next section you’ll learn strategies for doing just that.
Perseverance is an interesting principle. The concept of perseverance is well known and of late has been studied and dissected and laid at the feet of how we were raised. Did we learn positive impulse control as children? I personally did not learn impulse control as a child. At 12 years old, my family doctor said the reason for my inattentiveness at school was rooted in ADD. That may have been true, but there were areas of my young life that fascinated me and that I would get lost in. I persevered immensely in subjects I was interested and engaged in, and relegated the traditional subjects to the scrap heap. In many ways I learned perseverance in counterintuitive ways and am glad I did.
Winston Churchill once addressed his school and talked about the last 10 months of World War II for Britain. He said Britain had been rejected by its allies to join in the war effort and was waging a war against Germany alone. He said, “But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period—I am addressing myself to the school—surely from this period of 10 months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”
But, how do you never give in? Is it through force of will or is there a magic bullet? I don’t believe in sheer force of will or magic bullets, but I do believe in processes. The process I use is the same process many professional athletes use and is proven to increase your perseverance significantly. It’s called the “The Giddy-Up Process” and requires you to answer nine questions:
1. What do you want? Answering this question is the jumping-off point for perseverance. Think back to the Purpose Principle. What is the big idea you have in mind for your personal and professional life? Does it fire you up? Does it inspire you? You will not persevere if you have a fuzzy idea about what you want. There are millions of people walking around who have a vague notion of what they want. But not you. With crystal-clear focus, describe what you want.
2. What’s important about that to you? Throughout the Projects Principle as well as the Persuading Principle, I urged you to ask the question, “What’s important about that to you?” That question is now being asked of you. If you want a promotion to the VP of Sales position, what’s important about that to you? Keep in mind that your answers have to inspire you and light a fire underneath you. If you follow each of the principles and want to be rewarded with a promotion to the VP of Sales position, what’s the payoff for you, your organization, your employees, and your customers? If your answers are uninspiring and what you want and are doing are out of obligation, that becomes a long, slow slog through enemy territory. It will drain you and ensure your failure.
3. What will you need to give up? Make no mistake about it; what you want will require that you stop something. It may mean you’ll have to stop work at 6 p.m. and be home to have dinner with the family. It may require you to stop employing people you like, and instead employ people who are comfortable never rating the bar on their performance. It may require that you jettison the negative mindset you carry around and the corresponding need to please others. What are the top three or five things you’ll have to give up? List them and look at them in black and white.
4. What will you need to learn to be successful? If you need to give up being liked or decide you need to learn how to set the bar higher for you and your team, where will you learn how to do that? The tension you will always feel is the pull back to what is known and predictable and away from the desired yet unpredictable future. What book, class, or webinar will you take in order to learn how to do something?
5. Who will you need to surround yourself with? In parallel to the last question, who will you surround yourself with? There is a minuscule chance you will be successful in persevering if you are surrounded by people who want the opposite of what you want. For many recovering addicts there is a time period in which they cannot spend time with friends or family members who drink or use drugs. The pull to their using days is so strong that they have to surround themselves with people who are, as they say in the recovery movement, “working.” That is, working the process and on the same journey. You too need people who believe in you and will support you in your grand journey.
6. What story will you tell yourself every day? There are two stories being told every day inside our heads: the story of “Yes, we can” and the story of “No, we can’t.” These two stories become the way we perceive the world around us. It is not the car that pulls out in front of you that frustrates you. It’s the story you tell yourself about the moron who needs to have his license revoked because of his inept driving. This stupid person of course cannot be known, but that’s the story we tell. We also tell similar stories about ourselves. What is the dominant thought you will carry with you as you move toward your purpose, priorities, and promises?
7. What will you do when adversity hits? If you have lived on the Gulf of Mexico for 20 years and are told by the Weather Service that a hurricane is headed to your end of the beach and will make land fall in 12 hours with winds of 85 miles per hour, you will have been though hurricanes before and will have mapped out a process for handling danger such as this.
The same holds true for perseverance. If you know the obstacle you will face, for example, I buy junk food when I shop hungry, you can make plans for not going to the grocery store hungry. If you know that not sleeping well makes you resistant to your teams’ ideas for process improvements, you can plan on going to bed earlier before big team meetings or can develop a process for vetting ideas for process improvement that does the heavy lifting for you.
8. How will you reward yourself? Far too often leaders believe that perseverance is the price of entry for being in the world of work. No matter what, get your job done through thick and thin. That is true in one sense. As a leader you are required to overcome adversity and get big projects done whether you’re on fire about the project or not. But on the other hand, if your work is continually asking you to over perform without any reward, you are headed for a flaming burnout and a massive amount of resentment. If you think about your purpose and the corresponding priorities and promises, what will you do to reward yourself for engaging in a stretch leadership project and being successful? A special dinner with a loved one? A new pen? A new sport coat or piece of clothing you’ve admired? If you don’t have a reward there is a tendency to become a martyr or become resentful.
9. Who is your exemplar? When I’m at my best with perseverance I have a mental picture of someone who is the epitome of what I want to accomplish. I may know the person or may have only read about them. Having an exemplar also helps with the story I tell myself. My mentor Alan Weiss is one of my exemplars. His zest for life is one of his most compelling traits. He savors life and scoops up as many new experiences as possible. He loves the theater, traveling, wine, food, challenging conversations, reading, exploring new ideas, and helping people like me fulfill all of my potential.
For you to persevere in all of the important areas of your life you need to answer these nine questions. Just think back over the last three months either personally or professionally. Which of these nine questions, if answered fully, would have been beneficial for you? If perseverance and sticking to your goals and aspirations are important to you, take five minutes to read this list again and answer the question in ways that clarify your thinking and focus your attention. When you do, the fog will lift as to what you need to do to persevere and you’ll accelerate toward your destination with gusto and conviction. In the next section, we’ll discuss the two primary ways you will approach success for you and learn how to play to your strengths with perseverance.
The tortoise is not well thought of in the world of work. If the choice is between the slower, more deliberate and methodical tortoise and the rocket-fast but solitary and not persevering hare, most leaders prefer the hare. Why? Speed is vitally important to every business today. Customers expect hare-fast responses to their questions and when they receive tortoise-like responses the impression is that the business doesn’t care. What follows a business’s tortoise-like response is a hare-quick post to social media about the slow response.
How quickly does your business respond to shifts in the market or to customer complaints? When you see a process inside your organization that needs revamping, do you think about it for prolonged periods or do you hare-fast rework it? The reality is that the tortoise and hare responses are both valuable, just in different contexts. For example, there are initiatives that can be and need to be implemented in hare-fast time frames. There are also initiatives that can only be accomplished with what feels like plodding progress. For example, the personal mastery process doesn’t come blisteringly fast. You can make quick gains early in the transformational leadership process, but radical transformations come only after long periods of what is seen as mind-numbing effort with little or no progress.
Since I am not advocating for the hiring of either long-eared, herbivorous, fast-running hares or a land-dwelling reptile, let’s be clear about the tortoise and the hare metaphor. The tortoise represents that part of our work and professional lives that can only be accomplished with perseverance and a protective outer shell. The destination is clear and in focus, but it comes forward in baby steps. The hare represents the fast-twitch muscles required to get out of the blocks fast, but that cannot be sustained over long periods of time. You need both capabilities but will remain transactional in your benefits if you try and have employees do both. That is similar to asking a 350-pound offensive lineman to play wide receiver on a football team.
In order for you to achieve your purpose, promises, and priorities you need to value the benefits and limitations of both the tortoise and the hare. You need to build a protective outer shell to the naysayers and those who will suggest you slow down and not push so hard. You will have to embrace running at full tilt without having all the answers to what seems like mission-critical questions. Winston Churchill embraced both the tortoise and the hare ways of working when he admonished his cabinet that negotiating with Hitler, even in the face of nonstop bombing and the death of British citizens, was futile. He also implored his cabinet members that success was achieved through the rapid deployment of new armaments. He did so while Germany had successfully invaded France and British troops were encircled at Dunkirk. Some may say he was incapable of being persuaded, but in essence Churchill knew that victory for Britain, however perilous, was not a one-pronged strategy, but a two-pronged tortoise and hare strategy.
My mentor Alan Weiss once told me that if I wanted to be liked that I should get a dog. As an advisor to executives and entrepreneurs my focus should be on being respected. Alan has a witty and penetrating way of cutting to the chase. In the early part of my career doing business reorganizations and turnarounds I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to be liked as well as respected. In my role I had to make hard and difficult decisions and sought to make them in ways that would preserve my good standing with the people affected. It didn’t work. I worked harder and under greater stress because I needed to be liked. As an immigrant and someone who had moved numerous times during the formative years of my life, I unknowingly was trying to avoid being rejected while also being respected. The freedom I have known comes not from trying to be all things to all people, but rather to be the person who exemplifies my purpose, and is ruthless with keeping promises and works to create transformational value for my clients.
I learned an important lesson about the difference between advice and feedback. When I asked for feedback, people were all too willing to provide it, but I didn’t have an interest in whether it was helpful or actionable. And oftentimes, I learned that the feedback I received was geared more toward preserving the self-worth and self-esteem of the person giving the feedback. I’ve found that my desire for success oftentimes shadows others’ desire and consequently the feedback from others with a differing view of success is rooted in having me be less successful.
Transformational leaders ask for advice instead. Feedback doesn’t require action once the feedback is given. It is too often a one-way transaction in which the person giving the feedback sees their responsibility ending with the shared feedback. Advice, on the other, hand is shared between two colleagues who respect one another and who want the best for one other. Advice, when asked for sincerely, generates a substantially different response than feedback. Advice includes a desire on the other person’s part to partner with the person and advise them about how to achieve their purpose or desired state. Advice is seldom thrown over the transom, but rather handed personally to the other person.
The third way to be impervious to detractors is to court your purpose out of hiding and into the daylight of your everyday life. In the Purpose Principle the word love was used to describe one of the essential building blocks of your purpose. When you fall in love with your purpose you will treat it in a similar way as how you treated the early loves in your personal life. You will write notes of affection; you’ll spend time with the person and tell them all the things you like and admire about them. You act in ways that, in retrospect, may seem sappy and adolescent, but was rooted purely in how you felt toward the other person. You were impervious to the rational part of your mind, and were moved by the love toward the other person.
The same holds true for your purpose. Treat it with the care and love you would a person you love. Serenade them with words of affection and care, spend time enjoying their company, shower them with gifts that show your appreciation, and know that each day you feed your purpose the stronger it grows and the more of an inseparable bond is created.
I spoke with an executive today about his inability to execute as fast as he wanted to. He knew the technical aspects of his work through and through, but was stumped as to why he was faltering with execution. What I heard in the 20 minutes we talked was his high need for every action and response on his part to be right. He had set up in his thinking that, when right, he would be successful. When he was wrong he would be a failure. He had painted himself into a corner and, in turn, had imposed on others the same requirement. Wrong actions or decisions were, in his thinking, unacceptable. This belief slowed him and his team down substantially. At the root of the issue was a high level of self-criticism. He held himself to an exceptionally high standard and whenever the standard was at risk of not being met he did what he felt was required in order to be right, and unknowingly communicated to his team the same high standard he had for himself along with the criticism.
Although you may think this requires a therapist to resolve, I beg to differ. What I’ve seen with smart and intelligent executives is that the moment they see the fallacy of their thinking they move naturally toward fixing it. We discussed using three steps to being more improvisational. The first is to shift the thinking from black-and-white, right-and-wrong thinking to the good, better, and best thinking. For example, a good answer may not be his ideal answer, but it’s good in that it creates a starting point for creating a better answer, which, if followed by experimentation and risk-taking, can lead to the best answer. We also discussed how improvisation is high art and requires wicked smart wits and can be developed over time. This line of thinking resonated with him as he saw this as intellectually appealing. He also agreed to watch, listen, and catch himself being critical of himself and others and to identify when he does it and under what circumstances. The more light he can bring to this aspect of his leadership, the more improvisational he will become.
I’ve been a runner for most of my life. A sprinter by training and experience, I enjoy the thrill of full-throttle running. It’s hard for me to run in a group and not to want to speed up and overtake the person up front, but when I started doing triathlons the sprinter in me learned the hard way that my muscles needed to adapt to long, slow swimming, biking, and running, and that completing was the objective—not competing.
Experts in triathlons taught me that my muscles could adapt and that I could infuse sprinting into my triathlons, but only after months and years of persistent training. Once my muscles had learned both the sprinting and extended duration aspects of a triathlon, I could choose the appropriate approach to swimming, biking, and running at the appropriate time. When you want to run like a hare you cannot go out and in one day become hare-like. It takes time and a process of gradually and purposefully increasing the load on your muscles to handle the increasing demands. For example, which is more comfortable for you? The tortoise or hare way of working? If the tortoise, decide to decrease the amount of time it takes you to do the least attractive part of your job by 25 percent. If you prefer the hare way of working, which area of your leadership do you see as taking way too long to accomplish? Who is the one person who you trust and respect that you can go and ask for advice about how to benefit from working with the tortoise?
Whichever skill set you want to develop, recognize that when a purpose has grabbed hold of you and has you fired up about accomplishing it, there is an unwavering spirit that encircles you. You wake up in the morning visualizing your day and how you will enthusiastically exemplify your purpose. You go through your day actively finding ways of infusing your purpose into your voicemails, emails, and meetings. When you think of your critical decisions that need to be made you have your purpose operating in the foreground.
But in order to persevere and achieve transformational results for yourself, and before you can assist others in doing the same, you have to recognize that you cannot be a 350-pound offensive lineman as well as a wide receiver simultaneously. You have a perseverance DNA, a talent, skill, and preference for one type of action over another. But you can become impervious to naysayers and obstacles by following these steps. In the next section we’ll discuss the four obstacles to doing your best work and integrate the learnings from this section to the next.
Without question, every transformational leader wants to do compelling and meaningful work, and they see their leadership purpose as the starting point for doing so. Yet with every starting point comes a slowing point that can, if left unattended, lead to a stopping point. Leaders who are successful and satisfied have learned how to address the four most common barriers that inhibit them from accomplishing their purpose. By understanding these leadership barriers, leaders are better prepared to overcome the barriers and lead purposefully rather than accidentally.
Inertia is seductive. It is easy to get lulled into doing your work and leading the work of others in the same ways you have always done it, even if it doesn’t work anymore. Every person on the planet knows that change is certain and that growth is optional, yet the appeal to remaining the same is appealing because it doesn’t require change and the accompanying discomfort of learning something new. Inertia infects us with a virus that multiplies the acceptance of replicating the past even in the face of knowingly doing uninspired and pedestrian work. Ask 10 leaders if their work is inspired, creative, transformational, innovative, and purposeful, and the affirmative responses will be in the one-to-two people range. Ask also the same 10 leaders if they honestly would describe their work as lacking creativity and producing safe and predictable results, and you’ll hear the affirmative six to eight times. How is this possible? Quite simply, as we discussed in the Promises Principle, when leaders have 12 priorities and feel overwhelmed, overworked, and overburdened, the likelihood of them devoting more energy, time, and resources to reinventing work is almost nonexistent. They’ve become Sisyphus simply waiting for the end-of-the-day boulder to roll down the hill and squash them. They’ve given up and resigned themselves to their current state of affairs.
What is astounding, however, is that when leaders find their one hope, dream, or idea that’s grabbed hold of them, when they see their way to cull the herd of their priorities, when they stop trying to correct their weaknesses and instead play to their strengths, it’s curtain time for inertia. It doesn’t mean that life becomes butterflies, ice cream, and unicorns, but it does mean the mindset of the leader is transformed and so are their beliefs as to what is possible.
You can be smart and ignorant simultaneously. For example, a leader can be technically brilliant, well-educated, have a brilliant and compelling work history, and remain ignorant about an employee’s or customer’s hopes, dreams, and aspirations.
I also believe it is a safe assumption for me to view those of you reading this book as well-intentioned, smart, and talented leaders. I don’t think you are broken, nor do I see you as a slothful ignoramus. What I do see in every boardroom, cubicle, and corner office are leaders who are either not informed or ill-informed about the power of purpose, who have become addicted to using hard facts and data to lead themselves and their organizations; I see leaders who have forgotten that their behaviors are impacting their performances and that capturing the hearts and minds of employees is job number one. They are smart, don’t get me wrong. But they are smart about all things other than what’s required to create the organization transformation they so desperately want. They’re ignorant about the people and relationship side of leadership.
Throughout this book you have been introduced to strategies for winning back your heart and mind as well as the hearts and minds of those you lead. In one sense, you are no longer ignorant about the art and science of leadership, but ignorant about what barrier is most holding you back. Is it truly that you don’t know how, or have you been ensnared by inertia and haven’t found the exit door? Before you answer what’s ensnared you let’s talk about the next barrier, incompetence.
Inexperience in a transformational leadership context is not as severe an indictment as it sounds. It doesn’t pertain to the long-term ability of a leader, but instead is an observation about the short-term talents and skills needed to do transformational work. Inexperience applies to new or more senior leaders who are fully capable of learning how to perform meaningful work, but who lack the specific, targeted, and current skill set to become a transformational leader. Inexperience points more to the opportunity for skill development, both for leaders as well as their direct reports.
It might be easy for you to say, “Yes, my team is inexperienced and I want to develop a more innovative, passionate, and growth-focused mindset.” It might be easy to clarify the skills required to handle an upset customer or retain a customer who called to close their account. But the transformational leader is continually asking themselves what new experiences and education they need to lead the transformation they envision. Do you need more experience leading based on purpose? Do you need more experience about crafting your leadership promises and priorities? How about persuading others or leading strategic projects? If your answer is that there are no new experiences or education you need, can I remind you to reread the ignorance and inertia section again? If not, you’ll want to listen for the roar of the heavy boulder rolling down the hall toward you.
Nine times out of 10, indifference comes from not having a clear and compelling leadership and/or organizational purpose. For some leaders, achieving financial results is their purpose. This purpose, however, does little to win the hearts and minds of employees or customers. Yes, achieving financial results is essential to remaining relevant, but financial metrics as a purpose counterintuitively ensures lower performance. What transformational leaders recognize is that making a meaningful difference in a person’s life jettisons indifference and brings forth greater creativity, energy, and a willingness to change and grow.
I’ve seen indifference come in many different forms. There is the indifference that comes from inept senior leaders, unrelenting budget cuts, contentious contract negotiations, disgruntled customers, sales, marketing and operations misalignments, product quality mismanagement, and a personal life that is out of control. I’ve also seen it rooted in simple things, such as poor health, poor sleep, and poor nutrition.
The times in which indifference comes from someone who truly just doesn’t give one iota about the product, customer, performance, reputation, or well-being of a coworker of colleague, the indifference needs to be rooted out and treated like a cancer. If it’s left to its own devices it will metastasize and kill you or your organization. This is where transformational leaders step up. They will not allow the inertia, inexperience, or ignorance to deter them. They will be on a mission to remove indifference the moment it raises its head.
Every principle you have learned about so far is required to overcome these four barriers to doing your best work and for creating a culture in which others come to do their best work. Although there are times that removing the cancer of indifference may require an immediate and radical procedure, most often what’s required is perseverance in the face of adversity. In the next section, you’ll learn how to leverage both the tortoise and hare ways of approaching work and create transformational results.
In the vocabulary of the Perseverance Principle, execution trumps strategy for three primary reasons, each of which is rooted in outdated and incorrect perceptions about strategy. These perceptions, when seen as a whole, point emphatically to the importance of thinking strategically about your leadership, your business, your employees, your results, and your sense of personal satisfaction and success. However, they also point to the game-changing reality that strategic thinking, if not married to ruthless execution, is destined to fill up yet another shelf of highly thought of but rarely used binders of strategic plans. Look at your bookshelf—either on your computer or a physical bookshelf—and ask yourself one question: If I were to grade me, my team, and my organization on the ability to convert strategic ideas into actionable, profitable, and rewarding results, what score would I give on a 1 to 10 scale? In this situation, 1 is deplorable and 10 is exemplary. What follows are the most important and relevant misperceptions about strategy and execution.
The first incorrect perception most people hold is that strategy sessions are a way to tune out the exigencies of the day and engage in intellectually stimulating, sometimes fun, energizing conversations. Although you may get energized by strategy, the best perception to hold of strategy is that it is a rigorous process of self-examination about prior results, what worked and didn’t work, and what the demands facing you and your organization are. Strategy sessions are simply a launching pad for doing work that will improve your business position. It is essential that you answer questions such as “Where will we as an organization be in two to three years?,” “How will we make a meaningful difference in our customer’s life?,” or “What do we want our employees to experience and achieve in two to three years?” These are engaging and important questions and, for many people, enjoyable because they are transported away from the harsh reality of today’s priorities. Strategy sessions allow them to imagine a future full of new possibilities—new possibilities that may very well be more enticing than the current state of affairs.
New Perception: Strategy sessions are a staging area for accelerated performance. Period. Yes, having a clear picture of your future is essential, and yes, being passionate about your future is required, but the stage needs to be set that, in order to persevere in achieving your future state, the persistent and consistent execution required is what needs to be clearly in mind moving forward.
In the world of work many people have come to the conclusion that they have to be successful in every endeavor they undertake. Success therefore requires eliminating failure, as failure is not tolerated in many organizations. The stakes are too high, the investments too large, and the customer too finicky. Yes, winning the war is required, but to think for a moment that the war can be won without losing a battle or two along the way is foolhardy.
The most negative and misplaced perception I encounter in my work is the one that states: If you fail, you will be relegated to the district office in Fargo, North Dakota, and your career path will be significantly limited. This type of thinking means that many leaders come to execution tentatively. They are hesitant to execute because if they execute incorrectly they will be seen in a less favorable light.
New Perception: Infuse into your leadership the belief in F3: Failing Forward Faster. Persevering in the face of adversity is assisted when examples of leaders and individuals who have achieved noteworthy results are front and center. Remember the examples of Sir James Dyson, Oprah Winfrey, Babe Ruth, J.K. Rowling, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln. Inculcate into your meetings and leadership that if you are not failing, you are not trying anything new. Perseverance is an intellectual construct and not a value to be exemplified.
In the world of automobile racing speed is the name of the game. The person who can go around the track the fastest and cross the finish line ahead of their competitors is the winner. Race-car drivers in turn go the fastest they can by being right on the edge of speed and safety. They are not afraid of going fast. As a matter of fact, they are continually looking for ways to go faster, not in foolish or reckless ways, but in ways that are right on the edge. Spectators may find motorsports exhilarating to watch, but when given the opportunity to experience the speed of automobile racing up close and personal, the spectator squeals like a 5 year old who just saw a mouse in her bedroom.
And yet, speed is the new currency in the world of work. The amount of $10 million can be transferred from one financial institution to another in the click of a mouse. Customer perceptions can change in an instant if an employee’s reaction time to a problem or issue is too slow. But far too many employees fear speed because they see speed as reckless, imperfect, and undesirable. They feel this way because they are metaphorically driving on the racetrack of work, not in a Formula One racing care, but in the family minivan. You too would feel out of control racing in a minivan.
New Perception: Redefine speed as dangerous only if the vehicle and racetrack you are driving on are mismatched. Discuss what new skill set, mindset, equipment, processes, and systems are required to decrease the time to market for new products or increase the response time for key customers. Have a bias for consistent and persistent action. Redefine what the costs are for slower speed and what the payoffs are for faster speed.
Perseverance and execution trump strategy because strategy is fine and good in that it sets direction for you, your team, and even your organization. But the reality is that achieving your strategy requires a perseverance that is best described as ruthless and unrelenting.
In this chapter you’ve likely found one or two areas that point directly to the barriers holding you back from your most important strategic initiatives. The tough-love part of transformational leadership is this: Until you fall in love with your purpose and want it with such ferocity, the perseverance described here is simply words on a page. When your purpose grabs hold of you and won’t let go, the words on this page are no longer intellectual constructs floating around in your head, but rather ideas that compel you to lace up your running shoes and move your feet. The next section is about converting everything you’ve read into a final plan for being a catalyst for transformational results.