Real Leadership is Dead Leadership

In my previous post I wrote about a Results Only Work Environment but as far as I can remember I have never spoken about the work that Ricardo Semler has done with his company (Semco) in Brazil (read about it in his book titled Maverick).  In many ways he has been working on a result only work environment where the standard of living of everyone involved in the company (especially the employees) are put ahead of profits.

What Ricardo Semler basically did, in my opinion, was kill leadership.  He looked at the organisation and realised that you need to trust the destiny of the company to its employees.  It is not dependent on one person - the great, smart, all-knowing leader, to come up with the answers.  Everybody needs to take initiative and responsibility and thrive.  At the heart of it however it is a paradox because in order to allow the rules of self-organisation and self-management to surface and let the collective thrive it is up to the individual.  In other words to let the whole govern the focus is on the individual.

It takes a formidable and very rare leader to do this.  It is someone that is content with him-/herself and does not take a position of power for power sake but in order to empower others.  If you want to change the organisation, change the leader.  In my opinion true leadership is about heart first, then head.  The one cannot go without the other but a leader needs to lead with heart.  A heart that does not need to be seen as a leader in order to lead; a leader that is willing to be dead and let a legacy live while he still breathes.

In my research, coaching and consulting work I do I unfortunately have to report that leaders like these are rare.  Perhaps the focus truly has to be a two-pronged approach where we reach out to current leaders in business and organisations as well as the next generation.

The key to management is to get rid of the managers.

The key to getting work done on time is to stop wearing a watch.

The best way to invest corporate profits is to give them to the employees.

The purpose of work is not to make money. The purpose of work is to make the workers, whether working stiffs or top executives, feel good about life.

Ricardo Semler

The Busy Dead Man

There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.  As I move through society I see that success is many times is a dual sword.  As many business people try to control and create prosperity they are unaware that they are actually kicking up dust to fake effectiveness.

The sad thing is that none of the followers in the organisations ever question this.  You see, though shalt not question the busyness for it creates meaning.  And the only guy that is creating meaning is the guy in charge.  Unfortunately in many companies the result is that there are many blind followers whose creativity is slowly killed off and their energy is depleted.  They are creating meaning because I do not want to question the guy that is creating work - fear!  In many instances therefore the end justifies the means.

It does not start out this way.  Many times I have been involved in businesses where people come in and truly want to apply all their creative energy and make a difference in their sphere of influence.  What happens next is truly sad.  The "boss" then starts giving orders to get them 'busy'.  The employee gets faced with questions like "are you busy enough?", "are you stretching yourself?"  Now I know that it is important to be stretched and get out of your comfort zone but the sad thing is that people really are seen as resources and therefore under the control of the "boss".

To calm down and start having conversations about what really matters from an inclusive approach means that life takes centre stage.  This is not easy.  I have personally been told that "if we don't run faster than our competitors and keep doing new things they will catch us".  Perhaps but if you are so busy with the unimportant and you ignore the valuable input and desires of the PEOPLE you work with you will fail even if you are running fast because you might be running fast towards a cliff.  Reality: If you are running away from something and simply keeping busy in order not to be caught you are sacrificing life which consists of joy, satisfaction and fulfilment (just look at two little guys in the picture).  You really want all that empty success where you miss the golden moments of relationship as you do business more meaningfully?  Get real with yourself!

If you are the boss and you are reading this please reflect on how you are treating the human beings in your organisation.  Are they doing enough and are they (and you) busy with the right stuff.  If you are an employee I challenge you to have the courageous conversation and confront the issue of busyness.  Even if it goes badly you will have stepped out - you owe it to yourself.

Work Sucks

Man!  I've just read one of the most profound books of my life.  It takes together so many things that I have been thinking of in terms of organisational development and leadership.

Are you tired of working in a company where they dictate how you can live?  What I mean is that for the vast majority of companies out there it is not unusual to pay you based on the time you have spent on the job but what they are actually looking for are results.  So on the weekends and on holidays you have full say on when you do what, but when you are 'at work' the company has taken over your decision-making for you.

So here is a crazy idea: how about organising work so that everyone can do whatever they want, whenever they want to as long as the work gets done.  FREEDOM.  Yes, you owe the company results for the salary they are paying you but you do not owe them your time.  Think about it, if you are a smart person and can work faster than others you get rewarded with more work.  How about only measuring if you've done your work based on results and you decide how and when that work gets done?

Never miss your child's birthday ever again, take your wife out for the whole day when it is your anniversary, take two extra weeks on vacation and never ask anyone to do it, study for your degree and never ask for a day's leave, and all the time you never skip a beat at work because we are living in the 21st century where cell phones, Internet, laptops, etc. have enabled us to do work in a way that makes us FREE.  But do we?  No!  We are still caught in the 1950's where we believe people can't be trusted and that there are only a few performers.

The reality is that people can be trusted as long as the desired results are clarified from the start and follow-through is ensured through continuous communication.  It is called ROWE: Results Only Work Environment and you can read about it in a book called Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.

Just a note if you enjoy hiding behind long work hours as a way to hide your laziness or incompetence you should reconsider this approach.  ROWE will quickly identify people that cannot deliver or that cannot work in such an environment.

You can read more about the movement here: www.culturerx.com

Letter to the CEO

Dear Mr CEO

I have been thinking a lot about the company that you are the leader of.  I have been wondering if you know what a leader should do.  Do you know how important your role is in our modern 21st century economy?

I would like to share my experience and belief with you in this letter:
Your main priority as CEO of your company is not to make money.  If this was true you would be able to run your company with only robots.  But as Henry Ford lamented, you have to work with a whole person and not just a pair of hands.  So I suggest you reconsider your main purpose based on the fact that you have been blessed with an opportunity to work with whole human beings (colleagues that think, love, dream and have a desire to grow) in order to serve the needs of a society made up of whole human beings.

Your business is your opportunity to better society and it starts with your colleagues (please note that I do not use the word employee, human resources or human capital - people cannot be reduced to a part of a machine that are rated on their performance.  We are not things.).  We work together and serve a greater purpose; we do not serve to maximise the profit of the business.  Yes, you either started the business as an entrepreneur or you are managing the business for the shareholders but if this is what governs your heart, people will have a difficult time to connect with you.  For it is firstly about heart - heart for your colleagues and heart for society.  I am sorry to say that if you do not lead from a heart for people you are serving yourself and your desires after money, recognition or power.

Being colleagues means that we are partners in office and we work with each other.  The minute you forget this and try and make all the decisions by yourself you have started the journey towards the loss of yourself.  For you see I have worked with many CEO's and many of them have told themselves that through their actions they are really contributing to society - they have justified the neglect of themselves and their fellow man.  You might be aware of this justification: 'It's not personal, it's business'.  It is all personal.  It is persons you are working with and your big goal is not more important than the people you work with.

Know that your actions have an impact on the formation of society's hopes, dreams and desires.  Will you help shape it according to your hopes, dreams and desires?  Do you desire to see our people and planet prosper or do you desire to see only profit maximised?

Sincerely

Jan-Derick Nel

More to Life Than Increasing its Speed

A while back I read an interesting quote by Gandhi that more or less went like this:  "There is more to life than increasing its speed".  It hit me hard!  There are many things in there that stimulate thought and discussion.  Perhaps my previous post went to the extreme but it connects to the the challenge of defining life.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to define life in general (at least not in this post).  What I am referring to is formulating a sufficient definition for yourself.  Too many times we simply want to make things go faster because everyone else around us is doing it and ultimately your life is defined by how fast you can make it go.

I find that I am hurried inside even when I am not very busy.  So for me the reality of slowing things down inside is the current dominant challenge.  Do you find that you are constantly hurried inside?  I have spoken to a number of people, read various books and have come to realise that people that are normally seen to be ambitious are many times the ones that are hurried inside.  From where I'm sitting this hurriedness is related to ambition.  Nothing wrong with ambition you might say...

This is something that I am exploring because if ambition makes me hurried inside and therefore helps me define my life by how fast I can make it go, I don't want much to do with it.  Can I replace ambition with something else?

I ask myself whether I am being a contribution; and if I am making it better, is it better for all?