|
21st Century Leadership: Uniting Values, Experience, Knowledge and Vision
by David Shirk
While speaking with some varsity athletes recently, I asserted, "Team sports depend upon the individual performances of each player. This means that the specific performance of one player can have a significant effect." Immediately the lights began to shine; it was okay to be a star!
Emphasis on teamwork is important, but the students were re-ignited when they saw that their individual efforts made the difference. The responsibility of everyone is, in reality, the responsibility of no one! On one level, there is no such thing as "teamwork." This is a word we use to describe the outcome of a synergistic integration of specific individual skills.
Coaches and C-level leaders face the same challenge. Success comes through uniting diverse personalities and skills into a cohesive whole. To accomplish this they must do their work behind the bifocals of both macro and micro lenses.
Thinking in Systems
Modern technology has enabled us to see life as a system of complex processes. When Charles Darwin first proposed his theories he had the single privilege of viewing life at an outward, anatomical level. With our electron microscopes we are able to see the structures of life. We now see that life is not as simple or as separate as we originally thought. Life is composed of extraordinarily complex systems effectively interacting within themselves and their environment.
Leaders must think "systems" when they view their enterprises. This is the "macro view" of leadership. Success in every field is directly linked to understanding "systems" requirements for each of these. Many leaders are self-deceived by thinking that an entrepreneurial sense of "vision" is the same as a macro-view of leadership. The visionary leader with a macro-view sees the horizon with all of its opportunities and the "geography" of the wilderness that lies between vision and fulfillment. All of these together make up the "system" that must be in place to reach our objectives. This is the essence of "systemic thinking."
The micro lens is "systematic thinking." This is the ability to understand and place the parts of the system together in their proper order. While some leaders see the macro-view of their hopes and dreams, others are more attentive to the micro-view. The micro-view enables a leader to understand the requirements necessary for the proper functioning of each individual piece of the emerging puzzle. Many leaders see the big picture but don’t understand its components; others are able to break down the specifics but have trouble keeping the distant journey in clear focus. Integration in the marketplace means having both skills available and valued within the organization. Integration in personal life means employing both skills to enjoy quality relationships and personal effectiveness. The key to personal and corporate effectiveness is the proper integration of our values, experience, knowledge, and vision.
Four Cornerstones of Success
Long-term impact requires the constant integration and nurture of these four cornerstones of success. We don’t build a great life or a great organization by merely looking at the whole of life, or the entirety of our enterprise. We must develop each part individually (though often simultaneously), and then bring them into alignment with one another. We can summarize integration this way:
• Values describe… who we are • Experience describes… what we’ve done • Knowledge describes… what we know • Vision describes… where we’re going
Integrating these four dynamics creates a "systems" energy that can be phenomenal.
Values
Values are like a fine painting - they form a composition that is painted with colorful oils drawn from many palettes. Our "colors" include how people have influenced us, what we have learned by study and observation, intuitions or transcendent perceptions, sensory affections or afflictions (poppy fields bring delight to some and allergies to another), our desires for recognition, approval, or respect, and our desires for adventure and/or security.
We hold many values. The person who does not see their multifaceted value-system will be limited in every endeavor. Having too few values demonstrates that we have not thought deeply about enough of life’s complex issues. It is also important to add new values as you mature.
Profound thinkers also revel in simplicity. Mathematicians enjoy the elegance of prime numbers.
Logicians delight in arguments that lead to irrefutable conclusions. Great artists sense the moment when adding one more brushstroke would ruin a masterpiece.
We aim for this simplicity throughout life: an efficient production system, a purring car engine and relationships in perfect union. Our values are much the same; they come to us as blocks of marble, and over a lifetime, we chisel out our own Michelangelo.
Our common English word "character" is derived from an ancient Greek word that means "to chisel." Our life’s intuitions, experiences, and relationships all serve to create deep chisel marks on our form. The results are either masterpieces of beauty or grotesque caricatures. How are we chiseling? Or, even more, how are we reacting to the chisel of life’s challenges?
We begin to build our values at a very early age. Over time, many of our early values will be replaced completely by better ones. Others will remain, but in forms that have been chiseled and bear almost no resemblance to the original. We must seek to build our values around truth. Values that are built upon any other foundation are destructive to our integrity and success in personal and corporate life. Our values are always being defined. In time they become a genuine reflection of the best that is within us.
Recent psychological studies have discovered that the deadliest form of stress occurs when an individual is involved in activities and outcomes that are in conflict with his or her basic values. An environmentally conscientious college student wonders why she suffers from migraines as coworkers illegally pour toxins into the stream that runs through the job site. A corporate VP feels chest pains during his drive home. Why? He’s had to play "politics" at the office today - trading integrity and principle for profit. These folks are caught in an inward conflict between their actions and their values, and it’s silently killing them.
One of our greatest accomplishments is to discover what we value. Our values give birth to our objectives; these objectives then give birth to specific strategies. A value-guided life or company is the only one that cannot be swept away by the waves of adversity or paradigm change. Without values we are merely manipulating or taking advantage of others. Employees in workplaces without clear values are being abused.
Values are the key to our long-term success. Values 1) are the foundation of our mission statements; 2) are the bedrock of our hiring and firing protocols; and 3) form the structure for our strategic planning. The result of such integration is true organizational synergy. Obstacles are overcome and genuine peace enjoyed when all family or organization members are committed to common values.
It is extremely important to know where we agree or disagree with the values of those that we work with. The business monthly, Fast Company (#31 p. 92) , recently profiled the young chief of a new Silicon Valley startup. Angus Davis’ statement captures this need for working with people who are like-valued: "The first people you hire form the DNA of the company, and that team will drive your valuation in the future." When decision-makers try to work with leaders who hold very different values the growth and success of the company are stifled, especially when the thrill of momentary opportunity has passed.
Our values are the highways that we have chosen to drive upon in the pursuit of our life’s goals or company objectives. They are the white lines that keep us from passing on the shoulder, or if we feel we need to get there faster--from driving across someone’s field. Our values help us judge whether our objectives are worth pursuing, funding, or even giving time to. Only your values can tell you if it’s worth doing at all.
The pathway to discovering our values is more difficult than identifying our mission objectives. The outline of an adequate mission statement is made by thoughtfully projecting yourself into the future, looking back, and describing what you see. Your objectives for a mission statement would probably be summarized under four headings: What do I want to become? What do I want to accomplish? What do I want to have? Where do I want to go? (Athens, Monaco or Tahiti?). For the enlightened and hopeful, these are very long lists.
We can discover our values by asking four other questions. What do I believe? (My philosophy about life and truth, etc.). What am I unwilling to live without? (Private interaction with nature, an honest community of relationships, etc.). What would I defend? (Racial equality, rights to privacy, my family, etc.) Finally, what do I hope for? (e.g. world peace, a clean environment, respect for human dignity, etc.).
Writing down our values is easier than living them. And not all values are of equal importance or priority. World peace is more important than fly fishing trips. This is why values can be a steeper hike than mission objectives. One way to ascertain the importance of our values is our willingness to defend them. If racial equality is one of our values, how will we stand up for others as we hear denigrating conversations in the workplace? Would we let our child go to the prom with a person of different ethnicity? Would we welcome diversity in our neighborhood? We do not defend all of our values with equal commitment, but we must live consistently.
When we state our values, we set our course for the future. If a corporation values good protocol for airing grievances it must not turn around and force "whistle-blowers" out of the company. Ben & Jerry are trying to live by their values when they reject milk products from hormone-enhanced cows.
If we critique the values of others we must not flinch when they scrutinize ours! If values are worth owning, they’ll stand up to examination. If we honor and defend wrong values, we are still wrong. Passion is important, but only when it serves the truth.
Experience
Experiences teach us many things, but we must not allow our experiences to define our values completely. A young shoplifter decides that it’s easier to make money by crime than by hard work. A value is formed. This value will foster other similar experiences. The reason that we have taken an extensive look at value-formation is that our values guide our integration of other traits and lead us into our experiences.
Experience develops character more than education. It is through the many ups and downs of life’s challenges that the "chisel" does its work. By facing the same circumstances over and over again we gain the familiarity that is necessary to become consistent in our responses to life’s challenges.
Experience also helps us develop principles that can be translated to other environments. It is tested principles rather than protocols or rigid rules that are effective in new environments.
In a changing marketplace senior executives must demonstrate that their experiences are translatable into new arenas. This is a daunting challenge, especially in the IT world. It is easier to shape the experiences of young aspirants than to retool the skills of industrial-age leaders. Experienced workers must develop flexibility in the application of their past experiences in order to stay employable.
Experience also demonstrates how knowledge is practically applied. Today’s employers must discover creative methods for giving employees experiences that reward success and penalize failure. Being able to balance risk and reward is vital to discovering lasting principles of experience. To remove too much risk or reward diminishes the value of the experience.
Within every experience there is a seed that can be planted for future profitability. Failures often provide the largest seeds for character and wisdom. This is the hidden secret behind successful people. Everyone has failures, but enlightened people take their failures and analyze them thoroughly. The unenlightened usually discard these same experiences without extracting their precious seed.
Knowledge
Knowledge and experience work together in a symbiotic relationship and are never meant to be disconnected. When a person fails to unite their knowledge and experience, they are lacking "common sense." Integration of these two traits produces a powerful sense of purpose and authority. These people seem to "have it together."
When a person has knowledge without experience, they are often awkward in the execution of their knowledge and destined to relearn most of what they have read. When a person has extensive experience without assurance that it is based upon factual truth, they often make grievous errors of judgment and technical precision. Knowledge must be sifted by experience and experience shaped by truth for maximum effectiveness.
For over two millennia, humankind has affirmed that "knowledge is power." In previous generations, however, careful observation and reflection discovered knowledge. In today’s data-saturated age, real knowledge must be extracted from a landfill of illusions.
We must sort through all kinds of data to find worthwhile information. Good information coupled with careful observation should lead us to knowledge, and that knowledge joined with right understanding will produce wisdom. There is such a small difference between fishing and standing on the bank looking stupid. The naive relentlessly cast into the data and information pond without ever reeling in something of value. The ultimate goal of acquiring true knowledge is wisdom. Wisdom is the implementation of genuine knowledge.
Knowledge must be true if it is to be converted to value, understanding, and wisdom. Incorrect intelligence doomed the Confederate troops at Gettysburg. Wrongly interpreted symptoms had catastrophic results for the first victims of Lyme’s disease. Early versions of a "flat earth theory" kept geographical sciences from advancing for centuries.
In an information age our most valuable accessory is a mental paper shredder. In our open society there is a proliferation of what is called knowledge. We see much in print with little value. A. E. Housman (1859 - 1936) envisioned our age when he said, "Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write." Friends may be impressed by our education gained at an impressive institution, but a competitive marketplace has no sympathy for that education if it is devoid of ideas that work.
The integrated life limits the lust for knowledge. Too much knowledge can paralyze our ability to understand genuine effectiveness. Most of us are already educated far beyond our competence. If we would put half of what we currently know to proper use we would be light years beyond our present circumstances. Knowledge is not power if it is not applied! When knowledge becomes an alternative to action, it becomes deadly. Successful people view their education as necessary equipment, able to give them that important edge in a competitive arena. A preoccupation with the acquisition of knowledge without corresponding action is a cover-up for insecurity.
A genuine breadth of knowledge and understanding is of immense value, to oneself and others. The best investment we can make is in ourselves! If we bring more value to others, more value will return to us. True education is a lifelong process. We must stay curious; curious people are always growing, always learning.
Vision
The concept of "vision" admits to many definitions. One day it serves our every dream and imagination. The next day it excuses our manipulation and abuse of others. Vision can be anything we desire, and explain away everything we lack.
Every work of significance is created twice. It begins as an idea long before it becomes an enterprise. Vision is that image of a preferred future that we hold for our organizations and ourselves. Vision is that embodiment of hope that causes us and others to make extreme sacrifices in the near-term for a share of the long-term reward. Our present vision is what we’ve done when we look back forty years from now. Vision gives us the energy to face overwhelming odds and obstacles.
For a leader, his or her sense of vision is the precious key that unlocks untold riches. Any assault upon that vision is tantamount to an assault upon the visionary’s personal identity. But vision seems to possess an almost divine life all its own. It is this false divinity that becomes the justification for using it so coarsely in our daily efforts. Anything and everything becomes permissible in its name.
I have come to the conclusion that the "mystique" of vision is not helpful to most people. On the one hand, it is often associated with charismatic personalities; therefore the "regular folks" feel that it is beyond them. On the other hand, it is often used as an excuse for sloppy leadership. Something that is so lofty in its power and yet so degraded in its use holds tremendous intrinsic value.
Vision begins as an artist’s conception, continues as an architect’s model, becomes a contractor’s blueprint and makes it to the job-site underneath a carpenter’s arm. Vision is the practical description of how to attain a preferred future. Remove the labor from vision and all you have is a dream.
The vision should become a reality in accordance with our values. In this regard, the journey is as important as the destination. There might be a thousand strategic plans that could bring it to fruition, but it is the dream that ignites passion and compels enduring sacrifice. Martin Luther King Jr. did not inspire his followers with the call, "I have a strategic plan." It is the dream that chisels a new reality in the hearts of everyone involved.
There must be a strategic plan behind the vision and effective planning must be integrated with vision to bring about profitable results. Planning cannot be ambiguous. It must be reasonable, and it must be detailed. These are the visions that can be posted on the wall, that people can run with, that builders can build with.
Vision is our compelling sense of purpose in life. Vision’s development should be guided by one prevailing principle: will it leave greater value or greater burden with others? The tailings from a mining operation may be the result of value gained by shareholders, but what about the nearby residents who must now live with the burden of polluted resources? It is this concept of leftover value or burden that determines whether we are consumers or contributors during our sojourn. Consumers digest value wherever they can find it, while contributors look at life and see what resources they might develop and leave behind that will provide long-lasting benefit to others. We should make sure that every encounter with others leaves them better off than before.
Dreaming and definable labor is the essence of vision. The integration of vision with the other traits will determine your long-term success. Leaders who have proven their capability at conceiving and implementing vision know how to give their complete attention to one facet at a time without losing their view of the whole. It takes strong and disciplined mental faculties to be able to do this, but it is a necessity for the strategic leader. Giving full attention to the task at hand without worrying or dreaming about other tasks is a hallmark of a mature leader. These men and women are able to take an organization to its full potential.
Conclusion
I was amazed as I watched the volleyball team play their next match. The individual performance of several of the players was at an all-time high. As they each brought their "game" to the court that night, a phenomenal synergy was displayed. They routed their opposition and went on to the playoffs. I read the post-game interview with the team captain in the city newspaper the next morning. One of the quotations sounded vaguely familiar: "You see, volleyball is a team sport, but it is played by individuals, so one person’s performance can really make the difference."
We kid ourselves if we think that the integration of poorly developed traits will produce an effective lifestyle. Integration merges highly developed parts or people together, creating a result that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. However, the merging of low-grade parts can serve a deceptive counter-purpose. It covers up the weakness in the system, allowing the underdeveloped person or trait to hide amidst the integrated mass. It’s critically important who or what we bring to the integration process.
Integrating the following four traits will promote personal and business success, if they are developed according to their own specific protocols:
1. Define and live by values that provide a compass to the future direction of your family and organization.
2. Extract from your experiences the principles that will translate to any situation.
3. Develop knowledge that is true and workable, and keep it integrated with your experience.
4. Always integrate vision with a clear mandate for action. Vision at its best is a blueprint for work. Develop your future objectives around a commitment to bring increased value to others.
Integrating these four life-giving traits will develop effective systems for our relationships and organizations. When properly integrated they produce an energy and direction that are almost boundless.
|
