Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders (8 page)

“You see, Peter,
the job of every leader is to define reality for his people.
He shows his people a better, brighter, more enlightened way to see the world. He takes the challenges they face and reframes them as opportunities for growth, improvement and success. He does more than show people
how
to do things right — that is the job of the manager. The enlightened leader clarifies the right things to do, which gives his people compelling reasons to do what they do better than they have ever done it. He constantly reaffirms that the purpose everyone is striving toward is a good one and a just one and an honorable one. He understands that the best motivator for innovative and exceptional performance is meaningful work.

“And the truly visionary leader offers his followers hope by showing them that a higher reality exists for them if they keep moving in the direction of the leader’s vision. To put it another way, he instills a sense of passion within his people by engaging their hearts and minds through the power of his purpose. Napoleon Hill captured the sentiment when he said, ‘Cherish your vision and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements,’ while Orison Swett Marden wrote, There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation for something better tomorrow.’ Find a vision you can invest every ounce of yourself within, one that will become your driving force, your raison d’etre, your life’s work. The excitement and positive energy that you will generate will spill over into the entire organization.”

“That makes so much sense, Julian. If I imagine a truly compelling cause or worthy vision for the future of GlobalView and
effectively communicate it to my employees in a way that fulfills their hunger to contribute and make a real difference, they wil
l
get excited about their work.”

“Absolutely. Oh, and don’t forget, stop being so focused on
what
you will get when you realize your vision and begin to pay more attention to the
why
of what you are doing. By dedicating your energies to the worthy purpose lying behind what you are doing and taking the focus off the rewards, you will get to your destination far more quickly.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’ll tell you a fable that Yogi Raman shared with me that will answer your question nicely. Once a young student traveled many miles to find a famous spiritual master. When he finally met this man, he told him that his main goal in life was to be the wisest man in the land. This is why he needed the best teacher. Seeing the young boy’s enthusiasm, the master agreed to share his knowledge with him and took him under his wing. ‘How long will it take before I find enlightenment?’ the boy immediately asked. ‘At least five years,’ replied the master. ‘That is too long,’ said the boy. ‘I cannot wait five years! What if I study twice as hard as the rest of your students?’ ‘Ten years,’ came the response. ‘Ten years! Well, then how about if I studied day and night, with every ounce of my mental concentration? Then how long would it take for me to become the wise man that I’ve always dreamed of becoming?’ ‘Fifteen years,’ replied the master. The boy grew very frustrated. ‘How come every time I tell you I will work harder to reach my goal, you tell me it will take longer?’ ‘The answer is clear,’ said the teacher. ‘With one eye focused on the reward, there is only one eye left to focus on your purpose.’”

“I won’t forget that one, Julian.”

“It’s full of truth, isn’t it? Rather than focusing on what he could give by reaching his ultimate destination, the boy’s mind was centered on what he would receive. And therefore, it would take him far longer to get there. What I’m really trying to say, Peter, is that
you need to concentrate on contribution. Giving begins the receiving process,
that’s the irony. By rallying around a worthy cause and constantly asking, ‘How can we serve?’ the rewards flow in degrees you cannot imagine. As they say in the East, ‘A little bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.’”

“So true, when one really thinks about it,” I admitted.

“Here’s a great example. Southwest Airlines has consistently been one of the most successful major airlines. Herb Kelleher, its feisty and innovative leader, could easily have defined the purpose of the company in terms of “being a great airline” or in terms of levels of profit or in terms of customer satisfaction. But he didn’t. He had the wisdom to understand that by rallying his people around an emotionally compelling cause, Southwest would become a great airline, make huge profits and generate an army of satisfied customers. So he defined his company’s work — and its reality — in a way that truly connected with people.”

“How did he do that?”

“He explained that Southwest was a very special airline run by very special people. He showed his team how the low fares the company advertised allowed people who could previously never afford air travel the opportunity to fly on a regular basis. This meant that grandparents could start visiting their grandchildren more frequently and that small-business people could explore markets they never could have before. He showed his people how their work was really about helping others fulfill their dreams and
live better lives. He understood that
one of the key tasks of the visionary leader is to engage hearts.

“And once he did, everything else he hoped for followed. So find a way for you and your managers to show your people their work, directly or indirectly, touches people’s lives. Show them that they are needed and important and satisfy their hunger to make a difference. This is what the First Ritual of Visionary Leaders is all about.
Because when you link paycheck to purpose, you connect people to a cause higher than themselves. Your people will start to feel good about what they are doing. And when your people feel good about the work they do, they will begin to feel good about themselves as people. That’s when real breakthroughs start to happen.
As Henry Ford once said, ‘No one is apathetic except those in pursuit of someone else’s objectives.’ Give your people a slice of ownership in your vision. They will reward you with the gift of fidelity to your leadership.”

“Come to think of it,” I interjected, “Recently I heard of a similar example of connecting to a compelling cause. During World War II, the workers who made parachutes for the Allied Forces were less than enthusiastic about their jobs, which could be described as tedious at best. They spent their days doing the same things over and over again and eventually grew weary of their work. Then one day, one of the leaders of their organization sat them all down and reminded them of the value of their work. He told them that it just might save the lives of their own fathers, sons, brothers and compatriots. He reminded them that their work saved lives. By reconnecting them to the big picture, he made productivity go through the roof.”

Julian then reached over to pick up a newspaper someone had left on the table next to us, which he thrust in front of me. As I
squinted to see the picture on the front page in the dim porch light, Julian remarked, “I read the paper earlier today and came up with an insight I’d like to share with you. What do you see right here on this page?”

“Looks like a photo of the earth, like the ones the space-shuttle astronauts have been taking.”

“Right. This afternoon, under the midday sun, I looked at that newspaper photo with my magnifying glass. Guess what I saw?”

“No idea.”

“I saw that it was actually made up of nothing more than thousands of tiny black dots. Try it yourself tomorrow morning over a cup of coffee. You’ll see that every single picture in the entire paper is nothing more than a collection of ink dots.”

“Okay, so what’s your point, Julian?”

“My point is that when you ask someone what the subject matter of this photograph is he or she will quickly tell you that it is of the earth. No one will ever tell you he or she sees ten thousand dots clumped together. When viewing the pictures in the newspaper, we have trained ourselves to focus on the big picture, to observe the subject matter from a higher perspective. Yet, too often in business, leaders and managers lose all perspective and spend their days focusing on the little things.”

“On the dots,” I interjected, grasping the power of Julian’s excellent analogy.

“You got it. And in doing so, they miss a world of opportunities, just like anyone focusing on the dots that make up this picture would miss this spectacular view of our world. To be a visionary leader, you must stay focused on the big picture — the compelling cause that lies at the heart of your vision. You must keep your people centered on the communities they are helping
and on the lives they are touching. That will provide all the motivation they need.”

“But doesn’t it take a special kind of person to want to work hard for his or her company because it is doing good work and advancing ‘an emotionally compelling cause’ to use your words? I’ll be honest, all my people care about is getting their paychecks. They couldn’t care less about the company or the vision it has.”

“That’s your fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“Stop blaming your people for your leadership failures. Stop blaming the changing economy, increased regulation and competitive pressures. If people haven’t bought in to your vision, it’s because they haven’t bought in to your leadership. If they are not loyal, it’s because you have not given them enough reasons to be loyal. If they are not passionate about their work, it’s because you have failed to give them something to be passionate about. Assume total responsibility, Peter. Understand that
great leadership precedes great followership.”

The truth of what Julian had just said rocked me. None of the management seminars I’d attended or consultants I’d worked with had ever offered me this kind of insight. And yet I knew it was right. Something inside me, intuition perhaps, confirmed that this youthful and vibrant-looking man in the robes of a monk was sharing the kind of wisdom that would profoundly affect my leadership and even my life. I knew I lacked a clear vision for the future and that all those around me could sense this failure. I knew my sense of uncertainty about the future was being telegraphed throughout the company by my temper tantrums and lack of confidence. And I knew my people did not respect or trust me. Julian was absolutely right. They had not bought in to my leadership.

“Great followership begins the day your people sense you truly have their best interests in mind,” Julian continued. “Only when they know you care about them as people will they go to the wall for you. When you start putting your people before your profits you will have accomplished something even more powerful than engaging their hearts. You will have earned their trust. Never forget that the real secret to being seen as trustworthy is to be worthy of trust.”

It was now
10:00 p.m
. and Julian and I were the only two people remaining on the golf club’s verandah. I thought of suggesting to my friend that we move our conversation over to my home but then decided against it. The night was nothing short of perfect. The sky was strikingly clear and glittered with a thousand stars. A full moon illuminated the area where we sat and lent a mystical feeling to what had already been a most unusual day. Julian was deeply engrossed in our conversation and the leadership wisdom was flowing out of him with eloquence and grace. I would be a fool to do anything else but listen intently to this man who had learned so much during his time high in the Himalayas. I owed at least this to the people in my company.

“Mind if I ask you another basic question, Julian?”

“Not at all. That’s why I’m here,” he replied.

“How do visionary leaders show their followers that they really do have their best interests in mind?”

“Excellent question, Peter. The first thing to do is to practice the Principle of Alignment.”

“Never heard of it.”

“The Principle of Alignment holds that when your emotionally compelling cause, what we have simply called your ‘vision,’ is
aligned with the interests of the people under your leadership, you will generate enormous levels of trust, loyalty and commitment. Make sure your future vision is shared by all those you lead.
Too many vision statements hang on office walls rather than live in human hearts.
Give your people, from your top managers to your frontline workers, a genuine sense of ownership in the cause your organization is moving toward. A
shared
vision lies at the heart of every world-class organization.” “And how do I accomplish this?”

“You must show them that by helping you achieve your future goals they will also realize
their
future goals. By integrating what is meaningful to you with what is meaningful to them or, at the very least, by showing them how the attainment of the vision you hold for the company will help them feel fulfilled, they will come to understand that you care about their hopes and dreams. They will come to trust you. And with trust dominating the corporate culture, achievements once viewed as impossible become probable.”

Julian added: “There is a second way to gain the respect and loyalty of the men and women you have the privilege to lead. And that is to become a liberator.”

I had no idea what he meant, but, not wanting to ask too many silly questions, I simply nodded.

“You have no idea what I’m talking about do you, Peter?” Julian observed.

“No, not really,” I admitted, feeling like a school kid might after being caught in a tiny lie.

“Then why did you nod?” he demanded. “I don’t mean to come across as being harsh because that’s not what I’m about I’m here this evening as a friend as well as a teacher who will give you the
knowledge you need to fix your dying company and repair your leadership. But be honest. Honesty is one of the most important leadership skills. Remember, truth precedes trust. And people can sense sincerity a mile away. Without it, GlobalView will never grow to greatness.”

“Okay, I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to look foolish.”

“Visionary leaders care more about doing what’s right than appearing intelligent
Never forget that. Leadership is not about popularity, it’s about integrity. It’s not about power, it’s about purpose. And it’s not about title but rather talent. Which brings me squarely back to the point I was trying to make.”