Are You Happy to Admit That You Don’t Know, What You Thought You Knew?

I remember some wise words given to me by the head of the South African College of Applied Psychology many years ago, when he told me that “it’s not what we know we know; or what we know we don’t know that causes us problems in life – it’s when we think we know things we don’t actually know, where the problems begin”.

Being able to be honest with ourselves about what we really know and what we think we know should not only a requirement of humility, but a genuine requirement of effective leadership in any role.

In fact most of the major leadership disasters through the centuries have been when the leader was too arrogant to realise that they didn’t really know, what they thought they did – leading them to make incorrect decisions that led to disaster. The worst fact behind the arrogance is even after the disaster – these individuals often wouldn’t admit they made a mistake. This doesn’t just relate to leaders in business, but leaders everywhere, including the role of parents.

To put it all in perspective a good example comes from Donald Rumsfeld who said “reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know” and if that statement is clear enough he also said “Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin's still learning.” – Absolutely classic and it’s scary to think that this comes from a former Defense Secretary of the USA, yet this shows the true extent of someone being too arrogant to admit what they really don’t know.

It was Confucius who said “real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance” words of wisdom that should be part of everyone’s value set – yet does the pressure to appear successful encourage many people to ‘defend’ their ignorance rather than embrace it and learn from it?

One of the classic examples of leaders thinking that they knew something they didn’t is encapsulated in an 1876, internal memo within Western Union that read “this telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” Classic – a real example of arrogant ignorance sending an organisation down the wrong path.

Although this basic principle of being honest about what we only think we might know applies to everyone from teenagers to pensioners – the most important place for people to be honest about what they really know, and what they just think they know, is at the board level of organisations. These are the strategic leaders of the organisation, who should be identifying future opportunities and defining the vision and culture of the organisation. This will never be done effectively if, at this level, the strategic leaders are assuming things that they simply don’t know.

Today’s leaders need to be honest with themselves if they want to really optimise their organisations future growth and set the example for others to follow. The ability to be honest about what we do and do not know is not only a fundamental requirement for effective leadership, but a basic requirement in order to earn the respect of others.

It's a principle we all have the power to adopt immediately - since if we can't be honest with ourselves, who can we be honest with....

Who Really Wants to be a CEO?

In an interesting article in today’s UK Sunday Times, Eleanor Mills, writes that “it is viewed as the pinnacle of any aspiring executive’s career but, according to a new study a generation of corporate high-flyers are saying no to being the chief executive officer. Instead, say head-hunters, the elite of the business world are deciding to put their families first and walking away from the corporate life,” (p.5).

Eleanor highlights the report, Who Wants to Be a CEO in 2012?, in which MBS interviewed 40 high-profile candidates who had turned down senior executive roles, found that business leaders, despite being trained for the top in our biggest companies, are shunning the posts. The pressure to perform under the glare of the media spotlight is one reason for opting out, but lifestyle choices and a desire to avoid the stultifying demands of corporate bureaucracy – so called M&M’s (meetings and managers) – is another.

Her article goes on to say that “the trend is leaving companies with a problem. On the British high street New Look and Mothercare are on the hunt for a new chief executive. Both have been sounding out candidates for months, with no success,” (p.5).

Yet shouldn’t we ask more questions as to why this ‘migration’ might be taking place. Is it possible that with the current economic crisis and the attention of the media our CEO’s and potential CEO’s have been found wanting, in that they don’t have the overall skills required to be successful in the role. The media have always been there, as have big city business analysts, and a good CEO knows how to handle and work with these ‘partners’ – as not working with them is similar to waving a red flag at a bull.

The fact that our current CEO’s might not like this ‘intrusion’ is an unsatisfactory response especially from the CEO of a public company. In fact I’d go as far as saying they should welcome the attention of the media and city analysts and skillfully ‘use’ this attention to the overall advantage of their organisation.

Exhaustion has overcome many top executives who have either bailed or taken leave to recover – Antonio Horta-Osario, Jeffrey Kindler and Joseph Lombard to name a few. But why didn’t these CEO’s have the right team around them to support them – a CEO with the right talent throughout the organisation should never become totally exhausted and will have as much enjoyment as this new bread of CEO’s who are jumping ship for the ‘smaller’ organisation.

A new report by Lauren Leader-Chive on Generation X, would argue that “the definition of what success looks like is changing for this generation. However much money is on offer, if the price is the sacrifice of home time and prized hobbies – it’s not worth it to them.”

Yet while we have our ‘elite’ feeling the pressure and bailing, we see in the same newspaper just 14 pages further on, an article by Jack Grimston and Rosie Kinchen entitled, ‘graduates pay £100 a day to serve as interns’, where they mention that “university leavers desperate for work experience are being charged up to £100 a day by companies offering them internships,” (p.19).

So here we have the two extremes, supposedly the UK’s elite, feeling the pressure and bailing out of the top jobs and at the other end, our potential future leaders working either unpaid, sometimes for months on end, to gain experience and improve their chances of getting a ‘good’ job, or some making the decision to pay to gain experience.

I wonder what some of these youngsters would like to tell the ‘stressed’ CEO’s about real pressure. What we need is to urgently improve our leadership development, so we develop a pool of ‘potential CEO talent’ – individuals who know how to develop the right team around them to ensure the job gets done.

References:

Grimston, J and Kinchen, R. (2011). Graduates Pay £100 a Day to Serve as Interns. Sunday Times, 04.12.11, p.19.

Mills, E. (2011). City Elite Wheel Away from FTSE Highway. Sunday Times, 04.12.11, p.5.

What Does the Term ‘Accountability’ Mean to You?

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) said “hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone expects of you. Never excuse yourself.” I wonder how many political leaders, business leaders and even parents around the world hold themselves to a belief such as this.

Not meaning to be cynical but I see more and more examples of leaders stating they are accountable, until it comes the time to actually be accountable when, too commonly, a platitude of excuses spout forth and ‘we the public’ seem to swallow them every time.

Yet an anonymous source gives the following quote “when you blame others, you give up your power to change.” This is so true, as while one is blaming or misdirecting to avoid ‘ones accountability’ you lose that precious opportunity to be transparent and to implement the actions for change. Since as Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) stated “action springs not from thought, but from the readiness for responsibility.”

In fact the truth may be in George Bernard Shaw’s words – “liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

An interesting way to look at Accountability is that it starts with Action and ends with You: -

A – Action

C – Commitment

C – Culture

O – Ownership

U – Understanding

N – Non-Negotiable

T – Tenacious

A – Attainable

B – Behaviour

I – Integrity

L – Learning

I – Innovative

T – Talent

Y – You

It was Ronald Regan who said “we must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the law breaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for their actions.” So with so many people talking about accountable, why is the principle still not being applied as the rule rather than the exception – why can’t society hold those in higher office, in politics and business, to account – it was my limited understanding that this was a cornerstone of the principles of democracy.

Finally Catherine Pulsifer, one of the authors of ‘Inspirational Words of Wisdom’, makes two great statements. First that “you are accountable for your actions, your decisions, your life and no one else but you.” And Secondly that, “we are accountable for our decisions in our personal life, so why shouldn’t we be just as accountable in our work life.”

Surely, until us grown-ups start being held accountable, how can we expect today’s youth – the future leaders of our world – to accept and even grasp the concept.

References

Henrik Edberg. 7 Timeless Thoughts on Taking Responsibility for Your Life.

Who Gave You the Best and Who Gave You the Worst Customer Service Experiences in 2011?

Moving back to Europe in April this year to set up a northern hemisphere operation I expected to be amazed by the level of service I would receive in countries like England, for example. Sadly that has been farthest from the truth and in many cases I’ve experienced 3^rd World service from organisations supposedly operating in 1^st World environments.

In my many experiences this year the organisation that gets the vote for offering the worst levels of customer service that I have ever received from any organisation in the world over the last 40 years is – VODAFONE UK.

Here you have a company that has probably grown so big that they don’t really give a damn about the customer as their volume of business is so high and where there approach, which seems to be based on ‘colonial arrogance’ is so outdated that I’m amazed they survive.

They have a CEO called Guy Laurence, at least in name – since he doesn’t have the courtesy to respond to couriered letters and complaints; though to be fair he’s probably so hectically busy building those vital business and strategic contacts on various exclusive golf courses and putting on the pounds in posh international restaurants, that ‘we’ the customer can be ‘delegated’ (i.e. fobbed-off) as a ‘bloody inconvenience’ – having probably not worked out yet that putting on the pounds, doesn’t go directly to the bottom-line of Vodafone, but just to his own bottom line.

What’s classic about this organisation is that the word ‘sorry’ has definitely become a ‘four letter’ word that they push out there under the complete misperception that this will ‘magically make the problem go away’.

What’s classic about this ‘ghost’ of a CEO, is you can actually contact him directly on line – campaigns.vodafone.co.uk/guylaurence/ – where he states “I’m Guy Laurence, the Vodafone UK CEO. I’m committed to ensuring we provide the best service possible and am therefore passionate about listening to our customers….” – nice try Guy, but you should try practicing what you preach.

So if you ever want to let off some steam and there isn’t a punch bag nearby, drop this man a line on my behalf….

Second on my list of the worst service providers would be another mobile phone operator called ‘Orange’ – maybe there’s something about the mobile industry we don’t know about. Here you have a guy called Sandeep Heer who’s the Strategy Director at Orange in London (at least in title) and he’s another one that seems to think the higher you get the less you actually have to do and couldn’t even respond to a simple email from a potential customer seeking a service provider.

Where do these people come from and worse still how do they survive in these positions of power, which they seem to misuse on a daily basis. It doesn’t say much for the major shareholders of these organisations that ‘rubber stamp’ these people who see customers as ‘uneducated peasants’ who are simply there to do their bidding.

When one gets rid of the trash – what’s exciting is that there are still many organisations and many unique individuals who take a real pride in offering exceptional levels of service. Having made a recent return trip to Cape Town via Dubai with Emirates – I have to say that I found their level of service absolutely outstanding. It’s not just one person, or one aspect of the business, but when dealing at any level there is a real desire to solve any problems and to give you that wow experience.

The main focus on offering service has changed over the last few years, from customer service and customer loyalty to customer delight. Organisations that fail to offer customer delight may think they are successful entities, with healthy bottom-lines, but they are unfortunately delusional, like our friends at Vodafone and living on borrowed time – their customers aren’t delighted, but also aren’t as stupid as the organisations think and are simply waiting for the right time to leave – and when they do they will never return.