Moral Authority

“Who can argue with a life so well-lived?”  This was the response from President Bill Clinton when we was questioned on the speech that Mother Teresa gave at the White House prayer breakfast that he had hosted.  It was there that the frail Mother leveled the the crowd with a speech on abortion and how it was the greatest evil of our time.  Ideologically, this crowd was quite opposed to what she was speaking on but ,after the speech, there was an awkward silence followed by thunderous applause.

So what brought this hostile crowd to commendation instead of hissing derision?  She had the one trait that an effective leader MUST have: Moral Authority.  I could type a volume on the philosophical nature of this term but let's simplify it to "walking your talk".  Mother Teresa could have given medical, existential, philosophical, or ethical reasons why she thought abortion to be bad but her greatest arrow in her quiver was her unassailable character and congruence of her walk/talk.  Because when you have moral authority on your side, your opposition throws their hands up and say "Who can argue...".  

The situational ethics, ends justify the means, and myopic business culture we find ourselves in now is the natural out-workings of morally relativistic culture-at-large that has lost its' moorings.  Vision statements have been replaced with PnL statements, professional development with quotas, and corporate civic duty with fleecing. The bottom line is that a leader can have wealth, influence, charisma, good looks, charm and not have any sway over us whatsoever if they do not have moral authority.  

We are in dire need of leaders who will be examples not only of savy business acumen but also moral authority.  A message to current or would be leaders: There is only life.  There is not personal life and work life.  Stop pretending that we can continue leading duplicitous and compartmentalized lives and command respect at the same time.       

Stage 4: Noble Cause

In the previous post we discussed the first step, the epiphany, in entering stage 4.  Today we will dissect the next piece of the stage 4 puzzle: A noble cause.  


The noble cause is a destination.  It is the direction that everyone is pulling in, a pronouncement about a future state of the brand/tribe.  In a medical lab this may look like a cure for a type of disease.  In a political machine it might look like a removal of social injustice.  What all of these have in common is a huge dream that can only be tackled by a group all moving in the same direction.  


The first real instance that we see of this type coalescence was in the early American colonies.  In our early history we basically had a ragtag bunch of colonies that were under the boot of the King of England.  England was exploiting our lack of organization through unfair taxes.  Enter George Washington.


Washington wasn't necessarily the only guy that was railing against the King, but he was the one that brought everyone under the same vision: Unanimity.  He didn't really come up with the idea, but he was the one that everyone rallied around because of his political and military prowess.  But his real asset was his ability to get people with various agendas pulling in the same direction.  He did this by asking what all tribal leaders eventually ask: "...in service of what?"  What are we accomplishing?  What direction are we heading in?  In his case, there were many smaller "tribes" (colonies), that all had their own petty views in what our nation should be doing.  But he got all of them to agree that it was in their best interest to join together in unity to defy their English oppressors.  And the rest is history.  


In service of what?
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Could there be a more noble cause than that!  This is what the United States of America would be in service of.  This is what we banded together for.  When we look at other organizations and industries that are in the stage four of cultural development, we can usually plainly see what their noble cause is:

• Apple: redesign the retail industry through design.
• Disney: make people laugh
• Zappos: delivering happiness.
• Southwest:  happy employees=happy customers
• Amgen: we renew life

All of these companies were successful because they didn't just have a noble cause, they lived it.  

The Big Four Questions
"What's working well? What's not working well?  What can we do to make the things that aren't working, work?  Is there anything else?"  These are the other questions that one must ask in order to determine the noble cause.  And the goal isn't to get agreement, it is go get alignment for the group.  If you want the tribe/brand to be monumentally successful, you must get alignment.  You must get everyone involved and determine the highest aspiration for that group.  If not, you will run the risk of competing visions and egos getting in the way and the group will stay at stage 3.  By going through these questions, you will determine what you noble cause is, or will be.  

Stage 4 Epiphany

"I would do anything for Plutonium, but I won't do that"

Yesterday we spoke about the book Tribal Leadership and the different stages of corporate development.  In that post I described the different hallmarks of this stage and how most brands will need to take their workers to this next level of productivity.  

Today we are going to look at the jumping off point for that stage.  Well, it is actually more of a "eureka" moment.  This goes by many other names in the business world.  Some call it business insight, others call it the need to live out their values.  Whatever you want to call it, it is the moment in which you realize that the way you were doing things had some serious limitations.  Sure, you were successful within your field, maybe you were world-class.  But in the scheme of things, your wins, while huge in your personal world, were actually small and ineffectual in the larger scheme of things.  You realize that all of your endeavors really leave no legacy because you have manipulated other people or the system to your own gains, not to further the brand.  Ultimately, you don't like what you see through others' eyes.  It is at this point that you have the epiphany that anything that is personal truly matters at all.  

In the movie Back to the Future, Doc Brown's character had his "Aha" moment when he was attempting to put a clock in his bathroom and he slipped and hit his head.  It was at that point that he envisioned the solution to the problem of time travel.  I'm sure that if we were to travel in our DaLorean back through time and interviewed different visionaries, we would see that they had a moment it all came into focus.  

The word, "epiphany" comes from a Greek word which means an appearance or manifestation.  Martin Luther had his when he realized that "The just shall live by faith".  This changed him from a monk, to a reformer.  Martin Luther Jr. had one when he cast his vision for the USA to be free from prejudice.  All epiphanies are similar in that they are a huge vision of how the world could be different and they are much, much bigger than one person.  But they can start with one person.  It just takes one person that does some self-reflection.  They ask questions like.....

What Have I Done?

This is point at which you say, "This sucks, I haven't really achieved anything."  You may have had personal success, or institutional success, but not a thing has changed in the lives of your workers or customers.  If you listen to people that have gone through this, they will all say something similar: "My impact is way smaller than I thought!"

Can I Fix It?

Idea before action.  That is the sequence of events in this phase.  The idea of a free India was conceived by Mahatma Gandhi long before he started his crusade.  This is important because  the idea needs to incubate and shine a light of awareness on the problem before you can begin to solve it.  This is an evaluative state of mind.  Before, you were viewing the world through the lens of self.  And just like you can see your own eyes without the aid of a mirror, the hyper-competitive nature of the driven professionals mindset doesn't allow for the humility 

What's My Aim?

If the first two steps in the epiphany process, the subject was in a state of self-reflection.  Once someone realizes that their beliefs were limiting, then it is time to set their aims higher.    This thinking goes from "I am a certified sales assassin" to "We need to think about the customers and how to make their lives better".  This is also the time that people start to look around for others who they can team up with to achieve something greater.  

How do I Wield Power?

This paradigm shift in thinking also causes us to rethink the purpose of power.  Or, more specifically, how we use it.  In the previous stage, people accrued power by personal victories, to make sure that no one could rise up and take that power away from them.  This leads to burnout eventually because you have to always be vigilant.  We begin to see that the only use for power is to further the tribe/brand.  

I/We

The culmination of all of these changes is seen in total in  the language that the person uses.  "I" is out and "we" is in.  Couples are exchanged for groups, and rivals become collaborators. At this point, leaders get out of the way and let others help them out.  This is not relinquishing control, but rather augmenting your power by collaboration.  This is also the point that a lot of people fail to move on.  The reason is that change is hard and scary.  People see that they are very good at what they do and don't want to move to an uncharted area.  It is ironic, though, because once people move on they realize that even though they were great at something, in comparison to what they can achieve in stage 4, it was tiny.  

I'll be back tomorrow with the Noble Cause of stage 4.  

A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep

"My Bad!"

As I am writing this we are ten minutes away from the decision on what penalties will be handed down from the Jerry Sandusky incident to Penn State.  Whatever the penalties are, I doubt it will really change anything.  Nor am I surprised that this happened. (The turning of a blind eye, not the act itself) At first I was shocked just like everyone else, but you can chalk this up to our "means disposable" culture.  


In 2010, the BBC conducted their international survey on the biggest concerns of the day.  In the past, the number one spot was always poverty, and the second was typically the environment.  But, for the first time the number one concern for the globe was corruption.  This means that the ethics of our businesses, governments, religious institutions, and entertainment outlets are so bad that concerns about people dying of starvation and the impending doom of our planet are taking a backseat.  If corruption is this ubiquitous and universal throughout the world, I am just glad that people are still shocked and outraged by something like the Sandusky trial.  


So what happened!? If an institution like Penn state, with its' storied past and the glory of its' football program, can go awry end up in the same light as Enron, Lehman, and Nixon, then we really need to question where our evolution as a society is going.  Penn State as a brand has its' work cut out for it.  There is no doubting that.  But they can climb back.  Because people want great brands.  Consumers WANT to interact and dialogue with companies/brands that get it.  That get where business is pointing towards.  


Up to this point, the majority of institutions operated on very individualistic mind set, all singing the same solo by Al Davis, "Just Win Baby".  (Couldn't resist another sports reference) It has been like the wild, wild west with everyone loosely grouped together but with no focus except for immediate, short term gain.  But this myopic focus on the quick win produces the same blind spot in all of these groups: no concern for HOW they win.  


In my previous post I spoke about vision.  I currently work for a wireless sales company which, for the most part, has a focus on transactional, high volume sales.  The current mentality within the industry is sell, sell, sell, push, push, push.  Now I am not saying that personal success within this system is a bad thing.  It is just extremely limited.  Because when it comes to personal success, there are still only 24 hours in a day.  There is only so much that you can achieve on your own.  So we need to push past this phase and into, what Dave Logan in his book Tribal Leadership, calls Stage 4 development.  


This is the next logical step for brands to pursue, and is also what the populace is clamoring for.  In the book they talk about the different stages which are recognizable by the dialogue that person uses.  Here is a graph that describes the various stages.

Over the next week I will be dissecting the various hallmarks of this stage of development.  But here is a brief snapshot of the different markers.  

Epiphany
This is the starting point of the individual that is currently in stage 3 and realizes that they have attained a great deal of personal success but so what?  They realized that when they have a big personal victory, it is actually small.  They are sick of the posturing within their company, and all the games and manipulation.  There has to be something more.  
Noble Cause
This is where the vision for the company is casted and everyone acquires a laser focus.  It is a “pronouncement of a future state that a tribe will bring about through its coordinated action”.  This is not the vision of an individual, but rather it is what the company is in service of.  
Core Values
If the noble cause is the direction that the company is the headed in, the core values are the fuel that propels the group towards that aim.  The stage four group must live these values as they are the adhesive that will keep the different personalities bound.  They must follow them, sometimes to a fault.  
Triads
This is one of the most important aspects of stage four.  This is what will allow us to accomplish some gargantuan tasks.  This is the collaborative effort of you and two others.  People are treated as ends and not means.  It is within these relationships that we see the burnout of stage 3 turn into exponential gains in productivity.  


Stay tuned as I will give examples of all these markers and unpack each one.  

UX: Chick-Fil-A

"I  ♥  companies that get it"

 "My Pleasure!"  You WILL hear these two words from the cashier if you are ever eating at a Chick-Fil-A.  If this is your first time eating there, you may be caught off guard by the departing comment.  After all, it is a much more classy farewell than people are accustomed to at a fast food place.  (Sorry, I mean "quick service".  If you call it "fast food" in the presence of an employee, or, God forbid an operator, you will be throat punched.)  Saying "my pleasure" at a fast food place is like having Cristal and caviar at a WWE match.  It just doesn't fit.  But let's deconstruct why that particular farewell is actually very fitting with the brand that is Chick-Fil-A.

Customer Service
I honestly hate using the term "customer service", its over used and under practiced.  But when a company elevates the term, I take note.  And they are serious about it!  Chick-Fil-A actually spends over a million a year just to MEASURE their service.  If you are in business and sell a commodity there are only two reasons that you will have people pay more for your products: convenience and customer service.  And while CFA doesn't have the omni-presence of a Starbucks yet, they are crushing it in customer service.  Consistent customer service will eventually lead to big profits and also...


Cult Followers
What better way to sell your products, and ultimately you brand, than producing consumer advocates.  Consumer advocate is just a fancy term for a customer that had such a good experience with your brand that they in  turn tweet/status update/yelp or just buy a friend lunch at your place.  CFA converts people to the Church of Chicken (not to be mistaken with Church's Chicken).  In fact, when Chick-Fil-A opens a new location, they will seek out CFA loyalists in the area and invite them to a free dinner the evening prior the the grand opening.  That evening, they will hand out free chicken coupons to those in attendance and will anoint them with chicken blood and black and white robes and send them out to proselytize others into the cult. (not really, but they should look into having some quasi-cult ceremony for grand openings)


Culture
Culture is really the ethereal substance that produces the whole brand aura.  This starts with the hiring.  To make sure that all operators are on the same page as the corporation, CFA has an epic hiring process.  The process can take up to a year sometimes and the hire will endure numerous interviews, along with their family members.   I had a buddy that went through this process, and when he came out the other side he was never the same. (I'm pretty sure they water-boarded him at one point, but he ain't talking. )  But This all ensures that the culture of CFA is consistent and excellent.  They want to be sure that the operators are the embodiment of Truett Cathy's words: "If we have to keep telling people what to do, it means we're not modeling the behavior ourselves.  If we're living it everyday, we don't need to talk about it."  Words I wish all companies would take to heart.  




*UX means "user experience"

Vision and Success

There is an old anonymous proverb that states "the fish rots from the head down".  Or, more simply, leaders need to lead.  This should start with a clear, inspiring vision.  Something that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning and do work.  A vision is not "lets go sell lots of stuff and make lots of money".  This is not inspiring, and besides, if you have an inspiring vision for your business then you will sell lots of stuff and make lots of money as a byproduct of conducting your business with consistent excellency.  


It is not surprising that the most successful businesses also have had leaders that have specific, effective visions.  

• Nike’s vision is to experience the emotions of winning and crushing the competition.
• Disney’s vision is not to make cartoons; it is to make people laugh.
• 3M’s vision is to solve problems informatively.
• Zappo's vision is to be a customer service company that sells shoes

I wonder how many CEOs and business owner really can articulate their vision for the company?  And if they can, I wonder if their manager's can as well, and in turn, instill that vision to their subordinates?  I am not talking about some lines on a plaque, collecting dust on a wall. No, I am talking about every one involved in that business buying in to the vision and pulling in the same direction to achieve that vision.  

In my world of the wireless industry, it is definitely a vision-less environment.  This could have something to do with the transactional nature of the job or the fact that we now sell a very ubiquitous commodity.  Either way, there are many areas of improvement for this industry and it should start at the top with an inspiring vision.  If Zappos could do it with shoes, surely wireless could do it with smartphones.  After all, when selling a commodity, the only variable which you really have control over is the quality of service you offer the custy.  

Brand Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese word for "improvement".  As a principle, it means a constant and never ending quest for learning and improvement.  It has been applied to industries from automotive to computers.

I work in the wireless industry, which, over the past decade as evolved into a consumer juggernaut.  But I have noticed over the several years I have been here something disturbing: that people absolutely, unequivocally hate interacting with us.  Even when it is time for an new phone.  Its like they wake up that morning and say in a stoic and somber tone "Alright, it's upgrade time".  Then they lace up their boots and head off into the combat zone.  Upon arriving at the shiny retail location, they open the door and brace themselves for retail battle.

Now they are in the store and are "greeted" by a computer that they input their information and it spits out a wait time.  30 minutes later, amid the torrent of kids playing Angry Birds on the iPad displays and emo rock playing in the background (both making the custys want to end it all).

Sure, the story is exaggerated.  Sure, all retailers are similar.  Aren't they?  Maybe, but doesn't mean there isn't room for HUGE improvement.

Here are just a few areas of kaizen for my industry:

Communication:  Air spots on the local news showing what incredible things smartphones can do.  Then, at the end of the spot, pointing viewers to a blog post, newsletter, facebook page, twitter, opt-in email with different apps and functions to make life easier.

Customer Support:  Have advanced sales training where your sales people can opt-in for tech training. This so that when a customer comes into a store you don't just stare at them blankly.  You will actually have answers.


Interaction: After the customer interacts with your brand from the spot on the news, you would have a tremendous amount of information about that customer that you could use to be proactive and recommend  solutions based on their interests (ie: in their facebook profile it mentions they like exercise so you could send them an email with the top 5 exercise apps).


There are a 100 more improvements I could mention but what do you all think?  What would you recommend for improving the wireless industry?