‘Already we have explored a large territory,’ began the young chief executive, ‘and I am aware that I now have to put it all into practice in the next five years. My concern at the moment is whether or not I shall be able to remember it all! I know that I shall have the Keypoints to refresh my memory, but I need something like the Three-Circle Model which I can keep in mind and turn to in times of perplexity.’ He stood up and drawing the model on the flip chart began to contemplate it, almost as if he had never seen it before.
‘As the Chinese proverb says, A picture is worth a thousand words,’ I said, interrupting his thoughts. ‘Yet, why should we multiply those few essential pictures or frameworks already in use? Perhaps we may find that the simple model of the Three Circles has enough depth for our purposes. For being simple should not be confused with being simplistic or superficial. Take the TASK circle, how do you see that now?’
‘My job is clearly to set – or perhaps I should say identify – a series of challenging or demanding tasks. They must not be impossible, but on the other hand they have to stretch the individual, the team or the organization as a whole. And, of course, I have to persuade my operational and team leaders both to think like that and to have the art or skill to establish specific, time-bounded objectives that meet those criteria.’
‘Yes, managers tend to focus far too much on the measurability of the task, in the fond belief that what you can measure you can manage or control. Leaders go beyond that basic need for concreteness or tangibility in their skill of pitching the task at the optimum level for engaging the human spirit.’
‘Interesting,’ commented the young chief executive, ‘that using just the word TASK has already introduced a leadership element into the question. But you have reminded me, too, of another basic difference between managers, bosses or commanders – they tell you what to do, whereas leaders tell you why to do it. At that New York seminar the speaker said that CEOs should be like evangelists, going about the organization imparting their vision and their values. Shout the message loud and long enough and everyone eventually gets it. In that way you become a transformational leader.’
‘I hope I have saved you from that fate,’ I said. ‘For the behaviour recommended is rather condescending, isn’t it? If you have great people working in your organization, they know those things already. All that they need is an occasional quiet reminder, perhaps indirectly, that you know they know why the work is important or worthwhile. And, as Leonardo da Vinci once said:
He Who Truly Knows
Has No Occasion To Shout
Joseph Conrad
‘So if they don’t know why the work matters – if, in other words, they lack a sense of purpose – we shouldn’t be employing them?’
‘That is so. It is a principle that great military leaders have under- stood since the days of Gideon. Oliver Cromwell expressed it best: Give me the russet-coated captain who knows what he is fighting for and loves what he knows.’
‘In my business it is essential to create a delighted customer, and we can only do that on the quality, price and delivery of our goods and services.’
‘And doubtless you employ people who know that. They may disagree with you or each other on how best to do it, but that’s a secondary matter. And because of their calibre you have no doubts either that they will rise to meet both the challenges and the exceptional tasks that present themselves in any field, for business can be very difficult.’
‘You know them well,’ smiled the young chief executive.
‘Not personally, but I know that they are persons of spirit, that they are on tiptoe to use all the energy, talent and creativity within them. The only issue is whether or not they have great leaders.’
‘So to be a great leader I have to show a group the PURPOSE behind the tasks, be it the daily tasks or routines, or those special tasks, the steps to change, that lead us to becoming better that you mentioned. That enables me to communicate on a different level with people who already implicitly know that purpose.’