Escape From Excellence

At Archos Advisors, we have eleven basic beliefs about innovation and creativity that inform our work:

1. Improvement is not innovation. Improvement makes things better. Innovation makes new things.

2. Innovation is not possible without creativity.

3. Creativity is the necessary precondition for innovation. 

4.  Innovation is an action, but creativity is a state. We do innovation, but only after we are creative.

5. Creativity is a practice. It is not a talent. This distinction is meaningful and crucial.

6. Creativity is developed as a skill only after it is approached as a practice.

7. Innovation can’t be forced. When try to force it, we reduced it to a function of luck at best and we destroy it at worst.

8. Innovation can be invited and helped along by understanding the nature of creativity and its relationship to innovation.

9. While suffering is often associated with creativity, it is merely one of its catalysts. And it is unsustainable. The majority of creativity comes from something closer to joy.

10.  Creation does not come from nothing.  Creation is always a new take on something. We do not pull it out of thin air; rather, we work with existing materials.

11. We are all born with creativity. We just need to access it.

Look for our whitepaper about Innovation our website soon.

“How do I make my way in an organization as crazy as this one?” 

Unfortunately, this is a common question posed by our clients.  Figuring out how to navigate the sick organization is often the single biggest source of stress and energy depletion among employees.  And while our clients are leaders themselves, they complain that they often find it  difficult to sustainably lead from a fearless, generative and intuitive place when they are constantly victimized by inconsistent managerial policy, organizations that lack a clear sense of vision and executive leadership that comes from a place of ego, depletion and compromise.  

In a recent conversation, a client described a situation in which the CEO chose to publicly berate her for being late, while she was interviewing a potential new hire.  Our client admitted that she was 5 minutes late passing the candidate over to the CEO’s office, however the cause of the delay was the candidate being passed to her late as well.  Compounding the issue, when the CEO discovered that the delay had actually originated as a result of earlier interviews, he asked our client to implicate one of her colleagues as the original source of the delay.  Think of this.  The CEO has likely embarrassed the candidate, set up a dynamic where two members of his leadership team are potentially at odds with one another, and he has communicated that their time spent interviewing the candidate was not highly valued, at least not as highly valued as his own. Our client says this type of behavior is typical.

In cases such as these, it is clear that the major culprit in our advising relationships is often not in the room. The question then becomes two-fold.

1) How do we help our clients to find a sustainable place from which to lead within their organizations?

2) How do we help the sick organization or leader that is currently not our client?

In the best of all situations, the CEO would realize this act as one in a deep, pattern of behavior and call us the next day.  In the real world however the solution is simpler, but requires a bit more energy and time.  When working from within an organization that is not operating at its best, it is more important than ever to lead and act from one’s Dynamic Essence.  Be authentic and focused about what drives and energizes you and makes you a strong leader within your organization.  We provide our clients with support and tools to stay focused on acting from this authentic place.  In turn, Dynamic Essence becomes a wellspring of  purpose and indentity from which our clients sustainably generate the emotional energy required to thrive in a sick organization.  And as we have often observed, leading with a fearless, generative and intuitive spark, will often, but not always, inspire change in the organization around you.

This is not a political blog, nor is it a political post. We won’t touch on policy or ideology. And we know that many business leader have expressed concern that Obama’s tax policies are too left-leaning for comfort. But watching Barack Obama throughout the campaign made it clear that he is a living example of leadership mastery, independent of his policy agenda. He shows the Markers, he’s made the Five Shifts of Mastery, he’s led from his Dynamic Essence, he confounded the merely excellent and won, and he’ll reap the Five Rewards of Mastery. Whether you voted for Obama or McCain, this must be recognized. Time will tell if Obama maintains his mastery, but he clearly demonstrates it at this time. Consider first the Five Shifts of Mastery:

Shift 1. Effort to Energy. Of course, Obama gets fatigued like any other human being, but in his constant public appearances, he always appeared lively, alert, present, focused, and tireless throughout the long slog of the campaign. Few people can manage a schedule like that (and McCain is to be commended for taking on the challenge at age 72), but Obama clearly appeared to be tapping into an endless reserve of energy. He displayed even more as time went on, and his energy became self-sustaining. Effort can’t win against this kind of effortless and sustainable energy.

Shift 2. Proficiency to Expression. Obama’s native intelligence affords him a comprehensive grasp of policy, and he’s a quick study. But more importantly, he is superb at expression, both in his oratory skill and also in his ability to articulate a vision and rally people to it. Obama simply spoke his deeply-held truth; he put it out there. He displayed the inhibition that has the power to drive change.

Shift 3. Expertise to Perspective.  Here’s what we wrote in our e-book and other materials about perspective: “Perspective provides an authoritative interpretation of the here and now, as well as what is to come. It sees deeply into the nature of people and circumstances with honesty, integrity, insight, and fearlessness. It knows the score, the real story. Perspective makes us truly visionary.” Obama did this. 

Shift 4. Commitment to Intention. A political campaign is nothing if not a place for incredible commitment. However, in the cacophony of committed voices, on all sides, Obama kept his cool and led from Intention. We write this about Intention: “Intention has the power to make vision real. It is what happens when we get free from distraction and decide to come from our core. Intention says ‘yes,’ with confidence and purity of purpose. True intention is different from will. Will is about ego and power, and it’s prevalent in the Excellence Trap. Not so with Intention. True intention is rare, so it both inspires people and attracts the necessary resources to make vision real.” Intention defines Obama’s approach to leadership. This intention resonated to the rank and file, across the aisle, even to would-be adversaries.

Shift 5. Knowledge to Wisdom. It is impossible to know everything necessary to never misspeak in a presidential campaign. And Obama is no exception, particularly given his relative inexperience. But rather than try to overcome knowledge gaps with deep ideology, spin, or distractions, Obama demonstrated Wisdom. He consistently confounded, surprised, challenged, or inspired legions both in the way in which he handled a number of attacks and crises, and in the manner in which he sustained a vision of post-partisanship, new ideas, and new coalitions for a new era. He had a sense of rightness in what he chose to do and say that served him well. Detractors called this rhetoric or flash, but Obama won, and in large part buy “flipping” red states and creating a broader coalition that included former detractors, including white working class males, Hilary loyalists, moderate republicans, and African-American leadership figures (the proof of the latter is evident the tears of joy Jesse Jackson shed in Grant Park).

Leadership mastery confounds mere excellence by achieving the extra 5% that defines greatness. McCain’s campaign threw everything they had at Obama, and still he triumphed without apparently breaking a sweat. McCain had smart people who displayed all the virtues of excellence: effort, proficiency, commitment, expertise and knowledge. But it wasn’t enough. Obama won by showing masterful leadership in his campaign, and by suggesting that he would do the same in his presidency. Conversely, McCain appeared increasingly angry, tired, and cut off from his own core beliefs. His strategy was more visible, calling into question the integrity and even the existence of his core beliefs (until he shared them in his concession speech, considered by many to be his finest moment), and causing former supporters from 2000 or 2004 to abandon him.

Obama also displayed the Five  Markers of Mastery: fearlessness (by getting into the race against the odds and taking his vision everywhere he went), gracefulness (by staying cool under great pressure, never taking the bait), generativeness (by championing new ideas and new visions), effortlessness (see above), and intuitiveness (intuiting that America was ready for him, and intuiting the best ways to respond to attacks and crises, from Rev. Wright, to  alleged links to terrorists, to charges of Marxism).

Now Obama will reap the Five Rewards of Mastery: sustainability (by building upon a deep and powerful foundation of aligned mastery), integrity (by entering office with a clear agenda, largely unsullied by dirty campaign tricks and marriages of convenience), attraction (by attracting goodwill and talent, at all levels of society), attunement (aligning a broad cross-section of global supporters and partners), and capacity (the big payoff for everything else). Ultimately, if he delivers on his campaign “promise,” Obama will enjoy unprecendented levels of effectiveness, alignment, and sustainability, and leave a lasting legacy. This is what masters do.

 Throughout the campaign, many people on both sides of the political divide spoke about how Obama is not just a set of polices, but is rather a “very special person” and a “once in a lifetime leader.” If you are an Obama supporter, you can rest assured that you have a masterful leader working for you. To the extent that business leaders are fearful of Obama’s more liberal-leaning statements regarding tax policy, you have two choices. You can work with him, trusting upon the perspective, wisdom, and pragmatism that comes with mastery. Or you can seek to undermine him from the outset. But note that if you oppose Obama and look forward to a shift in direction in the next election, you will not defeat him with mere excellence, or with only a bundle of alternative policies. A master can only be met with more mastery, so you’ll need to find a master. A real one.

This is my first post after a long hiatus, so let’s make it high value-added.

In tough economic times, like these, the stakes are high and the pressure is on leaders to make wise and sometimes tough decisions. Failure is both not an option, as well as a genuine possibility lurking in the doorway. The margin of error is diminished. We can’t afford to be wrong.

Ironically, for the big decisions, those with a straight path to the bottom line, the usual tools of management decision-making won’t suffice. Data, analysis, sophisticated models, and decision trees and matrixes will only get us so far. It’s kid’s stuff. These tools are not predictive. They are a cost of entry, never a differentiator or driver of sustainable competitive advantage (not even with the smartest consultants in tow). Moreover, these decisions never take place in a vacuum, and the complexities of real-time business life reduce our confidence in them. A leader trapped in mere excellence will typically over-rely upon these models, and then hope like hell that he or she is right. This undermines their own wellness and productivity, and that of everyone else working under the same conditions, which is to say their people.

There are two popular but unproductive and costly options that many leaders choose when confronting having to live with high stakes decisions:

1. Bluff/Spin/Blame. These managers have all the data and people lined up to take the blame if things go wrong.

2. Escape from Reality. These managers rely on force of will and ego in an attempt to sell themselves and the world on their vision and interpretation of events even when it is clear to any objective observer that they are simply full of it.

When the leader chooses it, the entire company lives with it. Please note: these two strategies are not limited to mediocre and failed managers; that’s too easy. Rather, we see them, almost daily, being practiced by excellent managers. That is to say, managers who have pursued and achieved excellence by practicing the Five Virtues of Excellence; people with a track record, senior leaders. This is what happens in the Excellence Trap.

There is a better way! Leaders in Mastery know that, after they have gathered and analyzed data and considered options, they simly choose a direction. Then they make it real. They bring the Five Pillars of Mastery (energy, expression, perspective, intention and wisdom), and that of every person in the entire organization to bear upon whatever path they choose, whatever context they are in; they engage, they flourish, they improvise and adapt, they inspire and align, they lead. It’s that simple, and that rare.

Try this: for every data point you consider when confronting a tough decision, spend as much time considering the Five Shifts of Mastery. Or let’s make it even easier: pick a direction and run with it. If you’re smart, capable, and have done a modicum of due diligance, you’ll succeed either way. Leadership Masters make their own reality, they don’t impose a fantasy on others. And to use the language of competition, a leader working to escape excellence and achieve mastery is already enjoying a powerful competitive advantage. Consider this: excellent managers try to  control the uncontrollable, and waste resources in the process. Masterful leaders create the future, establish the outcome, and gather resources as they go. It’s the leadership equivalent of creating opportunity while others panic (and let’s face it, most people, even excellent people, do panic. They’re panicing on Wall St as I write this).

That’s something you can stake your business on, particularly in tough times.

Wow, I haven’t posted here since 6.27. I’d better have a good reason. Blogs are all about frequent posting, aren’t they?

Since laste June, I’ve been doing business and creating new content in the form of tools and programs. I’ve also been building a new brand which I’ll announce here later in the year.  But, mostly, every spare minute has been spent attending to my wife and partner, Michele DeMarco Wilkie, who survived a heart attack three days after my last post. She is fine, the cause was extremely rare and, we have good reason to believe, episodic. She’s doing very well, and is like her old self again, with just a few temporary remaining limitations placed on her activities. She was able to go ahead with our scheduled vacation in France, and just got back last week.

I’ll have more to say about this in the future, but for now I’ll just mention that our work in mastery was, along with world-class medical care, the thing that got us through and kept us whole. In fact, the event and its aftermath inspired some powerful new content and some wise strategic moves. It also brough us even closer, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. So, as one friend suggested, perhaps it’s a blessing. Thanks to my clients for your support and understanding. I learn as much from you as you do from me.

When forced to deal with the Five Costs of Excellence, most people turn to one or more of the Five Failed Strategies of Excellence. And in tough economic times, all the more so. This a mistake.

The five strategies that don’t work, particularly during tough times, are these:

Denial. This is pretty hard to sustain when the numbers are staring you in the face. But it’s amazing how many people try it for a while. Denial says, “Tune out.”

Toughness. In challenging times, this can lead to a willingness simply to endure high costs and lowered rewards, accompanied by some bluster. But is misses opportunies to innovate, create, and change. During the height of a recession, I once saw an EVP deliver a “mental toughness” speech to his group that deperately needed leadership, not nonsense. His team scattered. Toughness says, “Tough it out.”

Resignation. This just accepts tough times and waits it out. Again, it’s a missed opportunity because tough times bring new opportunties, almost by definition. After all, when the pot is stirred, everything moves.Resiggnation sees “no way out.”

Escapism. Tough times are no time for checking out and retreating to private reverie. I have on two separate occasions witnessed CEO’s talk about visionary moves and the greatness of the company at the very moment the company was tanking. This isn’t leadership vision; it’s sharing a waking dream. Remember Ken Lay’s “I’m excited” speech? That’s not leadership. Escapism says, “Drop out.”

Balance. Balance is nothing more than an avoidance technique, and the last deperate act of the truly trapped. Balance is bullshit. It balances little and achieves nothing. Much better to make decisions and take action. Balance is a “cop out.”

 Instead, here are three strategies that work:

- Encourage fearlessness in your people, and invite them to speak their minds.

- Expect that everyone works from their dynamic essence (their core), chasing down what they care about most and do best, and then demand that they align this with the needs of the business.

- Insist that you and your team put an end the the accrued costs incurred in the excellence trap and work to  create a shift to mastery: replace effort with energy, comiitment with intention, acumen with wisdom, etc.

In this way, tough times won’t compound the negative effects of the excellence trap, and you will take the opportunity to shift to mastery. Ultimately, leadership masters don’t really have tough times, they just have opportunities. If you’re trapped in excellence, this will sound like pollyanna. But as you shift mastery, it makes sense, and it makes all the difference. 

OK, so we’re not in a recession. We may get there, or we may yet avoid it. The catch phrase of the moment is “tough times.” This is apparently the current key phrase for slow growth, expensive energy and food commodities, looming inflation, and all the rest. Certainly, tough times present challenges, and can create real harship for real people. And of course, tough times also provide opportunities, for example to trim the fat, get back to the basics, make overdue corrections and adjustments, find new niches and markets, and buy low. But the real opportunity is to shift to or leverage leadership mastery, and get out of excellence once and for all.

Here are two simple facts: First, tough times are cyclical and predictable, even if their timing isn’t; they come with the territory if we are human, alive, and engaged. And second, the real question we face during tough times is this: are we going to slip into mediocrity, can we afford to endure the high costs incurred inside the excellence trap, or are we going to flourish and prosper from mastery? The ironic “gotcha” that we face in the excellecne trap defines the human condition for so many successful people.

Often, it is crises like those we face in tough times that finally force us to face the music and get on with it. If we face it proactively, mastery is ours. If not, then it’s hello high costs and hello mediocrity.

 In tough times, masterful leaders never lower expectations, but they never get rigid (or face any of the other Five Costs or Corruptions of Excellence). They never let fear take over, or confuse ego with vision or commitment. They don’t burn out from depleted effort, or unwisely rely on acumen and expertise. Instead, they face each situation head on and ask, how I can create something new, even if it’s not what I expected? How can I truly innovate? How can I come from my core (or Dynamic Essence) both to add real value and to differentiate? How can I change the game, riding the wave, regardless of the direction it takes? How can I disarm or redefine all apparent threats? And, how can I remain calm and confident while others around me retreat into fear, lowering their expectations, accepting higher costs and lower rewards, and flirting with mediocrity? If a leader has made the Five Shifts to Mastery, and is leading from his or her Dynamic Essence, they will have the answers ready, and will be ready to take decisive action.

Here’s a tip: always remember that anything that claims to tell you specifically “how to manage in tough times” is only valuable at the level of excellence, as cost of entry advice that should be heeded but not become overly-relied upon.  Ultimately, your leadership will be based on your persomal leadership mastery, and that of everyone else in your business.

Thsi weekend, I devoured Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of Albert Einstein. This excellent book does a great job of helping us to understand both the science and the man. While Einstein was imperfect and a bit eccentric (he hated socks), his mastery is unquestionable. There were many excellent scientists in his circle who got close relativity, but Einstein had the decisive breakthrough primarily because he had escaped from excellence. He led with energy more than with effort (although his effort was herculean), and with intention rather than mere commitment. He also went beyond proficiency and expertise to attain true expression and perspective. And, even though his strategic moves are legendary, acumen was child’s play to him; he always sought wisdom in his science and denigrated science that lacked this wisdom.

But late last night, while in the last chapters, the elements of a new equation that explains so much of Einstein’s mastery leapt off the page at me. Here it is: C+A=W>M. To have fun wth symbols, let C be curiosity, let A be awe, and let W be wonder, with M as, you guessed it, mastery.

Einstein had a boundless curiosity, but it was always accompanied by an almost religious sense of awe. He was no mere puzzler, but needed to see to the heart of things. This curiosity and awe added up to a sense of wonder, a humble and almost child-like sense of that ’something more’ that transcends the mundane. And this wonder, even more than his technical genius, his brain, or his independance, is the driving force of his mastery. He had a sense of the beauty, of the possibility, of the sublime in nature, and he saw it as both his mission and his gift to understand nature, from atom to cosmos, and be devoted to it. He saw this as an act of artistic creation. This was his Dynamic Essence. He couldn’t not follow it. He built his life around it, and achieved mastery. The results were exponentially greater than what had come before. He also enjoyed, in his reknown, legacy, and “profit,” an exponentially greater reward. And with his unfailing good humor, he demonstrated that the costs of excellence were left far behind.

What a guy.

Like millions of others, I was shocked and saddened by the sudden and tragic death of NBC News Washington bureau chief and long-time Meet the Press host Tim Russert. As I took in the coverage from his passing to his memorial, and had a chance to listen the comments of his family, friends, and colleagues, it quickly became abundantly clear that Russert had escaped from excellence and achieved mastery, in a big way. Those who knew him were not merely mouthing the appropriate pro forma testiments to his professionalism, character, and success that we’d expect in circumstances like this. This was much more. This was another level. As a way to pay tribute, and to extend his legacy by holding him up as an example of mastery, let’s take a closer look.

First, Russert was clearly excellent. He is given wide credit for his effort, proficiency, expertise, commitment, and acumen, which together  comprise the Five Virtues of Excellence. His work ethic, preperation, knowledge, savviness, determination, standards, and skill are legendary.

But Russert was more. Close associates referred to his uncanny ability to build genuine relationships, to his unflagging good humor, to his inspiring yet demanding leadership, and credited him with those rare human qualities that clearly set the great ones apart. And former GE (NBC parent) CEO Jack Welch said he made sure Russert made more money too.

Russert was a master: he manifested the Five Markers of Mastery (fearlessness, gracefullness, generativeness, effortlessness, and intuitiveness), in spades. And he clearly had shifted to the Five Pillars of Mastery: Energy (the guy never lost his enthusiasm, and loved where he was and what he did; he never seem to tire); Expression (he was his own man, followed his own path, and spoke his mind, with dignity and joy); Perspective (he saw to the issue, beyond the facts, and mantained personal and professional vision); Intention (he used soft power, a feel for the truth, and a sense of mission to stand up to anyone and ask tough but fair questions, and was able to attract the people and resources to perform at his best), and Wisdom (he never lost sight of his task, his responsibility, and as a result got the job he was born for, set the standard by which others shall be judged, and left a professional and personal legacy that will be both inspiring and hard to match). He took great joy in the success of others, and in the needs of his audience, his fellow citizens. He lived and worked from his Dynamic Essence. And he enjoyed enormous and unexpected rewards.

 Tim Russert wasn’t the coolest guy, as it is defined by the tragically hip. He wasn’t edgy, dangerous, or personally glamorous, and this by choice. He didn’t wield power brutally (even though he held great power), chase the spotlight, show off, act puffed up, or take revenge for minor slights. But it would be wrong to think that he was only about humble blocking and tackling, merely excellent, much less merely a fortunate mediocrity. That would be a terrible misreading of his modus operendi, and gladly I’ve heard no one make this mistake. Instead, the combination of ease and outcome, of low cost and high return, that we saw in Tim Russert is evidence of true Leadership Mastery.

The only outstanding question is whether Tim Russert was one of those rare people who was simply born that way. Did he ever spend much time experiencing the high costs of excellence or wasting time with the five failed strategies of excellence? I suspect not. I believe he may have been one of those few who have mastery built-in to their makeup, and whose transition from excellence to mastery is seamless, apparently either hardwired into his very nature or, perhaps, becoming part of his awareness at a very early age.

As a master, in his job, he won’t be replaced, only succeeded. 

God speed, Mr. Russert. Your legacy will include your witness to mastery for all of us.

I can hardly believe it’s been almost a month since I last posted here. My excuse: I’ve been finishing my e-Book, Escape from Excellence. It’s finally complete, and we’re very proud of and excitied by the results.

It’s available for free immediate download right here. You can also check out the information page devoted to it here.

Escape from Excellence, the e-Book, collects in a brief and digestible format, all of our key thinking, experimenting, refining, and applying in real world engagements over the past four years (or twenty five years, depending how you look at it). Who needs the fluff and filler of a 300-page version? The book can be skimmed, but we worked hard to make it reward a close reading; we’ve tried to add value in every idea. And we’ve shared our entire model and all of our major ideas, excepting only those tools we use with our clients. We’ll be expanding on the ideas in the book with more thoughts, examples, and applications in this blog going forward.

We think we’ve created a genuine leadership breakthrough and built a better mousetrap. I could write the endless blog post, but enough said. Please check it out, pass it on, and use it jumpstart your escape from the high costs of excellence to the exponential rewards of Leadership, Enterprise, and Market Mastery. I think we’ve started somethign that will make a huge difference in your costs, rewards, innovation, performance, and enjoyment. And that of your entire company. You can read more here. Or contact us here.

All the best to you.