Escape From Excellence

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.

When you are nothing like the master, he or she will welcome you as their equal.

I recently read in a letter to the editor in the 6/08 issue of Guitar Player Magazine where someone said that listening to guitarist Allan Holdsworth, failed to inspire him to go home and play like hearing other great players, but instead made him want to quit playing altogether. Holdworth is considered by many to be the greatest living guitarist. He’s sort of from another planet, and acknowkedged masters confess the greatest admiration for him. He is so far beyond the rest of us that, if someone is wrestling with the excellence trap, hearing him can be the last straw.

The proper response to an exposure to true mastery is not to give up and accept mediocrity. But nor is it to emulate the  the master. This will only make you an imitator, a novelty who is merely fun at parties, no matter how impressive your skills nor how powerful your commitment. It will also amuse or sadden the master if they hear or see you in action. There’s a time to put emulation aside. Rather, the best response is to step back and ask yourself, what will my own mastery look like? What is my Dynamic Essence? And then let it take you wherever it may. A personal anecdote: I heard Holdsworth in ‘81. At first, I gave up. But then I said, “No more 12 hour days practicing. I’m going to find my voice. I won’t play another note unless it really comes from me. No fear, no ego, come what may.” I remember it vividly. I became a composer, songwriter and producer. It’s what I do best, musically. I also focused on acoustic guitar for the next 20 years. I’m back to electric now, with a vengeance! I still practice, for the sheer discipline and workout it provides.  And I still improvise because I enjoy it. It’s like playing chess. I’m fairly excellent actually. But I’m not a master at it. I found my voice in songwriting and producing. I’ve never been happier. And I’m better at it than anything else I do in music. This taught me a lesson greater than all the lformal essons I ever took.

If you experience a full on exposure to mastery, don’t give up, and don’t lose yourself. First work to become excellent, and then leave excellence behind. When you are nothing like the master, he or she will welcome you as their equal.

Dynamic Essence is a core concept here at the Escape from Excellence blog. It holds the key to getting past Excellence and reaching Leadership Mastery.

Brands have an essence. Plants have an essence. Aristotle taught us that everything has an essence. Essence is like your DNA, it is uniquely yours. It is the core of you. But we talk about essence as dynamic because, whatever lies at the core of you, your team, your business, your brands, and your markets, it is all about energy and action. It can’t sit still. It must do what it does. It’s nature is to act, do, create. Every major wisdom tradition (spirituality, psychology, science), all over the world and throughout history, has spoken about the creative-action-energy aspect of your essence, each in their own way. Bank on it, they are onto something you need to know about!

Dynamic Essence is the core, identifying, most basic, truth about you.  It is what you bring to everything. So anything that works to undermine it also undermines you, and this can be almost anything. Masters know this. So they devote their entire life, in every moment, to discovering, releasing, expressing, and sustaining this core . Everything else is secondary, because everything necessary to be masterful comes from this. The alternatives are failure, mediocrity, and a life inside the Excellence Trap. So masterful leaders don’t focus on this only while on vacation, or during quiet times, or on alternate Thursdays between six and eight. They do it always. Always. In good times and bad, in simple moments and in times of deep crisis and decision. And they do it no matter what else is going on, or who else is in the room.

When the Limits of Excellence are reached, the Virtues of Excellence are transformed into these corruptions. Please remember, they aren’t crimes or “sins;” they aren’t corruptions in that sense. We call them corruptions because, by definition, they take something good (the Five Virtues of Excellence) and dilute it and transform it into something unhealthy and harmful. So when we cross the Falling Point and the corruptions set in, we are guilty of nothing more than pushing ourselves to be excellent. And that’s something to be proud of. The problem is that this is precisely how excellence traps us and holds us back. Here they are:
Entropy
Entropy occurs when the physical and mental limits of Effort are surpassed. It signals a breakdown of the system. This system can refer to a person, a team, or an entire enterprise. So an excellent person, giving his or her all, eventually hit a wall when there’s no more effort to give. Hello Entropy.

Technocracy
Proficiency is merely a cost-of-entry, and it’s the same for everyone. So, when we rely upon proficiency beyond its limit, asking it to somehow differentiate us or drive truly great achievement, we’ve asked it to do what it can’t do. Excellent proficiency may look amazing to a novice, but masters know it’s never the end all. When we make it our focus, it can lead to a cult of capability, or Technocracy. We see this in the athlete who has no grace, the musician who has no taste, the prose stylist who has no ideas. They are like circus performers, and are soon forgotten.

Fixation
Fixation happens when the limits of healthy Commitment are surpassed. Eventually, our priorities, strategies, and organizations become misaligned. We’ve all seen fixated people who like to think they are committed. They mean well, but they have lost the plot. Perhaps they should be committed?

Rigidity
When Expertise is asked to have a vision, which it lacks by definition, Rigidity sets in. Then what we think we know supplants what we actually see, and progress becomes marginal and incremental. We’ve all known people who are great at project or operations management, but lack “the vision thing.” When something doesn’t go the way they’d like, unless they have other resources, skills, and frameworks to draw upon, they often dig in their heels, becoming rigid. They confuse this with expertise, with an assist from commitment. Wrong. It’s ego, plain and simple. The virtue of excellence got corrupted into rigidity, and the cost to themselves, their team, and the enterprise is following right behind.

Cunning
Cunning occurs when the limits of Acumen are reached and strategy is reduced to self-serving tactics. Acumen has an attitude of openness and considers navigation to part of the strategic adventure of business and life. Cunning sets in when that attitude is lost, when facts, information, and the map grow fuzzy. Because nobody has perfect information at all times, cunning is always a temptation.

Let’s start with a useful tool that supports a big idea: you can download a handy summary chart that outlines and expands the information in this blog postby clicking here. Look for the document entitled Costs of Failure, Mediocrity and Excellence.

We always say that mastery, and specifically Leadership Mastery, is different than excellence in kind, not in degree. So today we’ll talk about how excellence differs from failure and mediocrity in degree, not in kind. In other words, excellence is on the same continuum with failure and mediocrity, it’s quantitatively different from them, but not qualitatively different (like mastery is). And so excellence is always threatened with devolving back to mediocrity or even failure. Being excellent means riding a roller coaster.

If you’re excellent, congratulations. Unfortunately, you are now in the Excellence Trap. Excellence is the largest hidden cost in business. I discuss that in detail elsewhere, but here I’ll just show you what excellence looks like at 30,000 feet compared to failure and mediocrity. Here are a few examples… (more…)

Excellence differs from failure and mediocrity most obviously because many people openly and passionately aspire to it. They want the satisfaction excellence brings and the rewards it promises. Excellent people simply have richer lives, get more done, and have more fun. Aspiring to excellence is valued, encouraged and rewarded. No one really says, “I aspire to mediocrity.” Or, “I’m comfortable with failure.” So, even though excellence eventually turns on us and leads us into to the Excellence Trap, it is nevertheless fitting to speak of those habits and practices which can lead us to excellence as virtues.

There is no shortage of advice and opinions about what drives excellence. After studying much of what’s out there, across time and across cultures, and after working with a myriad of clients, we’ve identified five core virtues which truly account for excellence, without reducing or narrowing what excellence actually is or what it requires. 

The Virtues of Excellence are these: effort, proficiency, expertise, commitment, and acumen. If you demonstrate those five consistently then you will achieve excellence. And you will be also well on your way to the Excellence Trap! Let’s discuss these five virtues one by one.

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Imagine two successful leaders. Let’s call one leader S, and the other C. At this time, S is trapped in excellence, while C is in mastery. If excellence and mastery are like apples and oranges, these two will have very little in common. But not so fast; they’re both fruits, both grow on trees, and both start out life similarly. So it is with our two leaders. They share much in common, up to a point. But after that point, S became ensnared in the Excellence Trap, while C evolved to Leadership Mastery.

After the break, an article length case study follows that outlines in detail what the Excellence Trap and Leadership Mastery can look like in the real life of two CEO’s. Both pursued excellence. One became ensnared in the excellence trap, while the other achieved Leadership Mastery.

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This post shares a personal anecdote to make a point about Leadership Mastery, specifically the results of leading from vision in mastery, vs. managing in excellence. We recently moved to a new house that we are remodeling and renovating. The entire project gave me an opportunity to overcome my personal bad side (controlling, micro-managing, worrying), and gave me a chance to practice what I preach. An example of Leaderdship Mastery in action?

Background: We live at home, and we also work at home. In addition, we exercise at home, and my audio recording studio is at home. We’ll do pod and video casting from home. So it’s not just a house, it’s headquarters. Upon moving in, we immediately needed: a new kitchen, a new mudroom, a new roof and roofline, two new offices and a meeting room. We also needed a master plan for improved deck, patio, planting, bathrooms, and for a fourth floor media room. Also, the offices and studio would need acoustic treatments for soundproofing. My wife Michele and I collaborate on everything, and we really enjoy design. But the stakes are high and the budget is never high enough! Plus, we’ve already got a lot on our plates. Would this put undue strain on us? It’s a very enlightening micro-case study.

Managing from Excellence would have had us set big goals regarding scope, timing, and costs, do extensive due diligence, assemble and vet a crack team, closely manage the details, require hard work, seek efficiencies, confirm quality, confront unexpected crises, acknowledge emotional needs, and manage all of this against strategic goals based on our desired outcomes (multiple usage, business growth). Had we taken this approach, perhaps the team (architects, vendors, contractors, and sub-contractors) would have respected and admired us in the end, and maybe they would have feared us. We’d meet our contractual obligations, always act professionally, and maybe tip a few people. Either way, the job would be done on time, on budget and well. And it would have nearly killed me, and everyone who had to deal with me! The Excellence Trap would have extracted its inevitable hidden costs.

Instead we chose Leadership Mastery, leading to an experience in which the ”only-do-it-if-you-have-to-because-it’s hell” of remodeling turned out to be a piece of cake, a delight, with better results at a lower price, and at a lower personal and business cost. How did we do it? By leading from vision; by inviting, enthusing, and inspiring everyone we worked with to participate in that vision; by encouraging them to bring their vision to the project; and then by getting out of the way! More specifically, we made the Five Shifts of Leadership Mastery.

Here’s the story, as briefly as I can tell it: (more…)