The Leader's Journey with Lee Thayer

Some Leadership Advice From Lee Thayer: Take Your Eye Off the Bottom Line

That must look like some whack-o advice. It is advice, however, not much heeded in our world. We're "bottom line" people. But you'd be surprised by how valuable this simple bit of advice can be. Here's why.

The conventional bottom line numbers may tell you a little bit about the current and most recent financial history of the company. They may tell you where you are relative to where your forecasts were. But they won't tell you what to do about what's wrong. They won't tell you what the situation might be if you had prepared differently. They won't tell you how to get from "here" to "there, or even where "there" is. The numbers may tell you something, but they won't tell you what you did right, or wrong.

The point is that taking your eye off the bottom line, sets you free to put your eye on what drives the bottom line. Things like towering competence, intensity, zeal, and focus. Like preparedness for whatever happens (or doesn't). Like reserve energy and acumen. Like the kind of intelligence that matters. Like being committed to a level of performance that forever pulls the bottom line along in its irresistible wake.

Put your eye on what drives the bottom line. Then develop those capabilities - and the numbers will always meet or exceed your expectations.

Real Leadership Achievement Is Not A Place, It's An Attitude

The pursuit of a great and worthy purpose in life is an endless journey. The world will not stop just because you got a little better. There are those who are struggling to overtake you, always. You will not be exempt just because you tried.

Real leadership achievement is not a place. It's an attitude, a set of habits, a way of life. Consider these thoughts:

• Those who seriously pursue a purpose in life cannot afford to tarry at any level of "success."
• Getting better, making progress, is about preparing today for tomorrow's trials.
• If this striving ends before you do, you have failed.
• It is the striving that enhances our lives, not the arriving.
• The question, "Are we there yet?" is the kiss of death of your mission in life.

The quality of the life you have while pursuing your goals is more important than achieving them. You can be successful by accident, by sheer "luck." And you can fail through no direct fault of your own. But you cannot pursue a purpose in life except by choosing to do so. It is the character that comes as a byproduct of being committed to your own purposes in life that measures the quality of one's life - or an organization's life.

The pursuit of a great and worthy purpose in life requires you to develop and maintain an increasing capacity for learning. Learning produces growth. And life is always enhanced to its current limits by growth, which in turn increases its limits.

Arriving, on the other hand, is a form of death. It is the end of something. Striving requires forever beginning. There is more life in beginnings than in endings. And there is more life in striving to achieve something great than in being forever buffeted by events.

The Elusive Laws of Communication - Excerpts from Chapter 14

One of the most fundamental and frustrating aspects of communication is as basic as it is pervasive...It is, simply, that there is no necessary correlation between what people say and what they do...

This has its origin in two preconditions:

1. that people don't say what they are actually thinking (and they may change their minds before, during or after...) and
2. what they say depends on who they are talking to and what they think they should say...

We live in a culture where we learn that getting by with parents, bosses, friends, or strangers requires us to be cagey and deceptive. We learn to say what we think might get us what we want. We are hypocrites, even while saying we hate hypocrisy...

...We like to think any statement others' make can be taken at face value. This is almost never the case...Promises are a fleeting as performance...You can't trust what people say. They are merely talking for their own reasons. This is not being cynical. This is being realistic...

People lie to themselves all the time. Or "deceive" themselves, if you wish. This makes it seem "natural" to deceive others willy-nilly...People don't usually say what they mean, or mean what they say. For the leader, all communication carries a warning bell: "Enter at your own risk, all ye who enter into communication with self or others...

What's at stake is meaning. When others can't be sure what we mean by what we say, and when we can't be sure what others mean by what they say, we are left to our own interpretations...And these are a function of us and how our minds work, not of what is said, implied, or avoided.

If such interpretations are not referred to some very specific goals or purposes, we end up awash in a sea of ambiguity - of mutual guesswork. Some might say that's the "game" of life...But what would they mean by that?

Leadership Self-Analysis - Are You Event-Driven or Purpose-Driven?

Most people, and thus most organizations, are event-driven. Leaders, and their organizations, are purpose-driven.

In an event-driven organization (or life), the day begins with the first event that occurs, followed by the second, and then by the third, each more or less random event being superceded by the next more or less random event - until, at the end of the day, people are exhausted. Most people finish one day of being event-driven, only to look forward to another day of the same.

Well...perhaps you've been there, done that. You know how it feels and how it leads to nothing other than more of the same. If you like that, forget the rest of this. If you are really, really dissatisfied, read on.

What's different about being purpose-driven? After all, the same events can occur whether you are event-driven or purpose-driven. The primary difference is that, if you are purpose-driven, you look at those events in terms of their relevance to you purpose, your aim, your cause in life. You interpret events in terms of their bearing on outcomes you have chosen, not in terms of those events themselves.

In a purpose-driven organization, the agenda precedes the events. Events get put into a more meaningful context - in terms of their relevance, not to people, but to the larger purpose - the reasons for the organizations existence and its destiny. Some things to consider:

• To be event-driven is to measure things by their demands.
• To be purpose-driven is to measure life through accomplishments that move you toward your purpose.
• Preparing yourself, and then others, to get on the path of real achievement is being purpose-driven.
• Mere activities diminish everyone to a life of being event-driven.
• A person who is event-driven will never become a leader.

Remember, a true leader helps us to put the horse before the cart - the context before the event.