SIMON SINEK RULE OF FIVE
trustworthiness each quarter, performance will win. But high performers with low trustworthiness can contribute to a toxic environment in which other employees may struggle to thrive. Leaders who value trust tend to build higher-performing teams in the long run. That is important, because we’re talking about an infinite context. A leader is responsible not for the results, but for the people who are responsible for the results. The reason we have bad leaders is that we promote people who are good at their jobs regardless of whether or not they are trusted members of the team.
What other qualities of infinite-minded leadership will help a venture to last the distance? Flexibility is important. Businesses are often referred to as stable, but the problem with stability is that it’s inherently an attempt to keep things the same, weather the storm and make it through. Yet the recession of 2008, for example, destroyed so many companies that had been considered stable. Stability clearly wasn’t enough. Existential flexibility is a more powerful aspiration, because this allows for us to change. Think about a person you know who has come through a bad relationship. Someone who’s resilient is actually a different person after the break-up. That’s a good standard for business.
Which business would you say has epitomised existential flexibility?
One of my favourite examples is Victorinox. For decades, it earned about 80 per cent of its income from making Swiss army knives. These were a staple of gift-giving – everyone had one. Then the 11 September attacks happened and its business was decimated in one day. You could no longer carry Swiss army knives in your hand luggage, so its sales dried up. What I love about Victorinox is that, even though nothing like this had ever occurred in its 100-plus-year history, its leaders had imagined that such an event could happen. So, instead of enriching the shareholders with its profits, the company invested in developing goods such as luggage, clothing and watches – rugged products that, just like its Swiss army knives, could withstand rough treatment. Instead of laying off employees, it “loaned” people to other businesses that needed skilled workers. Today the company makes only 30 per cent of its revenue from Swiss army knives. If that’s not resilience, I don’t know what is.
How can leaders adopt the infinite mindset? At a talk I gave recently, someone asked me: “If my business were a football team and you were the coach, what advice would you give us for playing the infinite game?” My advice was: “Stop using sports analogies. A business is not a football team and I am not a coach.” Building a business for the infinite game is more like living a healthy life. You need to eat well, exercise, get enough sleep
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Sinek’s guide to adopting an infinite mindset
and develop supportive relationships. These require their own discipline and attention. While you will absolutely benefit if you do some of these things, the best way to live a healthy life is to practise them all consistently rather than intensively. You’re not supposed to go to the gym for nine hours at a time – that’s clearly unhealthy and unsustainable. So why, for instance, would high-speed growth be a good standard for business?
1
Advance a just cause – a vision of the future that offers your people meaning and fulfilment.
2
Build trusting teams in which honesty is valued.
Study your worthy rivals – competitors from whom you can learn.
4 Prepare for
existential flexibility – the capacity to initiate extreme disruption in order to better advance your just cause.
5
Have the courage to lead.
Would you recommend seeking professional guidance to achieve this? The point about leadership education is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on consultants. You do have to commit yourself to the learning, though. You could start a voluntary book club – that way only the most conscientious people show up – in which everyone agrees to read a chapter each week and discuss it for an hour at lunch. Perhaps one week you skip the book and watch a TED talk for 18 minutes and spend the next 42 talking about it. If the book club only ever has four members, that’s fine. Those people will probably end up being the best leaders in the company.
Which books would you recommend? Man’s Search for Meaning: An introduction to logotherapy, by Viktor Frankl, is essential reading for all entrepreneurs. How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, is about parenting, but it’s spectacular and practical for learning how to communicate with people in your company, especially when there’s tension or emotions are high.
Do you have any caveats for leaders seeking to transform their approach? Choosing to become an infinite-minded leader will shake your world, so no one should embark on that alone. You need strong, supportive relationships. A trapeze artist would never attempt a new act for the first time without a safety net, so what makes us so strong that we can make big decisions that will change how our business operates without support? Our relationships are our nets.
The Infinite Game is published by Penguin on 15 October
The IoD runs a two-day course in leadership for directors at several locations around the UK throughout the year. Visit
iod.com/lfd for details
PHOTO COURTESY OF WOBI
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