5 Leadership Lessons: What if the Rules to Winning Were Different than You Thought?

WHAT IF GIVING VALUE beat extracting value every time? What is seeing others succeed was the greatest reward?

It is a Remarkable! culture that does that every time.

A Remarkable! culture is one where people believe the best in one another, want the best for one another, and expect the best from one another.

In this business fable—Remarkable!—authors Randy Ross and David Salyers present how to build a workplace culture that inspires your team members to bring the best of who they are to the table every day, creating an environment that maximizes value creation in every endeavor. It requires shifting into “growth gear.” Importantly, they point out that if we want something to change, we need to add fresh oil—humility. “Where there is defensiveness and resistance, people pull away from one another and erect emotional barriers. When authenticity and humility are present, unity is often the result.”

  If you have an engagement problem, then you have a clutch problem. The clutch is the mechanism that provides for the engagement of two or more components to produce motion. A clutch situation is any encounter that requires the engagement of two or more people to create progress. The clutch, as you well know, provides the linkage between the engine and the transmission, which ultimately provides power to the drive shaft. When the clutch is engaged, the power produced by the engine is harnesses and transferred to the drive shaft to produce motion. If the clutch is disengaged, then the engine continues to produce power, but it’s uncoupled from the drive shaft, rendering it incapable of turning wheels and garnering traction. You literally cannot “get things into gear” when the clutch is malfunctioning.

  As human beings we are designed to create value in life. There are essentially two approaches to life: one seeks to extract value from every endeavor, and the other seeks to create and bring value to every endeavor. We want our presence to make a positive difference. We want to be appreciated and affirmed for our work. We want to leave a lasting legacy. But this desire to bring value can often become twisted into a drive to achieve. Some people think life is defined and measured by pay scale and material possessions. But that’s a perversion of a natural longing for significance that comes through creating value. A sense of satisfaction and significance comes from understanding who you are and how you can best bring value to every relationship and every endeavor in life.

  For any company, a primary consideration should always be, “How do we structure our organization to allow everyone to think and act like owners?” Taking ownership for your actions and seeking to strengthen relationships in everything you do make a world of difference. The emphasis shifts to doing what’s right and what will bring the most value to life. It becomes less about comparison and more about contribution. It becomes less about competition and more about collaboration.

  To move out of a focus on the self you must focus on bringing the greatest value to everyone whom the decision may impact. Such a decision-making process is others-focused. Also, we must focus on long-term value generation versus the immediate benefits of any decision. The clutch question is what is the superior choice? The superior choice is always the one that creates the greatest value.

  What we need to do to reach our full potential is allow our values to drive our business. We need to define, articulate, and embody our values. When I say “values,” I’m referring to how people evaluate certain aspects of the world around them. Values are shaped by how much importance an individual places on certain elements in a decision-making process. [For instance, if you have to make a choice between safety and timeliness, your decision shows what you place more value on.] The problem is that many companies do not clarify what is of greater importance.

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:56 AM
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