The "best of the best" CEO’s tend to share the
following eight core beliefs:
1. Business is an
ecosystem, not a battlefield.
Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies,
departments and groups. They build huge armies of "troops" to order
about, demonise competitors as "enemies," and treat customers as
"territory" to be conquered.
Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the
most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive. They naturally create
teams that adapt easily to new markets and can quickly form partnerships with
other companies, customers ... and even competitors.
2. A company is a
community, not a machine.
Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with
employees as cogs. They create rigid structures with rigid rules and then try
to maintain control by "pulling levers" and "steering the
ship."
Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of
individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. They inspire
employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to
the community–and company–at large.
3. Management is
service, not control.
Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're
told. They're hyper-aware of anything that smacks of insubordination and create
environments where individual initiative is squelched by the "wait and see
what the boss says" mentality.
Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit
themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job
done. They push decision making downward, allowing teams form their own rules
and intervening only in emergencies.
4. My employees are
my peers, not my children.
Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature beings that
simply can't be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management. Employees
take their cues from this attitude, expend energy on looking busy and covering
their behinds.
Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she
were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere,
from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels
take charge of their own destinies.
5. Motivation comes
from vision, not from fear.
Average bosses see fear--of getting fired, of ridicule, of
loss of privilege--as a crucial way to motivate people. As a result, employees and managers alike
become paralysed and unable to make risky decisions.
Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future
and how they'll be a part of it. As a
result, employees work harder because they believe in the organisation's goals,
truly enjoy what they're doing and (of course) know they'll share in the rewards.
6. Change equals
growth, not pain.
Average bosses see change as both complicated and
threatening, something to be endured only when a firm is in desperate shape.
They subconsciously torpedo change ... until it's too late.
Extraordinary bosses see change as an inevitable part of
life. While they don't value change for its own sake, they know that success is
only possible if employees and organisation embrace new ideas and new ways of
doing business.
7. Technology offers
empowerment, not automation.
Average bosses adhere to the old IT-centric view that
technology is primarily a way to strengthen management control and increase
predictability. They install centralised computer systems that dehumanise and
antagonise employees.
Extraordinary bosses see technology as a way to free human
beings to be creative and to build better relationships. They adapt their
back-office systems to the tools, like smartphones and tablets, which people
actually want to use.
8. Work should be
fun, not mere toil.
Average bosses buy into the notion that work is, at best, a
necessary evil. They fully expect employees to resent having to work, and
therefore tend to subconsciously define themselves as oppressors and their
employees as victims. Everyone then behaves accordingly.
Extraordinary bosses see work as something that should be
inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the most important job of
manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make
them truly happy.
