Lessons in corporate Sufism on the
connection between clarity and innate gifts – third of a series
Rumi says, “Something opens our wings.
Something makes boredom and heartache disappear. Someone fills the cup in front
of us. We taste only sacredness.” All human beings have great potential. The
question every leader asks is “How do we tap into this enormous potential?”
“Something
opens our wings”
A few years ago I was in Tajikistan, where
I worked with a company that was struggling with both finances and motivating
its staff. I was forewarned that the staff members did not have business sense
because they had become accustomed to the Soviet system in which the state did
everything. The private enterprise system was foreign to them.
My job was to motivate the staff, and I was
given two full days to accomplish this. After flying to Tajikistan and getting
a VIP welcome at the airport, I was brought back to reality when I travelled by
jeep to the company’s headquarters. What was supposed to be a 12-hour drive in
the mountains turned out to be a 19-hour commute with four flat tires and no
real washrooms or restaurants along the way?
My
job was to motivate the staff, and I was given two full days to accomplish
this.
We reached our destination at 3am. The view
of the mountains was nothing short of spectacular. Getting out of the car, high
in the mountains, I was greeted by thousands of starts, each seemingly bigger
than the earth. I was watching with my entire five-foot-seven-inch height. If
I’d ever wanted to learn a lesson in humility, it was right there.
At 8am the CEO was knocking on my door,
saying, “Hey, Mr. Motivator, please come and motivate my people.” I told the
CEO that I was not doing that. He was surprised because that was the purpose of
my engagement.
I told him that what I wanted to do was
spend the first of my two days interviewing his top 25 people. He didn’t think
that was going to help because they had no idea about business. I told him that
didn’t matter because I needed to understand the challenges from their
perspective before I could motivate them. I did not leave him much choice.
I spent the entire day interviewing his top
25 people, many of them with the help of a translator. I asked them three
questions:
1. Do you have a clear idea of the vision and mission of your company?
2. What are the big roadblocks preventing you from working at your
best?
3. If you were the CEO of the company, how would you run it
differently?
As they responded, I made notes and ended
up with about thirty pages. In the evening I asked the CEO to assemble these
top 25 people at 8am the next day. He asked me when I was going to start
motivating. I told him, “Sometime tomorrow.”
We
all have innate gifts
I woke up at 2am and summarized the thirty
pages into ten key areas, which I wrote on a while board at 7am I went through
these ten points with the interviewees to confirm that I had captured the essence
of what they had stated the previous day. They studied the list hard and
confirmed that the points encapsulated our individual discussions.
From my interviews, I learned that no one
had a clear picture of the vision and mission of the company. I decided to put
them into groups of four to brainstorm about where they would like to see
company in five years’ time. I gave them approximately thirty minutes to do
this.
Subsequently, I had one member from each
group present their findings. As we went through each presentation, they were
not only able to articulate a powerful vision and mission but also came up with
a logo and branding proposition. Incredible! I had never seen any group that I
have dealt with come up with all of this in a matter of an hour and have
consensus around it. This was a group that supposedly had no business
background. Absolutely amazing!
This example illustrates two key points.
First, we underestimate people’s capabilities. We all have innate gifts.
Second, without clarity of purpose and direction, there is no motivation.
Importance of clarity
If you don’t have a clear sense of your
purpose and goals, you cannot use your innate gift well.
If
you don’t have a clear sense of your purpose and goals, you cannot use your
innate gift well.
A few years ago, Harris Interactive, the
originators of the Harris Poll, polled 23,000 American residents employed
full-time in key industries and key functional areas. Among other things, they
reported the following findings:
·
Only 1 in 5 was enthusiastic about their team
and organization’s goals.
·
Only 1 in 5 had a clear “line of sight” linking
their tasks and the team and organization’s goals.
·
Only 15 per cent felt their organization fully
enabled them to execute key goals.
·
Only 17 per cent felt their organization
fostered open communication that was respectful of different view0points.
·
Only 10 per cent felt their organization help
people accountable.
·
Only 20 per cent fully trusted their organization.
In his excellent book, The 8th
Habit, Stephen Covey explains these findings as follows:
If, say, a soccer team had these same
scores, only four of the eleven players on the field would know which goal is
theirs. Only two of the eleven would care. Only two of eleven would know which
position they play and exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but two
players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather
than the opponent. Can you imagine the personal and organizational cost of
failing to fully engage the passion, talent and intelligence of the workforce?
Is everything aiming at the same goal? If
not, there will be scattered energy. Jack Welch, former CEO of General
Electric, often shared with his teams the GE philosophy for the organization:
Either they were #1 or #2, or they would fix, close or sell. His blueprint for
transforming GE’s performance was to keep it simple. That is the power of
mission and focus. It is important to have a common or shared vision. Once
people buy into a vision, it is easier to implement. You need the contribution
of everyone who is part of the vision.
A part of good leadership is to set a clear
direction, find your employees’ innate gifts and encourage them to use those
gifts. By doing this, you encourage your employees to work to their potential.
You may lose some employees when they realize they do not belong in your team –
but better to get them off your team early rather than late.
