Escape From Excellence

This is my first post after a long hiatus, so let’s make it high value-added.

In tough economic times, like these, the stakes are high and the pressure is on leaders to make wise and sometimes tough decisions. Failure is both not an option, as well as a genuine possibility lurking in the doorway. The margin of error is diminished. We can’t afford to be wrong.

Ironically, for the big decisions, those with a straight path to the bottom line, the usual tools of management decision-making won’t suffice. Data, analysis, sophisticated models, and decision trees and matrixes will only get us so far. It’s kid’s stuff. These tools are not predictive. They are a cost of entry, never a differentiator or driver of sustainable competitive advantage (not even with the smartest consultants in tow). Moreover, these decisions never take place in a vacuum, and the complexities of real-time business life reduce our confidence in them. A leader trapped in mere excellence will typically over-rely upon these models, and then hope like hell that he or she is right. This undermines their own wellness and productivity, and that of everyone else working under the same conditions, which is to say their people.

There are two popular but unproductive and costly options that many leaders choose when confronting having to live with high stakes decisions:

1. Bluff/Spin/Blame. These managers have all the data and people lined up to take the blame if things go wrong.

2. Escape from Reality. These managers rely on force of will and ego in an attempt to sell themselves and the world on their vision and interpretation of events even when it is clear to any objective observer that they are simply full of it.

When the leader chooses it, the entire company lives with it. Please note: these two strategies are not limited to mediocre and failed managers; that’s too easy. Rather, we see them, almost daily, being practiced by excellent managers. That is to say, managers who have pursued and achieved excellence by practicing the Five Virtues of Excellence; people with a track record, senior leaders. This is what happens in the Excellence Trap.

There is a better way! Leaders in Mastery know that, after they have gathered and analyzed data and considered options, they simly choose a direction. Then they make it real. They bring the Five Pillars of Mastery (energy, expression, perspective, intention and wisdom), and that of every person in the entire organization to bear upon whatever path they choose, whatever context they are in; they engage, they flourish, they improvise and adapt, they inspire and align, they lead. It’s that simple, and that rare.

Try this: for every data point you consider when confronting a tough decision, spend as much time considering the Five Shifts of Mastery. Or let’s make it even easier: pick a direction and run with it. If you’re smart, capable, and have done a modicum of due diligance, you’ll succeed either way. Leadership Masters make their own reality, they don’t impose a fantasy on others. And to use the language of competition, a leader working to escape excellence and achieve mastery is already enjoying a powerful competitive advantage. Consider this: excellent managers try to  control the uncontrollable, and waste resources in the process. Masterful leaders create the future, establish the outcome, and gather resources as they go. It’s the leadership equivalent of creating opportunity while others panic (and let’s face it, most people, even excellent people, do panic. They’re panicing on Wall St as I write this).

That’s something you can stake your business on, particularly in tough times.

When forced to deal with the Five Costs of Excellence, most people turn to one or more of the Five Failed Strategies of Excellence. And in tough economic times, all the more so. This a mistake.

The five strategies that don’t work, particularly during tough times, are these:

Denial. This is pretty hard to sustain when the numbers are staring you in the face. But it’s amazing how many people try it for a while. Denial says, “Tune out.”

Toughness. In challenging times, this can lead to a willingness simply to endure high costs and lowered rewards, accompanied by some bluster. But is misses opportunies to innovate, create, and change. During the height of a recession, I once saw an EVP deliver a “mental toughness” speech to his group that deperately needed leadership, not nonsense. His team scattered. Toughness says, “Tough it out.”

Resignation. This just accepts tough times and waits it out. Again, it’s a missed opportunity because tough times bring new opportunties, almost by definition. After all, when the pot is stirred, everything moves.Resiggnation sees “no way out.”

Escapism. Tough times are no time for checking out and retreating to private reverie. I have on two separate occasions witnessed CEO’s talk about visionary moves and the greatness of the company at the very moment the company was tanking. This isn’t leadership vision; it’s sharing a waking dream. Remember Ken Lay’s “I’m excited” speech? That’s not leadership. Escapism says, “Drop out.”

Balance. Balance is nothing more than an avoidance technique, and the last deperate act of the truly trapped. Balance is bullshit. It balances little and achieves nothing. Much better to make decisions and take action. Balance is a “cop out.”

 Instead, here are three strategies that work:

- Encourage fearlessness in your people, and invite them to speak their minds.

- Expect that everyone works from their dynamic essence (their core), chasing down what they care about most and do best, and then demand that they align this with the needs of the business.

- Insist that you and your team put an end the the accrued costs incurred in the excellence trap and work to  create a shift to mastery: replace effort with energy, comiitment with intention, acumen with wisdom, etc.

In this way, tough times won’t compound the negative effects of the excellence trap, and you will take the opportunity to shift to mastery. Ultimately, leadership masters don’t really have tough times, they just have opportunities. If you’re trapped in excellence, this will sound like pollyanna. But as you shift mastery, it makes sense, and it makes all the difference. 

OK, so we’re not in a recession. We may get there, or we may yet avoid it. The catch phrase of the moment is “tough times.” This is apparently the current key phrase for slow growth, expensive energy and food commodities, looming inflation, and all the rest. Certainly, tough times present challenges, and can create real harship for real people. And of course, tough times also provide opportunities, for example to trim the fat, get back to the basics, make overdue corrections and adjustments, find new niches and markets, and buy low. But the real opportunity is to shift to or leverage leadership mastery, and get out of excellence once and for all.

Here are two simple facts: First, tough times are cyclical and predictable, even if their timing isn’t; they come with the territory if we are human, alive, and engaged. And second, the real question we face during tough times is this: are we going to slip into mediocrity, can we afford to endure the high costs incurred inside the excellence trap, or are we going to flourish and prosper from mastery? The ironic “gotcha” that we face in the excellecne trap defines the human condition for so many successful people.

Often, it is crises like those we face in tough times that finally force us to face the music and get on with it. If we face it proactively, mastery is ours. If not, then it’s hello high costs and hello mediocrity.

 In tough times, masterful leaders never lower expectations, but they never get rigid (or face any of the other Five Costs or Corruptions of Excellence). They never let fear take over, or confuse ego with vision or commitment. They don’t burn out from depleted effort, or unwisely rely on acumen and expertise. Instead, they face each situation head on and ask, how I can create something new, even if it’s not what I expected? How can I truly innovate? How can I come from my core (or Dynamic Essence) both to add real value and to differentiate? How can I change the game, riding the wave, regardless of the direction it takes? How can I disarm or redefine all apparent threats? And, how can I remain calm and confident while others around me retreat into fear, lowering their expectations, accepting higher costs and lower rewards, and flirting with mediocrity? If a leader has made the Five Shifts to Mastery, and is leading from his or her Dynamic Essence, they will have the answers ready, and will be ready to take decisive action.

Here’s a tip: always remember that anything that claims to tell you specifically “how to manage in tough times” is only valuable at the level of excellence, as cost of entry advice that should be heeded but not become overly-relied upon.  Ultimately, your leadership will be based on your persomal leadership mastery, and that of everyone else in your business.

Thsi weekend, I devoured Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of Albert Einstein. This excellent book does a great job of helping us to understand both the science and the man. While Einstein was imperfect and a bit eccentric (he hated socks), his mastery is unquestionable. There were many excellent scientists in his circle who got close relativity, but Einstein had the decisive breakthrough primarily because he had escaped from excellence. He led with energy more than with effort (although his effort was herculean), and with intention rather than mere commitment. He also went beyond proficiency and expertise to attain true expression and perspective. And, even though his strategic moves are legendary, acumen was child’s play to him; he always sought wisdom in his science and denigrated science that lacked this wisdom.

But late last night, while in the last chapters, the elements of a new equation that explains so much of Einstein’s mastery leapt off the page at me. Here it is: C+A=W>M. To have fun wth symbols, let C be curiosity, let A be awe, and let W be wonder, with M as, you guessed it, mastery.

Einstein had a boundless curiosity, but it was always accompanied by an almost religious sense of awe. He was no mere puzzler, but needed to see to the heart of things. This curiosity and awe added up to a sense of wonder, a humble and almost child-like sense of that ’something more’ that transcends the mundane. And this wonder, even more than his technical genius, his brain, or his independance, is the driving force of his mastery. He had a sense of the beauty, of the possibility, of the sublime in nature, and he saw it as both his mission and his gift to understand nature, from atom to cosmos, and be devoted to it. He saw this as an act of artistic creation. This was his Dynamic Essence. He couldn’t not follow it. He built his life around it, and achieved mastery. The results were exponentially greater than what had come before. He also enjoyed, in his reknown, legacy, and “profit,” an exponentially greater reward. And with his unfailing good humor, he demonstrated that the costs of excellence were left far behind.

What a guy.

Like millions of others, I was shocked and saddened by the sudden and tragic death of NBC News Washington bureau chief and long-time Meet the Press host Tim Russert. As I took in the coverage from his passing to his memorial, and had a chance to listen the comments of his family, friends, and colleagues, it quickly became abundantly clear that Russert had escaped from excellence and achieved mastery, in a big way. Those who knew him were not merely mouthing the appropriate pro forma testiments to his professionalism, character, and success that we’d expect in circumstances like this. This was much more. This was another level. As a way to pay tribute, and to extend his legacy by holding him up as an example of mastery, let’s take a closer look.

First, Russert was clearly excellent. He is given wide credit for his effort, proficiency, expertise, commitment, and acumen, which together  comprise the Five Virtues of Excellence. His work ethic, preperation, knowledge, savviness, determination, standards, and skill are legendary.

But Russert was more. Close associates referred to his uncanny ability to build genuine relationships, to his unflagging good humor, to his inspiring yet demanding leadership, and credited him with those rare human qualities that clearly set the great ones apart. And former GE (NBC parent) CEO Jack Welch said he made sure Russert made more money too.

Russert was a master: he manifested the Five Markers of Mastery (fearlessness, gracefullness, generativeness, effortlessness, and intuitiveness), in spades. And he clearly had shifted to the Five Pillars of Mastery: Energy (the guy never lost his enthusiasm, and loved where he was and what he did; he never seem to tire); Expression (he was his own man, followed his own path, and spoke his mind, with dignity and joy); Perspective (he saw to the issue, beyond the facts, and mantained personal and professional vision); Intention (he used soft power, a feel for the truth, and a sense of mission to stand up to anyone and ask tough but fair questions, and was able to attract the people and resources to perform at his best), and Wisdom (he never lost sight of his task, his responsibility, and as a result got the job he was born for, set the standard by which others shall be judged, and left a professional and personal legacy that will be both inspiring and hard to match). He took great joy in the success of others, and in the needs of his audience, his fellow citizens. He lived and worked from his Dynamic Essence. And he enjoyed enormous and unexpected rewards.

 Tim Russert wasn’t the coolest guy, as it is defined by the tragically hip. He wasn’t edgy, dangerous, or personally glamorous, and this by choice. He didn’t wield power brutally (even though he held great power), chase the spotlight, show off, act puffed up, or take revenge for minor slights. But it would be wrong to think that he was only about humble blocking and tackling, merely excellent, much less merely a fortunate mediocrity. That would be a terrible misreading of his modus operendi, and gladly I’ve heard no one make this mistake. Instead, the combination of ease and outcome, of low cost and high return, that we saw in Tim Russert is evidence of true Leadership Mastery.

The only outstanding question is whether Tim Russert was one of those rare people who was simply born that way. Did he ever spend much time experiencing the high costs of excellence or wasting time with the five failed strategies of excellence? I suspect not. I believe he may have been one of those few who have mastery built-in to their makeup, and whose transition from excellence to mastery is seamless, apparently either hardwired into his very nature or, perhaps, becoming part of his awareness at a very early age.

As a master, in his job, he won’t be replaced, only succeeded. 

God speed, Mr. Russert. Your legacy will include your witness to mastery for all of us.

I recently picked up a copy of This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin at the Harvard Bookstore. I was disappointed. Levitin points out that in study after study of musicians, athletes, and other peak performers, it takes 10,00 hours to reach virtuosity, what he also calls mastery. That’s three hours per day for a decade. Or eight hours per day for a shorter time. Apparently if you do that, you will develop virtuoso level skills, you will master your craft. So this means that everyone who has worked full time for four years is a master? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Sorry, this 10,00 hour investment is only good enough to achieve excellence. But excellence is not virtuosity. Mastery is virtuosity, and mastery is about a lot more than skill. Virtuosity without mastery is callow, adolescent, and ugly. It leads to tasteless, ghettoized excess. Just ask Yngwie Malmsteen.

I attended the New England Conservatory for a few years. The freshman class was made up of blindingly good kids who wowed everyone back home. The senior class was even better. The problem was that most of the young ones, including me, sounded like skilled typists or impersonators. Few became real artists, and those that did are really something. Don Byron was a classmate. John Medeski came a bit later. There were others. But most wallowed in focusing on skill development or in emulating masters. These young people were certainly excellent, and to be admired for their effort, commitment, etc. But mastery? Not usually. Mastery is qualititatively different than excellence. It is different in kind, not in degree. Excellence takes 10,000 hours (at least), but mastery can occur in a moment. Any time spent chasing excellence after the Falling Point keeps us away from reaching mastery. It only increases costs and undermines performance. Mastery requires outting al that skill in the service of your Dynamic Essence.

Don’t confuse excellence with virtuosity. Virtuosity takes mastery, and that’s a whole ‘nother world.

OK, we all know by now that the US economy has evolved over the past few hundred years from agriculture, to manufacturing, to technology, and now to creativity. Apparently, even in this tech-driven era, so much technology work and innovation can be outsourced or replicated globally, that our sustainable core competitive advantage, our national Dynamic Essence, is being labeled “creativity.”

Creativity is challenging because, like math, many people think it’s a specialized skill or, worse, a talent we’re either born with or we’re not. Many people hear, “Creativity Economy,” and think, “Uh-oh, I’m in trouble. That’s not me.” Often their bosses don’t help much, simply saying, “OK people, get creative! Let’s see those ideas!” But while some people are born with an extraordinary capacity for non-linear thinking, most people can learn to be creative. And jazz masters, those masters of our own national home-grown music, can teach us a lot. In fact, if sustainable U.S. prosperity requires us to be creative, then our own jazz musicians are the first place we should look for guidance. Here’s why:

Jazz musicians improvise. They compose on the spot (innovation), play what they hear as soon as they hear it (agility), respond to thier immediate situation (market conditions), listen to what it going on around them (culture and competition), find and express thier own unique voice (branding), do it in a team setting, i.e. a band (organization), and must reach and move a listener (customer). They are walking creativity, always channeling what’s inside into something new. What they do is both extremely creative, and also not unlike what people working to succeed in a creativity economy must do. (By the way, blues, country and rock musician’s also often improvise, but they are less defined by it, and they do it in a less complex context. So let’s stick with the jazz example.).

Here’s how: The best jazz musicians, the real masters, first achieve excellence. Then they escape from excellence. (more…)

Dynamic Essence is a core concept here at the Escape from Excellence blog. It holds the key to getting past Excellence and reaching Leadership Mastery.

Brands have an essence. Plants have an essence. Aristotle taught us that everything has an essence. Essence is like your DNA, it is uniquely yours. It is the core of you. But we talk about essence as dynamic because, whatever lies at the core of you, your team, your business, your brands, and your markets, it is all about energy and action. It can’t sit still. It must do what it does. It’s nature is to act, do, create. Every major wisdom tradition (spirituality, psychology, science), all over the world and throughout history, has spoken about the creative-action-energy aspect of your essence, each in their own way. Bank on it, they are onto something you need to know about!

Dynamic Essence is the core, identifying, most basic, truth about you.  It is what you bring to everything. So anything that works to undermine it also undermines you, and this can be almost anything. Masters know this. So they devote their entire life, in every moment, to discovering, releasing, expressing, and sustaining this core . Everything else is secondary, because everything necessary to be masterful comes from this. The alternatives are failure, mediocrity, and a life inside the Excellence Trap. So masterful leaders don’t focus on this only while on vacation, or during quiet times, or on alternate Thursdays between six and eight. They do it always. Always. In good times and bad, in simple moments and in times of deep crisis and decision. And they do it no matter what else is going on, or who else is in the room.

When the Limits of Excellence are reached, the Virtues of Excellence are transformed into these corruptions. Please remember, they aren’t crimes or “sins;” they aren’t corruptions in that sense. We call them corruptions because, by definition, they take something good (the Five Virtues of Excellence) and dilute it and transform it into something unhealthy and harmful. So when we cross the Falling Point and the corruptions set in, we are guilty of nothing more than pushing ourselves to be excellent. And that’s something to be proud of. The problem is that this is precisely how excellence traps us and holds us back. Here they are:
Entropy
Entropy occurs when the physical and mental limits of Effort are surpassed. It signals a breakdown of the system. This system can refer to a person, a team, or an entire enterprise. So an excellent person, giving his or her all, eventually hit a wall when there’s no more effort to give. Hello Entropy.

Technocracy
Proficiency is merely a cost-of-entry, and it’s the same for everyone. So, when we rely upon proficiency beyond its limit, asking it to somehow differentiate us or drive truly great achievement, we’ve asked it to do what it can’t do. Excellent proficiency may look amazing to a novice, but masters know it’s never the end all. When we make it our focus, it can lead to a cult of capability, or Technocracy. We see this in the athlete who has no grace, the musician who has no taste, the prose stylist who has no ideas. They are like circus performers, and are soon forgotten.

Fixation
Fixation happens when the limits of healthy Commitment are surpassed. Eventually, our priorities, strategies, and organizations become misaligned. We’ve all seen fixated people who like to think they are committed. They mean well, but they have lost the plot. Perhaps they should be committed?

Rigidity
When Expertise is asked to have a vision, which it lacks by definition, Rigidity sets in. Then what we think we know supplants what we actually see, and progress becomes marginal and incremental. We’ve all known people who are great at project or operations management, but lack “the vision thing.” When something doesn’t go the way they’d like, unless they have other resources, skills, and frameworks to draw upon, they often dig in their heels, becoming rigid. They confuse this with expertise, with an assist from commitment. Wrong. It’s ego, plain and simple. The virtue of excellence got corrupted into rigidity, and the cost to themselves, their team, and the enterprise is following right behind.

Cunning
Cunning occurs when the limits of Acumen are reached and strategy is reduced to self-serving tactics. Acumen has an attitude of openness and considers navigation to part of the strategic adventure of business and life. Cunning sets in when that attitude is lost, when facts, information, and the map grow fuzzy. Because nobody has perfect information at all times, cunning is always a temptation.

Let’s start with a useful tool that supports a big idea: you can download a handy summary chart that outlines and expands the information in this blog postby clicking here. Look for the document entitled Costs of Failure, Mediocrity and Excellence.

We always say that mastery, and specifically Leadership Mastery, is different than excellence in kind, not in degree. So today we’ll talk about how excellence differs from failure and mediocrity in degree, not in kind. In other words, excellence is on the same continuum with failure and mediocrity, it’s quantitatively different from them, but not qualitatively different (like mastery is). And so excellence is always threatened with devolving back to mediocrity or even failure. Being excellent means riding a roller coaster.

If you’re excellent, congratulations. Unfortunately, you are now in the Excellence Trap. Excellence is the largest hidden cost in business. I discuss that in detail elsewhere, but here I’ll just show you what excellence looks like at 30,000 feet compared to failure and mediocrity. Here are a few examples… (more…)