Escape From Excellence

Here’s a simple fact: Most people don’t have a clue about what their Dynamic Essence is. For all the development programs, competency modeling, 360 feedback, action planning, performance reviews, and more, they remain in the dark about the real deal, their real core, their best asset. This is because, as we have said elsewhere, business leaders have not known about the difference between excellence and mastery, and have never had a path made just for them to escape excellence and reach mastery. The tools they have had only create and measure excellence, and so ultimately serve the Excellence Trap.

To escape from excellence, it is crucial to discover, release, express, and sustain your Dynamic Essence. Consider:

Dynamic essence is the ultimate driver of performance. It is the ultimate driver of innovation, of alignment, of productivity. And to not leverage and apply it is exactly what makes sustainable peak performance, innovation, alignment, and productivity so difficult.

Dynamic Essence is the ultimate source of competitive advantage. It is the ultimate differentiator. Experience, skills, benefits, etc. are old news. Instead, the masterful application of Dynamic Essence is where it’s at.

Dynamic Essence is the ultimate test of strategy. Any decision or action that goes against or fails to leverage the dynamic essence of a leader (or team, business, or brand) is a lost opportunity. It perpetuates the excellence trap and reduces results to an increment, not an explosion.

 Leaders who leverage Dynamic Essence at all times are in Mastery. They define peak performance for the rest of us.

We’ve heard many definitions of the role of a leader, from maximize shareholder value to groom a successor. We have a definition of Leadership Mastery that we believe will prove revolutionary…

The single most important job of a leader is this: “Discover, release, express, and sustain the Dynamic Essence of your business. This includes yourself, your teams, associates, partners, brands, and markets.” This is the role of the CEO. This is leadership defined, at every level. And you read it first right here.

I could tell countless stories about successful, capable, excellent business leaders who go through their day subtly, quietly, and subconsciously driven by these popular killers of Dynamic Essence:

- Fear: what if things turn out badly?

- Ego: how can I look good?

- The Five Failed Strategies of Excellence: Denial, Toughness, Resignation, Escapism and Balance

- Reliance upon the Virtues of Excellence after having crossed the Falling Point

No successful person wants to admit that fear, ego, etc. play a role in their lives. Isn’t that only for jerks? NO! Fear, ego, the five failed strategies, and over-reliance upon what made us excellent in the first place define the human condition for everybody who has not shifted from excellence to mastery. It is all of us.

The only escape is to discover, release, express, and sustain your Dynamic Essence, and that of your teams, business, partners, brands, and markets. Period.

I’ll say it again. The single most important job of a leader is this: ”Discover, release, express, and sustain the Dynamic Essence of your business. This includes you, your teams, associates, partners, brands, and markets.”

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.

We’ve all heard people say, “Nobody is irreplaceable,” and for most of us this has become a basic belief, a useful safeguard against arrogance and complacency. But it takes on a rather sinister tone during periods of economic downturn.

But it’s not true. Masters are irreplaceable.

Mediocrity must be replaced.

Excellence can be replaced (even if the search is arduous).

But Mastery can never be replaced, only succeeded. Only an idiot or a mediocrity fires a master.

I was watching the John Adams series on HBO recently, and also reading Founding Brothers, the Pulitzer winning book by Joseph J. Ellis, in anticipation of both Patriot’s Day and the marathon here in Boston. In both film and book, on the same night, I came across the account of Jefferson’s statement to Franklin upon taking up his position as the American representative in France, a position Franklin was vacating. Franklin opined that Jefferson would make an excellent replacement for him. Jefferson corrected Franklin and said, “You cannot be replaced, Dr. Franklin, only succeeded.” Here we see Jefferson acknowledge Franklin’s mastery, both as a diplomat and as a fixture in Paris. Not replaced, only succeeded. That’s it in a nutshell.

Here are the implications: A leader in Mastery leaves an irreplaceable legacy, and is also considered off limits if and when staff cuts come along. Masters leave on their own terms, in their own time, and only when they believe their gifts can be best put to use elsewhere. In this way, in Mastery, change is always an opportunity.

 Are you replaceable? Or can you only be succeeded?

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…)

Excellence differs from failure and mediocrity most obviously because many people openly and passionately aspire to it. They want the satisfaction excellence brings and the rewards it promises. Excellent people simply have richer lives, get more done, and have more fun. Aspiring to excellence is valued, encouraged and rewarded. No one really says, “I aspire to mediocrity.” Or, “I’m comfortable with failure.” So, even though excellence eventually turns on us and leads us into to the Excellence Trap, it is nevertheless fitting to speak of those habits and practices which can lead us to excellence as virtues.

There is no shortage of advice and opinions about what drives excellence. After studying much of what’s out there, across time and across cultures, and after working with a myriad of clients, we’ve identified five core virtues which truly account for excellence, without reducing or narrowing what excellence actually is or what it requires. 

The Virtues of Excellence are these: effort, proficiency, expertise, commitment, and acumen. If you demonstrate those five consistently then you will achieve excellence. And you will be also well on your way to the Excellence Trap! Let’s discuss these five virtues one by one.

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Imagine two successful leaders. Let’s call one leader S, and the other C. At this time, S is trapped in excellence, while C is in mastery. If excellence and mastery are like apples and oranges, these two will have very little in common. But not so fast; they’re both fruits, both grow on trees, and both start out life similarly. So it is with our two leaders. They share much in common, up to a point. But after that point, S became ensnared in the Excellence Trap, while C evolved to Leadership Mastery.

After the break, an article length case study follows that outlines in detail what the Excellence Trap and Leadership Mastery can look like in the real life of two CEO’s. Both pursued excellence. One became ensnared in the excellence trap, while the other achieved Leadership Mastery.

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This post shares a personal anecdote to make a point about Leadership Mastery, specifically the results of leading from vision in mastery, vs. managing in excellence. We recently moved to a new house that we are remodeling and renovating. The entire project gave me an opportunity to overcome my personal bad side (controlling, micro-managing, worrying), and gave me a chance to practice what I preach. An example of Leaderdship Mastery in action?

Background: We live at home, and we also work at home. In addition, we exercise at home, and my audio recording studio is at home. We’ll do pod and video casting from home. So it’s not just a house, it’s headquarters. Upon moving in, we immediately needed: a new kitchen, a new mudroom, a new roof and roofline, two new offices and a meeting room. We also needed a master plan for improved deck, patio, planting, bathrooms, and for a fourth floor media room. Also, the offices and studio would need acoustic treatments for soundproofing. My wife Michele and I collaborate on everything, and we really enjoy design. But the stakes are high and the budget is never high enough! Plus, we’ve already got a lot on our plates. Would this put undue strain on us? It’s a very enlightening micro-case study.

Managing from Excellence would have had us set big goals regarding scope, timing, and costs, do extensive due diligence, assemble and vet a crack team, closely manage the details, require hard work, seek efficiencies, confirm quality, confront unexpected crises, acknowledge emotional needs, and manage all of this against strategic goals based on our desired outcomes (multiple usage, business growth). Had we taken this approach, perhaps the team (architects, vendors, contractors, and sub-contractors) would have respected and admired us in the end, and maybe they would have feared us. We’d meet our contractual obligations, always act professionally, and maybe tip a few people. Either way, the job would be done on time, on budget and well. And it would have nearly killed me, and everyone who had to deal with me! The Excellence Trap would have extracted its inevitable hidden costs.

Instead we chose Leadership Mastery, leading to an experience in which the ”only-do-it-if-you-have-to-because-it’s hell” of remodeling turned out to be a piece of cake, a delight, with better results at a lower price, and at a lower personal and business cost. How did we do it? By leading from vision; by inviting, enthusing, and inspiring everyone we worked with to participate in that vision; by encouraging them to bring their vision to the project; and then by getting out of the way! More specifically, we made the Five Shifts of Leadership Mastery.

Here’s the story, as briefly as I can tell it: (more…)

Are we in a recession? Or a merely slowdown? Will it be deep, or shallow? Protracted or brief?

I don’t know, x 4.

But I do know that any leader should be thinking about how to sustain performance, and even how to defy the odds by achieveing greatness, while our employees are distracted either by fear of layoff’s, or wondering how to stay focused after surviving a layoff. The popular strategy for most people, leaders and associates alike, is denial, but as we’ve discussed elsewhere in this blog, denial is one of the Five Failed Strategies of Excellence and doesn’t work.

Usually, people confronting the challenges of a recession fear either losing their jobs, or keeping their jobs! The opportunity for leadership is to help people to understand that they will flourish either way, and to give them both the tools to do it and the confidence to know it. Working toward a culture of mastery can accomplish this.

Try this: Give your people an experience of escaping the excellence trap and tasting mastery. If it can transform fearand distraction into alignment, innovation, passion, productivity, and confidence (and it can), it will be one of the greatest gifts you can give your people, and one of wisest investments you can make in your business. You can start here. If every person is coming from their greatest strenghts and core identity, and by definition with great passion and productivity, bringing this to their work, several positive result follow:

- people will put fear aside and focus on the job at hand

- innovation will increase as ideas flow from sustained full engagement

- produtivity will increase as focus and passion increase, so more can be accomplished with fewer people

- survivors will continue without a hiccup

- laid off staff will stand out in the marketplace as self-possessed winners

- the business will gain (and spread) a reputation as a great employer in good times and bad

Ultimately, the usual troika of fear-denial, time management, and resentment will be replaced by a turbo-charged workforce. Typical management blather about how “this makes us stronger” will be replaced by inspiring leadership and an inspired, focused, and aligned workforce reality that has tasted mastery.