LEADERSHIP: WHEN GOOD-TO-GREAT IS ONLY LUCK

Business gurus and their books are full of magic formulae for achieving business and career success.  It's alluring: we all want to succeed.  And, they often clothe their advice in research across hundreds of companies or thousands of leaders.  Very impressive on the surface.  But, at bottom, it's all just another medieval philosopher's stone - promising to transmute stodgy lead into winner's gold.  Lovely words but not for real.  And, all too often, later review will indicate this "great" company has now slipped back, and that exemplary leader has fallen from grace - or, worse, is doing time.  But is there something we can learn here?

Yes, there is.  First, to be a little cynical: so-called evidence often isn't.  And, in our daily lives as leaders, we need to be vigilant in challenging assumptions, logic and data.  Why and how was that sample of "greats" selected?  Is this the only possible conclusion?  Why were those particular years of data included - and not others?

Second, the real merit of these success stories is as fables to reflect on - and draw your own conclusions.  As leaders, we're normally short of reflection time and why this company or that leader got ahead are worthy topics for meditation - and doubly so, if they later lost momentum or collapsed.

This second point is neatly summed up in an article entitled "Are ‘Great' Companies Just Lucky?" (HBR, April 2009). 

http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/04/are-great-companies-just-lucky/ar/1

After debunking the evidence used in great-company studies, the authors say (by way of analogy): "No one reads ‘The Tortoise and the Hare' and, faced with a chance to bet on such a race, chooses the tortoise.  Rather, people take from this tale the idea that there is merit in perseverance while arrogance can lead to a downfall."

So, if I asked your colleagues, how would they reply to these two questions?

• Are you crafting your own leadership story - and in what areas and to what extent?  Or, are you emulating what others have done - people you've read about or known - without sufficient reflection?
• Are you continuing to write new chapters in your story - experimenting with new approaches and ideas that respond to today's reality and your current team?  Or, are you just repeating old stuff?

It would be nice if we could read someone else's strategy and just copy it - to get all the goodies.  But sadly, life isn't like that.  For a start, your environment and challenges are unlikely to be exactly the same as theirs.  So read and reflect.  Don't just read and replicate.

Categories for this Potshot:

Understand your marketplace, Drive strategic rethink, Show self-leadership, HBR articles, Great-leader Potshots, Leadership myths, Career planning,

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