Three Conflicts & The Only Way Not To Be Bullied

Posted on by Real Leaders Inc.

Over many years of my leadership consulting practices, I’ve had to facilitate agreements among unreasonable people. Often these battles have occurred between chest pounding executives who are frustrated or frightened. I’ve also refereed Boards of Directors of merging companies and unions and management.

On a few occasions, I’ve been ambushed by spouses of clients who want me to help repair their ragged relationship…Yep, I’ve been in some pretty wild situations. Early in my career, I taught and relied on the tools of ‘seek first to understand and then be understood’ and ‘win-win’ to forge agreement out of the ashes of conflict. What I’ve found is that these tools are excellent to solve problems, Level One problems. Those are disagreements over tactics.

These conflicts arise when people have shared values and goals, but simply want to go about things in a different way. 

For instance, if both my wife and I wanted to take a relaxing vacation and I wanted to go to the tropics and she wanted to go the mountains, we could probably find a ‘win-win’ resolution by taking the time to sincerely understand what it is about those places that give each of us a sense of relaxation. Then we might come up with a simple solution like alternating vacations between the beach and the mountains.

We’d probably feel pretty good about the solution if we both agree that relaxation was the primary goal and that we actually planned our time and activities to achieve that goal. What makes this work is our supreme value for a harmonious relationship based on respect, fairness and mutual advocacy. Now if our conflict was a little more intense such that I want a relaxing vacation and she wants an exciting one… it would take a little more creativity. What’s not obvious about resolving Level One conflicts is that to maintain goodwill you need to not cave-in.

It’s important to have a reasonable tolerance for disagreement because this will stimulate creativity.

If you value harmony so much that it’s very stressful to even have temporary disagreements you will find yourself never taking the vacation you want or launching the marketing program the way you designed it… or any other priority that you’re willing to sacrifice to avoid conflict. The will to resolve Level One conflicts at high levels of mutual satisfaction stimulate creative innovation and resilient relationships. All good stuff… yet we often find ourselves in Level Two conflicts, which are more difficult to solve.

Sometimes far more difficult. Level Two conflicts are disagreements over goals. (Remember, Level One was conflict over tactics) sometimes I call these ‘small pie conflicts.’ By small pie I mean that there is simply not enough for everyone to get what they want in the amount they want. Sure it would be great if you could increase the size of the pie in every situation but that’s just not realistic. Once I was helping several physician groups negotiate their financial relationship with a large hospital system.

There was a limited amount of money to divide and it was clear that that small pie of money would not be growing very much anytime soon. If the doctors made more, the hospitals would make less and vice versa. Soon this escalated into a bare-knuckles battle with lots of accusations and emotion. The only way I could get these agitated adversaries to calm down was to ascend the ‘mountain the values’ until we could find common ground.

What they could agree on was that the hospital system and the physicians were sincerely dedicated to providing the best patient care possible. I was also able to get them to a common reality about their mutual finances.

When goals are in conflict it is critical to agree on the facts, so Level Two conflicts are resolved when people agree on both facts and values otherwise there is no path to agreement.

Now we come to ugly Level Three conflicts. These are conflicts over values. Most often they simply cannot be resolved. One example of Level Three conflict was the Cold War. The values of dictatorial Communism versus Western democratic values had no meaningful common ground. To preserve the peace we simply zoned off the world, rattled our sabers and frightened each other into avoiding war. It appears we have a similar problem with Al Qaeda. The unquestioned values that we have for individual freedom, self-expression and personal conscience are not shared.

Both sides actually believe they have the moral high ground so conflict is inevitable.

Throw in other high ignition problems like widespread poverty, political rivalry, tribalism and oil and you have a boiling stew of conflict. Level Three conflicts are not only geopolitical. They exist in the workplace and at home.

The most common Level Three conflict arises in working with people who are pathologically self-interested… just plain selfish.

Now all of us are selfish from time to time especially when we’re scared or stressed. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people who refuse to empathize. These are people who treat everyone as either a threat or an ally to get what they themselves want. Their main tactics are bullying and manipulating. They bully by making threats, hoarding resources, stealing ideas and blaming others when anything goes wrong. Their arms get tired from throwing people under the bus.

What’s unfortunate is that bullies can thrive in hierarchical organizations that tolerate it.

Mid-level bullies are often miss-characterized as no-nonsense managers by senior executives. So they frequently persist and even thrive. Manipulators are passive-aggressive. They also blame others, deny responsibility and play the victim. An Olympic level manipulator seems to be able to figure out how to never be wrong or responsible…it’s everyone else’s fault. Bullies and manipulators are everywhere.

Social psychologists estimate that about 35% of adults never mature beyond this level of living. Every workplace has them and so does virtually every family. So what do you do with Level Three conflicts? There is only one thing to do. Create rules and boundaries for your interactions.

As the saying goes ‘you can’t make a good deal with a bad person’… at least not for long. When you’re in conflict with others because of the fundamental disagreement over values the conflict will never end. So you need to protect yourself from selfish nut-jobs. Unless the crazy person has a life altering experience which actually changes their values a healthy trusting relationship is simply impossible.

I didn’t always believe this. For 40 years I was a magnificent idealist. But the lessons of life taught me that the lethal combination of someone who is competitive and insecure will make them bullies. My attempts to have sustained relationships were totally disruptive to my own psychological health. What I found was that bullies look for people they can intimidate, and manipulators are simply parasites looking for hosts who will cave-in to the whiny demands.

What’s going on here is Level Three conflict. These conflicts will ruin your life if you allow them to.

There is nothing you can do to repair them and it’s not your job to.

Your job is to make a difference. Your job is to be healthy, loving and to do something that matters. The next time you’re in conflict take a moment to analyze whether it’s Level One, a conflict over tactics; Level Two a conflict over goals…or a code red Level Three.

Understanding the world this way changed my life.

I hope it does the same for you. Note to women:  Most women’s brains are wired for social harmony and empathy. This makes them “soft” targets for bullies and manipulators. The most common response is to become passive aggressive, which helps you maintain power without being confrontational.

The problem is being passive aggressive makes you psychologically sick and makes you feel weak. The best strategy is calm assertiveness. Know what you want. Ask for what you want. Create what you want. I know, it’s not as easy as it sounds… yet there’s simply no other choice.

 

How to Have a Career That Matters

Posted on by Will Marre

Are you whispering or are you singing at the top of your lungs? When I was doing research for Save the World and Still be Home for Diner, I interviewed scores of people who wanted to matter. Not in the look-at-me way. Not in the I-want-to-be-famous-on-YouTube way. They just wanted to bloom where they were planted. To sing their song. To make their difference. I talked to them and watched them work. As I listened to their stories about how they discovered their calling and turned it in to a career, I discovered something I never suspected.

Their success came because they were pushed by the current of two fast flowing rivers that converged in one glorious torrent.

River One is the river of ‘Inspired Desire.’ They really wanted to make the world better. Although some were now rich and famous, that was not their goal. Never. Making their difference was.

Research reveals at least six big challenges for humanity.

If you want the world to get better…becoming great at addressing one of these six challenges is pretty damn important. Here are the challenges:

  1. Human rights/oppression: equality, equal justice, dignity, women’s and children’s rights, tolerance, freedom of speech, worship, assembly, etc.
  2. Health/disease: wellness, sports, entertainment, disease prevention, education, research, children’s and women’s health, access, affordability, cancer, AIDS, heart disease, stress, care-giving, etc.
  3. Peace/violence: respect, diplomacy, communication, negotiation, ending war, terrorism, nuclear prolifereation, genocide, abuse, etc.
  4. Education/ignorance: literacy, graduation rates, arts education, science and math, girls and women, computer/digital early childhood, gifted special needs, etc.
  5. Sustainability/environmental collapse: pollution, water shortages, resource depletion, conservation, park development, cleanup, climate change, energy research, etc.
  6. Wealth/poverty: access to capital, food, housing, budgeting, entrepreneurship, career development, job creation, skill training, economic literacy, trade homelessness, etc.

There are many additional ways to help individual human beings and humanity. This is just a list to get you started thinking… Most of us will spend 100,000 hours of our lives working. Most of our waking hours. So why not do something that makes the world a better place to live?

With all the needs humanity has, it seems a shame to invest your gifts doing something trivial. 

What I discovered from the difference-makers I studied was that you can turn virtually any career into something that benefits humanity. You just need to hold that intention and the infinite numbers of ways you can make a difference show up every day. So, I am not suggesting that each one of us has to become Gandhi or Lincoln or Einstein…remember a humble janitor prevents the spread of disease by just doing their job well. I just wonder what kind of world we’d have if all of our mission statements for Me Inc. arose from turning our values into value. I am not suggesting that you take a vow of poverty, but rather a vow of purpose.

I suggest that because the happiest, most creative people I know work that way. 

And, it’s not that hard. That’s where the second river flows in. My interviews and observations of ordinary people with extraordinary careers helped me see it clearly. For these people, River Two is the river of their own Design. They are highly self-aware. They know what they are best at and what brings them joy ‘in the doing.’ They’ve come to understand how their talent and skills work together to create a measure of unique greatness. Most important, they know how to learn what they need to learn in order to do what they really desire to do.

Their stories taught me that sometimes learning is difficult. Painful. Exhausting. Yet necessary to unleash the power of their talents and passions. 

So that’s it. When you harness the river of your Desires in the river of your Design, your career begins to flow so fast it carves its own path to the canyons of life. Let me make this practical. I teach lots of career workshops for corporations for University of California at San Diego. And one thing I found is that people want fast, practical tools to convert these fancy-schmancy principles into immediate action. So here you go.

First, get clear on where you are in your career. You can do that by answering these questions about your work.

  1. What do you do? (What is the essence of your work?)
  2. Who do you do it for? (Who pays you?)
  3. What is the human and economic impact of it? (Why do you get paid?)

Some real examples:

  1. “I do computer programming.”
  2. “For an e-commerce company.”
  3. “To quickly change product offers to customers so my company grow.”

Here’s another:

  1. “I am the Chief Executive Officer that determines strategy and allocates resources.”
  2. “For a sports shoe and athletic apparel company.”
  3. “To ensure the company grows by designing and selling best-in-the-world products.”

One more:

  1. “I do project management.”
  2. “For a technology company.”
  3. “To eliminate waste and shorten delivery time.”

Okay, that’s pretty simple. Now, let’s paddle down the river you’re floating on. This time, do the same exercise except…imagine how you might answer those question two years from now if all your most inspiring career development plans paid off. And add one question.

How’s the world better off for you doing your job?

Here are some answers that are follow-ups to the examples above. The programmer:

  1. “I do artificial intelligence programming.”
  2. “For a progressive video games studio.”
  3. “To create wildly popular products.”
  4. “That teaches players real history and the consequences of making good or bad decisions.” (pretty cool)

The CEO:

  1. “I align our business strategy with a bigger purpose of using our resources to create a better world.”
  2. “For sports shoe/apparel company.”
  3. “To increase our customers worldwide in order to grown, prosper and…”
  4. “Promote the value of sports in developing self-discipline, skill, health and camaraderie.” (just plain amazing)

The project manager:

  1. “I design lean development processes.”
  2. “For the biotech industry.”
  3. “To help speed development time.”
  4. “To get life-saving medicines and therapies to people faster.” (so much more exciting than being a project manager)

See how easy that was? It all begins with your mindset.

Once you become clear on your deepest desires and understand how you are best designed to succeed, you will know what skills you need to master to do something extraordinary. 

You’ll naturally tell the world what you’re up to. You’ll find people who are interested in the same things you are. And you will see opportunities that were previously invisible. Maybe even in the job you have right now. The amazing people I interviewed didn’t have any special intelligence and often had major disadvantages compared to their peers.

What they had was clarity. 

And a willingness to invest in  their future self. They got started by taking the daily steps that got them moving in the direction that was most fulfilling. Anyone of us can do the same. My conviction is that non of us are extra. We are all different for a reason. We all have a difference only we can make. Just start.

 

Has The U.S. Lost The American Dream?

Posted on by Kevin Maggiacomo

Fifteen countries now surpass the U.S.A. as places that offer its citizens prosperity and success. How Can this spirit be rekindled at home for the benefit of the world? Maria Civita and her husband Antonio, modest winemakers from Itri, Italy, arrived at the nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station, Ellis Island, New York, in 1915 with their six children. From that day onwards, they set to work building a winemaking business and chasing their American Dream, something they had dreamed about when looking at their limited opportunities back home in Italy.

The venture lasted for five years, and then Prohibition abruptly shuttered their doors and dashed their hopes. Maria and Antonio found themselves immigrants in a new country, without a job and no means to support their family. At that time, Italian Americans, along with other ethnic groups, were viewed as perpetual foreigners and not part of America’s heritage. This was despite the fact that almost everyone living in America at the time had been in the same circumstance only a generation or two before. Maria’s survivor spirit fought back.

Not prepared to give up on their dream, they pooled their remaining money and began lending to fellow Italian Americans. These micro-loans helped others pursue their own American Dream, led to the couple eventually formalizing their business, and eventually they became one of the largest regional banks in New England. Similar stories can be found among many of the 12 million people that arrived in the U.S.A. between 1892 and 1954, but for many today it’s just a story, or even a myth. Today there are millions of Americans who feel like outsiders in their own country, who are experiencing the “Prohibition” within their own American Dream.

You only need to read the headlines: Manufacturing trades are disappearing, standards of public education are crumbling, entire cities are going bankrupt and a whole new generation is drowning in student debt. To many, the American Dream is more like a nightmare, and the people today most likely to believe in this dream are those who’ve already achieved it. Although I’m personally generations removed from Maria and have attained a semblance of the American Dream in my personal and professional life, I still feel compelled to follow the example of that courageous, amazing Italian woman, because Maria was my great-grandmother.

The right of every person to attain the American Dream has been instilled in my family for generations; yet somehow, I only recently became aware that I might have joined the ranks of those who are unconsciously biased against others – the very type of attitude that my ancestors had fought hard to overcome nearly 100 years ago. My wake-up call came when I recently delivered a State of the Company speech. Looking at my audience, I realized I was speaking to a sea of people who looked like me. Nearly all were men. Nearly all were white. This was despite some of the highest performers in our organization being women or from minority groups. It occurred to me that I might have been growing my business oblivious to this unconscious bias, which might also be holding my company back. There must surely be others doing the same? Our beautiful minds had become tragically shortsighted.

We should all wake up and consider that America does not hold the rights to the American Dream. It might be more accurate to describe it as the “Human Dream,” as the desire to have your hard work rewarded with a good life is universal. America earned the right to rename it the “American” Dream by being the first country to offer the best chance for upward mobility. Today there are at least 15 countries where you can achieve better upward social mobility than the United States. We might just as easily name it the “Danish Dream” or the “Down Under Dream” or even the “Canadian Dream.”

In 1988, the United States was ranked by The World magazine as the number one place in the world to be born when it comes to opportunity. Today, The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks us at number 16. But wait – we still do rank as number one in other areas. Among rich nations, America has the highest number of children living in poverty, and as the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” continues to grow, our upward mobility suffers, the dream becomes the exception rather than the rule and society stagnates. This inevitably leads to a faltering economy, with innovation and opportunity being diminished for everyone.

Debbe Kennedy, the author of Putting Our Differences to Work, is quoted as saying, “New wealth avenues are almost always created by outsiders, by people who know little or nothing about the normal way of doing things.” In other words, people just like Maria. You could argue that Maria might well have more barriers to success today than she encountered nearly 100 years ago. A time when women didn’t even have the right to vote. A small portion of our society has hijacked the American Dream, and it will die with that group unless we fight to bring it back. A first step in resolving this is recognizing that the dissolution of the American Dream is everyone’s problem. We can’t wait for the government or the next civil rights leader to bring it back. Each of us can embrace the simple concept of “different” – reach out and proactively embrace different people, different ideas, and different opportunities.

This is far from being a new idea. Studies have shown that companies prosper under diversity. I’m proactively seeking and recruiting qualified people who don’t look like me, or even like the rest of my industry. I’m also empowering them to voice different opinions, even when it’s not what we want to hear. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s also good for business. Thinking different is not just restricted to CEOs, either. If you’re a kid with a rare brittle bone disease that results in 70 broken bones before your 10th birthday, you might easily shy away from the world. Alternatively, you could say, “The world needs a pep talk!” and inspire millions to have a positive attitude, which is exactly what “Kid President” Robby Novak has done on YouTube with his 28.8 million viewers.

How about taking a look at your social media feeds? Do most of them look like you? Think like you? If they do, then you’re probably only receiving a fraction of the world’s information. In 2012, the founders of online marketplace Etsy.com realized they only had five percent female engineers for a website that catered mostly for women. They sponsored a Hacker School Program that provided female engineers with scholarships and ended up recruiting 50 percent women engineers without lowering their hiring standards.

In both the examples above, we see intent and individuals who are expanding on their own American Dream by finding innovative ways to offer the dream to others. This might be through inspiration, a leg up, leadership or an opportunity. The key word here is “intent.” Only by fighting to reclaim the American Dream will it become a reality once more. It must be demanded of our leaders and ourselves.

If each of us looked back we’d probably find a Maria somewhere in our family, someone who wouldn’t let a Prohibition Act destroy their American Dream, or someone who helped make the dream possible for others. We might be dreamers but we’re also doers. Embrace different. Lend a hand or simply inspire others.

Share your stage and stick your neck out – especially when you don’t really have to.

This is an excerpt of a TEDx presentation given by Kevin Maggiacomo, President of Sperry Van Ness International    

How You Think – 5 Ways We May or May Not Be Wired for Achievement

Posted on by Will Marre

We have learned more about how our brains work during the last five years than the last 5,000. For instance, we know the old “right-brain, left-brain” model is a gross over simplification of how our brains really processes information and decides to act. The brain functions like a network drawing on vital information that is gathered and evaluated throughout the three pounds of flesh that rests within our skull.

We are constantly building our new neural network. Depending on what we are constantly thinking about, what stresses us, what interests us, what is vital to us. We are constantly constructing new “cell towers” that powerfully shoot electrical energy across our thinking network so that we can act and react. Each of our neural network is as individual as our fingerprint. Yet new research from Harvard’s Stephen Kosslyn (“Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights into How You Think”) confirms that each of us use one of several Brain Achievement Maps.

A Brain Achievement Map, something I call BAM, is our habitual way of thinking. It’s how we individually select what’s important to us. What keeps our attention, how we learn what we need to learn, who we go to for help, when to act and when not to. Most importantly, it helps us set goals and achieve them. So, there are five common BAMs.

Not surprisingly, most men are wired up for two of them and most women for the other three. 

Here they are:

  1. Achiever: This BAM is found among most business leaders. It focuses your brain on goal achievement. You set the agenda and establish goals. WHen this is your BAM you are looking at trends, competitors and opportunities. You tell others WHAT is important to achieve.
  2. Motivator: This BAM causes people to answer the question – Why? It is your brain seeking purpose. It seeks moral achievement over money, fame or power. When this is your BAM it is difficult to act unless you’re clear on WHY you should.
  3. Collaborator: This BAM seeks interaction. Clarity is created through conversation. Different points of view are welcomed. Inclusion is vital. Decisions are the result of synthesis. The HOW is arrived at as a team. WHen this is your BAM social harmony is pure oxygen.
  4. Driver: This BAM thrives on action. It requires sustained high energy and focuses on immediate goals. Results are what matter. DO it now, no excuses. When this is your BAm you insist on accountability and relentless effort.
  5. Adapter: This BAM seeks practical, immediate improvement. It focuses on what’s working and what might work better. Improving is what matters. If this is your BAM, you thrive on “do, learn, do some more.”

It shouldn’t surprise you that male brains tend to be more Achiever and Driver brains. Females tend to be wired as Motivators, Collaborators and Adapters. What’s critical to understand is these gender differences don’t seem to be solely related to the differences in how boys and girls are raised.

The white matter in a female brain is significantly greater than in a male’s brain. White matter is the substance the brain uses to connect the dots from the far reaches of our neural networks. This means the female brain is engineered to be more collaborative, more diversity-embracing, more synthesizing, more empathetic, and quicker to improve. Even the neural connections between our prefrontal cortex where our values reside, and the rest of our brain capacity is greater in women than in men.

That’s why women generally have better impulse control and start far fewer biker gangs than men do. 

All this has leadership implications that are mission-critical for our future. There’s a stream of new data from organizations such as Sodexo, McKinsey and Company, Catalyst, and the Center for Talent Innovation that convincingly make the case that having many women in leadership positions have a direct impact on growth, profitability and innovation. Sodexo’s research reports that when one third of board members are women, profit margins are 42% better.

That’s a lot better. The key seems to be in having enough women in leaders. One token female does little to influence the achiever-driven brains of men. So organizations become half-brained. Resulting in half-assed business strategy, and poor executed with disengaged employees. That – in my experience – is the norm. Whole-brained organizations have enough women in senior business-driving positions to make a difference.

Having a female head of HR is not sufficient. Women also need to be driving business development, R&D, sales, marketing, operations and every other male-dominated domain of the enterprise. This is not to say that all women teams are the best.

The evidence is that mixed teams of men and women leaders produce better results than one gender teams of either. 

Perhaps now we’re learning why that’s true. Brain Balance. And now some coaching for aspiring women leaders. Please recognize that leading is not easy because your’e doing a lot more thinking than men do. I know this is no surprise. A recent review of 46,000 male and female brain scans revealed that women’s brains were significantly more active in nearly 90% of human brain function.

Sounds good, right? Well, not so fast. All this super-strong brain activity makes you more vulnerable to self-doubt, self-criticism, anxiety and chocolate cravings. There’s an area deep in your prefrontal cortex (anterior cingulate gyrus) that makes you hyper sensitive to personal perfectionism. Your “How am I doing?” meter is supersensitive. Your heightened social awareness makes you feel vulnerable to judgement.

And your strong sense of responsibility can drive you to be over-controlling. Perhaps the most difficult news is that your brain doesn’t produce even half of the serotonin that men enjoy. Serotonin is the brain chemical that gives you a feeling of continuous well-being and the sense that all is well.

That’s why it’s usually men who say, “Life is good.” Women on the other hand are much busier trying to make life good.

I’m convinced that women are the primary source of civilization. Some current proof of that is the amazing 98% repayment rate of microloans make to women in developing countries. Microloans are made without collateral but with the mutual social guarantees of 6 to 8 women borrowers.

Each woman pledges her hundred percent support to every other woman in the group to ensure all loan payments are made. So they are. Most microfinancce organizations don’t even loan money to men. That’s because they either spend the loan proceeds or the profit from their business on gambling or alcohol. Women, on the other hand invest their profits in building their businesses, their children’s education or community projects.

Yes, that’s awesome and all, but very stressful. My counsel to women is to realize that in many ways you have one foot on your accelerator and one foot on your break. That creates a lot of noise and smoke, but not speedy progress. Your accelerator is your bright brain that is perfectly designed to thrive in our complex 21st century world. Your break is that inner voice that is constantly second-guessing you.

The bottom line is don’t expect men to behave much differently than they do they are simply not equipped to. And don’t you hang back. Don’t you wait. 

Our future needs a leadership revolution led by men and women working together to create a future we want our children to grow up in.

 

How You Think – 5 Ways We May or May Not Be Wired for Achievement

Posted on by Real Leaders Inc.

We have learned more about how our brains work during the last five years than the last 5,000. For instance, we know the old “right-brain, left-brain” model is a gross over simplification of how our brains really processes information and decides to act. The brain functions like a network drawing on vital information that is gathered and evaluated throughout the three pounds of flesh that rests within our skull.

We are constantly building our new neural network. Depending on what we are constantly thinking about, what stresses us, what interests us, what is vital to us. We are constantly constructing new “cell towers” that powerfully shoot electrical energy across our thinking network so that we can act and react. Each of our neural network is as individual as our fingerprint. Yet new research from Harvard’s Stephen Kosslyn (“Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights into How You Think”) confirms that each of us use one of several Brain Achievement Maps.

A Brain Achievement Map, something I call BAM, is our habitual way of thinking. It’s how we individually select what’s important to us. What keeps our attention, how we learn what we need to learn, who we go to for help, when to act and when not to. Most importantly, it helps us set goals and achieve them. So, there are five common BAMs.

Not surprisingly, most men are wired up for two of them and most women for the other three. 

Here they are:

  1. Achiever: This BAM is found among most business leaders. It focuses your brain on goal achievement. You set the agenda and establish goals. WHen this is your BAM you are looking at trends, competitors and opportunities. You tell others WHAT is important to achieve.
  2. Motivator: This BAM causes people to answer the question – Why? It is your brain seeking purpose. It seeks moral achievement over money, fame or power. When this is your BAM it is difficult to act unless you’re clear on WHY you should.
  3. Collaborator: This BAM seeks interaction. Clarity is created through conversation. Different points of view are welcomed. Inclusion is vital. Decisions are the result of synthesis. The HOW is arrived at as a team. WHen this is your BAM social harmony is pure oxygen.
  4. Driver: This BAM thrives on action. It requires sustained high energy and focuses on immediate goals. Results are what matter. DO it now, no excuses. When this is your BAm you insist on accountability and relentless effort.
  5. Adapter: This BAM seeks practical, immediate improvement. It focuses on what’s working and what might work better. Improving is what matters. If this is your BAM, you thrive on “do, learn, do some more.”

It shouldn’t surprise you that male brains tend to be more Achiever and Driver brains. Females tend to be wired as Motivators, Collaborators and Adapters. What’s critical to understand is these gender differences don’t seem to be solely related to the differences in how boys and girls are raised.

The white matter in a female brain is significantly greater than in a male’s brain. White matter is the substance the brain uses to connect the dots from the far reaches of our neural networks. This means the female brain is engineered to be more collaborative, more diversity-embracing, more synthesizing, more empathetic, and quicker to improve. Even the neural connections between our prefrontal cortex where our values reside, and the rest of our brain capacity is greater in women than in men.

That’s why women generally have better impulse control and start far fewer biker gangs than men do. 

All this has leadership implications that are mission-critical for our future. There’s a stream of new data from organizations such as Sodexo, McKinsey and Company, Catalyst, and the Center for Talent Innovation that convincingly make the case that having many women in leadership positions have a direct impact on growth, profitability and innovation. Sodexo’s research reports that when one third of board members are women, profit margins are 42% better.

That’s a lot better. The key seems to be in having enough women in leaders. One token female does little to influence the achiever-driven brains of men. So organizations become half-brained. Resulting in half-assed business strategy, and poor executed with disengaged employees. That – in my experience – is the norm. Whole-brained organizations have enough women in senior business-driving positions to make a difference.

Having a female head of HR is not sufficient. Women also need to be driving business development, R&D, sales, marketing, operations and every other male-dominated domain of the enterprise. This is not to say that all women teams are the best.

The evidence is that mixed teams of men and women leaders produce better results than one gender teams of either. 

Perhaps now we’re learning why that’s true. Brain Balance. And now some coaching for aspiring women leaders. Please recognize that leading is not easy because your’e doing a lot more thinking than men do. I know this is no surprise. A recent review of 46,000 male and female brain scans revealed that women’s brains were significantly more active in nearly 90% of human brain function.

Sounds good, right? Well, not so fast. All this super-strong brain activity makes you more vulnerable to self-doubt, self-criticism, anxiety and chocolate cravings. There’s an area deep in your prefrontal cortex (anterior cingulate gyrus) that makes you hyper sensitive to personal perfectionism. Your “How am I doing?” meter is supersensitive. Your heightened social awareness makes you feel vulnerable to judgement.

And your strong sense of responsibility can drive you to be over-controlling. Perhaps the most difficult news is that your brain doesn’t produce even half of the serotonin that men enjoy. Serotonin is the brain chemical that gives you a feeling of continuous well-being and the sense that all is well.

That’s why it’s usually men who say, “Life is good.” Women on the other hand are much busier trying to make life good.

I’m convinced that women are the primary source of civilization. Some current proof of that is the amazing 98% repayment rate of microloans make to women in developing countries. Microloans are made without collateral but with the mutual social guarantees of 6 to 8 women borrowers.

Each woman pledges her hundred percent support to every other woman in the group to ensure all loan payments are made. So they are. Most microfinancce organizations don’t even loan money to men. That’s because they either spend the loan proceeds or the profit from their business on gambling or alcohol. Women, on the other hand invest their profits in building their businesses, their children’s education or community projects.

Yes, that’s awesome and all, but very stressful. My counsel to women is to realize that in many ways you have one foot on your accelerator and one foot on your break. That creates a lot of noise and smoke, but not speedy progress. Your accelerator is your bright brain that is perfectly designed to thrive in our complex 21st century world. Your break is that inner voice that is constantly second-guessing you.

The bottom line is don’t expect men to behave much differently than they do they are simply not equipped to. And don’t you hang back. Don’t you wait. 

Our future needs a leadership revolution led by men and women working together to create a future we want our children to grow up in.

 

Women Can Provide The Key To Boosting Corporate Performance

Posted on by Real Leaders

A recent WEF study shows that C-suite executives are kept awake at night by large-scale global problems such as corruption, geo-political security and energy price instability which increasingly impact their business. These problems go well beyond the ‘tame’ challenges that traditional business models and command-and-control leadership styles can address. A growing body of research shows that women excel in precisely the traits necessary to address these 21st century problems – collaboration, empathy and team-building combined with more vigorous approaches such as taking initiative and driving for results.

‘Women have the potential to be truly transformational, value-driven, value-adding executives who can change their organisations from within and find new solutions to our  toughest challenges,’ said Gayle Peterson, co-director of a new Oxford programme designed specifically for women leaders. Women Transforming Leadership, co-directed by Gayle Peterson and Kathryn Bishop, Associate Fellows of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, was developed both in response to organisations’ need to prepare women for leadership roles more effectively and the need of women themselves to find strategies to fulfil their leadership potential.

The continuing low numbers of women in leadership positions globally indicates that companies and individuals have still not found a way to tap into their valuable skills. ‘Women leaders around the world continue to face significant structural barriers that limit their potential.  Advice to women to “think their way through” is just not enough. Companies that wish to develop solutions to complex, global problems should focus on developing leaders with a broader range of styles, who can think and act differently from traditional models says Gayle Peterson.

‘And the benefits are clear.’ Research shows not only that women possess the skills which organisations increasingly need, but that when they are employed in leadership roles within organisations, they can make a transformational difference to its performance.  ‘The studies really are stacking up and decision-makers within organisations are starting to notice the evidence that gender-balanced leadership teams perform more effectively’ says Petersen.

A McKinsey & Co. report shows for instance that companies with gender-balanced executive committees have a 56% higher operating profit compared to companies with male-only companies. A study from Catalyst found a 26% difference in return on invested capital between companies with 19-44% women board directors and those no women on their boards. ‘These studies do not stand in isolation and I think the case is now being made’ says Petersen. ‘The real question now is what we do about it.’ There is no single, simple solution to address the barriers to women’s advancement and opportunity. Change is needed at systemic level involving societies and policy-makers but businesses too have a key role to play.

‘If organisations intend to succeed in the long term, in an increasingly complex world, they would be well-advised to examine the cultural and social patterns within their walls which limit women’s opportunity and achievement,’ says Petersen. The new programme, Women Transforming Leadership, is designed to develop a network of women leaders from around the world, who can use their skills to step out from the traditional leadership models which are no longer serving the world well. Kathryn Bishop explains: ‘Our goal is for participants to find the programme a transformational experience, both as individuals and as part of a cohort.

We will explore different styles of leadership both traditional and 21st century, so that participants have a wider range of choices and perspectives on their own leadership style. But we focus on action, too: participants will use strategy frameworks and insights to develop a blueprint for action in their lives at work and outside.’ ‘We know that women have powerful skills and abilities’ adds Petersen, ‘but to shatter the glass ceilings, they need more than a “can-do” attitude. Women need access to concrete resources like networks, coaching and mentoring – and to be helped to build specific strategic plans to manage career transitions, and change their organisations from the inside.’

The programme brings together a range of participants from across the world and from a variety of sectors to explore their personal leadership identities and how they can be developed to benefit their organisations and their own careers. The main focus will be on preparing for action and on how they can make an immediate difference.

The programme uses live cases, draws on psychometric profiling, and offers coaching and peer tutoring as well as networking opportunities for the cohort. It is built around a variety of different types of learning methods and Oxford’s extensive experience of developing leaders.

Participants will discover their individual leadership styles, and will reflect on leadership challenges at individual, organisational, and societal levels. ‘If we let them, women can transform traditional leadership models and thereby truly change the world’ says Petersen.

For further information about Women Transforming Leadership, contact: clare.fisher@sbs.ox.ac.uk

Ask More of Yourself

Posted on by Will Marre

I’ve been invited to attend a meeting of area executives to discuss corporate social responsibility in the San Diego (California) region. We will be discussing good things like how to increase volunteerism and sustainability among the large and small businesses fortunate enough to be located here.

This is good stuff… but not great stuff.

For years I have been pointing out that in poll after poll consumers view the first corporate social responsibility of business to be the well-being of a company’s own employees.

For instance, over the last 10 years Walmart has turned itself into quite a green company. They are world class at eliminating packaging waste and even reducing their carbon footprint. Of course they do this because it helps them save money. Nothing wrong with that but you have to wonder if it didn’t save money would they care about any of these things? Meanwhile how do you think they’re doing with their higher corporate responsibility of treating their employees with respect? If you think not good, you’d be right.

Their reputation for corporate social responsibility with consumers is in the basement. I don’t mean to pick on Walmart all the time it’s just that they’re such a juicy target. And they embody all the unintended consequences of shortsighted, self-interested capitalism. They have played a key role in the dismantling of America’s small business manufacturing capability, which has lowered the average wage for high school educated workers. These of course are Walmart’s key customers who are now spending so little money at Walmart stores the company simply cannot grow and it’s stock has been stagnant for years.

It’s been observed that capitalists are so shortsighted that they would sell their hangman the rope used to hang them with.

The fact that today that rope might be made with recycled help is of small comfort. So here’s another way to look at corporate social responsibility. Economists talk about “switching costs” as a key factor in making financial decisions. When switching costs are low consumers are not very loyal.

For instance, it’s easy to drive across the street to save two cents on a gallon of gas. Gas seems to be all the same and gas stations are all over the place, so getting the best deal seems to always make sense. On the other hand switching costs to change the source of your electricity from your local utility to putting solar panels on your house is quite high.

Switching costs are also a factor in social relationships. Dating websites are popular because switching costs are so low. You can suddenly quit talking to one dude or dudette as soon as a more attractive one shows up. But the switching costs of a 20-year marriage are much greater.

When switching costs are high, we have a high “stake” in the value of the relationship. 

Whether it’s with the company, our doctor or a spouse, we really want the relationship to work. When switching costs are low, you don’t care so much because there is no big price to pay by choosing something different. So what do switching costs have to do with corporate social responsibility? It’s simply this: corporate responsibility is fundamentally connected to creating benefit for all your stakeholders.

The moral question is,”Do corporate leaders have a greater responsibility to shareholders, consumers or their employees?” 

The prevailing idea promoted in business school is leaders have a primary responsibility to shareholders because they have invested money. Because of this view we created a hyper self-interested, short term ethic that dominates the decisions going on in most corporate offices. Not all, but most. But when you consider the switching costs the moral answers change.

Today, with high-speed computer trading, mutual funds hold company shares for an average of seven minutes. Now that’s speed dating! Even conservative mutual funds readjust their portfolios every 90 days. That’s why in many circles shareholders are not considered investors but simply gamblers. And their switching costs are tiny. There are thousands of stocks all over the world to choose from which you can readily buy and sell on a seconds notice. So it seems that investors have the smallest stake of all stakeholders.

Now consider consumers. We live in an age of tens of thousands of virtually interchangeable products. Companies are crazy about branding because their brand name is the only difference between a Dell or an HP computer. The switching costs for consumers is very low so they don’t have a very high stake in your company’s success.

But there is one group whose lives depend on a company’s fortunes. 

That group, of course, is the employees. Their switching costs are enormous. Losing a job is extremely brutal for older employees. Research reveals that out of the ocean of workers over the age of 50 who lost their jobs in this last recession, over half will never earn as much as their previous job. We also know that job loss has a stressful, health affect that actually lasts longer than divorce. So the stakeholders with the greatest stake in their employer’s success are the employees.

The biggest challenge that employers and employees face together is to keep the skills of employees up-t0-date and relevant. 

Employers need employees that add value. And the value they need to add is constantly changing because of the nature of our competitive economy. Yet the investment is improving employee’s capability, knowledge and skills, and health and well-being is infinitesimal. This is not true in Germany, the world’s largest exporter of advanced technology goods. There, employee development, health and well-being are welded into the armor of the employer-employee relationship.

They have a system of mentoring and apprenticeship that is the backbone of their value-added manufacturing base. And here, a crazy company called Zappos takes employee development to the extreme. Every entry-level employee gets four weeks of training and is then put on a development track consisting of constant classes over three years. Employees are constantly taught both hard and soft skills to help them excel in their job, and their lives.

Zappos employees are expected to advance into management within 5 to 7 years. No one gets to stay at a minimum pay job unless they choose to.  This process of on-the-job training formal classes and mentoring is how you professionalize a workforce.

And when people who have the greatest stake in the company’s success are nurtured and developed, a game-changing culture emerges.

That’s not hard to understand. It’s simply rare. So what about you? If you’re a leader perhaps it’s time to put some concentrated effort into how you could create a more remarkable workplace by over-investing in your people’s success. If you are an employee your focus needs to be on your own development. The question to ask yourself is

“What do I need to know and what experiences do I need in order to be in complete control of my own career?”

The best way to insulate yourself from the short-term thinking of Neanderthal leadership is to make the switching cost away from you too high. Invest in your own future.

Become extraordinary at something you value that brings value to others. 

It is time to become a warrior in the pursuit of your best future.

 

Becoming Great is Simple, Just Not Easy

Posted on by Will Marre

(Note to readers: the response to my recent blog, Three Reasons Why We Need Women Leaders Now has been nothing less than astonishing. What’s clear to me is that there is a deep thirst for practical leadership advice for women who want to excel as leaders, as well as a business need to elevate more women to senior leadership positions. So, I’ve decided to add a special note to women leaders whenever my blog deals with a subject that has a unique application for women. This blog does. The note is at the end.)

Good to Great, that leadership book with the red dust jacket, sits on the shelf of virtually every leader I’ve ever coached. The reason is simple, it’s a great book. For instance the hedgehog principle in which author Jim Collins (above) encourages people and companies to focus on things they do well that they are passionate about and can make money on is wisdom in its profound form.

Yet there is one big idea in the book that has caused lots of confusion.

It’s called Level Five Leadership. Collins tells us that the most successful leaders lead with paradoxical combination of iron-willed commitment and personal humility. What’s confusing about this is that many of the leaders we most admire don’t seem to have much humility. Nobody would accuse Steve Jobs or Winston Churchill of being humble yet both are widely admired as truly great, world changing leaders. And the list of not very humble leaders seems endless. Amazon hotshot Jeff Bezos and look-at-me Richard Branson are just two more that come to mind. So what’s up?

Did Collins simply get it wrong?

Well maybe not… In my 35 years of coaching leaders, some great and some not so great, I come to appreciate what Collins was getting at. I think we can all see that an unwavering commitment to build a special organization is essential to truly great leadership.

The nature of people working together generates chaos driven by the three-ring circus of human weaknesses.

Rampant nuttiness ranging from jealousy and revenge to arrogance and intimidation constantly tear at the fabric of any organization. Leaders who understand the value of a unified, agile team of people working to fulfill an inspiring vision need to expend oceans of energy to drown the demons of social chaos. That takes infinite commitment. I think that is easy to understand… but humility? What about humility? What I’ve come to understand about leadership humility is that it is not the ‘Aw shucks I’m nobody special’ kind.

Rather, it’s the humility of being keenly aware of the limits of your own knowledge and the fallibility of your own judgment.

It is open-mindedness. Of course nearly everyone claims to be open-minded. Who walks around beating their chest about their prejudices and unwillingness to entertain any newfangled ideas or different points of view? Yet those are the most common human behaviors of all. And unless we really work at it our inner voice is saying “I know I’m right, we disagree, therefore you must be wrong.”  Yes, we may act as if were open to new ideas and different points of view but our brains are wired for certainty not open-mindedness.

Much of the time our ‘humility’ is just an act. 

That’s why so many people are attracted to start up enterprises. Entrepreneurs frequently walk a tight rope were one false step can plunge the company into a crash dive. In those circumstances successful leaders are hungry learners. The best of them are passionately open-minded and constantly seeking the next best step necessary to create momentum and sustainable success.

And it turns out the most common characteristic of failed entrepreneurs is stubbornness… which is persistence without creativity.

Close minded passion is a kind of narcissistic poison. So, it appears Collins was dead right. Great leaders are both driven and humble; committed and open-minded. Rare qualities indeed. So how about you?

As the chief entrepreneur of your own career, are you at level five?

Do you have strongly held opinions about your career or your work that lead you to only look for evidence that confirms what you already believe? It is possible to reinvent your future. New research reveals that 93% of successful startups fundamentally change their business strategy in order to succeed. In other words the first business plan didn’t work.  It’s no shame if you’re stuck.  Just don’t spin your wheels. If things are not turning out the way you expected…stop doing what you’re doing.

Spend 30 minutes every morning for the next week reflecting on your deepest desires.

Ask “what’s something new that I could do that might get me on track…” that’s open-mindedness.  And if you are moving in the right direction, ask yourself “what can I do to accelerate progress?” Do that.

Note to women leaders:

I find that women are often a little too open minded in the workplace. It’s common for women to have a hard time saying “no” when other people want to mess with your agenda. You may have been so busy helping others achieve their goals that you become a bit timid in recruiting others to help you achieve yours.

So exercise your strong commitment muscles necessary for level five leadership. Don’t apologize for your vision, your goals and the fury of your commitment.

 

How Clear is Your Vision?

Posted on by Will Marre

The essential responsibility of a leaders is to form, hold and promote a clear version. Having a vision of a better future is both noble and powerful.

Virtually all that we have and enjoy that is worthwhile is the result of someone’s vision.

Great vision, world changing vision, focuses on one thing…creating new value. By that I don’t mean economic value. Creating value for shareholders or increasing your own net worth is a means, not an end. Making money is like food. It is necessary for survival because without it we starve. But being solely focused on making money is like centering your life on how much food you can eat…it will make you sick. The kind of value-vision I’m talking about is the seven core ways people’s lives get better. WHen I am helping people develop their vision, I start with a question like this:

How will you make people…

  1. healthier?
  2. happier?
  3. smarter?
  4. safer?
  5. more socially connected?
  6. economically secure?
  7. experience deeper meaning?

While there are other forms of value creation, there seven seem to get people thinking about creating value more than just harvesting it.

Notice that big vision is driven by what you can do for other people rather than tricking them into doing something for you. 

Lately, the news has been full of stories that illuminate failures of no vision. For instance, Microsoft finally threw their very bright and unimaginative CEO Steve Ballmer overboard. For years, Microsoft focused its mighty effort on harvesting the value of their Office software monopoly. The software itself has not materially improved in six or seven years. In fact, instead of making our lives easier, Office software has become bloated, clunkier and harder to use.

Meanwhile Microsoft has dabbled in things like Xbox, Bing, and MSN all of which are different but not better products than their competitors. With all the billions that Microsoft has and with their unique access to tens of millions of desktops around the world, you would think they could’ve come up with something that would truly make our lives better. But no, just a series of worse versions of old products.

There’s no doubt they could have done something big, like revolutionize worldwide education, which is the largest single economic enterprise in the world. 

After all, Microsoft has armies of very bright, well-meaning people. But without big vision, there is simply nothing. An now it appears that all the helium has gone out of Apple’s balloon. I truly hope Steve Jobs is on to better and bigger things. If he can see what is going on with his old company, he must be averting his eyes.

With nearly $150 billion in the bank, you think Apple could come up with something better than a new phone that is clearly worse than Samsung’s old one. It appears that the great and bold creators have been muzzled while harvesters are busy at work in the halls of Apple. With its oceans of goodwill, ability to attract genius-class talent and permission to be wildly creative, you think Apple would pursue the vision that would make us healthier, happier, smarter, safer, more connected, and more creative all wrapped in a “cloud” of meaning.

Instead we get a cheaper iPhone in pink…Awesome. And finally we come to Syria. Our leaders have had no big vision for a relationship with the Middle East for 50 years. Our interest in that region has been solely defined by extracting oil and protecting Israel. I am not so idealistic that I do not believe those goals are necessary. Yet, they’re simply not enough.

When either people or countries act only in their self-interest, they are neither loved nor trusted. 

Of course we need to do what’s necessary to stop the use of chemical weapons. But that’s not big vision. Big vision begins with how we might help the millions of Syrian refugees now living in Jordan and Turkey live a decent life. Perhaps if we spend our time and some of our enormous defense budget helping these suffering masses become healthier, happier, smarter and safer, they might feel more connected to us.

Our vision in the Middle East needs to focus on the younger and future generations who are much more likely to adopt the values of our Bill of Rights as they integrate them into their own traditions. General Patraeus became successful at stopping the civil war we triggered in Iraq in large part by creating trust between us and the warring factions driven by the values of tolerance and fairness and the vision of a better future.

Of course we left and it’s a mess again. The Middle East will not suddenly become a great place to live by liberating it militarily or manipulating it politically. The only investment that will ever payoff is the investment in ideas and ideals that actually create healthier, happier people. This will not be easy or simple or fast. It may take 50 years or two generations for universal human rights to be effectively embraced.

But if we don’t start now, where will be when every country has weapons of mass destruction because technology has made them so easy to build?

While it’s easy to take potshots at big companies and inept leaders, it’s harder to be self-critical. I frequently struggle with my own big vision as I begin what is likely to be the last lap of my race of life. While I many not have the assets of Microsoft of Apple or the responsibilities of creating peace, I have some role to play in my world I seem to wrestle daily with how to best invest my time in ways that might make others healthier, happier, smarter, more loved and more loving.

I am struck with how difficult it is to think in a big way without acting in small ways. My wife understands this far better than me. She is a hospice volunteer and a few nights ago we visited a 90-year-old bed-ridden woman in a clean but modest nursing home. Debbie simply fed her, brushed her hair and asked her about her life when she was a young mother.

In those few minutes of creating value for another human being, I experienced how a personal big vision changes the world. 

There is something infinite in the infinitesimal. I believe we all need a big vision…a vision for creating value for others right now, right where we are.

 

If You Love a Concept, Let It Go: Scaling Impact through Partnership

Posted on by Jacen Greene

“Possess something to make it profit you; take it as nothing to make it useful for you.” Laozi, Daodejing, Ryden translation. In his recent Stanford Social Innovation Review article “Scale = Partnership,” Roshan Paul argues that “the same market mechanism and economies of scale that enable a corporation to scale in the private sector don’t work as efficiently in the social sector.”

His analysis of an Ashoka Globalizer Program study show that the complexity of engaging new populations and the need for additional funding often scale faster than impact. True partnership – sharing your most important ideas and models – then becomes essential to successfully and rapidly scaling the impact of a beneficial innovation. What Roshan Paul fails to mention in his otherwise excellent article is that, put frankly, partnering sucks.

It’s hard, you no longer have full control over your own idea, and you don’t get all the credit for success. In a culture obsessed with the myth of the individual entrepreneur, there is very little incentive to share an innovative concept with outside partners. To create the greatest impact – ostensibly the primary goal of any true entrepreneur – therefore requires one of the most challenging tasks for any leader: giving up power and ignoring the demands of ego.

I’ve seen this become a stumbling block from some of the most promising social entrepreneurs I’ve worked with, but I’ve also seen it overcome with a surprising grace (although not necessarily with ease). One outstanding example is the development and launch of Central City Coffee, a gourmet coffee brand in Portland, Oregon that provides job training and employment to the formerly homeless and those in recovery. This social enterprise was developed in close partnership with a range of individuals and organizations, in a manner that could never have occurred with a singular owner.

Central City Coffee is a business program of Central City Concern (CCC), a nonprofit working to address homelessness and addiction in Portland, Oregon through a continuum of services including affordable housing, healthcare and recovery, job training and employment. Their major innovation, and success, lies in vertically integrating the essential services needed for someone to return to full self-sufficiency.

Despite this integration, partnerships remain an essential part of their model at all elves, from a manufacturer building bedbug-resistant bedframes developed by CCC staff to an employment program cleaning streets with the support of a local business alliance. Central City Coffee is a perfect example of this partnering model. Adrienne Karecki, then director of CCC’s business enterprises division, and David Griswold, founder of Sustainable Harvest, a social enterprise coffee importer, developed the original concept.

Both organizations were part of Portland State University’s (PSU) Social Innovation Incubator. As an employee of Sustainable Harvest at the time, I was tasked with moving the concept forward, but it quickly became clear that the company could not provide the type of support that CCC needed.

However, PSU MBA students working with the Incubator’s director, Cindy Cooper, had developed a feasibility study that showed the concept was viable – with a different approach. When I left Sustainable Harvest to become a freelance consultant, CCC hired me to refine the concept with extensive pro bono support form local coffee industry expert, Marcus Young.

We developed a partnership with Portland Roasting to handle the capital-intensive sourcing and roasting operations, while CCC would focus on the product development, marketing and sales of the new brand. Shortly before Adrienne left CCC, Marcus was hired to launch Central City Coffee. Their products are now available on store shelves. Central City Coffee was an example of leaders with a great idea sharing, supporting, and stepping away from it when needed – not based on their own interests, but with an understanding of what was necessary to make the venture successful.

The business was developed through extensive, evolving partnerships with individuals, businesses and universities. Each step of the way, Adrienne Karecki guided the process without ever compromising its ability to grow and scale. You won’t find her, or many of the other contributors, on the brand’s website – not because they’ve been left out, but because they don’t need to be listed. The company’s impact speaks for itself, and not to their egos.

As more businesses pursue collaboration in pursuit of greater impact, I hope they keep in mind Adrienne’s example: “The Sage acts but requires no thanks, accomplishes [her] tasks but does not abide in them” (Daodejing). Therein lies one of the most important approaches to authentic partnerships and real leadership.

Photo credit: Central Coffee Concern