After a 10-year study of over 24,000 employees across multinational
corporations, our team came to a startling conclusion about leadership: the more you develop yourself as a leader, the less of a leader you are.
How could this be? We ourselves were dumbfounded when we asked the
leaders of Fortune 500 companies for the key to their success. They each
had the same answer: “Don’t ask me. I didn’t do anything!”
Finally, however, the answer became very clear: the leader does not shape the organization. It’s the culture.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast, any day of the week. So the
successful leaders were the ones who stopped focusing on themselves, and
created a world class culture. This made their leadership appear
“effortless” to both them and everyone around them because they
leveraged the strength of the entire group, or as we say, “tribe.”
This leads to a very important finding: if you are empowering yourself instead of your tribe, you are hurting your company.
So it doesn’t matter how many books you read, it doesn’t matter how
much training you’ve had, it doesn’t even matter if you are strong at
execution. You could be checking off to-do’s left and right with
efficiency that would make David Allen cry, and yet still you would not
create a thriving organization.
Tribal Culture
We now know the key to having a world class organization is to
develop a world class culture. But what is culture exactly? And where
can it be seen?
A better question is actually where can culture be heard,
because culture lives in language. If you think about it, most of our
work is made up of communication…emails, meetings, documents, proposals,
instructions… they all live in the domain of language.
After 10 years of study we realized there are 5 stages of language that determine the culture of the tribe:
Stage 1 – “Life sucks”
Stage 1 – “Life sucks”
Here, people say life is unfair, and to survive, anything is
permissible. Stage 1 runs the show in criminal clusters, like gangs and
prisons, where the theme is “life sucks,” and people act out in
despairingly hostile ways. In a corporate sense, this could be seen in
the Post Office during the early 90’s.
Stage 2 - “MY life sucks.”
People in this stage are passively antagonistic, crossing their arms
in judgment yet never getting interested enough to spark any passion.
Their laughter is quietly sarcastic, resigned. Their speech deflects
accountability, instead placing blame for their situation on others.
Stage 3 - “I’m great”
“I’m great” or, more fully, “I’m great, and you’re not.” People at
this stage have to win, and winning is personal. They’ll out-work,
think, and manoeuvre their competitors. The mood that results is a
collection of “lone warriors,” wanting help and support and being
disappointed that others don’t have their ambition or skill. Most every
sentence includes “I,” “me,” or “my,” as in: “I work harder than anyone
else,” “I try harder,” and “I’m really good at my job.”
Stage 4 - “We’re great.”
Stage 4 is the zone of Tribal Leaders who focus people on their
aspirations, and define measurable ways to make a worldwide impact. At
Stage Four, people use “we” language, and the basis of comparison is
shared values. For example, you’ll hear: “We’re doing important work,”
“we work harder for our customers,” and “we win because we’re more
dedicated.” Stage 4 is by all accounts a superior culture. However there
is one higher stage, the upper echelon of organizations that is rarely
achieved. This is where the language shifts from “we’re better” to “we
can make a global impact.”
Stage 5 - “Life is great.”
Teams at Stage 5 have produced miraculous innovations. The team that
produced the first Macintosh was Stage 5, and we’ve seen this mood at
Amgen. At Stage 5, values and vision are the only compass—not relative
benchmarks against a competitive group. You’ll hear “we’re pioneers—no
one has been here before,” “our mission is all that matters,” and “if we
didn’t have our values, we wouldn’t know who we are.” The ultimate goal
is for a tribe to arrive at Stage 5. It is the place where
organizations stand to change the world.
As a leader, you may want to go directly to Stage 5. However, once
you understand the culture of your organization, it is only possible to
go from one stage to the next. In other words, if you are working with
people at Stage 2 who believe their life sucks (you can hear it in
phrases as simple as “I have way too much to work to do.”) your role as a
Tribal Leader it to advance them to Stage 3 where they realize they’re
great. Only then can they advance to Stage 4 as a team player.
Now that you know the language cues, listen for them in your own
company, and hear how the tribal culture and the success of the company
go hand in hand.
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