Einstein,
The Universe,
And Leadership
by Brent Filson
________________________________________________
Ever
since serving a hitch in the military, I have been nagged by the question
that's been hanging around leadership since time immemorial: How can
some leaders persuade people to believe in them and follow them and
other leaders can't? But it wasn't the military that provided me with
a framework to answer that question. It was Albert Einstein and his
quest for the unified field theory of the universe.
Einstein
is well known for his special and general theories of relativity,
two of the crowning intellectual achievements of the 20th century.
But what he is not so well known for is a magnificent quest that he
carried on for some 30 years — and ultimately failed in. That
was his quest for a unified field theory of the universe. And it was
a quest that inspired me, in my small way, to find an answer to the
leadership question.
Einstein's
special theory combined space and time into a single concept known
as the space-time continuum. He spent the rest of his life failing
to develop a unified field theory that incorporated gravity into the
electromagnetic field. But it wasn't his trying to solve the conundrums
of physics that inspired me. It was his trying to unify the grand
forces of the universe that's so compelling.
Just
as there are grand forces driving the activities of the universe,
I'm convinced that there are grand forces driving the activities of
leadership. Whether we are talking about small or large organizations,
organizations of butchers, bakers or candlestick makers, the same
leadership forces — leadership laws, if you will — apply.
Or at least that I was my theory, that was my quest: to find the laws
of leadership, if they did indeed exist, and then show how those laws
can be applied in any organizational challenge. In short, we can have
a "unified field theory of leadership."
I
won't go into the details of how I came to develop the theory —
only that after a quest of several decades, working with leaders of
all stripes, I developed what I call the Unified Field Theory of Leadership
Success. I'm certainly not unifying such grand concepts as gravity
and the electromagnetic field; but my theory, in its small way, has
helped many leaders around the world raise their leadership effectiveness
to much higher levels.
Here
then is the Unified Field Theory of Leadership Success. It is not
magic dust to transform you into a great leader. It is instead a polestar
to guide and help you invigorate your leadership and communication
efforts.
The
UFTLS is expressed as a series of four propositions.
—
Business success happens when people get results. Clearly, this is
not some strange, UFO- like concept. Instead, it is a BFO
—
a Blinding Flash of the Obvious. Yet obvious or not, it is ignored
by many leaders
—
too many leaders. Too many leaders focus on enabling such drivers
as quality initiatives, reengineering projects, and cost-cutting programs
— at the expense of the people who must animate those drivers.
For instance, I know of a company that is engaged in the fourth major
restructuring in the past half dozen years.
Three
of those initiatives have failed, mainly because they ignored the
human/leadership aspect. In fact, I propose that the new initiative
is doomed to fail too.
It's
obvious why: instead of being driven by a compelling market strategy,
strong products, or a vision of marketplace leadership, this new restructuring
is being driven by a new computer system! The officers are restructuring
the company primarily to better employ that system, not to better
employ people for results. I daresay the light that they may perceive
to be at the end of the tunnel will turn out in truth to be a search
party looking for survivors.
—Leaders
do nothing more important than have people get results. Another seemingly
obvious statement. Yet when I give talks to leaders around the world,
and ask them, "What is the most important thing you do as a leader?"
some 95 percent of them give every answer but this one. This is the
only right answer.
Understand
the power in the seeming passiveness of "have." Leaders
cannot get results by themselves. They need others to help get those
results. Today, with speed, flexibility, and teamwork being driving
competitiveness, the control-freak order-leader who must tyrannize
and micro manage can't compete against the leader who can build and
motivate teams to get results. In short, the leader who can "have"
others get results.
—The
best way to have people get results is not to order them but to motivate
them. Like leadership purpose, motivation is another concept that
is misunderstood by many leaders. If we misunderstand the concept
of motivation, how in the world can we motivate anybody to do anything?
Here are the four "eternal truths" of motivation:
A.
Motivation is not something people think or feel but what they physically
do. Only when people take physical action can they in truth be defined
as "motivated."
B.
Motivation is not something we can do to anyone. We as leaders can
only communicate. The people we want to motivate must motivate themselves.
The motivatee and the motivator are always the same person.
C.
Motivation is driven by emotion. In fact, the words emotion and motivation
come from the same Latin root, meaning "to move." When we
want to move people, motivate people, to take action, we engage their
emotions.
D.
Motivation
happens best when it is triggered by face-to-face speech.
—We
lead well only when the people we lead are leading well. Let's throw
out the old concept of leadership. That concept is based on the idea
of "followership"
—
successful leaders being the ones who got people to follow them. Baloney!
Today, the speed and scope of change in the marketplace demand a new
vision of leadership, leadership that can not only deal with that
change but actually speed it up and make opportunities of it. That
vision is this fourth proposition. How many times have we heard this
seeming praise, "They're such great leaders, they can't be replaced!"
Within
the terms of the new leadership dynamics, those "great, irreplaceable
leaders" are in truth poor leaders that should be gotten rid
of! If the leader's function is to have others get results, then the
best way is not simply to motivate them but to motivate them to lead
others to get those results. When we challenge our leaders to truly
lead, we change their world and ours. Only then are we leading well.
Those
are the four propositions of the Unified Field Theory of Leadership
Success. Einstein failed in his quest for a unified field theory;
but the success or failure of this Theory of Leadership rests with
you. Put it into action. Guided by its ideas, develop strategies,
processes, and leadership skills.
When
you do, I can't promise that you will develop an e=mc2-like revelation,
but you will start on the road to being a better leader. Because the
four propositions do provide defining differences between leaders.
Those differences are not as grand as the differences between gravity
and electromagnetic fields, but they can help you do that very simple,
down-to-earth thing that your career, that any career, rests on: lead.
**
Contact
Information:
Brent Filson
Founder & President
The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.
413-458-4403
http://www.actionleadership.com/
Email: Brent@actionleadership.com
