DRIVING SUPERHUMAN PERFORMANCE
Fueled by ambition and driven by results, chief executive officer’s grab for every lever to drive peak performance in their organizations. The most powerful tool of all is most often over looked. Legendary CEOs orchestrate the behavior of an entire company, across subsidiaries and geographies. The acme of which is delivering a collective superhuman performance and outperforming the market. At the root of our performance is our values, a subject which is rarely used as a tangible tool to drive organizational performance.
From before antiquity leaders have jostled for power and influence across the globe. Some have found success, others have been met with demise. For the most successful a unifying set of values underpins their campaign. For some it is the spread of democracy and free will, for others the expansion of a divinity that will pacify the world in religious hegemony, for others still they believe themselves to be the shadow of god on earth whose conquests will be the greatest contribution to humanity. This was in fact the belief of Ghengis Khan who had a deep belief in his divine purpose (albeit he was not religious), which is best illustrated in the above quote which he delivered to the people of the town of Otrar when he conquered it.
To believe you are the punishment of God speaks volumes of the value you have for your work. Ghengis had a deep sense of purpose and he gave an unwavering sense of identity to the Mongols. These intangibles drove their empire to stretch to greater lengths than any other that had been documented before it.
“O people, know that you have committed great sins, and that the great ones among you have committed these sins. If you ask me what proof I have for these words, I say it is because I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.” – Ghengis Khan
April 30th, 1945 was the day most historians account as the day Hitler died. His physical death is irrelevant, I would argue. What actually died that day was the popularity of his ideology, of a white supreme race which would dominate the world. The war was not against Hitler, it was against his values. A value system that moved both its protagonists and its antagonists to peak performance. Take away the contrasting value systems, remove the ideologies and both sides would not have performed as well as they did.
For example, during the second world war in the United States of America 17 million new civilian jobs were created, industrial productivity increased by 96 percent, and corporate profits after taxes doubled. African Americans and women became regarded as key contributors to the economy, which was not previously the case. The World Wars were a chrysalis of innovation and gave birth to a new pace of economic development. Without the vehement demurring of the Nazis’ ideals, the Amercian worker’s performance would have been a muted narrative of the mid-20th Century.
The Amercian leadership embraced the opportunity to leverage the differing value systems to produce superhuman performance in its populace, as did the Nazis, and as did Ghengis Khan many centuries earlier. Their ideologies, best described in terms of their values, drove their subjects to new heights and in fact defined them.
I would like to argue that the modern CEO can no longer simply look to accounting, finance, economics, or business functions such as supply chain or engineering to deliver a competitive advantage. As economies become more efficient, and industries one by one fall into pure competition markets, the opportunity gaps to deliver an alpha become less evident. Today CEOs are required to produce highly engaged teams which are capable of superhuman performance.
How do we achieve superhuman performance? Where does the secret to outperforming the competition lie? It lies in the root of any human behavior, our values. Take for example the stories of ordinary people who become extraordinary. The age old story of the mother who lifts a car to save her child or the parent who fights a wild animal off to save his family, are clear examples of ordinary people who are catapulted into superhuman performance as a result of their values.
In 2006 Lydia Angiyou, a 41-year old woman from Quebec Canada, single handedly fought a polar bear to save her son. Polar bears are the largest land predator and are capable of killing a lion or a tiger, not to mention a human being. What drove Lydia to such superhuman performance was the fact that she valued the life of her son more than her own life. She risked life and limb and was going to succeed or die trying.
When examining peak performance, we should ask ourselves what is that turns a coward into a hero, or makes a coward act bravely. Gandhi in his own biography writes that he was a coward and afraid of the dark growing up. How does a coward become one of the bravest and most influential leaders in Indian history? His value for the Indian identity was more valuable to him than his own life. As such, his leadership sparked the conflagration of the British empire in the subcontinent. A purpose he eventually succumbed too as he was assassinated. He met death with the complete absence of fear, his soul left his lifeless body leaving a smile on his face.
Great companies and organizations inculcate a deep value in their work and in doing so create the right environment to produce superhuman performance. For example, when I interviewed the CEO of one of the biggest media companies in the region, and asked him what was the toughest thing about his job he said “The hardest thing is losing team members. We have lost 18 people, who have risked their lives at different times to bring the Arabic perspective of the news to the world.”
He went on to explain that media is the fourth estate of society and provides an immeasurable service to the community. The news is so important that journalists, all over the world risk their lives to do their jobs. They extract an immense value in their work which goes far beyond the dollar they are paid to do their jobs.
On the other hand of the spectrum is the company which does the bare minimum to keep people from quitting and in return the people do the bare minimum not to get fired. Leaders in transactional companies will have little value for their product or service, only as much as it creates revenue and profits for them. They can be overly empirically focused and obsessed with the mechanics of business. That is, the tangible elements of business such as the business plan, the financial reports, key performance milestones and all the other physical elements of the business.
THE VALUE CONTINUUM
- “What we are doing is so important that we are willing to die for it.”
- “I believe in what this company stands for.”
- “I am here for the money.”
- “I will do the bare minimum not to get fired.”
On the other hand of the spectrum is the company which does the bare minimum to keep people from quitting and in return the people do the bare minimum not to get fired. This is what I call a transaction based company. They have little value for their product or service, only as much as it creates revenue and profits for them. They are often empirically focused and obsessed with the mechanics of business. That is the tangible elements of business such as the business plan, the financial reports, key performance milestones and all the other physical elements of the business.
I depict these companies on the right side of the graph below. This is what I call the “The Value Continuum” with value based companies on the left in which employees feel so strongly about what the organization is doing they are willing to die for the vision and mission of the Organisation. And on the right is the transaction based company in which the only value the employee is getting out of the job is the dollar value they are being paid to do it.
Every company exists at some point along the “The Value Continuum” and every CEO is somewhat responsible for where the company sits on the continuum. As I have argued earlier superhuman performance cannot be achieved with a leadership who only focuses on the tangible elements, but it is the realm of leaders who understand how to affect the intangible elements of business such as values, identity, and culture.
On the left side of the graph, in the value based organization, the individual employee identifies their sense of self with the organization. The individual’s values are accentuated by the organization, and in so doing the subconscious sense of self of the employee is tied to the company. In contrast, in the transactional company, the individual’s values are in contrast to the values of the company and in no way is the employee’s sense of self tied to the company.
For example, in the 2008 crisis the world turned to “banker bashing” as the media and public figures all over the world blamed the banking system for the financial crisis. Many banking CEOs handed in their resignations. They abdicated their corporate thrones at the first sign of trouble. “In contrast do you think the President of Doctors Without Borders, would resign if her organization suffered losses, even the tragic loss of life. She would not because her job is intimately tied to who she is as a person and her work has a tremendous sense of purpose.
She would not resign because her subconscious sense of self is partly tied to her profession as a humanitarian doctor. To resign from her post would in part be suicide of her self-identity. She most likely would not resign but rather she would work tirelessly to improve her organization and ensure its sustainability and advance its capabilities to fulfil the vision, mission, and strategy of Doctors Without Borders; a task she will continue as long as there is a breath in her body.”
| VALUE BASED ORGANIZATION | TRANSACTIONAL ORGANIZATION |
| The employees sense of self is attached to corporate identity and employees are proud to be identified with the company in public and in the community. Employees behave like owners of the company and promote the brand where ever they are, even when on vacation. The company’s identity enhances the identity of its staff. | The employees sense of self is detached from corporate identity. Employees are embarrassed to be associated with the company in public. A clear line is drawn between work life and personal life. The employee sees their sense of self as vastly different and separated from their career. |
| Super human performance. Employees will do what is necessary to ensure the company achieves its vision, mission and strategy. They will continually go above and beyond and will deliver innovative solutions, as well as products and services to exceed targets and organizational goals. | Pay for performance. Employees do their job and only their job. They will commonly see things which can be improved but will say “that is not my job”. They will never go above and beyond. Staff perform the bare minimum to complete their job tasks. |
| Employees extract a deep value from their work beyond their salaries. In extreme cases, this can have a value greater than their own life. | Employees value their work only in so much as the salary it provides for them. Value for their job is at par with the dollar value of their salary. |
| Employees are loyal to the brand and will not move for modest salary increases. | Employees are not loyal to the brand and can leave for a marginal increase in salary. Whomever pays them more is who they will work for. They have no loyalty. |
| Employees view their employer and their industry with tremendous value. They see their job as one of the most meaningful ways they can contribute to society, their nation and to the world at large. Employees often have a passionate direction in life and will not change course easily. | Employees will change employers whimsically. They will even change industries with no utility for their profession beyond the salary it provides for them. Industry agnostic they are void of any meaningful direction in life and hold little value for their profession and industry. They do not see the larger picture of how their profession is contributing to the community. |
The CEO and the senior leadership team is responsible for the collective subconscious of the organization. Whether intentionally or unintentionally they are creating the identity and culture of the company. Armed with tools from a previous century they march forward and speak the languages of strategy, economics, and high street finance eloquently in the board room and to their staff. All of which are focused on the tangible elements of business, none of which are capable of effectively discussing the human element of the business to any great extent, and definitely incapable of addressing the collective subconscious of the organization. Hence missing the greatest lever available to drive superhuman performance in the company.
When Boards and CEOs are committed to creating superhuman performance in their organizations, the first step is selecting leaders who have a deep and meaningful sense of purpose in their work and value for their professions. The identity of a company starts with the identity of its leadership. The next step is inculcating that sense of value and identity across all strata’s of the business, seeding the collective subconscious of the organization from the front lines to the board room.
At the Phillips Group, we are committed to helping you out perform your competition and our leadership services can ensure you are delivering an alpha over the market. Our services include strategic implementation, CEO succession planning, executive search and selection, as well as an array of peak performance offerings.
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