Indispensable
Are you indispensable?
We are repeatedly told that everyone is replaceable. True?
It is part of the brainwashing system that was designed 300 years ago to convert masses of people to the industrial revolution. Prior the industrial revolution economies were led by artists and artisans who created products. Adam’s Smith’s Wealth of Nations paved the way to businesses to break production of goods into small tasks that can be carried out by low-paid people following simple instructions. Why hire highly paid super-talented people when you can produce thousand times more products by compliant, low-paid, replaceable people running efficient machines?
The industrial revolution represents the old economy. The new economy, we are part of, is the information and communication revolution. The old economy advancements, like transportation, shaped our physical life. The new economy developments are transforming our intellectual life, from education, connectivity, entertainment and more. In the new economy the very last people we need on our teams are the well-paid bureaucrats, note takers, manual followers, bored laborers and fearful employees.
In the new economy we need a new type of leader. We need original thinkers, provocateurs and risk takers. We need marketers that can make human connections and passionate change agents who are willing to face rejection.
The old economy shaped our lives in a way that is contrary to the needs of the new economy. Our education systems put more effort into developing efficient, obedient subservient workers than creative, interactive, emotional and artistic contributors. Kids are a great example as to how artistic creativity can be “taught out” and overtaken by obedience.
In the old economy we:
Follow instructions.
Show up on time.
Work hard.
Suck it up.
In the new economy we:
Connect people and ideas.
Create.
Make judgment calls.
Forge new paths that have been never walked previously.
Seth Godin, the founder and CEO of Squidoo.com and the author of many best-sellers, calls the indispensable leader a linchpin. In his book Linchpin he claims that entrepreneurs and CEOs of companies like Steve Jobs at Apple, Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes at Facebook are linchpins in their organizations. A linchpin is an essential part of hardware. Every successful organization has at least one linchpin; some have dozens or even hundreds. The linchpin is the essential part that holds part of the operation together. Without the linchpin, it all falls apart.
Is there anyone in an organization who is totally irreplaceable? Probably not; but it is so difficult, so risky or so costly to replace linchpins, that it better not to.
What does it take to become an indispensable leader in the new economy?
Personal Art
Map-less Navigation
Emotional Connectivity.
We all have them all. We just have to invigorate them.
Unique Art
An artist is a person with a brain for finding a new way of getting things done. An artist is a person who looks for new answers where nobody else is looking. An artist is a person who finds new connections that brings it all together and makes a difference.
This genius is within all of us but old economy adapted parents, teachers, managers, spouses and friends pushed our real talents under layers of behaviors which are nothing but killers of our natural talents. We have to rediscover our natural-born instincts. We have art in ourselves, though sometimes it’s buried. It’s time for us to be remarkable. Contribute. Innovate. Take a risk that might upset someone. Demonstrate initiative, innovation and insight. We will be delighted with our inner selves.
We have been trained to believe that having Unique Art is a genetic fact. It is interesting to note that our artistic interests are switched on when we are kids but slowly fade away after a few years of schooling and work.
Emotional Connectivity
Most of us reserve our best emotional competencies for our private life. We rarely bring them to work. We expect to work and get paid. Don’t we? Shouldn’t we bring our generosity, spirituality, creativity and emotions to our workplace?
The human race has learned reciprocity in order to survive. The caveman gave away something to a neighboring tribe. The other tribe reciprocated. This was how people connected millions years ago as Marcel Mauss wrote in his research. Giving was the real power. In the caveman culture the more we gave, the more we were perceived as powerful leaders. We have so much to give to others. We can give a smile, an encouraging word, a requested help and sincere empathy. This is all it takes to connect emotionally with others. We give free-gifts that we are all rich with.
Map-Less Navigation
What does it take to lead?
The ability to discover a path from one place to another that hasn’t been paved. So many times we are waiting for someone to tell us what to do. So many times it is exactly when we shouldn’t.
The biggest challenges in navigating our own way and creating our own map are the biases, expectations and experiences that shape the way we perceive the world. These perceptions might be extremely far away from reality. No one has a completely subjective view of the world. The true secret is to detach ourselves of our pre-conceived notions and perceptions. This is the ability to view life without attachment. If we develop the skill to see things without attachment we will become an asset to any organization because this is what great artists do. The diamond cutter doesn’t imagine the diamond he wants. Instead, he sees the diamond that is possible by touching the stone and seeing exactly where the best lines are. No single diamond is the same as another.
Most psychologists agree that there are five traits that are essential in how people perceive us: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability. Not surprisingly, these traits are also great leadership qualities.
What does it mean for us?
If 100 years ago we needed to be able to lift heavy weight to be an asset to an organization, nowadays we have to enhance our personalities to be beneficial. In order to succeed in connecting with people, we have to develop each of the five elements. Investing time and effort to connect with people will pay off the most. Providing expertise by itself is rarely sufficient to become indispensable. Combining knowledge with smart judgment and generous contributions makes the difference. A leader who nurtures relationships is indispensable.
Bring it all together…
The indispensable leader is the one who delivers unique art, connects emotionally with others and navigates new routes by creating they own maps. The indispensable leader doesn’t wait for a paralyzed crowd to figure out what to do next. The indispensable leader excels in situations of great complexity when it’s impossible to follow a manual…because there is none.
Two mistakes to avoid…
Too often, great ideas are shot down in organizations. They are not rejected because they were wrong but because the person selling them doesn’t have the stature or track record to sell them. If the Financial Controller has a great marketing idea, it is better he or she will sell it first to the Marketing team and let them do the sell to the rest of the organization. If a new comer is suggesting a new revolutionary strategy straight to the Board of Directors, it is better he will sell it first to his or her team or wait to gain trust and rapport on his or her new post. The more we focus on making changes that work down rather than up the organizational hierarchy, the better our chances to succeed in creating a new environment. Ultimately, good changes will be adopted by everyone.
Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others
Do you remember the years after graduation? We were learning new skills, accumulating knowledge, becoming an expert in our field and earning higher salaries as we scaled the corporate ladder.
Our career soared until it stalled. Why?
Careers can ride on professional knowledge just for a certain distance. Sooner or later, gracefully or brutally, rapidly or slowly, we will discover that leadership is more about who we are than what we do.
Goethe wrote “before you can do something you must be something”. We cannot be the inspirational leaders we hope to be if we feel miserable and depressed. We cannot inspire people to excel if we are unmotivated. We cannot lead teams to victory if we do not feel victorious.
There is an old story that brings home this point: A father was relaxing on a couch after a long day at the office reading a newspaper. His son playing around him disturbed his peaceful moments of the day. The father, fed up, ripped out a picture of the globe that was in the paper and tore it into as many tiny pieces as he could. ‘Son, can you try to put this globe together?’ asked the dad, hoping this would keep the little boy busy long enough to finish reading the paper. He was stunned when his son returned after a few minutes with the glob perfectly reassembled. ‘How did you it son?’ asked the astonished father. The kid smiled and replied ‘Daddy, on the other side of the globe there was a picture of a person. Once I got the person together, the world was okay’.
Success begins within. It all starts by getting ourselves together. Once we do, our own world will be okay. We see the world not as it is, but as we are. By improving, refining and defining who we are, we see the world from more enlightened perspectives.
Leadership of others begins with our internal leadership. If we want to continue to grow we have to continue developing ourselves toward what we want to be as human beings. Self-awareness provides us the tools to achieve our goals in our working place, family, community and relationship.
We need to stop running if not completely clear on the ultimate destination. We may run the wrong way. Taking time for reflection and introspection allows us to analyze what to do and how to make continual improvements.
My personal growth starts with reading uplifting books for at least thirty minutes a day. Knowledge provides a great path to self awareness. You are probably thinking ‘how can I find additional 30 minutes every day to read? Reading comes in many shapes and styles. Reading is a metaphor of gaining new knowledge continuously. Whether you read a book, listen to MP3 audio book, attend a seminar or read an ebook on your tablet, mobile or computer, you enrich your mind.
Every problem you want to solve, the solution lies within you. New knowledge will help you identify and act on it. Every mistake in life has already been made by somebody who wrote about it. If we want to be better communicators, superior parents, lovers and friends, reading and knowledge can guide us.
If you do not work from home, you probably have on average at least 30 minutes commuting to your workplace. Make it into your mobile university. Convert your toilet into a library. It just means making the commitment.
The type of person we will become in 5 years from now depends on the knowledge that we gain and the decisions we make because of this knowledge. Would you appreciate spending a few hours with Barack Obama or Bill Clinton? Do you want Dale Carnegie or Napoleon Hill to be your personal coach? Would you mind to be mentored by Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa? Or maybe learn creative thinking from Thomas Edison, Ben Franklin and Alexander Graham Bell? It’s all in books.
Leaders commit to a lifelong learning. Learning no longer ends when we finish our last exam. It must continue as long as we live. Before we lead others we should lead ourselves. Self-awareness, reflection and introspection are proven ways to know ourselves and, hence, become role models to the people around us whether they are our colleagues, friends, spouses and children.
They expect us to be at our best.
The Real Secret
In 2006, a film named The Secret was distributed virally through the internet followed subsequently by a book. In no-time The Secret became a cultural and social phenomenon attracting interest from media figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres and Larry King and criticism from the mainstream press.
The Secret consists of a series of interviews related to the idea of optimist thinking. It states that everything you want may be accomplished by wishing for it. This is called the Law of Attraction. As described in the film, the “Law of Attraction” principle states that feelings and thoughts can attract events, from the workings of the cosmos and interactions among individuals in their physical, emotional, and professional affairs.
The Secret lists three required steps — “ask, believe and receive” — as the essence of the Law of Attraction:
Ask
Know what you want and ask the universe for it. This is where you need to get clear about what it is you want to create and visualize what you want as being as ‘real’ as possible.
Believe
Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way. Focus your thoughts and your words on what it is you want to attract even if you have to trick yourself into believing it.
Receive
Be open to receiving it. Pay attention to your intuitive messages and signs from the Universe to help you along the way as assurance you are on the ‘right’ path. As you align yourself with the Universe and open yourself up to receiving, the very thing you want to manifest will show up.
New Thought and the Law of Attraction
Essentially, The Secret is … touting the principles of the New Thought movement that began in the late 19th century as the historical basis for their ideas.
The idea stated in the Law of Attraction was used widely by New Thought writers. They referred to the idea that thoughts influence chance. The Law of Attraction argues that thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) can affect things outside the head, not just through motivation, but by other means.
Various scientists have stated that many of the Law’s claims are impossible, violating scientific principles and a scientific understanding of the universe. Instead, the Law may be explained as an illusion created by the connection between self-confidence and success or by one’s own perception, like the placebo effect.
I watched The Secret with my family after it was released in 2007. Even my 9 year old daughter was fascinated with the film and glued to the screen. The idea that my kids will believe that they just have to ask, believe and receive what they want, scared me. If this is true all of us would be healthy, wealthy and successful. But this is not the case.
It is a dangerous belief, and unfortunately a popular one based on the success of The Secret, that you just have to think about what you want to get it.
I have no doubt that positive thinking, optimism and creative visualization are important. But an important foundation for success in life was not mentioned in The Secret.
Rhonda Byrne, The Secret creator, told a Newsweek interviewer that her inspiration for creating The Secret was her exposure to Wallace Wattles’s book The Science of Getting Rich. Reading The Science of Getting Rich will no doubt leave you feeling that the most important foundations of success were neglected in The Secret.
The first foundation is Effective Action.
Wattles writes that thought is the force that causes the creative power to work for us but we must not rely upon thought alone, ignoring action. This is where thought and action meet. Wattless suggests that action will be taken a in certain way. We must act effectively now!
We have to act decisively, effectively and efficiently. We don’t want to procrastinate with our decisions and actions resulting from our thoughts.
There is no other time than now. The past is history and the future does not exist yet. We even don’t have any guarantees that we will make it to the future. Every thought should be converted to action at the current moment. How many times we told ourselves “we’ll start it tomorrow, next week, next month, next year…and we never started”. When tomorrow, next week, next month or next year arrived…we were busy with something else that consumes our attention, focus and priority.
The second foundation is Enhancement.
As leaders, or just human beings, our main goal is to enhance, advance and enrich every person we come in touch with. We inspire, encourage and motivate everybody around us. Everybody wants to enhance life. Everybody wants more of his or her life. We have something to give to somebody else that is just looking for that something. We just have to make a conscience decision to act on it. Teachers, physicians, psychologists are professions that enhance other people lives. But it doesn’t mean that each of us in our own roles of profession, family and community cannot find a way to enhance other peoples’ lives.
Sure we can!
Whether you work as an accountant, customer support, salesperson, administrative assistant or clerk, you have something unique that can enhance, enrich and advance other peoples’ lives. If we find it, we will redefine our purpose and start a new journey toward our true life mission, success and leadership.
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