Better Than You - People Trust

Each leader would do well to ask himself two questions in evaluating his leadership:

“Do I hire people who are better than myself at the task?”

“Am I in this for the betterment of the organization or myself?”

So many leaders fail to hire excellent people because they feel threatened or because control of the effort and being “at the top of the pile” are essential to their personal success. These leaders have been burned by other leaders and know that up and coming excellent leaders often intentionally fight for the leader job or become the replacement for the leader when something goes wrong. To these leaders, the guy or gal who can do the task as best as it possibly can be done without having the ability to supplant him as leader is the prime choice for hiring. The equation is constantly a balance between getting the best performance without having your leadership threatened.

One would have to ultimately observe that such a leader is out for his own betterment before the betterment of the organization.

However, there are many great leaders who are in it for themselves. Their drive to generate money, self esteem, success or fame pushes them to great heights. Such leaders are even most often leading people to great places in an unselfish way. These leaders are extremely interested in their success, but that does not stop them from being smart – after all, smarter equals more success. Smart leaders hire, place and promote people who are great at the task so that the effort succeeds. Smart leaders know that, as Collins says, “you get the right people and then worry about what you are going to do.” However, if the leader knows the task at hand and can find people great at the task – then he has a superior combination. His personal success will reflect the tremendous success of the effort.

So even the leader who is really in for his betterment and who is smart will hire people better than himself at the task. Why? Though such people could threaten his leadership or personal success, he knows that their success fuels his success as long as he can stay on target and make the organization succeed. He understands that his long term personal success (and his value to other entities) is based on the organization succeeding.

Take for example the junk bond leader. The successful junk bond leader wooed millions of people to invest in garbage and made millions of dollars in the short term. His ability to get a job after the crash of the junk bond market was questionable. His ethics were questionable. His ability to lead people who had seen others burnt is non-existent. His effort did not succeed long term, and it affected not only long term profitability but his long term credibility.

So the insecure, selfish and scary leader that won’t allow great people to flourish or be found in the organization is not who organizations want. The self motivated leader who is not smart – that is, he is not interested in long term success – is not who organizations want. The best leader so far is the smart, self motivated leader that understand the equation: organization success = my success so great people are what I need.

But what if – an organization could find a leader that hired others who were better than himself and who valued the success of the organization as the ultimate goal? Collins (the author of “Good to Great”) describes a leader close to this type in his concept of a “Level 5 Leader”. Thom S. Raines describes a leader close to this type in his concept of an “Acts 6/7” leader. But even those leaders fail to meet this stringent criteria. This criteria is best exemplified in a familiar quote:

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. “

Jesus

Restated it might be:

“Greater desire for success has no one than this, that he lay down his personal success for the success of the organization.”

People often think of success in dollars and cents and size, but there are so many great leaders who have led tremendous efforts in impossible environments ensuring that the organization or effort succeeded regardless of the benefit to themselves. Mother Theresa is a great example to which we could add countless others.

But what if – an organization could find a leader like this for their effort? What if the passionate, self-denying, organization-promoting individual could be found to lead that organization? The result would be incredible. The result would be like the old and most successful days of IBM when Corporate life exceeded individual life. Leaders and followers were selected and groomed based on their ability to find success in the success of the effort.

A great leader will lay down his life for what is great and go beyond the safety or profit of his world to ensure that the organization has the best people possible in the right spots. He will neither hinder the growth of great people nor prevent great people from joining the effort. He will benefit everyone even if no one knows his name. He will succeed personally in the very act of not being concerned about his success.

This leader will build a legacy to benefit many in the future by investing in the long term success of the organization. This leader would readily leave an incredible effort rather than hinder it. This leader will trust the people, the great people, to become selfless leaders like himself so that the organization can succeed. This is character, and this character lets him trust the people.