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Moments of Greatness

Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership

by Robert E. Quinn

Included with this full-text

Harvard Business Review

article:

The Idea in Brief—the core idea

The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work

1

Article Summary

2

Moments of Greatness: Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership

A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further

exploration of the article’s ideas and applications

11

Further Reading

Leaders are at the top of their

game when they act from

their deepest values and

instincts. Usually they tap into

these fundamental qualities

during a crisis, but it’s possible

to do so anytime—in the right

frame of mind.

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page 1

The Idea in Brief The Idea in Practice

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Like all leaders, sometimes you’re “on,” and

sometimes you’re not. How to tip the scale

toward excellence and away from mere

competence? Don’t rely on imitating other

leaders or poring over leadership manuals.

Instead, enter the

fundamental state of leadership:

the way you lead when a crisis

forces you to tap into your deepest values

and instincts. In this state, you instinctively

know what to do: You rise to the occasion

and perform at your best.

Fortunately, you don’t need a crisis to shift

into the fundamental state of leadership.

You can do so any time (before a crucial

conversation, during a key meeting) by ask-

ing four questions:

•

“Am I results centered?”

—Have you ar-

ticulated the result you want to create?

•

“Am I internally directed?”

—Are you

willing to challenge others’ expecta-

tions?

•

“Am I other focused?”

—Have you put

your organization’s needs above your

own?

•

“Am I externally open?”

—Do you recog-

nize signals suggesting the need for

change?

No one can operate at the top of their

game 24/7. But each time you enter the

fundamental state of leadership, you make

it easier to return to that state again. And

you inspire others around you to higher lev-

els of excellence.

To enter the fundamental state of leadership, follow these steps:

1. Recognize you’ve already been there. You’ve faced great challenges before, and in

surmounting them, you entered the fundamental state. By recalling these moments’ lessons,

you release positive emotions and see new possibilities for your current situation.

2. Analyze your current state. Compare your normal performance with what you’ve done at

your very best. You’ll fuel a desire to elevate what you’re doing now and instill confidence that

you can reenter the fundamental state.

3. Ask the four questions.

Example:

John Jones, a successful change leader, had turned around two struggling companies in his

corporation. Promised the presidency of the largest company when the incumbent retired,

he was told meanwhile to bide his time overseeing a dying company’s “funeral.” He deter-

mined to turn it around. After nine months, though, he’d seen little improvement. Employees

weren’t engaged.

To enter the fundamental state, John asked:

• “Am I results oriented?” He suddenly envisioned a new strategy for his struggling com-

pany, along with a plan (including staff reassignments) for implementing it. With a clear,

compelling strategy in mind, his energy soared.

• “Am I internally directed?” He realized that his focus on the promised plum job had prevented

him from doing the hard work needed to motivate his company’s people to give more.

• “Am I other focused?” He decided to turn down the presidency in favor of rescuing his

failing company—a course truer to his leadership values. He thus traded personal security

for a greater good.

• “Am I externally open?” He stopped deceiving himself into thinking he’d done all he could

for his failing company and realized he had the capacity to improve things.

BY ASKING . . . YOU SHIFT FROM . . . TO . . .

Am I results centered? Remaining in your comfort zone and

solving familiar problems

Moving toward possibilities that

don’t yet exist

Am I internally directed? Complying with others’ expectations

and conforming to existing

conditions

Clarifying your core values, acting

with authenticity and confidence,

and willingly initiating productive

conflict

Am I other focused? Allowing pursuit of your own self-

interest to shape your relationships

Committing to the collective good in

your organization—even at per-

sonal cost

Am I externally open? Controlling your environment, mak-

ing incremental changes, and relying

on established routines

Learning from your environment, ac-

knowledging the need for major

change, and departing from routines

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by Robert E. Quinn

harvard business review • july–august 2005 page 2

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Leaders are at the top of their game when they act from their deepest

values and instincts. Usually they tap into these fundamental qualities

during a crisis, but it’s possible to do so anytime—in the right frame of

mind.

As leaders, sometimes we’re truly “on,” andsometimes we’re not. Why is that? What sepa-rates the episodes of excellence from those ofmere competence? In striving to tip the bal-ance toward excellence, we try to identifygreat leaders’ qualities and behaviors so wecan develop them ourselves. Nearly all corpo-rate training programs and books on leader-ship are grounded in the assumption that weshould study the behaviors of those who havebeen successful and teach people to emulatethem.

But my colleagues and I have found thatwhen leaders do their best work, they don’tcopy anyone. Instead, they draw on their ownfundamental values and capabilities—operat-ing in a frame of mind that is true to them yet,paradoxically, not their normal state of being. Icall it the

fundamental state of leadership

. It’sthe way we lead when we encounter a crisisand finally choose to move forward. Thinkback to a time when you faced a significant lifechallenge: a promotion opportunity, the risk ofprofessional failure, a serious illness, a divorce,

the death of a loved one, or any other majorjolt. Most likely, if you made decisions not tomeet others’ expectations but to suit what youinstinctively understood to be right—in otherwords, if you were at your very best—you roseto the task because you were being tested.

Is it possible to enter the fundamental stateof leadership without crisis? In my work coach-ing business executives, I’ve found that if weask ourselves—and honestly answer—just fourquestions, we can make the shift at any time.It’s a temporary state. Fatigue and external re-sistance pull us out of it. But each time wereach it, we return to our everyday selves a bitmore capable, and we usually elevate the per-formance of the people around us as well. Overtime, we all can become more effective leadersby deliberately choosing to enter the funda-mental state of leadership rather than waitingfor crisis to force us there.

Defining the Fundamental State

Even those who are widely admired for theirseemingly easy and natural leadership skills—




presidents, prime ministers, CEOs—do notusually function in the fundamental state ofleadership. Most of the time, they are in theirnormal state—a healthy and even necessarycondition under many circumstances, but notone that’s conducive to coping with crisis. Inthe normal state, people tend to stay withintheir comfort zones and allow external forcesto direct their behaviors and decisions. Theylose moral influence and often rely on rationalargument and the exercise of authority tobring about change. Others comply with whatthese leaders ask, out of fear, but the result isusually unimaginative and incremental—andlargely reproduces what already exists.

To elevate the performance of others, wemust elevate ourselves into the fundamentalstate of leadership. Getting there requires ashift along four dimensions. (See the exhibit“There’s Normal, and There’s Fundamental.”)

First, we move from being comfort centeredto being results centered. The former feels safebut eventually leads to a sense of languishingand meaninglessness. In his book

The Path ofLeast Resistance,

Robert Fritz carefully ex-plains how asking a single question can moveus from the normal, reactive state to a muchmore generative condition. That question isthis: What result do I want to create? Giving anhonest answer pushes us off nature’s path ofleast resistance. It leads us from problem solv-ing to purpose finding.

Second, we move from being externally di-rected to being more internally directed. Thatmeans that we stop merely complying withothers’ expectations and conforming to thecurrent culture. To become more internally di-rected is to clarify our core values and increaseour integrity, confidence, and authenticity. Aswe become more confident and more authen-tic, we behave differently. Others must makesense of our new behavior. Some will be at-tracted to it, and some will be offended by it.That’s not prohibitive, though: When we aretrue to our values, we are willing to initiatesuch conflict.

Third, we become less self-focused andmore focused on others. We put the needs ofthe organization as a whole above our own.Few among us would admit that personalneeds trump the collective good, but the im-pulse to control relationships in a way thatfeeds our own interests is natural and normal.That said, self-focus over time leads to feel-

ings of isolation. When we put the collectivegood first, others reward us with their trustand respect. We form tighter, more sensitivebonds. Empathy increases, and cohesion fol-lows. We create an enriched sense of commu-nity, and that helps us transcend the conflictsthat are a necessary element in high-performingorganizations.

Fourth, we become more open to outsidesignals or stimuli, including those that requireus to do things we are not comfortable doing.In the normal state, we pay attention to sig-nals that we know to be relevant. If they sug-gest incremental adjustments, we respond. If,however, they call for more dramatic changes,we may adopt a posture of defensiveness anddenial; this mode of self-protection and self-deception separates us from the ever-changingexternal world. We live according to an out-dated, less valid, image of what is real. But inthe fundamental state of leadership, we aremore aware of what is unfolding, and we gen-erate new images all the time. We are adap-tive, credible, and unique. In this externallyopen state, no two people are alike.

These four qualities—being results cen-tered, internally directed, other focused, andexternally open—are at the heart of positivehuman influence, which is generative and at-tractive. A person without these four charac-teristics can also be highly influential, but hisor her influence tends to be predicated onsome form of control or force, which does notusually give rise to committed followers. Byentering the fundamental state of leadership,we increase the likelihood of attracting oth-ers to an elevated level of community, a high-performance state that may continue evenwhen we are not present.

Preparing for the Fundamental State

Because people usually do not leave their com-fort zones unless forced, many find it helpfulto follow a process when they choose to enterthe fundamental state of leadership. I teach atechnique to executives and use it in my ownwork. It simply involves asking four aware-ness-raising questions designed to help us tran-scend our natural denial mechanisms. Whenpeople become aware of their hypocrisies,they are more likely to change. Those who arenew to the “fundamental state” concept, how-ever, need to take two preliminary steps be-

Robert E. Quinn

([email protected]) is the Margaret Elliott Tracy Colle-giate Professor of Business Administra-tion in the organization and manage-ment group at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor. His most recent book is

Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide for Leading Change

(Jossey-Bass, 2004). Additional tools for enter-ing the fundamental state of leadership are available at Deepchange.com.


mailto:[email protected]




fore they can understand and employ it.

Step 1: Recognize that you have previouslyentered the fundamental state of leadership.

Every reader of this publication has reached,at one time or another, the fundamental stateof leadership. We’ve all faced a great personalor professional challenge and spent time inthe dark night of the soul. In successfullyworking through such episodes, we inevitablyenter the fundamental state of leadership.

When I introduce people to this concept, Iask them to identify two demanding experi-ences from their past and ponder what hap-pened in terms of intention, integrity, trust,and adaptability. At first, they resist the exer-cise because I am asking them to revisittimes of great personal pain. But as they re-count their experiences, they begin to seethat they are also returning to moments ofgreatness. Our painful experiences oftenbring out our best selves. Recalling the les-sons of such moments releases positive emo-tions and makes it easier to see what’s possi-ble in the present. In this exercise, I askpeople to consider their behavior duringthese episodes in relation to the characteris-tics of the fundamental state of leadership.(See the exhibit “You’ve Already Been There”for analyses of two actual episodes.)

Sometimes I also ask workshop partici-pants to share their stories with one another.Naturally, they are reluctant to talk about

such dark moments. To help people open up,I share my own moments of great challenge,the ones I would normally keep to myself. Byexhibiting vulnerability, I’m able to win thegroup’s trust and embolden other people toexercise the same courage. I recently ran aworkshop with a cynical group of executives.After I broke the testimonial ice, one of theparticipants told us of a time when he had ac-cepted a new job that required him to relo-cate his family. Just before he was to start, hisnew boss called in a panic, asking him to cuthis vacation short and begin work immedi-ately. The entire New England engineeringteam had quit; clients in the region had nosupport whatsoever. The executive started hisjob early, and his family had to navigate themove without his help. He described the nextfew months as “the worst and best experi-ence” of his life.

Another executive shared that he’d foundout he had cancer the same week he was pro-moted and relocated to Paris, not knowinghow to speak French. His voice cracked as herecalled these stressful events. But then hetold us about the good that came out ofthem—how he conquered both the diseaseand the job while also becoming a more au-thentic and influential leader.

Others came forward with their own sto-ries, and I saw a great change in the group.The initial resistance and cynicism began to

There’s Normal, and There’s Fundamental

Under everyday circumstances, leaders can remain in their normal state of being and do what they need to do. But some challenges require a heightened perspective—what can be called the fundamental state of leadership. Here’s how the two states differ.

COMFORT CENTERED

I stick with what I know.

I comply with others’ wishes in an effort to keep the peace.

I place my interests above those of the group.

I block out external stimuli in orderto stay on task and avoid risk.

In the normal state, I am…

EXTERNALLY DIRECTED

SELF-FOCUSED

INTERNALLY CLOSED

RESULTS CENTERED

I venture beyond familiar territoryto pursue ambitious new outcomes.

I behave according to my values.

I put the collective good first.

I learn from my environment and recognize when there’s a need for change.

In the fundamental state, I am…

INTERNALLY DIRECTED

OTHER FOCUSED

EXTERNALLY OPEN

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disappear, and participants started exploringthe fundamental state of leadership in a seri-ous way. They saw the power in the conceptand recognized that hiding behind their prideor reputation would only get in the way of fu-ture progress. In recounting their experiences,they came to realize that they had becomemore purposive, authentic, compassionate,and responsive.

Step 2: Analyze your current state.

Whenwe’re in the fundamental state, we take on var-ious positive characteristics, such as clarity ofvision, self-empowerment, empathy, and cre-ative thinking. (See the exhibit “Are You in theFundamental State of Leadership?” for achecklist organized along the four dimen-sions.) Most of us would like to say we displaythese characteristics at all times, but we reallydo so only sporadically.

Comparing our normal performance with

what we have done at our very best often cre-ates a desire to elevate what we are doing now.Knowing we’ve operated at a higher level inthe past instills confidence that we can do soagain; it quells our fear of stepping into un-known and risky territory.

Asking Four Transformative Questions

Of course, understanding the fundamentalstate of leadership and recognizing its powerare not the same as being there. Entering thatstate is where the real work comes in. To getstarted, we can ask ourselves four questionsthat correspond with the four qualities of thefundamental state.

To show how each of these qualities affectsour behavior while we’re in the fundamentalstate of leadership, I’ll draw on stories fromtwo executives. One is a company president;

You’ve Already Been There

Two participants in a leadership workshop at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business used this self-assessment tool to figure out how they’ve transcended their greatest life challenges by entering the fundamental state of leadership. You can use the same approach in analyzing how you’ve conquered your most significant challenges.

PARTICIPANT A PARTICIPANT B

I was driving myself hard at work, and things keptgetting worse at home. Finally my wife told me shewanted a divorce.

I felt I’d lost everything: family, wealth, and stature.I withdrew from relationships. I started drinkingheavily. I finally sought professional help for mysorrow and, with guidance, clarified my valuesand made choices about my future.

I engaged in a lot of self-reflection and journalwriting. It became clear that I was not defined bymarriage, wealth, or stature. I was more thanthat. I began to focus on how I could make a differ-ence for other people. I got more involved in mycommunity.

As I started to grow and feel more self-confident,I became better at relating. At work, I now askmore of people than I ever did before, but I alsogive them far more support. I care about them,and they can tell.

I began to feel stronger. I was less intimidatedwhen people gave me negative feedback. I think itwas because I was less afraid of changing andgrowing.

The pivotal crisis:

How did you becomemore results centered?

How did you becomemore internally directed?

How did you becomemore focused on others?

How did you becomemore externally open?

I was thrust into a job that was crucial to the orga-nization but greatly exceeded my capabilities. I hadto get people to do things they did not want to do.

I kept trying to escape doing what was required,but I could not stand the guilt. I finally decided Ihad to change. I envisioned what success mightlook like, and I committed to making whateverchanges were necessary.

I stopped worrying so much about how other peo-ple would evaluate and judge me. I was starting to operate from my own values. I felt more self-empowered than ever and realized how fear drivenI had been.

I realized how much I needed people, and I becamemore concerned about them. I was better able tohear what they were saying. I talked not just frommy head but also from my heart. My colleaguesresponded. Today, I am still close to those people.

I experimented with new approaches. They oftendid not work, but they kept the brainstorming inmotion. I paid attention to every kind of feedback.I was hungry to get it right. There was a lot of dis-covery. Each step forward was exhilarating. Co

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we’ll call him John Jones. The other, RobertYamamoto, is the executive director of the LosAngeles Junior Chamber of Commerce. Bothonce struggled with major challenges thatchanged the way they thought about their jobsand their lives.

I met John in an executive course I wasteaching. He was a successful change leaderwho had turned around two companies in hiscorporation. Yet he was frustrated. He hadbeen promised he’d become president of thelargest company in the corporation as soon asthe current president retired, which wouldhappen in the near future. In the meantime,he had been told to bide his time with a com-pany that everyone considered dead. His as-signment was simply to oversee the funeral,yet he took it as a personal challenge to turnthe company around. After he had been therenine months, however, there was little im-provement, and the people were still not veryengaged.

As for Robert, he had been getting what heconsidered to be acceptable (if not exceptional)results in his company. So when the new boardpresident asked him to prepare a letter of resig-nation, Robert was stunned. He underwent aperiod of anguished introspection, duringwhich he began to distrust others and questionhis own management skills and leadershipability. Concerned for his family and his future,he started to seek another job and wrote therequested letter.

As you will see, however, even thoughthings looked grim for both Robert and John,they were on the threshold of positive change.

Am I results centered?

Most of the time,we are comfort centered. We try to continuedoing what we know how to do. We may thinkwe are pursuing new outcomes, but if achiev-ing them means leaving our comfort zones,we subtly—even unconsciously—find ways toavoid doing so. We typically advocate ambi-tious outcomes while designing our work formaximum administrative convenience, whichallows us to avoid conflict but frequently endsup reproducing what already exists. Often,others collude with us to act out this decep-tion. Being comfort centered is hypocritical,self-deceptive, and normal.

Clarifying the result we want to create re-quires us to reorganize our lives. Instead ofmoving away from a problem, we move to-ward a possibility that does not yet exist. We

Are You in the Fundamental State of Leadership?

Think of a time when you reached the fundamental state of leadership—that is, when you were at your best as a leader—and use this checklist to identify the quali-ties you displayed. Then check off the items that describe your behavior today. Com-pare the past and present. If there’s a significant difference, what changes do you need to make to get back to the fundamental state?

At my best I was…

Today I am…

RESULTS CENTERED

Knowing what result I’d like to create

Holding high standards

Initiating actions

Challenging people

Disrupting the status quo

Capturing people’s attention

Feeling a sense of shared purpose

Engaging in urgent conversations

Operating from my core values

Finding motivation from within

Feeling self-empowered

Leading courageously

Bringing hidden conflicts to the surface

Expressing what I really believe

Feeling a sense of shared reality

Engaging in authentic conversations

Sacrificing personal interests for the common good

Seeing the potential in everyone

Trusting others and fostering interdependence

Empathizing with people’s needs

Expressing concern

Supporting people

Feeling a sense of shared identity

Engaging in participative conversations

Moving forward into uncertainty

Inviting feedback

Paying deep attention to what’s unfolding

Learning exponentially

Watching for new opportunities

Growing continually

Feeling a sense of shared contribution

Engaging in creative conversations

INTERNALLY DIRECTED

OTHER FOCUSED

EXTERNALLY OPEN

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become more proactive, intentional, optimis-tic, invested, and persistent. We also tend tobecome more energized, and our impact onothers becomes energizing.

Consider what happened with John. When Ifirst spoke with him, he sketched out his strat-egy with little enthusiasm. Sensing that lack ofpassion, I asked him a question designed totest his commitment to the end he claimed hewanted to obtain:

What if you told your people the truth? Sup-

pose you told them that nobody really expects

you to succeed, that you were assigned to be a

caretaker for 18 months, and that you have

been promised a plum job once your assign-

ment is through. And then you tell them that

you have chosen instead to give up that plum

job and bet your career on the people present.

Then, from your newly acquired stance of opti-

mism for the company’s prospects, you issue

some challenges beyond your employees’ nor-

mal capacity.

To my surprise, John responded that he wasbeginning to think along similar lines. Hegrabbed a napkin and rapidly sketched out anew strategy along with a plan for carrying itout, including reassignments for his staff. Itwas clear and compelling, and he was suddenlyfull of energy.

What happened here? John was the presi-dent of his company and therefore had author-ity. And he’d turned around two other compa-nies—evidence that he had the knowledge andcompetencies of a change leader. Yet he was

failing

as a change leader. That’s because hehad slipped into his comfort zone. He wasgoing through the motions, doing what hadworked elsewhere. He was imitating a greatleader—in this case, John himself. But imita-tion is not the way to enter the fundamentalstate of leadership. If I had accused John of notbeing committed to a real vision, he wouldhave been incensed. He would have arguedheatedly in denial of the truth. All I had to do,though, was nudge him in the right direction.As soon as he envisioned the result he wantedto create and committed himself to it, a newstrategy emerged and he was reenergized.

Then there was Robert, who went to whathe assumed would be his last board meetingand found that he had more support thanhe’d been led to believe. Shockingly, at theend of the meeting, he still had his job. Evenso, this fortuitous turn brought on further

soul-searching. Robert started to pay moreattention to what he was doing; he began tosee his tendency to be tactical and to gravi-tate toward routine tasks. He concluded thathe was managing, not leading. He was play-ing a role and abdicating leadership to theboard president—not because that personhad the knowledge and vision to lead but be-cause the position came with the statutoryright to lead. “I suddenly decided to reallylead my organization,” Robert said. “It was asif a new person emerged. The decision wasnot about me. I needed to do it for the goodof the organization.”

In deciding to “really lead,” Robert startedidentifying the strategic outcomes he wantedto create. As he did this, he found himself leav-ing his zone of comfort—behaving in newways and generating new outcomes.

Am I internally directed?

In the normalstate, we comply with social pressures in orderto avoid conflict and remain connected withour coworkers. However, we end up feeling

less

connected because conflict avoidance re-sults in political compromise. We begin to loseour uniqueness and our sense of integrity. Theagenda gradually shifts from creating an exter-nal result to preserving political peace. As thisproblem intensifies, we begin to lose hope andenergy.

This loss was readily apparent in the case ofJohn. He was his corporation’s shining star. Butsince he was at least partially focused on thefuture reward—the plum job—he was notfully focused on doing the hard work heneeded to do at the moment. So he didn’t askenough of the people he was leading. To getmore from them, John needed to be more in-ternally directed.

Am I other focused?

It’s hard to admit, butmost of us, most of the time, put our ownneeds above those of the whole. Indeed, it ishealthy to do so; it’s a survival mechanism.But when the pursuit of our own interests con-trols our relationships, we erode others’ trustin us. Although people may comply with ourwishes, they no longer derive energy fromtheir relationships with us. Over time we driveaway the very social support we seek.

To become more focused on others is tocommit to the collective good in relationships,groups, or organizations, even if it means in-curring personal costs. When John made theshift into the fundamental state of leadership,

When leaders do their

best work, they don’t

copy anyone. They draw

on their own values and

capabilities.




he committed to an uncertain future for him-self. He had been promised a coveted job. Allhe had to do was wait a few months. Still, hewas unhappy, so he chose to turn down the op-portunity in favor of a course that was truer tohis leadership values. When he shifted gears,he sacrificed his personal security in favor of agreater good.

Remember Robert’s words: “The decisionwas not about me. I needed to do it for thegood of the organization.” After entering thefundamental state of leadership, he proposed anew strategic direction to the board’s presidentand said that if the board didn’t like it, hewould walk away with no regrets. He knewthat the strategy would benefit the organiza-tion, regardless of how it would affect him per-sonally. Robert put the good of the organiza-tion first. When a leader does this, peoplenotice, and the leader gains respect and trust.Group members, in turn, become more likelyto put the collective good first. When they do,tasks that previously seemed impossible be-come doable.

Am I externally open?

Being closed to ex-ternal stimuli has the benefit of keeping us ontask, but it also allows us to ignore signals thatsuggest a need for change. Such signals wouldforce us to cede control and face risk, so deny-ing them is self-protective, but it is also self-de-ceptive. John convinced himself he’d done allhe could for his failing company when, deepdown, he knew that he had the capacity to im-prove things. Robert was self-deceptive, too,until crisis and renewed opportunity causedhim to open up and explore the fact that hewas playing a role accorded him but not usinghis knowledge and emotional capacity to tran-scend that role and truly lead his people.

Asking ourselves whether we’re externallyopen shifts our focus from controlling our en-vironment to learning from it and helps us rec-ognize the need for change. Two things hap-pen as a result. First, we are forced toimprovise in response to previously unrecog-nized cues—that is, to depart from establishedroutines. And second, because trial-and-errorsurvival requires an accurate picture of the re-sults we’re creating, we actively and genuinelyseek honest feedback. Since people trust usmore when we’re in this state, they tend tooffer more accurate feedback, understandingthat we are likely to learn from the messagerather than kill the messenger. A cycle of learn-

ing and empowerment is created, allowing usto see things that people normally cannot seeand to formulate transformational strategies.

Applying the Fundamental Principles

Just as I teach others about the fundamentalstate of leadership, I also try to apply the con-cept in my own life. I was a team leader on aproject for the University of Michigan’s Execu-tive Education Center. Usually, the center runsweeklong courses that bring in 30 to 40 execu-tives. It was proposed that we develop a newproduct, an integrated week of perspectiveson leadership. C.K. Prahalad would begin witha strategic perspective, then Noel Tichy, DaveUlrich, Karl Weick, and I would follow withour own presentations. The objective was tofill a 400-seat auditorium. Since each pre-senter had a reasonably large following insome domain of the executive world, we wereconfident we could fill the seats, so we sched-uled the program for the month of July, whenour facilities were typically underutilized.

In the early months of planning and orga-nizing, everything went perfectly. A marketingconsultant had said we could expect to securehalf our enrollment three weeks prior to theevent. When that time rolled around, slightlyless than half of the target audience had signedup, so we thought all was well. But then a dif-ferent consultant indicated that for our kind ofevent we would get few additional enrollmentsduring the last three weeks. This stunning pre-diction meant that attendance would be halfof what we expected and we would be lucky tobreak even.

As the team leader, I could envision thefallout. Our faculty members, accustomed todrawing a full house, would be offended by ahalf-empty room; the dean would want toknow what went wrong; and the center’s staffwould probably point to the team leader asthe problem. That night I spent several hourspacing the floor. I was filled with dread andshame. Finally I told myself that this kind ofbehavior was useless. I went to my desk andwrote down the four questions. As I consid-ered them, I concluded that I was comfortcentered, externally directed, self-focused,and internally closed.

So I asked myself, “What result do I want tocreate?” I wrote that I wanted the center tolearn how to offer a new, world-class product

Being closed to external

stimuli keeps us on task,

but it also allows us to

ignore signals that

suggest a need for

change.




that would be in demand over time. With thatclarification came a freeing insight: Becausethis was our first offering of the product, turn-ing a large profit was not essential. That wouldbe nice, of course, but we’d be happy to learnhow to do such an event properly, break even,and lay the groundwork for making a profit inthe future.

I then asked myself, “How can I becomeother focused?” At that moment, I was totallyself-focused—I was worried about my reputa-tion—and my first inclination was to be angrywith the staff. But in shifting my focus to whatthey might be thinking that night, I realizedthey were most likely worried that I’d come towork in the morning ready to assign blame.Suddenly, I saw a need to both challenge andsupport them.

Finally, I thought about how I could be-come externally open. It would mean movingforward and learning something new, even ifthat made me uncomfortable. I needed to en-gage in an exploratory dialogue rather thanpreside as the expert in charge.

I immediately began making a list of mar-keting strategies, though I expected many ofthem would prove foolish since I knew noth-ing about marketing. The next day, I broughtthe staff together—and they, naturally, wereguarded. I asked them what result we wantedto create. What happened next is a good ex-ample of how contagious the fundamentalstate of leadership can be.

We talked about strategies for increasing at-tendance, and after a while, I told the staff thatI had some silly marketing ideas and was em-barrassed to share them but was willing to doanything to help. They laughed at many of mynaive thoughts about how to increase publicityand create pricing incentives. Yet my proposalsalso sparked serious discussion, and the groupbegan to brainstorm its way into a collectivestrategy. Because I was externally open, therewas space and time for everyone to lead. Peo-ple came up with better ways of approachingmedia outlets and creating incentives. In thatmeeting, the group developed a shared senseof purpose, reality, identity, and contribution.They left feeling reasonable optimism andwent forward as a committed team.

In the end, we did not get 400 participants,but we filled more than enough seats to have asuccessful event. We more than broke even,and we developed the skills we needed to run

such an event better in the future. The pro-gram was a success because something trans-formational occurred among the staff. Yet thetransformation did not originate in the meet-ing. It began the night before, when I askedmyself the four questions and moved from thenormal, reactive state to the fundamental stateof leadership. And my entry into the funda-mental state encouraged the staff to enter aswell.

While the fundamental state proves usefulin times of crisis, it can also help us cope withmore mundane challenges. If I am going tohave an important conversation, attend a keymeeting, participate in a significant event, orteach a class, part of my preparation is to try toreach the fundamental state of leadership.Whether I am working with an individual, agroup, or an organization, I ask the same fourquestions. They often lead to high-performanceoutcomes, and the repetition of high-perfor-mance outcomes can eventually create a high-performance culture.

Inspiring Others to High Performance

When we enter the fundamental state of leader-ship, we immediately have new thoughts and en-gage in new behaviors. We can’t remain in thisstate forever. It can last for hours, days, or some-times months, but eventually we come back toour normal frame of mind. While the fundamen-tal state is temporary, each time we are in it welearn more about people and our environmentand increase the probability that we will be ableto return to it. Moreover, we inspire thosearound us to higher levels of performance.

To this day, Robert marvels at the contrastbetween his organization’s past and present.His transformation into a leader with positiveenergy and a willingness and ability to tacklechallenges in new ways helped shape the L.A.Junior Chamber of Commerce into a high-functioning and creative enterprise. When Ilast spoke to Robert, here’s what he had to say:

I have a critical mass of individuals on both

the staff and the board who are willing to look

at our challenges in a new way and work on

solutions together. At our meetings, new en-

ergy is present. What previously seemed un-

imaginable now seems to happen with ease.

Any CEO would be delighted to be able tosay these things. But the truth is, it’s not a typi-cal situation. When Robert shifted into the




fundamental state of leadership, his group(which started off in a normal state) came tolife, infused with his renewed energy and vi-sion. Even after he’d left the fundamentalstate, the group sustained a higher level of per-formance. It continues to flourish, without sig-nificant staff changes or restructuring.

All this didn’t happen because Robert reada book or an article about the best practicesof some great leader. It did not happen be-cause he was imitating someone else. It hap-pened because he was jolted out of his com-fort zone and was forced to enter thefundamental state of leadership. He wasdriven to clarify the result he wanted to cre-

ate, to act courageously from his core values,to surrender his self-interest to the collectivegood, and to open himself up to learning inreal time. From Robert, and others like him,we can learn the value of challenging our-selves in this way—a painful process but onewith great potential to make a positive im-pact on our own lives and on the peoplearound us.

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page 11

Further Reading

A R T I C L E S

Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performanceby Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKeeHarvard Business Review

December 2001Product no. R0111C

The authors suggest asking yourself addi-

tional questions to shift into an ideal leader-

ship state: 1) Who do you want to be? Imagine

yourself as a highly effective leader: What do

you see? How are people responding to you?

2) Who are you now? To assess your current

leadership abilities, gather 360-degree feed-

back, especially from peers and subordinates.

Identify your weaknesses and strengths. 3)

How will you get from here to there? Devise a

plan for closing the gap between who you are

now and who you want to become. 4) How will you make change stick? Rehearse new lead-

ership behaviors until they’re automatic. 5)

Who can help you? Identify others who can

help you navigate the transition.

The Work of Leadershipby Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. LaurieHarvard Business Review

December 2001Product no. R0111K

This article sheds additional light on the im-

portance of embracing productive conflict—

part of being internally directed while shifting

into the fundamental state of leadership.

When organizational challenges arise, don’t

quell cross-functional strife. Rather, draw out

the issues and let people feel the sting of real-

ity. How? Ask tough questions and challenge

“the way we do things.” Let employees debate

issues and clarify assumptions behind com-

peting views. Resist the inevitable pressure to

restore the status quo, and watch for scape-

goating and denial. Protect whistle-blowers,

creatives, and others who expose contradic-

tions within your company. And instill collec-

tive self-confidence by encouraging risk-

taking and backing people up if they falter.

What Makes an Effective Executiveby Peter F. DruckerHarvard Business Review

June 2004Product no. R0406C

Drucker examines the ability to be results ori-

ented and to subjugate your self-interest to

the collective good of your organization—key

capacities for being at your best as a leader.

Great leaders first ask what needs to be done,

then they identify the tasks they’re best at—

concentrating on one at a time. After com-

pleting a task, they reset priorities based on

new realities. They also ask what’s right for

their enterprise overall rather than agonizing

over what’s best for owners, investors, em-

ployees, or customers. They think and say “we,”

not “I,” knowing that decisions that are right

for their enterprise will ultimately be right for

all stakeholders.



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