At this time in our lives we have to make difficult decisions that will determine our future. Now we need people who can make the choices. These choices are usually accompanied by sacrifices, because something will change, but these offerings can also be made bearable. Leadership is about making choices!
I came to this because I read “Het Grote Gevecht” (The Great Fight) by Jeroen
Smit. This is the story of Unilever and Paul Polman. Polman’s choices for sustainability throughout the Unilever production chain made a big impression. Only the analysts in the London City did not understand.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on not understanding it!” – Upton Sinclair *.
In my opinion, this is our problem: if there is no economic advantage or self interest, nothing will change. Unless…
Leadership required
… Unless there is vision and leadership and that is our hope. This is described by Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great” as Level 5 Leadership, or leadership based on the four virtues of Aristotle: Courage, Wisdom, moderation and Justice.
For me, vision is a picture of the future without necessarily being supported by science or facts. You just know it, intuitively. What vision also gives me is giving meaning to the sacrifices you will experience on the way to the future. After all, offerings are inevitable. The EU’s Green Deal is such a vision; a choice to change that demands sacrifice. If you share this view (that doing nothing against the climate crisis is not an option), the inevitable loss of quality of life becomes bearable.
I think there is also an economic interest: Grasping the problem now is much cheaper and more efficient than waiting for it to happen to us.
I read an interesting vision of the future in Politico: “When will the Netherlands disappear” by Naomi Oearlyy. This is also about leadership, but also about the difficulty of convincing people:
“Scientists say they have a hard time communicating the risks of sea level rise to the public, but insist it’s important to keep trying. It is politically difficult, they say, because sacrifices must now be made for an uncertain and distant future. “
There is leadership involved:
“These sacrifices will have consequences for many decades and centuries. It takes a very brave politician, ”says Van den Broeke from Utrecht University. “There is still a significant part of the Dutch population who are not aware of or are interested in these problems, so it takes strong leadership to implement these changes.”
Giving meaning makes pain bearable
The above is an example of the need for leadership to make tough changes. It is no different in business and we depend on leadership for major changes. Incidentally, leadership at every level. And that involves vision and meaning. A strong vision makes people compete to achieve it. The book Paul Polman regularly rereads is Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”. Frankl is the founder of Logo Therapy (the Greek logos in the sense of “Meaning”).
Victor Frankl has survived four concentration camps and has captured his vision of meaning through his own experiences and the observation of other victims. By giving meaning to everything, especially sacrifice and pain, it becomes bearable: “he who has a reason for living can endure almost all living conditions”.
The importance of Leadership and Vision
The last line sounds dramatic, especially in business, but I guarantee that if you want to make changes you have to be clear about the sacrifices and give meaning to the pain of change.
In practice 15% will give enthusiastic support. These are often the future leaders of the company. 65% wait and see which way the cat jumps. This is the group on which you need to focus all your energy.
Then you have a group of 20% who dig in and resist any kind of change. It will be hard or even impossible to include this group in changes. This requires leadership because you will have to say goodbye to these people in a respectful way.
Why this story?
I know from my own experience how much energy you get from a clear vision and good leadership. I have had the privilege of working under good leadership. I was able to apply changes and was given a free hand. I was deeply impressed by the courage of these leaders. These “board members” (I worked for an English PLC) are tied to the Anglo-Saxon culture where shareholder value is the focus. Their courage was to expand short-term thinking and set long-term goals. That determined my life and gave me the energy to put the changes into practice. And there too, at that level: you have the enthusiastic fellow fighters, those who watch and wait and the resistance.
I can tell many stories about my experiences and I would like to share them with you. Because leadership is what I want to stimulate and what is needed now. I do not want to put Paul Polman on the shield, he will not want that, but we need more Paul Polmans in these times and quickly! Leadership is a choice!
Contact me if you want to hear my story. Click the button below.
* Upton Sinclair was an investigative journalist and wrote this statement in 1906. Al Gore quoted this phrase in his film “An inconvenient Truth”. Jeroen Smit uses it as an introduction to his book “Het Grote gevecht” (The great Fight)
Sources:
Politico: Article: When will the Netherlands disappear – Naomi O’Leary
Book: Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl, ISBN 9781846041242
Book: Good to Great – Jim Collins, ISBN 9789047093848
Book: Het Grote Gevecht (The Great Fight) – Jeroen Smit, ISBN 9789044634716. Available only in Dutch.