It was one of the most thrilling moments in my life. I was doing 137 miles per hour at the Porsche racing school in what is best described as a rocket ship built on four wheels. The engine, only a few inches from my head, pounded in my chest as if I was receiving CPR, and the trees flew by so fast that they were no longer trees, but more a blurry green swatch of color out of the corner of my right eye.
I came to learn how to drive fast. Learning the subtle nuances of shifting gears, acceleration and braking vastly improved my lap time and left me with a greatly enhanced mindset behind the wheel.
High performance cars are similar to high performance cultures. You can choose to drive a car that is purely functional transportation, or you can choose to drive a car that is one part engineering masterpiece, one part handcrafted artwork, and one part a catalyst for supreme exhilaration.
Each of you reading this have a Ferrari sitting in your driveway and the keys are in your hand. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of you who own this Ferrari, the level of intimidation about the cars performance leaves the car looking good but not driven to its potential.
In my book, 7 Principles of Transformational Leadership I outlined that driving a culture that is the equivalent of a finely tuned sports car requires embracing five high performance mindset shifts. They are:
1. High performance cultures are hand built. Not unlike Ferraris, Bentleys and Lamborghinis, cultures are made with painstaking attention to detail by master craftspeople. Engineers pour over specifications in the hopes of eliminating tiny imperfections, and marketing and customer care representatives create experiences that are exhilarating and rewarding.
Organizational cultures are handcrafted and never an off the shelf idea culled from the most touted leadership book. It is crafted with an uncompromising and meticulous passion for a compelling future. A future that outperforms your competition, builds customer loyalty and commitment, and leaves you in a category of one.
2. High performance cultures are customer centric. All of the car manufacturers I’ve mentioned know their customers inside and out. They have painstakingly thought through every aspect of the ownership process and engineered it to adhere to the automotive admonition “the thrill of the wheel seals the deal.”
Cultures that strive to thrill their customers, as well as to thrill the employees who work directly with them, will have customers’ speed toward them. If you are not thrilling the customers that matter most to you they will drive toward your competitors.
3. High performance cultures perform at higher speeds. Regardless of whether you agree that a Bentley Continental GT needs to hit tops speeds of 197 mph is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the automobile achieve these speeds with unparalleled composure and safety.
Cultures are the same. Are you traveling on the autobahn at top speed, or, are you on a two-lane back road driving thirty-five miles per hour? In today’s world of hyper connectivity and access to information in seconds, traveling thirty-five miles an hour will leave you obsolete and irrelevant.
4. High performance cultures require better car handling skills. Creating a handcrafted culture that thrills customers and accelerates performance requires better car handling skills. Specifically, every leader must embrace the admonition from racecar driver Mario Andretti who said, “If everything feels like it’s under control you’re simply not going fast enough.”
Gone are the days of having everything under control. The race for accelerated performance requires you to build a culture that is capable of balancing itself on the razors edge of the known and predictable along with the unknown and uncharted. This leaves some leaders proclaiming they’re going too fast. If you’re not hearing this, you’re not going fast enough.
5. Cultures cannot be purchased on the cheap. High-performance cultures require you pay a premium. You cannot take a Chrysler minivan to the racetrack and expect to be competitive. You have to invest a premium either in purchasing a car designed for the racetrack, or to convert your current car into a competitor.
If you’re not willing to make the investment in creating a high-performance culture then you will be relegated to being at the back of the pack and never being competitive.
Creating a high performance culture does not require you buy a Bentley. It does require that you buy-in to the five mindset shifts above and to move toward the same belief that W.O. Bentley had when he started Bentley automobiles. He said: “we will build a fast car, a good car, the best in its class.” Here’s to fast, good and best in class cars and cultures.
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