Human nature never changes. Therefore, in a given setting - business, a game, the stock market or a battlefield - only the players, strategies, resources and technologies change. How these work out is a function of the human nature of the participants.
Internally, the reasoning and emotions of the participants drive the "game." Most often, particularly under stress, the basic elements of humanity - fear, greed, ignorance and ego - come to the forefront. The other side of human nature is balanced through values, hope, insight and creativity. In the end, reasoning seldom is unaffected by these other powerful forces.
For example, there is no correlation at any level between financial success and happiness. As Fred Herzberg pointed out in his motivation theory almost 50 years ago, money is like food: You can eat the best meal of your life, but within a few hours you are hungry again. People can achieve material goals and career ambitions, but that does not guarantee happiness. Unless they are retiring, they'll always be striving to fulfill and maintain personal goals related to money, status and power.
Unfortunately, personal goals do not always correlate with organizational goals. Conversely, when you find a person who is satisfied with their position for the rest of their career, you have found a follower, not an innovator or a leader. It may be time to retire them.
Goal achievement is more a function of will than intellect. If your people have the will to work through adversity for the good of the organization, you have an irresistible force on your side. Call it what you will - engagement or commitment, if you like - but intelligence, skill and knowledge are not enough.
The indomitable will to serve the goals of the organization is the greatest competitive advantage you can obtain. Therein lies the challenge: In a parallel case, we talk about leadership; but as Peter Drucker asked, "Leadership for what purpose?" The same can be said for engagement. How are you measuring engagement? Is it just a number on survey, or is it visibly connected to productivity?
All the great leaps forward throughout history have been the result on individual inspiration: One person who pulls together a support team of one or more believers leads to the great leaps in technology, medicine, sports, politics and business.
Despite what they say, management does not want these highly creative people; they want willing followers. If you find an unusually creative individual within your ranks, you have two choices.
One is to isolate him or her in a position where he or she can work out their inspiration without organizational interference. Then, you have to reward him or her and restart the process. The other is to hope that his or her ambition does not correlate with his or her creativity because then he or she will leave to follow his or her dream. Most organizations have not been able to keep creative people long because organizations require and reward followership.
Strategy and, eventually, success are founded on objective analysis of purpose and goals. Know who you want to be as an organization.
What do you want to be in the marketplace? What should your signature be: innovation, like Apple; high quality, like Tiffany & Co.; low cost, like Amazon.com; or world-class service like Singapore Airlines? This will dictate your market strategy. For example, if you are in retail, do you aspire to be like Walmart? This, in turn, dictates your hiring, salary, development and retention strategies.
Too often, I see companies hiring to fill jobs, not hiring for desired intangible capabilities. You can train to develop skills and knowledge, but what are the critical capabilities you truly depend on?
Think back to the above traits. For every responsibility or job, you want a specific set. You may want creativity in finance but not in accounting, right? Position by position, what do you absolutely need to be successful?
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