Fabre wondered what would happen if there were no vision of where they were going. So, he designed a little experiment. He took a family of these caterpillars that were already connected and hooked the leader up to the caterpillar who was last in line, so that there was no leader and therefore no vision.
Then he hooked up the circle of insects so that they were are travelling in the same direction. What he wanted to know was for how long would the caterpillars continue to travel around in a circle, going nowhere with no vision except the rear end of another caterpillar. How long would they continue with no vision of where they were going before they changed tactics, or at least stopped for a coffee break?
Fabre placed his circle of visionless processionary caterpillars on the rim of the flower pot whose circumference exactly matched the size of the circle of caterpillars. He placed water and mulberry leaves at the bottom of the flowerpot. Mulberry leaves are the processionary caterpillars’ favourite food. As they began to travel in a circle, he looked at his watch and told his assistants to release the caterpillars and they watched and waited. He planned to calculate exactly how long the caterpillars would continue to go around the rim of the flower pot with no idea as to where they were going. In other words, with no vision.
Without a vision, the caterpillars never stopped to eat and drink. They kept going around and around until they fell unconscious for lack of sustenance. Yet, food and water were always only a few inches away. With no vision, the people perish, says the Bible. That appears to apply to caterpillars as well.
HOW TO DECLARE AND ACHIEVE ALL YOUR EXPECTATIONS
It doesn’t matter whether the expectation is a task, goal, objective, or vision for your organization or for yourself. The steps in declaring and achieving them are the same. They are:
• Get your expectations clear
• Make your expectations compelling
• Develop a plan
• Promote your expectations and implement your plan
• Listen to feedback (your own or others, if a group) and adjust your strategy.
GET YOUR EXPECTATIONS CLEAR
Now, I know this may sound oversimplified, but the truth is some individuals just don’t know what they want for themselves and their organizations’ futures. They may not know what they want period. They just want their organizations to be ‘successful’. But until the one in charge defines exactly what success means to him or her and to the organization, there is no hope. Without clearly defined expectations an organization cannot accomplish tasks, reach its goals or objectives, and attain no object. It will simply perish like the caterpillars. Therefore, you must take the time to get your expectations very clear in your mind.
GET YOUR GOAL CLEAR, THEN YOU CAN FOCUS YOUR ENERGIES
The basis of all strategy or achievement is to concentrate superior resources at the decisive point. Since resources are always limited, where you concentrate them is of particular importance. Claude Hopkins founded and headed up one of the largest advertising agencies in the USA in the early 1900s. He wrote two bestselling books: Scientific Advertising and My Life in Advertising. One day a correspondent asked him to what he owed his success. “Simple,” he answered. “I spend more time than any of my competitors on any given project.” In other words, he focused his most limited resource where it counted, on his job, more than his competitors.
CHOOSE, DON’T JUGGLE
Many are proud of their ability to juggle many different objectives and goals. In some cases, these objectives may even be mutually exclusive if you look closely. For example, one company I know set certain short-term objectives in sales and profits. Yet, the way they set things up, to reach their sales goals they could not reach their profit goals, or vice versa. These corporate jugglers could not understand why they could not reach greater success in any of their expectations. Peak performance expert Dr Charles Garfield says, “Choose, don’t juggle!” Choose each expectation very carefully and get it clear in your mind. Is it worth your and your organization’s effort to attain it? If it is, then you can concentrate superior resources at the decisive points. Like Claude Hopkins, you will succeed by putting in more effort on any given project and focusing on worthwhile expectations while ignoring those that are less worthwhile. Once you achieve one major goal, then move on to another.
CLOROX’S CEO SHOWED HOW IT’S DONE
Clorox Chairman and CEO G. Craig Sullivan made clear some major expectations when he took over the company. With more than 25 years at Clorox after starting out in sales, he had time to think through his goals for Clorox with clarity. He knew exactly what he wanted to do, but it wasn’t easy. Clorox stock fell 5% right after he was selected. Soon after taking over, he set up ambitious, but reachable, growth targets. Some senior managers balked at these expectations. Sullivan suggested that those who didn’t want to participate had best move on and almost half of his old staff of senior executives did exactly that.
“I think I had the advantage of being ‘an observer’ in the Company for a long time so I had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done. Also, since I’m not smart enough to do complicated things, I tried to keep things simple and focused. That seems to have worked out pretty well.”5 Indeed it did. Earnings increased every year with Sullivan running things. Sales soon exceeded $2.5 billion, up 14% since he began.6 Glenn R. Savage, Clorox’s marketing director noted that, “There’s power in giving people very clear objectives.”7
Unlike others who are afraid to announce what they expect for fear they will not reach the goals stated, Sullivan declared his expectations to one and all. Here were some of Sullivan’s goals for Clorox at that time:
• “To achieve sales of $3.5 billion by the Year 2000, requiring average annual growth of 12% over the following three years;
• “To grow the Clorox Value Measure (CVM) at a rate that exceeds 12% over time;
• “To generate total shareholder return over time that places us in the top third of the S&P 500 and the top third of our peer group;
• “To build an international business that by the Year 2000 is 20% of total company sales.”8
Sullivan, was enormously successful as CEO at Clorox. He revitalized the company in the early 1990s by focusing its resources on a core set of closely related product lines and categories. Brands that didn’t fit into the portfolio were sold to fund internal growth and the acquisition of brands that did. In 1999 Unilever announced that it would actually drop 1,200 of its 1,600 or so brands, putting most of its resources behind just 400 so-called power brands. This is a strategy that Drucker used too. It’s based on a strategy concept which Drucker called ‘Abandonment’. We’ll see how Drucker implemented it in future chapters.
A 98-POUND WEAKLING MADE HIS EXPECTATIONS COMPELLING
Whenever I think of compelling expectations, I cannot help but think of Charles Atlas, of whom you may have heard, and Charles Roman, of whom you probably have not. Atlas was a poor Italian boy who immigrated to America around the turn of the 20th century. His real name was Angelo Siciliano. As a boy Angelo was painfully weak – a 98-pound weakling. After a painful beating by a bully, he cried himself to sleep, but swore an oath that no man on Earth would ever hurt him again.
He developed his own unique method of bodybuilding, which did not use weights. He had to, because he couldn’t afford to buy weights or to join a gym. Health clubs didn’t exist in those days, but it wouldn’t have made any difference. He didn’t have the money. However, in 12 months, he doubled his body weight using a method he originated which he called “dynamic tension”. He entered bodybuilding contests and won. Then, he became a well-known artists’ model. Among famous sculptures which used him as a model, are Alexander Hamilton in front of the US Treasury Building in Washington, DC, George Washington in New York’s Washington Square, and the “Dawn of Glory” in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Using the prize money from the contests and his modelling, Atlas developed a physical development correspondence course and began to sell it through
the mail. However, he couldn’t get enough customers with his advertisements, and he lost money more rapidly than he had put on weight. Married with two children, no income, and a floundering business, Atlas was in serious trouble. Enter Charles Roman.
Charles Roman was a new hire at the Benjamin Landsman Advertising Agency of New York. In desperation, Atlas asked the Landsman agency for help. Roman was a recent graduate of New York University. As the new employee, he was given the account with the worst potential. That was Atlas. Roman read over Atlas’s course materials and realized that the ads simply didn’t make Atlas’s expectations for his prospects compelling. Roman came up with innovative ways of doing this. Four months after their meeting, Atlas and Roman became partners. “The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac”, one of Roman’s headlines trumpeted. And Roman invited respondents to check the kind of body they wanted: Broader Chest and Shoulders, Iron-Hard Stomach Muscles, Tireless Legs, Slimmer Waist and Legs, More Energy and Stamina – the list went on and on. From a few hundred courses sold, the number climbed to 3,000 the first year they were in business together. Soon it reached 10,000. The year before Atlas died they sold over 23,000 courses world-wide.9 The course is still selling today.
Now here’s the point. Atlas declared his expectations for his potential customers, but until Roman came on the scene, he did not do so in a sufficiently compelling fashion. Once Roman made these expectations compelling, prospects were influenced to buy, and buy in a big way.
Drucker realized that those declaring their expectations to influence those who follow them are much like retailers attempting to influence prospects to buy. Those who reach the top do so by first making certain that their expectations are formulated in a compelling fashion.
IF YOU WANT EXPECTATIONS TO BE COMPELLING, ASK THE QUESTION ‘WHY?’
To be compelling, expectations must offer strong benefits to the buyers once they are achieved. And you must do that for yourself as well. What benefits will result, once you have turned your expectations into reality? If it’s for an organization you head, will your customers be better off? How? Will the members of your organization be happier or achieve more in their careers? Will society benefit? Will your organization be acclaimed number one in its field? Think through and know the benefits of your expectations specifically and in detail.
WRITE DOWN YOUR EXPECTATIONS IN A NOTEBOOK
Once you have your expectations clear and know why you must attain them, write them down. Work on the wording so that it is clear, direct, and compelling. This is where you want your organization to go. This is what you want your organization to be. Keep working with them until they have the impact, clarity, and conciseness of the sound of a wet rag thrown against a wall. When you think you have written them down perfectly, let them sit for a couple of days and then go back and work on them some more. Once you have your expectations written down so that they are clear and compelling, you are ready to plan how to achieve these expectations.
Mark Victor Hansen, co-author with Jack Canfield of the “Chicken Soup” series of books, which have sold millions of copies says: “Write down 101 goals. Put them around your house and office so that you can see them. Then, as you achieve each, don’t just remove it. Instead write, ‘Victory!’
YOU MUST DEVELOP A PLAN
There is a very old saying that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Yet when movie star Paul Newman was asked about future plans for his successful line of food products he answered, “If we ever have a plan, we’re screwed.”
While I suspect that Newman’s answer was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I have found that even though winners always have a plan to achieve their expectations, that plan is not always documented. However, each one can describe his or her plan without missing a beat or leaving out a detail, whether it is in writing or not. I think that Newman could have done this also. Drucker definitely did and taught his students its importance. Some people call this an elevator speech. They can describe their entire plan, without notes, to fellow travellers on a two-minute elevator trip.
Planning is a process of thinking it through. You have established precisely where you want to go and why you must get there. Now you must establish exactly how you are going to do this. Start by scanning your environment. Those who reach the top have been doing this for thousands of years. They look at alternative courses of action to reach their goals and objectives, and then decide on the best one. And that’s what Drucker did. You must do the same.
Sometimes reaching your final objective requires breaking an objective or goal into smaller tasks. You can eat an elephant, but only if you eat it one bite at a time. So, you may need to break your larger goal down into smaller, doable bites.
Although you can do it in your head, many find it useful to write their plans down with firm dates for reaching each expectation. I know that I do. It’s a way of even getting greater leverage on yourself and your organization to attain what you expect. And it’s what you should do for your personal expectations as well.
PROMOTING YOUR EXPECTATIONS IS A BIG PART OF IMPLEMENTATION
Promoting your expectations means just that. It means promoting what you want your organization to do, what its values are, where you want your organization to go and what you want your organization to be. Think about it, use it as a basis of discussion – talk about it and write about it every chance you get. Tie it in with everything you do. Every time someone takes an action that moves you towards one or more of your expectations, let people know. Give them a pat on the back. As Mark Victor Hansen suggested, just don’t just check them off your list, declare a victory. Again, do this in your personal life as well.
Successful individuals promote their expectations at every opportunity. To communicate his expectations to his salesmen, Elmer Wheeler, one of the most successful sales managers of all time, coined the phrase, “Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle.”11 Approaching a century later, his words still live and are communicated to new salespeople in many organizations.
JUMP-START YOUR PROMOTION THROUGH DRAMATIZATION
Successful people following this universal law know that it is important to dramatize their expectations as they promote them. Many shorten their expectations into brief messages that have a dramatic impact and these are repeated again and again.
FINALLY, LISTEN TO FEEDBACK AND ADJUST YOUR STRATEGIES
Robert Townsend was president of Avis Rent-a-Car during its period of greatest growth. It was he who developed the “We Try Harder” theme which is still heard occasionally today. In the book, Up the Organization, in which he reported that one of his vice presidents who disagreed with a proposed action routinely sent him a note which was memorable. It read something like: “If you insist, it will be my duty to make it so. However, I must respectfully tell you that you are full of shit again.”12
This got his attention and made him laugh without making him angry. He listened to the feedback and adjusted his intended action.
1. Drucker, Peter F. “Leadership: More Than Dash”. Drucker Management (Spring 1994,), 3.
2. Peale, Norman Vincent. The Power of Positive Thinking, first Fireside ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 26.
3. Thomas, B. Walt Disney: An American Original (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976). 218
4. Freiberg, Kevin and Jackie Freiberg. Nuts! Southwest Airline’s Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success (Austin, TX: Bard Press, 1996), 49.
5. Sullivan, G. Craig, letter to the author, 22 October 1997.
6. The Clorox Company 1997 Annual Report, 1.
7. Hamilton, Joan O’C., “Brighter Days at Clorox”. Business Week (16 June 1997), 62.
8. The Clorox Company 1997 Annual Report, 5.
9. Gaines, Charles. Yours in Perfect Manhood, Charles Atlas (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982), 69.
10. Hansen, Mark Victor. Speech, Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, California, 10 November 1997.
11. Wheeler, Elmer. Tested Sentences That Sell (Englewood Cliffs, NJ
: Prentice-Hall, 1937), Ch. 1.
12. Townsend, Robert C., Up the Organization (New York: Jossey-Bass, 2007) p. 55
CHAPTER 8
FORGING AHEAD WITH UNCOMMON COMMITMENT
Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes… but no plans. Unless there is personal commitment to the values of an idea and faith in them, the necessary efforts will therefore not be sustained.
– Peter F. Drucker
Drucker knew that commitment was difficult to measure quantitatively, but it was of incalculable value for advancing in a career or leading an organization to move ahead. And he knew what it took to get what you want, and to have the level of commitment necessary to reach the top.
In his career, Drucker never doubted how he’d end up even though it was not always smooth sailing. Around the time that Hitler came to power, everything began to go wrong for him. He had an uncle at the University of Cologne, a prestigious, top-ranked university who had indicated he could help him gain a professorship there. Moreover, Drucker already had written books, in German. One was on the life of well-known conservative German philosopher Friedrich Julius Stahl, who was a converted Jew, and another entitled The Jewish Question in Germany. Unfortunately, they were both burned and banned by the Nazis.1 In fact, Hitler, Nazism, and Drucker’s Jewish blood ruined Drucker’s plans at that time. Drucker was lucky and had the foresight to flee Germany for England while he could still leave relatively easily. People who are committed to a goal tend to be lucky in achieving their goals.
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