One way or another, accepting the contract would require giving up their holiday. This showed uncommon commitment. Giving her workers a choice on how to do the job proved that this was not a regular job order and extremely important. Her workers voted to take the full contract and not to bring in part-time workers or to subcontract any of the work. The contract was completed during the holiday season without difficulty. Is it any wonder that subordinates and superiors alike call her ‘Amazing Grace’.11 Pastiak had taken a notable risk in what she had done. But Drucker had found that every business success required risk.
RISK TAKING IS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS
Drucker found that every successful business situation required some kind of risk. If anything appears not to have any risk associated with it at all, something is probably wrong.
In 1939, a small businessman, W. Clement Stone of Chicago, assumed a significant risk. He had his own insurance agency and several insurance salesmen selling insurance for him throughout the US. He was making a good living, and his agency was growing every year. However, most of the policies his salesmen wrote were for a single company, Commercial Casualty Company of Newark, New Jersey, offering accident insurance.
Stone’s operation was unique in that being a small business, he not only ran the company, he spent an extraordinary amount of time in selecting, training, and motivating his salesmen. So able were Stone’s salespeople, that they sold far more insurance than did this major insurance company’s salesmen.
One day while on holiday with his family in Miami Beach, Stone received a frantic call from his secretary. A salesman from the Commercial Casualty Company had complained about one of Stone’s salesmen in Texas taking business away from him. His secretary explained that the CEO of Commercial Casualty Company had called and confirmed that from the beginning the following week, Stone’s agency was forbidden to sell any insurance policies for this company.
You can imagine how quickly this message must have spread through the organization during the great depression. His salesmen probably didn’t know what to do. With no product to sell, they could make no sales. A few probably wanted to quit right then and there, while others just wanted to know how Stone was going to phase out the business, and when they could start looking for a new job.
Stone immediately flew to the headquarters of the large insurance company and negotiated an extension of time that he could continue to sell Commercial Casualty’s insurance. No doubt the CEO of this company was impressed with Stone’s commitment to flying to New Jersey. Remember, this was back in 1939 when flying was more expensive and not the preferred method of travel for business travellers.
Stone returned to Chicago. The message he gave his salesmen showed them his uncommon commitment. The unthinkable thing he told them about and did saved his company.
Until this time, Stone’s salesmen had only sold insurance for other companies who were the actual insurers. Stone thought that the business of selling insurance was complicated enough. The government laws and regulations having to do with actual insuring were complex. Stone had only a high school education. Becoming a real insurance company and the actual insurer rather than an insurance agency performing the sole task of selling insurance was unthinkable. He didn’t even know where to start. It would be difficult, there would be so many problems to overcome. He couldn’t even imagine them all. He would have to keep reserves of cash. How much, he didn’t know. He would have to pay off the accounts when money was due. He would be subject to fraudulent claims which he would have to handle. He could get sued at times, it was part of the business! He would have to sue. But Stone decided to think outside the box and stayed committed.
“We won’t be phasing anything out,” he told his salesmen. “I’m starting my own insurance company, and each one of you has a place in it.”
Stone founded his new company and called it Combined Insurance Company of America. Later he started the AON Corporation which included his insurance operation and other businesses. Annual sales eventually reached $6 billion and AON Corporation employed 27,000 people.12
Stone kept his company and his sales force by showing uncommon commitment and thinking outside the box when faced with an impossible situation. Since he could no longer sell someone else’s insurance, he started his own insurance company, and sold his own.
COMMITMENT MEANS TAKING RISKS
Of course, commitment means taking risks. Some leaders are afraid to show uncommon commitment for this reason. Let’s be frank. Some are afraid to show any commitment at all. Yet, risk is a part of life. Your willingness to accept this risk is part of your responsibilities as leader. Its acceptance is one clear way of showing uncommon commitment.
How did Drucker recommend dealing with necessary risks? He recommended analysing the situation and asking questions such as, what is the worst that can happen? When you know the worst that can happen, you can decide whether it is worth the risk. If it is, accept the risk and go ahead.
It is amazing that once you accept the worst that can happen, if your goal is worth the risk you will have much less difficulty accepting this risk. Then, you will have no difficulty making and showing an uncommon commitment.
You never know what you can do until you pull out all the stops and go all the way. So many people attaining success against all odds were able to do so because they showed uncommon commitment and attempted the impossible and they attained the extraordinary. Those whose examples I gave you did it. Drucker did it. You can too!
1. Byrne, John A. with Lindsey Gerdes. “The Man Who Invented Management,” Business Week (28 November 2005). https://bloom.bg/2MoYFj6.
2. Bonaparte, Napoleon, “Maxims of Napoleon,” LXVII, published originally in Paris in 1830 and translated into English shortly thereafter in Jomini, Clausewitz, and Schlieffen (West Point, NY: Department of Military Art and Engineering, United States Military Academy, 1954), 89.
3. Drucker, Peter F. Concept of the Corporation (New York: John Day, 1946).
4. PrimalScream Music. “Nicole Dionne: CEO/Creative Director”, https://bit.ly/2KySSpO, accessed 20 July 2018.
5. Klein, Karen E. “Sound Approach”. Los Angeles Times, 15 July 1997, D2, https://lat.ms/2vBEU0N.
6. Dionne, Nicole, interview with the author, 19 October 1997.
7. Patterson, George K. Telephone conversations with the author, 4 and 11 April 1996.
8. HM Government. Hansard, 13 May 1940, https://bit.ly/2M1isZa, col. 1502.
9. HM Government. Hansard, 4 June 1940, https://bit.ly/2MahJFh, col. 796.
10. Holusha, John. “Grace Pastiak’s ‘Web of Inclusion’
11. Glaser, Connie and Barbara Steinberg Smalley. Swim with the Dolphins: How Women Can Succeed in Corporate America on Their Own Terms (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 12-17
12. Hill, Napoleon and W. Clement Stone. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (Chicago: Nightingales-Conant, 1988), Tape 3
CHAPTER 9
THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPECTING SUCCESS AND HOW TO DO IT
Only a tiny number of people can be outstanding successes, but a very large number are expected to be adequately successful.
– Peter F. Drucker
It is true that if you expect positive results, you may still not actually achieve them due to circumstances which may be beyond your control. But it is equally true that if you do not expect positive results you will probably not get them. So, while expecting positive results may not always lead to success, failing to expect positive results will more often lead to failure. You don’t need to be outstandingly successful every time you attempt anything. You can still reach the top. But you do need to be adequately successful overall to progress to the top, and that is within all of our abilities.
WHAT A GREEK GENERAL SHOWED US ABOUT EXPECTING POSITIVE RESULTS 2,000 YEARS AGO
More than 60 years ago Drucker advised his readers to read “the first systematic book on leadership” in his own book, T
he Practice of Management.1 These were part of the writings of Xenophon, a Greek general. The book Drucker referenced was Kyropaidaia. One source translates the title of this material as The Education of Cyrus the Great.2 Xenophon was an Athenian general. From 401 BC to 400 BC B.C., he led 10,000 Greek soldiers in retreat from
Persia to the Greek Black Sea colony of Trapezus more than 1,000 miles away. They initially faced an enemy that was greatly superior in numbers, and they were continually opposed by unfriendly tribes through their escape trek, which took five months. Afterwards, Xenophon became known as a writer as well as a remarkable and successful general.
Here’s what happened to Xenophon in his adventures which detailed how he had become a general and led those 10,000 Greek soldiers to safety. Cyrus the Younger, son of Cyrus the Great of Persia, had enlisted Greek troops as paid mercenaries to help him overthrow his brother, Artaxerxes, who was king of Persia. At the Battle of Cunaxa, they fought a Persian army many times their size and won. However, during the battle, Cyrus the Younger was killed. Even so, the Greek general Clearchus, who was second in command changed tactics, advanced against the right wing of the Persian army and, for all practical purposes, defeated Artaxerxes and won the battle despite the death of his commander, Cyrus the Younger, who was challenging his brother for the kingship of Persia.
But since Cyrus, pretender to the Persian throne, was dead, there was little point to the victory of his troops. In fact, the Persians in Cyrus’s former army deserted to Artaxerxes.
Artaxerxes told the Greeks that since Cyrus was dead, there was no reason for their continuing to fight. To use two cliques in one sentence, he was willing to ‘forgive and forget’ and to ‘live and let live.’ He offered a truce which was accepted by the Greek mercenaries. Artaxerxes told them that they could retreat and return to their own country unhindered. To celebrate their truce, he invited the Grecian generals to a great banquet. They were told to leave their weapons outside. Once Artaxerxes had them under his control without weapons, he surrounded and murdered them. And since Troy, and remembering the Wooden Horse, the warning is to beware of Greeks bearing gifts! Or in this case, Persians, but I guess in all cases we need to at least be cautious regardless of ethnicity.
In any case, Artaxerxes then offered a truce to the lower-ranking officers of the Greek army.
Xenophon was a young staff officer. But after the murder of the Greek generals, he wisely did not trust Artaxerxes. He gathered the surviving officers together and convinced them that if they accepted this truce, as did their generals, they would be probably killed too.
He persuaded them to elect new generals. Xenophon was one of those elected. Some Greek officers wanted to work out some sort deal with Artaxerxes. The other newly elected generals were uncertain as they saw no way of marching such a great distance through unfriendly country, not to mention the numerically superior and revenge-seeking Persian army that they had just defeated in battle.
Xenophon still had credibility as the one who had convinced them not to accept Artaxerxes word. He assembled all the officers and spoke to them. “All of our soldiers have their eyes on you, and if they see that you are downhearted they will become cowards, while if you yourselves are clearly prepared to meet the enemy and if you call on the rest to do their part, you can be sure that they will follow you and try to be like you.”3 You can see why Drucker liked Xenophon as a leader. Xenophon expected positive results. Through his positive expectancy, he convinced both officers and soldiers that they would return to their homes even though they had lost their most experienced and proven generals, were numerically inferior to their enemy, had hundreds of miles of unfriendly territory to traverse, and had no supplies of food and water. Because Xenophon expected positive results, his 10,000 followers expected positive results as well. They escaped from Artaxerxes and followed Xenophon on one of the most amazing long marches in history. They completed their journey successfully despite countless battles and hardships. No wonder Drucker called our attention to Xenophon’s work as containing important lessons for leading in business. Never fear, you can learn to be a Xenophon, too.
YOU CAN LEARN TO EXPECT POSITIVE RESULTS
Bill Gates may be one of the wealthiest individuals in the world today. Gates started his first company, Traf-O-Data, with high hopes. Its purpose was to process and analyse the data from traffic tapes. Unfortunately for him, the process was flawed, and the company failed. But Gates didn’t let this failure hold him back from starting famed Microsoft only a few years later. He expected success with Microsoft even though he had a major failure in the past, with Traf-O-Data, and with Microsoft, he got it.
HOW YOU CAN DEVELOP THE QUALITY OF EXPECTING POSITIVE RESULTS
Here are five ways you can develop the quality of expecting positive results:
• Develop your self-confidence
• Become a positive thinker
• Visualize the results you want to achieve
• Be who you are – don’t pretend that you are someone else
• Maintain your enthusiasm.
DEVELOP YOUR SELF-CONFIDENCE
Few start out in life accomplishing what we think of as big goals. We all start as infants and accomplish trivial things like learning to walk and talk, and later to read, write, and reason. But are these really trivial things? Think back. At the time you first learned to do any of these things you probably didn’t think it was so trivial. The truth is, even with these small things we started out by doing still smaller things first and slowly increasing the difficulty of the subtasks until we could accomplish the overall task – things like rolling over and sitting up, in preparation for the actual walking.
Today, you no longer doubt that when you stand, put forth one leg and then another, you are going to walk. As you read these sentences, unless you are just learning English, there is little doubt that you will understand what you have read. You automatically expect positive results.
With the more complex and challenging tasks and projects of adults, many fail to expect to succeed for only one of two reasons. Either they have been unsuccessful at similar tasks or projects in the past, or they have never tried to accomplish them in the first place. And by the way, those who have never tried usually haven’t tried because they feel they would fail if they did. You’ll learn more about developing your self-confidence in Chapter 13. Meanwhile, you can start right now by becoming a positive thinker,
BECOME A POSITIVE THINKER
You can think positively, or negatively. It’s your choice. However, most negative leaders do not expect positive results. On the contrary, they frequently expect the worst to happen – and so it does. I don’t know whether this is some kind of black magic or self-fulfilling nightmare, or what. It doesn’t matter. It’s a fact: what we think of we usually get, whether it’s positive or negative. It’s not that Drucker recommended that you become a wishful thinker or always think wonderful things no matter the situation. Not at all. You can be a steely-eyed realist. Still that shouldn’t stop you from thinking positively. And that will help you to expect to be successful.
Positive thinkers keep their eye on the ball (what they want, their goals, tasks, etc.) and not what they don’t want (what they want to avoid). To do this, they first ask themselves, “What is the worst that can happen?” Then they accept that as a result if all goes wrong. Next, they act and do what needs to be done.
Do you think that someone who has already considered the worst, accepted it, even planned ahead as to what action to take is less fearful and thinks more positively? You bet! No wonder such individuals expect to be successful.
GENERAL COLIN POWELL SUCCEEDED DESPITE THE ODDS
One of the most positive thinking men I have ever met is Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking general in the US military.
I met General Powell when he addressed the Los Angeles Times Management Conference in March 1993, before he retired from his position as Chairman of the Joint Chi
efs of Staff. I had been invited to do a piece on leadership for the Los Angeles Times internal newsletter for their managers. As it happened, Powell was slated to speak to their management conference shortly after my article was scheduled to appear. David Laventhol, then Publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times and Dickson Louie, a fellow graduate of the University of Chicago Business School who was conference president asked me if I would like to attend the conference and meet Powell. I was delighted and honoured to accept.
Powell was positive, upbeat and full of energy despite this being his third speech that day, and these were in three different cities located hundreds of miles apart around the US. The first was in Texas, and the second in San Francisco. Here it was, three o’clock in the afternoon in Los Angeles, his third speech in as many cities hundreds of miles apart, and Powell showed no sign of fatigue. He was still raring to go.
Everyone knew that Powell was in for some tough questioning. One of President Bill Clinton’s promises prior to his election was over the issue of gays in the military. The rumour was that it was Powell who had convinced the President to adopt a compromise position. This was before 9/11, but there were other issues. Why couldn’t the military budget be cut further and faster? What was the future of the National Guard? Many were unhappy with the way they perceived that the Army’s National Guard Roundout brigades had been treated during the Gulf War which had recently been concluded with Saddam Hussein’s defeat. Powell was facing the media in the heart of the enemy camp. It was expected that he would be in for a rough time.
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