Failures are silent (sadly)

From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept

Tuesday morning means one thing in the Lioness Hub, the Head of Finance (HoF) makes us think outside the box, takes us away from whatever we are doing to watch or listen to something slightly different and thought provoking. It is apparently (according to the HoF), as important as occasionally walking shoe-less on grass, as it ‘grounds’ and ‘nourishes the soul’.

Today was no different, as the HoF swept into the Board Room, a waft of  ‘Eau de Coffee’ flowing distractedly in the wake. We’re never quite sure how a ‘nourished Soul’ reacts to so much Caffeine, but there we are, yet another mystery of the Universe! 

So today we listened to a podcast called ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ by two chaps from the UK (as the HoF described them), Ed Miliband MP (and ex Opposition Leader) and Geoff Lloyd. This episode centered around a new book by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and our very own, former Nigerian finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (for all you reading out there with a WTO Vote - GO NGOZI!). The book is called: ‘Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons’ and leans on interviews with a group of eight women leaders - including Jacinda Ardern, Theresa May, (our own) Joyce Banda, Ellen Sirleaf, Hillary Clinton and although not political, the EU Central Bank’s head, the great Christine Lagarde. The book is ‘a sobering account of entrenched gender inequality in access to power, and an empowering look at how to tackle it’ - according to the blurb.

The blurb continued:

‘What they find is that women at the top continue to be relentlessly scrutinized on their physical appearance and their reproductive choices – something their male counterparts almost never have to endure [indeed, ‘Why have you not had children?’ is rarely a question posed to a man, so why to a woman?]. In terms of leadership itself, they often must forge a difficult path between appearing to be strong but not a ‘bitch’, and empathetic but not ‘too soft’…this gendered tightrope women leaders are forced to walk is perhaps one reason that countries with women at the helm have responded so effectively to the pandemic. Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Denmark have all been praised for their response to coronavirus. All of them are led by women.

‘By the time you factor all of these things in, it’s no surprise that the women we see in charge are leading in that strong, empathetic style, and I do think that’s a style people have responded to well during the pandemic’ Julia says. 

‘People want to know that the person leading their nation is tough enough to bring them through, but they also want to see that the leader gets it, understands how anxious, confused and worried about the future they are.’

We have boxed that quote because it perfectly encapsulates to us what we as Lionesses must celebrate. We are leaders in our own right, but during these dark times it is our empathy that makes us so effective. Empathy is not weak and in times like these, CV19, USA vs China trade war, polarization of our politics and sadly people and so on, it is essential to have that understanding of what people are feeling, yet the strength to still forge a path for our businesses and employees through the undergrowth and darkness to the light on the other side.

There is of course, no such thing as a perfect leader and if we were to interview 100 great business leaders we might come up with 5 ‘things’ they all do and strengths they have. But that will never mean that these apply to all ‘wanna-be’ leaders as true Leaders have to be true to themselves. We have written previously about being authentic here, never is this true more than for a Leader within business. 

Employees can see through fakes quickly and no matter how hard you try, they will not follow you if they do not believe you. No matter how many MBAs from world class Universities one collects, Leadership still seems to be a great deal of ‘Nature’, part early years ‘Nurture’ (thanks to Parents and early schools) and far less later years >18 than we give credit. Never is it more true than in Leadership that Theory and Practice are exactly the same…except in practice. What works for ‘X’ will not automatically work for ‘Y’.

There are some leaders such as Sir Richard Branson (left school at 16) and Steve Jobs (dropped out of College) who in spite of their well documented sharp edges (are these born of the impatience of brilliance?), have/had long term employees who would have followed them to the ends of the world, the love, respect and devotion was so large.

Yet of course we only hear from the employees who were long term followers, we never hear from those who were sacked or left early following some disagreement from which there was only ever going to be one winner…

This is why we need to be careful about writing about the perfect leader or perfect leadership skills as if having read the book one is automatically on the road to being a successful business leader. Indeed, there will have been many Leaders who did exactly the same as Steve or Sir Richard but who either didn’t get the lucky break or who could not get the funding when needed, or didn’t have the same management team or… (there are so many variables) and failed.

Perhaps business authors should not interview those that succeeded, but actually those that failed, to see what went wrong. ‘Interviews with Losers’ as a Business Book title doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as ‘Interviews with Great Winners’, yet survivorship bias is real. 

So what is ‘survivorship bias’ and in knowing what this is, can this help us be better leaders?

In the book ‘The Black Swan’ by the brilliant Nassim Taleb (start with ‘Fooled by Randomness’ if you want to get into the swing of what this great thinker is all about), Taleb quotes the great Roman orator, statesman and writer, Cicero who when told that praying to the gods saves sailors from drowning, recalled that the Greek poet Diagoras had pointed out that he was sure all sailors whilst drowning would pray and pray hard, it was just that we see and hear the ones that survive hailing the miracle and assume that this is the solution. 

As our title this weekend says, ‘Failures are silent (sadly)’ and just because that one tree in the photo survived does not mean that there were not another 200 to begin with. Because of luck, because of timing, because of something…this one survived. Remember that’s one out of 200.

This is why we need to be careful when reading and following verbatim our soon to be released and (although we say so ourselves) at a great price ‘Interviews with Great Winners’ book! You are not expected to do everything in the exactly the same way and certainly should not squeeze you and your business to fit this Utopia that so often flows from such pages.

By all means learn from the greats, there are some brilliant things they did that we can all learn from. Let’s quickly take just two from Steve Jobs that we saw recently in a great article for the HBR by Walter Isaacson:

His demand for Focus was scary and indeed he would aggressively drive this in his meetings, famously on returning to Apple in 1997 to save it and shocked at the myriad of products that Apple was by then producing as it floundered with no direction and no leadership, Steve ordered the products to be divided into four blocs: ‘Consumer’, ‘Pro’, ‘Desktop’ and finally ‘Portable’. He then demanded that the management team only chose 1 product for each block, a total of 4 products! Anything that was left over was instantly dropped. No questions, no debate. Out. This was the Focus that Apple needed and indeed all our businesses need. Don’t go chasing every little sale by producing a new product, because then you are trying to be ‘all things to all people’ and that is certainly a recipe for disaster. 

Stop, think. What is the basis of what you are trying to do with your business. Rush after every idea? Seriously? A Dog chasing its tail is more relaxed!

‘…by getting Apple to focus on making just four computers, he saved the company. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do,” [Steve said]. “That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”’

And our favourite, Steve Simplified. For those of us who use Apple products, it is this simplification that we just don’t get elsewhere that allows us to sleep well at night. How can you simplify your business and products?

So do take what the ‘Greats’ have done, do try to implement them into your business as they do make sense, but please adapt these to your way of thinking, to you, to your business, to your employees - be sure to keep your feet well grounded. We are not Steve Jobs, nor Richard Branson, we are ourselves with all of our particular strengths, skills and indeed flaws. 

If you are not a morning person and your best work is done late at night when all is quiet and at peace - what are you doing getting up at 5am to go for a run because you read that it made ‘B’ a great leader?  Don’t you hear your body scream for the duvet and the calm bedside cup of Tea in the morning?!

This is why one of the most powerful words in business and also in life is simple and if said softly can be imagined as the wind calmly working its way through the long fresh grass on a Summer’s day… Balance!

…and this is a Lioness super-strength, do not waste it, believe in it and of course, please celebrate it.

Stay safe!