What is a "Human Enterprise"?
1. Your Culture is your Competitive Edge
Products and services can be copied but your culture is unique. It's your ultimate competitive advantage and forms the basis for you to build an outstanding organisation that produces year after year.
The Human Enterprise's Mission is to create organisational cultures where everyone leads.
2. You Can Lead From Any Chair
You don’t have to be in a leadership role to lead; You can lead without title and from any chair.
Leadership is a ‘mindset’. It’s about seeing what needs to be done and taking the initiative to do it or influence someone else to do it.
The more you develop a culture of leadership within your organisation with clear expectations at every level, the more your organisation will thrive. The more you'll achieve sustainable, repeatable, profitable results.
3. Defining Leadership
There are many definitions of leadership out there. Most focus on the behaviour of the leaders and observing what they do.
At The Human Enterprise we have taken a different approach; We believe without followers a leader is just taking a good walk.
We love the quote often coined by Fred Smith, Founder of Federal Express:
"If you want to become a great leader, find a big parade and run in front of it."
Leadership is about 'followership'; It’s about the number and quality of the people you can enrol into your vision; your followers.
And there is a ‘pay-off’. Because if I’ve bought into your Vision of Greatness I'll come on the journey as an engaged and productive team member.
So our definition of leadership, taken from the work of Dr John Evans, reads:
"A leader take me somewhere I haven’t been before. A leader is someone I will follow without fear or favour, title or rank."
Paul Mitchell, founder of The Human Enterprise, describes leadership as:
"Radiating responsibility for results"
4. Winning Minds and Hearts
We need to be both transactional and transformational as leaders.
Transactional leadership is about doing the work that needs to be done. It’s about both getting the work and giving guidance and taking corrective action. It’s about efficiency and control; moving the BODY into gear.
Transformational leadership is the energy leaders bring to others by raising their awareness of what’s really important. They capture a vision of the ‘bigger picture’ and show people how they fit in. How they make a contribution to the whole (MINDS). They have followers and associates strive for a Higher Purpose, higher levels of performance and potential (HEARTS).
So transformational leadership is about moving HEARTS and MINDS.
5. Relating For Results: Building Community
Many organisations have gone ballistic on the management of their talent, their ‘human capital’ as they often call it.
And that’s vital for success. But even more important is the ‘space’ between people, or the ‘relationship capital’.
Great leaders know that great results come through people working towards some agreed goal. That requires great relationships, and a constant focus on building great relationships with all of those we touch. That's Relating for Results. It's about building a community where people are connected to your Higher Purpose and to each other
6. Its All Mental
Behaviours are important. Competencies are vital. They’re necessary but not sufficient to drive results.
Our beliefs can either empower us to greatness or limit our personal or professional growth. They determine who we will be as leaders, not just what we will do.
The great leaders are constantly upgrading the quality of their thinking and encourage empowering beliefs from all those that surround them.
7. People Cannot Be Managed
You manage inventory, you manage tasks. People must be led.
They need something to strive for, something that means something. Something that contributes to making it a better world. A noble purpose, a higher purpose, a cause. Without a vision, the people will perish. Great leaders articulate this higher purpose again and again.
They then ask people to join them in this quest to achieve something of significance. They realise the ridiculousness of trying to motivate anyone. All they can do is articulate this Higher Purpose and ask people to join them.
They realise the key is to manage expectations not people.
8. The Purpose of Business
The purpose of business is to give us more life, not to suck the life out of us.
Great leaders are great energisers. They manage their own energy levels and mobilise the energy levels of all those around them. They realise that this is the ultimate currency that gets results.
9. It’s Not Business, It’s Just Personal
Many people try to keep their feelings out of business. They talk about it being "just business, nothing personal."
Yet when talking to great leaders, you'll find they describe feelings of inspiration, passion, compassion, challenge, caring, kindness, and even love.
What we say at The Human Enterprise is; it's not business it's just just personal.
Real leaders show who they are. We follow them because of their realness and their authenticity.
10. Charisma And Ego Are Overrated
Charisma is important, as is energy. However the real leadership power comes from the Vision of Greatness and the Higher Purpose, not just the leader.
Great leaders attach their egos to the achievement of their vision, not their own achievements and performance. In fact, when things go right, they attribute the success to others. Conversely, when things go wrong, they take the blame.
Their power and influence comes from their strong belief in their purpose and a willingness to openly express that conviction.
11. You Can Build A Great Enterprise and Still Make it Human
In fact, the two are inextricably linked. Every piece of research in this area demonstrates the linkage between full engagement and brilliant results.
Various studies have shown that the extent to which people believe Senior Management is sincerely interested in their well being and their personal and professional development, is the number one driver of engagement.
12. Building Other Leaders Around Them: The Greatest Legacy
The greatest legacy a leader can leave behind is not just good results, not just a great bottom line. It’s the development of the leaders around them that can sustain these results long after they are gone. So that they leave the organisations they are in better than they found them and able to prosper and grow. For us, that's the ultimate mark of a leader.
So the truly great leaders know their primary job is to develop other leaders around them and leave a business that will thrive long after they've gone.
In fact, our own Higher Purpose is to:
"Transform the way people live their lives, lead their business and leave a legacy."
13. Execution Excellence is the Key
Great leaders are great planners. Yet most importantly they are great doers. They realise it’s not about the plan it’s about the result.
They focus their people on not just doing tasks or going through the motions, but on achieving results. And they do it consistently through constant dialogue on a daily basis.
Most often the difference between a good company and a great one is their ability to execute. Most often the difference between a good and great leader is the discipline they have and influence others to have, in getting things done.
So there we have it; what it takes to build "the human enterprise". Predictable no, but possible, absolutely! If these ideas resonate with you or get you excited then you are probably the kind of leader that we'd love to work with
Sincerely
Paul Mitchell
Managing Director
You can read more about The Human Enterprise, our team and our clients here
Or, why not see how we can help you create a human enterprise of your own with our range of Leadership Development services
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