Leadership Lessons Of The Incas
My Wife Deborah and I recently celebrated 30 years of wonderful marriage with a 5 week trip to South America.
You’ve got to go, and if you’ve been I bet your dying to go back. The scenery, the music, the people, the energy. Unbelievable! Put it on your ‘must do’ list.
When I returned home to Sydney, everyone asked me “what was the highlight?” Now, I’m not usually a big fan of that question. I just can’t pick any particular moment or location as the stand out. However, this time there really was a highlight. It was visiting Machu Picchu and learning about the spiritual mastery and uniqueness of the Incas.
Mixing Business With Pleasure
Although I was on holiday and feeling years away from work, I couldn’t help but admire the business savvy of the INCAS. I got some incredible leadership and business lessons that are just as relevant now as they were 100’s of years ago at the height of the Inca Empire.
Here’s a few…
Growth Mindset
At its peak, The Inca Empire grew to 9 million people and included large parts of modern Ecuador, Peru, Western and South Central Bolivia, Northwest Argentina, North-Central Chile, and Southern Colombia.
So how did it get so big?
They made a decision to grow and then found ways to make it happen. Simple stuff but a conscious decision to grow had to be made first. It became part of their mindset.
Questions:
- Have you made it your mission to grow personally or to grow your team or your business this year? Or will it be “same, same but different” for the remainder of 2010?
- Are you asking yourself “what if” or “why not” questions about your future or “how come” questions about your past?
Cash is King
The INCAS, couldn’t understand why the Conquistadors had such a fascination with gold, apart from its aesthetic qualities and decorative applications.
To them the real money was in potatoes. Because to the INCAS a unit of “labour”, say an hour, day or week was their currency and it was paid for in food (primarily potatoes). They therefore put all their energy into growing and storing potatoes, “cash” to pay and feed their people and fuel their business growth. They had up to 7 years supply.
The also built literally thousands of kilometres of irrigation channels to water their crops and quench their peoples thirst.
I’m always worried when I see businesses (mostly major global corporates) put so much emphasis on market share, or top line growth and so little on the bottom line. Their potatoes (cash) if you will.
Hot Potatoes!
The Incas knew they could only expand their empire through their people’s labour and these people had to be fed. So potatoes became the fuel for growth, just as in business, profit (cash) is the fuel for growth. I love it when senior management talks about cash.
Questions:
- Is your business overly focused on market share and top line growth or are you placing just as much emphasis on profit and cash?
- Are you stacking away 7 years of potatoes (cash) to fuel your lifestyle or spending all you make and just focussing on how much you get paid (top-line revenue).
The Power of Symbolism
In our latest leadership programme “Why Should Anyone Be Led By YOU? What It Takes to Be An Authentic Leader” we talk a lot about the power of symbolism in business – the importance of icons, gestures and our collective unconscious need for archetypes.
The Incas really got this one. They had three levels of existence:
Hana Pacha - the upper world inhabited by the superior gods. Their Symbol – The condor
Kay Pacha - the world of our everyday existence. Their Symbol – The Jaguar
Ucu or Urin Pacha - the underworld inhabited by spirits of the dead, the ancestors, their overlords and various deities having close contact to the Earth plane. Their Symbol – The Snake
Questions:
- Do you use symbolism, behaviours or icons to bring your Vision to life?
- Do you have symbols for your own life goals? I have a Double Decker bus, my “Freedom Figure”, representing the amount I need in capital so my passive income can replace my personal ‘exertion’ income.
Disruptive Innovation
It’s great to keep innovating and essential for growth to adhere to the concept of continuous improvement. Getting better and better at the way you do things. At The Human Enterprise we call this ‘small tweaks’.
But growth for the INCAS meant totally changing the way you do things. What we would call “disruption innovation”.
Take for example the Inca farmers. Other agrarian cultures got better at farming the land they had always farmed. Not the Incas. They looked at the total land they had and worked out ways of farming it. Even on the steepest of land they built terrace like plots massively increasing the amount of farmable land available to them. They really got what it meant to “sweat your assets”.
They also did this with plants. Rather than just seeing plants and flowers as decorative, they discovered diverse uses for them such as moisturising the skin, controlling asthma, as a shampoo, relieving fever and as a cure for arthritis.
Questions:
- Are you complaining about not having enough “land” (people, time, resources, money) to grow or are you making the most of what you’ve got?
- Are there opportunities right under your nose that you've become so familiar with that you’re failing to see the possibilities to convert them into real business assets or a more exciting lifestyle?
When there are no rules people make up their own
When the Incas chose to grow the Empire they had to have a way to bind people together. To do this they introduced a moral code consisting of 3 key values which pre-empted everything they did. The code was Ama Suwa, Ama Llulla, Ama Quella and roughly translates to:
Do not steal
Do not lie
Do not be lazy
Questions:
- Do you and or your team have a set of ground rules (moral code) that guides your everyday actions?
- Do you have a personal code or set of values which are non-negotiable for you?
A need for renewal
Each year the Incas would take time out and go through “Personal Cleansing” where their Shaman would help them review:
- What they did well that year?
- What they regret?
- What do they need to do to be better next year?
Questions:
- Does your business take time out to stop and reflect on performance every year or quarter through some systematised process?
- Do you take the time to reflect on your own performance as a leader in both your personal and professional life?
- Do you get objective advice and feedback from a coach or mentor (modern day equivalent of the Shaman)?
Small things make big differences
What’s fascinating about INCA architecture is just how well built their structures were (and still are). The large stone blocks used in construction fit together so immaculately that there are absolutely no gaps to be seen.
Their precession was uncanny. Every building block was cut to perfection before another one was laid on top. They knew nothing would stand the test of time unless it was built from a quality base. And stand the test of time they have. The attention to detail (small things) applied to the construction process is still available to see at places like Machu Picchu where the temples and other structures still stand proud hundreds of years (and several earthquakes) later.
Questions:
- Are you building your business on a base of quality? Because if you're not your just adding cost, not value.
- Do your goals in life stem from a firm base of first class values and beliefs? If not, your life may eventually appear shallow and meaningless to you.
They never sent emails
The most amazing thing about the Incas is that they had no written language. That’s right, no written word. There were pictures and a spoken language, but no written language.
Sounds incredible for such a sophisticated race of people. But is it?
Maybe all those years ago they knew the old adage ‘a picture paints 1,000 words’. They knew the power of sitting down with someone to coach them, rather than just handing them the procedure manual. How else do you account for the ongoing breakthroughs in engineering, architecture and design.
They knew the power of getting everybody together for ceremonial addresses rather than just sending out another impersonal email.
Maybe they knew the power of personal contact to really communicate and that information without personal contact is informing, not necessarily communicating.
Questions:
Are you just responding to email and relying on the written word to communicate or do you phone or even better, just show up? - Are you constantly improving your ability with the spoken word to stir the imagination, not just writing more sophisticated manuals, letters, proposals or business strategies? Get out there, get talking. It’s not just logic that’s required. You need to win both hearts and minds.
There are many more, but wait a minute, I’m relying on the written word here (and yes a few pictures). Guess you’ll have to just get out there and see for yourself.
Yours in transformational leadership
Paul Mitchell
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