Leadership: Truth, Trust, and Excellence
“Excellence is the next five minutes.”
Tom Peters
Thomas J. Peters., Nancye Green. (2022). Tom Peters’ Compact Guide to Excellence. Washington D.C. USA: IdeaPress Publishing. p318.
It might seem counterintuitive, but there is a strong connection between truth, trust, and excellence. Consider the quote from Tom Peters about excellence being the next five minutes. In his writings that span more than forty years, this quote has been a mantra, often recited by Tom Peters and well known to anyone who has read any of his works. Naively, some may think that the excellence that they achieve in the next five minutes is the end of the excellence for the day. Just mark it off the ‘To-Do List’ and move on with the more important parts of the day. The devil, of course, is in the detail of this quote from Tom Peters. Excellence is a moveable feast. Achieving it in the next five minutes is great; now, how about the five minutes after that and the five minutes that follow, etc? Excellence is an ongoing, almost timeless adventure. It is an epic journey, and your team should be your travel companions.
For a leader to regularly achieve excellence means putting the important things first. Fundamentally, everything comes down to or comes back to people, especially those on the front line. Put your people first, and how to lead with excellence will start to come into sight. Paying attention to the little things will help tremendously in this regard. Someone solving a problem before it becomes a real issue deserves positive recognition. Likewise, the staff member who goes out onto the ‘shop floor’ to greet and welcome customers with a smile should be acknowledged as a wonderful example of excellence in customer service. If your people are happy and enjoying their jobs, then customers, clients, and the like will most likely be happy also. Happiness begets happiness. Words of encouragement, asking people to share ideas, and creating a workplace where Psychological Safety is of the utmost importance are all great ways to start doing things with excellence. That includes having those challenging conversations with respect and, with that, excellence. While all of this might seem simplistic, they are some of the nuts and bolts that build excellence in leadership. Dr. Beth Frates, MD, an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, explains it well.
“Receiving the gift of attention—someone’s full attention with the phone put away—is a real gift. Listening–fully listening to someone with the goal of understanding them and helping them—is a real gift. These gifts are priceless.”
Beth Frates MD (2023) Post on ‘X’ (Formerly Twitter) 8 September 2023.
Valuing your team is the essence of excellence in leadership. This also includes valuing their range of talents and abilities. The excellent leader knows when to take the counsel of their team and when to let leadership emerge from within the team. If you know that somebody has a better skillset or abilities that would be useful on a particular issue, then let them take the lead, step back into the shadows and let others from within the team take the spotlight and shine. As raised in last month’s article, ‘Leadership and Perception’: “Perception brings about change. It has the ability to positively or negatively impact upon the individuals within the organization and the organization as a collective.”
Trust is essential to great leadership. It is hard to achieve excellence in leadership without trust. If people don’t perceive it as either happening or, at the very least, as a ‘work in progress,’ then leadership will struggle. Of course, trust might mean different things to different people. Stephen M. R. Covey defines trust in this way.
“The first job of any leader is to inspire trust. Trust is confidence born of two dimensions: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, motive, and intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, skills, results, and track record. Both dimensions are vital.”
Covey, Stephen M. R. (2019). ‘How the Best Leaders Build Trust’ in Leadership Now. Pasadena, CA: Leadership Now.
Covey in his excellent book “Smart Trust” identified 5 actions of ‘Smart Trust’ that successful leaders globally, undertake.
Smart Trust Action 1: Choose to believe in trust
Smart Trust Action 2: Start with self
Smart Trust Action 3: Declare their intent . . . and assume positive intent in others
Smart Trust Action 4: Do what they say they’re going to do
Smart Trust Action 5: Lead out in extending trust to others
We’ll also note the principles on which these 5 Actions are based, as well as their opposites and counterfeits. The counterfeits are particularly dangerous because although the opposites are self-evident, counterfeit actions—like counterfeit money—appear to be real but on closer inspection reveal themselves as disingenuous. Whether engaged in knowingly or unconsciously, counterfeits are often the most prevalent actions in teams, organizations, and relationships of all kinds. They are also the actions most likely to diminish trust.
Covey, Stephen. M. R., Link, Greg., Merrill, Rebecca, R. (2012). Smart trust: Creating prosperity, energy and joy in a low-trust world (eBook). London: Simon & Schuster. (p.226-227 of 816).
Covey’s observation about the leaders who engage in ‘counterfeit actions of trust’ or what he also calls a ‘fair-weather’ trust rightly names these as false trust. The dangerous thing about counterfeit trust is that it is based on falsehoods, misrepresentation, and deception. The leader that says that it’s all about the team, the customer, and the mission when in reality, it’s all about themselves, is basing the leadership and the trust they need on a complete lie. Truth leads to trust. If trust is currency, truth is the Gold that underpins it. Leaders who work extensively with that which is true usually find that trust follows. In organizations, trust creates ‘Goodwill’ and ‘Social Capital,’ both of which are necessary for effective leadership. It is in an examination of statements of truth that the intent of the leader becomes evident.
For a leader to regularly achieve excellence means putting the important things first.
There are many reasons why the truth is important in leadership. The most obvious one is that if, as a leader, I present a false premise to my team, intentionally or unintentionally, and then ask them to research the matter or to develop a plan to be executed next week based on the facts and information provided, I am essentially wasting their time. Inherently, this disrespects them and their time and doesn’t value their skills. The truth and trust will decline when the team works out that they haven’t shared the facts. The second scenario is where data has been incorrectly collected or collated or so much emphasis is put on it that people automatically think that correlation equals causation (which is, of course, not always correct). False assumptions can lead the organization into dangerous territory. The third scenario is the leader who says that one thing is true, but their actions expose it to be a half-truth or a completely false stance. Stephen M. R. Covey meant this when he referred to counterfeit truth.
The lack of honesty and the playing loose with the truth suggest several things. In the first instance, it would suggest that leaders do not trust themselves to be truthful to their team. It potentially suggests a narcissistic leader who only cares about themselves and their self-preservation as a leader. The second instance suggests that the leader doesn’t value the team and the individuals on the team or their time. In the third instance, if the truth is not a priority, then something other than the truth is the priority. Whichever way you bounce it up, if excellence and success are what is desired, then starting by sharing the truth, being authentic, and allowing yourself to be vulnerable occasionally, even human, is a good place to start. It may well be that putting this into practice can begin by wandering around, being both a presence and a preacher of the truth for the organization. This was suggested in the ground breaking work by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jnr, ‘In Search of Excellence’.
“Most of the leaders of the excellent companies have come from operational backgrounds…Wandering about is easy for them because they are comfortable in the field. These leaders believe, like an evangelist, in constantly preaching the “truth,” not from their office but away from it — in the field. They travel more, and they spend more time, especially with juniors, down the line.”
Peters, Thomas, J., Waterman Jnr, Robert, H. (2012). In Search of Excellence (eBook). New York, New York: HarperCollins. p358 of 511.
Truth, like excellence, isn’t a ‘To-Do-List’ activity. Nor should it ever be a game of chance. As Tom Peters often reminds us, “Excellence is the next five minutes.” It is, of course, the next five minutes after that and then the next five minutes after that, and so it keeps going. Truth leads to trust, and trust is needed for the pursuit of excellence. All three of them belong together and are habits, not mere activities.
What are some immediate ways in which truth, trust, and excellence can be woven into leadership and the fabric of the organization? Though not an exhaustive list, this ‘David’s Deliberate Dozen’ might be a place to start.
*Be prepared to be vulnerable, open and honest to build trust.
*Be well regarded within your industry or organization (credibility).
*Be willing to embrace your own ‘humanness’ and fallibility, allowing others to embrace theirs.
*Be a leader with an eye on the future, mindful of change and a willingness to share the details.
*Be a leader that promotes everything special about the organization, including important rituals.
*Be a leader that always acts and treats people with respect and fairness.
*Be proactive in knowing the people you lead, taking an interest in their professional journey.
*Be a leader that embraces your inner-self, using that self-knowledge positively in leadership.
*Be prepared to challenge, be willing to console and be willing to celebrate when needed.
*Be willing to listen to the voice of your team, colleagues, customers and the wider community.
*Be clear on the values and principles that underpins the organization and your leadership.
*Be visible. “Manage By Wandering Around (MBWA)” (cf Peters & Waterman), listening + talking.
At the heart of these items in the list, is the idea that leaders need to be focused. That focus needs to be one that puts ‘People-First’. Having an understanding of the connection between truth, trust and excellence is important. It means being ferociously active in bringing, truth, trust and excellence into the organization and ensuring that it is woven into the fabric of the organization. Truth, trust and excellence must seep into the crevices, in every part of the organization and underpin the culture of the organization. Keep in mind that how people perceive the extent to which the truth-trust-excellence paradigm is not just occurring but occurring in an authentic, very genuine way, is critical. What is created is not just for today, but for a vibrant future. Perception is a powerful change agent, so to is: truth, trust and excellence.
“The struggle of today, is not altogether for today — it is for a vast future also.”
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