leadership - business excellence series, may 2013

MAY 2013

THE ART OF DELEGATIONRobert Meggy, CEO of award-winning Great Little Box Company, nurtures employees by showing confi dence in their abilities

PLAN AHEADSandy Huang, president

and principal consultant at Pinpoint Tactics,

encourages leaders to be fl exible when dealing

with strategic planning

CREATIVE CONFLICTJean-Pierre LeBlanc,

co-founder, Saje Natural Wellness, values staff who

don’t think like he does and are willing to say no

FAILING TO SUCCEEDTaking corrective action aft er failing

to handle a situation properly taught FDC Capital Partners chair

Yuri Fulmer a hard lesson that contributed to his current success

PRINTING PARTNER SPONSOR

Confidential Group /One-to-one Mentorship / Business Thought Leadership /Global Membership /

tec-canada.com

Jason Sherwood, P.Eng Vice President Sales, Atlantic Industries Limited

“ The Executive Committee is better than any MBA program for me. It allows me to develop personally while our business reaps the benefits of new systems, processes and increased profits.”

CONTENTS

4 Developing your next leader Different styles, similar tools, same

results

6 Failing your way to success Adversity creates opportunities for

businesses to thrive

8 The best-laid plans No strategic plan is fully resistant to

change; business leaders must be flexible in order to adapt

10 Stellar rotation Open process mitigates disruption

when staff are shifted to different functions

12 The art of delegation Recognizing employees’ value by

passing on work

14 Leadership principles Have the courage to take a step out

of your comfort zone to create a different future

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Follow our leadersConfidence at the top can only be derived through confidence in those who follow. So it stands to reason that a great deal of the success of a company relies on the choices leaders make in selecting, grooming, supporting and training those who would follow in their footsteps.

As a leader, that means learning how to recognize those characteristics and values in an employee that demonstrate their ability to be team-players and contribute to the success of the business; it means having the conviction to admit when you’ve made a mistake and take steps to correct it; it means being flexible, in success and failure, as your business twists and turns, while still maintaining composure and keeping your eyes on your goals; and it means stepping out of your comfort zone every once in a while to try something new.

In our second Business Excellence Series publication for 2013, Business in Vancouver talks to the experts about what it takes to be a great leader and how to cultivate those characteristics within yourself that will inspire others to follow.

Accompanying the Leadership Edition of Business in Vancouver’s Business Excellence Series is a breakfast panel discussion on the same topic. Among those speaking are Jean-Pierre LeBlanc, co-founder and CEO, Saje Natural Wellness, and John Nicola, chair and CEO, Nicola Wealth Management. The breakfast takes place June 6 at the Marriot Pinnacle. Visit www.biv.com/events for tickets and more information.

– Baila Lazarus, features editor, Business in Vancouver

MAY 2013

Developing your next leader

Different styles, similar tools, same results

“The well-meaning doctors kept prescribing drugs that were not functioning,” said LeBlanc, who was injured in the crash more than 20 years ago. He found transformational healing in plant essential oils and co-founded the company.

His passionate and inspiring story is an important lead-ership tool he uses to cultivate company values among his employees. But LeBlanc was not always the company’s chief; he was quick to admit that he didn’t always have what it took to be its leader.

“Some of us have the good fortune of having a parent or a mentor that instils in us leadership qualities,” said LeBlanc. “I wasn’t that fortunate.” He actually fired himself as CEO after 10 years with the company.

He then trained as a life coach, a professional coach and a business coach. Having developed trust in his ability to lead, he came back to the company’s CEO role with a re-newed vision and the skills he needs to identify potential leaders at Saje.

“Building leadership is about developing shared values,” he said. However, being on the same page does not preclude what he calls “individuation.”

“You have to understand the distinctive characteristics of your team. If you hire in your own image, you are creat-ing redundancy.”

LeBlanc values people who don’t think like he does and who are willing to say so. He believes a team can arrive at better, more effective decisions through creative conflict.

To find good leaders, he looks for people with intellect who value wellness, possess courage, go above and beyond, and have a proven track record of success.

“If you’ve got the right person, spend the time and en-ergy, give them the tools, remove the ceiling, and [you will] discover how capable they are.”

LeBlanc also runs an invitation-only group workshop series within the company. “I invite the brightest, most dedicated of our staff to do personal development work.” It’s a tool, he said, that helps his company grow leaders from within rather than having to hire from the outside.

Juggy Sihota, vice-president of customer experience, strategy and development at Telus, believes developing and championing leaders from within the company must be an explicit objective of upper-level leadership.

She looks for people who have the ability to not only work well within a variety of functions, but also the ability to teach others. She sees it as one of the hallmarks of a good leader.

“I feel I have a responsibility to [do that] as a leader,” she said. She broke down her assessment of leadership quali-ties into four specific characteristics: intellect, attitude, self-awareness and humility.

Intellect forms an important component of the leader’s arsenal, she said, and enables him or her to assimilate the variety of skills required for good leadership. She believes that knowledge, expertise and good judgment signal intel-lectual capacity.

BY PETER DEVRIES

That Saje Natural Wellness Inc., an industry leader

in health and wellness products, was born from a

painful and debilitating car accident is not read-

ily apparent. But the story is there, and what co-founder

and CEO Jean-Pierre LeBlanc learned as a result is helping

him build strong leaders for the company.

Building leadership is about developing shared values

[]JEAN-PIERRE LEBLANCCO-FOUNDER AND CEO,

SAJE NATURAL WELLNESS

Jean-Pierre LeBlanc, co-founder and

CEO of Saje Natural Wellness: “if you hire

in your own image, you are creating

redundancy” | DOMINIC

SCHAEFER

4 BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER BUSINESS EXCELLENCE SERIES

A good attitude is also essential. “A person [needs] the ability to solicit feedback, act upon it and implement it to become a better leader.” A person’s intellect or education can be overshadowed by a poor attitude.

Sihota also assesses future leaders’ self-awareness. “It’s knowing what you can do, knowing what you have

done and knowing where you’re going to need help.” In-dividuals who don’t have a clear perception of these three components set themselves up for failure.

A person who has an inflated sense of what he or she has accomplished in the past, she said, is more likely to approach new tasks thinking they can do it all on their own. “You can see the crash coming.”

She looks for people who express an air of gratitude. “Individuals who I find are thankful, who are patient

and who have a level of humility, motivate me to champion them even more.”

Sihota believes leaders need to take the time to get to know the people around them in order to discover who might be candidates for development. For that reason, she places a priority on allowing time in her schedule to discuss career options and to develop growth opportunities for those she manages. This can take the form of strategically filled temporary vacancies.

“Trying people in jobs is probably the most insightful way of determining if they have the capability or potential [to do them].” ■

Traits to look for when developing leaders■ a demonstrated intellectual ability to perform a

variety of leadership tasks

■ a strong sense of self-awareness

■ humility and an air of gratitude or thankfulness

■ a good attitude and an ability to receive and

implement feedback

Juggy Sihota, vice-president, customer experience, strategy and development, Telus: “a person [needs] the ability to solicit feedback, act upon it and implement it”

BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER BUSINESS EXCELLENCE SERIES 5

Failing your way to successAdversity creates opportunities for businesses to thrive

“In 2005 we acquired two substantial businesses about two months apart,” he said, when asked for an example. “As a result we grew from about $7 million in sales with 100 em-ployees to $50 million in sales with 1,500 employees.”

Fulmer was confident that he could handle the growth. After all, he had been in business for himself since the age of 20, when he had bought his first A&W franchise.

“I was, of course, completely wrong,” he now says. Fulmer hadn’t anticipated what would be required for the level of growth and found himself unable to meet commitments and in danger of losing customers. But what he really regrets is the impact on his employees.

“We strained a number of employees to their limits. I forgot that there were people in the equation … a huge number of new employees who needed reassurance, real leadership and support through the change. Almost 10 years later I still feel bad that I let so many people down.”

Fulmer admitted to himself that he had failed to handle the situation well and began to take corrective actions. He accepted responsibility for the failure and credits the help he got at the time to the success that he enjoys today.

According to Cynthia Roney, founder and CEO of Execu-tive Passage, this ability to recognize failure, accept owner-ship of it and then take corrective action, as exemplified by Fulmer, is vital to being a successful corporate leader. Roney’s executive-coaching company works with business leaders to create and implement results-based action plans.

“Failure is the key to success,” Roney said. “It shows that you’re stretching and growing and learning and trying something new.”

The most important advice that Roney gives her clients

about failure is to expect it as an outcome. No matter how much care is put into a project, failure is always a possibility. By being aware of that, business leaders are prepared to see failure and are, therefore, much quicker to take corrective action when it’s required.

Being aware of areas of weakness and taking corrective action are contributing factors to TransLink’s success as well. This was demonstrated in 2012 when the results from a series of audits were released.

“[The audits] confirmed that we’re well-run and well-managed,” said Ian Jarvis, CEO of TransLink. But there were areas of criticism, and it was on these that much of the media attention focused.

Despite some of the negative commentary, Jarvis saw op-portunities for improvement rather than criticisms within the audits. He also found validation.

BY LINDA TOBIAS

Yuri Fulmer, chairman of FDC Capital

Partners, is a self-made success story.

It may, therefore, come as a surprise

that failure is something that he’s experienced

many times.

FDC Capital Partners chairman Yuri Fulmer: “the minute I screw something up, I always look for where the price to be paid is. I don’t dodge it; I don’t shirk it; I don’t ask ‘How am I going to get out of it?’ I have to make it right somehow”


“When you look at the criticism, virtually all of the areas that were commented on, we were aware of and were work-ing on … [The audits] confirmed for us that we were on the right path.”

By being open to the idea that improvements were needed, and not denying failure, TransLink was able to see areas of weakness and began taking corrective action. Thereby, criti-cism was transformed into a challenge and an affirmation that it was on the right track. This approach has led to success.

“The commissioner challenged us to find $40-60 mil-lion in cost reductions over three years and we’ve doubled that in terms of what we were able to identify and achieve,” said Jarvis of one of the audits. And cost reductions did not come at the expense of customer satisfaction, which is at an all-time high.

Jarvis explained how this was made possible: “we have a clear mandate – an important mandate – and no matter what the external environment, [we] stay focused on the strategies and goals that [we’ve] set as an organization.”

Often, minor corrections are all a company needs to stay successful.

“You want to adjust according to the reality of what’s happening,” said Roney. “But to ignore it means you are not altering your course and often, the course gets more and more divergent.”

That’s why TransLink’s approach of ongoing corrective action has been successful for the company.

But even colossal failures can be beneficial. “Failure is temporary,” said Roney. “It’s a point of reference

that is temporary until you take corrective action.” “You’re in good company when you fail,” she added. “Steve

Jobs was fired from Apple, the company that he founded. His real success and the success of his company didn’t happen until he came back.

“Henry Ford took four tries [at running a company] to get it right… . When we look at other people who are successful, all we focus in on is their success … [but] they’ve all failed. The good ones will, in fact, proudly talk about the lessons learned from their failures and the importance of failure. You almost want to fail forward.” ■

Failure is temporary. It’s a point of reference that is temporary until you take corrective action

[]CYNTHIA RONEYFOUNDER AND CEO, EXECUTIVE PASSAGE

TransLink’s ongoing corrective action and focus on customer service has helped it build a transit and transportation system that Jarvis feels Lower Mainland residents should be proud of | EMMA

CRAWFORD


The best-laid plansNo strategic plan is fully resistant to change; business leaders must be flexible in order to adapt

It’s also important to consider unforeseen issues – traf-fic, weather and road closures – that could crop up along the way.

“The fact that I know where I want to get to is just the start,” said Sharp. “It’s the process of planning itself – con-sidering my options before making a decision – that lets me change direction midway if problems arise.”

“Creating a strategic plan is absolutely crucial and every organization should have one to help guide its business to-ward various goals and objectives within a certain timeframe … but it isn’t set in stone,” agreed Wazuku Advisory Group principal Mike Watson.

In order for leaders to effectively work with a strategic plan, Watson recommends reviewing it on a quarterly basis and reworking it as needed.

“The market doesn’t stay stagnant; things shift,” he said, adding that various changes can impact a strategic plan, from new government regulations and tax policies to increased competition and updated technologies.

“A strategic plan is based on a number of assumptions, plus the capabilities of the team you have in place at the time,” Watson said. “As such, you can reasonably expect things will be different down the road and, as a leader, you have to be willing to work with change, not against it.”

The review process doesn’t need to be complicated.“Sit down as a senior team, compare your progress against

the accountabilities that were originally set and consider the results,” he said. “If you haven’t been achieving the way you expected, ask yourself why; if you find yourself off track, re-plan.”

Both Watson and Sharp say that strategic re-planning in the face of change requires a calculated response – not a knee-jerk reaction.

“Stay calm and force yourself to take any emotion you may be feeling out of the equation,” Watson said. “Honestly

assess the strategic impact: what gap does it leave? Are any client relationships at risk as a result?”

If necessary, create a short-term plan to temporarily alleviate the issues until a more permanent solution can be put in place.

“When you’re ready to look longer term, try to use change as an opportunity to tweak your strategic direction rather than just fill a hole,” said Sharp. “Why is it happening? What new information do you have that could be used to your advantage? It’s a good time to enhance your plan to improve your success.”

Kevin Armstrong, a management consultant with the Interdependent Training Group, works with companies that have used change to better their business.

“One of my clients was heavily into engineering processes for the pulp and paper industry in B.C. until that market began to decline,” he recalled. “We looked at his plan and decided to shift into Alberta, figuring out what he’d need to do to enter that market within five years. Now that he’s achieved his goal, it’s time to review his plan again.”

While some changes may require a more immediate response, a strong strategic plan will have set systems and procedures in place from the start in order to prevent busi-ness leaders from being caught off guard.

“If your company is anticipating succession or any sig-nificant change in key staff members, strategic planning can mean the difference between a smooth transition and a complete loss of direction,” said Sandy Huang, president and principal consultant at Pinpoint Tactics. “This disruption can cause the loss of employees and productivity and may incur financial losses for your business if it has not been planned for fully.”

Besides including detailed job descriptions and respon-sibilities in your strategic plan, she stresses the importance of being creative and flexible in dealing with change.

“Business leaders need to be mindful of changes and will-ing to accommodate them,” Huang said. “It’s important to have a clear vision of what’s down the road five years from now but, at the same time, you need to remain aware that things change.”

Achieving staff buy-in is also a key.“When a company undergoes strategic planning [or re-

planning] with the intention of moving in a new direction or introducing new ideas … it is critical to get key staff – not just management – on board early,” she explained.

Watson adds that cultural readiness must be taken into consideration, too.

“Ask yourself if your organization is ready for change and, if the answer is no, you may need to stretch a new strategic direction out over time,” he said. “The key is to recognize the challenges you face and the context in which you face them and be flexible and willing to work with that.” ■

BY NOA GLOUBERMAN

Barry Sharp, president of AMA Manage-

ment Ltd., likens a business’ strategic plan

to a roadmap. “If I want to drive from here

to Calgary, the first thing I do is look at potential

routes and pick one that’s likely faster, more direct

or less-problematic than the rest,” he said.

Sandy Huang, president and

principal consultant, Pinpoint Tactics:

“business leaders need to be mindful of

changes and willing to accommodate

them” | DOMINIC

SCHAEFER


Kevin Armstrong, management consultant, Interdependent Training Group: change can be used to adjust

your strategic direction and better your business

Mike Watson, principal, Wazuku Advisory Group: “creating a strategic plan is absolutely crucial … but it isn’t

set in stone”

Barry Sharp, president, AMA Management: “try to use change … to tweak your strategic direction rather

than just fill a hole”


Stellar rotationsOpen process mitigates disruption when staff is shifted to different job functions

“Canadians generally are fairly enlight-ened employers,” she said. “I have seen a number of particularly the larger top 100 companies doing this kind of thing on a more concerted basis. It’s part of strategic management of their human resources.”

PwC found that 68% of the 120 Cana-dian CEOs in the survey use this approach compared with 60% of the more than 1,300 CEOs who responded globally.

One Vancouver example is mining giant Teck Resources. “As a diversified resource company that operates globally, we pro-vide opportunities for our people, both at the senior level and throughout the organization, to rotate through different functions to broaden their experience and further their development,” the company said in a statement to Business in Vancouver.

“For example, employees at our operations regularly tran-sition to positions in different areas, such as engineering to processing, to broaden their skills and experience.”

But how to bring in such a policy? McLaughlin suggested that companies begin planting the seed as early as the new-hire interview stage that staff will be exposed to a variety of different roles within the organization.

She said the objective is to view the organization in terms of its capacity long term. “Obviously these programs often start at the management level, so you’re thinking about what

are your succession plans, who do you need to have moving up the line, understanding a broader scope of the operations in order to be ready for that leadership role.”

McLaughlin said some companies des-ignate top talent and have those people eligible for rotation types of programs over a period of time.

“Others do it in a less formalized way but it’s still usually the people who have leadership interest and capability and can be groomed in that direction longer term.”

Most difficult is mitigating the disrup-tion to company operations.

“That is the biggest challenge, which is why you don’t see more and more of these programs de-veloping, because companies run lean,” McLaughlin said. “They don’t have one to show and one to go.”

She said it’s difficult to formalize rotations and extricate people on a schedule.

“You minimize that by setting up the expectations as early as you can and having a timeline so that the person moving can be succeeded by another qualified person behind them.”

While some companies rotate staff on a quarterly or six-month basis, she recommended a minimum of a year for the person to be really learning and fully effective.

McLaughlin said that as an executive at Rogers she had

BY LORNE MALLIN

More than any region in the world, CEOs in Canada rotate their

staff through different functions and challenges as a strategy

to develop leadership. That’s a key Canadian finding in PwC’s

16th annual Global CEO Survey, and it doesn’t surprise Vancouver leader-

ship development consultant Kathy McLaughlin.

Kathy McLaughlin, owner of Kathy

McLaughlin & Associates:

companies should begin planting the

seed as early as the new-hire interview

stage that staff will be exposed to a variety of different

roles within the organization


TEC Canada is proud to sponsor BIV’s Business Excellence Series and the discussion on leadership. For me, it is a subject of particular resonance, the study and practice of leadership being equally my profession and my passion.

Developing good leaders is a multi-faceted and complex learning process. As a learning organization for the thinking CEO, TEC combines the wisdom and power of group and one-to-one mentorship and the best in business thought to help our members become accomplished leaders, able to confidently respond to the practical complexities of building a successful business in a complex global economy.

But the commitment to learn, to strive, to become the best leader possible has far-reaching, often unimagined effects well beyond business success. In the experience of many of our members, it is to find a deeper commitment to family and friends, a new enthusiasm for community and culture – a renewed passion for life.

John F. Kennedy wrote, “leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” I invite you to join me and BIV to learn more about leadership and the indispensable role it must play in developing leaders capable of meeting twenty-first century challenges.

Warm regards,

Catherine Osler, President, TEC Canada

Catherine Osler, President, TEC Canada

the benefit of a form of job rotation going from marketing into sales and then general management.

David Zerr of Western Management Consultants made rotation part of a strategic plan when he was CEO of the Mainroad Group until August 2011. Now with more than 450 employees, the Surrey-based company was established in 1988 when the provincial government privatized road and bridge maintenance services in B.C.

He said management of the 100% employee-owned company was very open about the plan to move staff into different assignments as part of their learning and development.

“So, when it came down to an actual individual rotation, we looked at the full picture – the position the person was leaving, making sure there was coverage; and in the area they were going to, again we made sure we communicated to people that this was being done for the good of the business to help people broaden their skills.”

For example, Zerr said a key operations person was moved temporarily into the business development area.

“For this person to be ready to move into a more senior position down the road, it would be good for them to get some good, well-rounded exposure outside of just moving trucks and crews around.”

He said the results were generally very positive. But sometimes the move was not a good fit.

“My policy was always to not to hesitate for a moment to say we might have made a mistake and we’re going to reverse this project assignment,” Zerr said. ■

Involving managers below board level in strategic decision-making

Active succession planning including identifying multiple successors

Rotations to different functions/ challenges

Programs to encourage diversity among business leaders

Dedicated executive development program

Encouraging global mobility and international experience

Shadowing senior executive

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100CanadaUSGlobal

David Zerr of Western Management Consultants: it’s important to be very open about a plan to move staff into different assignments as part of their learning and development

Do you deploy any of the following to develop your leadership pipeline?


BY SHERYL GRAY

Robert Meggy knows a thing or two about boxes. He

also knows how to think outside them. “People

won’t be happy in their jobs if they’re always be-

ing told what to do,” said Meggy, president and CEO of the

Great Little Box Company (GLBC). He believes that without

delegation, there can be no growth for the company.

The art of delegation

Recognizing employees’ value by passing on work

Meggy has built his team one player at a time, building the GLBC into an award-winning company that has been consis-tently listed in Maclean’s top 100 companies to work for since 2005. The employees share responsibility through adherence to their individual quarterly goals, and they also share the rewards through GLBC’s profit-sharing program.

The company has built a culture of open communication and sharing information that enables employees to offer solutions to problems, and to act on their ideas. All staff participate in a quarterly goal-setting program, conducted by immediate supervisors. The act of delegating down is constant, but the culture encourages the employees to suc-ceed and grow through the process. Supervisors are taught to counsel their direct reports: “What can I do to help you?”

At GLBC, supervisors play a key role in successful delega-tion as they support employee aspirations and growth. They have their own quarterly goals to attain, and work toward improving their skills to inspire, coach and lead. Senior management have all risen from inside the company, which Meggy has come to prefer over risking an ill-fitted, outside hire for a key position.

“When we hire new staff, they go through a series of seven to nine interviews,” said Meggy. Everyone has to be on board with GLBC’s open communication style, and Meggy believes that right fit will be revealed through the exhaustive hiring process. “Over 80% of employees leave their jobs because of fit or culture. People will fly to California to look at a piece of equipment, but interview someone for just one hour.”

Nancy MacKay, CEO of MacKay CEO Forums, coaches her clients to build up future leaders, just as Meggy has been doing.

“Trust that you have the right people on the bus,” said MacKay. She believes that delegating is about pushing decision-making to others, namely, to people who hold their positions because they are highly capable of doing this work. Effective delegating, however, is a learned skill just like many other successful leadership tools.

“When I’m coaching CEOs, I ask two key questions: ‘Who has the [decision-making power]?’ and ‘Should you really be making the decision?,’” said MacKay. She believes that leaders should look at the decisions they currently make and decide who is actually the most appropriate decision


maker for each situation. MacKay’s experience working with CEOs has shown

her that people learn how to delegate through the practice of being a leader, but also by their own previous “boss” experiences – both good and bad.

“A successful CEO I know has a ‘rock star team’ and everyone wants to be the CEO one day,” said MacKay. De-scribed by MacKay as a “masterful delegator,” he has sur-rounded himself with bright and decisive people who take responsibility for their work and get things done.

“CEOs should spend more time delegating than doing,” said MacKay. Leaders who are too hands-on get in the way of developing the talent. MacKay estimates that as few as 20% of the 200-plus CEOs she works with are proactively addressing succession planning. Micro-managers also run the risk of draining their pool of would-be successors.

“A-list players do not survive with control freaks,” said MacKay.

Sue Paish, CEO of LifeLabs, agrees with MacKay that successful leadership requires doing less or, at least, less on your own.

“Very few successful leaders do much on their own. If delegation is not part of your leadership DNA, your orga-nization will miss opportunities,” said Paish.

“My job is to help you do your job.” Delegation is a learned management skill, but Paish also believes that the essence of delegation is embedded within effective leaders.

“People can learn to delegate, but if you don’t embrace it, it can become very administrative,” said Paish. For Paish, effective delegation means working with staff on the vision and strategies for success, and supporting them to deliver outcomes, not a completed list of assigned tasks. At LifeLabs, there is still room for employees who are task-oriented, but not at the strategic level.

“Here’s where we’re going, here’s what we need to get there, you take this responsibility,” said Paish, explaining how to truly delegate to staff who are involved in breaking down strategic direction into action plans. “Leaders show their value by recognizing the value of others.”

If we don’t share responsibility with those we work with,” said Paish, “then we’re thinking we’re more important than we really are.” ■

Great Little Box Company president and CEO Robert Meggy: operates with open books to enable employees to share responsibility for successes and failures | DOMINIC

SCHAEFER

LifeLabs CEO Sue Paish embraces delegation as part of her leadership DNA: “my job is to help you do your job” | DOMINIC

SCHAEFER

Nancy MacKay, CEO of MacKay CEO Forums: coaches that delegation is a critical element of succession planning

AT THE CENTRE OF GREAT LEADERSHIPTake that step that creates a new future

BY CATHERINE OSLER

There is much debate surrounding the key character-istics of good leadership. However, just as innova-tion is often born from the blindingly obvious, good

leadership characteristics are right before us. Examples abound on the world stage in business and politics, not in the outcomes but in bold moves, courageous stances, spirited decision-making and the ability to create a new future.

The latest media example on our global stage is Marga-ret Thatcher, who even in death continues to capture our imaginations and generate lively debate. You can disagree with her politics, but her leadership is hard to dispute. She embodied one of the key principles of great leadership, the ability to imagine a new future. With considerable courage (the political risks were significant) she stayed the course that made that future possible.

The ability to imagine what has never existed and the courage to take the actions that will create that new fu-ture have never been more necessary. I define leadership as going before or showing the way, taking that step to-wards something, the step that creates the new future.

The corporate world has many business leaders to look to for the key characteristics of leadership. Ones that readily come to mind are Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Their names are synonymous with creativity. It is easy to overlook the courage that was required for these lead-ers to drive the innovation for which they will always be associated.

We often see these leaders as “larger than life,” as ex-traordinary. While inspiring us, they occur to us as mod-els for leadership that are out of the reach of the ordinary person. In fact, we are wrong. If we look at the principles that underlie their leadership, that led to their grand achievements, we will see the timeless principles to which I refer – and ones that are easily within our reach.

It is no coincidence that the leaders to whom we look to find the key principles of leadership are also known to the world as innovators. It is the courage to fail that leads to innovation and possibility.

To lead from this characteristic, courage, you have to be ready for many dark nights of the soul. There will be days when you want to quit, when the false starts over-whelm, when disappointment looms large. Leaders have to be ready to fail, to know that the way forward will be messy and that mid-course corrections are moments of learning and opportunity.

What complicates this is the expectations of those around us. Being a leader means taking risks and making tough decisions. Every leader has numerous stakehold-ers who count on them being right. Leadership, however,

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES

The ability to imagine what has never existed and the courage to take the actions that will create that new future have never been more necessary

[]

does not come with a guarantee of being right. In fact, it is the opposite.

The courage to take a stand and act alone differenti-ates true leaders from those who would be leaders. Most people are far more comfortable operating with what they already know. The status quo is a very comfortable spot to make decisions from. It is hard to be wrong with lots of data from previous circumstances to confirm our views and decisions. But data is only available about the past. And while it is tempting to create a future based on the data, it entrenches the prevailing view. It keeps us safe. Surviving not thriving.

Leaders choose differently. They heed a call and are quick to recognize new information as an opportunity to challenge the prevailing view. It is hard to make a case for innovation when the statistics are not there to support it. Leadership means the ability to move into the unknown. There is nothing safe about being a leader. They seize the opportunity to take a stance and bring new possibilities into being.

Tremendous courage takes firm beliefs and values. Margaret Thatcher was a leader who understood her core values. Upon her resignation the editor of the Daily Tele-graph described Thatcherism as a powerful collection of beliefs about the capacities of human beings in a politi-cal society. These are not disembodied philosophical or theoretical beliefs. They were her beliefs and the ones that gave Thatcher the ability to lead the country to a new future, to summon the courage to move beyond the cur-rent state.

While there remains a broad diversity of opinions on the rightness or success of her particular policies, she was guided by the underlying necessity for Britain to under-take a large-scale change.

Leaders create new futures taking the risks that are in-herent in new opportunities. What does that mean to you today? Embrace the blank slate and when you see some-thing that holds the opportunity you know will create a new future, do it.

Catherine Osler is president of TEC Canada


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leadership - business excellence series, may 2013

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