Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe

Typically an MBA degree is an advanced accounting program with some electives in trying to see the bigger picture behind the numbers. Business is about process management. Working out the right sequence for the production of the good or service (G/S). Constantly boiling things down to their essence in order to squeeze inefficiency out of each step in the process. With fixed inputs, minimizing cost is the pathway to profit in a price sensitive market. Process efficiency is important. At least thats the most common understanding of what business is about. Harvard, Stanford and the Judge Business School go beyond accounting, but they only touch a few thousand people a year. That leaves a yawning gap in the global marketplace of knowledge about running a business. 

Having a vision of a completely new product or service is vital to future success. But vision is worthless unless it can be converted to outcomes. To do that, inputs must be mastered. See how quickly we got back to processes?  

All of the above is the science of business. It has been the subject of by far the most amount of attention in the business world in theory and practice. But it is only half of the solution. Some businesses can get by on tweaking process management. They will likely stumble along until a big change comes that is beyond them. 

The art of business has always been the differentiator between plodding and explosive success. 

Art is elusive, intangible, incredibly complex and simple at the same time. It is vision, judgement, passion, learning, charisma, conviction, tied together by persuasive communication. CEOs and General Managers rarely inspire people to think or act beyond the parameters of the employment contract: labor in exchange for money. In some relationships between C-Suite and staff, money may be more coercion than incentive. 

The missing element is leadership. 

The science of war is incredibly complex. Take a 3-D column from the seabed to the stars in a combat zone. Thousands of space, air, land, sea and subsurface platforms crowd into tight geographic boundaries to disperse electromagnetic pulses, missiles, drones, and people. These fast moving objects somehow only collide by design. This system of systems requires exquisite management.

Being good at the science of war is insufficient to win wars.

Great military leaders have thousands of scared people willing to follow them to the gates of hell - employment contract be damned!

The difference between a job and a profession is continuing education. It is the reason why the military spends millions on War Colleges that pull Colonels out of the line and teach them about grand strategy, decision making, and leadership. 

Leadership is about how you treat people and ideas. Great military leaders ask the opinion of their leaders starting with the most junior person in the room. The reason for this is juniors are unlikely to say something that contradicts a senior. Encouraging them to go first also liberates them from the fear of ‘saying something stupid’. Doing things in this order also exposes the leader to things she may not have thought about yet which she can then integrate into her solution. It also makes decisions group decisions because everyone was involved. It is hard to subvert a decision in which you played an integral part.

Some of the best military advice on picking leaders can seem counterintuitive:

“I divide my officers into four classes as follows: the clever, the industrious, the lazy, and the stupid. Each officer always possesses two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious I appoint to the General Staff. Use can under certain circumstances be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy qualifies for the highest leadership posts. He has the requisite and the mental clarity for difficult decisions. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be got rid of, for he is too dangerous.”

 General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord 1878–1943 

LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT CREATING THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO THRIVE. CLICK BELOW TO START YOUR COMPANY'S JOURNEY TO EVEN GREATER SUCCESS!