Page 69 - (DK) The Business Book

LIGHTING THE FIRE 67

its staff and its bottom line, Google is littered with examples of leaders The best leaders accept that they
knows that the best workplaces feel who, blinded by success, leapt into are not gods of management, and
like playgrounds—places where ill-conceived initiatives or made that, in fact, occasionally being
people can imagine and invent. “bet-the-farm” decisions that told “no” can be more important
proved disastrous. “Deal fever” than always hearing “yes.”
Satisfaction and challenge can mean that warning signs are
Creating an organizational culture ignored by leaders who feel they Emotionally intelligent
that embraces teamwork and can do no wrong. Successful Creating a culture where this kind
encourages creativity helps leaders, however, know that they of challenge is the norm depends
companies address the perennial must fight against the illusion of upon diversity. In companies
question: “is money the motivator?” invulnerability. They also realize with employees from diverse
Most find the answer is “no.” Higher the dangers of wanting to be liked backgrounds, where gender, race,
pay might encourage an individual or to conform. Great leaders know and age are balanced, the different
to take a new job, it might encourage that they must guard against perspectives mean decisions are
people to move a little faster or to groupthink and “yes-man” more likely to be questioned.
work a little harder, but people soon mentalities in themselves and Perhaps most importantly then,
forget about the money and start to others, because such approaches and as recent research indicates,
focus on other things—such as job leave decisions unchallenged, and the single most important trait for
satisfaction, challenge, and respect allow ill-judged projects to proceed successful leaders is emotional
from managers. Virgin Atlantic without sufficient due diligence. intelligence. In his bestselling book,
airline, for example, is not known as Emotional Intelligence (1995), Daniel
one of the highest payers, but is Goleman describes five domains of
regarded as a great place to work. Emotional Intelligence (EQ): knowing
A strong organizational culture your emotions; managing them;
is, therefore, essential to success. motivating yourself; recognizing
Through tradition, history, and Everyone experiences tough and understanding other people’s
structure, companies build a sense times; it is a measure of your emotions; and managing
of identity—a unique personality determination and dedication relationships. Without EQ, a leader
defined by the characteristic how you deal with them. can be technically brilliant and full
rituals, beliefs, stories, meanings, Lakshmi Mittal of great ideas, but still ineffective.
values, norms, and language that This is because a sole trader may
Indian entrepreneur (1950–)
determine the way in which be able to survive on intuition
“things are done around here.” alone, but as soon as someone
Importantly for leaders, else is employed, EQ becomes key.
managing people also means Lighting the fire means keeping
managing oneself. Business history the sparks flying for everyone. ■