How - Dov Seidman [155]
“Shortly after I became CEO of Pfizer,” Jeff Kindler told me, “I was being interviewed on internal video for our more than 100,000 employees. They were asking me about changes to the company, and I said something like, ‘There may be a need to make important changes in the company; we may need to take up a lot of actions to change,’ and blah blah blah blah. I was using a lot of buzzwords and corporate-speak. And then I realized what I was doing. I was on the border of spinning, and I interrupted myself and said, ‘Wait a minute, let me correct myself. Let me be clear about what I am talking about here. There will be cost cutting, and there will be layoffs, and people will lose their jobs.’ ” It was Kindler’s first major communication with his company, and it was his first opportunity to show what kind of a leader he was going to be. Though it meant being vulnerable in front of 100,000 people, Kindler’s ability to reflect in the moment allowed him to set a true course of change for his company. “It was harsh language,” he admitted, “but it was truthful, and I think people respected the fact that I was not giving them a load of baloney in corporate-speak. Since then, I have received comments that people at Pfizer appreciate that somebody is talking straight to them, that I am acknowledging that we have serious challenges and serious issues we need to face.”16
Self-reflection lights the way on a journey of self-improvement, guiding you through both the good times on the Hill of A and the struggles in the Valley of C. Governing yourself means working on yourself and trying to do things better year over year and week over week. Like the monks, we will never achieve perfection, but if we reflect not only will we improve, but we will develop the sort of simultaneous consciousness that Jeff Kindler has, the ability to see the HOWs in everything we do, as we do them.
A lack of reflection leaves you superficial and determined. You may win a lot of arguments, motivate a lot of action, show the superficial characteristics of corporate-speak leadership, and even achieve some success, but you will work harder to do so, and eventually people will begin to see your limitations as a leader.
Go to the Point of No Return
Do you remember the first time you went to the edge of a very high diving board at a swimming pool? Goaded there by your friends who, despite all sense, yelled for you to jump, you inched your way to the edge, looked down, and immediately wished you were somewhere else. In that moment, you realized, perhaps for the first time in your life, that you had consciously taken yourself to the point of no return. If you crawled back and didn’t jump, you realized, your friends would call you a bunch of names you didn’t want to be called. If you jumped, however, you felt you might die. Butterflies in your stomach, trying hard not to giggle, there was nothing comfortable about that moment. Nothing was more terrifying.
Some of us jumped. Some of us crawled back, only to return another day and succeed. Some of us, to this day, have never taken the plunge. But to envision, by definition, means to explore the unknown, to go to new, risky, and potentially frightening places. You can’t land on the moon if you don’t go farther than the hill behind your house. If you are trying to bring about a better future, you must every day go someplace you have not been before, to the point of no return. What happens every time you go to the point of no return? You push past your limits and open up new terrains of possibility. Each challenge accepted leads to greater ability when you confront the next. Taking the first step off the Hill of B, leaving the easy and comfortable knowledge there to pursue mastery on the Hill of A is a point of no return. Forcing yourself to ask the question this week that you were too shy to ask last week is a point of no return. When you take that step, you know that tough times lie ahead in the Valley of C. Those who