Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders (26 page)

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Christopher Morley

“Our meeting will be a very short one,” Julian had remarked before we parted ways at the mountain’s base.

“Why?” I had asked, clearly disappointed.

“Because I’m in the midst of preparing to move. My work with you is almost complete. You have eagerly embraced the leadership philosophy that I have shared and have been a first-rate student. I have no doubt that GlobalView will quickly soar to world-class status and prosper as never before under your visionary leadership. More importantly, you have now discovered how to lead yourself as well as make GlobalView a place where your people’s natural gifts can be freed and their highest hopes fulfilled. Keep serving your people well by liberating their
talents and reminding them of the compelling cause they are working toward. They will serve you well in return.” “Where are you going?”

“There is another person who is in desperate need of the wisdom I have discovered and therefore it is my duty to go.”

“Are you going to leave that little hut you made in the forest? It looked like you had everything you needed there.”

“Let’s just say I’ve got to leave for a while. But, who knows, you just might see me standing in your rose garden in a few months from now,” Julian had said with a wink.

Now, driving to meet with Julian, the thought that I would not see him in the future made me feel very sad. He had always been a friend, but I now saw him in a very special light. No one had had such an influence on me, not even my dad. There were so many other leaders in trouble that Julian could have visited, but he came to me first. If there was one quality he had always possessed in abundance it was loyalty. I was his friend, so he decided to help me.

His coaching sessions were like nothing I had ever experienced before in my life. Within them, Julian had pushed me to explore new pathways of thought and evaluate why I did what I did. He forced me to dig deep and reflect on who I was, not only as a leader, but as a person. He had shared pearls of leadership wisdom with me during those times that I had never heard from any other source, wisdom that had left me feeling motivated, inspired and fulfilled. I prayed that our paths would soon cross again after he left for his new destination. I needed a friend and mentor like this in my life, as we all do. And I wanted to have the opportunity to do something for him in return.

As I veered off a main road and into a leafy area that was home to middle-class families with station wagons and minivans in their
driveways, I spotted my destination. Centennial Elementary School is known far and wide as one of the finest educational institutions in the country, a facility that produces an extraordinary number of gifted kids. Educators come from far and wide to study the innovative teaching methods employed by the dedicated teachers who are lucky enough to be selected as staff members. And though the students are all below the age of ten, they are constantly encouraged to expand their abilities and dream of great futures. This is the kind of school every parent hopes his or her children will have the privilege to attend.

Julian had already arrived and was in the center of the playground, chatting with Mrs. Maples, the famed principal who frequently appeared in the national media to air her views on the current state of education, including her opinion that schools had to place a greater emphasis on the development of character. Though he was wearing his robe and sandals, she didn’t seem to mind. As a matter of fact, she appeared to know him and smiled as he spoke.

“Hi, Peter!” Julian shouted enthusiastically as I set foot into the playground, which had just started to fill with noisy little children enjoying their mid-morning recess. “I’d like you to meet a very dear friend of mine, Mildred Maples.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mildred,” I said, extending my hand. “I’ve seen you many times on television.”

“Nice to meet you too, Peter. I’ve heard a lot about you as well. Read about you and your company in the papers. You’ve been very successful.”

“That was a while ago, I’m sorry to admit. We encountered some growing pains along the way that led us into serious difficulties. Having said that, Julian here has really helped me turn things around. It’s like I’m running a brand-new company. I hope you don’t
mind me saying so, but I think you’ll be hearing a lot about us again.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Mrs. Maples replied courteously.

“Mind if I ask you two how you know each other?”

They both started to giggle. “Mildred’s husband owns the local Ferrari dealership. I bought my car from him,” Julian replied. “I got to know him and in the process, had the pleasure of meeting Mildred. We were just reminiscing about my car when you drove up.”

“I’d give anything to see you whizzing up Main Street in it with your monk’s robes on, Julian,” said Mildred, “I really would. Anyway, it’s so good to see you again. I still cannot get over the way you look, but, if there is one thing I have come to believe in after having been around schoolchildren for almost thirty years, it is the power we all have to work miracles in our lives. I’ll leave you two gentlemen to yourselves. Drop by the dealership later, Julian. I’m sure Jack would be thrilled to see you,” she said as she walked up the clean white stairs that led into the head office.

“I just might do that,” Julian replied with a smile. “Now where were we, Peter? Oh yes. Ritual 7 in Yogi Raman’s timeless leadership system. The seventh practice that visionary leaders have integrated into their routines to ensure that they perform as they should.”

“You forgot to give me the next piece of the puzzle when you left me at Mount Percival. You’ve really kept me in suspense. All week, I’ve been coming up with different ideas about what Ritual 7 would be.”

“Actually I didn’t forget, Peter. I was hoping you would do precisely what you did since the seventh ritual is all about the power of ideas. Like I told you earlier, in the information era we currently find ourselves in, ideas rather than materials have become the commodity of success. For the first time in the history
of our civilization, the real value of any company enters the building every morning and leaves the building every night. The highest assets of any organization lie within the skulls of its people.”

“That’s a graphic way of putting it. I don’t think I’ll forget that one for a while,” I said with a smile.

“Good. I hope you don’t because one of your most important tasks as a visionary leader is to unlock the natural state of creativity that sleeps within the minds of every one of your people. You must help your employees to think smarter and inspire them to explore new pathways of thought. Only then will you begin to experience the kind of innovation that you need to see before GlobalView grows into a world-class corporation.”

“But is it really true that we are all creative? I mean, are you saying that every single one of my employees is capable of creative thinking? What about the accountants in our Finance Department or the lawyers on our legal staff? Surely they aren’t creative types.”

“You bet they are. It’s just that they have probably never been encouraged to create and so their creativity has remained dormant. I myself used to think that only poets, writers, artists and actors were the creative sort. Yogi Raman and the rest of the sages set me straight. They were the most creative people I’ve ever seen. The things they could come up with were amazing. Though they lived in an isolated part of the world, far removed from modern influences, they had fashioned brilliant tools and machinery to help them in their activities. While they lived very simple lives, they had crafted highly effective equipment to record their wisdom, to maintain high levels of hygiene and to study the movements of the stars.”

“Here we go with the stars again. When do you plan to tell me why you are so intrigued by the stars, in particular that bright one
that pops up from time to time? My curiosity is starting to get the better of me, Julian,” I pleaded.

“Next time for sure. For now, simply understand that every human being is endowed with creative tendencies. Begin to see your workplace as one giant idea factory, as a place where creativity and innovation are recognized and rewarded. Let your people know that they will now be allowed to take some risks. Teach them that failure is nothing more than learning how to win and that though some of the risks that they take may lead to setbacks, many will also lead to innovation. Spread this sentiment throughout the organization. Encourage creativity and make it clear that you are now open to listening to, understanding and implementing the best ideas of your people.”

“Interesting. So risk taking is essential to innovation.”

“Definitely. You can’t get to third base with one foot on second. To remain competitive amid the idea era that modern business finds itself in, you and your managers must get your people to stretch themselves. You must give them the confidence they need to move out of their regions of security into uncharted places. You have to inspire them to be like butterflies, not barnacles.”

“What do you mean?”

“Butterflies spend their days exploring new vistas and rising to new heights. Barnacles, on the other hand, attach themselves to one spot and remain there for the rest of their lives. By encouraging your people to take risks and by not punishing them if they encounter the failures that are inevitable, you will free them to explore their imaginations. Remember what Southwest did to that manager who came up with an innovative new program that unexpectedly failed?”

“They promoted him, right?”

“You got it. Don’t tell me that doesn’t inspire high levels of creativity and risk taking within the organization.”

“Yes, it would. So the essence of creativity lies in taking risks?”

“That’s just a part of what allows people to liberate the natural creativity that exists within them. The essence of creativity is really about originality of thought. Here,” said Julian, reaching into his robe and pulling out the seventh piece of the puzzle. “Yogi Raman phrased the principle far more elegantly than I ever could.”

The inscription on the puzzle was hard to make out. As I studied the wooden piece more closely, I was able to read what it said
— Ritual 7: See What All See, Think What None Think

“Just look at all these beautiful little children. They are all models of creativity, every single one of them. No one has rained on their parades and told them that the moon is not made of cheese or that Santa Claus does not exist. No one has stifled their dreams by telling them they cannot be doctors and lawyers or astronauts and movie actors. To them, the world contains boundless opportunities and endless possibilities. Their hearts are clean and their minds are pure. Study them carefully. Watch how they flex their imaginations. See how they give every ounce of their attention to what they do. Children come to us more highly evolved than adults to teach us the lessons we need to learn.”

“I’d certainly agree with that, Julian. I remember when my kids were toddlers. I learned a lot from them back then.”

“Like what?”

“I learned the importance of being curious, spontaneous and playful. I guess I just never put it into practice. I also learned that there are always many ways of looking at something.”

“Right. Yogi Raman shared a story with me one night that I’d like to pass on to you. A yogi was sitting with his disciples, high in
the foothills of the Himalayas. As a test, he drew a line in the dirt and asked each student to make the line shorter without erasing any part of it. The students were perplexed and couldn’t think of a way to shorten the line without touching it — except for one student. He had been the one who had studied the hardest and practiced the longest. He walked over to the line that the master had drawn and quickly drew a longer line next to it. He did not touch the first line in any way. The teacher smiled. ‘Very good,’ he said. ‘Now the first line is shorter.’

“This kind of original thinking is what Ritual 7 is all about. See What All See, Think What None Think, the ritual of creativity and innovation, calls for you to begin to shed the shackles of the traditional ways of looking at things so that you can master the uncertainty that a changing business world brings. It’s nothing more than developing the skill of discovering new solutions to old problems and finding smarter ways of doing what you do. It’s about seeing things not as they are but as they can be. It’s all about having the leadership courage to let a sense of childlike wonder fill the hearts and minds of your people.

“To foster innovation within GlobalView,
you must recognize that one of your highest priorities is to create a workplace that rewards curiosity and recognizes that new ideas are the seeds of success. Remember, even one good idea can totally transform your organization.
One brilliant new way to increase productivity or enhance quality can make a world of difference in your bottom line. Perhaps even more importantly, a truly original thought, properly executed, can change the lives of the many people your company has the privilege to serve. That’s the real power of innovation. To make the world a better place. As Maya Angelou wrote so beautifully, ‘If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.’”

“So where do I start?”

“First you must come to see every one of the people you lead as an artist.”

“Really? Even the guys in sales and the folks in shipping?”

“Yes. As I have said earlier, awareness precedes change and if you do not grow intimately aware of the fact that every man and woman within the organization has the capacity to use his or her imagination to generate new ideas, GlobalView will never change into an innovation-centered company. Have the leadership wisdom to understand that all human beings are artists, capable of phenomenal levels of creativity when encouraged to think original thoughts. We all have the capacity for quantum levels of creativity.