In his book, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell tells the story of Henry Ford and his leadership style. Truth be told, he wasn’t an effective leader, because he needed to be in control, thrived on keeping his staff uncomfortable and on-edge, and actively worked to undermine them and cause disruptions between members of his leadership team. Be that as it may, he did develop an automotive company that was, at one time, the dominant automaker in the US.
Well, Mr. Ford pioneered the assembly line, thus streamlining automotive manufacturing, significantly cutting the amount of time it took to build a car, which also lowered costs. He made the automobile an affordable transportation option for the masses, rather than a luxury item only a few could afford. However, as his competitors began to copy his assembly line and mass produced their own cars, Ford made a mis-step. You probably all remember one of the famous quotes attributed to him about one of his cars, something to the effect of: You can have it in any color you like, as long as it’s black! This was in response to the growing demand of his customers who wanted cars in different colors.
His thinking was sound in one respect: black paint dried the fastest and could be used more efficiently than other colors. He missed the boat in understanding and acknowledging what his customers wanted: variety! Other manufacturers were more than willing to paint their cars other colors, and consumers bought those instead of a Ford.
This is a clear example of having tunnel vision; Ford was so focused on moving towards efficiency, changing the way cars would be built even today, but he couldn’t move back to a less efficient process, a different direction if you will, even when doing so would have been very profitable for his business. This is the danger of becoming complacent.
Sometimes, when we have outpaced, out performed our competitors and tasted some level of success, it’s tempting to think that it’s “good enough” and we don’t have to continue striving to get better; this is an extremely dangerous mind-set and will surely lead to one’s downfall.
As they say, if we don’t learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them. We should all be so wise as to study Ford’s leap to success and later to the back of the pack. It’s a lesson we shouldn’t repeat.
As a leader, it’s critical that we are in tune with what’s going on the marketplace, what’s changing in the minds of our customers and potential customers, to changes in technology, and especially to changes in thinking. If not, we will soon find ourselves at the back of the pack, and sometimes…it’s just not possible to recover from that position.
Take some time to think about a time when you ignored a necessary change and missed an opportunity. What was the situation? What signs did you ignore? What did you miss? How has that affected where you are today?
There is an assessment called the Kirton Adaptive-Innovative measure; it is designed to identify whether you are an innovator and maintainer (prefer the status quo, thank you very much!) or somewhere in between. It’s a revealing exercise to be sure. In the absence of having the opportunity to do this assessment right now, how would you honestly rank yourself in terms of your tendency to embrace change?
We’ll spend a lot more time with these thoughts this month.
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