Julius Ordoñez, World Executives Digest | Tom Peters is well-known for his bestselling book, “In Search of Excellence.” Written nearly 40 years ago, it’s still one of the most-read books by today’s business leaders.
In a complex world, Peters refused to reduce the way people managed businesses to an orderly set of bullet-point prescriptions. He espoused the use of so called organized chaos as a step to approximate ultimate excellence in companies. This is because he didn’t want successful companies to stand still and bask in their laurels. Peters advocated continuous change. He said, “Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.”
In 1999, Peters was one of the first to open a blog. At 74, his Twitter account is up-to-date and active. He has kept up with the times. He walked his talk by constantly improving and changing.
Even in today’s world of information overload, managers and leaders don’t have enough time to read and truly learn new things. Even if technology tools allow people to do 20 things at the same time (or make you think that you are), the younger managers simply move on to the next shiny thing without a conscious thought of outperforming themselves in the long haul. In fact, the global trend is about CEOs having shorter tenures. It’s not about being pirated for a fatter paycheck. They simply ran out of new ideas.
Leaders should go beyond the lines and boxes in an org chart. They should be change agents and hard advocates of lifelong learning. But they cannot do it alone. They need to effect change through the organization, coaching one person at a time. It’s always a good time to start today.
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Julius is the CEO of Benchmark Consulting and an ICF-certified Master Coach. Want to know how to be fearless and master grit? Feel free to send me a message on my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/
