Why Do Companies Need Contrarians To Help Them Achieve Their Goals?
Edition #128
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.
The Misfit Who Built the IBM PC.
In this brilliantly written article, Gareth Edwards recounts the build-up within IBM leading to the launch of the IBM PC. The article brings to life the backroom manoeuvres involved in moving large corporations, making them believe, and getting them to be agile and nimble to a new idea or innovation. It is simply engaging and vivid.
Here are some great take ways to think and reflect:
In addition to all the deep technical skills you need, it is vital to learn how to navigate complicated corporate politics to build revolutionary products successfully.
It is essential to forget the noise around you and focus on the task at hand with conviction and belief when you are building or developing something that’s not done before.
When you want to do something new, innovative, and risky in a large company that is distinctly different from what they have built or done for years and has been successful, look out for leaders and people who have shunned corporate politics and have not cared about rules, designations, or failures. They are the ones you should put together to make it successful.
Think hard about how many people in your team want to take the risk despite the odds of affecting their career growth and personal reputation. That defines the open and start-up mindset culture in your team or firm.
Finally, remember that once the hard work of getting things off the ground is done, there will be many takers. Avoid the ones who want to just run on the reputation and success already built. Ask yourself a fundamental question: “Is this person or team willing to climb a new mountain again?” Back the ones who can and want to do it. Stay away from the rest.
Read the article here.
How To Make Your Leadership Potential More Visible.
In this podcast on HBR on Leadership, Suzanne Peterson, an associate professor of leadership at Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University and the co-author of the HBR article “How to Develop Your Leadership Style: Concrete Advice for a Squishy Challenge.” discusses on what are the subtle changes in your leadership behaviour that can make a difference to your style and help how others perceive you.
Here are some key thoughts that she shares in this conversation:
Leadership is about understanding how your style is perceived. It is important to understand style and personality are not the same.
“Mid-career and rising senior level, now it’s all about the relationships. It’s all about how you’re perceived.”
People typically exhibit either their ‘Power Behaviour’ or' Attractive Behaviour’. It is easier to coach people with a ‘Power Style’ to move to an ‘Attractive Style’.
Every industry or company has its cultural context, which can impact anybody’s leadership style.
Try to stay within a range so that you can move from being ‘power style’ to ‘attractive style’ or vice versa. You have to move within that range to remain authentic.
Roger Federer is an excellent example of the right balance of ‘Power Markers’ and ‘Attractive Markers’. Another example is Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand.
You can listen to the entire podcast on:
The Next Decade Belongs to Bharath. Insights by Neelkanth Mishra
Neelkanth Mishra, Chief Economist, Axis Bank, MD & Head of Global Research, Axis Capital, and Part-time Chairperson of UIDAI, delivers a very insightful talk on why he believes, based on his research, that the next decade belongs to India. He outlines India's challenges and opportunities and why he remains optimistic about India as a growth engine for the world.
Here are some key insights he shares in the talk:
Neelkanth Mishra highlights how, while still being a democracy, India has achieved much as an emerging nation over the last decades. He emphasises that dictators led many developed economies of today during their early growth phase, and during this time, they transitioned as developed nations. This difference of being a democracy yet reaching where it has reached today, he believes, is a phenomenal achievement by India.
Why the Indian urban infrastructure needs reforms and how India has to focus on building intellectual property and brands to become a global leader.
How it is essential to adopt industrial policies that foster innovation and growth.
India will have a huge ageing population in the coming thirty years due to the reduction in its Total Fertility Rate (TFR). This is an important policy direction that needs attention and focus.
He also discusses rising inequality during these stages of growth and how other countries have experienced this phase.
You can click on the above link and watch the video.
Why Do Companies Need Contrarians To Help Them Achieve Their Goals?
When you look back at people and how most of them build their careers and reputations, it will be quite clear that most of them are worried more about the external world, other people’s opinions, and how any action that they take affects their personal success, growth and how it impacts subsequent opportunities that may come to them.
Hence, most of them make measured and calculated decisions. Therefore, when they work in companies, if they find something that they are unsure about and if there is a relative lack of confidence in the company’s future strategy or a new product or business idea that they are developing or testing, a new project that has been won to be executed or been asked to lead etc. then, there will be very few takers. Companies, too, find it challenging to get the right people to lead and work on these, especially when the product, project or initiative has to be built from scratch. The negative vibes between people and departments, the imminent fear of failure, and the enormity of putting things together to make them work just sucks the energy out of the person who has agreed to lead and do it. To add to this challenge, if they are surrounded by people and teams who are themselves non-believers or naysayers and are just going through the motions of getting things done, then moving things off the ground becomes virtually impossible.
However, if the job to be done is relatively straightforward or known with clear expectations and outcomes and has been done several times before, then there are a lot of people who are willing to take it on. Because success is pretty assured and there is no ambiguity about how to do it, it is easier to handle things mentally. A majority of the people who take up such roles fall into this category. There is nothing wrong or right about it. But, sometimes, companies or some ideas need a leader and a group of people who have to put in an incredible effort to work against existing rules or norms to see the initiative or idea through.
Why do contrarians have a greater chance of making it happen?
Contrarians are never bothered about their reputation and are willing to take a risk. They think of possibilities and the upside they can have if the initiative or project is successful. They are comfortable if there is a downside which has financial implications or career challenges for them. They have intrinsic motivation in what they believe in, commit themselves to doing it once they agree, can inspire people and get things done. They build relationships and find innovative ways to collaborate to make things move. Nothing deters them personally, and they can handle setbacks.
When a company is trying to kick off a revolutionary product, an innovative idea, or a start-up idea that is ambitious, risky, and never done before, the contrarians are the ones to go for. They are jewels hidden in any organisation. They don’t seek attention and are never in the limelight. They are driven by the objective at hand. They are lured more by the purpose, scale and scope of what they can disproportionately contribute vis-a-vis what is expected of them. They may have been ignored many times, but they continue to do what is assigned to them with commitment, effort and honesty. They have their head and ears on the ground and are not swayed by people, position, power and money. They have the ability to collaborate with diverse sets of people, get people along by empowering and giving them space, and have the drive, humility and energy to execute relentlessly. They never get distracted and bring intense focus to the job at hand. They have blind spots for office politics, gossip and negative chatter. It’s the contrarians who drive focus, intensity and innovation and never rest on their past laurels.
If you are a company wanting to start something new or disruptive, look for a group of contrarians with this kind of DNA—experienced or new. They can accelerate and make the difference between developing and adopting these innovative ideas, change initiatives and new concepts.
Organisations and ideas see possibilities when contrarians are at the helm.
Some lessons we learnt from this week’s missions:
Balance strong technical skills with powerful influencing skills to build revolutionary products or bring out disruptive products or changes in large companies.
As a leader, observe and understand if your leadership style is a ‘power style’ or ‘attractive style’. Find a subtle balance between both of them.
Look for contrarians when it comes to making a significant transformation, shift or change in companies.