All good things must...

Today is one of deep gratitude as I conclude a momentous chapter in my career life at the International CEO Forum.

Over the last seven years I have worked with more than 1000 CEOs, 10000 executives and 100s of the world’s most influential thought leaders. Such a privilege and special thanks to James O’Toole and Chris Cheatley for inviting me into this unparalleled c-suite community started back in 1990 for the local leaders of global companies.

More than a few times I have been asked who are the standout influencers I've met and why. The biggest challenge in answering that question is who to leave out as there have been so many that have spoken into my life from Premiers to Prime Ministers, billionaires to business icons, start-up founders to social activists, consultants and coaches, authors and academics.

The list of ten below is far from exhaustive. As they say “people may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” The ten below all made me feel something deeply about work or life in general.

Professor Carol Dweck: “Luxuriate in the power of YET.”

Carol is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and best known for her research on ‘growth mindsets’. Carol joined us in 2015 explaining how people with a growth mindset believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Brains and talent are just the starting point. People with a growth mindsets typically learn more, learn it more quickly, and view challenges and failures as opportunities to improve their learning and skills.

YET is a key indicator of having a growth mindset. For example saying ‘I am not a good leader’ is fundamentally different to someone else who says ‘I am not a good leader… yet’. The first statement reflects a ‘fixed mindset’ whereby the individual does not believe they are capable of anything more than their current state. The second reflects a ‘growth mindset’ whereby the individual is far more likely to pursue ways to get better, learn from others, and become a good leader. At work and especially at home YET is so important to encourage with ourselves, our colleagues and our family.

Jim Clifton: “You can teach a Labrador to round up sheep but it will never be as good as a sheep dog.”

Jim is the global Chair and CEO for Gallup. His father Donald is regarded by many as the founder of the global strengths movement last century. Jim joined us in 2014 during a short trip to Australia to share why he believes the talent war has escalated from skirmishes between companies to all out battles between provinces and countries. Palo Alto is one of the best examples of a geographic region where the business, government and education sectors have worked together to attract the world’s best talent, companies, investment and attention that benefits all in the Valley. Australia can learn much from such tripartisanship.

Jim also shared his views about strengths. Jim’s sheep dog metaphor describes well the value of firstly knowing what our strengths are and secondly using them on a daily basis. That is not to say we can’t improve on our weaknesses. With the right mindset everything can be improved as Dweck’s research reveals. However the effort to do so beyond a certain point doesn’t deliver the same value compared to building on our strengths. The best teams are those with growth mindsets AND complementary strengths.

Dr Andy Walshe: “Better at who you are than better at what you do.”

When I met Andy he was the High Performance Director at Red Bull responsible for optimising the performance of 1000's of Red Bull sponsored athletes and artists including Felix Baumgartner who famously leapt from space to earth in 2012. Andy’s has committed his life to understanding ‘human optimisation’, i.e. how we can be the best version of ourselves.

Unlike most training that focuses on specific skills or knowledge Andy’s training looks at the whole person, e.g. skills + physiology, psychology, nutrition, life skills, creativity, spirituality and how they can be further enhanced via technology and medicine. To carve a path to excellence every aspect of ‘who you are’ is taken into account. The gap between being great and being the best is rarely skill or knowledge related. Development in the workplace has much to learn from Andy.

Andy Meikle: “High performance is not conceivable unless you have belief without proof.”

Andy Meikle has interviewed over 30,000 of the world’s pre-eminent leaders, thinkers, scientists, business identities and sports people as well as Nobel Prize winners, Samurai Masters and military leaders. He has also interviewed leaders of world renowned high performance environments, such as the other Andy above, at Harvard, MIT, Juilliard, The Royal College of Music, Military Special Forces, and NASA. His data on what sets high achieving individuals and teams apart from the rest is unrivalled.

Andy has found time matters when it comes to high performance. The best must ‘believe with certainty before there is proof of certainty’ says Andy. Hence why he states so emphatically that greatness is not possible unless the individual can establish belief without proof that higher levels of performance can be achieved. This is a fundamental and universal principle that applies to every human endeavour.

Dr Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace: “Chimpanzees share nearly 99% of our DNA.”

Last century Dr Jane challenged our definition of what it means to be human more so than anyone in prior history. She had been a hero of mine since studying comparative psychology for my honours thesis in the 1995. In 2015 she very generously spent 90 minutes with me prior to a CEO Forum event at which Andrew Denton interviewed her. She and I covered a range of topics ranging from chimp behaviour, conservation, her personal journey, what gives her hope for the future, and what we can learn from our closest cousins (chimps) about our own approach to leadership.

So much of human behaviour, such as leadership, is driven by our instincts. We can learn much about our instincts from observing the great apes given the genetic similarities they share with humans. Dr Jane has been observing chimpanzees since she was 26. Now 84 and a global icon she has also met humans at the top of every human ‘troop’ imaginable all around the world. Her advice to leaders based on this matchless access and data… 'be courageous and stand up for your beliefs'. This is as critical in the world of chimps as it is in the workplace.

Meg Whitman: To create any major culture change you need to “dislodge the frozen middle”.

Meg was the first CEO of eBay and took it from 30 employees and $4m revenue to around 15,000 people and $8b turnover from 1998 to 2008. In 2009 she contested to be the first female Governor of California winning the Republican primary but ultimately not the State. Just weeks later she joined Hewlett Packard to lead 330,000 employees through a major turnaround.

The ‘frozen middle’ describes the critical mass of people between senior management and entry level. It is at this level that much of the work is actually done in organisations, however this level is often overlooked during transformation work. This level is proned to maintaining the status quo if not involved in the change journey, hence the ‘frozen’ reference. They are also uniquely placed to make their inertia felt both up and down the organisation and with external stakeholders. Conversely they represent a major tipping point for the organisation and any real change will be fast tracked if the middle thaws.

Dr Peter Fuda: “Extraordinary is closer than you think.”

Peter (pictured above with mic) has been relentless in his pursuit to understand the essence of business and leadership transformation over more than 20 years. Peter and his team at The Alignment Partnership (TAP) have created some 50 cases of business transformation, and more than 1000 individual cases of leadership transformation around the world. With a success rate greater than 90% Peter has countless examples of ordinary managers becoming extraordinary leaders. 

The good news according to Peter is that ‘extraordinary is closer than you think’ being the outcome of aligning a range of small tactics, tools, strategies, beliefs and mindsets that he calls 2%’ers. One of those 2%’ers relates to things that annoy us. The best leaders know they have two options. Accept it or fix it. Frustration is not an option as it puts the power of their experience outside their control. A good reminder when we start complaining about things not going our way. We may feel better in the short term but are actually worse off in the long term. Check out Peter's new app to be released next month called 'Enixa' for other 2%'ers and a whole lot more.

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz: “Potential = Curiosity + Insight + Engagement + Determination + Humility”

Claudio (pictured on far left above) is one of the world's most experienced executive search experts having interviewed over 20,000 execs during his time at Egon Zehnder. He knows better than almost anyone how to identify organisational talent. Claudio firmly believes that the main challenge for companies today is getting the right talent for now AND having talent for the future given the pace of change. To do so requires leaders to measure the amorphous concept of potential when recruiting, selecting and promoting people to ensure both current and future performance.

Is it even possible however to measure potential? Claudio is convinced it is. He looks for five qualities in leaders when assessing potential, i.e. curiosity, insight, engagement, determination & humility. Without these characteristics, leaders will not have the 'right stuff' to navigate through chaos and rapid change. When it comes to hiring leaders, the traditional approach was to look at intelligence, experience and past performance. This was effective when all roles were pretty standard. But as we all know ‘standard’ is so last century.

Professor Fiona Wood: “The quality of my patients’ scars determine the quality of their lives.”

My dear cousin Tim Hirst survived an horrific workplace accident that left him with burns to over 80% of his body. The fact that he is still alive is nothing short of miraculous. The fact that he still has quality of life is largely thanks to Fiona. Having treated 1000's of burns survivors like Tim, including victims of the Bali bombings and so many others she knows that life will never be the same again for them. However her perseverance and innovation to create ‘spray-on-skin’ and other treatments has changed the prognosis dramatically for all.

I strongly believe Fiona’s comment above has application for us all. We all carry scars, not all of which can be seen. For so many the scars we carry are in our minds... in our hearts. Whether the outcome of one highly traumatic event or the result of an accumulation of smaller challenges we have faced across our lifetime. Nonetheless the damage is evident. However I have also found that so many of the remarkable influencers I have met attribute their success in part to their scars. Their scars have made them stronger. Their scars have determined the quality of their life, for the better.

Susan David PhD: “Life’s beauty is inseparable from its fragility.”

Susan is a psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Wall Street Journal No. 1 best-selling author of Emotional Agility.  Susan’s research relates to the previous insight from Professor Wood. Susan highlights the importance of navigating the full range of emotions we experience because ‘that’s life as it is not as we want it to be’. Every emotion has a role. Our emotions are a sign post to what we value. Wishing away the negative, having a fear of feelings, is actually detrimental to our health and resilience. 

The last seven years have provided ample opportunity for me to experience Susan’s quote first hand. Professionally I have experienced so many highs but there have certainly been more than a few curve balls to face. 

Personally I am blessed to have four great kids, a loving wife and extended family but I lost my dad to a brain tumor in 2013 and mum last year to a massive heart attack (one of the final pictures of the Hirst clan with dad and mum below). Being an orphan at 45 was never on my radar. 

All the change and disruption I have experienced over the last seven years has indeed revealed life’s beauty, the best side of humanity, the clarity that comes with loss about what really matters, the conviction to live life to the full, to be aligned and on purpose, and to make every moment matter.

"Adversity does not define us it refines us."

So I embark on this new quest to use my passions and capabilities to help leaders be the best versions of themselves, to grow from disruption, and to create high performance cultures. I have spent over 20 years doing this as an organisational psychologist inside and alongside companies around the world.

The last seven years have provided the opportunity to test, refine and evolve my thinking based on the wisdom of all the CEOs, HRDs, CFOs, other execs and emerging leaders plus the global thought leaders I have worked with. 

Thank you to all for your generosity and friendship during this time, and to my fantastic colleagues for putting up with me and my penchant for white chocolate chip cookies.

My best to you all.

For more information about Rich please go to www.richhirst.com or contact me via email on [email protected]. Please find below links to my previous monthly posts.

• This choke point may be slowly killing your company
• Australia: The distrusting country
• The most damaging four letter word to use at work is @#*!
• Finding your moonshot
• Sleeping your way to the top
• How to supercharge your influence
• How to be a master of mental Aikido
• Time to terminate HR?
• Too busy or not too busy. Is that the question?
• Who inspired you in 2017? My top ten!
• The missing link of high performance
• The future belongs to people with this skill
• Lessons from loss
• Good Grief
• 20 reasons why corporate wellness programs get sick
• Australia is still lucky... but for how long?
• Change management has become a joke!
• Are you ready for the third age?
• What matters most in a post-truth world?
• Never waste a good crisis
• Your best bet yet for a year of success
• What will your New Year's Evolution be?
• Are you ready for the 'gig economy'?
• Are you working with an energy vampire?
• From counting people to making people count
• Five novel tactics for better leadership
• Mid year reviews: Ubiquitous but ridiculous
• Talent pipelines are broken
• Australia: The innovation immigration correlation
• Time to reimagine HR
• The secret to successful disruption: The innovation colony
• How to survive and thrive in the supermatrix
• The biggest predictor of career success is...
• The secret to high performance is not what you think...
• Where are you on the digital vortex?
• Diversity does not equal inclusion
• How to catch and hold the rebound expat
• The e-factor is the new x: the ultimate growth multiplier
• Are you working with a waste of space?
• Iron Man needs you!
• Collaboration: the new super skill
• Leading innovation from the Australian subsidiary
• Insurgent or incumbent: the key to a future every company wants is...
• Why the talent war is over
• How 'the other GDP' is causing a talent crunch