Inspiration is not Leadership

Progress Is essential, vibes are optional.

There’s a quote, often attributed to Antoine de Saint Exupéry, that goes like this:

“If you wish to build a ship, do not divide the men into teams and send them to the forest to cut wood. Instead, teach them to long for the vast and endless sea.”

I hate it.

I hate it because it implies that productivity follows inspiration. But the exact opposite is true, inspiration follows productivity. True leadership is not about how you make people feel its about what you enable them to accomplish.

I know I’m taking a somewhat contrarian stance here. But I want to draw a sharp distinction so we can we can examine our assumptions and biases — so we can actually build more effective organizations.

Some of my most cherished work memories are from my 20s and 30s when I worked as a carpenter, stone mason, and newspaper designer.

At each of these jobs I could sit back at the end of the day and see what we’d accomplished. My goals were tangible and it was obvious when we'd made progress. Often after particularly productive days I'd sit back and look over my work basking in the feeling of accomplishment. And on days when things didn't go well I'd wallow in frustration.

All I needed to be happy at work was an understanding of what we were making and the role I played in making it. This along with a few trusted teammates and fair pay made for a job I could take real pride in.

What I didn’t need was to be convinced that we were changing the world by fighting injustice or disrupting an industry. I just needed to know I was providing some value to someone. It could be something small like a retaining wall or a calendar of local events; or large like a hospital or news on 9/11.

The "why" mattered a bit but the ability to make progress mattered much more.

Harvard management researcher Teresa Amabile studied 12,000 diary entries by 238 employees in seven companies. She and her colleagues found that “forward momentum in meaningful work-progress that creates the best inner work lives.“

The work didn’t need to be world-changing just meaningful and tangible progress was essential.

It is often the worst leaders who put inspiration first. One of the most toxic men I've ever worked for ran a non-profit dedicated to mitigating climate change. And it's rare to find a dangerous cult that doesn't have a world-changing vision — every cult is a purpose-driven organization.

Part of the problem lies in how we are wired to think about leaders.

In a recent talk management historian Martin Gutmann Gutmann compares and contrasts: Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen.

Both were polar explorers but Amundsen was far more successful. He was more prepared, thoughtful, and knowledgeable. His expeditions achieved their ambitious goals on time and on budget. Among his many accomplishments was leading the first expedition to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage in 1909.

Shackleton on the other hand had a knack for under-preparing and under-thinking things then, when an expedition went tits up, also had a knack for putting in heroic effort to survive — many of his men were not so lucky.

Shackleton was a larger than life figure, loud, self promoting, and inspiring. Amundsen was thoughtful, careful, and focused on the mission — and brought his teams home, alive.

But of the two, Shackleton is remembered, while Amundsen is all but forgotten.

We humans love a good story and we love a larger than life figure. We want people to be big and inspiring. And we see that and we think “leader” because they make us long for something.

But these kinds of leaders so rarely deliver — unless they hire and empower good operational people (Steve Jobs & Tim Cook come to mind).

So I say: If you want to build ship divide men into teams, tell them you’re building a ship and how they can help, empower them and pay them fairly.

You can quote me on that.