Exercise 2

The Quest

“Will Be . . .”

“We are going to make the city of New York safe for people to live the life of their ambitions.” These words, intoned by a former U.S. attorney, just-defeated mayoral candidate, and now law firm partner, made our quest clear. The assembly, one I had the privilege to be among, was a small advisory group meeting in the Third Avenue law offices of Rudy Giuliani. I may not have been alone in my feelings about how impossible this ambition seemed, given a city out of control—this was wholly two years before Giuliani’s second attempt at the mayor’s seat. In fact, these words were the seeds of New York’s Renaissance and expressed the very heart of any quest: a real ambition.

Real Ambition

Buoyancy starts with a special kind of quest: a real ambition. Numbers, facts, or figures do not motivate people. Rather, people are enchanted when they have the chance to create something extraordinary and when they can see clearly the opportunities they have to participate. Real ambition is the engine of any endeavor, it’s the creation of something good that didn’t exist before. Establish it, enlist for it, and fight for it and you’ll achieve whatever you seek for yourself and for the people who will make it happen.

A real ambition is a picture of an exciting future that will mobilize the people who follow you. As you codify this desire for your future, remember that real ambition is not a hope for, it is rather a will be. It has these characteristics:

Noble Intentions

The real ambition must serve an overarching goodness. It must be of benefit to all constituencies, both inside and outside the organization. The real ambition appeals to the core in all of us that wishes to be part of creating something special.

A Statement of Clear Intent

Real ambition is not a destination or a “hoped for” goal. It is a statement of unequivocal intention and certainty of purpose that cascades to all corners of the organization.

A Seemingly Impossible Goal

Real ambition is not about increments or percentage points. It’s about a great leap to a completely new state of being and, most importantly, a positive air of certainty that it can be done. People are moved when they know they are creating something special and that the real ambition is not a far-off dream but an ironclad certainty.

We Will

The simplest way to think about a statement of real ambition is with these two powerful words: “We will.” With the mental picture you create, beginning with these two words, you’ll change history, for yourself and your organization.

A real ambition is based on igniting a human desire. You may be setting out to save the whales, but there’s no prize if none are saved. The notion of real ambition has two important parts: real and ambition.

Ambition is based on drive, focus, and a will to attain something. It has elements of competitiveness, a streak of blinding will, and a vocabulary that has one word: win. But, a real ambition is so much more. It is creating something amazing that didn’t exist before.

I celebrate the long-awaited and wise recognition of the vital importance of emotional intelligence in business. This recognition represents a tectonic shift toward people not as assets but as catalysts. In this new era, achievement comes not through a chain of command but via an ignited community, which is why I use the word real.

Real modifies ambition, giving it a noble purpose. Real ambitions are the things that fire people up to get out of bed in the morning and wait with anticipation for that six o’clock conversation. Believe me, it’s not percentage points or bar charts. Everyone wants to be part of creating something special, and real ambition helps you achieve that quest.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Early in my days at McCann I was pursuing an account when, after a protracted struggle, the client told me we’d come in “a close second.” Disappointed but pleased with our performance, I reported the result to my mad man boss. He listened and then, in his usual grumbling out of the corner of his mouth, said, “Kid, let me tell you something. Almost winning is of no consequence. Almost is good in only two things: horseshoes and hand grenades . . . if you get close it still counts. In business you can’t almost win anything.”

He was right. In my job at The Interpublic Group, a vast marketing communications holding company, driving growth across dozens of companies, I saw how organizations could settle into an acceptance culture. I firmly believe you don’t have to breed an Enron culture to win, but you do need to communicate that nothing less than achieving your real ambition will do, and that accomplishing established milestones is absolutely vital. Recognition and reward for winning both small and big steps must be part of the process. It is important also to recognize that, while trial and error is paramount and a culture of experimentation is the mark of an innovator, everyone must recognize that winning is the prize.

The Mental Movie

Putting words to the real ambition is essential but can be daunting because its articulation seems crazy and overly audacious. Real ambitions I was involved with, including “We will make the city safe” and “We will redefine marketing communications,” sounded preposterous; these statements seem so bold as to be embarrassing on one hand and potentially overconfident on the other. Worry not, this kind of audacity and language are absolutely essential.

In your mind there is a picture of an outcome. It is currently held in the recesses of your mind as a sort of fantasy. It’s an exciting, emotionally rewarding thought. When I was searching for my first job in advertising my mental picture was this:

Now, if someone were to ask me my career objective I wouldn’t dream of sharing this picture, for I’d be too embarrassed. Looking back now, in fact, this was my real ambition:

I am proud, yet humbled, to say I achieved my real ambition. But I am still waiting for that tea . . .

So, what is your real ambition? What’s your mental movie?

Do this exercise with your organization. Put your team together and have them express their mental movie. It’s a lot of fun, allows confidence to soar over concerns, and lets audacity reign. Once you have done this, deconstruct the mental pictures to create your organization’s real ambition statement.

No Calibration

One of the key defining moments in crafting a real ambition occurs as you stare at the “We will” statement you have made. It’s likely that you will immediately begin to think about all that stands in the way or how utterly impossible the statement seems. This is the fork in the road: one path says you believe in the statement, the other leads you to calibrate a less ambitious outcome.

Real ambition is not about practicality. In fact, it must be entirely devoid of practicality. What would’ve happened to these famous endeavors if the planners had calibrated?

Be bold. Be confident. Let nothing stand in your way. Identifying and sharing a real ambition is the first and vital step. It will only come to fruition if you and your people possess one very important thing: a profound sense of urgency.

Urgency

A highly important element to build in your account team as a fuel to achieve your real ambition for what you wish for your future is a sense of urgency. The best example I can think of was inspired by my seeing one of my favorite cousins Brian, at a recent wedding. Brian is a New York City firefighter. If you’ve ever walked past a firehouse when the truck bay door is open, you’ll see the boots and the overalls carefully placed in rows near the fire truck, all awaiting the possibility of the outbreak of fire. Brian observed, “There are long stretches of boredom, but it’s always in your mind . . . we deal in life and death.” They all possess an unbending and unflinching sense of urgency.

Of course in our day-to-day corporate life, it is very, very difficult to achieve a level of urgency such as this. But believe me, urgency is the ultimate motivating force, so one of your goals as a buoyant leader is not only to establish a real ambition that can rally your organization to achieve your real ambition, but to create a sense of urgency that not a moment must be lost in its achievement. The real ambition itself is only worthy if it’s attached to a vital time pressure or a moment in time to accomplish. When Brian and his team leave the fire house when the bell rings they know there are lives to be saved and not a moment to lose, so similarly, having a sense of urgency inside your organization to achieve the real ambition you have set is a means to keep the real ambition ever on the minds of your team.

Urgency is the ultimate motivating force. The saving of lives is at the highest level of urgency, and in these instances people are capable of extraordinary feats. For most of us, though, the tasks we undertake seem comparatively mundane. But must they be? Can we not harness this instinctive drive to act for a noble purpose and the greater good, and mobilize our people to achieve the near impossible? To do this, we must put to use the principles of urgency. The noble purpose is itself most crucial if it is tied to a vital time pressure, a moment in time at which it must be accomplished. The fire fighters who leave the firehouse as the bell rings know there are lives to be saved and that there isn’t a moment to lose. Building a sense of urgency inside the company to achieve that real ambition is an essential part of outlining the journey that you and your colleagues are embarking on.

We’ll Show ’Em!

At Marriott, I had unwittingly galvanized the dish room staff’s real ambition when I invoked the challenge to show George from Eastern Airlines what we were really made of. The hidden agenda of my team was simple: to be seen as worthy. The fact is, it wasn’t just them; I felt motivated, too. I yearned to prove that I could lead and achieve something for all to see; for the workers’ part, in spite of their position in the sweltering dish room, they longed to show that they were resourceful, smart people who cared about doing something important. We were bound together and they floated me willingly in the name of a real ambition that would be apparent to all. It was clear that we were not just capable of achieving something significant . . . we demonstrated that we were special.

At the end of the day, people feel pride when they feel worthy. The self-esteem that psychologist Abraham Maslow described in his hierarchy of needs is a yearning every living human being possesses, no matter what kind of work she does, including working in a dish room at hundred-degree temperatures. I believe people can revel in their pursuit of a quest, providing they believe in the worthiness of their effort. This essential fuel—a belief in the worthiness of the goal—propels all great buildings, feats of engineering, advances in medicine, and journeys into the deep recesses of the earth and the outer reaches of space.

At the core, therefore, of any leadership endeavour, is the need to paint a picture, to tell a story of the journey that you and your people will travel together. This journey is a quest to accomplish something together, something that allows each and every person to delight in themselves and, more importantly, share with those who matter most. I believe in the power of what I call the “six o’clock conversation.” This is the moment when you arrive home, turn to others who mean something to you, and enthusiastically say, “Guess what we did today?”