Article: Developing ‘Best in the World’ Leaders

Abstract

Malaysia has had very few individuals or organisations that can be counted as the best in the world. Individuals like Lee Chong Wei (Badminton), Sazali Samad (Bodybuilding), Nicole David (Squash), Chang Fong Ying (Wushu), and Arul Suppiah (Cricket) are the only ones who can truly say they are the best in the world at this point. Likewise, only two (2) or three (3) companies in Malaysia can truly claim to be the best in the world in their industry segment. Why are there so few Malaysians who are best in class? Likewise, how do some organisations become world-class whilst others struggle to survive? What do you need to do to become the world’s best?

In this paper, we will be exploring this conundrum and derive insights from the author’s personal experiences in transforming a low-productivity and low-performance aviation organisation in Malaysia into the best shop in the world. We will also extrapolate other lessons from research findings and personal experiences on how we can build best-in-the-world talent. Furthermore, we will explore findings and research from some of the best organisations in the world, including Exxon-Mobil, GE, and Johnson & Johnson, and how they became and remained at the top of their game. Additionally, we will examine organisations that have managed to rise to the top but could not sustain themselves at the summit. What are the keys to sustainable long-term success?

The author believes it is not impossible for any organisation to become best-in-class globally and will showcase possible routes that can be taken to achieve this. We will also discuss the key practical levers that need to be moved to ensure your organisation is moving up the path to greatness. A combination of organisational infrastructure and individual aspirations is key to becoming the best in the world.

Full Article

A few years ago, I met up with Pierluigi Collina, the famous bald-headed former FIFA referee who was declared “best referee in the world,” and interviewed him for our Leaderonomics Show. Whenever I meet someone tagged “best in the world,” I become curious about how they got there. From professional sports arenas to major businesses’ boardrooms, only a thin slice of peak performers dominates every field. What is their secret to success?

Collina emphasised the need to be prepared for games and make great decisions under pressure. That was his secret to becoming the best in the world. He also highlighted the importance of learning from mistakes and engaging in deep self-analysis. For example, we discussed the Villareal vs Everton Champions League game, where a vital decision he made swung the game in favour of Villareal. He explained that making mistakes is inevitable, but understanding why you made a mistake and planning to come back stronger is crucial. He also emphasised the need to learn from everyone, including younger referees (Leaderonomics Media, 2014).

Great advice from the “world’s best referee,” but I hungered to learn more about being the best in the world. I reviewed my time when I met world No. 1 badminton player Datuk Lee Chong Wei a few days after his wrenching defeat to Lin Dan at the London Olympics final in 2012. I asked Chong Wei the same question I posed to Collina – “how does one become the best in the world?”

For Chong Wei, it was hard work, sacrifice, and practice. It was about putting in those 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that was the cornerstone of his success. According to Chong Wei, “There are so many badminton players in Malaysia, and to be chosen out of the many thousands and even millions of people is not an easy feat. Talent is needed, but that alone will not bring you success. Dedication, perseverance, and self-discipline are must-haves as well” (Leaderonomics Media, 2012).

My “Best in the World” Story

As I explored this concept of being “best in the world”, I recalled one time when I was part of the leadership team of a Malaysian company, which we turned around from “worst in class” to “best in the world.”

When I first stepped into this organisation more than 15 years ago, it was a small, bureaucratic, and somewhat deflated company with employee morale at an all-time low. The company’s performance was atrocious. Whilst similar best-in-the-world global competitors used to have a service turnaround time of around 45 days, there were instances where this organisation’s turnaround time exceeded 450 days. There were so many issues and challenges that I remember looking at myself and wondering why I had accepted such an “impossible” assignment.

Fast forward two years, and this organisation has transformed into one of the best in the world. Their turnaround times were occasionally below 40 days and even hitting 35 days, cementing itself as the world’s best. More interesting was that the workforce remained the same “Malaysian” workforce that we inherited two years before.  Not much had changed on the technology or structural front either – same equipment, similar processes and pretty much similar organisational structure.  So, what made the difference?

People. Although the people were exactly the same folks from before, they had changed drastically. There was belief running through their veins. They believed they could be the world’s best. And this hope ran across all their veins and their hearts, giving them hope and aspirations to become the best.

How did this change happen?

I think it started with the key leaders of this organisation. As a leadership team, we were committed to being the best. We were committed to growing, building, and improving daily. We personally embodied this growth mindset. We set out to become world-class leaders ourselves and enabled our teams to role-model our commitment, determination, and desire. This led to our teams being infected by our zeal, and this infection was passed down until the whole organisation desired to be the world’s best.

Having the desire to be the world’s best means nothing. Everyone desires to be great. But only a select few achieve their desire[1]. This is because the journey to greatness is littered with challenges, struggles and complexity.  Once we enable each member of our organisation to be infected with this desire for greatness, we set about the hard work of making this dream come about[2].

This meant working tirelessly on processes. It meant changing one small thing daily to better ourselves. It meant moving our turnaround time from 100 days to 99 days to 98 days to 97 days and never losing hope of getting to being the best in class. It meant learning new skills, mastering new ways of speeding up the work and unlearning things constraining us.

As I interviewed countless others who could be categorised as the “best in the world”, the same pattern plays out[3]. Having the desire to be the best is only the first step. We usually term that vision. The next step is knowing how far we are from our vision (that most people term self-awareness). Then, it is about putting a plan on getting from ‘where we are’ to our ‘vision’.

Finally, we then have to execute the plan. This means learning new skills, untangling ourselves from constricting cultures we have been laden with, executing ruthlessly and overcoming the million obstacles and barriers that keep us from realising our dreams.

It’s a long and winding journey to be numero uno. Being No. 1 is a painful journey which ends up in failure for many who have thus ventured.  But for the brave and the one who perseveres, it is a journey like none other. There is no greater feeling than being the best.

I remember the feeling when a big customer from Japan signed a long-term deal with our somewhat small company.  The boss at this Japanese organisation told me that he knew in his heart that we were poised to be the best in the world, and he wanted to sign a long-term contract with us before we became No. 1 (so he could leverage a better price!).  More importantly, when we did become the best, we saw the glow and pride in every employee knowing that all of these Malaysians were the best in the world.

Hard to be Great

Let’s face it. Not many of us are going to be world-class or excellent at everything. Even Einstein couldn’t find his way to the neighbourhood grocery store! (His response to that is, “I don’t clutter up my mind with trivia!”). The best in the world are never the best at everything. They focus on one key aspect or space, and they work relentlessly in that area.  Many companies are good companies. But building world-class talent requires two (2) key ingredients to be successful. They are as follows:

1. Organisational Infrastructure
2. Individual Motivations

Organisational Infrastructure

Many organisations have great leaders who have grown whilst at their organisations. However, the best organisations have a process for building leaders. Take for example General Electric (GE), Shell and Procter & Gamble.  All these organisations have a clear process in place to identify talent, assess them fairly, develop, manage, retain and grow them into world-class leaders. [i]

Almost all great organisations have infrastructure that will aid and enable young high potentials to be able to translate their potential into performance. I suggest three (3) key areas that enable infrastructure to thrive[4]. These three (3) key areas are:

1. Culture
2. Process/Systems & Structures
3. Leadership

Each of these key levers must be in sync and aligned to build world-class leaders. Being great requires leadership commitment, a relentless focus on world-class processes and structures, and a culture that enables the best to thrive and innovate. This is not an easy task.

Each area needs to be intentionally tweaked to ensure a successful outcome.  Let me discuss briefly what each of the areas means[5]:

• Leadership Commitment: An organisation’s CEO and senior leader must be personally committed to “building world-class leaders.” If you get lip service from the CEO and leadership team that they are committed to growing their employees, yet whenever a top talent is requested to be rotated to a new role to learn and grow, they are not released due to “business reasons”, you can be sure that most others will also role-model the leaders and you will never be able to have a real infrastructure in place. We see this clearly not just for building an infrastructure for growing world-class talent but also for any initiative. Steve Jobs’s personal commitment ensured the success of various campaigns at Apple (Thiran, 2013)[ii]. Richard Branson gets involved in all of Virgin’s key initiatives from day one. Datuk Seri Idris Jala spent a significant amount of time with his talent, teaching and developing them which became contagious and was soon role-modelled by others at Malaysia Airlines (Leaderonomics Media, 2011)[iii]. Jack Welch spent at least 20 days a year teaching initiatives he was championing and he too was “copied” by other GE leaders (Watson, n.d.)[iv]
• Systems and structure: Even with leaders rallying behind your cause, without proper systems and structures, your dream to be able to develop world-class talent won’t fly. For example, I remember Jack Welch yelling and commanding everyone to drive Six Sigma into every part of GE at every opportunity. I was at NBC, its media arm, and Six Sigma had no relevance to these media folks who looked at it as a manufacturing process. But to calm Welch down, the NBC team launched a big grand all-employee Six Sigma party with Jay Leno and other stars cracking jokes and with t-shirts and caps given out. After the party, there was limited mention of Six Sigma at NBC for the rest of the year. Six Sigma initially failed to take off at NBC, even with an enraged Welch championing it. Welch quickly learnt and announced a new process change in GE where no one could be promoted unless they had Green Belt certification. Immediately, lots of people signed up for Six Sigma. Welch cleverly leveraged the new policy to support Six Sigma. When you drive an initiative like building world-class talent, you need to revise processes and structures to consistently align with your goal and measure and monitor progress and effectiveness. You need to build systems to assess, develop, grow and retain talent. Everything has to be a process. It cannot be ad-hoc. Talent development cannot be an ad-hoc process relegated to HR.
• Culture: The hardest part in ensuring your initiative does not become a fad or a “flavour of the month” is to ensure that it becomes part of the organisational DNA. It requires cultural alignment[6]. According to Schwartz and Davis: “Organisational culture is capable of blunting or significantly altering the intended impact of even well-thought-out initiatives in an organisation.” People and organisations are creatures of habit, and changing habits is harder than changing structures or systems. Organisations, like people, have personalities, and to ignore it will be fatal to your efforts. You need to be aware of your cultural impediments and address them[7]. Among them may include:
• Lack of trust or accountability[v] between groups, including turf issues or internal competitiveness;
• An “observer-critic” culture that kills new ideas or a culture reluctant to accept new ideas; and
• Groups formed under the protection of a politically connected individual which distances themselves from your initiative.

A few years ago, I led a global initiative to drive e-learning usage. We built programmes, got leaders championing the cause and built processes to support e-learning. Yet, the take-up rate of e-learning was abysmal. Until we realised that culturally, e-learning was not the accepted norm. People preferred to go for actual training classes where they got away from their offices, had coffee breaks and lunches provided and even got a certificate that they could showcase on their desks.

When on e-learning programmes, participants were often disturbed mid-session by operational issues and never got about completing the learning.  To counter and address these cultural issues, we issued Starbucks coffee vouchers for e-learning classes (in lieu of coffee breaks), we built big signboards which hung by participants’ desks reading “Student on e-learning – do not disturb me”, and we even started issuing e-learning certificates and special gifts for those with high e-learning usage.

Within months, e-learning took off in a big way. A corporation’s culture can be its greatest strength or its greatest enemy. Harness the power of culture, as well as your goal to build world-class talent in your company.

Final Part of the Puzzle – Individual Aspirations

Regardless of the perfect infrastructure, if individuals lack the motivation to grow, success is unattainable. Development and growth require hard work, patience, and repetitive practice. This requires individuals to embrace pain and possess willpower and grit (Duckworth et al., 2007).

There is a difference between the best and the rest.  They lead better, they make better decisions under pressure, they learn faster, and they ask better questions.  They all play to win and never play not to lose.  They are filled with passion and unrelenting resolve to achieve the vision and goals they set out. Collina concluded his session with me by reinforcing what he believed defined the great – a deep-seated determination to be the best in the world. This resolve is what I term individual aspiration.

Development and growth is a painful process[8]. In fact, so is learning. It requires hard work, patience, self-control[vi], the load of repetitive practice sessions and a lot of misery and anguish[9] as one goes through the process of incremental growth[vii].  This requires the individual to embrace pain, have bags of willpower (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998)[viii] (as we saw in the case of Datuk Lee Chong Wei) and a lot of grit[10]. (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007) [ix].  This means, as you develop a great infrastructure in your organisation to develop and grow leaders, you will also need to put in place a process to accurately assess people, not just for their potential but also for their aspirations and determination to succeed.  If you find someone with loads of potential and room to grow but with little self-motivation, you may not want to invest deeply in this individual.

As I reflected on my conversation with Collina, Lee Chong Wei, and others who were the world’s best, and my own experiences in building a “best in the world” organisation once, I started to realise becoming the best in the world was not impossible[11]. Every single business in Malaysia should aspire to become best in the world.  If this bald-headed Italian did it with willpower and hard work (coupled with the right infrastructure), any one of us could do it.  The bigger question is, are we willing to dream bigger, push ourselves, work harder and learn faster. If we do, building the best in the world in your workforce may not be a pipe dream!

Conclusion: The Role of HR Leaders in Building World-Class Organisations

As we have explored throughout this paper, the journey to becoming the best in the world is arduous, requiring unwavering dedication, strategic vision, and relentless execution. For HR leaders and directors, the responsibility of steering their organisations towards this pinnacle of success is both a challenge and an opportunity. By focusing on the key tenets of culture, structure, and people development, HR leaders can play a pivotal role in enabling their organisations to achieve world-class status. These recommendations are supported by extensive research findings that highlight best practices and successful strategies.

1. Cultivating a World-Class Culture:

Research consistently underscores the importance of organisational culture in driving performance and innovation. According to a study by Denison and Mishra (1995), organisations with a strong culture characterised by consistency, involvement, adaptability, and a clear mission are more likely to achieve superior performance.

• Champion Core Values: Clearly define and communicate the core values that align with the vision of becoming the best in the world. These values should be embedded in every aspect of the organisation, from hiring practices to performance evaluations. Kotter and Heskett (1992) found that firms with performance-enhancing cultures outperformed those without by a significant margin in terms of revenue growth, stock price, and net income.
• Promote a Growth Mindset: Encourage a culture where learning, resilience, and adaptability are prioritised. Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset (2006) shows that individuals who believe their talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others tend to achieve more than those with a fixed mindset.
• Foster Inclusivity and Trust: Build an environment where diverse perspectives are valued, and trust is the foundation of all interactions. Edmondson’s (1999) work on psychological safety demonstrates that teams perform better when members feel safe to take risks and express their opinions without fear of retribution.

2. Building Robust Organisational Structures:

A well-defined and agile organisational structure is crucial for supporting the journey towards excellence. Research by Galbraith (2014) highlights that effective organisational design can enhance performance by aligning structures with strategic goals.

• Streamline Processes: Identify and eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks that hinder agility and responsiveness. Hamel and Zanini (2018) argue that reducing bureaucracy can unleash creativity and innovation, making organisations more agile and competitive. This is critical for the HR function to drive.
• Leverage Technology: Invest in technology that enhances productivity, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making. McKinsey’s research (2019) indicates that companies investing in digital transformation are more likely to achieve significant performance improvements. HR functions must evolve and move into the employee intelligence space first to enable 21^st-century organisations to thrive
• Ensure Clear Roles and Responsibilities: Define clear roles, responsibilities, and career paths for employees. This clarity enables employees to understand their contribution to the organisation’s goals and fosters a sense of purpose and ownership. RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) models have been shown to improve clarity and accountability in organisations (Project Management Institute, 2017).

3. Prioritising True People Management & Development:

People are the heartbeat of any organisation. Developing world-class talent is a continuous process that requires strategic planning and dedicated resources. Research by Bersin by Deloitte (2017) emphasises the need for comprehensive talent management strategies to attract, develop, and retain high-potential employees.

• Invest in Learning and Development: Create comprehensive learning and development programs that cater to the diverse needs of employees. The 70-20-10 model (Lombardo & Eichinger, 1996) suggests that effective development comes from a mix of on-the-job experiences, social learning, and formal education.
• Implement Employee Intelligence Systems: Develop systems such as Budaya or Happily to identify, assess, manage and nurture high-potential employees. Succession planning is critical to ensure leadership continuity and organisational stability (Rothwell, 2010).
• Foster Mentorship and Coaching: Establish mentorship and coaching programmes to support personal and professional growth. Studies by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) have shown that mentorship can significantly enhance career satisfaction and progression. Mentoring and coaching can also be scaled across the organisation using technology such as Happily and other tools.

4. Integrating Culture, Structure, and People Development:

The true power of HR leadership lies in integrating these three tenets seamlessly. HR leaders should:

• Align Initiatives with Strategic Goals: Ensure that cultural initiatives, structural changes, and people development programmes are all aligned with the organisation’s long-term strategic goals. This alignment creates a cohesive approach to achieving world-class status. Much of the work at Leaderonomics is to help organisations, especially HR teams align business imperatives and goals with learning programmes, cultural rituals and structural best practices implemented.
• Monitor and Adapt: Continuously monitor the impact of initiatives and be willing to adapt based on feedback and changing circumstances. Agility in HR practices is essential for responding to dynamic market conditions (Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank, & Ulrich, 2012).
• Lead by Example: HR leaders must embody the values and behaviours they wish to see in the organisation. By leading with integrity, passion, and a commitment to excellence, they set the standard for others to follow. Transformational leadership theories (Bass & Avolio, 1994) highlight the importance of leaders acting as role models to inspire and motivate their teams.

The role of HR leaders and directors in building and enabling world-class organisations is both critical and transformative. By focusing on cultivating a world-class culture, building robust organisational structures, and prioritising people development, HR leaders can create an environment where excellence thrives. The journey to becoming the best in the world is not easy, but with strategic vision, relentless execution, and a commitment to continuous improvement, HR leaders can guide their organisations to achieve unparalleled success. It is a journey worth embarking on, for the rewards of being the best are not just in accolades but in the lasting impact on people, communities, and industries.