What distinguishes high achievers from the rest of the pack?
Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author, sought to answer this question in Outliers: The Story of Success. One essential ingredient, he argued, is intellectual courage – the ability to stand up for what you believe in.
To illustrate the unique power of this wholly human attribute, Gladwell drew on a popular theory about the root cause of the Korean airliner crashes in the 1980s and 1990s. In one such crash, a plane deviated from its course in heavy clouds and flew straight into a mountain. Cockpit records later suggested that the young co-pilot knew the plane was off course, but said nothing because he was unwilling to contradict the captain, who was steering the plane.
Intellectual honesty is easy when nobody is looking. But as that young co-pilot so tragically experienced, it’s a lot tougher when you have an actual audience, particularly if that audience happens to be your boss.
I raise this story to make a larger point: Many companies today don’t foster environments that actively encourage employees to speak their minds. Instead, they make it clear that the only opinions that really matter are those of senior managers.
This is especially true in the Middle East. Here, corporate cultures are infused with a number of other influences – some are helpful to growing organisations; others, not so much. One example of the latter is ‘wasta’, which is the practice of using a family name or personal connections to drive career advancement.
Wasta is not about hierarchy; it’s about personal achievement and how an employee experiences that: through family connections or personal clout (wasta) or through hard work and true merit (non-wasta).
Wasta hires typically don’t work that hard. Yet, they routinely receive promotions, even if they’ve done little — or even nothing — to earn the reward. Non-wasta hires bear witness to all this, and the result is exactly what you’d expect: bifurcated workforces, low morale and lost productivity. Simply put, wasta is a waste — of energy, ideas and human capital.
At my company, Alghanim Industries, we don’t engage in wasta. We have a hierarchy, of course — all companies do. But we don’t affix a bright line between junior and senior staff — we believe in the power of fresh thinking, no matter where it comes from. Promotions are earned, not conferred.
In other words, we are a meritocracy. In practice, that means we actively encourage our employees to think, create and collaborate — freely, openly and without artificial restrictions. Ideas put forth by our employees are considered on their merit, not on the basis of who offered them.
And that, ultimately, is what a true meritocracy is all about: Allowing people to advance on the basis of conviction and contributions, not who you happen to know or be related to by birth.
Some of our peers in the Middle East have difficulty comprehending this concept. Why would we allow, much less encourage, intellectual independence in our workforce, especially among younger employees, they want to know. As for promoting and rewarding on the basis of merit, not blood or social connections — why?
And here’s what I tell them, quite simply: A business is only as good as its people, which is why we spend so much time cultivating a culture that celebrates, promotes and rewards the best and brightest. We ask a lot of our people, yes. But we also offer something in return: the chance to stand tall and make a difference, and get rewarded in the process.
That brings me back to where I started: Malcolm Gladwell and his theories about what makes for successful people. He argued that intellectual courage is essential for personal success.
I agree; I also think it’s a big driver of business innovation. The iPhone didn’t wow the world because Apple engineers and designers were following the pack; it steamrolled because they had the courage to reimagine the status quo.
GE, likewise, didn’t get to be a global training ground for future CEOs by micromanaging its employees; it got there because it has cracked the code on cultivating an internal culture that inspires, prods and propels people to be the absolute best they can be.
We pride ourselves on pushing the status quo in our own way, and our meritocracy-based style of management is — and always will be — a very big part of that.
— The writer is the CEO, Alghanim Industries.
