These are leaders who exhibit the following characteristics:
1) Devoted towards advancement of a “just cause” , through hard work and patience
2) Have the ability to nurture “Trusting Teams” by creating a “Circle of Safety”.
3) Always put “will” before “resources” to create a great organization culture that avoids “ethical fading”.
Simon Sinek mentions about this in his book titled “The Infinite Game”.
Simon Sinek in his book titled “Infinite Game” has enlightened readers on the enhanced need to trust and hence EQ in the modern day game of business to outwit finite mindset based businesses.
A look at the comparison between “Performance” & “Trust” brings out that fact as to why Trust is more needed for survival the infinite game of business.
| Performance | Trust |
| IQ(Intelligence Quotient) | EQ(Emotional Quotient) |
| High performance & low trust leads to a toxic environment that kills creativity | High trust even if performance is low or medium is much desirable since performance can definitely be enhanced |
| Various measures and metrics present to gauge performance | No proper metric in place to measure trust |
| High performance even at the cost of low trust can lead to ethical fading encouraged by finite mindset leaders | Low trust has zero tolerance in “trusting teams” part of high performing organization led by infinite mindset visionaries |
| High performance without trust can at most work in the short term | High trust with low or medium performance is the perfect balance for survival in the infinite game |
Between 2011 and 2016 , Wells Fargo opened close to three and a half million fake bank accounts.Needless to say this was done by select group of employees to make money by unethical means.Eventually when this scam surfaced up , after being active between 2011 and 2016 , close to 5000 employees were fired.
This is an example of “ethical fading” which is a condition in organizational culture when employees act in unethical ways to advance their own interests , often at the expense of others , falsely believing that they have not compromised their moral principles.
This is what happens in an organization led by a leader with finite mindset and overly focused on meeting short term targets.Employees are pitted against each other and often following such unethical practices gives short term gains to such employees.
This can work in the short term but in the long run can lead to devastating effects to the organizational brand and culture.Simon Sinek makes a mention about this in his book titled “The Infinite Game”.
Simon Sinek’s book titled “The Infinite Game” makes frequent mention of how Jack Welch and his finite mindset mentality instilled a toxic work culture among GE employees.
Jack Welch’s focus was always on “winning” with short term targets in order to outdo competition.Had it not been for the US government’s bail out in 2008 , GE would have become obsolete by now.
Jack Welch’s evaluation criteria for an employee was on two parameters:
As we can clearly see his evaluation criteria was solely based on performance with no focus on trust.This resulted in a “toxic” culture where employees were pitted against one another without feeling the need to collaborate.
This is a very good case study to showcase the value of trust and collaboration in “trusting teams” which form the basis of infinite mindset nurtured by organizations led by visionaries.
Though both are equally important yet for surviving in an infinite game , organizations need to prioritize “trust” over “performance”.
Performance relates to IQ whereas trust relates to EQ.
A low trust environment spoils organization culture and should not be encouraged.Hence even though performance matters , yet since humans are social animals and work best as a group in trustworthy environment hence EQ i.e. trust ultimately dominates.
Simon Sinek mentions about the same in hos book titled “The Infinite Game”.
Based on the foundation of trust , leaders with an infinite mindset create a “Circle of Safety” where the employees feel safe to the extent of being vulnerable to openly admit their weakness in the hope of collaboration.
In such an environment where trust precedes performance , performance would automatically follow since the employees would feel motivated to give off their best , unconditionally.
Simon Sinek brings out this point in his book titled “The Infinite Game”
Organizations with an intinite game mindset , whose goals are long term oriented always try to make their “will” and “resources” stronger to frustrate the “will” and exhaust “resources” of other players who employ a finite mindset consisting of short term goals.
Simon Sinek brings out this point very aptly in his book titled “The Infinite Game”.
Highlighted below is an extract from Simon Sinek’s book titled “The Infinite Game” on modern day leadership responsibility.
Leaders are not responsible for results, leaders are responsible for people who are in turn responsible for the results.
Very thought provoking , practical and to me is a leadership masterclass.
Performance at work is more related to technical competence.Whereas trust is more related to the character of a person.
With NAVY SEALs it has often been found that a person high on performance low on trust is regarded as “toxic” & hence often ostracized.This is simply because of the fact that such a person is more prone to 1) Blame others 2) Talk non-sense about others 3) can have a negative influence on other team members 4) exhibits narcissism
Thus in situations where collaboration is of prime importance , trust is the most important need , even a low performance can be tolerated.
Simon Sinek brings out this point in his book titled “The Infinite Game”.
Simon Sinek in his book titled “The Infinite Game” makes a mention of SHELL URSA and highlights how as a result of having trusting team members the audacious project could turn into a grand success.
Shell URSA initiative was to drill as deep as three thousand feet below ocean level to extract oil.Not only was this a very audacious initiative but equally dangerous for the members involved in this task.
When the team members were taught the value of collaboration , made to feel safe in each other’s company they could express their vulnerabilities in the expectation that collaboration would save the day , come what may the situation.
As a result of trusting teams , encouragement of collaborative environment by Rick Fox , the project ran at 99% up time and production was 43% more than industry standards.