The Evolved Executive summary

As we saw in the previous blink, fear played a big role in the traditional hierarchical structure, as both employees and executives would suppress unconventional ideas for fear of repercussion.

Some may hold onto old ideas of fear being a useful motivator, but the truth is that fear is an inefficient and toxic form of management.

So how do you topple the mentality of leading with fear, and start leading with love? To paraphrase the wise words of Mahatma Gandhi, you must demonstrate the change you want to see in the world. In other words, if you hope to change the way your business works, you must first change yourself.

True change isn’t about appearances and behavior. Rather, it’s about questioning and revising your core beliefs. For example, if you’re continually taking on too much work, you may want to learn how to say no more often. It may be tempting to think of this as a simple behavioral change: you just need to start saying no instead of yes. But this won’t change the fundamental issue of why you find it hard to say no. For this you need to go deeper into your core beliefs. Until you do so, saying no will continue to cause you emotional pain. 

Most professionals are familiar with the idea of “climbing the corporate ladder,” but the evolved leader must work toward a more personal kind of ascension.

In order to evolve, you must understand what needs changing, which means increasing your self-awareness and your ability to understand who you truly are. All of this is made possible by vertical learning.

If you’re struggling to recognize your purpose, a common piece of advice is to consider what gets you out of bed in the morning. But Mark Manson, the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, poses a more pointed question: “What makes you forget to eat and poop?” If you’re so absorbed by something that you neglect your own body, that’s probably something you’re pretty passionate about.

If you’re still unclear about your purpose, here are four steps that should be able to help you with that:

Let’s say you’ve looked inward, found your purpose and realigned your core beliefs away from fear toward a leadership motivated by love. Now it’s time to change your workplace.

If you were to urge a workforce governed by fear to start being more creative, the results wouldn’t be good. If your employees harbor a fear of failure, it won’t matter how much you promote innovation, as no one will feel safe enough to try.

Changing the company culture is a big first step for a healthier workplace, but to make lasting changes, you’ll also need to transform your company structure. A great start is to bring your departments closer together.

In most traditional structures, each department acts as an independent entity. Marketing will rarely confer with the engineering team and so on. When departments are isolated from one another, there’s a good chance their work will not be as joined-up as it could be.

Once you’ve made your structural changes, you’ll want to take steps to ensure that your newly transparent and collaborative organization runs smoothly. This is where a new set of company practices comes in.

For starters, when you move away from traditional structures, it also makes sense to get rid of traditional job titles and descriptions. Switching to roles, which are more fluid and adaptable, is a good way to reaffirm the spirit of your new workplace.

Now that you have a good idea of what an evolved workplace entails, let’s get a better sense of what it looks like in action through a couple of case studies.

Scribe is a publishing company based in Austin, Texas, with a revolutionary way of producing nonfiction books. Basically, they mentor would-be writers from the very start of the process, as book ideas are formed, all the way to the final publishing.