Steve Jobs built an extraordinary business called Apple. Its tag line, Think Differently, says it all. Apple enjoys an energized customer base, impressive earnings, and a growing market share. Apple is on fire.

Jobs’ ideas and actions are driven by his Steadfast Passion, a term I use to describe the mind-set and actions of leaders who are Visionaries and Agents of Successful Change. Steadfast Passion is more than passion or loving what you do. It defines the leader’s focus and how he approaches challenge and change.

For those who seek robust growth, Steadfast Passion is a competency of enormous consequence, and the hardest to master. It is the Hallmark that distinguishes the most admired business leaders, the likes of Rupert Murdock of News Corp and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

These visionary leaders focus to pursue daunting challenges, to create the right change, and to win big. They ask tough questions.

• Striving for excellence and growth, they ask:  How we can produce aggressive growth? What new ways of doing business will drive growth? How are we unique, or how can we be unique? Do we have the critical thinking about consumers, capabilities, and business potential?
• Seeking to understand the impact of radical changes in the environment, they ask:  Have we anticipated the unexpected, the major shifts in trends, consumer interests, and economic forces? How will changes in government policy impact our choices? 
• Insisting on the right amount of forward thinking and analysis, they ask:  Have we identified the unintended consequences of our decisions and plans?

Visionary leaders drive success when others dither. Two Citigroup CEOs illustrate this difference.

John Reed led Citibank/Citicorp from 1984 to 1998. He was a banking visionary who inspired the development of the ATM which revolutionized the industry. He turned around Citibank following the credit crisis of 1990-91, regained investor confidence, and delivered continuing value to Citibank’s stakeholders through the 1990’s. Reed was a respected visionary, who was committed to consumer banking and sound commercial underwriting. During his tenure, the Bank’s stock price increased by approximately 2,500%.

Chuck Prince, the bank’s top lawyer, was appointed CEO in 2003. Prince lacked the clarity of vision, the Steadfast Passion, the institution so sorely needed. Citi faultered.

With complete confidence, Prince told the Financial Times in 2007, well before the financial meltdown, that the Bank’s structured investments would not be disrupted by the turmoil in the US subprime mortgage market. Things would be complicated when the liquidity stopped, “but as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.” 

Chuck Prince lacked the visionary mind-set needed by the executive in charge. Sadly, his troops danced until the bitter end.

Blame it on arrogance, greed, or his cohorts if you want, Prince took a dangerous path. His agenda was grounded in faulty assumptions, a misunderstanding of the bank’s risk profile, and an unwillingness to consider a broader range of alternatives. The results were shameful: billions in losses for the institution, a government takeover, and a shattered institution.  

*****

To dig deeper, Steadfast Passion, the DNA of visionary leadership, is better understood by breaking it into 3 elements – Focus, Challenge, and Change.  Each helps us to define what it takes to become a leader visionary and change agent.

Focus shapes your vision. You develop a special focus: a burning platform for change or invention. You focus to create a winning situation, while disarming critics. You focus to bring the future to the present.

Challenge is your opportunity. You challenge yourself to think big and bold. You break with convention and create new rules. You are willing to take on the most difficult of challenges. You seek connections across markets, disciplines, and geographies.

Change is your mission. You enjoy the kind of change that creates real impact. You are willing to bet your reputation on doing what’s needed for the greater good of your business or company. You are willing to take on significant personal risks to deliver value to your stakeholders.

In contrast, many leaders and middle level managers enjoy what they do, but make only marginal improvements to their businesses. They live in the moment, worried about keeping up with competitors, comfortable with decisions that worked in the past. They create their plans for change; but more times than not, these schemes prove to be impractical. Their companies languish or fail.

Pure Passion vs. Steadfast Passion

Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers put Passion and Leadership at the top of his list of ways to bounce back stronger from tough times. He says that a business or brand needs a visible leader who oozes belief in the business and the consumer proposition. That passion cascades throughout the organization and becomes infectious.

Liodice is right with a caveat. Add the Steadfast – the focus, challenge, and change. Passion will not make a business bounce unless the organization is going in the right direction and can see results. The emotion of pure passion is not enough to produce a lasting commitment or sustainable performance.

Remember, the DNA of Visionary Leadership is totally learnable. I’ve seen the transformation many times. We’ll talk about how to build this mind-set in a future post.

What say you?