Game Changers at the Circus: How Leaders Can Unleash Greatness in Their Organizations

By Jean-François Cousin

Game Changers at the Circus aims to inspire and equip leaders to unleash more of their Greatness, and embark their teams on a step-by-step journey to change the game and foster a culture of Greatness and high performance in their organization.

The rewards encompass higher employee engagement and accountability, bolder and more profitable growth strategies, and a greater contribution to society.

This book offers both a fable for inspiration and a leadership workbook for action. Time-starved executives may read the workbook first and immediately reap its benefits.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Candid Creation Publishing LLP
• Release date: Sep 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9789810967543

Book preview

Preface

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

Gerry Spence

Game Changers at the Circus aims to inspire and equip leaders to unleash more of their Greatness, and embark their teams on a step-by-step journey to change the game and foster a culture of Greatness and high performance in their organization.

The rewards encompass higher employee engagement and accountability, bolder and more profitable growth strategies, and a greater contribution to society.

This book offers both a fable for inspiration and a leadership workbook for action. Time-starved executives may read the workbook first and immediately reap its benefits.

Why this book?

As an executive coach, I realized, through countless conversations with CEOs and cross-cultural leadership teams from Asian and Western companies, that more often than not, leaders and their teams are just a couple of steps away from reaching far greater outcomes.

In our discussions, we found out which further steps they needed to take to change their game and contribute their best performance, and how they could take those steps.

This book captures the learning from our successes and failures, and it attempts to serve leaders and teams I don’t yet have the honor to meet.

Why a fable? Because we find insights about how we can best move forward when we get out of our day-to-day concerns, liberate our imagination and emotions, and look at our situation from expanded perspectives. Stories help us do so with ease and joy.

You will, however, find this fable truer-than-life, for it was inspired by very real situations in organizations.

How was this book written?

Hard truths, convictions, and desire have inspired the fable’s storyline and helped design practical game-changing steps for the corporate world, which are presented in The Game Changers’ Leadership Workbook located after the fable.

Hard truths…

•Most change-projects stumble even when proper processes are deployed, because some of the leaders stick to unsupportive behaviors.

•Organizations fail at embedding a high-performance culture when leaders can’t establish the collaborative engagement level required.

Convictions…

•Everyone has Greatness potential and there is a way for leaders to discover it and unleash it.

•Game changers must change themselves first.

•Elements from both Eastern and Western leadership approaches strengthen game changers’ effectiveness.

•Game changers can follow straightforward steps in order to master the four leadership levels which embed a culture of Greatness and high performance in their organization.

Desire…

To offer inspiration and practical actions for…

•Leaders to spiral up across leadership levels.

•Teams to easily raise their game to the next level.

How will you get the most from this book?

The four movements of the fable will introduce you to the four Leadership Levels mastered by game changers and will illustrate their outcomes:

•Dropping the Masks

•Lifting Others Up

•Getting the Acts Together

•Unchaining Greatness

Once you have read the fable, you are invited behind the curtain to learn about its practical applications for leaders and teams in The Game Changers’ Leadership Workbook.

First, you will get to know the Circus characters up close and personal.

Then, you will explore the Game Changers’ Four Leadership Levels and understand the straightforward steps everyone can take to master each level. You will also find out how each of those steps leads to the next.

Next, you will exit the Circus and assess how close to Greatness you, your teams, and your organization are, through a simple questionnaire which takes less than three minutes to complete (refer to pages 238 to 241).

Finally, you will reflect further and take actions using Changing the Game in Your Organization (refer to page 237) as a guide. It offers practical exercises and tips, links to 12 real case studies, and other resources, all intended to inspire and equip you and your teams to create your master plan to change the game and execute it at your own organization.

As you read this book, write down the ideas you want to remember and the actions you want to implement. Use the Action Plan on pages 277 and 278 or download it from the book’s website at: www.greatness.coach/book.

Call on your teams to join in the reflection and get the game-changing journey started!

Just a word of caution before you start: understand that a great mess usually precedes Greatness.

You will initially mingle with seriously unsavory characters: a godfather, a zombie-boss, a doomed narcissist, a mother hen, a scary autocrat, and a self-righteous intellectual, to name a few. You might well identify some of your colleagues through these characters but don’t let them know before you reach the end of the book! Instead, take time to think about which small aspects of yourself may also be illustrated through the Circus performers.

Most importantly, incorporate your reflections from the fable into the foundation of the greatest story there may be: Yours.

Now sit back, relax, and drink coffee or tea during the rather serious first six chapters of the fable. Then the fun really starts and I invite you to sip a bubbly all the way to the finale.

Enjoy the Journey!

Chapter 1

Showtime!

In a dark amphitheater, the spotlight flicked onto a man wearing a shiny top hat, standing in the middle of the stage. His deep voice echoed throughout the main tent, It’s showtime! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Circus! the man boomed, bowing to the audience with a flourish of his hat.

Tonight, you will be taken on an incredible journey around the world. Our dazzling performers have come from almost every continent on earth to blow your minds away with their talented acts. Be amazed, be intrigued, and be entertained beyond your wildest dreams, he intoned dramatically.

A ripple of excitement flowed through the audience as the last few of them hurried to their seats, eager for the grand show the ringmaster promised.

Behold! The one and lonely—pardon me—the one and only, fearless King of Beasts, Yang, our majestic African lion and his pride!

The brassy tones of a military march resounded across the half-filled tent and a magnificent lion kicked a red curtain aside and strutted proudly onto the stage. His thick golden mane accented his regal bearing. A hush fell over the audience who were in awe of the proud beast. Female lions walked in a few paces behind him while the cubs pounced onto the stage, shrinking back when they landed too near their leader. Yang halted his solemn march at the center of the stage to cast a fierce look at the audience. A collective gasp let out as the huge lion leapt onto the highest pedestal on the stage. Fire suddenly engulfed the hoops positioned in a row on the front stage. Under Yang’s glaring eyes, the lionesses and their cubs lined up and jumped through the blazing hoops in an impressive display of agility. The audience burst into applause at the daring feats and watched to see what the pride would do next.

Over and over, the lionesses and the cubs queued up and leapt through the hoops of fire. People’s eyes soon glazed over and the phones that were used to snap photos of the jumps were lowered as the audience started checking their apps. The huge lion seemed to share their disenchantment as he opened his huge jaws in what looked very much like a yawn.

Just then, the flaming hoop next to Yang’s pedestal collapsed, missing the lion’s long mane by inches as it fell and set his stool on fire. Fully awoken, the lion leapt out of the fire’s reach. The lionesses and cubs scattered to the edges of the stage while Yang roared his displeasure at the fire which was now consuming his princely pedestal.

The audience was about to flee the premise when heavy footsteps thundered toward the stage and the red curtain swung open to let in a grand old elephant. The big gray beast calmly lumbered to the fire and extinguished it with a splash from her trunk. The stage lights promptly flicked off. As the flames puffed out in the darkness, the audience heard muffled shuffling and the shrill squeal of microphone feedback before the ringmaster’s deep voice boomed out over the speakers, You’ve just witnessed the gracious old dame, Yin, our Queen of Asia, once again taking care of those around her. Mighty yet kind, this wise beauty is 40 years old, with a brain that’s four times larger than ours. Sit back and relax, for Yin and her herd of eight superb elephants will now enthrall you with their magnificent performance.

Reggae music streamed out of the speakers and put the audience back at ease as the elephants quietly took their positions on reinforced stools, arranged in a semicircle. The animals’ unassuming demeanor further relaxed the audience. Circus grooms hung cymbals and drums around the elephants’ tusks and the animals began to bang on the instruments, more or less in rhythm. With her flexible trunk, Yin grabbed a large golden ball and gently threw it up in the air. She caught it with amazing dexterity, threw it up again and snatched it, and then tossed the ball towards the spectators.

A little boy jumped up and caught it, waving the ball excitedly around for a moment before throwing it clumsily back to the stage. With lightning speed, Yin moved five meters to her right and caught the ball with her trunk. The audience gasped in awe.

The nine elephants then juggled the ball and passed it on to one another, in their rather dull routine. Warm applause rewarded their show anyway. Next, the herd interlaced their trunks with one another and bowed to the audience.

An aggressive shriek from above interrupted the applause. Looking up, the audience saw a black-and-white eagle gliding in circles just beneath the roof of the main tent. He looked very much like he was wearing a business suit, with his white plumage and large black wings.

In the blink of an eye, the bird dove and clamped his talons onto the shiny ball Yin had casually thrown up in the air as she was leaving the stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold our French black-and-white eagle in bold action. He flew all the way from the Alps for you, proclaimed the ringmaster. This prodigiously smart, faster-than-light high-flyer is nicknamed ‘The Suit’ and you can see why! Now behave yourselves, for he is watching you with his sharp 360-degree vision.

The show went on with The Suit dashing from high above to catch progressively smaller balls tossed up all over the main tent, as well as to capture animated fishes from an aquarium on the stage, with stunning accuracy. Although at first captivated by his piercing golden eyes and speed, the audience quickly lost interest in following the solo performer who was simply catching ball after ball, fish after fish.

Finally, the eagle circled the main tent, trailing a yellow banner embossed with Welcome to the Circus. His act raised only a smattering of applause from the half-bored audience. Just then, the banner got caught around a pillar, eliciting a few snickers from the adults, and laughter and finger-pointing from the younger members of the audience. The eagle angrily fought to free the banner, only to rip it in half.

The ringmaster’s voice hastily filled the air, Ladies and gentlemen, that was one of the surprises of a daring show, which keep our performers thrilled and on edge, each and every time!

A few pairs of eyes rolled in the dark tent, unconvinced as they recalled the yawning lion and staid