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BOOK REVIEW: Enrichment for leaders' minds and souls

The Art of the Arrow: How leaders fly, by Nick Christelis

NICK Christelis, one of the doyens of the South African personal and leadership development field, has compiled an inspirational and practical text for successful as well as aspiring business leaders.

Books of this genre are, by their very nature, deeply personal, touching many important areas of one’s life. These life questions are asked in different ways, at different times. In the turbulence of adolescence, the questions might focus on what do I wish to be. In the reflective periods of maturity, the questions might focus on why now, when you have achieved all you ever wanted, does it not feel like enough.

Christelis’ focus is on the mature end of the continuum and with the emphasis on business leadership. That is not to say there is not much in this book for anyone at any age, in any context; it is simply that business leadership is where the author has focused the majority of his life’s work.

The central metaphor of the book is the arrow, an instrument crafted to perfection over centuries.

There are three parts to the arrow: the Arrowhead, the Shaft and the Fletching (the feathers on the end.)

The Arrowhead represents the reason why something needs to be done, the compelling purpose, and how that might shape the future. The Shaft is the act of making things happen, and the Fletching represents the values that keep the arrow on path. 

The power of purpose

The power of purpose is too often lost in the turmoil of daily activity and demands, and is too easily dismissed as the soft topic of a good out-of-office seminar. “We don’t get burned-out because of what we do; we get burned-out because we forget why we are doing it,” says the author.

Often in the early stage of one’s career the purpose is to look after one's family and ensure they are well cared for. This purpose drives you to expend your energy, and watching it unfold gives a sense of satisfaction and joy. As often, the purpose is unarticulated, subsumed, and as often unnoticed and unappreciated, depriving you of that joy and satisfaction.

It is for this reason that surfacing and articulating your purpose is so important. Christelis provides useful prompts for this activity.

With your own purpose clear, the purpose of the business you start or lead can follow. When the leader makes the purpose clear to all followers, “employee engagement soars, retention increases, productivity is multiplied and profits are the result”, Christelis explains. By now there is so much hard evidence for the connection between purpose and profit that it can no longer be relegated to “the soft stuff of business”.

The second part of the Arrowhead is the role of vision, the description of where we are headed, and what we will have achieved when the work is done. “Vision is a mental image of what your purpose would look like when it’s turned into a living reality.”

Edge to the arrow

Against all the disappointments, challenges, roadblocks and the inevitable accompanying self-doubt, vision provides edge to the arrow to allow it to fly forward more efficiently. The final part of the Arrowhead is the strategy, the higher plan that is so necessary to keep one from devolving into the quick-wins of the short term that may cause the slower, but more valuable wins to be derailed.

In the construction of an arrow, particularly for shooting over a long range, the balance between the head and rest of the arrow – the Shaft and Fletching– needs to be weighted in favour of the Arrowhead. This makes Christelis’s metaphor for leadership very apt. Purpose, vision and strategy are hardly the nice-to-haves of business leadership; they are the heavyweight, more important parts of the leadership process.

The Fletching of an arrow is its aerodynamic stabiliser which prevents it going off course. For leadership, the Fletching is the leader’s values. Values are nothing more complicated than what is valuable to you, and it is one’s values that ultimately direct activities. The leader’s values ensure that the movement forward is kept in line with the purpose, vision and strategy.
The issue of values is of enormous importance to business leaders.

Christelis reports a comment made about the leader of HP, Carly Fiorina, who was fired by the board: “With Carly Fiorina there were corporate values articulated and examples of things done by Carly which were disconnected, and I think that’s what made a lot of people feel uncomfortable.”

The values we have will determine the choices we make, which is especially important when the choices are hard. Quoting Scott Lichtenstein, the author notes: “Invisible values shape and drive visible results.”

It is the Shaft of the arrow that represents execution. Where the Arrowhead is strong and the Shaft is strong, there lies success. This is most apparent when “leaders connect non-performance in the Shaft to the intention of the Arrowhead and then deal with it from there”, Christelis explains.

This difference is clearly illustrated in these two statements:

“Your overloading that client with stock was unacceptable!”

“Your overloading that client with stock was unacceptable! It doesn’t align with our strategy of building win/win partnerships with our clients. It also clashes with our values of ‘mutual respect.’ It definitely isn’t going to help us achieve our vision of building a sustainable business we can all be proud of.”

The book was launched at a good time – just before the year-end break. It is a wonderful way to refresh your mind with important issues for your business-life and your business. It is also a wonderful way to refresh your soul with important issues about living with purpose.

This is the work of a seasoned thinker and adviser who has enriched many executives, and will do the same for you. Buy this book for your vacation - read it slowly.   

Readability:    Light -+--- Serious
Insights:        High -+--- Low
Practical:        High -+--- Low

* Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.


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