Page 69 - How to Create a Winning Organization

The Heart of the Pyramid
That’s Poise: not being thrown off stride in what you believe or 51
how you behave because of outside events.
The competitive environment increasingly challenges your com-
posure and equanimity as the stakes increase and the challenges to
you and your organization mount. Few characteristics are more valu-
able to a leader than Poise, especially when she or he is under pres-
sure. And that’s what leaders are paid to do, perform under pressure.
When Poise is present, you’ll perform at your own personal best
because it precludes panic. You’ll understand what you’re supposed
to do—and do it even when the odds are against you, even when
everyone else says you’ll fail. And even when they say you’ll win.
How do you acquire Poise? In fact, you don’t. Poise acquires you.
It is part of the harvest you reap near the top of the Pyramid.
In spending many years thinking about the requirements neces-
sary for success, I was eventually startled to see that when an indi-
vidual acquires and implements the first 12 hard-won blocks of the
Pyramid, a fourth tier arrives unexpectedly and without fanfare.
Suddenly it is there, part of you and your leadership style and sub-
stance: Poise. In effect, Poise is a powerful gift from the Pyramid of
Success. And, where you find Poise you will also find its valuable
companion, which I placed next to it near the top of the Pyramid.

CONFIDENCE
There is perhaps no stronger steel than well-founded self-belief: the
knowledge that your preparation is complete, that you have done all
things possible to ready yourself and your organization for the com-
petition, whatever form it comes in.
Confidence cannot be grafted on artifi- “You must earn the right to
cially. Real abiding Confidence, like Poise, is be confident.”
earned only by tenaciously pursuing and at-
taining those assets that allow you to reach your own level of
competency—the potential you have within. For me, those assets
are contained and provided by the Pyramid of Success.