'Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure.’ Andy Grove, co-founder and past CEO of the Intel Corporation.

Leaders of most businesses and organisations have got to where there are today by having been good at what they do but as Grove points out: success breeds complacency.

Complacency is part of being human and invariably can lead from a quiet confidence to an attitude of over-confidence and arrogance that closes an individual’s minds and ears. Complacency is insidious and often underappreciated but top level sports performers recognise the potential of this and use coaches for the valuable feedback they can provide to avoid this pitfall. The British Olympic Gold medal and World record swimmer, Adam Peaty, is well aware of this in pointing out that: ‘There is a very thin line between confidence and arrogance.’

Whilst complacency can be bad news for an individual it can easily be checked and reversed through recognition or by challenge.

However, in businesses and within organisations complacency is frequently a problem that remains unrecognised by many leaders who despite what may be going on around them in the market, the economy, or world keep implementing the same strategic and tactical moves that have served them well in the past.

Many leaders are living on their past success, ‘stuck-up in the clouds’ not just distancing themselves from reality but also unfortunately ending up listening only to themselves - see March 2018 blog post ‘Relevance, Obsolescence, Learning, and Adaptability’ and Carillion Plc. Their over-confidence and arrogance is precisely why they and their organisations falter in the face of the need to change.

By way of example the current retail sector is faced with multiple challenges to its very existence but this is not new. The UK retailer and bellwether of the high street, Marks and Spencer, first visibly hit trouble in 1999 when it reported profits before tax for the year of £546m in comparison to the previous year’s result of £1.12bn – a fall of over 50% in just one year. Its problems had actually started a few years earlier, for in the words of Professor Charles Handy (see March 2018 blog cited above) ‘…one of the paradoxes of success that the things and the ways which got you where you are, are seldom those that keep you there’ who through the concept of the Sigmoid Curve pointed out the dangers of the curve at the top - the delay - in the performance cycle.

The problem of Marks and Spencer was highlighted in their results but was an arrogance born out of complacency of its then CEO that lingers on today further compounded by another pitfall of humanity – procrastination. Marks and Spencer has never questioned itself as to what it does and why in a market that has been changing for 20 years.

Both complacency and procrastination in organisations can be defeated but it calls for leaders to be made aware and with organisations this calls for individuals who are prepared to intrude upon the political and administrative processes by espousing their thoughts and ideas. We call these people ‘sandpaper leaders’ for wherever they may sit within the organisation, and interestingly very few are found near the top of organisations, they are individuals who cause friction by ‘roughing up the surface’ – the status quo.

There people are in sandpaper terminology the ‘extra coarse’ sheet for they possess a strong confidence in their views and ideas whilst also finding the right platform to express these. These people come inbuilt with the ‘grit’ needed to persevere, for their views will often not be acknowledged and rejected, indeed many ‘sandpaper leaders’ can initially be treated as ‘Cassandras’ - the prophets of doom – particularly by senior leaders. However, as time passes the facts more often than not support their initial views and notions.

Sandpaper comes in different grades with ‘extra coarse grit’ being the ideal ‘sandpaper leader’ to spring change whereas a ‘medium grit’ is what is required in numbers in leading change whilst a ‘fine grit’ is about refining the change.

As a cycle of change ‘Sandpaper Leadership’© comprises of five grades:

• ‘Extra Coarse’ – for roughing up the surface: the status quo

• ‘Coarse’ – for removing rough material: past practices and ‘dead wood’

• ‘Medium’ – for preparing the surface: new ways of working

• ‘Fine’ – final step before finishing : fine tuning the new practices

• ‘Very fine’ – sanding between coats: just enough friction to guard against complacency

Marks and Spencer allowing for the annual rate of inflation of 2.7% per annum over the last 20 years should be turning in a profit before tax of at least £1.9bn but the reality is it turned in £613m in 2017.

How many other businesses and organisations are under-performing through failing to apply the right ‘grit’?

'Complacency is a continuous struggle that we all have to fight.’ Jack Nicklaus, golfer and 18-time Major winner.

‘Sandpaper Leadership’© 2018 is the copyright of Sandpaper Leadership Limited.