Later, Steve would have skip-level meetings with employees
from these groups. He would ask them
about decisions they had made or ways they were working that didn’t seem to
make sense. Often the answer was “We agree
that doesn’t make sense! It was the guy
you just fired who made us do it!”
Steve didn’t like how convenient it was to scapegoat bad decisions on the people who were no longer around. So he was inspired to teach the concept of “True North” – the ultimate guide to making good decisions.
True North for Intuit was articulated as:
“Deliver best we can be results in the current period for employees, customers, and shareholders, while building the foundation for a stronger future.”
With True North defined, every employee was now equipped to surmise the right
thing to do. Employees now had an
obligation to do the right thing even when someone else was telling them to do
otherwise. If you knowingly took actions
that violated True North, you could no longer say “My boss made me do it”
because the follow up question would be “Why didn’t you escalate?”
True North is not only a powerful concept for making good
decisions in the workplace. True North
can also be applied to how we make decisions in our personal lives. The stakes are high when you consider how certain
decisions we make impact our families, our careers, and how we spend
our time.
Without a personal True North, we may inadvertently make
decisions that may end up being bad for us.
Consider an example of “Jack” who states emphatically that he values
spending time with his kids. But then
Jack gets offered a promotion to a new role that involves being on the road
three weeks out of every month. He
accepts the new role because of the prestige of a promotion and increased
compensation. However Jack will be
spending much less time with his kids.
Was the prestige and money more important?
A personal True North statement can help you make sure you
make good life decisions and don’t default to what you think everyone else
would do.
So how do you come up with a personal True North
statement? The key is developing enough
self-awareness such that:
- You know who you are;
- You know what you stand for;
- You know what matters to you;
- You know what you want to be, and to whom.
Your personal True North statement allows you to articulate
these principles to family, friends, and the people you work with. On hearing your statement, the people you
trust will be better able to give you meaningful advice as you ponder big life
decisions.
There are many assessment tools that exist to help you
increase your self-awareness. Some of my
favorites are Strengths
Finder, Conflict
Modes and Myers-Briggs
(and a host of others built upon the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung). Of course you should take the results you get with a
grain of salt but the process of using these tools can be a valuable aid to
introspection.
Furthermore, imagine yourself many years in the future lying
on your deathbed. Think of all the
things you would like to have accomplished so you have no regrets. Imagine how you would like your family,
friends, and colleagues to remember you.
Now return back to the present.
Are you on track to do many of the things you imagine? Are you living your life in a way you would
like to be remembered?
These reflections will help you develop your personal True
North statement. Remember, it is a personal statement and the more honest
you are about it, the more effective it will help you as you make
decisions. The purpose of your statement
is not to impress other people so don’t worry so much about what others will
think or try to conform. Be true to
yourself. It doesn’t have to be perfect
– start with something and iterate over time.
Just to give an example, here’s the current iteration of my
personal True North statement:
“I’m solving for having a meaningful life of leveraging my passion for innovation and leadership to make a lasting, positive impact for my family, colleagues, customers, and community and to achieve financial independence.”