Charismatic leadership: Clock building, not time telling

Imagine you met a remarkable person who could look at the sun or stars at any time of day or night and state the exact time and date: “It’s April, 1401, 2:36 A.M., and 12 seconds.” This person would be an amazing time teller, and we’d probably revere that person for an ability to tell time. But wouldn’t that person be even more amazing if, instead of telling time, he or she built a clock that could tell the time forever, even after he or she was dead and gone.

Having a great leader or being a charismatic visionary leader is “time telling”; building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader and through multiple product life cycles is “clock building.” … Clock builders concentrate primarily on building an organization – building a ticking clock – rather than on hitting the market just right with a visionary product idea and riding the growth curve of an attractive product life cycle. And instead of concentrating on acquiring the individual personality traits of visionary leadership, they take an architectural approach and concentrate on building the organizational traits of visionary companies. The primary output of their efforts is not the tangible implementation of a great idea, the expression of charismatic personality, the gratification of their ego, or the accumulation of personal wealth. Their greatest creation is the company itself and what it stands for.

James Collins & Jerry Porras – Clock Building, Not Time Telling