Leading from Zero: Seven Essential Elements of Earning Relevance

Earning and sustaining relevance with employees and customers is the primary responsibility of leaders. Leading from Zero: Seven Essential Elements of Earning Relevance is a step by step “how to” guide for leaders. Similar to the concept of zero-based budgeting, Leading from Zero asserts every organization starts its day from a base of zero. Zero customers. Zero employees. Zero revenue. Leaders must influence their organizations and earn relevance with customers, employees, and all stakeholders every day. Organizations have no entitlement to customers, employees, or revenue. Stakeholders have free will and only engage with an organization that demonstrates a relevant vision and clear value proposition and continually delivers on both.

These principles form a mindset from which leaders, starting at zero, must intentionally choose activities aligned with earning relevance among their stakeholders. When leaders take nothing for granted, they measure the value of each intentional activity by its alignment with the organization’s vision. Through this mindset, leaders recognize accountability for assuring they continually uphold the vision as they influence activities intended to bring it to life, focus resources toward fulfilling the vision, and challenge any investments of time, attention or funds that diverge from the vision.

Leading from Zero distills this new strategic leadership paradigm into Seven Essential Elements of Earning Relevance:

• Leading by Cause
• Unceasing Re-definition of Normal
• Adaptive Disruption
• Process Mindset
• Seeing Your Organization as Others Do
• Winning Hearts and Minds
• Sustainability

These seven elements operationalize the paradigm within an organization. Each element anchors to the overriding theme of earning relevance every day. Employees, customers, and other stakeholders must receive value from the organization. If they don’t, they’ll part company to find it elsewhere.