Excerpt 1: IntroductionP a g e | 1

INTRODUCTION: PRIMORDIAL LEADERSHIP

Primordial
Leadership
By Lawrence D. Duckworth

Unleash The Results Animal In You

and In Others
Copyright, Lawrence D. Duckworth, 2013

INTRODUCTION: PRIMORDIAL LEADERSHIP

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About this e-book:

This e-book is the first in an 8-part series on leadership to be published on PEXNetwork.com. It is
based on a forthcoming book authored by Lawrence Duckworth, who has himself held
leadership roles ranging from Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer through to
Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Duckworth has also been a well received presenter at PEX Network
conferences on leadership, change management and achieving a learning organization.
The series will look at how understanding the primal (primitive and subconscious) drives that
powerfully, silently and consistently motivate human behavior can help you achieve exceptional
results through a new level of leadership skill. The series will also offer examples of how
concepts from Neuroscience and Sociobiology apply to business, and provide practical tools and
processes that you can use directly in your own leadership approaches.
The series will be published throughout 2013 on PEXNetwork.com and broken down into the
following areas:
Excerpt 1: Introduction
Excerpt 2: A Brief Summary History of Western Leadership Thought In The Last 100
Years to be released 20 May 2013
Excerpt 3: Overview: Primal Drives Summary to be released 3 June 2013
Excerpt 4: to be released 17 June 2013
Excerpt 5: You Cant Manage Others Until You Manage Yourself First to be released
1 July 2013
Excerpt 6: Primal Leadership to be released 15 July 2013
Excerpt 7: To Do Tables and Leadership Tools to be released 29 July 2013
Excerpt 8: Managing Change to be released 12 August 2013
Feel free to download and save the Excerpts, and to share them on Facebook and Twitter. A
webinar based on the book will be run on PEXNetwork.com this summer. Sign up at
www.pexnetwork.com/webinars.
The full Primordial Leadership book, which will be published in mid-2013, goes well beyond the
concepts presented in these excerpts, with additional chapters and Appendices. Contact Larry
Duckworth at larry.duckworth@hotmail.com to reserve an autographed copy.
Editing and additional graphics provided by Diana Davis, editor of PEXNetwork.com.

INTRODUCTION: PRIMORDIAL LEADERSHIP

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PRIMORDIAL
"adjective \pr-m r-d-l\
1
a: first created or developed : primeval
b: existing in or persisting from the beginning (as of a solar system or
universe)
c: earliest formed in the growth of an individual or organ : primitive
<primordial cells>

PRIMAL
"adjective \pr-ml\
1: original, primitive
2: first in importance : primary

DRIVE
"To press or force into an activity, course, or direction"
Source: Merriam-Webster.com

INTRODUCTION: PRIMORDIAL LEADERSHIP

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INTRODUCTION: How to consistently win the

business battle better than others
By Lawrence D. Duckworth
The way we solve a complex problem
(human behavior relative to achieving
results) is to break it into its parts and
address each. That is a purpose of this
book. Also, it wants to help the present
and coming leaders to have higher
Safety of achieving Selfish results, with
more Hope, Easier and quicker, and do
so with more Sociability oriented
teamwork, harnessing Honesty and
Trust. Society will benefit also from
more results productivity.
Bringing out the inner results-driven
animal in you, and in others, is the focus
of these new, deeper insights into
leadership...and how to effectively
harness
these
for
differentiated
leadership quality and results.

If you know how the brain works, you can set your
own course. If you dont, then someone else will.
Richard Bandler, Therapist

This book gives the reader new concepts

and practical tools to help them excel in
leadership. But hundreds of books on leadership have been authored over time. So what makes
this one different?

First, we proceed from the premise that in order to lead people to deliver exceptional results
you need to understand what truly drives both you and them both on a conscious and
unconscious level. In 2009 Vision.org noted that neuroscience could certainly enlighten our
understanding and add substantially to our knowledge of what are the best practices in leading
people.
According to LiveSciences in July, 2010, using such knowledge has value: Throughout history,
the human brain has been remarkably good at dismissing itself. Everyone from ancient
Egyptians to Aristotle has downplayed the role of the mysterious stuff between our ears
Nowadays, research and technological advances have allowed us a closer look at the human
brain. In the process, we've learned things that would have made Galen's jaw drop...

INTRODUCTION: PRIMORDIAL LEADERSHIP

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Using insight from Neuroscience,

How To Get Acquired For 16x Trailing
Psychonomics (laws of the mind),
Earnings; or Enjoy a Price/Earnings Multiple
Sociobiology, and the authors own
decades of hands-on C-level leadership
(if public) Twice as High as Competitors!
experience and practice, this book will
explore how the bedrock of human
It can, and has been done, and much more. Why
motivation wells from mechanisms
would an acquirer, whether private or public, pay
deep within our brains our Primordial
for such high value that can only be realized in the
Drive, to perpetuate our genes'
survival, and the enabling Primal
future?
Drives - and how you can understand
and use those mechanisms to your
Simple.
advantage. The Britannica Concise
Encyclopedia
explains
that
Their Primal Drives were heavily triggeredon
"Sociobiology attempts to understand
purpose!
and explain animal (and human) social
behavior in the light of natural selection
and other biological processes. A central tenet is that the transmission of genes through
successful reproduction is the central motivator in animals' struggle for survival, and that
animals will behave in ways that maximize their chances of transmitting their genes to
succeeding generations."
As noted by Dr. Gazzaniga, Director of the SAGE Center For The Study Of The Mind at UC-Santa
Barbara, Social relationships are merely by-products of behavior originally (genetically)
selected to avoid our being eaten by predators (or today, being beaten by competitors,
technological change, the economy or laws changesauthors add). Thus, everything we do is
controlled at this level of the Primal Drives and far below the conscious mind. This book will
show that these Primal Drives can be applied for differentiated, exceptional leadership results
via the Judo Principle. The Primal Drives are the Whys? that drive us. They are important to
use, as the talented Canadian artist Alanis Morissette wisely opined: " The person who knows
HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss."
As Greg Frost writes in How to Unlock the Subconscious Mind and Access Your Full Potential,
the inner mind resides in all of us and we often go through life not knowing that it is even
there. The shocking thing is that all of us go through the existence that we have been given on
this earth only using a percentage of our potential.
Up until now this inner mind has not been sufficiently revealed for leadership use. This book
aims to change that, consistent with Therapist Richard Bandler's observation that If you know
how the brain works, you can set your own course. If you dont, then someone else will.
Second, while ~95% of leadership books are written by non-leader, smart academic observers,
this book is written by a leadership practitioner (and also an Adjunct Professor and leadership

INTRODUCTION: PRIMORDIAL LEADERSHIP

lecturer); and also integrates academic and scientific

findings. Many stories and examples are provided that
validate the Primal Drives use, and power.
Third, numerous leadership tools and processes are
provided, versus just the standard leadership bromides
in most books. This reflects that good ideas not well
implemented are worthless.
Fourth, these new leadership insights are positioned as a
culmination of 100 years of evolving leadership thought,
that is reviewed as a context; like one would get in an
MBA program.

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Use Change Resilience As A

Competitive Weapon!
One Fortune 50 company has put
over 70,000 of its people through
extensive process improvement
and change management courses.
It has recognized that in its highly
competitive market who best
changes and adapts wins.

Fifth, change management success is linked to managing the Primordial Drive and its enabling
Primal Drives. Proactively building a change resilient/change seeking culture is the focus.
Dr. Peter Drucker, in his classic The Effective Executive, noted that the effective executive, very
simply, is one that achieves results; be they fat, skinny, old, young, male, female, etc. It is all
about results. Assuming ethos exists, no other factor counts for leaders. He also advises that
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."
A-Players leaders (present and future) are all looking for that competitive advantage silver
bullet that gives new insights and tools that are unique and powerful for achieving results. That
is the focus here, to help enable the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Without ambition one
starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to
win it. Achieving those results is always challenged by competitors and external and internal
forces. For the leader, the key competitors for continuously improved success, and resulting
rewards, are:
1. Yourself(Squared)
2. The people to be led, who also have the animal Primordial Drive and enabling Primal
Drives that can either be harnessed or will be obstacles.
3. Peers in larger companies (who secretly want to beat you to the next promotion; as you
(should) do them.
4. Partners whose needs are a symbiotic relationship, and who have their animal Primal
Drives also.
5. Leaders of competitive companies, and their Primal Drives.
6. Buyers, in both prospects and customers.

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Differentiate yourselfvaluably!
In their great book of the same name, Tout and Rivkin, entreat us to "Differentiate or Die." The
primary focus in this book is on achieving far more results from people by being different and
better as a leader whether they are employees, peers, superiors, prospects, customers,
suppliers. Family members will benefit also.
Thus, being different and better is important, and an opportunity. Doing so as a leader has
many possible facets. In this book we will focus on harnessing and leveraging yours and other
people's motivations at the most Primordial level, via the "Primal Drives," far below where other
leadership writers have focused, and more powerfully see figure 1: unique leadership
positioning. Also, we will begin to focus on spatial excellence and resulting envisioning since
providing the right vision and "higher meaning" via spatial thinking is a top responsibility of a
leader. (The combination of spatial thinking/envisioning and the Primal Drives are the leader's
most powerful combination for results differentiation, as defined in coming Overview ONE.)

Deeper Insights Are Differentiators

Seeing (and then leveraging) the deep, underlying Primal Drives (the Why's?) in us that exist
even below the autonomic and instincts levels in the brain, that secretly control everything we
do, and that are consistently actionable, provide a new, more powerful set of leadership insights
and tools to use in a differentiated way to achieve better results. The higher level impacts of the

Position to be Both Different and Valuable

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Primal Drives have been hinted at by famed leadership authors like Maslow, Herzberg,
McGregor, Goleman et al and others; but just not to the depth or power necessary for more
powerful, consistent, differentiated leadership use.
This book looks at these whys from a leaders perspective and shares experiences, practices
and direct investigations. As a leader, entrepreneur, etc. you are already in the woods, so
must get the bear, and not vice versa! The objective is to help you to better achieve the below
Type A example results and avoid the Type Z example results:

Example Type A Results

Your management team is cohesive,

commonly focused and synergistic.
Your market share percentage is steadily
growing.
The Board supports a new program even if
new criteria and resourcing need to be
adopted.
Your top-of-the-funnel lead generation
marketing efforts are creating the
quantity and quality of leads wanted.
Your sales win ratio is very high, per unit
sales costs continue to go down, and
marketshare is rising such that you are
becoming a defacto leader in your space.
Employee turnover is very low.
Trust pervades the organization.
Un-asked personal extra effort is the
norm.
Results commitment drives initiative.

Example Type Z Results

Good people leave and the exit

interviews reflect more opportunity
elsewhere.
No matter your solutions advantages
the decider wants to go another
direction.
The draft plan or report submitted to
you has thinking gaps and oversights.
The sales team consistently misses its
projections.
People click on your webpage but
only a very small percent request
information.
Company turnover is higher than it
should be, at great cost (tangible and
opportunity costs included).
Politics pervade the organization.
People are hunkered down.
Little self-initiative exists.

Key do and not to do guidances are provided, to foster the A versus Z outcomes. Also,
neuroscience, sociobiology, etc. are more recent knowledge sources to be introduced for use.

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The Primal Drives X The Judo Principle; 1 x 1 = 4+

The Judo Principle, which will be discussed in this book,
is based on the idea that you can, and should,
proactively harness key, human nature Primal Drives
for you, and dont let them overcome you. The new
ideas of harnessing the Primal Drives are useless unless
they are leveraged. Judo/Jujitsu is centered on using
forces for you, be they positive or negative forces.
Helping curious, constructively dissatisfied and selfchallenging A-players is the agenda; and those Bplayers who want to become A-players (they can, as
will be shown). (C-players do not read self-improvement books.) You will be armed to lead in
many waysbut it will be up to you to use the weapons (and not treat them as the cartoon
depicts).
The leadership "art" is in applying the tools with varying weightings in varying situations.
(Chapters Two and Three show how.)
As the Primal Drives constructs were being formulated, the author also looked into
Neuroscience and more for causes. But what was found was that autonomic responses
reported in Neuroscience - that part of the brain reacting to fear by heightened electromagnetic activity, heightened blood flow
and releasing hormones like adrenalin are often actually CAUSED by underlying
Primal Drives! Why else would the
energy-using, Skinner-like stimulus/
response occur? What was the causal
stimulus that elicited the energy-using
response? Answer: A Primal Drive, to
protect the Primordial Drive of species
survival and perpetuation as a basic
requirement for genes perpetuation.
Thus, a common basis for all actions is
the Primal Drives; which are at the DNA
level...to be harnessed by leaders in
myriad ways in different situations, as
Science.howstuffworks.com
the "art" of leadership.

INTRODUCTION: PRIMORDIAL LEADERSHIP

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Effectively using the Primal Drives to continually win in business is an

imperative
The famous author Isaac Asimov once
observed that "Change is the only
constant." Everything around us is
changing every day, as reflected in this
graphic; and the impacts are multidimensional.
Changes
impact
Objectives, Entities and Roles in
complex, constantly evolving, inevitable
ways. Change cannot be stopped, so
you must use it to your advantage. (In
the movie The International the
question was asked What do you do
when you have no way out? [there is no
avoiding change]. The answer was to
go further in [further leverage
change].)

Change Forces

Todays strengths will almost certainly become tomorrows weaknesses due to constant change.
New opportunities arise every day, but are quickly snatched by someone (and in the Internet
and now Mobile Ages change will become ever-faster); including the high expectations of
Millennials and Gen X versus Boomers. Coming up with new ways of doing things will be
key, including applying Wayne Gretskys observation that I skate to where the puck will be and
not to where it is.
Leaders need to embrace that overcoming the "kinetic energy" of protecting the status quo turfs
and programs are seated in the Safety, Selfishness, Hope and other Primal Drives in the
organization. Proactive, purposeful efforts will be needed. Per Jeff Olsen in The Slight Edge,
Successful people do what unsuccessful people are NOT willing to do. As Thomas Jefferson
advised, Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define
you.
An employee once stated, when pushing a new idea, that "The best time to plant a shade tree
was 20 years ago; the next best time is today." So, how do we grow, and how do we plan,
change and attack? And, how do we attack smartly (dumb attacking just stacks up casualties)?
How do we attack in a powerful, differentiated way others have not figured out yet? How do we
ethically and morally gain unfair advantage, with a winning, no prisoners, give-to-get
mindsetand unique actions focus?
To again quote Peter Drucker, "Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked;
leadership is defined by results not attributes." Win improved results by learning and consistently

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applying the mind's Primal Drives (that lie far below the conscious surface, like a deep iceberg,
with 90% not visible) via the Judo Principle. Understand how to Judo-leverage the Primal Drives
in all people-to-people ways; including (especially) your own self-management. Set the highest
example and never let others expectations of you be higher than yours. Be a good person (on
purpose), provide the best value and quality, and harness others Primal Drives.

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For more information

The full Primordial Leadership book goes beyond these excerpts to add chapters and
Appendices. Also, each section is more complete than these ~35% excerpts.
You should read this book if you are on a constructively-dissatisfied personal quest to progress
toward being a Jack Welch termed A-player entrepreneur, leader or manager. And, only if you
have a deep curiosity to continually find and actively apply in your business the essential,
underlying, most-basic Why? human nature Primal Drives that both enable success and protect
from defeat. You need to be on a quest for the impossible dream of leadership excellence as
an end, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far"as plays based on Don Miguel de
Cervantes Saavedra urged us all from his classic Don Quixote de la Mancha. Think of his sweet
Dulcinea as your family, employees, customers and partners ("stakeholders"); and your total
commitment to them, and them to you. Having them tell you that they would follow you across
a minefield is a barometer. It is true that the leadership excellence journey itself is a more
important reward than the destination; but the destination is good also, especially for those that
depend on us.
Note:
For more information about implementing these Primordial Leadership principles in your
organization or for requesting this book, contact the author Larry Duckworth at
larry.duckworth@hotmail.com. 404-307-0033. www.larryduckworth.com
Information on the author is at www.linkedin.com/in/larryduckworth.