Excellent Nike ad on 'finding the power within' - especially the
point about 'patience'. All leaders should have drive, determination,
impatience with how things are ... and patience. We know - leaership's a bag of
contradictions, isn't it!
Positive Leadership Limited is a strategic leadership and corporate finance advisory firm. We use our considerable experience to provide unique perspectives and innovative solutions which help corporate leaders unlock maximum value from complex business challenges. There is no dress rehearsal for delivering answers to critical business challenges. When you are under intense pressure to succeed, we help deliver the vitally important marginal gains which let your business excel and win.
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Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Positive Leadership: Unleashing Collective Genius
As business leaders, each of us is faced with a similar
dilemma today. How do we need to change to stay effective despite the rapid and
continuous change we are faced with in the business environment today?
Linda A. Hill, Professor of Business Administration at
Harvard Business School, a widely read author, and the Faculty Chair of the
Leadership Initiative, discusses how leaders need to be value creators and game
changers.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Positve Leadership: #UsainBolt - The Art of Winning
Usain Bolt, the fastest man on earth, made his third visit
to IMD on August 22nd, 2012 to share the secrets of his continued success with 350
business executives.
Positive Leadership: Team Turnarounds
In today’s uncertain economic environment, teams are asked
to do more with less. With resources stretched thin, turning around a
struggling team has never been harder, and managers must work to identify and
maximise whatever potential strengths a team already has. As sports fans
already know, behind every great underdog story is a leader who roots out the
competitive advantage that will propel the team to victory. In their excellent book, Team Turnarounds, Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl share how this fine art of the
turnaround really works, from how to inspire the team to the actual tools for
change.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Lost Culture of the Financial Services Industry
Culture is everything when it comes to responsible,
long-term business success.
Culture is what exists before any given leader
shows up, and it is what exists after any given leader moves on. Culture is in
the DNA of an organisation. It is not something that a leader necessarily goes
out and creates. A leader’s job is to discover, communicate and reinforce
culture. If you don’t get culture right, nothing else matters.
Many of the financial services organisations that have gone
astray recently have done so because they lost touch with their culture. They lost touch
with their stewardship mission, purpose, values and responsibilities; core elements of the historic culture of the financial services industry.
What we need to do today is not so much invent or create a
new culture for the industry but find the way back to the culture that should have
been there all along.
Most financial services firms have a culture that at some
point, somewhere, was about serving the needs of their clients. It was not just
about making money. It was about helping clients achieve their objectives,
promoting economic growth and performing a social good. Chances are the people
at the firm came to the firm because of the chance to make a positive
difference in the world. That ethic is used to be embedded in most financial
institutions. Unfortunately we have just lost touch with it in too many cases
recently.
As Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, said recently: "Motivation does not come from financial incentives alone. Again, the financial sector has done us all a disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is necessary to motivate individuals".
As Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, said recently: "Motivation does not come from financial incentives alone. Again, the financial sector has done us all a disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is necessary to motivate individuals".
Restoring the culture of financial institutions to what it
ought to be is the number one leadership challenge right now in the financial
services industry. Regulatory reform is not enough. If we are going to keep
future financial crises from happening, we have to address cultural failings at
the heart of the financial services industry.
Whether or not we get it right will be a case study in leadership for years to come.
Whether or not we get it right will be a case study in leadership for years to come.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Positive Leadership: A Leadership Skills Gap
Fortune 1000 companies do not have enough leaders coming up
through the ranks to fill open and future leadership positions, according to a
survey by The CARA Group, Inc.
To remedy the current lack of leadership skills
and limited talent pipeline, caused in part by recession cuts to critical
leadership programmes, the survey reveals there is an emerging renewed commitment
to leadership development among companies of all sizes.
Key findings of the 2012 CARA survey include:
- More than half—62% of respondents—say their organisations face a leadership skills gap
- 84% of respondents say their organisations have increased leadership development focus in the last two to three years
- Only 9% of respondents say their current leadership development programmes are “very effective,” while 56% describe their programmes as only “somewhat effective” or “ineffective”
- The top three most critical skill gaps of leaders-in-training are leading others (54%), managing change (43%) and strategic planning/vision development (40%)
- Online learning and development (66%) is the number one way companies are leveraging technology in their leadership development programmes.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Positive Leadership: How Priming Impacts Your Performance
Malcolm Gladwell discusses how what you experience in
advance of a situation can profoundly affect the choices you make and the
results you get.
This effect is called "priming" and it profoundly effects your expectations and behaviour.
This effect is called "priming" and it profoundly effects your expectations and behaviour.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Positive Leadership: There Is an I in Team
Mark de Rond is a professor of Strategy and Organisation at
Cambridge University's Judge Business School, where was CEO in Residence for
several years.
He has just released the book There Is an I in Team: What EliteAthletes and Coaches Really Know About High Performance that looks at what business can learn from the world of professional sport and how
focusing on individual potential elevates team performance. The book is readable,
teachable, innovative and insightful.
According to the author, there are six ways to raise your team
performance:
- The best teams are made up of individuals.
- Know your limits. How much are you willing to tolerate – even from your most talented team members?
- “Star performers” are great but be mindful that everyone has their unique strengths. Amazing talent is not transferable.
- Team players need to be aware that what may work for them as individuals does not necessarily work in a group.
- Tension within the team may be uncomfortable, but that is not the same as dysfunctional.
- Create an open environment where people can have their say.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Positive Leadership: Helping Your Followers Succeed
How can you as a leader get work done through others with
their commitment and their contagious enthusiasm?
Here are a few ways you can provide followers with what they
need to succeed:
- Maintain an “Open Door.” Encourage them to come to you with their problems and concerns. Listen and respond appropriately.
- Be accessible and available. Unless you’re on personal leave, make sure they can contact you for any needed clarification or guidance.
- Allow reasonable schedule flexibility to accommodate their personal needs.
- Think and plan before assigning work and implementing projects so you can minimise unnecessary changes and extra work.
- Keep the environment respectful and “safe.” Do not allow derogatory humour, destructive feedback, or the criticising of input and ideas. Take immediate action to stop them if they occur.
- Back their decisions and act on their recommendations whenever possible and appropriate.
- Run interference. Be a “go-between” to help team members get any required senior management approvals and interdepartmental cooperation.
- Minimise obstacles. Identify any organisational factors (including your behaviours) that inhibit team member success. Eliminate or minimise those obstacles as best you can.
Lead well ... LEAD RIGHT!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Positive Leadership: What Winning Means!
BBC commentators Steve Cram and Brendan Foster stand to
salute Mo Farah's second gold medal in a thrilling 5,000m race.
In the studio, pundits Denise Lewis and Colin Jackson
literally jump for joy as the 29-year-old won Great Britain's 27th gold medal
of London 2012.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Positive Leadership: London 2012: The Importance of Sport Psychology
BBC Sport journalist Matthew Syed, author of Bounce, explains how
important psychology among athletes is in the battle between success and
failure.
Each and every competitor has their own routine,
superstition and ritual before their sport, which can make a massive difference
in their attempt to win gold.
This is what performing under pressure is all about!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Positive Leadership: Support Networks and Success
Procter & Gamble launched its "Thank You, Mom"
campaign at the Vancouver Games in 2010. A critical and commercial success, the
campaign returned for London 2012. In one execution, a re-working of its 2010
Winter Olympics 'Thank you, mom’ spot, P&G
pushes raw emotion to the tear-jerking nth degree with its depiction of mothers
worldwide raising children to become champions and sharing their triumph.
'Being a mom is the hardest job in the world,' the ad says, 'but it’s also the
best.'
A great Olympic advert!
Positive Leadership: Inspired Leadership - The Historical Perspective on the London 2012 Olympics
In January 2003, a storm was gathering in Washington,
Whitehall and Baghdad when the then Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell went to the
cabinet with the idea that London should bid for the 2012 Olympics.
“We started
with no votes around the Cabinet Table,” she said. She went round the
departments one by one, to Health, Education and Transport, and told them what
the Olympics could do for everyone. Tony Blair, whose last minute lobbying
later proved so crucial, dismissed the idea at first.
Tony Blair was much more preoccupied with Iraq, and rightly
so. I said to him, “How are you going to answer this question. We’re the fourth
largest economy in the world, London is the greatest city in the world, we
would like to think. What will you say to someone who asks you ‘Why didn’t you
dare bid to host the games?’ I’ve never forgotten the way he looked at me.
In his memoir, Blair recalls that Jowell lectured him to man
up:
“I really didn’t think that was your attitude to leadership.
I thought you were prepared to take a risk. And it is a big risk. Of course we
may not win but at least we will have had the courage to try.” When Tessa says
this, you feel a complete wimp and rather ashamed. You know she is manipulating
you, but you also know it’s a successful manipulation.
I
got a call the next morning from his Principle Private Secretary saying ‘The
Prime Minister will support your recommendation.”
Two years later, the American businesswoman appointed to
lead the bid Barbara Cassani resigned, because she didn’t think an American bid
leader would win the games. “She deserves great credit,” said Dame Tessa
Jowell.” She said the person who could win it is Seb Coe.
It was only six months later that the double Olympic gold
medallist stood on stage in Singapore and said:
”To make an Olympic champion it takes eight Olympic finalists. To make
Olympic finalists, it takes 80 Olympians. To make 80 Olympians it takes 202
national champions, to make national champions it takes thousands of athletes.
To make athletes it takes millions of children around the world to be inspired
to choose sport.” Jacques Rogge was up not long later, opening his envelope and
reading out the word “London.”
From the very start, the London 2012 Olympic bid has been characterised by the single-minded passion, persistence, vision and determination of all those involved in hosting the Games. Congratulations!
For more background into the bid process for the London 2012 Olympic Games, see: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/06/international-olympic-committee-london-summer-olympics)
Monday, August 13, 2012
Positive Leadership: Lessons from the Games
Bank of England Governor, Sir Mervyn King said recently that
the British economy could learn a number of key lessons from the Olympic Games.
"First, and most important, we have been reminded that
an objective that is worth attaining, like a gold medal, requires years of hard
work. Success does not come overnight," he said.
"That is as true of our economy as it is of sport. It
means reforming our banking system so that banks focus less on making money in
the short term, and more on building businesses to serve their customers'
interests over the longer term."
The Bank of England boss also said bankers should focus less
on money and more on their customers.
He added: "The financial sector has done us all a
disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is
necessary to motivate individuals."
The Olympic Games show us that supreme human achievement is the result of a commitment to excellence; nothing more, nothing less.
Positive Leadership: The Legacy of London 2012
The 7 Olympic values have been epitomised by all those involved in organising and participating in the London Olympics.
Congratulations on delivering the greatest show on earth and inspiring a generation!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Positive Leadership: Thinking Like a Gold Medallist
Elite athletes encounter many of the same mental challenges
that successful entrepreneurs face on a daily basis, according to JoAnn
Dahlkoetter, a sports and performance psychologist in San Carlo, Calif. She
should know. In addition to coaching business leaders, Dahlkoetter currently
counts five Olympic gold medallists as her clients. She finds that many of the
same strategies athletes use to outwit mental obstacles work in business as
well. Here's her advice for overcoming three of the most vexing psychological
challenges, whether you're a start up or established entrepreneur looking to
grow.
Challenge No. 1 -
Negative thinking. Slumps happen in athletics, business, and life. Start
asking positive questions when you find yourself thinking: I'm not good enough.
I can't do this. Nothing is going right. Try: What's good about this situation?
What tools and resources do I need to move in the direction I want to go?
Asking yourself better questions can help you move forward. Perhaps the big
client you lost wasn't the best fit anyway, and now you have the bandwidth to
service a bigger, better customer. The more you actively turn around negative
thinking, the easier it gets to see opportunities in adversity, Dahlkoetter
says.
Challenge No. 2 -
Exhaustion. Just as athletes experience injuries and burnout, even the most
resilient business owners can get fatigued from putting so much into their
businesses. In addition to the sage advice of eating healthfully and getting
enough sleep, Dahlkoetter says it's critical to plan breaks ranging from a few
hours where you disconnect to a few days away. If that's not possible, take a
"mental vacation." Get to a place where you'll be uninterrupted for
five or 10 minutes. Breathe deeply and visualise yourself relaxing in a
beautiful setting, like at the beach. Sound weird? Research has long shown the
positive effects of meditation on stress levels and health. In fact, a new
study from the University of Washington found that regular meditation can
increase concentration and make you more productive.
Challenge No. 3 -
Fear. During the Olympic Games, a decade or more of preparation and
training can lead to a single competition. Entrepreneurs have that kind of
pressure when they encounter business-threatening obstacles or setbacks. When
fear becomes paralysing, you've got to go back to the basics, Dahlkoetter says.
"Remind yourself of the skills and talents that got you to the level of
success where you are now," she says. "Visualise yourself having the
outcome you want over and over and over again." Then, focus on the moment.
Don't think about the past or worry about the future. Instead, determine the
very next thing you have to do to get the outcome you want. If you're worried
about closing a big deal, make a list of the tasks that will give you the best
possible advantage--studying competitors' strengths and weaknesses, writing a winning
proposal, polishing your presentation--and then tackle those to-dos one by one.
Taking positive action is a strong way to dissolve fear, she says.
Thursday, August 09, 2012
Positive Leadership: Why Listening is So Important for Leaders
According to research from Columbia Business School, expressing yourself well in combination with listening well makes you more
influential than would be expected by simply adding these two skills together.
While there are no real secrets to being a better listener, there
are some behaviours that can take effort to change.
Here are a few suggestions
for influential listening:
Don’t follow your
instincts - at least not always. Listening is sometimes most valuable when
it clashes with your instincts and impulses. In a conflict, when someone is
disagreeing with you and you really don’t want to hear them out, that is
exactly when listening is most useful.
Capture your own
attention - Listening is difficult in part because we have a lot of brain
capacity, we can process language at 300 to 500 words per minute. But most
people speak around 100 words per minute. So we have extra capacity that makes
it challenging to manage our attention — instead we look at the person walking
across a room or consider an idea bubbling up in our minds. One way to manage your
own attention is to put that extra capacity to work by making more effort to
draw out your counterpart through questions or to organise in your own mind the
points they are making.
Stop interrupting
- For just one week, every time you want cut off another person and forge ahead
with your own point, wait. Instead, ask a question. It is a way to reflect on
your habits and to get more out of others by understanding their points more
completely.
....But don’t be quiet
- The gold standard of good listening is not measured by how quiet you are.
It’s about doing things to let the other person know that you are seriously considering
what he has to say. Elicit information, ask questions, make direct eye contact,
and whatever you do, don’t engage in other activities while you claim to be
listening.
Implement - The
real litmus test is what you do after the conversation. The most persuasive
thing a manager can do is to implement what people are saying. The rule should
be that as long as others’ recommendation is not worse than what you as a
manager would do — you should not hold your staff to a higher standard than you
hold yourself — then act on their suggestion. Otherwise you’re losing an
opportunity to show that you are good listener and to build relationships and
trust. And if the idea is worse? You still need to come back with a reasonable
explanation in a way that lets the recipient know his views were seriously
considered.
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Positive Leadership: Preparing to Lead
Potential CEO candidates should seek out CEO-calibre
experiences before they need it.
Here are three tips that will make you a
better senior leader, strengthen you as a CEO candidate and serve you well if
you get the nod:
Stop doing more of
the same. Staying in your current role longer isn't the key to readiness.
Nor is round after round of career moves that build on what you already do
well. Honestly assess your weak spots, identify skills you need and seek out
challenges or roles that fill those gaps. If you need strategic planning
experience, step up to lead the company's scenario planning efforts. If you
need more international experience, lobby to lead the company's entry into a
new geographic market. Note that you need to learn and lead as you go — the
ability to succeed in unfamiliar territory is an essential CEO skill.
Learn to take a
direct hit. Until you are CEO, you have someone else to absorb some of the
shock of a poor strategic decision or an operational problem. For CEOs, the
shock absorber is gone. No one else can share the blame for poor performance.
To get a sense of this, make sure you are taking personal responsibility for
key, high-profile initiatives. Can you own the work without micromanaging it?
Can you take the hits rather than looking for cover?
Learn how to work
with a Board of Directors. Few CEO candidates understand board dynamics, so
start learning now by taking leadership roles on boards of local non-profits.
Ask your boss or mentor to help you gain a corporate board post where you can
use your expertise, but also gain new experience and perspectives. And if you
are on the short list of potential CEOs for your company, find ways to get to
know individual board members: work with them on committee projects, play host
when they visit your site, join them on trips to other company locations, ask
for a walk-through of their own business. Understanding different board
members' experiences, perspectives and personalities will give you insight into
the demands facing the CEO.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Positive Leadership: Honesty is the Best Policy
Good leadership springs from a willingness to recognize uncomfortable truths and to be honest and forthright in tackling them, writes former Tesco CEO Terry Leahy. A keen sense of right and wrong underpins every successful business strategy and helps inspire workers during trying times. "Simple though it may sound, the truth is the best compass to guide one through the storm," Leahy writes.
For more, see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304870304577488572183024742.html
For more, see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304870304577488572183024742.html
Monday, August 06, 2012
Positive Leadership: Motivating Your Team to do Better
Do you think you can scare people into doing a better job?
With poor economic news in the headlines seemingly each and every day, it may feel like the only option. However, the trouble with using fear to motivate employees is: it just doesn’t work. Burning platforms and “doom-and-gloom” scenarios can catch people’s attention, but on-going use will spark false urgency and frantic activity, not the sort of urgent, enthusiastic behaviour necessary to drive strategic change. There are other ways to motivate your people to go above and beyond.
Listen to this conversation to learn how to stop pushing and start encouraging.
With poor economic news in the headlines seemingly each and every day, it may feel like the only option. However, the trouble with using fear to motivate employees is: it just doesn’t work. Burning platforms and “doom-and-gloom” scenarios can catch people’s attention, but on-going use will spark false urgency and frantic activity, not the sort of urgent, enthusiastic behaviour necessary to drive strategic change. There are other ways to motivate your people to go above and beyond.
Listen to this conversation to learn how to stop pushing and start encouraging.
Friday, August 03, 2012
Positive Leadership: Be Fearless
Having the focus to see beyond your fears can
instigate change. When you take risks, embrace the unknown, and ‘go for it’,
that is often when you get the breakthrough you’ve been looking for.
AOL founder Steve Case and his wife Jean established the Case Foundation to leverage new technologies that will make the world a better place. They recently launched Be Fearless a campaign that encourages people to take a step forward in their efforts to create lasting social change in their communities. Their mantra is “Take Risks. Be Bold. Fail Forward.”
Jean Case recently outlined 5 key values that help develop a fearless mindset. We suggest you read it. We need more change-makers on this planet.
AOL founder Steve Case and his wife Jean established the Case Foundation to leverage new technologies that will make the world a better place. They recently launched Be Fearless a campaign that encourages people to take a step forward in their efforts to create lasting social change in their communities. Their mantra is “Take Risks. Be Bold. Fail Forward.”
Jean Case recently outlined 5 key values that help develop a fearless mindset. We suggest you read it. We need more change-makers on this planet.
- Make big bets – and make history
History suggests that the most significant cultural transformations occur when one or more people simply decide to try and make big change. - Experiment early and often
Experience shows us that we need to keep looking around the corner to find the next good idea—because today's iPhone is tomorrow's Walkman. - Make failure matter
Every great innovator has experienced moments of failure, but the truly great among them wear those failures as badges of honour. - Reach beyond your bubble
Collaboration provides new ideas and innovations, as well as “air cover” when sharing risk. - Let
urgency conquer fear
Don’t overthink and overanalyse every decision, take a calculated risk and go for it.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Positive Leadership: How to Win in Business
Some interesting observations from the British Olympic Association’s Director of Sport, Sir Clive Woodward:
'Successful businesses, like successful sport teams, need to
remain open to new ideas and to learn how to perform under pressure, according
to Sir Clive Woodward, the 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning coach.
Outlining his theory, the British Olympic Association’s
Director of Sport said that “great teams are made up of great individuals” and
that successful team players shared four characteristics: talent, a willingness
to learn, an ability to perform under pressure and the mindset of wanting to be
a champion.
Sir Clive argued that “talent is not enough” because there
are “bucketloads” of talented competitors. He said top players, like top
businessmen and women, needed to be willing to be taught — to be “sponges”
instead of “rocks”.
“I’d fly anywhere in the world if I thought it had the
smallest chance of [helping] me becoming a better coach or a better manager,”
he said.
“Once you lose that ability, that kind of focus, the chances
are you’ve become a rock and you’re not going to be competing with that person
in the next room.”
He said one of his first actions on becoming head coach of
the England rugby team in 1997 was to give each player a laptop and teach them
IT skills. “The media had a field day [but] I was trying to find out
who the sponges were, who the rocks were. Who the guys in the squad saying
‘this guy isn’t going to be here for long, we don’t need to do this’ were.”
Sir Clive said that the next key component of a successful
team member was an ability to perform under pressure, something that he did not
believe was inherited.
“Are you born with this gene to play and perform under
pressure? I would say absolutely not ... I think this is coachable,” he said.
“What you can do is role-play situations you’re going to get into. If you come
across something you’ve never seen before, the chances are you would freeze.”
Finally, according to Sir Clive, to become a champion
players must have the right attitude, including an “obsession with detail about
what you do to beat the person in the next room”.'
Positive Leadership: Lessons from the Olympians
“The Best” will:
- outwork others
- be more disciplined than others
- have greater drive than others
- be much more competitive than others
- do things that others think aren't important
- do the unrequired extra work
- always want to know what they can do to get better
- want to be coached, want to be driven, and want to learn more.
These are just some of the characteristics of “The
Best" -- all things your players need to recognise in this elite
group. And for all our corporate
friends, we think this list is worth thinking about as well. We all can grow and
improve if we strive to do these things to the level that “The Best” are
willing to do them!
Enjoy watching these special athletes as they once again strive
to win!
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Positive Leadership: Greatness is Wherever Someone is Trying to Find it
Greatness isn't reserved for the chosen few in one special
city, it can also be found in London, Ohio, and London, Norway, and East
London, South Africa, and Little London, Jamaica, and Small London, Nigeria and
the London Hotel and London Road and anywhere else someone is trying to find
it.