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.
Strategic Leadership Advisory Services from Positive Leadership
▼
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Positive Leadership: A Winning Mentality
As those who read this blog know, we have been interested in ‘winning’ for a long time and in particular, how the world’s top athletes and sports teams
nurture and sustain the peak performance which is necessary in order to maintain their winnings streaks.
Sport has many lessons to teach us about how to be our best. It has it all.
Highs and lows. Community, tenacity, commitment. Performing at your best under intense pressure. The crucial importance of
taking action when the right moment strikes; and what to do in the face of
failure.
So when we came across this article from blogger Geoffrey
James on getting yourself in the mental state to win, we thought it was absolutely appropriate to our thinking.
Here are some takeaways from the article:
See the moments coming: Be prepared when it counts. Don’t
run into the day blindly.
Adopt a winner’s physiology: How you look affects how you
feel. Stand up tall. Look people in the eye.
Visualise the winning outcome: Lots of runners imagine
themselves crossing the finish line. It helps them get from where they are to
where they want to be.
Mentally rehearse what you’ll say and do: Now that you’ve
seen yourself past the finish line, what are the steps you need to take to get
there?
Disconnect from goals and results: Be in the moment.
Take action: Make things happen!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Positive Leadership: Who Wants to Lead a Large Corporation?
How many young people today want to become leaders of large corporations? Too few!
Why?
Why?
Many young people simply lack trust in today’s leadership
models. Here are some of the concerns they voice:
Are leaders transparent enough in their actions?
Often times, leaders are not open enough about
how they make the big decisions that impact their organisations. This lack of
transparency makes it difficult for people to hold their leaders to account.
When the research team at the Future of Work Research Consortium asked over
3,000 corporate executives about the significance of various leadership traits,
they ranked transparency as increasingly important in the future. Yet they also
acknowledged that right now this was not a well-developed capacity and is a
high-risk trait in need of attention.
Are leaders engaging
their stakeholders effectively?
Some believe that leadership teams of large
corporations seem to be stuck in traditional management models that do not help
them build trusting relationships with stakeholders. Inside corporations they
can fail to create effective democratic processes with employees, while
externally they aren’t always demonstrating real commitment to wider social
challenges. This is a major challenge for leaders as people increasingly look
at companies’ ethical practices and the way they treat employees when deciding
whether to trust them or not. It’s clear from
the broader research that delivering consistently strong financial performance
does not guarantee a corporation the trust of its stakeholders unless
accompanied by good practice and ethical behaviour.
Do leaders do as they
say?
A recurring theme is the challenge of intent and actions. Leaders may
talk about strong corporate values, but some are all too quick to bypass them
in the interest of the bottom line. No doubt this scepticism is a response to
the wave of corporate scandals in 2012 that has increased suspicions about
corporate leaders. A global survey by consulting firm Edelman Berland, found that
less than 1 in 5 people believe business leaders will actually tell the truth
when confronted with a difficult issue.
It is clear that there is still much scepticism about
leadership intent. What we need now is deeper insight into what it takes to
restore some of the lost faith in today’s corporate leadership.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Positive Leadership: The Role of Business Education in 2013
The Wall Street Journal sounded the death-knoll for business
schools back in 1985. Applications were dropping. Mass closures were on the
cards. The same headlines have appeared periodically since. Eight years later
the New York Times headlined with “Business Schools Hit Hard Times Amid Doubt
Over Value of MBA”. Last year it was Forbes asking “Is the MBA Obsolete?”
If
you scan the latest stories on business sites and in magazines, it seems to be
in fashion to give the impression that innovation and talent trumps education.
But is it true?
What is true is that the nature of business has changed.
Lines of communication have evolved. Globalisation has opened up new markets
and competition is fierce. Innovation is now a global catch-cry and anyone with
a half-baked idea is trying to sell it. Yet we are still short of quality
business managers.
In reality, it isn’t a competition between natural talent
and formal education. We need both. What is important is that business schools
adapt their style of teaching. They must ensure our next generation of leaders
are learning techniques relevant to today. In America alone, 10,000 baby
boomers retire every day. These are the people who have been our business
leaders for the past 30 years and we are struggling to replace them.
Business schools know this. They also know the demands on
modern managers are unique in the information age. Yale rewrote its curriculum
back in 2006 and continues to regularly review it. Wharton rolled out a whole
new plan last year. We are seeing a shift to customised courses tailored for
21st century enterprise. There is a greater focus (particularly in North America) on leadership, trouble-shooting, problem
solving and communication skills.
Business isn’t just about brilliant product, it’s about
people (ideally, both brilliant). Success will come from ensuring that young
people who have chosen business as their career have the right knowledge,
skills and attitudes to lead.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Positive Leadership: The Impact of Short Term Profitability Motives on Leadership Decision Making
According to the London Business School, 77% of business leaders say the search for short-term profitability has lead to poor leadership decisions!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Positive Leadership: Influencing Up
Stanford Professor David L. Bradford shares his top tips on how to influence
your boss and overcome power gaps in his new book "Influencing Up".
Bradford is the Eugene O'Kelly II senior lecturer in leadership (emeritus) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Allan R. Cohen of Babson College co-wrote the book.
Bradford is the Eugene O'Kelly II senior lecturer in leadership (emeritus) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Allan R. Cohen of Babson College co-wrote the book.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Positive Leadership: Why Britain Has Not Produced a Google or a Facebook
London Mayor, Boris Johnson at his trenchant best -
‘I remember what the doubters said when we first announced a
new bus for London – a replacement for the beloved Routemaster. They said I was
mad. The Labour Party said I was deranged. My opponents said I was a swivel-eyed
loon, or words to that effect. They said we were showing an arrant disregard
for health and safety, and that in any case, it would never be built.
Where is it, they used to sneer at me, as Sir Peter Hendy
and Transport for London began the necessarily lengthy process of procurement.
When’s the bus due, eh? And when the first prototype finally turned up in 2011,
the machine managed to conk out on the M1 (because someone had forgotten that a
diesel hybrid still needs to be filled with diesel). The sceptics laughed their
pants off.
So it gives me unbridled joy to inform you that the new bus
will shortly arrive en masse. A whole gleaming fleet of them is about to take
over Route 24, from Pimlico to Hampstead Heath; and in the next two years they
will cease to be a curiosity – a rare species of charismatic megafauna that you
might spot once in the course of a safari. They will be a glorious and regular
addition to London’s streetscape, as famous and as emblematic as the elephants
of the Serengeti, whose noble and domelike brows they faintly resemble.
When I went to Antrim last week, and saw dozens of them
being made in the new Wrightbus plant, I felt a sense of awe, and the deep
certainty that this was the most wonderful project I had ever been involved in.
It has clean, green hybrid technology. If the new bus fulfils the promise it
has shown in tests, we will be able to save so much on fuel that it will
actually come out cheaper than our current hybrid buses. With 600 of them on
the streets by 2016, they will make a significant reduction in nitrogen oxides
and particulates, and will help us to improve air quality in the city.
The bus is a masterpiece of design, conceived by Thomas
Heatherwick, the magician who created the Olympic cauldron. It helps to drive
employment throughout the UK – unlike the wretched bendy buses, which were made
in Germany. London’s buses are creating hundreds of jobs at the plants in
Northern Ireland, but it does not stop there. The engines come from Darlington,
the seats are made in Telford, the seat moquette in Huddersfield, the ramps are
from Hoddesdon and the “Treadmaster” flooring from Liskeard. Oh, and the
destination signs are from Manchester.
It is the embodiment of the point I often make, that
investment in London boosts the rest of the UK economy, directly and
indirectly. We have stimulated the very best of British technology, creating
jobs in this country, and yes, we are now looking to potential export markets.
All these features make the bus remarkable; but there is one
more thing about it – the best thing of all. This bus stands for freedom, and
choice, and personal responsibility. It not only fulfils a promise often made
to Londoners by bringing back conductors; it restores to the streets of London
the open platform at the rear – and in so doing, it restores the concept of a
reasonable risk.
We all remember the pleasure of the old Routemasters. It
wasn’t anything to do with the way their flanks heaved and throbbed like
wounded old warhorses. It wasn’t the boggler-boggler-boggler noise or the fumes
of diesel. It was the way you could sit on those banquette seats at the back,
high over the wheel arches, and watch the road passing you outside. And if the
bus got stuck in traffic, or at the lights, you knew that you weren’t a
prisoner. You were allowed to get on and off at will, provided the thing wasn’t
moving, and now that freedom and benefit will be restored.
Of course, you will have to be careful. You should look
around to make sure there aren’t any motorbikes or cycles approaching. But if
the road is clear and the traffic is stationary, and you want to hop off and do
some shopping – or if you have missed the bus at the stop, and you want to
scoot down the street to catch it up – then the option is there. You can hop on
and hop off, like the hop-on hop-off hoplites who were trained to leap from moving
chariots and then back on again.
Yes, of course there is a risk; but that risk is manageable;
and without it you have no opportunity to ascend or escape the bus if you want
to. It is, as far as I know, one of the few recent examples of a public policy
that actually gives back, to sentient and responsible adults, the chance to
take an extra risk in return for a specific reward.
We need to develop this thought, because I worry that in the
post-crisis world, we have become all too paranoid, too risk-averse. Yes, the
banks made grotesque errors, largely because they could not understand the
risks they were taking. But unless we allow businesses and banks to take
reasonable risks, they will never hit the jackpot at all.
Why is it that Britain hasn’t produced a giant like Google,
or Facebook, or Amazon? It is because such a business, in the UK, would not
have been given access to the capital required. We are more hostile to risk,
and, indeed, we are more hostile to reward. If you go to San Francisco, where so
many of these tech giants were born, you can see the most bizarre tram I have
ever set eyes on. People hang from it like gibbons as it swoops and clangs
through the streets. It would never be allowed in Europe. But the San Francisco
authorities evidently believe that Americans are more robust – more willing to
be free, more willing to make their own assessment of a reasonable risk.
If you look at the state of the eurozone, and you compare it
with the US economy, you can see the possible advantages of this approach. And
that is the point of the hop-on hop-off platform. In restoring a culture of
reasonable risk-taking, it is a platform for growth.’
Friday, May 17, 2013
Positive Leadership: What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work?
What motivates us to work?
Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn't just money. But it's not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn't just money. But it's not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose.
In this TED Talk, behavioural
economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our
unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work.
It's become increasingly obvious that the dismal science of
economics is not as firmly grounded in actual behaviour as was once supposed.
In "Predictably Irrational," Dan Ariely tells us why.
For more, see: http://blog.ted.com/2013/04/10/what-motivates-us-at-work-7-fascinating-studies-that-give-insights/
and http://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_ariely.html
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Positive Leadership: How Culture Supersedes Vision
René Carayol specialises in leadership and culture.
Drawing
from his own unique experiences on the boards of the biggest British and
American organisations; from Marks & Spencer and Pepsi to IPC Media and the
Inland Revenue, René has had the privilege of working closely with some of the
world's best leaders, including; Sir Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan and Colin
Powell.
In this talk, he reveals how culture supersedes vision and endures the most extraordinary situations.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Positive Leadership: Turning Pressure into an Asset
Pressure is nothing
more than the shadow of great opportunity.’ – Michael Johnson, US Olympic Gold
Medallist
Here are six things experienced leaders do that transform
pressure from a liability to an asset:
Know Thyself:
Leaders must know themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and where they
will and won’t compromise. When a leader is comfortable in their own skin they
won’t fear dissenting opinion and diversity of thought, they’ll encourage it.
Knowing who you are frees you to become a better thinker and a better leader.
Lead: A leader’s
job is to acquire and develop talent. The larger the organisation you lead, the
more your performance is dependent upon the talent of your team. The better the
talent, and the better you utilise talent, the less pressure you’ll feel. The
key to capacity, throughput, and scale is not found by doing – but by
developing others to do. Leaders who feel the least amount of pressure are
those who spend the most time acquiring and developing talent. Conversely,
leaders who feel the most pressure are those who feel they must do everything
themselves.
Keep It Simple:
Complexity creates pressure. The best leaders look to simplify everything they
can. Simplicity rarely equates to a lack of sophistication – it actually
demonstrates remarkable elegance. Simplicity drives understanding, which leads
to a certainty of execution. One truism you can count on is performance relives
pressure.
Get Alignment:
Great leaders strive for the following: one vision – one team – one agenda.
Organisations that have a shared purpose, common values, and aligned interests
are simply more productive than organisations that don’t. Alignment of values
and vision take the complexity out of decision-making, and removes the ambiguity
from the process of prioritisation. Leaders who have organisational alignment
feel less pressure than those who don’t.
Focus: Focused
leaders rarely feel external pressure. Unfocused leaders feel as if pressure is
coming at them from all directions. Focus affords leaders clarity of thought
that a cluttered mind will never realise. It’s not possible to lead an organisation
toward a better future when a leaders mind can’t see through the fog. An
organisation is never under greater pressure, or at greater risk, than when
leaders lose their focus.
Create Whitespace:
The best way to maintain focus is to make sure you’ve allowed for some
whitespace EVERY day. Any rubber band
stretched too tightly will eventually snap – there are no exceptions to this
rule. Leaders who don’t create time for quality thought and planning end-up
taking unnecessary short cuts and risks. They let pressure force them into
making bad decisions that a little whitespace could have prevented.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Positive Leadership: The Importance of Failing
The anatomy of a successful champion–in any field–doesn’t consist of 100% ‘perfection.'
There has never been an individual who has eased his or her way through a bountiful life with any struggles at all. To truly become a winner, one needs to step out of a comfort zone–and experience what people consider ‘failure’ at some point.
At Positive Leadership we don’t see anything as a failure. If you gave your all in something and were able to learn, it becomes a valuable learning experience, not a failure.
With great effort and great enthusiasm, any individual has the ability to succeed in any field. Focus on the things you can control and stay true to a keen vision of where you see yourself. In doing that, you’ll never fail.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Walt Disney was fired for “lacking imagination.” Oprah Winfrey was said to be “not fit for television.”
Remember, if you’ve never ‘failed,’ you’ve never tried anything new.
What will you become?
There has never been an individual who has eased his or her way through a bountiful life with any struggles at all. To truly become a winner, one needs to step out of a comfort zone–and experience what people consider ‘failure’ at some point.
At Positive Leadership we don’t see anything as a failure. If you gave your all in something and were able to learn, it becomes a valuable learning experience, not a failure.
With great effort and great enthusiasm, any individual has the ability to succeed in any field. Focus on the things you can control and stay true to a keen vision of where you see yourself. In doing that, you’ll never fail.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Walt Disney was fired for “lacking imagination.” Oprah Winfrey was said to be “not fit for television.”
Remember, if you’ve never ‘failed,’ you’ve never tried anything new.
What will you become?
Friday, May 10, 2013
Positive Leadership: The Meaning of Leadership Vision
The meaning of vision is not a license for dreamy fantasy or
overweening ambition.
It stands for the leader’s special responsibility:
- to see what is not visible to his or her people; to rise
above and survey the landscape
- to find ideas, resources and talent to feed into the
ensemble
- to help people understand the forces that carry them between
the past, the present and the future
- to see into people’s hearts and minds and imagine how they
best work together
- to direct, align and shape the enterprise to achieve
excellence.
This demands a mix of investigative and influencing skills.
The former may mean going under cover in your own organisation, or, at the
least, talking to people other than those who are closest to you and have a
good opinion of you. Leaders can be coached in what we call “decentering” –
seeing the world through others’ eyes – especially useful with one’s enemies!
The latter means techniques that enable the leader to clearly and coherently
shape the reality of his or her stakeholders: their beliefs, expectations,
wants and vision of the future.
The last
of these calls upon the most important tool in the leader’s repertoire – the
ability to create a credible and compelling narrative. This will have four
elements:
- Who am I and why I am here
- Who are we and what do we stand for
- Where are we going and why
- Why we must change.
These help people make sense of the world they inhabit, to
identify with the organisation’s central purpose, and to create positive
engagement.
But the most critical kernel
of vision is the first of the stories. This is the leader’s value proposition –
his or her narrative about their personal journey to now, the principles that
guide them, and the promises they make to their people for the future. This is
the real meaning of leadership vision.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Positive Leadership: Execution is Everything!
The Stanford Graduate School of Business View from the Top
Series hosted venture capitalist John Doerr in a question and answer session
where he helped enlighten students on such topics as start-ups, healthcare and
jobs in emerging markets.
Doerr, general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers, emphasised that "The best entrepreneurs are the ones who
really go the distance with their companies, who are always learning."
Doerr serves on boards in the areas of Internet technologies
and greentech, including Amyris, Bloom Energy, Essence Healthcare, Flipboard,
FloDesign Wind Turbines, Google, iControl, mCube, Renmatix and Quantumscape. He
also works with Groupon, Twitter and Square.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Positive Leadership: It's Possible
'PAIN IS TEMPORARY!
It may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year. But eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it will last forever. I dare you to take a little pain. I dare you. I dare you not to go home. Somebody said "I feel bad, I'm gonna go home." Go through it. You’re not going to die!
At the end of pain is success. You’re not going to die because you're feeling a little pain. I'm not eating like I eat at home. That's why you're going to go to the next level, because if you ate like you ate at home, you're going to remain a boy or a girl. It’s time to become men and women. But I'm exactly where I want to be because I got to commit my entire being to this thing. I got to breath it, sleep it, eat it.
Until you get there, you'll never be successful in life. But once you get there, I guarantee you the world is yours. So work hard and you can have whatever it is that you want.'
It may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year. But eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it will last forever. I dare you to take a little pain. I dare you. I dare you not to go home. Somebody said "I feel bad, I'm gonna go home." Go through it. You’re not going to die!
At the end of pain is success. You’re not going to die because you're feeling a little pain. I'm not eating like I eat at home. That's why you're going to go to the next level, because if you ate like you ate at home, you're going to remain a boy or a girl. It’s time to become men and women. But I'm exactly where I want to be because I got to commit my entire being to this thing. I got to breath it, sleep it, eat it.
Until you get there, you'll never be successful in life. But once you get there, I guarantee you the world is yours. So work hard and you can have whatever it is that you want.'
Monday, May 06, 2013
Positive Leadership: Advice for #Entreprenuers in Building a #VC Friendly Business Model
This excellent discussion with Stanford University Professor Haim Mendelson explores the
best approach for putting together a business model and how to use it for new
business development opportunities.
Learn why the business model is a blueprint for planning, and then building, new businesses that include startups or a new line of business within an established company.
Learn why the business model is a blueprint for planning, and then building, new businesses that include startups or a new line of business within an established company.
Friday, May 03, 2013
Positive Leadership: The Role of Sport in Facilitating Social Change
"Sport is one of the best tools for social change
because it is a large part of cultures around the world and reaches into every
socioeconomic class of society. If laws are put in place, the benefits will be
beyond measure. Sport helps develop self-esteem and confidence; improve
physical and mental well-being, serve as a medium of communication and empower
women to improve themselves and their communities."
Nawal El Moutawakel, 1984 Olympic gold medallist, Morocco
Thursday, May 02, 2013
Positive Leadership: Good Leadership and Good Performance - The Financial Facts
There is unequivocal evidence in every sector that there is
a strong relationship between leadership capability and performance.
Good
leadership leads to a good organisational climate and good organisational
climates lead, via improved staff satisfaction and loyalty, to sustainable,
high performing organisations.
The impact of good leadership on organisational performance
as measured by the business and commercial success is extremely well evidenced:
- A study in the Harvard Business Review (Bassi and McMurrer 2007) provides a strong link between leadership skills and the bottom line.
- The Institute for Strategic Change reports that the stock price of companies perceived to be well-led grew 900 per cent over 10 years versus 74 per cent for companies perceived to lack good leadership (2008).
- The Corporate Leadership Council estimates that employees working for good leaders put in 57 per cent more effort and are 87 per cent less likely to leave than those with poor leaders.
- The Hay Group study of 2012 demonstrated that the top 20 companies for leadership had a 36 times better shareholder return over a 5 year period than the companies with the poorest leadership.
- Murray Dalziel, Director of Liverpool Business School summarises: “There is incontrovertible evidence from the academic literature that leadership makes a difference. Across a wide range of industries about 15 per cent of the variance in performance can be directly attributed to CEO performance. This figure has been constant for over 25 years.”
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Positive Leadership: Winning Entrepreneurs
What are the most important characteristics of winning entrepreneurs?
They must have a strong desire to compete and win, an
intuitive understanding of marketplaces and how to serve them, and a deep
understanding of technology and how it can be used to serve marketplaces. Those
three things are fundamental. A fourth is high integrity and decent behavior.
If you don’t have that you will have a short run at success but you won’t make
it long term. Also, we have never met a successful entrepreneur who didn't have
zeal.