http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Don't Lose Faith - Find What You Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
Great Leaders Are Great Communicators
Anderson’s response brings to mind a book titled, “Jacked Up”, by former General Electric speechwriter, Bill Lane. In the book, Lane recalls that each of the 23 candidates in line at GE to succeed Jack Welch were considered “good to great” presenters. Anyone who seeks a position of leadership in today’s global economy should strive to improve the way they write, speak and present.
During job interviews, Richard Anderson says he’s listening for really good communication skills. “More and more, the ability to speak well and write is important. You know, writing is not something that is taught as strongly as it should be in the educational curriculum. So you’re looking for communication skills.”
Anderson doesn’t end there. He goes on to say “I think this communication point is getting more and more important. People really have to be able to handle the written and spoken word. And when I say written, I don’t mean PowerPoints. I don’t think PowerPoints help people think as clearly as they should because you don’t have to put a complete thought in place. You can just put a phrase with a bullet in front it. And it doesn’t have a subject, a verb and an object, so you aren’t expressing complete thoughts.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26corner.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=richard%20anderson&st=cse
Why Talent is Overrated
Here’s what we mean. Scientific research on great performance has shown persuasively that high abilities of all kinds are developed. They don’t occur naturally. The question of whether great leaders are born or made is settled: They’re made.
The key to this development is pushing people – or people pushing themselves – just beyond their current abilities, forcing them to do things that they can’t quite do. Companies that are famous for developing leaders - PepsiCo (PEP), Procter & Gamble (PG), General Electric (GE) - are continually moving managers into jobs that accomplish exactly that. But the process is slow and can accommodate only so many people at any time
The great thing about a financial crisis and a recession is that they offer everyone the opportunity to be stretched in their current jobs. Such CEOs as A.G. Lafley, ex of P&G and Jeff Immelt of GE have said that being forced to manage through crises earlier in their careers built their abilities so much that it was critical to their becoming CEOs—and that, in fact, they wouldn’t have become CEOs otherwise
Certain practices can make the experience especially productive. Coaching helps. Getting specific in your own mind about exactly which abilities you want to improve, and how, will turbocharge the results. But the main thing is continually trying things you can’t quite do. This is what makes you better. And doing it for a long time is what makes you great
And now, thanks to a bunch of subprime mortgages, you’re being handed a great big chance to get a whole lot better. Please grab it. You will, truly, be a better performer as a result.
For more on this fascinating subject, see this excellent FORTUNE video featuring the author of the book, Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
, Geoff Colvin:http://money.cnn.com/video/fortune/2008/10/20/fortune.colvin.talent.fortune/
How Should Leaders Manage Crisis and Resolve Disputes?
Many executives find themselves in a daily crisis management mode? Learning to make issue resolution a shared responsibility throughout the company is the key to changing this scenario.
A crisis is a turning point or a conflict that is emotionally volatile. How does a simple issue become a crisis that requires executive leadership action? The system of management in many organisations requires issues to be resolved by the senior most person. This need for a high level of control forces issues to bubble up to the top, developing into a crisis by the time they get there.
High control leadership cultures are crisis-centric ones. Not only is a crisis created out of a resolvable situation, but the crisis is allowed to develop to justify the high control in order to maintain the illusion of leadership. Yes, the illusion of leadership.
Effective leaders expand the leadership capacity of their organisation through the development of people. Training them in the attitudes and behaviours of leadership is part of the solution. Changing the system of issue resolution is also needed if the culture of crisis is to change.
Here are five principles to guide the development of a leadership system of issue resolution:
1. Issues should be resolved where they begin and by those who are empowered to resolve them.
This is the first and most important principle of issue resolution. The only exception to this principle is when a change in policy or strategic direction is required. Otherwise, the high-control executive has created a culture of disruption and division. If there is only one person who can save the day, it means no one else is allowed to do so. In effect, the system is designed to constantly make the executive look strong and able, and the rest of the company weak and needy. The system has to change. Issues should be resolved where they begin.
Ever had a misunderstanding with someone, and immediately, you knew it, and resolved the issue. You clarified your statement. Apologised for the misunderstanding. Reconciliation made. Issue resolved, and crisis avoided. This happens when the two or more parties to the issue take initiative to resolve it. This is the leadership capacity that every organisation needs from top to bottom.
Genuine leadership requires each person to take initiative in the three dimensions identified in the diagram above. An issue originates in either the Ideas, Relationship or Organisational Structure dimension, and is resolved by bringing all three of them together.
2. The manager or supervisor at the next highest level in the organisation is responsible for making sure that issues get resolved at their source.
Supervisory leaders need to understand that they are the company’s first line of defense against an issue becoming a crisis. The problem is that most supervisors are not trained to be leaders, but are trained to manage work processes. Leaders lead people. Managers manage processes. People need people who function as both leaders and managers.
3. Train middle managers and supervisors to identify and resolve issues as they arise.
If your supervisors and managers are not equipped to lead people through issue resolution, then you must train them to do so. Leadership training for middle managers and supervisors in many companies is viewed as a non-essential expense, and is cut when budgets are tight. This is short sighted, non-strategic and creates the conditions where issues become a crisis. Training the leaders from the middle of the company is an investment in a more adaptive workforce.
4. Issues should be resolved to enhance communication and coordination.
Issues are a function of the dynamic context seen in the diagram above. The Circle of Impact is a simple set of guides for assessment, problem-solving and planning that are best used in conversation. Here’s a real world example to illustrate.
A leadership team meets at 1pm every Wednesday. The members of the team arrive and the team leader, their boss, presents the agenda for their meeting. Week in and week out, the meeting is about her issues. The issues of the other members are rarely addressed. Team members express feelings of a lack of respect from their boss. Issues remain unresolved and poorly understood.
What is the issue here? Is it a relationship issue where the senior leader truly does not respect her team? Is it a lack of awareness that there is an issue? Is it a problem of poor communication or organisation of the weekly meeting?
Identifying the issue doesn’t resolve it. The team leader telling them she does respect them doesn’t resolve it. Vague promises of doing a better job of communicating doesn’t either. Changing the structure of the meeting to enhance communication and issue awareness is the solution.
The team makes a simple and strategic change in their meeting structure. Each team member submits agenda items for Wednesday’s meeting by 1pm on Monday. By 1pm on Tuesday, an agenda is distributed to the team so they know the topics to be discussed and how to be prepared to contribute.
The solution impacts the team beyond their initial expectations. Over several months, the team finds that issues begin to be resolved prior to the meeting. As their awareness of issues increases, communication improves, and decisions are made and implemented more effectively. Meetings are less issue oriented and more strategic as a result.
5. Senior leaders create an environment of confidence and personal responsibility by not resolving issues that should be resolved at their source, and supporting the parties in their issue resolution process.
Leaders create a culture of leadership with a system that validates personal responsibility and initiative. People gain confidence and accept the call to a higher level of participation and contribution when their decisions are supported by the company’s leadership.
A culture of leadership is not created by policy making alone. Leaders in the middle need to be trained to lead. They are the key to future strength of the business. Equip them to lead within their role and responsibilities, and they begin to equip the people who work with them to lead as well. Issues occur everyday. The crisis level of issues is minimised by developing responsibility for issue resolution throughout the organisation. As a result, developing a system of issue resolution as described here should be one of the key goals that executive leaders pursue.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Leadership in Education
'So maybe I was wrong. I used to consider health care our greatest national shame, considering that we spend twice as much on medical care as many European nations, yet American children are twice as likely to die before the age of 5 as Czech children — and American women are 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as Irish women.
Yet I’m coming to think that our No. 1 priority actually must be education. That makes the new fiscal stimulus package a landmark, for it takes a few wobbly steps toward reform and allocates more than $100 billion toward education.
That’s a hefty sum — by comparison, the Education Department’s entire discretionary budget for the year was $59 billion — and it will save America’s schools from the catastrophe that they were facing. A University of Washington study had calculated that the recession would lead to cuts of 574,000 school jobs without a stimulus.
“We dodged a bullet the size of a freight train,” notes Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust, an advocacy group in Washington.
So for those who oppose education spending in the stimulus, a question: Do you really believe that slashing half a million teaching jobs would be fine for the economy, for our children and for our future?
Education Secretary Arne Duncan describes the stimulus as a “staggering opportunity,” the kind that comes once in a lifetime. He argues: “We have to educate our way to a better economy, that’s the only way long term to get there.”
That’s exactly right, and it’s partly why I shifted my views of the relative importance of education and health. One of last year’s smartest books was “The Race Between Education and Technology,” by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, both Harvard professors. They offer a wealth of evidence to argue that America became the world’s leading nation largely because of its emphasis on mass education at a time when other countries educated only elites (often, only male elites).
They show that America’s educational edge created prosperity and equality alike — but that this edge was eclipsed in about the 1970s, and since then one country after another has surpassed us in education.
Perhaps we should have fought the “war on poverty” with schools — or, as we’ll see in a moment, with teachers.
Some education programs have done remarkably well in overcoming the pathologies of poverty. Children who went through the Perry Preschool program in Michigan, for example, were 25 percent less likely to drop out of high school years later than their peers in a control group, and committed half as many violent felonies. They were one-third less likely to become teenage parents or addicts, and half as likely to get abortions.
Likewise, the KIPP program, the subject of a fine book by Jay Mathews, has attracted rave reviews for schools that turn low-income students’ lives around.
There are legitimate questions about whether such programs are scalable and would succeed if introduced more broadly. But we do know that the existing national school system is broken, and that we’re not trying hard enough to fix it.
“We have a good sense from the data where there are big opportunities,” notes Douglas Staiger, an economist at Dartmouth College who studies education.
The hardest nut to crack is high schools — we don’t have a strong sense yet how to rescue them. But there’s a real excitement at what we are learning about K-8 education.
First, good teachers matter more than anything; they are astonishingly important. It turns out that having a great teacher is far more important than being in a small class, or going to a good school with a mediocre teacher. A Los Angeles study suggested that four consecutive years of having a teacher from the top 25 percent of the pool would erase the black-white testing gap.
Second, our methods to screen potential teachers, or determine which ones are good, don’t work. The latest Department of Education study, published this month, showed again that there is no correlation between teacher certification and teacher effectiveness. Particularly in lower grades, it also doesn’t seem to matter if a teacher has a graduate degree or went to a better college or had higher SATs.
The implication is that throwing money at a broken system won’t fix it, but that resources are necessary as part of a package that involves scrapping certification, measuring better through testing which teachers are effective, and then paying them significantly more — with special bonuses to those who teach in “bad” schools.
One of the greatest injustices is that America’s best teachers overwhelmingly teach America’s most privileged students. In contrast, the most disadvantaged students invariably get the least effective teachers, year after year — until they drop out.
This stimulus package offers a new hope that we may begin to reform our greatest national shame, education.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15kristof.html
Redefining Success
Coach Wooden wanted his players to be victors in life and not just on the court, so he treated them as an extended family and emphasized that winning was more than scoring. Indeed, most of his inspiring theories were born from conversations with his father, as a boy on their farm in Indiana. One that sums up his ideology quite well is his often quoted definition of success: "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best that you are capable of becoming."
In this talk, and with profound simplicity, Coach John Wooden redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA, quotes poetry and remembers his father's wisdom:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success.html
'Anticipating Mind' Leadership
Observing—search out confirming and non-confirming information about your world view
Reasoning—clearly explain why you are following a course of action
Imagining—visualise new ideas for your company's policies and practices
Challenging—question your organisation's assumptions and test their validity
Deciding—make or influence decisions that will propel action to progress
Learning—master the information you need to keep you moving forward
Enabling—offer the people around you the knowledge, means, and opportunities to progress
Reflecting—invest time thinking about trade-offs and the consequences of those trade-offs that result from your decisions.
Lessons in Life From Sport - Authentic Leadership
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFgtVK8AKkk
The Benefits of Writing a Blog
1. Writing helps us learn. A key component of the learning process is reflecting on what has happened to us to determine what to repeat, and what to change next time. Writing about our experiences can really help us in this reflection in powerful ways.
2. Writing clarifies our thinking. Ideas can swirl in our mind and we can think about something, but when we put the pen to paper or our fingers on a keyboard and put our thinking into words, we become much clearer and our thoughts become more real and more actionable.
3. Writing makes us smarter. If you take the first two lessons - writing helps us learn and clarifies our thinking; the fact that writing makes us smarter is obvious. As we write we discover new things and new ideas. The process of writing allows for learning and the words we write provide more learning too.
4. Writing is about the process, not about the reader. As an author, this isn't completely true - as the author writes this he is thinking about you as his reader, and trying to write as clearly and persuasively as he can. One reason many people don't write is that they don't want others to read it, or don't think anyone else would want to read it. So to sell you on the decision to write, please know that all of the benefits listed so far are about you and not about the reader. If you write in a journal or a on a secret hidden document on your computer, you will get the benefits regardless of your grammar, style or spelling. If your goal is to have others read what you write, great! But don't think writing has to be about others - the personal benefits are huge!
5. We all have something to write about. We all have 24 hours of day experiences each day. We all have a lifetime of memories, thoughts and ideas. Sorting, compiling, referencing and using them is plenty of fodder for the type of writing that most of us can and need to do.
6. Writing is a habit. Most people when asked whether they would think of starting a blog say - I don't know what to write (see #5) or, I don't have time to write. If you believe in the benefits, you will find time to write. For all of the reasons listed above, (and a whole lot more), writing is important. And like anything important in our lives, we can make it a habit.
And lastly, this post isn't just about writing. The last lesson is to think about the skills that really matter most. Often the skills we think are most important or valuable, really aren't. People want to get better at their work and make assumptions as to the best ways to do that. Look beyond the technical aspects of your work, look deeper. Ask yourself; 'what are the underlying skills that help me really achieve my goals?' Another way to figure this out is to ask smart people who have been where you want to go - find a mentor and ask them.
Writing makes you a better business person and a better human being.
Using College Sport to Build Leadership
"On the field, I want our kids to play smart," he said. "I want them to be mentally and physically tough so they can win in the fourth quarter. I believe in hard work and the harder you work, the better your chances of success. I will push them to the limit. I won't win a popularity contest at times, but we're not in it for a popularity contest. My job is to get the best out of them. "Ultimately, the game comes down to the players. If you don't have great players, you aren't going to win many games."
Kill's high expectations for his student-athletes extend from the football field to the classroom, the community and beyond. "I expect our student-athletes to represent our school and our community on and off the field," Kill said. "One of the most important things to me is how they do in life after they leave the program. I firmly believe that what we do here and how we drive kids over the four or five years will help them down the road." One of the ways Kill and his staff "drive kids" is the Warrior Elite program. Every year, the roster is split into groups who then compete and earn points for everything from academic success to participation in community service activities to on-the-field effort and weight room benchmarks. The program is one more way that Kill and his staff teach teamwork and build leadership. They believe that football is the perfect vehicle to impart skills that have life-long benefits. "Football is such a challenge because you have to get everybody on the same page in a huge organization," Kill said. "Then to get everybody to execute on a given play is difficult. Most college athletes are playing for four or five years and they are very competitive, and you had better be (competitive) when you go out into the real world or you can get swallowed. Competing in athletics gives you an edge."
Leadership Lessons from The New York Times
Keep it simple. Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, believes in keeping things simple. “[W]e can describe our complete strategy in 10 words. And that makes it very easy to get everybody energized and aligned.” Castro-Wright keeps things simple for himself by managing his personal to-do list every evening. “My pa doesn’t see them until early in the morning, but that sets the stage for the following day.”
Get out of your office. Terry Lundgren, CEO of Macy’s, hits the road two or three days per week. Much of that road time is spent visiting stores and setting up impromptu meetings with store managers by calling them on their mobile phones when he’s in their store. Lundgren’s style is not to play “ gotcha ya” but to educate himself. “I learn as much by going through a store as anything I do, much more than sitting in my office at my computer or holding a big meeting here, because I’m learning and seeing exactly what our customer is seeing.”
Ask good questions. Daniel Amos, CEO of Aflac, is a relentless questioner. “I think most people will tell you that I tend to be the inquisitor who will ask a million questions.” But such questions are not intended, as Amos explains to cut off debate; they are intended to challenge people to think for themselves. “It’s O.K. for you to tell me that you don’t know the answer and get back to me.” Amos also knows himself. “I can get so preoccupied that I don’t see anybody. I can absolutely walk through a room and never see anybody because my mind is so focused.” At the same time, Amos realizes that “if you don’t have pretty good people skills; you’re not going to be head of a department.”
Charisma is overrated. Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach for America, believes that charisma is not essential to a leader’s ability to do his job. Her company hires teachers to serve in some of the most disadvantaged communities in America. “Some of the most successful teachers are some of the least charismatic… But they have a gift of figuring out what motivates people.” As every leader knows, translating influence into action through motivation is essential to getting things done right.
Leadership is an act. Clarence Otis, Jr., the CEO of Darden Restaurants with a background in finance and law, leverages his experience on the stage to lead more effectively. “The thing that prepared me most… was theater… [It’s] the starkest lesson in how reliant you are on others, because you are there in front of an audience.” As a senior leaders Otis believes “[Y]ou’ve got to give people the chance to speak,” but understand that everyone does not express themselves in the same ways so it is necessary to give less outspoken, more reflective people “space for them to fill.”
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
The common thread, according to Simon Sinek, is that they all start with why. This simple question has the power to inspire others to achieve extraordinary things.
Any organisation can explain what it does; some can explain how; but very few can clearly articulate why. Why do we offer these particular products or services? Why do our customers choose us? Why do our employees stay (or leave)? Once you have those answers, teams get stronger, the mission clicks into place, and the path ahead becomes much clearer.
Starting with why is the key to everything from putting a man on the moon to launching the iPod. Drawing on a wide range of fascinating examples, Sinek shows readers how to apply why to their culture, hiring decisions, product development, sales, marketing, and many other challenges. Some naturally think this way, but Sinek proves that anyone can learn how.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
offers an unconventional perspective that explains WHY some people and organisations are more innovative, more profitable, command greater loyalties from customers and employees alike and, most importantly, are able to repeat their success over and over. These are not the one hit wonders. These are the ones who change the course of industries or even society. Because it’s all based on how people think and act, this unique view of the world has application in big business and small business, in politics and non-profit. Though some people have a natural ability to start with WHY, this book offers compelling evidence that, with a little discipline, anyone can learn how to do it.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Getting To The Top
Let go of self-doubt. An insecure executive makes a lousy leader. Put confidence in your presence and purpose—even if it doesn’t come naturally at first.
Let go of running flat-out until you crash. Working 24/7 may have made you a superstar. Keep it up at the top—where the expectations are enormous—and you’ll burn out. Break the cycle by building time for recovery and renewal into your schedule.
Let go of one-size-fits-all communication. Customise every message for the group and goals at hand. Less is more, so become a master of the headline.
Let go of self-reliance. Replace “me” with “we.” You may have advanced on your own, but now you’re only as good as your team.
Let go of the urge to tell “how.” No more micromanaging. Set the agenda for what gets done and leave the how to your team.
Let go of responsibility. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Responsibility for a few results belongs to your team. Accountability for many results belongs to you.
Let go of only looking up and down. There’s more to consider than what’s up with the boss or what’s going down with the subordinates. Look left and right, too. Partnerships with peers are key to success.
Let go of an inside-out view. An internal perspective may have served you in the past, but not now. Lead with an outside-in view by understanding the issues in the external environment.
Let go of the small footprint. Your days of being “low-profile” are over. At the top, you act and speak on behalf of your entire company. Mind your manners—and your messages.
You Can't Manage People - You Can Only Manage Their Environment
You can't motivate other people: While there are many leaders who think they are motivational or inspirational, the word "motivation" comes from the root word "motive," so motivation is what moves people to action. The drive or energy to do something can only come from within the person. People only do what they want to do or choose to do. The question for leaders is not, "How can I motivate people?" The question is, "How can I help people be self motivated to do the right things?"
All people are motivated: You may be thinking, 'I know some people who aren't motivated'. Well, some people are motivated to do absolutely nothing and some are motivated to do just enough to keep their jobs. Others are motivated to do the opposite of what you want them to do. The reality is, everyone is motivated to do exactly what they are doing right now... that is why they are doing it.
You can create an environment where people are motivated to perform at their best: This should be the first lesson in Leadership 101. The key to getting great performance from employees is to create a great work environment. Unfortunately, many managers believe that the key to great results is to control people, and in the process they create an environment that kills creativity, passion, and performance.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
20 Questions to Ask Other Leaders
1.Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe some one who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?
2.What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organisation?
3.As an organisation gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening?
4.How do you encourage creative thinking within your organisation?
5.Where do the great ideas come from in your organisation?
6.Which is most important to your organisation—mission, core values or vision?
7.How do you or other leaders in your organisation communicate the “core values”?
8.How do you encourage others in your organisation to communicate the “core values”?
9.Do you set aside specific times to cast vision to your employees and other leaders?
10.How do you ensure the your organisation and its activities are aligned with your “core values”?
11.How do you help a new employee understand the culture of your organisation?
12.When faced with two equally-qualified candidates, how do you determine whom to hire?
13.What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?
14.What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?
15.What is one mistake you witness leaders making more frequently than others?
16.What is the one behaviour or trait that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?
17.Can you explain the impact, if any, that social networking and Web 2.0 has made on your organisation or you personally?
18.What are a few resources you would recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better leader?
19.What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
20.What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?
What Wayne Gretzky Can Teach Us About Leadership
Canadian ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky defined a great hockey player as a person who knows to skate where the puck is going to be. That can define great leadership as well. That ability to "see" where things are going is important. And in business, unlike in sports, you have the additional advantage of being able to DECIDE where things are going.
The power of goals to influence behaviour has been proven so many times in so many ways. The key take-away is that as you look ahead at the final quarter of 2009, it is more important to create challenging and exciting goals that your staff can rally around than it is to lament what has already happened. Move from the past into the future. Go to where the puck is going to be. It's about you being opportunistic about the future. Leadership has many burdens. It has many joys as well.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Applied Materials CEO's best advice: 'The Buck Stops Here'
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/09/16/applied-materials-ceos-best-advice-the-buck-stops-here/).
'Before I joined Applied Materials, I worked at Intel for two decades. I recall a session with Andy Grove. It was 1984, and Grove was talking about Intel culture to a group of new employees who were coming in at a senior level. I was running Fab 1, a Santa Clara factory that made chips.
In his talk Grove advised us to always assume it's your responsibility. By that he meant to take on a job, even if it wasn't yours. That's a general thought, but it creates specific action and works across almost any situation, from picking up garbage on the floor to a new product idea.
If you automatically assume it's your responsibility and do something about it, that makes the company better. Those who can recognize that are the ones who end up being more successful.'
Mike's greatest tips:
Engage your audience. When talking to a group, give the audience a challenge or an objective. It makes the presentation much more memorable.
Stay connected. I read every one of my e-mails. There are a lot of mechanisms to isolate you as CEO. You have to ensure you're finding out what's really going on with employees.
Get others involved early. People are a lot more motivated to execute the things they have to do if they're part of the planning and strategy. Execution is often grinding and hard, so make employees part of the process.
Recognize good work. If I think someone has really done a good job, I'll send a personal note to say it's appreciated. It doesn't matter to me what layer in the company they are.
Know why you're meeting. You need everyone to understand what they're trying to accomplish in a meeting. Is the meeting a communication meeting, or a decision-making meeting? Those things ought to be clear upfront.
Streamline your schedule. Prioritize every day. I focus on three things: financial goals, new-product goals, and people goals.
Balance your risk. You want to encourage people to be willing to take risks. Since I consider myself a risk taker, I like to have a CFO who's much more conservative than I am. We have a good balance.
Ten Principles for Leadership Communication
http://www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/NA/en-US/KnowledgeCenter/ArticlesReports/ArticleDetail.aspx?cid=1642
And most important of all - choose front line managers for their communication skills. Front line managers have the greatest influence over an employee's engagement. Managers who are good communicators get more from their direct reports than managers whose strong skills lie elsewhere. Managers who are good communicators are the insurance policy for keeping the best workers happy.
Engagement is Not Enough - The Passion Pyramid
Your attitudes will be at their highest when the needs that are most important to you are being fully satisfied by your organisation, manager, or team. For the opportunity to self evaluate, see -
http://www.ictusdev.net/ayers/pyramid.cgi
Conversations with Global Leaders
Q: What do you think are the most significant lessons you’ve learned about managing, and particularly managing change and adapting? And what do you think are some of the advances, if there have been any, in the art and science of management that really register for you?
Dan Vasella: I would say: number one, you never can do it alone. So you’re also dependent on many others. But at the same time, you should not be shy about standing for what you believe. And in the long term, one of the conclusions I have drawn is you may not please all the time. But the fact that people say, “What he says he really believes,” I think is very important. And I believe you have to be first of all very respectful of people and, I would say, the broader environment too. The respect means one needs to be also very direct and tough when appropriate, because it’s an expression of respect. And it’s often not done because people are afraid. They are afraid. It’s not that they want to be particularly nice or care so much about the feelings of the other. It’s much more that they are afraid to confront with the other realities and then the response of it.
So you have to be able to be very tough and very supportive, if supportive is needed. And you have to give others room. But that doesn’t mean you abdicate authority, because you have been entrusted with authority if you lead something and then you have to exert it. You can not do as if you would not be in charge.
And some people will tell you, “Don’t get involved in this,” or, “This is too detailed,” and I think that’s wrong. You should understand what you are managing and what you’re leading. You should know the key facts. And you should know the people and then know when you let them totally do [it] and you can go to bed, close both eyes, and sleep deeply and well, and you know things are being really done extremely well—and maybe better than you could do it. And when do you have to say, “No. This is not sounding right. It’s not smelling right. And here, I want to understand. And I go deep in detail.”
And I think these give a certain tension also in the organization because they don’t exactly know when is he going to go deep or not. And some people will say, “Well, that’s unpredictability.” And that’s very negative. You should be predictable. And if unpredictability is predicable, it’s also a kind of a pattern which people will know.
If you’re fair and fact based when you intervene, it’s not a problem, because it’s all something which you will elaborate then maybe debate—because, very often, there’s not one right answer but two or three, and you have to choose. And I enjoy choosing together, after having had a kind of a discussion.
Q: Are there tools that you have found that have made this easier than it was 10 or 15 years ago? Or is pretty much the same tough thing?
Dan Vasella: No. My evolution and learnings have been that, in the beginning, I have tried to read, listen, assimilate massively, and then really to practice, and over time to internalize certain things. And others you forget. And so with the approach we have taken, continuous learning is crucial. We have also, with Harvard Business School, regular seminars where the top team goes—I go too. I sit in on the bench and go through the course.
And the question is, when do you become idiosyncratic? How do you get new ideas? How to rejuvenate? And at the same time, it’s a fact of life that you get older. And you have young people. And they are again with more energy, more skills, different skills. Then you need to give them room, and you need to enjoy seeing others grow.
So I think what you do [at age] 40 is different than what you do with [at age] 50 or 60. And so the styles also evolve. You asked about new management techniques, and I would say I have rather the opposite reaction. I go back and I read more in Peter Drucker’s books than on the newest kind of monolithic theme, because what we have watched and observed—and I know you know this in and out—we regularly have one theme which is blown up to a book, a new paradigm. But, frankly, it is just one element which has been specifically well investigated and then, you know, exposed and sold, but it always has been present. So if you go back to the roots, I think you see that most has been said and written.
For the full interview, see -
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Governance/Leadership/McKinsey_conversations_with_global_leaders_Dan_Vasella_of_Novartis_2401
Why Smart Chief Executives Make Strange Decisions
Here is an excellent article which should make every ceo stop and think again about the process he or she goes through when making key business decisions:
http://www.chiefexecutive.net/ME2/Audiences/Segments/Publications/Print.asp?Module=Publications::Article&id=218917E510A94FE48D3BA14927A8C915
Cassel has spent years preparing for leading role
Cassel was drafted by the New England Patriots in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He became the Patriots' starting quarterback in Week 1 of the 2008 season after then reigning NFL MVP Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury. According to ESPN research, he is the only known quarterback in NFL history to start an NFL game as quarterback without ever starting at quarterback at college. In his first season as a starter, Cassel became only the fifth NFL quarterback to have passed for more than 400 yards in consecutive games, and the first since the NFL-AFL merger with 60 rushing yards in the same game.
In February 2009, the Patriots used their franchise tag on Cassel, extending him a one-year contract worth over $14 million, the largest one-year contract for an offensive player in NFL history. Later that offseason, the Patriots made a trade which sent Cassel to the Chiefs, who signed him to a six-year, $63 million contract in July 2009.
For more on this amazing story of determination and perseverance to succeed see:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=3583499
Controlling the Controllables When Under Pressure
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125442050408456947.html?mod=dist_smartbrief
The approach — prepare relentlessly, concentrate on what you can control, stick to your routine, don't get sucked into surrounding hoopla, and focus on what you are doing in the moment rather than on the outcome — will serve you well in the most important moments of your career.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Welcome to the Positive Leadership Limited Blog
Positive Leadership Limited is a strategic leadership consulting firm based in Scotland, which has been established to serve clients located principally in the UK and USA. We deliver advisory and business consulting services which assist the leaders of organisations facing change identify, develop and implement strategies designed to maximise the positive financial and human impact of such high pressure events; and which help organisations develop the leaders of today and tomorrow.
At Positive Leadership Limited, we believe that leaders must deliver both tangible and intangible value to key stakeholders. Leaders must deliver the promises the company makes to employees, customers and investors. We believe that an outside-in perspective, linking customer expectations with employee and leader behaviour, is fundamental to high performance. The integration of theory, applied research and practice is critical to effective interventions and a cornerstone of our advice. All of our work focuses on shared outcomes rather than activities. We help organisations deliver direct value in the form of improved profitability, productivity, quality and customer delight. We shape the intellectual agenda for leadership practices. We combine the insights and knowledge of client leaders with our expertise in order to deliver a unique experience for each client. Whether delivering advisory or consulting services, we collaborate with our clients to make our work interesting, exciting, and relevant. Our advisory and consulting services include: leadership advice in the areas of business strategy, M&A, capital raising, talent development and achieving peak performance under pressure; and leadership consulting in the areas of coaching, mentoring, training, public speaking and writing.
We help leaders excel under pressure.
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