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.
On paper, William Johnson had the perfect background to run H.J. Heinz, the $10 billion food company. He had worked as a marketer in the company's flagship ketchup business, then orchestrated turnarounds at its pet-food and StarKist divisions. But there's really no preparation for what Johnson, CEO since 1998, has had to manage through recently: a high-profile proxy fight with activist shareholder Nelson Peltz, followed by a punishing global recession.
In a recent interview with Newsweek chairman Richard M. Smith, Johnson talks about how his view of leadership has evolved during a long stint in the corner office. Edited excerpts -
'After more than 10 years as a CEO, are you a better leader? There's no comparison. I started out under the assumption that what got me to the position of CEO would work when I became CEO, and that is running the business and execution. That's not my job as CEO. My job is to lead the people and manage the process. It took me a couple of years to learn that, and [when I did] I stepped back from the operations of the company and really began to focus on leadership, on having the right people in the right place, and on making sure people were properly motivated, incentivised, and directed.
Your dad was a longtime NFL coach. What did you learn from being a coach's son? It's a very black-and-white upbringing: you win, everybody's happy; you lose, no one's happy. I learned to avoid the peaks and valleys—you're going to have days you win, days you lose, and you have to manage them the same.
In 2006 Heinz came under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz. How did you respond to that? It created a sense of urgency that we need to change faster ... It also helped me understand leadership, because it was a situation where we had to [deal with both] the shareholder battle going on and keeping the company operating. It was a process that opened my eyes, and Nelson and I are very good friends now. I talk to Nelson frequently, more at my instigation than his.'
'AUGUSTA, Ga. — The beautiful thing about golf is that, in the end, it is all about what you have to give. You can’t wait for a pitcher to hang a curveball. You don’t look for your opponent to drop his left. You don’t hope for a defender to fall for a fake left. You can’t take advantage of second serves. No, it's just you and the golf course and the possibilities.
Phil Mickelson's ball rested on top of the pine straw behind a tree at the 13th hole in Sunday’s final round of the Masters. He was facing his second shot, and he saw an opening. That's a gift of Mickelson's, of course: His ability to see clearings where others see traffic jams. That's also a weakness. Sometimes there really are traffic jams.
Mickelson loved his lie. His ball was resting right on top of the straw, looking pretty, like it was pleading: "Come on Phil. Go for it." Good lies can be an illusion, of course. It was a good lie that inspired Jean van de Velde to try a crazy second shot on the final hole of the 1999 British Open. He hit that ball into the stands and it bounced back into a valley of death and he lost a tournament that he had won. Golfers do believe that, with good lies, anything is possible.
Mickelson looked at his opening again. It was maybe four feet wide, plenty wide enough, if he hit it good. But could he count on hitting the ball good? This was the back nine at Augusta. He was leading the Masters by two shots. The air was getting thin. And, no matter how good the lie looked, his ball was on pine straw. And there was a giant tree in front of him and another tree not too far to the left. And there was water in front of the green. And it was 187 yards to carry over the water. And ...
Mickelson could have laid up, of course. That was the percentage play, or at least the television announcer percentage play. Television announcers love lay-ups when things are looking tricky. If Mickelson had laid up, well, the television announcers would have sung his praises, talked about how smart a decision it was, how mature a decision it was, how the right way to win the Masters is to smother those gambling instincts and make the percentage play, and it's definitely the percentage play to lay up from 209 yards out when your ball is on pine needles and there's a gigantic tree in front you.
Then again, like Fast Eddie Felson said in The Hustler: “Percentage players die broke too.”
Phil Mickelson decided to go for it. He is 39 years old, fast approaching 40. He has won major championships, and he has lost major championships, and over the years he has learned to pick the moment. This was his moment. This was his time to win the Masters. This was the time to hit the shot. He had to go, right? He's Phil Mickelson. It's in his nature.
People have always talked about how many more tournaments Mickelson might have won had he just pulled back a little, played things a little safer. People point to Winged Foot in 2006. On the last hole of the U.S. Open, Mickelson needed a par to win. He hit his driver because he can't help himself, and he hit his second shot into a tree because he saw an opening, and he double bogeyed the hole and lost the U.S. Open. He confirmed the general consensus afterward when he said, “I am such an idiot.”
But would he really have won more if he played it safe? Is it ever really that simple? All his life, Phil Mickelson has had this talent for making golf balls do remarkable things, for making them pop over trees and skid under branches and turn around bushes and roll up to the cup like a car pulling into a driveway. And it's not quite fair to call it “talent” like it was something he was born doing—certainly he was born with touch, but he honed his brilliance. He hit those crazy trick shots again and again until they felt a part of him. After all that work, all that practice, could Phil Mickelson really win by ignoring the openings he saw? Could he really win by smothering his talents? Could he really win more by playing it safe? Could he really win by being less like himself?
This is Mickelson. Sure, he always could play smarter. Of course, he always could pull back just a little. But the beautiful thing about golf is that, in the end, it's all about what you have to give. This is what Phil Mickelson has to give. He saw the opening, he saw the flagstick, and he had to hit the shot. He set up with 6-iron and steadied himself, then hit the shot just to the left of the tree and watched it fly right at the flag, watched it clear the creek, watched it settle three feet from the hole. And then, he listened happily to the roar that sounded like it would never quiet.
“It's really one of the few shots that only Phil could pull off,” his playing partner and main foil on Sunday Lee Westwood would say.
Mickelson missed the eagle putt, which does take a little away from the success of the shot. But in the end, it wasn't the success of the shot that mattered. It was the power. Westwood was steady on Sunday (“Percentage players die broke too”), Anthony Kim blazed up the back nine, and Tiger Woods had a crazy day of brilliance and hideousness. But nobody was going to beat Phil Mickelson, not on this day, not after he hit that shot.
He dropped the birdie on 13. He made two more birdies in the last six holes. He won the Masters by three shots. And as he walked off the 18th green, he saw his wife Amy. Phil was not sure that Amy would make it to the tournament. She has been battling breast cancer, and the medicines make her feel tired and weak. She was there. They hugged for a long time. When it ended, everyone wanted Mickelson to talk about the shot at 13, a shot that will hang in the gallery of great moments at the Masters. But the truth is, he didn't really have a lot to say about it. He saw the opening. He trusted his talent. He made the shot. That's golf.
“I kept saying that if I trust my swing, I'll pull it off,” is how he explained it.
Then someone asked Mickelson a great question: to explain the difference between a great shot and a smart shot. It was a great question because in many ways, Phil Mickelson's whole golfing career has rested somewhere between great and smart. “I don't know,” Mickelson said. “I mean a great shot is when you pull it off. A smart shot is when you don't have the guts to try it.”
Yes, that answer pretty much sums up Phil Mickelson. Is it the right answer? Well, some days it is and some days it isn't. It's the right answer when the guy saying it is wearing a green jacket.'
By Joe Posnanski, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated
We remember wartime prime ministers and presidents better than peacetime leaders, and the same is true for company executives.
Organisational leadership matters most during a period of stress and uncertainty.
This conclusion emerges from a 1996 study of 48 firms among the Fortune 500 largest U.S. manufacturers.
Wharton Professor Robert J. House and colleagues asked two direct subordinates of each of the firm's chief executives to assess the extent to which the CEO...
is a visionary
shows strong confidence in self and others
communicates high performance expectations and standards
personally exemplifies the firm's vision, values, and standards
demonstrates personal sacrifice, determination, persistence, and courage.
The researchers also assessed the extent to which the firms face environments that are dynamic, risky, and uncertain.
Taking into account a company's size, sector, and other factors, they find that these CEO leadership qualities make a significant difference in the firm's net profit margins when the company is facing a highly uncertain environment. When the firm is not so challenged, however, such leadership qualities make far less of a difference.
Several practical implications follow:
Your leadership matters most when it is least clear what course you should follow. The decisions and actions of those above, beside, and below you also matter most when the organisation is facing intensified competition or requires strategic redirection. Yet these are the very moments when developing leadership is least practical.
Periods of normalcy -- when strategies are working and performance is strong -- are therefore those when the need for leadership development is least evident but best achieved.
Source: David A. Waldman, Gabriel G. Ramirez, and Robert J. House, "CEO Charisma and Profitability: Under Conditions of Perceived Environmental Certainty and Uncertainty," 1996.
There's lots of interesting advice – quite a mixed bag – and some of the nuggets include:
Collect visual memories of moments when you were incredibly happy.
Start an old-fashioned (hand-written) correspondence with a friend.
Surround yourself with things that smell like green apple or cucumber.
Carry yourself more erect. You can improve your outlook and confidence simply by improving your posture.
Forget the brown rice sushi. The Japanese are some of the most long-lived people on the planet, and they only eat white rice.
We each develop our own strategies for preventing and relieving stress and promoting joy and contentment in our lives. The key is the idea of work / life integration. This is different to work / life balance that is so often talked about – the notion that happiness depends on making a series of trade-offs: home versus office, work versus family. This approach of sacrifice and subtraction is all wrong. An alternative philosophy is to bring each aspect of your daily life together into a satisfying whole. If you are happy in your personal life, work sits lighter on your shoulders; if work is stimulating and enjoyable, that will happily infect your life outside the office.
One way to achieve work / life integration is to be diligent about your happiness. Think about what brings happiness to your life, and make time for it. Plan for it and prioritise. Treat time to breathe and to enjoy life as vital and urgent priorities. Don't relegate or postpone. Your life – and work – will suffer if you do.
People have been wondering who sang One Shining Moment at the end of the 2010 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game. The honour went to Grammy award winner Jennifer Hudson.
Hudson, who is the first female to sing the song, joins an impressive cast of past singers who have recorded the song, including Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass.
“This is the biggest honour to be the first woman to record ‘One Shining Moment,’” Hudson said in a statement. “I am so excited to be singing such a great song behind the likes of Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass. The song inspires you. It moves you. It motivates you and helps you reach that goal and that dream.”
One Shining Moment is an inspirational song written by David Barrett about the Men’s College Basketball Championship (at the end of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament). One Shining Moment is traditionally played at the end of CBS Sports’ coverage of the championship game of the tournament. The song is played as the winning team’s players cut down the nets, to a montage of highlights from the tournament.
Barrett, a singer/songwriter from Michigan, wrote the song after seeing Larry Bird star for Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA tournament. In 1986, he passed the song along to high school friend Armen Keteyian, an investigative journalist for CBS Sports and, at that time, Sports Illustrated, who in turn passed it to CBS Sports Creative Director Doug Towey. However, Towey originally planned to debut the song not after a basketball game, but after a football game, Super Bowl XXI. It was to have been the postgame montage from that contest, but CBS ran past the expected airtime and had a primetime show to debut in the next time slot, so the montage was cancelled. CBS then asked Barrett for use of the song after the 1987 NCAA championship game, in which Indiana beat Syracuse. Towey decided to use "One Shining Moment" to close CBS' coverage of the Tournament. The positive public response led to it becoming an annual feature. It has been used to end CBS' coverage ever since.
The first verse is about inspiration and hard work. The second verse deals with adversity, accompanied by highlights of injured players and missed shots. The bridge includes lines such as "Feel the beat of your heart", often shown with players thumping their chests, and "Feel the wind in your face", with video of drives towards the basket.
Listen to Jennifer Hudson’s One Shining Moment rendition below:
Witnessing the commitment, focus, fortitude and performance of the world’s best athletes competing in the recent Winter Olympics and Paralympics was inspiring. Athletes train their minds and psyche as well as their bodies so they can be the best in the world. So what can the business world take away from sports psychology to apply to developing winning business strategies, particularly in a still challenging economic environment?
The field of sports psychology recognises that succeeding requires a holistic approach of mind, body and spirit. Controlling emotions and gaining self-confidence are as important as game strategy, muscle building and skill.
Here are some of the techniques used in sports psychology and examples of how these can be applied in a business setting:
Goal setting
Writing down a goal and referring to it daily re-enforces the goal so it’s more likely to be accomplished. Repeating it out loud daily and having it at the top of one’s mind engages the subconscious mind in finding ways to achieve the goal. Effective goal setting in sports as well as in a business context includes developing skills for achieving results, identifying target dates for attaining goals, identifying goal-achievement strategies, and regular evaluation of the goal. Goal setting, while a left-brain activity, is closely linked with right brain activities, such as emotions, patience, optimism and learning to overcome obstacles.
Visualisation
Imagination plays an important role in achieving a vision and realising one’s dreams. Visualising success through imagery is one of the techniques athletes use to get them into a state of peak performance. This puts the athlete into a relaxed state, enhances mental preparation and helps manage anxiety. An effective application of visualisation in business is with sales staff. Perhaps more than any other field, sales requires a strong positive mindset.
Positive thinking
Your inner dialogue affects self-confidence and your ability to deal constructively with obstacles. Creating a positive mindset requires positive thoughts and self-talk. This includes recognising negative or irrelevant thoughts, identifying the thoughts that are sabotaging, or envision failure and catastrophe, and replacing them with affirmative and positive thoughts. In a business environment, these techniques are as useful for managers trying to build confidence in a work-group, as they are for individuals. By focusing on progress already made, keeping feedback constructive and instilling confidence, a team or individual magnifies their chances of achieving their goals.
Concentration
Being able to focus energy and awareness helps athletes maintain mental intensity and concentrate on doing their best. The ability to block distractions; whether from a crowd or other competitors is an important advantage for maintaining the steely mental discipline required for achieving peak performance. It also requires an ability to stay focused and to re-focus in spite of setbacks. (Such as the other team scoring.) In a business setting, applying this technique involves creating an environment that minimises distractions so that staff can concentrate on their work. It can also help you to focus on your goal despite downbeat news about the economy, or temporary setbacks in landing the latest contract, or job.
How you lead is just as important as what you are doing. That underlying belief can make the difference between success and failure in a complex, changing world.
CEOs who understand the importance of a leadership strategy make explicit the kind of leadership they need to achieve the business strategy. To set their leadership strategy, they first examine the key drivers of the business for implications for leadership.
Key drivers are few in number and help you understand what is absolutely essential for the organisation to accomplish. They are not detailed strategies; instead, they are core decisions about what the organisation must do.
Key drivers can be identified by examining each business strategy or initiative and asking a few fundamental questions:
•Is this an organisational capability that is absolutely vital? Could something else be more essential in causing the vision/mission to happen?
•What is most important to competitive success and mission completion?
•Is this something that the organisation is positioned to do better than its competitors?
•Will doing this well translate directly into continued or future success?
•Would not doing this well cause the organisation to suffer?
Being explicit about what drives your business, and knowing how to create a leadership strategy that brings that to life is what separates companies in the same market.
‘AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - Scandal-hit Tiger Woods has failed to live up to expectations as a role model, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne said on Wednesday.
In an unexpected departure from the southern reserve Payne usually displays at his pre-U.S. Masters news conferences, he said one of the world's most marketable sportsmen would be judged in the future by the sincerity of his efforts to change.
"Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children," said Payne.
"It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here, it is the fact he disappointed all of us and more importantly our kids and our grand kids."
The disgraced Woods is returning to professional golf this week after a break of nearly five months, following startling revelations he had had a string of extra-marital affairs.
"Is there a way forward? I hope yes," Payne said. "I think yes. But certainly his future will never again be measured only by his performance against par but measured by the sincerity of his efforts to change.
"I hope he now realises that every kid he passes on the course wants his swing but would settle for his smile."
World number one Woods, whose golfing dominance has placed him in the pantheon of sporting greats since he turned professional in 1996, had his squeaky-clean image ripped apart after he crashed his car in the middle of the night in November.
In a highly anticipated news conference at Augusta on Monday, he took full responsibility for the marital infidelities which led to his fall from grace and he pledged to be more respectful of the game.
"He forgot in the process to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility, not invisibility," Payne said. "I hope he can come to understand that life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who bring joy to the lives of other people.
"We at Augusta hope and pray our great champion will begin his new life here tomorrow in a positive, hopeful and constructive manner but this time with a significant difference from the past."
Woods, a four-times champion at Augusta, is scheduled to tee off in the penultimate group in Thursday's opening round with fellow American Matt Kuchar and South Korean KJ Choi.’
Two years after being hailed a hero for successfully landing his stricken Boeing 777 at London’s Heathrow Airport, former British Airways Capt. Peter Burkill discusses in this new book and in this recent TV interview, the crash and the impact it had on his family.
This is a story which highlights why great leaders are those who are able to excel under pressure; the ultimate value in the Positive Leadership model.
It was October, 1937, and President Roosevelt was trying to convince Americans to focus on the frightening events in Europe and Asia, to understand that the United States could not wall itself off from the world and to recognise that the march of totalitarianism abroad was a mounting threat at home.
The nation, however, was not ready to hear it. After Roosevelt made his case in a high-profile speech in Chicago, a hotbed of isolationism, the public reacted harshly. Americans were far more concerned about the economy’s return to recession, and most believed the nation’s top foreign policy goal should be to avoid war.
“It’s a terrible thing,” FDR reflected a few days later, “to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find no one there.”
Leadership, of course, does not operate in a vacuum. It is, as FDR and other presidents have learned, the flip side of what you might call “followership.” When it comes to unpopular causes, a president must not just pontificate but try to change minds, to convince a sceptical public to see things in a different light. Then, with or without the public behind him, a president must decide. It is what makes the job so lonely, yet so compelling.
Nor do Americans necessarily empathise with a president’s plight, for they seem to have a love-hate relationship with “leadership.” Conceptually, they seek the attribute in their elected officials. But, when a president bucks public opinion, they often chastise him for obstinacy rather than praise him for courage.
President George W. Bush sought to build a case for victory in Iraq but, when support sank, he ignored public opinion and sent more troops to Baghdad. He left office highly unpopular for lots of good reasons, but history may treat him more kindly on Iraq (especially if that nation continues making progress).
Bush’s father never got to serve two terms, his re-election sunk by, among other things, his decision to break his promise and support tax increases for the greater good of federal deficit cutting. Nor did Jimmy Carter, who had lots of valuable insights to offer in his infamous “malaise” speech but lacked a public willing to hear them as well as the skills to change public opinion over time.
The lack of willingness on the part of British political leaders to be explicit about how they plan to reduce Britain's national debt is in sharp contrast to the posture which President Obama was prepared to adopt in pushing for healthcare reform in the USA.
After the Green Bay Packers captured the first-ever Super Bowl, Maraniss writes, Coach Lombardi, as tough a coach as there was on the American sporting scene, found himself in high demand as a speaker to executive audiences, who wanted him to translate his principles for victory on the gridiron to success in work and life. In what became a recurring message to corporate America, he set out seven principles of competition and leadership, most of which you'd expect from the greatest football coach of all time. But his most important principle was also the most surprising: Love is more powerful than hate.
"The love I'm speaking of is loyalty, which is the greatest of loves," Lombardi told his audiences. "Teamwork, the love that one man has for another and that he respects the dignity of another...I am not speaking of detraction. You show me a man who belittles another and I will show you a man who is not a leader...Heart power is the strength of your company. Heart power is the strength of the Green Bay Packers. Heart power is the strength of America and hate power is the weakness of the world."
Hard work is one of the values of Positive Leadership.
‘Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.’ Vince Lombardi
Here is a reference material which speaks to this value:
'How common is narcissism in chief executives? Are top bosses arrogant, pathological achievers who are desperate for admiration or are they just deservedly self-confident decision makers? Many politicians and bankers appear to be arrogant, self-important snobs. Did their narcissism, first manifest as self-confidence, actually help them to climb the greasy pole? Does the way we treat our chief executives turn their self-confidence into pathological narcissism? Could it be that we are the cause of the problem and not them?.......
So what is the bottom line? First, it’s not that difficult to spot narcissists at the top. Actually, it is very easy. Second, the line between healthy, self-aware self confidence and narcissism is a thin one. Third, perhaps we are to blame for accepting ever demanding narcissistic behaviour in our leaders just to have a quiet life. Fourth, buckle your belt when the narcissist is in charge. You may be lucky or not as you try to cling on to the roller-coaster.'
Today we are going to give you a powerful tool that will help you get what you want in life - in just one word.
There's a very powerful, very effective tool you can use to get what you want in life. And, as simple as it is, most of us weren't taught to use it very well when we were growing up. In fact, some of us were taught not to use it at all, or only when absolutely necessary.
What is this simple, powerful tool? Simply ask. That's it. Ask. Ask for what you want. Now, we don't mean whine, and we don't mean you should expect a handout or someone to do your work for you - those things simply make you less than you can be. What we do mean is learn to ask very specifically and very courteously for what you want. Ask in a way that both helps you define and achieve the end results you desire.
When you ask for help, create value for the person you are asking. Can you help him or her first? What's in it for them if they do help you? Money? A good feeling? Being part of a purpose that will help many others? Paint a picture for them of how helping you will benefit them. Finally, ask, with the expectation and belief that you will get what you want - and keep on asking until you do.
You may not continue to ask the same person and you may have to ask in different ways, but if you refuse to accept "no" for an answer, you increase your chances of eventually ending up with a "yes."
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