Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Failure
Resilience is one of the values of Positive Leadership. Here is what Michael Jordan has to say about 'failure':
Confidence
Mental Toughness
Hard Work
The Best of Us
Passion
Resilience
Aligning Tasks and Talents
Top-tier leaders take this opportunity to realign talents and tasks in their workgroup. Your team members have specific skills, talents and preferences that you will use to reach your team’s goals. The key to success as a leader of such a workgroup is to help your team members understand these talents and preferences, align their work roles with them, and be sure that the team’s overall skills and talents complement each other.
That sounds like a lot of work. It is a lot of work. Yet one of the best indicators for motivated and engaged employees and high-performance teams is the degree to which team members are able to use their best capabilities on a regular basis.
Fortunately, there are some simple ways to think about talents and preferences that will help you get this initial teamwork set-up done well. William Daniels, a noted author on organisational performance provides a schema you can use to align tasks and talents.
Daniels tells us there are four types of tasks that team members may perform: routine tasks, troubleshooting tasks, project tasks and negotiable tasks. Each type of task is rated as to whether it is of high or low predictability, and of high or low timeliness.
Routine tasks are high in predictability and high in timeliness. Project tasks are high in predictability and low in timeliness - they can be completed in delayed intervals.
Troubleshooting tasks are low in predictability but high in timeliness, and negotiable tasks are low in predictability and low in timeliness.
Let’s take an example. An organisational leader, Susan, recently took an assessment designed to determine these preferences and skills. She found that her ideal work distribution would involve 10 percent routine tasks, 30 percent troubleshooting tasks and 60 percent project tasks.
These results turned out to confirm Susan's own thinking. She is the CEO of an independent organisation, who is exceptionally good at planning and executing project-based work - and she was brought in specifically to help develop and deliver a new strategic plan for her company.
Her role in this mid-sized organisation requires her to periodically "put out a fire" where she can use her troubleshooting skills. She does have responsibility for crafting budgets, financial reports and the like, but has staff to help with other routine task.
If Susan was the type of leader with a high troubleshooting preference, who liked to work in a fast-paced and at times chaotic environment where her ability to respond quickly to urgent needs was necessary, the position as a project planning and execution leader would not fit well with her. Worse, her motivation would quickly tire.
As a leader, you enhance your team’s effectiveness if you are able to match individual work preferences and skills with tasks and workflow. It doesn’t always have to be as good a match as Susan’s, but avoiding critical mismatches is important.
As you set up your year and review the plans with your team, help them express where they feel most energised by their work. An important question to ask is when or where they feel drained or de-energised by a work task. This could be an indication of a talent and task mismatch.
As the new year begins, take the opportunity to increase the performance capability of your team or organisation. Align talents and tasks for success in 2010.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
"People are often led to causes and often become committed to great ideas through persons who personify those ideas. They have to find the embodiment of the idea in flesh and blood in order to commit themselves to it."
"The people are looking to me for leadership - and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter."
COMMITTED/COMPELLED
"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
CONFIDENCE
"I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"
COMPOSURE
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
CHARACTER
"The time is always right to do what is right."
"There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor political nor popular, but he must do it because his conscience tells him it is right."
VOCAL LEADERSHIP
"I will not be intimidated, I will not be harassed. I will not be silent, and I will be heard."
SERVANT-LEADERSHIP
"A man all wrapped up in himself is a mighty small package."
CONFIDENCE-BUILDER
"We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop... I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land."
REFOCUSER
"The first thing we must do here tonight is to decide we are not going to become panicky. That we are going to be calm, and we are going to continue to stand up for what is right. Fear not, we've come too far to turn back... we are not afraid and we shall overcome."
TEAM-BUILDER
"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."
ENFORCER
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
"We are not asking, we are demanding the ballot... "
"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind."
RECOMMENDED READING
For more information on Dr. King and his powerful leadership, read the following:
Martin Luther King, Jr., on Leadership: Inspiration and Wisdom for Challenging Times
The Right Decisions Aren't Always Easy
Maybe Andrea Jung's passion for her work was most visible early last year when the company known for women's cosmetics decided to spend huge bucks on a TV ad during the Super Bowl, the game known for sweaty men and Budweiser.
Her workers were skeptical, Jung said in response to a question from Stanford Graduate School of Business student Roanak Desai on Nov. 9 as part of the student-sponsored View from the Top series. "They said, 'So, Andrea, are we going to advertise skin care or lipstick?' And I said, 'Neither. We’re going to create a testimonial ad of people who've joined us since they got laid off, and they're going to tell their story.'"
Amid the global economic brutality, Avon has been a success story, offering opportunities for women who had been laid off, had seen their husbands laid off, or simply needed extra cash.
"It’s been extremely motivating. There's almost no language necessary when you have the mission and purpose," Jung said. "People really said, 'I can’t get laid off. I am running my own business. They're my own hours.'"
Jung's 10 years as CEO of Avon is the denouement of a personal success story — she is one of the world's most influential female business leaders, serving on the boards at Apple and General Electric, as well as leading Avon. It wouldn't have come about without at least four significant decisions:
— After graduating magna cum laude from Princeton, Jung decided to go into retail rather than something like law or medicine, which didn't exactly thrill her parents, both Chinese immigrants. "I think their first reaction was, 'That wasn't really what we had in mind.' But then the family values set in, which were,'‘No matter what it is you do, you'd better go and be your best.'"
— When Jung got bogged down early in her career, stuck with uninspiring work in retail, her mother told her quitting was not an option. Work through the challenge, and get it done. That's what the family does. That's what Jung did.
— In 1997, when Jung was a top candidate for the Avon CEO job, a 52-year-old man was chosen instead. She thought about going to another company. "A mentor of mine said, 'Follow your compass, not your clock,'" Jung recalled. Her compass told her that Avon was still the place that suited her best. "I loved the company — its mission, its purpose."
Jung says she wouldn't have regretted the decision even if she had never obtained the promotion, but fate soon made the circumstances moot. "It didn't work out for him, so I got the job in 21 months, and the rest is history."
— In 2005, after Avon missed earnings projections a couple of times, a colleague pointed to something AT&T had done: Cutting layers of management to streamline bureaucracy. Jung resisted, but later in the week a trusted advisor told her that she was likely to lose her own job within 120 days, despite her popularity, if she couldn't turn Avon around. The advisor said Jung would end up leading another struggling company where she wouldn’t know anyone, and then have to try to turn that company around. That was a jolt, because her first five years as a CEO had seen substantial growth. "We were booming into emerging markets. We had double-digit top-line growth," Jung said. "I had no idea what the word 'turnaround' meant — and we hit the wall."
After talking with the advisor, Jung realised that if she was going to have to be a tough, budget-cutting CEO no matter what, she might as well do it at the company she loved. So she cut layers of management at Avon, painful though it was. "I had to become a definer of my own second chapter and start it fresh."
That second chapter has seen the most people join Avon in the United States at any time since the 1970s. Jung said managing them is different than in most companies because the salespeople are independent representatives, not employees. "Motivation, inspiration, and influence are very different things than leadership requirements and mandates, and so the skill of communicating is the skill of influencing and inspiring. Mission and values and purpose have been the way that we've effectively kept that sales force going this year."
Looking outside the United States is even more crucial. Jung said that in her industry category 88% of the growth from 2008 to 2013 is projected to come from emerging markets.
One huge market is China, where Avon has more than one million workers. "We decided at Avon not to focus on the eastern seaboard cities, the large cities," she said. "We decided to penetrate the small towns and villages and have a supply chain and infrastructure strategy where the women were because we knew that the government would like the fact that we were offering opportunities for people not to have to bus themselves to work into large cities — that we could create work for them right in the towns and villages where they were."
As her career has evolved, Jung has seen through companies such as Avon and Amazon.com that finding the most effective distribution channels is crucial for retailers.
"He or she who can nail and reinvent the distribution game will win," she said. "Branding is critical — that's the cost of entry now. Distribution is the final trump."
For the complete lecture, see:
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Managing Stress and Improving Performance by Getting Into 'The Zone'
Why?
As our brains are fully engaged—analysing the past, understanding why we have problems, and building scenarios for how to solve problems or exploit opportunities in the future—our eyes turn inwards and we miss seeing the flowers in front of us. We wake up and the next thing we know we are having supper and are ready to retire. Where did the day go? Between our ears; we were busy inside our heads and did not notice the smile of the baby, the blooming of the roses, or how the wind was caressing our faces.
We live physically longer but experience life as being very short. Where did it go? Solving problems. Rushing from one agenda item to the next without a break in between.
All the days start looking the same: get up, run run run, and go to sleep…assuming that you succeed in falling asleep. As this experience repeats itself, eventually you won’t even know what day of the week it is. And soon, unless you look for it, you will not know which calendar year it is. It is not inconceivable that the day will come that we will graduate from school, go to work, and the next thing we will be aware of is that we are gasping for air because we are dying.
Where did life go? Between our ears, with our eyes turned inward. We will have no memory of our children crawling, our loved ones crying, or our garden blooming. We saw these things but did not register them. Our eyes were turned in, watching us deal with the past or future and missing the present.
Many well-meaning people tell us to stop the rush of life and smell the flowers. It is a great recommendation, but how do we go about doing it? Is it as simple as literally canceling a meeting and going for a walk in the garden?
No! We can cancel many meetings, walk in many gardens, and even smell the flowers…and still have no memory of it unless….
In order to smell the flowers we need to see them first, to be aware of their existence and beauty, and for that we need to turn our eyes outward. That will happen when we stop the brain from totally monopolising our awareness.
We need to slow our minds. We need to control our minds rather than be controlled by them.
We need to move from the brain to the heart.
This last point needs explaining: The brain has left and right sides to it. The sides argue with each other. The right side is very liberal, creative, risk taking. The left side is detail-oriented, risk-averse, conservative. They can spend days, years, arguing with each other about what to do and leaving you bewildered. You will act because you have to, but you will be acting full of doubts and thus pregnant with anxiety and worry.
When you listen to your heart it is like being in love. There is no answer to the question “why?” When you make a decision “with all your heart,” there is no doubt, no anxiety, no worry. You feel at peace with your decision.
Granted you should start thinking with your brain; do your due diligence on the subject. But end your internal debate with your heart. To make a final decision let your heart speak.
How will that happen?
Only when you tell your brain that enough is enough and it should “shut up” so your heart can get a chance to have its voice heard. To be freed from the brain master that enslaves you, you need to be “above it,” not let it overcome you and thus drive you. The same is true with emotions. It is okay to have them but they must be under control. And the same applies to your body and its urges.
Who is the boss? You, and “you” is neither the mind, nor the body, nor your emotions. It is above them all. It is your spirit, and the spirit dwells in your heart, while your mind is in your brain and your emotions in your liver.
When we finalise decisions based on what our hearts tell us, we will feel complete. And when that happens our lives, instead of being filled with doubts, will be filled with love. It will be less stressful and more enjoyable. It will feel as though we live longer, with more memories and fewer disappointments.
How can we slow our minds and get all of the above benefits?
Researchers with the Institute of HeartMath (http://www.heartmath.org/) have observed in scientifically controlled studies that we can greatly reduce stress levels and improve our health through intentional emotional management and practicing the simple principles and methods of heart-based living. HeartMath has spent many years developing the tools, techniques and technology to help you practice using your mind to sort out your heart’s intuitive feelings and wisdom from the mind’s noise and auto responses to life’s challenges. Heart-based living helps you learn to live in the now, bringing more of your real self into each moment. Becoming more of who you really are releases inner security, allowing you to relate to life with increased hope and confidence. Increased fulfillment is the result of this process.
One of IHM’s key areas of research has been "heart-rhythm coherence," described in simple terms as smooth, balanced heart-rhythm patterns, which can be measured and viewed by various types of monitors.
Stress, anger, fear, compulsive behaviours and other negative states all are signs of incoherent heart-rhythm patterns and are represented on heart-rhythm monitors by jagged, irregular waves. Fatigue is common among people with such symptoms. Sickness and disease, including numerous heart problems, diabetes, overweight and obesity among other ailments are more likely among people with incoherent heart-rhythms.
In contrast, when you have a coherent heart you are at your best. Stress chemical pathways reverse, paving the way for increased synchronisation between the heart and brain, and in this synchronised state, which athletes call being "in the zone," you can achieve optimal mental clarity, cognitive performance and perception. Energy levels, sleeping patterns, relationships and so much more, including your mental, physical and emotional health, all improve.
Managing Golf's Emotions
describes how golfers benefit from the techniques developed by IHM.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Encouraging a 'Check-Six' Culture in Business
A wingman watches your back. In Never Fly Solo: Lead with Courage, Build Trusting Partnerships, and Reach New Heights in Business
, Waldo threads real world experiences to encourage the development of a check-six culture. Check-six refers to the six o’clock position where the jet is most vulnerable—the pilot’s blind spot. Waldo says, “There is a limit to how much you can learn on your own. A good wingman will give you mission-critical feedback, catch your errors, ask questions, and propose challenging scenarios to push you to grow in your skills and mental discipline.” Encouraging others to look out for our blind spots requires a great deal of mutual trust. “These trusted partners, male or female, are your wingmen.”
Of course, this means first, not being afraid to acknowledge that you need help and then being able to ask for it. This is all the more difficult if you haven’t built trust in yourself and invested the time to build trusting relationships with others. You’ve got to “walk the flight line.” Get out and build relationships with those people you work with—treating each other as people first and coworkers second. “It’s the relationships we build and the people whom we trust that give us the courage to take risks and make ourselves better.”
By being willing to say, “I don’t know,” or “I messed up,” we create a transparency that will attract others to us and “create the type of environment where people won’t be afraid to make mistakes. They will also be more likely to check your six as well.”
Additionally, we have to keep our “radar sweeping for a wingman, coworker, or peer who may be experiencing a challenging time in her life. Don’t let her get isolated.” Be supportive and find her some help if necessary.” It is the worker that keeps to themselves—trying to fly solo—that check out, become unmotivated, complacent and careless. “Never feeling invested in the company’s mission, they do the minimum, and everyone suffers.”
In today’s environment, communication, feedback, and mutual support are critical Waldo says because:
•Human beings make mistakes.
•We each have a limited perspective.
•We operate in stressful environments that lead to tunnel vision and task saturation.
•Most professionals undervalue communication and teamwork.
•Faulty communication can kill a mission as well as a relationship.
•Errors increase when there is no definable set of teamwork standards and skills.
“An effective check-six environment frees up communication and removes barriers to growth, so that all members of the team feel empowered to speak up and ask questions.” It also builds team confidence.
We all need wingmen and the best way to find a wingman is to be one!
Leading Is Not Easy
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Test of a Positive Leader
Positive Leaders deliberately increase the flow of positive emotions within their organisations. They choose to do this not just because it is a nice thing to do for the sake of improving morale, but also because it leads to a measurable increase in performance.
Research indicates that organisational leaders who share positive emotions have workgroups with a more positive mood, enhanced job satisfaction, greater engagement, and improved performance.
For more information, please contact: graham.watson@positiveleadership.co.uk
Thursday, January 14, 2010
CEO Changes
'The nation’s companies reported that 1,227 chief executives vacated their posts during 2009, the lowest level in five years, according to a survey today.
Last year’s total was 17% less than the record 1,482 departures of 2008 and the smallest annual number since the 663 chief executives who left in 2004, according to Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
The year featured several notable departures, such as Bank of America’s Ken Lewis, who retired. General Motors’ Rick Wagoner, who was ousted in March, was followed out shortly thereafter by his successor, government-appointed Fritz Henderson, in December.
Challenger Chief Executive John Challenger noted that the decline in departures could be a result of companies trying to maintain a stable upper management until the economy settles down and begins growing.
“If and when it appears that the expansion is finally underway, there could be a surge in leadership changes, with companies opting for growth-oriented risk-takers over the ‘just-keep-the-ship-afloat’ leaders they favored in the latter half of the recession,” he said.
Last month, 105 chief executives left their positions, up from the 94 who vacated in November but less than the 123 who left in December 2008. The 78 chief executives who left in May was the lowest monthly total since December 2004, when 56 departed.
The healthcare industry recorded the highest turnover for the fifth consecutive year, with 203 departures, down from 285 in 2008, Challenger said.
The government and nonprofit sector was next, with 163 departures, followed by the 123 in the financial industry.
As for their reasons for leaving, 355 chief executives cited resignation, while 251 retired. Only 15 were fired by their companies, and seven were removed due to underperformance.
And 231 chief executives, such as Morgan Stanley’s John Mack, said they left their posts but stayed with the company as a member or chairman or in some other senior executive post. But 144 left after being enticed by new positions in other firms.
The typical chief executive departing last month was 58 years old and had served for just over 8 years.'
The New Breed of CEO
'I think we need to embed a culture of long-term thinking. If that is right, then the job of the CEO is going to be very different in the future from the way in which the job has developed over the past 2 or 3 decades. The CEO we have tended to admire has been the one who could take the costs out, the one who could get the biggest return in the shortest possible time. That was what the idea of the company as an engine of short-term value required. But that kind of hard-edged leader delivering a return on capital no matter what the emotional social cost, I believe, is yesterday’s leader....
....So we need a new breed of CEO better equipped for the job they will now do than the job they did years ago....perhaps the most important thing is that the new CEO has to create sustainable value.'
For the full speech, see - http://www.pepsico.com/Download/IKN_Economic_Club.pdf
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Mistakes a Leader Can Make
Of these 4 leadership sins, what's the worst one a CEO can commit?
Failing to listen. 62.01%
Failing to set goals intelligently. 14.09%
Unwillingness to try new things. 13.87%
Failing to delegate effectively. 10.03%
Staying Cool Under Pressure
Have you noticed that some people really thrive under pressure while others just cave under it? They can't cope. Coping with pressure and stress is not an innate personality trait that you do or do not have—it is in fact a skill that anyone can learn.
Dr. David H. Olson, Professor Emeritus of the University of Minnesota, concluded after extensive research that there are four coping skills needed to effectively deal with pressure or stress:
Problem Solving: the ability to face up to problems and deal with them when they arise, rather than avoiding them or procrastinating about dealing with them, or looking for someone or something to blame.
Communication: the ability to openly discuss problems or situations that are causing pressure or stress, rather than keeping it all to yourself.
Closeness: the ability to build relationships based on mutual trust so you have people you can talk to about the pressure you are experiencing and explore potential solutions.
Flexibility: the ability to effectively deal with unstructured or unpredictable situations, or unplanned change.
Leaders are typically under more pressure than individual performers—they have the added pressure of getting their team to produce the results expected of them, and they also have personnel problems to deal with. The more effective you are at each of these four coping skills, the more effective you will be as a leader.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Harvard Wins Fans for Advanced Leadership Course
For more, see - http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jan/12/advanced-courses-retirement-harvard
Driving Bold Change
http://positiveleadershiplimited.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-business-leaders-can-bring-to.html
Here is a fascinating interview with the Chancellor of the New York City public schools, Joel Klein. Klein is a product of the schools he now runs. He attended New York City public schools for 12 years, then went to Columbia University and Harvard Law School. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and eventually became the Justice Department's antitrust chief under President Clinton.
The video interview is instructive for business and education leaders in the UK also: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/12/16/VI2009121600664.html#
Leadership Coaching
Monday, January 11, 2010
M&A Skills Honed as Athletes
Stitzer has engineered more than 40 transactions since joining Cadbury Plc as a Columbia-trained mergers and acquisitions lawyer. In 2003, the Pennsylvania-raised CEO outbid Nestle SA for chewing-gum maker Adams Inc., making Cadbury the world’s biggest confectioner. The U.K. company held that rank until it was displaced by Mars Inc.’s $22.6 billion purchase of Wm Wrigley Jr. Co. in 2008.
Rosenfeld has spent more than 25 years at Kraft, with a two- year interruption in 2004 to run PepsiCo Inc.’s Frito-Lay snack- food unit. Last year, Forbes magazine ranked her No. 6 on its list of the world’s most powerful women, three behind PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.
Both CEOs have honed their competitive skills as athletes. Rosenfeld, who is also Kraft’s chairman, played four varsity sports in high school and chose Cornell University as her alma mater partly because of the women’s athletic program. Stitzer, who has dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, paid for law school at Columbia University by playing professional tennis.
A Test of Character
Questions of character are being posed again today, after decades of neglect. This character revival is occurring as politicians and policy-makers in the UK realise that many of their most cherished goals – for social mobility, co-operation, social responsibility – cannot be met through either the machinery of the state or the magic of the market. Character is an old-fashioned term for a set of pressing contemporary problems.
For more, see - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/6965133/David-Cameron-A-test-of-character.html
Dealing with Tough Days
Here are some ideas for dealing with these tough days:
1. Every problem or crisis is an opportunity to build your leadership skills along with your confidence and credibility.
2. Problems create teachable opportunities. Don’t waste these opportunities.
3. It’s the challenges that you and your team conquered that you will remember. Make some memories!
4. Remember that you don’t have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. If you’ve done your job and earned respect, your team members are there to help ease the burden. Ask for help.
5. People aren’t programmed to act and respond in ways that always fit your plans. Losing a great employee is painful, but if it has to happen, ensure that the relationship transitions to one of valued and always welcome friend.
6. Be thankful for feedback that says that you can improve. At least someone cares.
7. Leaders earn dividends over the long term. Your payoff comes a decade from now when the people that you are leading today are rising to new heights in their careers. They did the work but perhaps you played a small role along the way. Take pride in their accomplishments.
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