Communicating for Impact

Most senior executives are experienced presenters. But even ‘pros’ who just want to put some polish on the silver may underestimate the opportunity–and the risk–in any given presentation. If you want to shine and avoid the tarnish, consider these four tips to help you be the best you can be at communicating with a crowd.

1. Can you give your presentation in 20 seconds even though you have 20 minutes to speak? Start your preparation by asking: What is the one thing I want them to remember if they remember nothing else? Studies show that by the end of the day, your audience will have forgotten half of what you said. And by the end of the week, 90% is forgotten. To make sure that the 10% that sticks is the 10% that you really want them to remember, say it early and clearly.

2. Do you look and sound like you do in a conversation? Think about your talk in terms of moods, not just information. Ask, “How should I feel when I deliver those three slides vs. the next three?…Am I giving marching orders, or am I sharing an example?” In delivering different parts of your presentation, you should look and sound different. Have someone videotape you (when you don’t know you’re being taped) to see the gestures and body movement that mark your personal style.

3. Are you mixing it up? Remember to hit the “Refresh” button. Whether you add a cartoon or image to your PowerPoint, ask real and rhetorical questions–or walk a few steps to the side to tell a story. We live in a BlackBerry world. Adding variety to your visuals will keep you and your audience more engaged.

4. Do you think your presentation begins at 9 a.m., or the moment you drive into the car park? Recognise that “communication” begins the moment you arrive. Thanks to social media, your actions (both good and bad) can wind up in print. So be kind to the receptionist, thank the people ‘backstage’, and hold your tongue until you leave the car park–no matter how clueless that chap in the front row was!

Communicating for Impact

Find a Good Mentor

This interview with Meridee A. Moore, founder of Watershed Asset Management, was conducted by The New York Times. Watershed is a $2 billion hedge fund based in San Francisco.

‘Q. How do you hire?

A. We look at grades and scores, of course. We want the person to be competitive. Also, if the person has had a rough patch in his or her past, that’s usually good.

Q. Why?

A. Well, if you’ve ever had a setback and come back from it, I think it helps you make better decisions. There’s nothing better for sharpening your ability to predict outcomes than living through some period when things went wrong. You learn that events aren’t in your control and no matter how smart you are and how hard you work you have to anticipate things that can go against you.

It’s also important to be a good communicator. Our strategy involves negotiation, and you have to understand management’s perspective, the judge’s idiosyncrasies, the different professionals and principals involved, and what they might do in a bankruptcy. When I screen for people, if they have a good sense of humour and are engaging communicators, they tend to be good negotiators and seem to be better at reading the qualitative side of human decision-making.

Q. What’s your best career advice to somebody just graduating from undergrad or B-school?

A. Find a mentor. And it doesn’t have to be a mentor who looks like you. They can be older, a different gender, younger, in a different business, but someone you admire and respect, and just attach yourself to that person and learn everything you can. I’ve done this my whole career. It is so valuable, especially if you choose a good one and they end up teaching you everything and then rejoicing in your success.’

For more, see - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/business/07corners.html?ref=business 

Find a Good Mentor

Top Obama Aide Reflects on Her Life and Leadership

'Riding down Embarcadero Road Thursday, Valerie Jarrett said she got butterflies in her stomach.

Jarrett, a 1978 Stanford graduate, senior White House advisor and longtime friend of Michelle and Barack Obama, said her return to campus this week to deliver a lecture recalled memories of her very first approach to the university as an entering freshman in 1974.

In a 45-minute talk in which she reflected on leadership and her personal experiences, Jarrett urged Stanford students to take chances, get outside their comfort zones and to commit themselves, in some fashion, to public service.

"You can really be an expert in your field and an extraordinary scholar, but it's credibility, authenticity and the ability to motivate people to work together for a common goal ... that is the mark of true leadership," she said.

"Trust, respect and credibility have to be earned every single day. Good leaders never rest on their laurels."

Jarrett said her early childhood as a light-skinned African-American growing up in an international community in Shiraz, Iran, "laid a kind of blueprint for me in my world view."

"Everybody around me was different, but we were working in one community.

"I saw how people are just the same the world over. And I also developed an appreciation for the United States and the freedoms and liberties we have here."

Jarrett said her father, an African-American physician, had moved the family to Iran to seek opportunities that were denied him in segregation-era America.

The family returned to the United States and enrolled Jarrett in a Chicago public school, where she began to grasp the reality of segregation and racism.

Citing her own father, Jarrett said ordinary people have opportunities to be leaders, even when they don't necessarily know it.

As a young, black medical resident, Jarrett's father had been told he could not live in the dormitory adjacent to the hospital and was not to enter the hospital by the front door.

Annoyed with the instructions, he decided to ignore them and go through the front door anyway. On the second morning, the hospital's orderlies and assistants were standing on the front steps waiting for him, and they all walked in together.

"He just got frustrated and angry, and others followed him," Jarrett said. "Just by taking chances and doing what you know is right, sometimes others will follow."

After Stanford, law school at the University of Michigan, and some years with a large law firm, Jarrett left law practice and "took a leap" to work for Harold Washington, the first African-American mayor of Chicago.

While in city government, she interviewed a fellow law-firm refugee, Michelle Robinson, to come join her.

"Michelle was engaged to this wonderful fellow, Barack Obama," Jarrett recalled. "I got to know her and her husband and we've had the great good fortune of being good friends."

Jarrett left her job as CEO of a large real estate development and management company to hit the campaign trail for Obama, taking what she said seemed at the time like another "leap of faith" (that a black man could be elected president).

"If we'd believed what everyone told us when he was down 30 points in the polls, we wouldn't have tried," she said.

"It's an enormous privilege to serve this great country," she said. "It's been an extraordinary 14 months.

"In the campaign he always said, 'It's time for change. It's going to be really hard, but we're going to do it together.'

"People sometimes forget the last part of the sentence, that it's going to be really, really hard. We've made an immense difference, and we still have an enormous way to go."

Jarrett spoke to the Stanford community in a mostly-full Memorial Auditorium in the annual St. Clair Drake Memorial Lecture. Drake, a sociologist who launched Stanford's African-American Studies Department in 1973, died in 1990.

Jarrett said Drake had been one of her favorite professors.

"He was a scholar, a magnificent researcher, engaging and also transformative," she said. "He took his research and he led, and improved the way African-Americans were perceived by his example.

"The kind of energy and enthusiasm he had -- it's hard to express to you how deeply he changed my life." '

From - http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=15995

Top Obama Aide Reflects on Her Life and Leadership

Andrew Carnegie's Science of Success

Napoleon Hill was born into poverty in Virginia and began his writing career at the age of 13 as a reporter for a small-town newspaper. He entered law school but had to withdraw because of finances.

In 1908, Hill's career reached a turning point when he interviewed Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world at the time. Carnegie commissioned Hill to interview over 500 of the most successful men and women, in order to discover and publish a formula for success that could be duplicated by the average person. For over twenty years Napoleon Hill continued this research. In 1928, the formula for success that Carnegie and Hill devised was published in The Law of Success In Sixteen Lessons (2 Volume Set). In 1937, Napoleon Hill condensed his law of success into his most famous work, Think and Grow Rich. 

Andrew Carnegie's Science of Success

What's the Difference Between a Leader and a Manager?

When the word leadership is discussed, the manager naturally comes to mind, but managers and leaders are not synonymous.

A manager isn’t necessarily an effective leader. By the same token, an effective leader doesn’t have to be a manager. Yet the most effective managers generally have good leadership skills. For a manager to create an atmosphere where employees will follow with blind devotion, the manager must first be an effective leader. 

Managers tend to have tunnel vision, with their main focus on the bottom line. Efficiency is what a manager is all about. A good leader that is also a manager, is naturally concerned about the bottom line but instead of concentrating on efficiency, a leader concentrates their efforts on Effectiveness. The manager focuses on systems and structure, the leader focuses on people. 

An effective leader will not “push” their people through coercion, but instead will “pull” their people together by attracting them to a common vision. We often hear about the team effort, but how can there be an effective team without an effective leader. 

When employees truly work as a team, rest assured they most likely work with a leader that has three of the main traits of Positive Leadership:

• Competency 

• Energy 

• Integrity

Competency as a Leadership Trait 

When someone is put into a management position, most employers look towards competency as the main factor. In order to be an effective leader, employees need to know without a doubt that their manager is competent at their position. It’s important when decisions are made that they are well thought out. The overall decision should be made with consideration to customers and employee alike.

Energy as a Leadership Trait 

Energy is a leadership trait that can rub off on employees. If employees feel their manager is being negative, they in turn will become negative. Having a positive outlook and exuding energy and enthusiasm is contagious and creates a positive attitude throughout the company.

Integrity as a Leadership Trait 

Naturally honesty is a major factor, but integrity is much more. Integrity also means to do what’s 'right'. An effective leader needs to be empathetic to others in every decision they make. They need to be able walk in someone else’s shoes and see things from other people’s perspective. When making a decision, a leader must consider the effect the decision has on their people and do what’s right. Trust is also an important component of integrity. Employee empowerment can’t be emphasised enough for employee satisfaction. Employee empowerment reinforces that the manager is an effective leader with integrity and trust in their employee’s abilities. 

What's the Difference Between a Leader and a Manager?

Leaders Must Display Courage

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." Ambrose Redmoon

Do you have the courage to lead? Successful leaders must possess a variety of skills and attributes to be effective - and courage is certainly a critical one.

What is courage? Courage is demonstrating faith, optimism, and action in an unknown, usually risky, and often scary situation. As Mark Twain said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."

Viewed in this way, leadership can be thought of as an ongoing series of decisions and actions that require large and small amounts of courage. Successful leaders must summon their own courage and that of their followers on a daily basis. 

Here are at least 5 different ways that leaders must demonstrate courage.

1. Courage to Put Yourself Out There

If you want to be a leader, you must be willing to stand for something. You must go out on a limb and profess and practice your belief in someone, something, and/or some cause. Rather than sitting idly by and doing nothing, leadership demands that you put yourself out there to be a passionate advocate for whatever it is you are supporting or defending. When you extend yourself, you must be prepared and courageous enough to take shots and criticism from those who do not support you or your cause.

"Leadership is a choice. It is the choice not to do nothing." Seth Godin

What are you willing to stand for?

2. Courage to Dream Big Dreams  

Not only must you have the courage to put yourself out there when you lead, you also must have the audacity and confidence to dream big dreams. Successful leaders have the courage to attempt (and hopefully achieve) big goals. As Erma Bombeck reminds us, "It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else."

Author Jim Collins of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies and Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't found that great companies, organisations, and non-profits created what he called BHAGS - Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. Examples of BHAGs include putting a man on the moon, becoming #1 in the world, and ending world poverty. It's these challenging yet inspiring goals that cause people to dig deep and bring their best.

Do you have the courage to set some BHAGs for your team?

3. Courage to Try Something New

As a leader, you also must have the courage to forge ahead with no clear path, only your faith in the mission. Leaders are similar to ice breaking ships in that they must breakthrough challenges and obstacles in trying to lead their teams to explore unchartered territory.

Leaders must have the courage to deal with uncertainty. A phrase that many leaders can relate to is "building the bridge as you walk on it." Michigan professor Robert Quinn has a great book by the same title and says, "When we have a vision, it does not necessarily mean that we have a plan. We may know where we want to be, but we will seldom know the actual steps we must take to get there. We must trust in ourselves to learn the way, to build the bridge as we walk on it. When we pursue our vision, we must believe that we have enough courage and confidence in ourselves to reach our goal. We must leap into the chasm or uncertainty and strive bravely ahead... Trusting in our vision enough to start our journey into the chasm of uncertainty, believing that the resources will appear, can be very difficult. The fact that we have enough trust and belief in ourselves to pursue our vision is what signals to others that the vision is worth investing in."

Many times leaders must possess the courage to press on, even though they don't exactly know what is going to happen in the next minute, or if they will have the resources to do it. You must be willing and comfortable enough to venture into the unknown, trusting that you are heading in the right direction, making progress as you span the divide, and believe that the journey is worth it.

What new thing will you have the courage to try with your organisation?

4. Courage to Overcome the Doubts and Fears

When you try something new or attempt to do something that has never been done before, you will have many who will doubt you, dissuade you, and perhaps even chuckle at your naiveté. You too will have your doubts from time to time, but don't let them get you down. You must have the courage to overcome your doubters and detractors.

Social entrepreneur Bill Strickland writes in his great book Make the Impossible Possible: One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary , "I wanted to make a difference and change the world, starting with my neighbourhood. Just as important, I was trying as best I could to live a life that felt genuinely like my own, and to do that I had to own up to the passions that defined me. So I ignored the naysayers and found a way to reach higher. It was never easy, but the more I trusted my passions, the more I found reason to believe that following my dreams was the most practical thing I could do. Passion also forced me to develop the determination and perseverance I needed to keep those dreams alive when times got rough and the things I wanted seemed very far away. If my life has taught me anything, it's that no genuine success is possible without an intense, tireless, and focused sense of drive.

Do you have the courage to overcome all the naysayers?

5. Courage to Fail  

Leaders must have the courage to fail and fall short of their goals. When you put yourself out there as a leader, you take a risk that you might not achieve your ultimate goal. You must be willing to mentally, physically, and emotionally invest yourself fully. But you must also know that your intense effort is no guarantee that you will reach your destination.

Michael Jordan said, "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

And President Teddy Roosevelt reminds us, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Do you have the courage to fail?

Leaders Must Display Courage

Leadership Lessons from the Movies

If you haven't seen the movie "The Blind Side" yet, you should go see it while it is still in cinemas. 

The story is about a Memphis, Tennessee family, Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy, who offer a lost, homeless teenager, Michael Oher, the opportunity to come into their home and become part of their family. Through Mrs. Touhy's nurturing, Michael becomes a standout high school football player, eventually earning a scholarship to the University of Mississippi and being selected as the National Football League's Baltimore Ravens' first round draft selection in the spring of 2009.

It's a touching and powerful real life story with one particular lesson all business leaders and coaches could learn from.

During Oher's early days on the gridiron his football coach was frustrated with his lack of comprehension of how to fulfil the offensive tackle role he had been assigned. The coach, applying his traditional coaching style of yelling louder and more forcefully with each frustrating play at practice, gets no results. Mrs. Touhy, watching her 'adopted' son from the practice sidelines, walks on to the field and addresses Oher, reminding him of his strong will and personal attribute of "protective instincts." In taking the "Student Career Aptitude Test" for admission to a private Christian school Oher scored in the 98th percentile in "Protective Instincts."

Knowing this was his personal strength she used herself as a metaphor for the quarterback, and her youngest son as the tailback, telling him to protect his teammates in those positions as if he were protecting his new family. In the movie Michael immediately "gets it" and transforms into a force on the team's offensive line, much to the amazement of his coach, standing bewildered on the sidelines.

Two leadership lessons in that story:

1) Leaders have to know what makes their people tick. They need to take the time to learn what motivates them and what their true strengths and interests are.

2) Leaders must then take that information and apply it to the role in which they assign to their team members so everyone is working in a role that reinforces their strengths.

To apply this in the most ridiculous way, above the high school level, a rugby team would not put its stand off into the scrum during a match. Yet, few businesses really assess the strengths of their employees and learn what they like to do and feel good doing before they assign a job to them. While in business, unlike sports, it may not be possible to have someone fill only the role they are the perfect fit for, it is possible to identify those strengths and have their role include more of that work than not. It benefits both the individual and the organisation.

Leadership Lessons from the Movies

Leading with Dignity

The Financial Times ran an excellent analysis on February 3rd by Edward Luce concerning the very tight inner circle—just four people—that President Obama relies on for advice. In 'America: A Fearsome Foursome', Luce advocates a broader circle of advisers and notes, “To be successful, presidents need to separate the stream of advice they get on policy from the stream of advice they get on politics.” 

Intellectually we know that we need to get their advice and information from a wide variety of sources. In practice, however, it doesn’t always happen. We like to talk to those with whom we are comfortable with and share our views. It’s very reassuring. But dangerous.

Dangerous because it clouds our vision and makes us less agile. More importantly, seeking the opinions of others helps to make them feel a part of a larger purpose, connected to the leader and a part of a community.  This points to a basic function of leadership: to make connections.  

The point is made well in a follow up letter to Luce’s article, published in the Financial Times, from Francis Bator, Harvard Kennedy School emeritus professor. Before coming to Harvard in 1967, he was for three years deputy national security advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson. He shared the following story with FT readers:

Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler, shrewd, effective, a superb negotiator, but somewhat shy of Lyndon Johnson, would occasionally feel in need of a presidential laying on of hands even when he had no serious presidential business. After one such occasion - it had ended with Fowler, sitting on the edge of the Oval Office loveseat, reading in monotone from his own memo on the floor in front of him, while the president was plucking yellow news tickers from the ticker machine at the opposite end of the Oval – LBJ turned on me, angrily: “What on earth did you bring him in here for, wasting my time ...” and so forth, but then stopped himself mid-sentence. “No, I’m wrong. Make me see him when he asks even if he has no real business! While you staff fellows are safe in the White House, these cabinet fellows are out there every day being shot at, on the Hill, in the papers, on TV. They are my field generals. Never forget that. They’ll be useless to me if they don’t feel connected to me. Always treat them with dignity.”

A leader’s position is in the middle; to share and connect. In a world bent on differentiation, leaders must make connections.

Leading with Dignity

Leading by Collaborating

Vineet Nayar is the chief executive of HCL Technologies, an I.T. services company based in India. To help bridge the gap between ceo and the rank and file, he once danced (awkwardly) to a famous Bollywood song at an employee event. Here is what he has to say about how his company handles business planning:

‘As my kids became teenagers, I started looking at Facebook a little more closely. It was a significant amount of collaboration. There was open understanding. They didn’t have a problem sharing their status. Nothing seemed to be secret, and they were living their lives very openly, and friends were commenting on each other and it was working.

Here is my generation, which is very security-conscious and privacy-conscious, and I thought, what are the differences? This is the generation coming to work for us. It’s not my generation.

So we started having people make their presentations and record them for our internal Web site. We open that for review to a 360-degree workshop, which means your subordinates will review it. Your managers will read it. Your peers will read it, and everybody will comment on it. I will be, or your manager will be, one of the many who read it. So, every presentation was reviewed by 300, 400 people.

What happened? There were two very interesting lessons that I learned. One, because your subordinates are going to see the plan, you cannot lie. You have to be honest. Two, because your peers are going to see it, you are going to put your best work into it. Third, you didn’t learn from me. You learned by reviewing somebody else’s presentation. You learned from the comments somebody else gave you. For the 8,000 people who participated, there was a massive collaborative learning that took place.’

For more, see - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/14cornerweb.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business

Leading by Collaborating

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods’ news conference recently revealed that he is a long way from completing his journey toward healing himself and his personal life.  There was a searing honesty in Tiger’s words that suggest a genuine desire to repair his personal life, even at the cost of his golf career achievements.  Tiger would not say when he would return to the golf course, and at age 34, the clock is ticking on his quest to eclipse Jack Nicklaus’s records.

If there is one thing we learned last week, it is that Tiger Woods is just as hungry to achieve the same success off the golf course as he has achieved on the golf course.   How many world-class athletes put their careers on hold until they get their personal houses in order?  Very few if any.  If Tiger fulfils his personal goals with the same relentless drive that he’s shown with his professional goals, we’ll be witness to a remarkable transformation. We wish him well.

Tiger Woods

'Shall Be Done'

'Shall Be Done'

Do you know what Greatness is?

It was watching Canada’s Joannie Rochette, win the Bronze medal in women’s skating in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Actually, it wasn’t just that she won the Bronze; it was that she did this less than a week after her mother’s sudden death.

Joannie was an only child. Her mother was her biggest fan and her closest friend. She could have crumbled. She should have fallen apart. Most people would have. Even elite athletes lose focus and self-destruct from time to time like Dan Jansen did in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary when he was heavily favoured to win Gold and tripped during the 500m speed skating race; earlier that day his sister Jane Beres died from leukaemia. No one blamed Dan for his failure to deliver his best when it mattered most. How could he have? The Olympics are just a game and his sister’s death was the tragic loss of someone he dearly loved. In a recent interview, Dan acknowledged that it was not until years later that he realized how much his sister’s death had impacted his ability to focus that day. A focus he regained eight years later when he won the Gold medal in the 1000 metres men’s speed skating at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

For Joannie, no one would have blamed her if she was unable to deliver her best over the past few days in Vancouver. She could have under-performed and been completely justified in doing so. But she didn’t. She focused. And she did it under extreme personal stress while competing against a group of skaters that could arguably be considered the greatest talents women’s ice skating has ever seen in Olympic competition at one time. Japan’s Mao Asada, who was the Silver medal winner and the first women in Olympic competition to do a triple axel in her routine. Except Mao didn’t just do one; she did two of them. And, of course Korea’s “ice queen,” Kim Yu-Na took the gold while setting a new world record score of 150.06.

What does it take to be a champion?

Effort? Yes.
Talent? Of course
Desire? Yes
Passion? Yes

But most of all, as Joannie showed us, it takes mental toughness.

Congratulations Joannie for showing us what winning Gold looks like even when you take home the Bronze.

Do you know what Greatness is?

Values Based Leadership

"Humility is the one indispensable trait of truly values-based leaders,” explains leadership expert George Greenfield in Davis H. Taylor’s book, THE IMPERFECT LEADER: A Story About Discovering the Not-So-Secret Secrets of Transformational Leadership. Values-based leadership has, at its core, basic human traits such as integrity, humility, compassion and gratitude. These values are not so secret, but codifying them into a leadership philosophy is.

“I wrote ‘The Imperfect Leader’ to explore the ‘not-so-secret’ secrets of transformational leadership,” Taylor writes in his introduction. “It takes a leader who embraces a worthy mission, envisions a compelling, preferred future, and then leads from personally-held core values to engage and motivate employees to exceptional performance through values-based leadership.”

The book is appropriate for anyone who finds themselves in a leadership position, be it the upper echelons of corporate management or a small subcommittee, school, church or even at home.

The elegantly-written narrative acquaints the reader with Josh McCall’s plight: he is drawn to leadership positions and does reasonably well in them. Unexpectedly, he finds himself unemployed, humiliated and unable to provide for his family. At first he is insulted by leadership-expert George’s questions: “What are you trying to do, and what about you is standing in the way?” It does not take long before the two men are meeting weekly in a coffee shop to discuss values-based leadership. Through their discussions, George’s presentation and a meeting with a local business owner who successfully puts the values into practice, the reader gains an understanding of this common-sense leadership philosophy.

Interspersed throughout the book are the main tenets of values-based leadership to aid the reader in examining the framework of the philosophy. “Humility is the one indispensable trait of truly values-based leaders.” Humility is also almost impossible for the characters to define.

Nonetheless, the message here is that a good leader is not after personal gain and status but a positive, satisfying, encouraging environment for those they lead and clients they serve. Everyone must share the organisation’s values to achieve superior and transformational results.

Values Based Leadership

A Spectacular Failure of Political Leadership

'The events of the past week have raised urgent questions about the quality of political leadership in Britain, on the verge of a historic general election. The controversy about Gordon Brown’s alleged bullying is undignified: it has not only further lowered his reputation among the electorate, but it has also damaged Britain’s standing internationally. Yet there has been no sudden transformation of the Conservatives’ position in the polls; on the contrary, their lead is still showing up as a single digit. This apparent failure of leadership is perhaps the hottest single topic of discussion in Westminster, thanks in large part to malcontent Tory MPs who, as one commentator put it this week, are “torn between Schadenfreude and panic” and increasingly wringing their hands in public.'

For more, see - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7327012/A-spectacular-failure-ofpolitical-leadership.html

A Spectacular Failure of Political Leadership

Corporate Role Models Re-Emphasise Values and Ethics

It's hard to find many bright spots in the increasingly gloomy economy, but they're out there.

Among big companies, IBM and Procter & Gamble are bright spots. IBM's earnings have beaten forecasts; P&G has a robust business and has already integrated its huge Gillette acquisition relatively seamlessly. Why are these and select other companies faring well today? Because they made important changes well before the recession hit full force. This includes, for these two companies, a re-emphasis on values and ethics. This downturn's survivors will be the role models for a new kind of business practice that is more socially responsible, not as an add-on or after-thought but as a first thought at the core of its business operations.

Seeking role models - not just benchmarks - is one way to find an upside in the downturn. It's counterintuitive, because downward spirals or losing streaks tend to push people and companies to withdraw and become insular - like individual depression that might cause people to stay in bed rather than face the world. With a little extra time, or as a pause between bouts of hard work, we can look at positive models, current or historical, to find inspiration.

A time of cynicism and mistrust can be made brighter by focusing on heroes. And because every story of success is also a story about persistence despite obstacles, the lessons can be applied to one's own situation, as a source of inspiration and practical tips. One of the things that most heroes, both top leaders and individuals, have in common is their feeling of obligation to leave a positive mark on the world. They do not stop feeling it just because the going suddenly got tough. This stimulates their creativity, produces innovations that turn out to be valuable in downturns, and motivates effort, no matter what. Their work matters. Think about how Nelson Mandela survived twenty seven years in prison before emerging to become South Africa's first democratically elected president. He never forgot that he was the leader of a movement, and that others depended on him.

The way companies like IBM and P&G emphasise their social mission and get real work done can help build the foundations for a stronger economy.

Corporate Role Models Re-Emphasise Values and Ethics

Ten Rules of Good Followership

How does one become a good follower? This is a responsibility no less important than that of leadership––in fact it enables good leadership––yet it is often ignored. 

The nature of leadership can perhaps be best understood by turning the coin over and studying followership. Why do people follow leaders? If we can understand this, then we will be a long way down the road to creating those followers and hence becoming an effective leader. People don't just follow anyone. You can't just say 'follow me' and expect people to follow out of the goodness of their hearts. You have to give them good reason for them to follow. Moreover, it is likely that all of us will be followers more often than we will be leaders!

Here then are our Ten Rules of Good Followership gleaned from experience:

1. Don’t blame your boss for an unpopular decision or policy; your job is to support, not undermine.
2. Argue with your boss if necessary; but do it in private, avoid embarrassing situations, and never reveal to others what was discussed.
3. Make the decision, then run it past the boss; use your initiative.
4. Accept responsibility whenever it is offered.
5. Tell the truth and don’t quibble; your boss will be giving advice up the chain of command based on what you said.
6. Do your homework; give your boss all the information needed to make a decision; anticipate possible questions.
7. When making a recommendation, remember who will probably have to implement it. This means you must know your own limitations and weaknesses as well as your strengths.
8.  Keep your boss informed of what’s going on in the team; people will be reluctant to tell him or her their problems and successes. You should do it for them, and assume someone else will tell the boss about yours.
9.  If you see a problem, fix it. Don’t worry about who would have taken the blame or who now gets the praise.
10. Put in more than an honest day’s work, but don’t ever forget the needs of your family. If they are unhappy, you will be too, and your job performance will suffer accordingly.

See also, The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power. In this book, the authors write; 'The development of a shared identity is the basis of influential and creative leadership. If you control the definition of reality, you can change the world.'

Ten Rules of Good Followership

The Winning Mentality

'While evaluating international teams for CONCACAF (FIFA's regional leadership arm) in the Gold Cup, a tournament of National Teams, I was interviewing the national coaches from Mexico, Canada and China. They told me that what distinguishes the Americans from other countries is their winning mentality. The USA players have an enormous will to succeed, and it is very respected.

This mentality is a description of the strength of your psychological dimension. It involves your capacity to reach down inside and find your inner hardness. It's what happens when you emerge triumphant from any physical duel or combative situation. The winning mentality is partly optimism, but mostly it's a combination of focus, pride, competitive anger, relentlessness, hardness, fitness and courage - all of the most descriptive words for competitive athletics. This type of mentality is not about your skills or tactics. What it comes down to is intense desire. To get this winning edge, you need to build an indomitable will. This means you must be relentless; you must never give up.

What I love about this mentality is that it's not a talent; it's not part of a genetic code you're either born with or not. It's a choice, a decision you make to develop it. It is not an easy choice, but it is what is going to elevate you from the ordinary player. The question is: can you make the choice to be indomitable? Of course, having this mentality doesn't guarantee winning, but it's a quality that gives you the incredible strength, power and hardness that is an element in every consistent winner. You are already aware of our emphasis on one v. one at UNC. We use one v. one as the best training ground for developing the winning mentality. That's because it embodies all of the qualities mentioned above.

The winning mentality is the defining aspect of the National Team and UNC players. But that doesn't mean they have this trait as soon as they get here. Our players are still a work in progress. Most young players are. I can see this in my evening talks on the winning mentality at summer camp. This mentality requires a domination in both practice and games. The girls nod their heads yes when I'm talking about this, but I know what most of them are thinking: That's not me.

We joke with our players all the time (remember the importance of a laugh?). We tell them that we know women have evolved to a higher level - they know their relationships are more important than soccer. That's absolutely true, we say, but forget that for the 90 minutes it takes you to win the game!'

Excerpted from The Vision Of A Champion: Advice And Inspiration From The World's Most Successful Women's Soccer Coach by Anson Dorrance

The Winning Mentality

Winter Olympics 2010

Winter Olympics 2010

Winter Olympics 2010 - Moments of Excellence

Canada appears to have fallen far short of its goal of "Owning the Podium" at the Vancouver Olympics. How can leaders know the difference between a "stretch" goal that inspires people to reach new heights and an unattainable goal that winds up demoralising people?

Canada is hardly flopping in the Olympics. While their goal to "Own the Podium" is ambitious, there is nothing wrong with having high expectations. "Stretch goals" are obtainable if all the ingredients of success are present: careful planning, motivation, and a little luck. Even then, the individual or team still needs to make that giant leap to glory.

Demoralisation comes from feeling fear and doubt. It does not come from having high goals. Limitations only have power when one believes in the fears that give them life. Because of the Canadian team's high goals and their desire to not just win, but win big, many amazing things have happened that demonstrate the team's resolve.

Just a couple of days into these Olympics, Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first gold medal in freestyle skiing. The Canadian men's hockey team made it to the semi-final round after an overwhelming victory against the Russians. Joanie Rochette, just days after her mother's death, gave a courageous figure skating performance in which every second was just as powerful, emotional, and inspirational as the last.

These moments are what the games will be remembered for. Canada might not have achieved their desired medal count, but they have sought excellence, and are now in a different realm because of it. The Canadians are close to achieving the highest amount of gold medals they have ever achieved in a single Winter Olympic Games. If this is the result of having goals that are out of reach, then that giant leap is always worth it.

Winter Olympics 2010 - Moments of Excellence

The Power of Charisma in a Leader

Some people can to draw followers the way a lamp attracts moths. Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy had that magnetism. Barack Obama has shown it. It is far easier to identify than to explain. What is it?

The word comes from Greek, meaning divine favour, as true charisma can seem to be a gift of the gods. In the 1920s the German sociologist Max Weber defined it as "a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which one is 'set apart' from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities" that are "regarded as divine in origin or as exemplary." In our time, with brands and personalities exerting huge cultural influence, charisma is bigger than ever.


Corporations large and small recognise that success begins at a personal level, and they realise that charismatic leaders are valuable because they are the ones who can connect with others in a visceral, direct way, creating memorable, treasurable experiences. They also know that charisma plus operational ability can make for a very strong leader.

What does it take to be a charismatic leader?

According to Richard Wiseman, professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire you don't need divine powers to be charismatic. He estimates that charisma is half inborn and half acquired, which means you have to be blessed with certain qualities at birth but you also need to nurture and develop them. He says every charismatic leader shares three qualities: He or she feels emotions very strongly, excites them in others and is impervious to the influence of other charismatic people.

Here are some quick keys to being charismatic, or at least to drawing on the virtues of charisma even if you haven't really got it yourself. These are things people with real charisma consistently do:

Stretch the world: Charismatic leaders live as if heeding the old saying sometimes attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli, "Make no small plans, for they have no power to stir the soul." They realise that only an audacious view of the future will excite people and bind them together. They also make it a point not to restrict their bold outlook to one primary aim; they extend it to almost everything they get involved in. In every undertaking they push the boundaries beyond what is ordinarily thought possible.

Don't hide. Be seen: Charismatic leaders keep themselves always visible. They stand up to be counted in every crisis. They make unwavering efforts to motivate their people, whether by listening and responding to them or by working alongside them. Their constancy emboldens their people to go on, even in the darkest times.

Talk the talk: Charismatic leaders embrace every opportunity to convince others to adopt their vision. They make it a point always to speak in ways that convey personal integrity and engender trust.

Speak even when you are silent: Charismatic leaders send out the right signals through all their actions. They always appear enthusiastic and passionate and make others feel good and strong in their presence. They let people know that they matter, even if just by simple and subtle gestures such as upright posture, direct eye contact, genuine smiles and firm handshakes.

Charisma effectively deployed can have electrifying results.

For more, see - http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/25/charisma-speaking-communication-leadership-managing-inspiration.html

The Power of Charisma in a Leader

Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People

“I’m wrong!”

“I’m sorry!”

“You can do it!”

“I believe in you!”

“I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you!” 

“I need you!”

“I trust you!” 

“I respect you.” 

“I love you!”

Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People

How Leaders Can Reap Big Results From Collaborating

Here is some interesting perspective from Morten T. Hansen, the author of Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results. He is a management professor at University of California, Berkeley, School of Information.

'Recently, President Obama strode into the White House Briefing Room, surprising the reporters there. He had just held the first of a new string of meetings — a bipartisan gathering involving congressional leaders from both parties...This is a good effort, but it comes a year late. Obama came into office promising to end the politics of division. A year later, it seems we have more division and less collaboration.

It's a lesson in how not to collaborate, and it applies equally to business leaders. All leaders and managers can learn from five key mistakes made by the White House:

1. Wrong language by the rank-and-file. 

President Obama says many of the right things about the need for bipartisanship and collaboration. But his team does not follow suit. Rahm Emanuel, most notably, is often making news with heated rhetoric, most recently when he called people with whom he disagreed "F—ing retarded" (and they were Democrats!). As I argue in my book Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results, how leaders talk matters a great deal. In a fascinating experiment at Stanford University, students played a game where they chose to cooperate or compete. When it was called "the community game," given the impression that it was about cooperation, 70 percent chose to cooperate. When it was called "the Wall Street game," suggesting market competition, 70 percent chose to compete — the exact opposite! Rhetoric shapes behaviours.

To get people motivated to collaborate, you need to talk the language of collaboration, all the time. And you can't extol it one day and then say something differently another day. The White House can learn from the example of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California who came into office callinghis opponents "girlie men." That rhetoric led to even more division, but once he cooled the rhetoric, he was able to get a lot done by collaborating.

2. Confusing delegation with collaboration. 

President Obama pledged to work with Congress; but he has been criticized for delegating major legislative initiatives like health care reform to the Democratic leaders in Congress. What's the difference? Delegation means letting other people do the work, with little oversight. Collaboration, in contrast, means that leaders are actively involved — they sit around the table, sweat through difficult discussions, given and take, and forge solutions. President Obama's relatively recent hands-on involvement with health care legislation is a good sign that he is rectifying this particular mistake.

3. No meaningful outreach to opponents. 

The Republicans have complained that they haven't really been listened to during last year's legislative meetings on health care. It's of course hard for outsiders to judge what really went on, but this brings up a vital point: real collaboration means bringing in all parties — including those who disagree with you — to the debate early in the process, and not later when many decisions have already been made.

To collaborate well, you must involve all parties in a meaningful way: invite people to propose divergent views and promote vigorous debate (some call this constructive conflict). Let robust ideas and solutions get a fair chance, even if you may not like them much.

4. No hard compromises. In 2006, when Governor Schwarzenegger turned collaborative, he and the democratic leaders in California passed major legislation because they made some tough compromises. Consider the increase in minimum wage to $8 per hour. The Governor compromised by agreeing to an increase (which he had twice vetoed before), while the Democrats compromised by dropping their insistence on an automatic adjustment pegged to inflation. They both made painful choices.

Good collaborative leaders have learned the art of compromising. 

5. Lack of a compelling common goal. In 1961, President Kennedy pronounced his famous "man on the moon" goal. It was a great goal because it unified. People set aside their own agendas and ideologies. For example, Wernher von Braun, a towering figure in space exploration, set aside his agency's cherished method to get to the moon ("earth orbit") and embraced a rival's method ("lunar orbit"), precisely so that they could reach Kennedy's goal in time.

Has President Obama articulated a "moon goal" for healthcare that can unite all parties, even many Republicans? Great collaborative leaders craft such common goals, and they lead people like von Braun (or the Republican leader John A. Boehner....) to set aside own agendas in pursuit of a compelling unifying goal.

Had President Obama and his team avoided these five missteps and practiced the five corresponding good collaborative practices, things may have looked differently today. But there is still time to practice good collaboration, for all of us.

Examine your own organisation: do you have compelling unifying goals that unite people from different units? As a leader, do you set a tone that invites collaboration? Do you foster real debate early in the process, reach out to those who disagree, and stay hands-on in major initiatives? And — when the process stalls — have you been willing to make hard choices?'

How Leaders Can Reap Big Results From Collaborating

Leadership Lessons from the Winter Olympics 2010

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver have already provided many wonderful stories of athletes resiliently staring hardship in the face, picking themselves up and turning in the performances of their lives.

These are the kinds of stories that fill those end-of-broadcast montages that send shivers up your spine and make you reach for the Kleenex box. Of course, those montages always include the heartbreaking near-misses and lost opportunities as well. Isn’t that what draws us so irresistibly to sport? While we know that we’ll witness extraordinary athleticism and thrilling performances, the tension created by the knowledge that anything can happen keeps us engaged and on the edge of our seats.

There are a number of leadership lessons we can learn from these extraordinary athletes and their coaches. What stands out most is the role that a team’s or individual performer’s coach plays once the athlete(s) enter the field of play.


Coaches stand back and let the athletes perform. They are not out there moving the athletes’ feet, pushing them down the track or holding their hockey sticks. They allow the athletes to perform unhindered because they recognise who has the talent. Similarly, managers who build their teams by selecting people whose strengths eclipse their own, and then allowing them to express those talents freely, will reap the reward of outstanding performance.


One of the best cues we can take from these Olympic partnerships is that if an athlete fails to deliver an expected performance, the best coaches do not berate and hang on to the team or athlete’s shortcomings. They recognise that the athletes are fully aware of what went wrong.


The best coaches support and encourage, helping the performers to regain their confidence so that they are psychologically prepared to face their next battle. Managers who focus their feedback on detailing an employee’s deficiencies will simply demoralise individuals and seriously undermine future opportunities for exceptional performance. Great managers seek what’s working and no matter how small the feat, they fan that flame to give the employee the confidence to keep going. Of course, they don’t ignore easy fixes but they frame the feedback in a future-oriented way: "Next time try this…" They provide ideas about how to improve and always include the employee’s ideas in the plan.


Finally, anything great that has ever been accomplished has been accomplished through the conscious collaboration of extraordinary individuals. While the high-performing individual can certainly impact certain outcomes, the makings for great and sustainable performance on the field or in your organisation are found in those groups of people who have discovered how to bring out the best in themselves and each other by virtue of working together and supporting the best in one another.

Leadership Lessons from the Winter Olympics 2010

Leadership Lessons from the Life of Gandhi

A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi tells us that we need to adhere to moral principles in all our activities, rather than using a position of leadership as a way to achieve power and privilege.

If we are to look for a model, an individual to benchmark for a higher standard of leadership, what better example could we follow than that of Mahatma Gandhi. While Gandhi was seen by most as an idealist, he demonstrated that he could also be a practical and effective leader. The author, Dr Keshavan Nair, a lifelong student of the teachings and life of Gandhi, provides the reader with a pragmatic guide based on three concepts Gandhi exemplified.

1. Service is the purpose of leadership.

2. Moral principles must be the basis of goals, decisions, and strategies.

3. A single standard of conduct needs to be employed in both public and private life.

Dr. Nair brings Gandhi's ideals to us in clear business terms without taking away from or diluting their moral or ethical value. As Nair says, "Everyone in the organisation, irrespective of position, can commit to one personal act of service every day."

Leadership Lessons from the Life of Gandhi