Sunday, July 04, 2010
Mental Toughness
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Playing for the Team
How many leaders understand the importance of communicating with employees about the connection between their work and their company’s mission?
As one of our client’s reminded us recently: "I always think of the old story about a man who was walking along a road and saw two men moving bricks. 'What are you doing?' he asks. One worker says 'I'm moving bricks from this side of the road to the other.' Another says, 'I'm building a cathedral.'"
As a leader, you have to find ways to make sure people in your organisation know exactly how their work connects to the broader mission of the organisation. They need to know: How is this making our organisation better? "
A lot of the time, people are not sure how their work contributes to the larger whole. Leaders can provide the context.
Keep in mind that most people have some desire to make a difference. Here are three concrete ways to make sure your company’s employees understand how their work is making an impact:
Formalise it. Don't just develop performance objectives with a list of tasks and outputs. Incorporate the mission-connection into your employees' performance plans by including a link to the results your company delivers.
Celebrate success. It's easy to become so wrapped up in the day-to-day rush of activities or the next big challenge that we forget to recognise the victories already secured and how they've contributed to the mission. Don't make that mistake. This is about more than the annual employee awards programme and spot awards. It's about personal e-mails or phone calls. It's about making an unscripted appearance at a team meeting to thank everyone for getting closer to the goal. It's about a sincere expression of gratitude.
Make it a habit. 'One and done' will not suffice. As a general rule of thumb, you'll need to communicate your message connecting employees to the mission at least seven times before it begins to stick.
Friday, July 02, 2010
5 Team-Building Lessons from the NBA Playoffs
In the USA, the National Basketball Association has just completed its season ending play-offs, with the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Boston Celtics in the final game of a 7 game series.
Here are some team-building lessons from the play-offs:
Experience Matters
Maturity turns out to be a pretty potent competitive advantage. Just ask Derek Fisher of the Lakers who, even at the age of 35, was a game-changer during the team’s playoff run. And he’s not alone. The average age of a player on the Celtics is 29 and on the Lakers, the average age is 28. And even the ‘kids’ are pretty deep on experience. The youngest player on either team is Andrew Bynum; though he is 22, he has spent a full five seasons in the NBA.
Managing Seasoned Teams Takes a Deft Touch
Accomplished veterans such as Fisher, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Kobe Bryant require a different kind of coaching. When the Celtics find themselves down in a game, Doc Rivers is often seen in the huddle reminding players to play together; he focuses on the big picture, and trusts the veterans to follow through in their own way. Lesson: You need to pursue a low-key management approach with a veteran team if you expect to succeed.
Build a Deep Bench
Your stars can only carry you so far, but your bench can sometimes surprise you by taking you farther still, as the Celtics learned in Game 4 against the Lakers. Glen Davis put up 18 points in 22 minutes, showing that even a 'sometimes contributor' can make a big impact at an important moment.
Strive to Reduce Turnover
You may think that mixing things up on the talent front will help you succeed. But in fact, it takes time to get a team to gel. The Lakers and Celtics have enjoyed low turnover both on and off the court, and it shows. Doc Rivers has coached the Celtics for seven seasons while Phil Jackson has been at the helm of the Lakers since 1999 (save for a period in 2004 and 2005). Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, the Lakers back-court, have played together for eight seasons - and made seven Finals together.
Compete Hard, and Follow Through
It’s sometimes fashionable to say that you should focus on your own business and forget about the competition. But sometimes getting in the competition’s face is both productive and satisfying. Case in point: Through the first six games of the Finals, the team that won the rebounding battle walked away with the victory in each game. Similarly, sales might be more fun than operations, but both are essential to the success of your business. Follow-through counts, and it counts for a lot.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Lasorda's Law
Here is an interesting quote from Tommy Lasorda, who has worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team for almost 50 years, including a 20-year stint as the team's manager.
The first day he took charge of the team, Tommy said to the press: "I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it."
Call it Lasorda's law: Being just assertive enough, while not easy for any leader, is one of the most important features of a good one. And it isn't simply a matter of arriving at some correct calibration and then sticking with it. Rather, the best leaders get the balance right on any given day, and in myriad interactions with their followers, peers, and own leaders.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Leadership Lessons from the U.S. World Cup Campaign
1 Team Spirit trumps individual talent.
2 'It's never too late'
3 Admit your mistakes ....... then fix them.
For more, see - http://www.cnbc.com/id/37978436
Appreciation Works!
Your organisation feels the economic difficulties. Your team knows that you have to make savings. You want to keep spirits up, but budgets are tight and getting even tighter. Everyone feels overworked, tired, and taken for granted. You are tense and irritable yourself.
Now is the time for a magnanimous but totally basic gesture. It is simple and free, and will lift your spirits too. It is so simple but it works.
The gesture: Send notes of appreciation to the people on your team telling them specifically what you value about each of them as colleagues. Surprise them with something they might not know that you notice. No form letters. Preferably handwritten notes, to stand out in the impersonal email clutter.
If you are not the big boss, you could also ask the next level above you to send a letter to your team acknowledging their contributions.
Some of the best CEOs are known for their handwritten notes. When Jeannette Wagner headed Estee Lauder, she always had stationery with her on trips to keep getting out those notes, sometimes sent in the next hour after a meeting. U.S. Presidents have built their goodwill banks of future supporters through handwritten notes (not the ones generated by machines).
In organisations and professions where a show of emotion is rare, recipients might secretly treasure the note because it is unexpected. Your own mood will improve as you think positive thoughts. This is scientifically proven.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Top Executives Lack Confidence in Corporate Leadership
Top executives consider their companies poorly prepared to face future challenges in terms of leadership line-up, according to a recent global survey of senior executives.
Nearly 70 percent of executives do not believe there is sufficient leadership potential in such skills as the ability to drive change, drive customer focus, basic business competencies and innovation skills. Additionally, the survey shows that nearly 70 percent of top executives in global companies do not believe they have a well documented succession plan in place.
In the US, only 32 percent of executives believe there is a succession plan process in place despite the fact that US public companies face increased SEC and shareholder scrutiny to ensure a CEO succession plan has been established. New SEC guidelines redefine succession planning responsibilities as a key board function.
For complete study see: http://www.egonzehnder.com/iep-resilience.
Leadership Lessons from the BP Oil Spill
Lesson 1: Crises expose dysfunctional organisational cultures.
Lesson 2: Leaders must recognise when a crisis can't be spun.
Lesson 3: Leaders need to work together rather than scoring points or deflecting blame.
Lesson 4: Leaders are there to serve their companies, people and communities.
Lesson 5: True leadership exists beyond title and office — elected leaders should remember this.
Character v Reputation
How Can Leaders Build Followers?
Great leaders understand that people will not follow you just because you want them to, or because you say they must. Leaders create a following only by being the type of leader that people want to follow. So the question for aspiring leaders becomes, “How can I get people to want to follow me?”
If you’re a leader with this question on your mind, consider these things:
If you’re a leader with this question on your mind, consider these things:
People follow leaders they trust.
No matter how good you may be at your job, regardless of your skills, knowledge or talent, you will not create a following without first being a person that people can come to know and trust. Character goes much farther than brains when attempting to recruit believers to your cause. People will quickly see through a charade if you are trying to be someone you’re not. Great leaders not only talk the talk, they walk the walk!
People follow leaders who care.
When you want to lead so others will follow, you have to care about them as individuals. When a person feels that he matters as a person, that his opinions are valued and his efforts appreciated, he is far more likely to respond in a positive manner. The more a leader or manager proves genuine interest and concern for his employees, the more loyal his believers and followers will become.
People follow leaders they can talk to.
It is impossible to make the kind of connection necessary for strong leadership support if your followers can’t approach you. You must be available and open to discussion, ready to listen sincerely, and willing to acknowledge valuable input and suggestions. This consistency will help build trust and increase the confidence of your team.
People follow leaders they admire.
The most important trait that others will see and value is a leader’s sense of commitment. A great leader must be ready to give everything he has for the cause he believes in. If a leader cannot demonstrate his own true dedication to the company goals and objectives, how can he expect others to follow along?
People follow leaders they respect.
Respect never comes automatically with position or title, it must be earned. Initially, people may follow along with a leader because he is the person in charge, but ultimately they will follow a leader whom they respect. Being able to do the job well increases a leader’s credibility. It is when things get tough and a leader must stand up to his commitments, that he will develop a following of individuals who respect him and his competence.
All of the above actions are built on the principles of influence, not position.
Everything a leader does, and everything he says plays a critical role in the way he ultimately influences those around him. It is this influence that builds the trust, confidence and loyalty that every good leader strives for.
Monday, June 28, 2010
How Great Leaders Inspire Action
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Leadership Gap Between the Public and Private Sectors
David Rubenstein, a founding managing director of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s premiere private-equity firms, has built a career on assessing companies across industries and around the globe.
In this interview from the McKinsey conversations with global leaders, Rubenstein shares his insights on how to manage a diverse and decentralised organisation, how to identify the markets of greatest potential in a changing world economy, and how to attract leaders who are both intelligent and “have their ego in check.” He also discusses the new ecosystem he sees developing for the private-equity industry as pressures build for some of its largest players go public -
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/
McKinsey_conversations_with_global_leaders_David_Rubenstein_of_The_Carlyle_Group_2605?pagenum=1#darub
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/
McKinsey_conversations_with_global_leaders_David_Rubenstein_of_The_Carlyle_Group_2605?pagenum=1#darub
Is Your Leadership Consistent?
Is your leadership consistent, regardless of the setting you are in, the people you’re with or the circumstances you’re facing?
Consistency in leadership may sound like a recipe for boring sameness or rigid thinking. On the contrary, being a consistent leader means:
- What is important today is also important tomorrow
- You don’t chase the latest fad, project or trend
- Your bad mood doesn’t cause you to act radically different
- People know what to expect from you.
Being consistent in your leadership means that even under duress, you make the right choices. You steer the ship, make mid-course corrections and align your “crew” around important best practices that will help you reach your destination.
Even the most reliable and unswerving of leaders must be able to adjust to change. Yet, the consistent leader will be grounded, so that unfamiliar and challenging conditions won’t change the quality of interactions, thinking and decision-making.
How do you stay on course and make consistently positive leadership choices?
Start by answering these four questions:
1. What is success? Success is defined first by the impact you want to make – and secondly by the results you need to achieve to have that impact. Think about who and what will be changed by your efforts. That’s your impact.
2. What is sacred? What are your non-negotiables? Make a list of the things you will not compromise, no matter what. For example, you might list ethical standards that are vital and unchanging.
3. What is important? List a few guiding principles for your life and your leadership. Examples might include:
- Act with integrity
- Be a good steward of resources
- Be humble
- Have fun
4. What works? Know – and grow – best practices that lead to success, help you hold fast to what is sacred and allow you to focus on what is important. Identify the thinking and actions that are requirements for questions 1, 2 and 3.
Consistent, dependable leadership choices provide a solid foundation for your people – enabling them to weather storms and operate at their peak. You shouldn’t be completely predictable. You don’t have to be perfect, and you’re allowed to have bad days. What you cannot do is permit outside conditions to change you fundamentally – causing you to shift whichever way the wind blows. Be the anchor that your organisational ship requires.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Buying and Selling Can Be Good For You
The Mergers and Acquisitions Research Centre (Marc) at Cass Business School in London has just published a paper on the deal-making record of new CEOs. Its analysis challenges some long-held prejudices about the wisdom (or otherwise) of hasty executive action.
Marc’s key findings were as follows. CEOs who carry out a big deal in their first year outperform their peers in the long run. However, attempting more than one major deal in that first year leads to poorer performance. The message? A big strategic change may be a good idea, but do not attempt more than one.
CEOs who choose to sell a part of the business early on outperform those who make an acquisition – but this only holds true in their first two years in the job. This finding reflects the actions of distressed companies that need the cash injection of a sale.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
How to Motivate Your Board
When serving on a board of directors is voluntary, sometimes members can lose focus or doubt that their participation is essential. At your next board meeting, try these three tips for reinvigorating and encouraging board members to devote more time and energy to growing your company:
- Pose provocative questions. Spend a significant part of each board meeting wrestling with critical issues and asking your board to think through the toughest challenges facing your company.
- Share the stage. Minimise time spent listening to prepared presentations. Be sure the conversation isn't dominated by one or two members.
- Spend time one-on-one. Find out about members' individual interests and how they might translate to helping your company in a unique way — for example, by coaching an executive or attending a critical in-house meeting.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Psychology and Business Success
Some businesspeople have a strange idea about psychology. They think they can forget it and run their business by numbers alone. They believe that if they have a good enough understanding of things like profit and loss, cash flow, economic forecasts, and credit sources, then they know all they need to know.
Their managers have come up through the ranks after coming out of business school, and the psychology of human behaviour has just never seemed important enough for their time and attention. However, if the average businessperson doesn't think psychology is important, the highly successful ones know better.
Malcolm Forbes once said "There are those of us who think that the psychology of man, each and together, has more impact on markets, business, services, construction, and the entire fabric of an economy than all the more measurable statistical indices."
So if you are serious about succeeding in business, or in any endeavour where the end-result depends on people, you would do well to find out what is happening in the worlds of cognitive, organisational and social psychology.
The best evidence is telling us that quality, productivity, and customer service are the results of beliefs, attitudes and expectations as much, or more, than the good skills and systems.
It is your people who define your organisational culture, and psychology lies at the very foundation of your people.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Kindness
Kindness works simply and perseveringly; it produces no strained relations which prejudice its working; strained relations which already exist it relaxes. Mistrust and misunderstanding it puts to flight, and it strengthens itself by calling forth answering kindness. Hence it is the furthest reaching and the most effective of all forces.
Albert Schweitzer
Life Lessons
Robert L. Joss, Professor of Finance, Dean Emeritus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has some advice a few weeks before graduation. In fact, he has 10 life lessons:
10. Life is like cricket
9. Life is too short to deal with "bad" people
8. Run it like you own it
7. Don't forget to manage side-ways
6. Don't take yourself too seriously
5. Without fear -- there is no courage
4. Life is full of "character building experiences"
3. Find the words
2. Use CAT and GSB learning throughout your life
1. Don't forget to renew yourself
To listen to the full lecture (with slides) see - http://www.youtube.com/stanfordbusiness#p/u/2556C102D4467946/0/62rgESCyB2g
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Authenticity
What does it mean to be authentic in today's world? It doesn't mean just being different or standing out from the crowd.
"Genuineness." "Authenticity." These words are hard to say and, for many people, even harder to be. Here is what we think it means to be authentic. First of all, authentic people are aware of their thoughts and feelings, and they behave in ways that reflect those feelings. They don't see any need to "Put on an act" to impress or control others. They accept their vulnerabilities as well as their strengths, and they know that accepting something isn't necessarily the same thing as liking it. Do you know something else? Because they accept themselves for who they are, they accept other people, too.
Authentic people don't laugh at jokes they don't think are funny. They don't change their identity, like chameleons, depending on who they are with or where they are. So, if you want to grow as a person, take time to really know yourself. If you're not completely happy with what you find, don't worry too much. Work on accepting yourself for what you are, right here, right now, and on being truly authentic.
Carl Rogers, a world famous psychologist, once said that when we accept ourselves exactly as we are, change becomes much easier.
Authentic people don't laugh at jokes they don't think are funny. They don't change their identity, like chameleons, depending on who they are with or where they are. So, if you want to grow as a person, take time to really know yourself. If you're not completely happy with what you find, don't worry too much. Work on accepting yourself for what you are, right here, right now, and on being truly authentic.
Carl Rogers, a world famous psychologist, once said that when we accept ourselves exactly as we are, change becomes much easier.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Leadership Means Responsibility
In his 'View from the Top' speech, Stanford Graduate School of Business Dean Robert Joss defines what it means to lead: 'It's any position where you take responsibility for a group with a mission to fulfil.' He told students that: 'In order to have the organisation you lead evolve, you have to be the change you want to see in others'.
Monday, June 14, 2010
The Importance of Role Models
Just about everyone knows that good role models are important for a child's development, but have you ever thought about why this is true?
Our work emphasises the importance of visualisation in being able to perform under pressure, because we've learned that our mental images, for the most part, are what determine our reality. In other words, the way we see ourselves and the world is what decides how we will behave, and how we behave determines, to a very great extent, what will happen to us.
Role models serve as living, breathing mental images that help us visualise the way we'd like to live.
What kinds of role models are best? There is no question about it - people we can actually get to know. You see, while it's helpful to read about an admirable person in a book or magazine, watch an inspiring life story in the movies, or watch successful people on TV, it is much more powerful when we can actually interact with someone who shows us possibilities for ourselves.
When we can do so on a daily or regular basis, as we do with parents, grandparents, teachers and so on, this has the most powerful impact of all. And remember parents, your children will learn far more from what you do than from what you say. The best role models only need to set a good example and let the children find the rest out for themselves.
Our work emphasises the importance of visualisation in being able to perform under pressure, because we've learned that our mental images, for the most part, are what determine our reality. In other words, the way we see ourselves and the world is what decides how we will behave, and how we behave determines, to a very great extent, what will happen to us.
Role models serve as living, breathing mental images that help us visualise the way we'd like to live.
What kinds of role models are best? There is no question about it - people we can actually get to know. You see, while it's helpful to read about an admirable person in a book or magazine, watch an inspiring life story in the movies, or watch successful people on TV, it is much more powerful when we can actually interact with someone who shows us possibilities for ourselves.
When we can do so on a daily or regular basis, as we do with parents, grandparents, teachers and so on, this has the most powerful impact of all. And remember parents, your children will learn far more from what you do than from what you say. The best role models only need to set a good example and let the children find the rest out for themselves.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The New 21st Century Leaders
Here is some fascinating insight into a new leadership model for the 21st century from Harvard Professor Bill George:
'During the last half of the 20th century, business leadership became an elite profession, dominated by managers who ruled their enterprises from the top down. Influenced by two World Wars and the Depression, organisational hierarchies were structured along military lines, with multi-layered structures to establish control through rules and processes. People climbed the ranks in search of power, status, money and perquisites.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century the stock market became increasingly short-term, causing corporate leaders to concentrate on quarterly earnings, often to the exclusion of long-term growth. In the past decade it all blew up, from the ethical scandals exposed by Enron and WorldCom to the Wall Street meltdown. As a result, people lost trust in business leaders to build sustainable institutions instead of serving themselves and short-term shareholders.
What happened? The hierarchical model simply doesn't work anymore.
The craftsman-apprentice model has been replaced by learning organisations, filled with knowledge workers who don't respond to "top down" leadership. Seeking opportunities to lead, young people are unwilling to spend ten years waiting in line. Most important, people are searching for genuine satisfaction and meaning from their work, not just money.
In response to these changes, a new generation of leaders is reshaping the best-led global companies. Authentic leaders focused on customers are replacing hierarchical leaders that focus on serving short-term shareholders. Typical of these leaders is Unilever CEO Paul Polman, who recently told the Financial Times, "I don't work for the shareholder. I work for consumers and my customers."
In the 21st century the most successful leaders will focus on sustaining superior performance by aligning people around mission and values and empowering leaders at all levels, while concentrating on serving customers and collaborating throughout the organisation.
Aligning: The leader's most difficult task is to align people around the organisation's mission and shared values, which is far more challenging than making short-term numbers. Gaining alignment is especially difficult in far-flung global organisations where local employees may be more loyal to native cultures than their employers, especially regarding business practices.
Traditional leaders thought they could solve this problem with rulebooks, training programmes and compliance systems, and were shocked when people deviated. Aligned employees commit to the mission and values of the organisation, and want to be part of something greater than themselves. Johnson & Johnson is a classic case of an aligned organisation that uses its famed Credo to guide global employees in their actions.
Empowering: Hierarchical leaders delegate limited amounts of power in order to retain control. In contrast, 21st century leaders empower leaders at all levels, combined with sophisticated accountability systems to ensure commitments are met.
Front-line leaders without direct reports are especially needed. Here's an empowered leader who sets standards of excellence for other employees in Medtronic's heart valve facility. A Laotian immigrant, she told me, "I make heart valves that save people's life. I do my own quality control, because if one of the valves I make fails, someone will die. At Medtronic 99.9 percent quality is very good, but I couldn't live with causing someone's death. My satisfaction comes from the 5,000 people alive today because of heart valves I made."
Serving: As Polman points out, the leader's first obligation is not to shareholders, but rather to customers. CEOs who spend too much time listening to Wall Street risk ignoring their most important stakeholder — their customers. Any organisation that doesn't provide its customers with superior value relative to competitors will find itself going out of business. Employees are much more motivated by serving customers than they are by getting stock prices up, and that's what leads to innovation and superior customer service. Satisfied customers and motivated employees are key to sustaining revenue growth and, ultimately, shareholder value.
Collaborating: The challenges businesses face these days are too complex to be solved by individuals or even single organisations. Collaboration — within the organisation and with customers, suppliers, and even competitors — is required to achieve lasting solutions. Leaders must foster this collaborative spirit, eliminating internal politics and focusing on internal cooperation. After becoming CEO of IBM, Sam Palmisano transformed IBM's long-standing bureaucracy into an "integrated global network," shifting to "leading by values" and breaking down silos that kept people from collaborating.
The ultimate measure of effectiveness for leaders is the ability to sustain superior results over an extended period of time. Organisations filled with aligned, empowered and collaborative employees focused on serving customers will outperform hierarchical organizations every time. Top-down leaders may achieve near-term results, but only authentic leaders can galvanise the entire organisation to sustain long-term performance.
We need them to rebuild the trust that has been lost in capitalism.'
For more, see - http://blogs.hbr.org/imagining-the-future-of-leadership/2010/04/the-new-21st-century-leaders-1.html
Friday, June 11, 2010
Becoming a Great Leader
Positive Leadership helps organisations build effective executive leaders, and we work with effective leaders to help enable them to be great.
For more information, please contact: graham.watson@positiveleadership.co.uk
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