Positive Leadership: Upside Down Management

Toyota Motors is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. What is the reason behind Toyota’s traditonal success? Is it technology?
It has little to do with technology and everything to do with management DNA. Toyota reinvented the way management process works. The top-down management style is the relic of the past when it was effective in producing standardised products. The management structure today must allow more autonomy on the frontline enabling companies to respond more nimbly to shifting markets and customer preferences. Rather than telling the employees what to do, today’s management must learn how to lead, organise, educate and allocate resources utilising inputs from the front-line employees.

Given core business strategy and model, wealth creation today comes from companies that make innovation everybody’s job everyday and do not squander the creative imaginations of employees. A company can demand obedience and diligence, but can’t command creativity, initiative and passion.

The new management paradigm requires inverting the leadership model. Leadership is less and less about meeting company’s goals and more and more about meeting employees’ goals.

In the upside-down pyramid system, the CEO is at the very bottom of the organisation. Given core business strategy and model, the CEO’s job is to support the key employees by removing roadblocks in satisfying customers’ needs. Top managers’ responsibility is to support their direct reports so that they can do a better job and so on.

Toyota's success comes from its superior quality reputation. Its vehicles work right the first time and keep on working while other cars may work well when they are new, but spend a lot of time in the garage later on. The incredible performance of Toyota cars is the direct result of its operational excellence. Toyota’s continued success stems from a deep business philosophy based on the understanding of people and human motivation. The success has been based on its ability to cultivate leadership, teams and culture.

The former CEO of Toyota, Fujio Cho, said, “there are many things the management does not understand. Therefore we ask employees to go ahead and take action. You (the management) realise how little you know and you face your own failures.” He continued, “ By constant improvements based on action (by employees), one can rise to the higher level of practice and knowledge.”

But see now - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/076f7700-167a-11df-bf44-00144feab49a.html ('How Toyota Engineered its Own Downfall')

Positive Leadership: Upside Down Management

Positive Leadership: Roger Staubach

Roger Staubach, Hall of Fame former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys talks about the lessons he learned about leadership. In July 2008, The Staubach Company was sold to Jones Lang LaSalle for $613 million.

Positive Leadership: Roger Staubach

Positive Leadership: Listen, Learn ... Then Lead

General Stanley McChrystal is the former commander of U.S. and International forces in Afghanistan. In this video, he shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military.

How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets? By listening and learning -- and addressing the possibility of failure. 

Positive Leadership: Listen, Learn ... Then Lead

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (10)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (10)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (9)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (9)

Positive Leadership: Sir Alex Ferguson, Talent Master

Sir Alex Ferguson may be cantankerous but he's a family man to his core. 

As the nurturing of his youth teams proves, he is an older man who believes in the next generation. His success springs from his love for his team and for the game they play – and his absolute loyalty both to them and to his principles. That makes him cantankerous and unbending. But it also makes him a model of the supportive parent. This probably reflects the fact that Ferguson himself is driven to succeed by his respect for his own father and his desire to please him.

Whether you believe that or not, the idea that those family values lie at the heart of what he has achieved, is surely worthy of applause – whatever team you support.

For the full text of this fascinating insight, see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/8534270/Sarah-Crompton-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-may-be-cantankerous-but-hes-a-family-man-to-his-core.html

Positive Leadership: Sir Alex Ferguson, Talent Master

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (8)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (8)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (7)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (7)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (6)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (6)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (5)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (5)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (4)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (4)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (3)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (3)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (2)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (2)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders

Positive Leadership: What New CEO's Need to Remember

What do you wish you’d done differently when you first became CEO?  

When asked this question, most CEO's will answer, “I wish I’d moved faster on talent decisions.”

Why? Because often their instinct tells them that the people are not aligned properly with the needs of their roles, and that the roles are not aligned with the business needs that are driven by the organisation’s new vision.  But there may be fear about sending disruptive signals by making dramatic changes, and by making them quickly.

And yet, upon reflection, that is almost always what they wish they’d done.

We believe that by doing the following seven things it is possible for CEOs and other C-suite executives to address talent alignment issues in a proactive and positive way, so that the organisation is galvanised for forward movement toward its vision as quickly as possible:

Make managing and growing your talent a top priority.  This means making it one of the top three items in every staff meeting and every strategy discussion.

Communicate openly about the importance – and the benefit to everyone in the company – of having positions aligned with the vision and strategies of the company, and of having the right people in those positions. 

At the same time, be committed to finding roles for the current employees that best align with their strengths, and thus “set them up” for success.

Be open about your willingness to work with employees who may be in positions that are not a great fit – to help them via coaching or mentoring – so that both they and the company are better off because of the process.

Make sure that talent decisions align with the values of the company.  Top performers that disrespect others and play by their own rules – and may have been allowed to do so under previous leadership – must be dealt with because of their impact on the organisation’s culture.

Remember that everything communicates.  Not addressing talent issues of non-performance speaks volumes. 

And remember the power you have to communicate, through words and actions, a genuine desire to see everyone succeed – and to mean it.

Positive Leadership: What New CEO's Need to Remember

Positive Leadership: Leading With Impact

Wondering how high powered women deal with risk, failure and, yes, success? Here are some thoughts:

Positive Leadership: Leading With Impact

Positive Leadership: Avoiding the Ego Trap

Ego and insecurity are the two greatest land mines of leadership. 

Ego creeps in when you start not to value other people—when you begin to look at people as what can they do for you instead of what you can do for them. There are three characteristics needed to become a successful leader:

1. Build consensus. Abraham Lincoln was great at bringing together the people around him to help make up for his weaknesses. The fallacy of leadership is thinking if you can lead in one area, you can lead in all areas. Value the opinion of others before making a decision.

2. Practice humility. Instead of talking about their own accomplishments, leaders should look to give the team the credit.

3. Take risks. Leaders are not afraid to step out and say 'this is what needs to be done'. Winston Churchill, for example, stood alone against Parliament in his opposition to Nazism.  

Positive Leadership: Avoiding the Ego Trap

Positive Leadership: Rebecca Watson, Lady Vol Student Athlete

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the USA prides itself on developing 'student-athletes'. As their advertising says - 'most of us go pro in something other than sports'.

Today, I want to pay tribute to my older daughter, Rebecca, who graduated yesterday from the University of Tennessee. Rebecca is a Lady Vol; a two-time Academic All-American who graduated cum laude in business. Rebecca played on the  Lady Vol golf team for four years and is now returning to Scotland to begin a CA traineeship with Ernst & Young.

Rebecca embodies everything which the term 'student-athlete' stands for and we wish her every success in her future career. 

Positive Leadership: Rebecca Watson, Lady Vol Student Athlete

Positive Leadership: Because I Do

Positive Leadership: Because I Do

Positive Leadership: Enemies Define Our Leadership

Positive Leadership: Enemies Define Our Leadership

Positive Leadership: Pass It On

The values we live by are best when we pass them on...Pass it on... (From the Foundation for a Better Life and Josh Groban) http://www.values.com/pass-it-on-sightings

Positive Leadership: Pass It On

Positive Leadership: How Can Teams Make Better Decisions?

Alan Mulally is president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company. Throughout his career, Mulally has been recognizsd for his contributions and industry leadership, including being named "Person of the Year" for 2006 by Aviation Week magazine and one of "The Best Leaders of 2005" by BusinessWeek magazine.

Positive Leadership: How Can Teams Make Better Decisions?

Positive Leadership: Will Smith on Leadership and Other Inspiring Thoughts

Positive Leadership: Will Smith on Leadership and Other Inspiring Thoughts

Positive Leadership: The Business Case for Leadership Development

One of the biggest challenges HR professionals face when they propose new leadership development initiatives is convincing CEOs of the financial impact of the proposed initiative.  Without a clear sense of the positive financial impact, it’s easy to write-off a new proposal as too expensive, or that now is not the right time.  The lack of urgency to improve performance is based on the idea that that the current level of leadership skill in the organisation is good enough.  But is it? A look at most companies has shown that the typical organisation is leaving considerable value in untapped potential lying on the table through less-than-optimal leadership practices.  

For example, in 2006 The Ken Blanchard Companies conducted a year-long study to identify the connections between leadership effectiveness, employee passion, customer devotion, and overall organisational vitality.  

They identified several correlations:

• Effective operational leadership directly predicts positive employee passion
• Positive employee passion directly predicts customer devotion
• Customer devotion directly predicts organisational vitality.

Positive Leadership: The Business Case for Leadership Development