Lessons from the Dugout

One of the greatest lessons football has for business is the value of coaching. Too often, in business, coaching is mistaken for counseling or mentoring, to the detriment of the organisation.While both functions are valuable, genuine coaching is only about performance.

In football, coaches are judged solely on performance. Nobody watches the process, only the results. If business adopted the same appraisal system, imagine the difference.

Insert into an organisation's appraisal system the concept of judging departmental managers solely on the performance of their staff -- there would be no meetings between appraiser and appraisee, only observation of the performance of staff.

That is what happens on a daily basis with football teams. The entire management team is judged, each week, on what happens during each 90 minutes of competitive play. It is the immediacy of such judgment, and the visibility of the managerial process that makes football the all-embracing model it is.

Where else are failures in personnel selection and man-management so totally visible? That visibility provides an access to the process denied in business at least until long after the event. As a consequence, the lessons from the dugout are profound, not trivial.

For more, see: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/09/22/chris.brady.football.ferguson/

Lessons from the Dugout

A Life in Leadership

With nearly 30 books and 85 years behind him, Warren Bennis is among the preeminent figures in the field of leadership studies.When the International Leadership Association (ILA) announced its 2010 webinar series entitled Leadership Perspectives, Bennis's August 25th presentation was a 'can't miss'. Through an interview moderated by Jean Lipman-Blumen (available here), Bennis discussed his latest book, Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series), and further explored his personal leadership journey through anecdotes and reflections of his life. 

Here are his key thoughts: 

1. Social animal

One of the more poignant and heartfelt insights that Bennis had to offer was the importance of people in his life. He considered his personal relationships with friends and colleagues to be the thread that unifies his many experiences, and proclaimed himself a social animal. Bennis spoke of how he best learns through conversation with others, shared his original idea for his book's title (My Self through Others), and spoke openly of the importance of people and meaningful conversation in his life.

2. Engaged Observer

Bennis spoke at length about his desire to be a part of the action of his time. He expressed a genuine interest in learning and exploring, and wanted to be a participant in our countries history and struggle. He labeled himself an engaged observer, reflecting on his service as an officer in World War II to his research on institutions and groups. He wanted to be a part of solutions, and spoke passionately about his optimism for being a part of positive and meaningful change in the world.

3. Strategic Vision

When asked about the much-used concept of vision as a guiding force behind organisations, Bennis stated bluntly that static visions are "stupid". He emphasised the importance of regularly assessing the vision that guides a company, a movement, a person in the context of the events taking place throughout the world. The environment, market, economy, politics, etc. are always changing, and being flexible in terms of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it is a more likely way of ensuring success.

4. Vision Subtext

Bennis also spoke fervently about the importance of identifying the subtext or undercurrent of your stated vision. Using one of his examples, a sales-person at a retail clothing store isn't simply selling suits, she's selling self esteem. In short, there is always an understated vision that is far more compelling than what lies on the surface, and leaders must work to identify it and bring it out. Leaders who spend time understanding and articulating why they do what they do will ultimately be more successful.

5. Crucibles

For Bennis, crucibles are challenges that test our character. Some challenges may be chosen while others are thrust upon us. Regardless, the adversity we face in life provides us with opportunity to find something within ourselves that we may not have known we had. Through adversity we discover ways to move forward and grow, and interestingly, Bennis stressed that growth doesn't have to be done alone. Cycling back to the beginning, Bennis suggests that relationships help us through our crucibles, and by working alongside other people we learn from and advance through life's pitfalls.

ILA's presentation of Warren Bennis provided a revealing look into the life and work of revered scholar. However, perhaps more importantly it provided a platform for one man to share his life's story in conjunction with hopeful insights for leaders everywhere. Bennis's upbeat and hopeful tenants are of great value, and as the study of leadership advances it will be interesting to revisit the value of his beliefs. 

A Life in Leadership

Gifted Children No More Likely To Succeed

Well hurrah, let’s trample on the Non-Verbal Reasoning test papers immediately, mes enfants. And while we’re at it, please stop all those silly French mornings when our children have to do le badinage. And can we can the violin practice before school, and all the other preposterous hurdles we expect our children to vault. 

Because the news is that hot-housing your child and encouraging them to walk the path of mathematics, musical or linguistic genius doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to their future success, happiness or material gains.

Prof. Joan Freeman, who studied the adult careers of 210 child prodigies for her book Gifted Lives: What Happens When Gifted Children Grow Up, has discovered that not every child who is labeled an infant Mozart will necessarily become one. Far from it: of the 210, only six became incredibly successful in later life. 

Indeed, the book reveals that the old schoolboy riposte “Winston Churchill failed his exams at school and he didn’t do too badly, did he?” might have something in it after all. Apparently, fate, personality and good old-fashioned drive are just as important to adult success and fulfillment as the ability to describe Shape A after twisting it by 90 degrees, or describe Pi to 60 decimal points. Probably more, in fact. 

For more, see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8028543/Gifted-children-no-more-likely-to-succeed.html

Gifted Children No More Likely To Succeed

What Motivates Us?

Several years ago, in A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel Pink argued that American professions have been dominated by analytical thinkers, but soon these left-brained MBA number crunchers would be replaced by a different kind of worker, the right-brained designer, storyteller and big picture thinker. These new workers would offer a new skill set to their employers — creativity, empathy, joyfulness and meaning.

In his new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Pink picks up the related theme of motivation. He argues that the incentive plans used by most organisations do not work. Even worse, there is scientific evidence that money acts as a de-motivator. Pink advises managers to pay people fairly and adequately to take money off the table, but he shows that the most effective reward is intrinsic — performance of the task itself.

Pink describes successful people as hard working and persistent. They possess an internal desire to control their lives, to learn about their world and to accomplish something that endures. They work hard to grow and develop, and to connect to a larger purpose. These workers have higher self-esteem and better interpersonal relationships than those who are extrinsically motivated. Every organisation needs to retain and cultivate these creative, problem-solving, big picture people.

What Motivates Us?

Follow Your Passion!

Don't follow money. Instead, pursue what inspires you. And don't miss weekends with your family.

Follow Your Passion!

Characteristics of Greatness

HOW WINNERS THINK

1. It's Personal - They hate to lose more than they love to win.

2. Rubbing Elbows - They understand the value of association.

3. Believe - They have faith in a higher power.

4. Contagious Enthusiasm - They are positive thinkers... They are enthusiastic... and that enthusiasm rubs off.

HOW WINNERS PREPARE

5. Hope For the Best, But... - They prepare for all possibilities before they step on the field.

6. What Off-Season? - They are always working towards the next game... The goal is what's ahead, and there's always something ahead.

7. Visualise Victory - They see victory before the game begins

8. Inner Fire - They use adversity as fuel.

HOW WINNERS WORK

9.   Ice In Their Veins - They are risk-takers and don't fear making a mistake.

10. When All Else Fails - They know how - and when - to adjust their game plan.

11. Ultimate Teammate - They will assume whatever role is necessary for the team to win.

12. Not Just About the ££ - They don't play just for the money.

HOW WINNERS LIVE

13. Do Unto Others - They know character is defined by how they treat those who cannot help them.

14. When No One is Watching - They are comfortable in the mirror... they live their life with integrity.

15. When Everyone Is Watching - They embrace the idea of being a role model.

16. Records Are Made to Be Broken - They know their legacy isn't what they did on the field. They are well-rounded.

Characteristics of Greatness

Involvement With Your Team

When it comes the people around you, how are they doing? Typically, outside of the workplace, there are influences that can positively and negatively impact their attitude and behaviour at work. Caring to know is important as a leader so you can help encourage them through the valley.

Maybe you are thinking, that’s not my job, but it is. Once someone steps through the door and inside your world, they become your responsibility. You don’t need to fix everything, but just making sure they know that you care will go a long way.

Then, you can help advance people along this progress of involvement. There are three levels. Are you interested, committed or passionate? Before you can effectively lead, you must know at which level you personally are engaged. How deep into the vision are you?

What pulls people along and out of their discouragement faster is your contagious passion and energy as a leader. Ask those on your team: are you interested, committed or passionate?

If you are merely interested, any inconvenience will distract you. If you are just committed, then another opportunity could pull you away. However, if you are passionate about the vision, you are unstoppable.

The bottom line: Check your level of involvement and correct it if necessary. Those around you will reflect which level you are living.

Involvement With Your Team

It's About Values

US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1994. He is known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law and is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court. He is the author of Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View. This is what he has to say on the Constitution:

It's About Values

Lack of Management Skills Hitting UK Competitiveness

The UK is suffering from a leadership and management skills deficit which is hitting the country’s competitiveness, according to the CIPD.

Responding to the government’s Skills for Sustainable Growth consultation, the institute said that much of the public spending on skills is failing to have the desired effect because of poor management is hitting employees’ motivation and engagement. On the other hand, good management could have a “skills multiplier effect” that would boost capability across the board.

Stephanie Bird, CIPD director of public policy and HR capability, said: ‘we are concerned that too much spending on skills – by government and employers alike – is being wasted because managers lack the skills to engage, motivate, coach and develop people in the workplace.’

Bird pointed out that the UK invests less in management development than its main international competitors and that its managers are rated less positively by employees.

“This is clearly a shared problem which requires action by both employers and government,” said Bird. “However, government can play a powerful role in ‘nudging’ investment in leadership and people management skills. Such investment is crucial if we are to unlock the wasted skills spending and individual potential that is holding Britain back in the productivity stakes.”

For more, see: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/09/uk-lack-of-management-skills-hitting-competitiveness-warns-cipd.htm

Lack of Management Skills Hitting UK Competitiveness

Don't Fear Failure

Issue:

Fearing failure, you anticipate only positive outcomes. When the inevitable misstep takes place, you're caught without a quick plan to right the wrong.

Solution: 

Take a lesson from expert kayakers: flips are going to happen. Practice the rolls that put you back in control and avoid capsizing.

For more, see: http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/wharton-at-work/1010/dont-fear-failure-1010.cfm

Don't Fear Failure

Team USA gets Inspiration from a True Patriot

Safe to say, Major Dan Rooney will have a more leisurely view of the 38th Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor than he had the last time the biennial event was staged. Two years ago as the U.S. faced off against Europe in Kentucky, Rooney, an F-16 fighter pilot with the Oklahoma Air National Guard, was in Baghdad, watching the event on the Armed Forces Network while taking a break from his tour of duty. This time around, he has travelled to Wales to watch in person as an invited guest of U.S. captain Corey Pavin. The captain even asked Rooney to talk to his team Tuesday night after dinner.

So what would a Ryder Cup golfer have in common with a man who spends part of his life piloting fighter jets? A lot, actually. When Rooney climbs into the cockpit of  a single-seat, single-engine F-16, he said there is not a more individualistic endeavour in the world. But in truth, every time he flies, he is a significant cog in a powerful team, with many others on the ground and in the air depending on him.

“You become one,” he says of his inherent mission. “When I’m up there in the black skies of Iraq delivering weapons to kids, they’re trusting their lives to me. A lot of accountability exists there.”

Team USA gets Inspiration from a True Patriot

Will an 'Integrity Executive' be enough to keep Daimler honest?

German automaker Daimler has appointed a new "integrity executive" tasked with ensuring that the company lives up to its ethical and legal responsibilities. 

The move is intended to ease lingering concerns about Daimler's culture, following the company's recent agreement to pay $185 million to settle a bribery case. 

Daimler "will continue to consistently prioritise integrity as a key element of our corporate culture," said CEO Dieter Zetsche. "No business in the world is worth violating applicable laws, regulations or ethical standards."

Will an 'Integrity Executive' be enough to keep Daimler honest?

The Importance of Education

“The single most important step we can take is to make sure that every young person gets the best education possible, because countries that out-educate us today are going to out-compete us tomorrow.” 

President Obama, 27 September, 2010

The Importance of Education

How Sport Transforms Life and Career

Grete Ingeborg Nykkelmo of Norway knows success in athletics – she is a world champion in both cross country skiing and the biathlon. Grete has also proven to be successful in the business world – she currently is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy company.

Grete talked about how sport formed her life and business career during the IMD Biennial International Alumni Event this past weekend.

She described her sports background and talked about some of the keys to her achievements, which include a gold medal in women’s cross country skiing in 1985 at the World Championships as well as gold in the women’s biathlon at the World Championships six years later. She segued on to her corporate career at Statkraft and detailed the communications strategy that the company implemented. For Grete, there are many parallels between sport and business.

First, it taught her the value of setting goals and learning from experiences. “There are always ups and downs – victories and setbacks,” she said. “Nobody has ever gone through life without setbacks. What is important is to always keep the final target in sight.”

After Grete quit cross country skiing in 1989, she seized on a new opportunity in the biathlon. “Most of us like security – we feel comfortable in situations we know,” she stated. “But there are many opportunities before us if we are open to new challenges and ideas.”

There are also valuable lessons in terms of teamwork. Even though cross country skiing and the biathlon are individual sports, Grete explained that as part of the national team, everyone was happy for Norway’s success and used each others’ strengths to improve.

“With a team you get feedback on your performance. You can learn from others and get support in tough times. Team is important for individual success – and individual performance important for the team. So remember to wear your ‘uniform’ and get stronger together.”

She concluded by drawing one final correlation between sport and business – passion. “If you have passion, the amount of suffering you can endure is enormous. More importantly, it will bring you happiness and satisfaction.”

How Sport Transforms Life and Career

Can Ed Be His Own Man?

Today Ed Miliband will have to show he is the leader who can take Labour to victory. His speech to his party conference must convince not only his party faithful, and faithless, but the country at large. This is the moment when he needs to prove that he possesses sufficient Ed cred to rally doubters and disciples to his side. Mr Miliband must show today that he has the vision, passion and ruthlessness to go it alone. It is imperative to demonstrate that he has a leader's rhetoric and a leader's steel. The line between being a unifier and political Plasticine is narrow. Flexibility, the new leader's signal strength, could also prove his greatest weakness. Enemies will be eager to caricature Red Ed as a man in thrall to the unions with a brother's blood on his hands. If Ed Miliband is to succeed, and it looks increasingly likely that he can, he must show that he is daunted by nothing and in thrall to no one. "I am my own man," he has said. Today he has to prove it.

Can Ed Be His Own Man?

The Role of Self-Esteem in the Workplace

Warranted high self-esteem, which has always been important psychologically, is a critical factor in economic well-being, too. 

A book called The Power of Self-Esteem: An Inspiring Look At Our Most Important Psychological Resource, by psychologist Nathaniel Branden, points out that a workforce lacking confidence in its ability to think and cope with life's challenges won't be very productive or competitive in a demanding global environment.

Branden reminds supervisors and managers to help employees stretch by supporting training and workshops, and to tolerate mistakes if people learn from them. He also counsels listening to employees as if they have something worthwhile to say and asking for their help as ways to stimulate new ideas, as well as building confidence by giving lots of sincere compliments and encouragement. Of course, there's more to it than that, and personal development training for managers as well as for those they manage is usually a wise investment.

In the final analysis, we can't have a workforce that's any more confident than the individuals who compose it. Let's embrace positive leadership and give each employee every chance we can to be the best he or she can be.

The Role of Self-Esteem in the Workplace

How Full is Your Leadership Pipeline?

Many companies are having trouble filling their senior leadership positions and planning their workforce needs for the future, according to a new global report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA). The report, titled Creating People Advantage 2010: How Companies Can Adapt Their HR Practices for Volatile Times, is being released today.

Some 56 percent of the corporate executives surveyed by BCG cited a critical talent gap for senior managers' successors. Yet while it is generally easier and more effective for homegrown talent to step into leadership roles, companies fill more than half of their executive positions from outside, the survey found.

"Talent management needs are particularly critical at the leadership levels of the organisation," according to Ernesto Espinosa, president of the WFPMA and a coauthor of the report. "Succession planning needs to be integrated with leadership development programmes, and this practice has to be standardised. The challenge for HR is to bring talent management practices of executives to the next level in order to support business growth."

Two critical topics emerged from the research:

• Managing talent -- identifying, attracting, and retaining the right people -- continues to be perceived as the most important topic for companies' futures. But corporate capabilities in this area have improved only slightly since BCG's 2008 global survey on HR topics.
• Improving leadership development has risen in perceived importance over the past two years. As noted, 56 percent of survey respondents cited a critical talent gap for senior managers' successors. In volatile times, leaders who can convey the company's vision and motivate employees are invaluable. It is generally easier and more effective for homegrown talent to step into leadership roles. Yet companies fill more than half of their executive positions from outside, suggesting that internal leadership-development programmes, such as corporate "universities," need to be improved.

The report also shows that high-performing companies focus their efforts on fewer, more carefully chosen HR-related projects in areas such as recruiting and leadership development. 

For more, see: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Companies-Are-Struggling-Fill-Their-Leadership-Pipelines-Plan-Future-Workforce-Needs-1325043.htm

How Full is Your Leadership Pipeline?

Be the Best You Can Be

Throughout human history, reaching one’s potential has been the grand objective of life.

The most articulated value in ancient Greek culture was areté. Translated as “excellence” or "virtue," the word actually means something closer to "being the best you can be," or "reaching your highest human potential." This notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential.

Areté in ancient Greek culture was courage and strength in the face of adversity and it was to what all people aspired. In Homer’s poems, areté is frequently associated with bravery, but more often with effectiveness. The man or woman of areté is a person of the highest effectiveness; they use all their faculties: strength, bravery and wit to achieve real results.

Aspire for areté. Go for excellence. 

Be the Best You Can Be

Building a Leadership Brand

An interview with Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, authors of Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value:

Companies build a leadership brand by developing leaders who enable employees to deliver the results expected by customers.

Building a Leadership Brand

The Dangers of a Comfort Zone

Author and pastor C. Neil Strait (1934-2003) once wrote, “The convenient way is not always the best way. It may lead through an avenue of comfort that robs us of integrity. Or it may take us through the tunnel of compromise, where our courage is weakened. And, after all, convenience is such a fleeting thing, but integrity and courage are vital ingredients for living.”

Strait is right. Our comfort zone can compromise us. And if we are not careful, our comfort zone becomes our answer for everything because it becomes the mindset we operate from. Eventually it kills our curiosity, our creativity and our opportunities.

What are you doing for the sake of convenience—because it's easier—that is holding you in unhealthy patterns of behaviour and limiting your thinking?

The Dangers of a Comfort Zone

Preparing to Succeed

Benjamin Franklin knew the value of preparation. “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail”, the influential author, inventor and US Founding Father once said. Planning and preparation will give you a 10-times greater chance to achieve your goals. It will reduce wasted time and effort, while improving and maximising results.

Here are four ways to out-prepare your competition:

1. Study: While others are filling their time with entertainment and escapism, superachievers are studying and improving their craft. Having more knowledge, data, background and intelligence will always give you the upper hand in any situation.

2. Develop: Develop the skills necessary to achieve excellence in your game. Every skill you need to succeed is learnable. There is nothing you cannot learn and master to achieve anything you want in business and in life.

3. Practice: Sporting teams practice for games. Musicians practice for concerts. Busy professionals and entrepreneurs should practice the skills they need for success—public speaking, impactful writing and interpersonal communication. After all, practice makes perfect.

4. Play the Game in Your Head First: Before making a presentation, an important phone call or having an important meeting, play the event out in your head exactly as you want it to happen first. It is amazing how your posture, energy and expectation will change, and your performance will rise to meet it. Try it.

Preparing to Succeed

Don't Innovate Italian Soccer Style

In business as in sports, capabilities decline quietly and smoothly. If companies don't constantly invest in innovation, they will perform well for a while and then, suddenly, they will fail — as the Italian team did during the recent World Cup.

For more, see: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/09/dont_innovate_italian_soccer_s.html

Don't Innovate Italian Soccer Style

Being Terrible is Not All Bad

If tomorrow you were given the chance to be great at every single skill in your life — we are talking world-class level, in each of your various interests — would you do it?

For many of us, the answer comes easily: Yes. Being number one at everything is considered Life’s Big Goal. Accordingly, we spend a lot of our time fervently traveling toward the promised land — shoring up weaknesses, honing strengths, targeting where to excel.

But this way of thinking misses out on a potentially important point: that there are some real advantages to being terrible.  There’s an underrated beauty in clumsiness. 

At this point we would like to introduce the piece de resistance of bad, the great pyramid of terribleness: the golf swing of former NBA basketball star, Mr. Charles Barkley (see below). It is not just bad. It is an Everest of ineptitude.

Historically speaking, there are two ways of looking at being bad:

1) It’s bad. It’s to be ignored, avoided, and spoken of as little as possible.

2) It’s secretly kind of good, because it teaches important lessons we can’t learn anywhere else.

In this second way of thinking, being bad contains a potential silver lining: character development, teaching the invaluable skill of resilience. We see this all the time, not just in the work of psychologists like Albert Bandura, but also in the biographies of luminaries like Beethoven, Churchill, Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Harry Truman, and John Grisham — all of whom endured excruciating stretches of ineptitude before they got good.

What’s more, we can take this idea even farther.  Because the advantages of being terrible go well beyond the necessary benefits of resilience and character. Being terrible can be useful because:

• It gives us freedom to experiment. Maintaining greatness is a narrow pursuit — you are essentially playing defense, vigilantly guarding against erosion. Being terrible, on the other hand, is a license to try new things. It permits a looseness and a creativity, since there is very little to lose.
• It connects us to other people. It’s interesting to see the contrast between the way people treat the ever-smiling Barkley and the ever-grim Tiger Woods.  People admire greatness. But they relate to Barkley’s awfulness because we’ve all been there.
• It lets us practice the vastly underrated skill of knowing when to quit. In this overprogrammed world, it’s all too easy (especially for parents and kids) to say yes to tennis, music, golf, theatre, everything. But to get really good at anything, you can’t say yes to everything. Knowing when and how to quit is not just handy — it’s a survival skill.
• It keeps us humble and grounded. Lives built on the relentless pursuit of perfection tend to be relentlessly narrow. Witness some of the indefensible behaviour we’ve seen lately from perfectionists in the City, Whitehall and in the sports arena.  Being terrible is a reminder that we’re like everybody else — vulnerable, human, prone to error. It tilts us toward a learning mindset.

Being Terrible is Not All Bad

Building The Team That Could Save Your Life

Mountaineer Chris Warner on teambuilding, the dangers of K2 and why in climbing the ties that bind make the difference between life and death: 

Building The Team That Could Save Your Life