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Conversation is an important part of effective leadership and change for the following reasons:

• Vision must be shared, before it can be lived… this requires conversation.
• Change is underpinned by conversation Organisations change, when people change…. and … people change one conversation at a time…..
• Employee engagement is driven by meaning and purpose… this requires conversation.
• Execution requires alignment of action…. this requires conversation.

Given the importance of conversations in the leadership practice, the following principles serve as useful guides to leaders wanting to shape conversation:

• Leaders are the custodians of an organisations conversation. Conversation happens on a daily basis in within teams and organisations and much of this conversation occurs by default. By this I mean that it’s aimless and unproductive. The quality of an organisation’s conversation is the leadership’s responsibility. To effectively navigate change leaders need to be proactively engaged in focusing, shaping and influencing an organisation’s conversation. The quality of the conversation can be directly correlated with the quality of the organisation’s leadership. Using conversation deliberately means that we need to think carefully about how we will craft conversation and how we can use it purposefully.Quality conversation leads to effective decision making, engaged employees, a compelling vision and aligned execution.  This requires leaders have a clear point of view about, what the organisation needs to be talking about at this time. “A leader’s job is to engineer epiphanies one conversation at a time.” - Susan Scott
• Effective conversation is about meaningful inquiry. An effective conversation is always based on asking questions that matter. This means that leaders must to be open to multiple perspectives and view points. To explore all facets of an issue requires open questioning your primary tool. Asking not telling, using open ended questions then standing back to listen. This is the key skill of inquiry. What is the ratio between asking and telling in your daily conversations?
• Conversations shape the context in which people act. Effective leaders use conversation deliberately to shape the organisations direction. However, without a clear philosophy and vision, the shaping of the organisations conversation cannot happen. Leaders need to have a clear message that effectively sets the container in which conversations take place. A great container for conversation require leaders to be clear about the following issues:
  • The organisations purpose - why it exists?
  • The organisations key objectives – what it needs to achieve?
  • The business model – how it makes money?
  • The leadership philosophy - how people behave?
  • Their goals, priorities and actions – what is most important, what should be do first?

“What gets talked about in a company and how it gets talked about determines what will happen. Or won’t happen. Conversations provide clarity or confusion. Invite cross-boundary collaboration and cooperation or add concertina wire to the walls between well-defended fiefdoms. Inspire us to tackle our toughest challenges or stop us dead in our tracks wondering why we bothered to get out of bed this morning.” - Susan Scott

• Language and words shape meaning. Effective leaders are very aware of the impact of their words. What a leaders does and what a leader says, are amplified and exaggerated by their constituents. Given this, if leaders don’t take charge of their words and carefully shape their messages, someone else will do it for them.

“…it’s through language that we create the world, because it is nothing until we describe it. And when we describe it, we create distinctions that govern our actions. To put it another way, we do not describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe.” - Joseph Jaworski, Synchronicity: the Inner Path of Leadership

• Build bridges and not walls. Leaders are in the business of building bridged to the future, this require the breaking down of walls! Change will always require the destruction of walls and the building of bridges. One of the best ways to do this in conversation is to replace “Yes, but . . .” and instead say “Yes, and . . .” When someone says something you disagree with, don’t make them wrong with “Yes, but I don’t agree with you” Rather, help them understand that you you have a different point of view “Yes, and in my experience there is another way of understanding that situation.”
• Leaders selectively involve influential people in meaningful conversations. When seeking to bring about change, leaders involve influential people to help shape the message and allow them to take the necessary action to bring the message to life. This involves a very conscious choice of people, and of process that’s convened to manage the organisations the conversation. Conversation taps into our head and hearts, it taps our mind and our emotions. Inspire influential people and they will take your message to others, sparking further conversation…
• Keep the conversation focused on a few key themes. Focus the organisations attention on a few key themes, the essential drivers of performance and shapers of behaviour. Concentrate the key themes on what really matters. These themes must be simple enough to communicate effectively and be understood. They should be repeated over and over, be managed and measured so that they lead to action. Key themes need to be framed so that they capture the imagination and inspire further conversation.

Considering the above principles, how effectively are you leading your organisations conversation?

 

Technorati Tags: Conversation, Communication, Strategy, Planning, Objectives, Vision, Management, Business, Inquiry, Language, Collaboration

 

 

Photo by mercurialn

 

“It’s a lonely road for those of us who choose to be remarkable, and the path of convention can sometimes be appealing. That path is paved with safe lives, middle of the road monotony, and little chance of failure. But where’s the fun in being like everyone else out there?” – Chris Guillebeau

I stumbled across a really great blog “The Art of Non-Conformity” by Chris Guillebeau, who has written a manifesto titled “A Brief Guide to World Domination”, it has really got me thinking and I encourage you to download a copy and read it. It will challenge your thinking and encourage you to greatness…

“If you want it badly enough, and are willing to make some changes in your life to cause it to happen, you too can take over the world… or do anything else you really want to do. Yes, you really can have it all. The only things you’ll need to give up are assumptions, expectations, and the comfort zone that holds you back from greatness.“

Consider the following “11 ways unremarkably average” from Chris’s manifesto:

1. Accept what people tell you at face value
2. Don’t question authority
3. Go to college because you’re supposed to, not because you want to learn something
4. Go overseas once or twice in your life, to somewhere safe like England
5. Don’t try to learn another language; everyone else will eventually learn English
6. Think about starting your own business, but never do it
7. Think about writing a book, but never do it
8. Get the largest mortgage you qualify for and spend 30 years paying for it
9. Sit at a desk 40 hours a week for an average of 10 hours of productive work
10. Don’t stand out or draw attention to yourself
11. Jump through hoops. Check off boxes.

Looking at the above list, how many of these ‘ways’ describe you? I think that if you find more than two or three, you need to read this manifesto! Can you clearly and succinctly answer the following two questions…

1. What do you really want to get out of life?
2. What can you offer the world that no one else can?

A true leader is an original, he is not and cannot be a copy! Download and read this manifesto, it will challenge and inspire you to be the change you want to see in the world…

 

Technorati Tags: Mediocrity, Attitude, Manifesto, Leadership, Vision, Purpose, Passion, Career, Life

With the No. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman helped millions of readers see and understand globalization in a new way. Now you can have it for free.

From now until August 4th, you can download the audiobook version of The World Is Flat and receive an exclusive audio preview excerpt of Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

Sign up here for details.

 

Technorati Tags: Resources, Leadership, Audio Book, Management, Business

Leadership can never be divorced from the individual. And as a leader, you cannot impart what you do not possess. This is why “the main ingredient of good leadership is character”…

“The main ingredient of good leadership is good character. This is because leadership involves conduct and conduct is determined by values.” - Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

Whilst many place value in titles and positions, it’s behaviour that wins people’s trust and respect. One of the foundational leadership principle is that leaders need to model the behaviours and attitudes which they expect from others. The example set by leaders are most powerful when grounded in values and when leaders live their values in their own authentic manner. When is comes to values they are most effectively demonstrated by your behaviour, words count, but not nearly as much as your deeds.

 

Good leaders lead from the front. They take the initiative to go first. People follow a person, before they buy into a strategy and plan. People need more than grand idea. They need to seen the idea lived in the flesh.

 

• Do you set the example by aligning your values with your actions?
• Do you lead from the front?

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Values, Character, Behaviour, Management, Example

Leaders do not get enough time to think, this is the result of a recent survey. . .

"… of nearly 1,200 managers and directors by the UK-based Chartered Management Institute has found more than eight out of 10 struggle to prioritise their work, with conflicting demands pulling them in all directions…. Two-thirds complain they have ‘little time to think’ and more than half struggle to find time to plan strategically…. the majority of managers claim they struggle to finish tasks, with seven out of 10 admitting they are not looking for new market opportunities or product gaps in the marketplace."

Taking time out to think is critical for effective leadership. Tom Peters has also discussed the importance of leaders taking time to think, he quotes from the book “Leadership the Hard Way” in which the author “insists that the leader-manager must free up no less than 50% of his-her time from routine tasks.”:

"Most managers spend a great deal of time thinking about what they plan to do, but relatively little time thinking about what they plan not to do … As a result, they become so caught up … in fighting the fires of the moment that they cannot really attend to the longterm threats and risks facing the organization. So the first soft skill of leadership the hard way is to cultivate the perspective of Marcus Aurelius: avoid busyness, free up your time, stay focused on what really matters. Let me put it bluntly: every leader should routinely keep a substantial portion of his or her time—I would say as much as 50 percent—unscheduled. … Only when you have substantial ’slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes. Leaders without such free time end up tackling issues only when there is an immediate or visible problem. Managers’ typical response to my argument about free time is, ‘That’s all well and good, but there are things I have to do.’ Yet we waste so much time in unproductive activity—it takes an enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things."

Are you setting aside time to think? Is it enough?

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Time Management, Thinking, Management, Business, Research

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” - Jim Rohn

Responsibility is a choice that a leaders as in how to respond to life’s situations and circumstances. As leaders have two choices regarding our respons-ability in life…

1. We can respond as a victim. We respond as victims when circumstances are the driving force in our life and in the choices we make. As victim you’re taking action based on the circumstances in which you find yourself. The circumstances are the cause of your actions.
2. We can respond as an owner. When we respond as owner, we make a choice to respond with our ability to create a new future. Responsibility stems from a belief and a decision, that we can respond and be the cause and to never be a victim of a circumstance, and that one can act to create a new future without requiring the permission to act from any external sources. Response-ability is the recognition that as a leader you are able to author new and better circumstances, it’s a choice we make.

Respons-ability is a choice, not something that happens to you. You have the choice to be the victim or owner and author of the situation. An owner will look for solutions, whilst a victim will search for a persecutor or a rescuer. Peter Senge in the Introduction to the book “Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership” makes the following observation:   

"In the West we tend to think of leadership as a quality that exists in certain people. This usual way of thinking has many traps. We search for special individuals with leadership potential, rather than developing the leadership potential in everyone. We are easily distracted by what this or that leader is doing, by the melodrama of people in power trying to maintain their power and others trying to wrest it from them. When things are going poorly, we blame the situation on incompetent leaders, thereby avoiding any personal responsibility. When things become desperate, we can easily find ourselves waiting for a great leader to rescue us. Through all of this, we totally miss the bigger question: ‘What are  we, collectively, able to create?’…… we forget that in its essence, leadership is about learning how to shape the future. Leadership exists when people are no longer victims of circumstances but participate in creating new circumstances" - Peter Senge

As a leader are you taking respons-ability to own and shape the circumstances in which you find yourself?

Are you helping other to become respons-able?

 

Technorati Tags: Responsible, Leadership, Management, Business

Richard Stengel , who worked with Nelson Mandela on his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom” has an article in Time titled “Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership”, these 8 lessons of leadership are:

1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it. “Mandela was often afraid during his time underground, during the Rivonia trial that led to his imprisonment, during his time on Robben Island. ‘Of course I was afraid!’ he would tell me later. It would have been irrational, he suggested, not to be. ‘I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.’ But as a leader, you cannot let people know. ‘You must put up a front.’ And that’s precisely what he learned to do: pretend and, through the act of appearing fearless, inspire others. It was a pantomime Mandela perfected on Robben Island, where there was much to fear. Prisoners who were with him said watching Mandela walk across the courtyard, upright and proud, was enough to keep them going for days. He knew that he was a model for others, and that gave him the strength to triumph over his own fear.”
2. Lead from the front — but don’t leave your base behind. “For Mandela, refusing to negotiate was about tactics, not principles. Throughout his life, he has always made that distinction. His unwavering principle — the overthrow of apartheid and the achievement of one man, one vote — was immutable, but almost anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a tactic. He is the most pragmatic of idealists.”
3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front. “Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoons herding cattle. ‘You know," he would say, "you can only lead them from behind.’ He would then raise his eyebrows to make sure I got the analogy. As a boy, Mandela was greatly influenced by Jongintaba, the tribal king who raised him. When Jongintaba had meetings of his court, the men gathered in a circle, and only after all had spoken did the king begin to speak. The chief’s job, Mandela said, was not to tell people what to do but to form a consensus. "Don’t enter the debate too early," he used to say. … The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. ‘It is wise,’ he said, ‘to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.’”
4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport. “As far back as the 1960s, mandela began studying Afrikaans, the language of the white South Africans who created apartheid. His comrades in the ANC teased him about it, but he wanted to understand the Afrikaner’s worldview; he knew that one day he would be fighting them or negotiating with them, and either way, his destiny was tied to theirs.”
5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer. “Many of the guests mandela invited to the house he built in Qunu were people whom, he intimated to me, he did not wholly trust. He had them to dinner; he called to consult with them; he flattered them and gave them gifts. Mandela is a man of invincible charm — and he has often used that charm to even greater effect on his rivals than on his allies. On Robben Island, Mandela would always include in his brain trust men he neither liked nor relied on.… Mandela believed that embracing his rivals was a way of controlling them: they were more dangerous on their own than within his circle of influence. He cherished loyalty, but he was never obsessed by it. After all, he used to say, ‘people act in their own interest.’ It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect.”
6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile. “When Mandela was running for the presidency in 1994, he knew that symbols mattered as much as substance. He was never a great public speaker, and people often tuned out what he was saying after the first few minutes. But it was the iconography that people understood. When he was on a platform, he would always do the toyi-toyi, the township dance that was an emblem of the struggle. But more important was that dazzling, beatific, all-inclusive smile.”
7. Nothing is black or white. “Life is never either/or. Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn’t correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears. Mandela is comfortable with contradiction. As a politician, he was a pragmatist who saw the world as infinitely nuanced. Much of this, I believe, came from living as a black man under an apartheid system that offered a daily regimen of excruciating and debilitating moral choices: Do I defer to the white boss to get the job I want and avoid a punishment? Do I carry my pass? …. Mandela’s calculus was always, What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?”
8. Quitting is leading too. “Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make. In many ways, Mandela’s greatest legacy as President of South Africa is the way he chose to leave it. When he was elected in 1994, Mandela probably could have pressed to be President for life — and there were many who felt that in return for his years in prison, that was the least South Africa could do.…. ‘His job was to set the course,’ says Ramaphosa, ‘not to steer the ship.’ He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.”

 

Mandela is a great leader and role model for us all..

Happy 90th Birthday Madiba!

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Madiba, Nelson Mandela, Role Model, Example, Management, Lessons

Effective leaders delegate tasks to others, this allows them to work of more important concerns and to help develop other people around them. However, the reality is that you can only delegate work, not responsibility, if it’s your accountability it remains your accountability no matter who does the work. This means that when you delegate a task, you need to make sure that you delegate in way that ensures you get the right outcome. David Maister has an great post on his blog on how to effectively delegate a task and provides the following pointers:

• The context of the assignment – ‘Please could you tell me what you are going to do with this when I get it done, tell me who is it for, and where does it fit with other things going on?’
• Deadline – When would you like it, and when is it really due?
• Scope – Would you like me to do the thorough job and take a little longer, or the quick and dirty version?
• Format – How would you like to see the output of my work presented? What would make your life easier?
• Time budget – Roughly how long would you expect this to take (so I can tell whether I’m on track or not?)
• Relative priority – What’s the importance of this task relative to the other things you have asked me to do?
• Available resources – Is there anything available to help me get the job done? For example, have we done one of these before?
• Success criteria – How will the work be judged? Is it more important to be fast, cheap or perfect?
• Monitoring and scheduled check points – Can we, please, schedule now a meeting, say, halfway through so I can show you what I’ve got and ensure that I’m on track for your needs?
• Understanding – can I just read back to you what you’ve asked me to do, to confirm that I got it down right?
• Concerns – before I get started can I just share with you any concerns about getting this done (e.g., other demands on my time) so that I don’t surprise you later?

 

This is a great way to delegate and ensure that you achieve the desired outcomes. 

 

Technorati Tags: Management, Leadership, Delegation, Getting Things Done, GTD, Effectiveness

An article from the New York Times discusses research by the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, author of “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, has found that people generally approach life with one of two mind-sets when thinking about their talents and abilities…

“Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a ‘fixed mind-set.’ Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a ‘growth mind-set.’… Guess which ones prove to be most innovative over time… ‘People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.’ In this case, nurture wins out over nature just about every time.”

This research confirms what we have always known about great leaders, they continually seek to grow and increase their personal talents and abilities. In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, John Maxwell refers to this as the Law of the Lid’… 

“Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness…. the higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be. What ever you will accomplish is restricted by your ability to lead others…. Leadership ability is always the lid on personal and organizational effectiveness.”

A fixed mind-set creates a lib on our leadership potential, it constrains us, preventing us from becoming effective leaders. Talent will only take you so far, the higher you go, the greater the need for leadership. We can all develop and increase our leadership capability. To be effective we need to raise our “leadership lid” through continuous learning and development, and to grow leaders must adopt a growth mind-set. When leaders stop growing, they stop leading…! Continual personal growth is central to effective leadership.

 

As leaders build their teams, they should be looking not only for talented individuals, but also for individuals who have a growth mind-set.

“Ms. Dweck does not suggest that recruiters ignore innate talent. Instead, she suggests looking for both talent and a growth mind-set in prospective hires — people with a passion for learning who thrive on challenge and change…. People with a growth mind-set tend to demonstrate the kind of perseverance and resilience required to convert life’s setbacks into future successes. That ability to learn from experience was cited as the No. 1 ingredient for creative achievement in a poll of 143 creativity researchers cited in ‘Handbook of Creativity’ in 1999.”

Look to build your teams with talented individuals who have a grow mind-set. People who continually seek to grow and develop themselves.

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Growth, Mind-set, Development, Management, Business, Talent

MIT Sloan Management Review has a great article “In Search of Growth Leaders” by Sean D. Carr, Jeanne M. Liedtka, Robert Rosen and Robert E. Wiltbank discussing the importance of growth leaders. Growth leaders are these managers who can generate organic growth to “find new streams of revenue without always resorting to acquisitions”. After three years of research the authors have identified the following characteristics and strategies that distinguish growth leaders:

• Rich in Experience “All of the growth leaders in our study had unusually varied experience early in their careers. Along the way, they acquired skills that eventually helped them explicitly in their launching of growth initiatives…. Along with diversity of experience, we found in our subjects a deep-seated belief in their own abilities and in their power to change the world around them. For them, life is a journey of learning. They thrived on accepting challenges, taking action and getting immediate results. These positive traits tended to reinforce one another in a virtuous circle…This type of growth mindset prepared them to see and to chase opportunity.”

• Changing the Rules… “Most managers are programmed to think the way the head office does, to seek certainty and to rely on data with which to predict and plan. That approach can work well for an established business that knows its field and where surprises are few. But it is deadly in the world of growth, where what a company doesn’t know is far more important than what it does know. Growth is all about uncertainty and how to work with it. Prediction and analysis have their place, but they can’t be the only tools a business has.”
• …But Managing Risk “Although growth leaders embraced new ventures, they weren’t risk seekers. In fact, they minimized risk wherever possible.… while most managers are taught to approach new projects by calculating expected return on investment, growth leaders are more likely to estimate an acceptable degree of loss to start. This lets them pursue interesting opportunities without investing more than they can afford to lose… The managers in our study tended to place small bets fast, then study how their bets had influenced the market. This, in turn, encouraged them either to double-down or to place new bets elsewhere. It’s an approach that allowed them to be fast, flexible and capable of capitalizing on early success.”
• Preferring People to Data “Success was based more often on thoughtful exploration of customers’ needs than on dry market data. The managers in our study personally sought detailed knowledge about individual customers, instead of just seeing them as data in market-research reports… Direct knowledge about customers also helped the managers see what was most important to the customers in terms of products and services.”
• Pragmatic Idealists “In assembling teams, growth leaders learned to combine two seemingly opposing forces: holding people ruthlessly accountable for results, and engaging their passion to build something great together… Their overall approach was to be tough but fair. But they were adamant about acquiring staff with only the needed skill sets. Team effectiveness often depended on moving people quickly into positions that optimized their strengths, and removing people who did not fit or who lacked the necessary capabilities…. Groups pursuing new ventures were seen as no place for rookies. As one leader commented, growth initiatives should be about testing markets, not people. Yet despite this hard-nosed attitude, employees who worked for such managers invariably described them in terms such as ‘caring,’ ‘motivating’ and ‘inspiring.’”

Grow leader seem to be able to hold people accountable, to inspire passion for the vision and purpose and have a gut feel for making business decisions, informed by their rich experiences, their courage to challenge rules and to make calculated risks.

Technorati Tags: Growth, Leadership, Leaders, Business, Management, Risk, Organic, Innovation

Tom Peters has a great post on his blog, "The Right Plan Is to Have No Plan" which discusses two belief systems adopted by leaders seeking to initiate change, that of planners who seek to impose top down solutions, who Tom says “more or less believe that the plan is the thing—and that the messy process of implementation on the ground will take care of itself if The Plan is ‘right.’” and searchers who adapt to the adapt to the local context and culture and implement change from the bottom up. Tom quotes William Easterly the author of, “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good”, discussing the differences between planners and searchers…

"In foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don’t motivate anyone to carry them out; Searchers find things that work and get some reward. Planners raise expectations but take no responsibility for meeting them; Searchers accept responsibility for their actions. Planners determine what to supply; Searchers find out what is in demand. Planners apply global blueprints; Searchers adapt to local conditions. Planners at the top lack knowledge of the bottom; Searchers find out what the reality is at the bottom. … A Planner thinks he already knows the answers; he thinks of poverty as a technical engineering problem that his answers will solve. A Searcher admits he doesn’t know the answers in advance; he believes that poverty is a complicated tangle of political, social, historical, institutional and technological factors; a Searcher hopes to find answers to individual problems only by trial and error experimentation. A Planner believes outsiders know enough to impose solutions; a Searcher believes only insiders have enough knowledge to find solutions, and that most solutions must be homegrown."

This is central to a philosophy of small wins… An approach to change the advocates looking for making small wins that have the potential to bring about huge changes. Llooking for what’s working on the ground and then building of those proven successes…

"Somewhere in your organization, groups of people are already doing things differently and better. To create lasting change, find these areas of positive deviance and fan the flames." — Richard Pascale & Jerry Sternin, "Your Company’s Secret Change Agents," Harvard Business Review

"We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again and again. We do the same today. While our competitors are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design perfect, we’re already on prototype version #5. By the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we are on version #10. It gets back to planning versus acting: We act from day one; others plan how to plan—for months." — Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Mike Bloomberg’s business saga

Successful leadership requires a solid underpinning philosophy, a purpose and a bias towards getting things done.. that is a focus on execution. A drive towards creating small wins, informed by what’s already working, creates change. Small change, builds..  creating momentum and momentum brings about significant change…

 

Technorati Tags: Small Wins, Momentum, Execution, Action, Change, Planning, Strategy, Management, Business, Plan

Creating agile organisations and teams are essential to keep pace with business today. Michael Hugos has a great post on agility where he makes the following point:

“Experience shows me (again and again) that agility is not about working fast but about finding elegantly simple solutions to business problems. You’ll know you’ve found an elegantly simple solution when… it solves their most important and immediate problems…  because people can’t find these simple solutions, they mistakenly claim that agility itself doesn’t work. They come to this conclusion because they attempt to be agile by cramming complex solutions into short development cycles through working harder, longer, and faster….

An elegantly simple solution (a robust 80% solution) doesn’t do everything (there isn’t time for that), just the most important things….”

We spend too much time complicating our lives by trying to do too much, too fast! There seems to never be enough time to do something correctly, but always enough time to do it over again! Given to complexity of managing business, we’re prone to think that complex solutions, are better solutions. Instead we need to focus on implementing good enough solutions, solutions that bring about small wins. Small wins, if continually applied, in a thoughtful and strategic manner, quickly add up to significant results. Small wins are more manageable and have less of an impact if they fail. Seeking big wins are extremely difficult, prone to failure and require significant political will! Focus on the small wins…. simple things done well… repeatedly provide true competitive advantage.

 

Technorati Tags: Agility, Simple, Small Wins, GTD, Management, Business, Technology, Execution

"Leadership: The capacity and will to rally people to a common purpose together with the character that inspires confidence and trust" - Field Marshal Montgomery

This is an interesting definition of leadership by Field Marshal Montgomery, in the definition he highlights to key components for effective leadership:

• A Common Purpose: Leadership is about creating purpose and meaning that is shared by a group of people. Creating a vision is great first step, but unless the vision is shared by the people it’s, will not align action.
• Character that Inspires Confidence and Trust: Who you are as a leader is just as important as what you can do… your competence. Vision and purpose is necessary, but not sufficient, without a proven character people will not follow. Character is supported by core values and a leadership philosophy which inspires trust. People trust leaders who are honest, transparent, are accountable and have integrity. Character is the foundation of leadership, if you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message!

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Vision, Purpose, Definition, Character, Trust, Business, Management

Google has taken time to clearly articulate their business philosophy, described in the article, “Ten things Google has found to be true”. The article highlights Google’s beliefs, values and principles, which guides how they go about growing and managing their business. The ten things that comprise Google’s business philosophy are:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

These are the ten things that support Google’s business philosophy and guide Google’s leadership. In the same way, all leaders need a personal leadership philosophy, a set of values, beliefs and principles that influence how they act and lead.

“In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is—i.e., he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts—i.e., he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance.” - Ayn Rand, 1966, “Philosophy and Sense of Life” from What makes Ayn Rand’s philosophy unique?

Many leaders fail to take the time to think and reflect on their leadership philosophy, the beliefs, values and principles that supports their leadership. A leaders philosophy is grounded in who they are as individuals. A clear leadership philosophy supports consistent action, building credibility and trust with the leader’s constituents.

• What are the ten things that form the basis of your leadership philosophy?
• Do you live your ten things?

 

Technorati Tags: Philosophy, Leadership, Management, Google, Business, Worldview, Mental-Model, Thinking, Reflection, Values

When Jason Fried from 37signals was asked "How did you create the culture at 37signals?” he answered as follows:

"You don’t create a culture. Culture happens. It’s the by-product of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, and you give them the freedom to share, then sharing will be built into your culture. If you reward trust then trust will be built into your culture.

Artificial

Artificial cultures are instant. They’re big bangs made of mission statements, declarations, and rules. They are obvious, ugly, and plastic. Artificial culture is paint.

Real

Real cultures are built over time. They’re the result of action, reaction, and truth. They are nuanced, beautiful, and authentic. Real culture is patina.

Don’t think about how to create a culture, just do the right things for you, your customers, and your team and it’ll happen."

Whilst I agree with Jason’s view, that a) culture takes time to develop and b) the culture is a by-product of consistent behaviour, culture doesn’t "just happen". Culture is the shadow of the leader. If Jason means that culture just happens, if you have the right leadership, then I support his view, and perhaps that is what he is say. The with the right leadership… culture just happens! Organisations that set out to create or build a culture, without changing the leadership behaviours, results in what Jason refers to as artificial cultures.

In the end, culture determines who’s in and who’s out…. Once you have the right leadership in place … then … culture just happens.

• Are you purposefully acting to develop your organisation’s culture?
• Do you have the right leadership in place?
• Are you hiring and promoting people who reinforce the culture you’re trying to develop?

 

Technorati Tags: Culture, Leadership, Management, Business, HR, Strategy

The Ken Blanchard Company newsletter, Ignite!, for November 2007 has a great article “Keeping a Vision Strong through All Levels of Your Organization” which discusses why vision tends to dilute as you move down the organisational structure.

“In most organizations, when executives create a vision for the entire company, they believe it provides clarity, focus and direction. And it is true that it does, at least for those at the top of the organization. Unfortunately, it gradually loses strength as it works its way to the front lines. In fact, research by The Gallup Organization indicates that senior executives are more than twice as likely to feel that an organization’s mission and purpose inspire them to higher levels of performance as frontline workers… Why the disconnect? Why might senior leaders resonate with an organizational vision while the rest of the company does not relate to it? There are many possible answers, but according to Dr. Jesse Stoner and Dr. Drea Zigarmi, a good place to start is by looking at one or more of the following factors: how the vision is created, how it is communicated, and how it is lived or modeled in the organization.”

The three factors mentioned are critical in getting an organisation’s vision to stick:

• How the vision is created: No matter how you try to get around the issue, the fact is that people only support what they help create. A vision created by top management, will  be supported primarily by top management. Unless people feel they have an influence over the creation of the organisation’s vision, commitment to the vision will be difficult to achieve. One way to involve people, as mentioned in the article, is for leaders to engage employees in discussing the vision “senior leaders encourage dialogue about the vision by asking people these questions: ‘Would you like to work for an organization that has this vision? Can you see where you fit in the vision? Does it help you set priorities? Does it provide guidelines for making decisions? Is it exciting and motivating? Have we left anything out? Should we delete anything?’”
• How it is communicated: The communication of vision is critical. Two common mistakes I see in the communication of vision is, firstly, vision is not communicated frequently enough, and secondly, the vision is not weaved into all the organisations communication initiatives. Leaders are the custodians of an organisation’s vision, they are responsible to ensure that the vision is talked about and kept alive. You can never over-communicate your vision.
• How it is lived or modeled in the organization: This is an important finding, vision is a process and not an event. The author of the article makes the following point… “Creating a vision—for your organization or department, for your work, and for your life—is a journey, not a one-time activity…. ‘It is important that all leaders in the company hold themselves and each other accountable for behaving consistently with the stated vision and values. As others see leadership living the vision, they will trust that leaders are serious and will be motivated to join.’” Leaders watched closely by others, their language and behaviour is closely scrutinised by their teams and employees. Unless a leaders actions, align with what they say, people will question the importance of the vision.

If you review your actions and how you have spent your time over the past month how closely aligned are your actions and the way you spend your time with your vision? How often do you talk about your vision?

 

Technorati Tags: Strategy, Vision, Execution, Leadership, Management, Business, Research, Communication, Collaboration

Tony Mayo, co-author of "In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century", discusses the importance of contextual intelligence for leaders. In his post Tony Mayo describes the importance of context for leaders….

"Yes, business leaders need to have certain personal characteristics to be successful, but it is often the application of those characteristics within a specific context that define great success. It’s not only who you are, but when and where you are."

Too much emphasis is placed on heroic leaders, those special individuals with a unique set of traits, CEO’s who turn-around large organisations and political leaders that free a nation. Tony goes on to note that:

“There is far too much focus on individual characteristics of leadership and far too little focus on the situational context. By placing too much emphasis on the individual, we can easily fall prey to the cult of the CEO and believe that any individual who was successful in one setting would naturally be successful in a new setting. The list of once-successful CEOs who have failed in new business settings is long.”

This focus on heroic leadership traits, leads to a number of dysfunctional behaviours, such as:

• The tendency to try and become like our leadership hero’s, instead of seeking to become more of who we are, to be original’s and not copies. What traits and factors that made a leader great in the past, will not necessarily make the leader great tomorrow. This is why you cannot blindly emulate successful leaders from the past and expect to get the same results. What made Jack Welch successful, will not make your successful. We need to leader from successful leaders and not to try to emulate or copy them.
• The tendency to over-estimate the importance of our leaders, and to under-estimate the difference we can make in our daily actions.
• The tendency to relay on past success and limit ourselves from experimenting and trying new things.

Given the importance of context, it’s important for  leaders to be able to make sense of the changing environment and then adapt their leadership style, approach and behaviour to ensure they’re effective in the new context.

“Clearly, context is important. Business leaders who have been sensitive to context possess what Nitin Nohria and I call contextual intelligence. Not only do these leaders understand the implications of the contextual forces that surround them, they also have the ability to adapt and change their leadership style and approach as environmental conditions evolve. Success in one realm does not always translate into success in another. Indeed, relying on past models of success without being sensitive to the context of the situation has often yielded major disappointments.” - Tony Mayo, Why Do Some Leaders Have More Influence than Others?

Do you have a good understanding of the context in which you are leading?

Do you know what leadership behaviour and traits will be most effective in this context?

 

Technorati Tags: Context, Sensemaking, Leadership, Management, Book

Anecdote posted on David Maister’s podcast on earning trust and it’s importance to business. The fact is that leaders cannot lead without trust. Maister identifies four dimensions to trust, the first three can cause trust to increase:

• Credibility - about words - I can trust what he says. This is about tangible, professional expertise.
• Reliability - about actions - I can trust her to do something. Are you dependable and behave in certain ways?
• Intimacy - about emotions - I feel comfortable discussing this with that person. This is about the ability to relate to people one to one. It is the dimension that people fail on most often - it has high consequences if we get it wrong. 

The fourth component, self orientation, reduces trust:

• Self-Orientation - about motives - the extent to which we can trust that someone cares about certain things. This relates to the extent to which we can focus on the other person in the relationship rather than ourselves. Selfishness, self-consciousness, need to appear on top of things or to appear intelligent, a long to-do list that distracts us from focusing in the moment etc are all things that keep us focused on ourselves rather than the other person.

These four dimensions are a useful way to assess our own behaviour. Are we instilling trust? Do we have integrity in our words, actions, emotions and motives?

 

Technorati Tags: Trust, Credibility, Integrity, Character, Leadership, Management, Business

A the post "Does Your Business Strategy Have A Purpose?" on Idris Mootee’s blog Innovation Playground Idris makes the following point:

…“’purpose’ is bigger than ‘strategy’. Way much bigger. At best, strategy is just a number of smart ideas to take advantage of a market opportunity or re-configuration of the value chain. But purpose is different, it is a journey. Strategies are about means; they cannot be an end in themselves. An end is a reason. Many companies today are not lacking strategies, they lack a reason–they lack ‘purpose.’”

Purpose is something that we need as humans, purpose is what drives us, fuels our passion and gives us hope. Leaders bring more than a set of plans and objectives, they bring purpose and meaning. Having a strategy is necessary, but not sufficient…. You need to have a purpose a reason for the journey… and …it’s purpose that brings meaning to the journey…

• Have you defined your purpose?
• Does your strategy support your purpose?

 

Technorati Tags: Strategy, Purpose, Planning, Meaning, Leadership, Business

Michael Watkins wrote an interesting post "Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why", he defines business strategy as:

"a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted in the organization, generates a desired pattern of decision making….. A good strategy provides a clear roadmap, consisting of a set of guiding principles or rules, that defines the actions people in the business should take (and not take) and the things they should prioritize (and not prioritize) to achieve desired goals."

In a nutshell, as illustrated below:

• Mission is about what will be achieved.
• The value network is about with whom value will be created and captured.
• Strategy is about how resources should be allocated to accomplish the mission in the context of the value network.
• Vision and incentives is about why people in the organization should feel motivated to perform at a high level.

Together, the mission, network, strategy, and vision define the strategic direction for a business. They provide the what, who, how, and why necessary to powerfully align action in complex organizations.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Strategy, Vision, Mission, Value, Business, Goals, Management, Leadership, Planning

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