Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
There’s a common misunderstanding that undermines our ability to improve results and draw out potential into performance. The mistake is made in thinking visioning is exclusively the domain of senior leaders.
Very few people have a personal and professional vision. The absence of a clear and precise image of the success you desire nullifies the very creative abilities that are central to all human achievement, hence the wisdom found in Proverbs “where there is no vision the people perish”.
This goes far deeper than most people know. If you can’t define in your own mind what success looks like for you, it will never materialize in your physical reality. The root cause of all anxiety, fear and worry is the absence of understanding who you really are and what it is that you truly want.
Just as it is with organizations, a clear vision provides clarity and momentum. Even some of the most senior leaders who are charged with creating a vision for the corporations they represent fail to create a personal vision that is linked to their professional objectives. The implication is a growing sense of dissatisfaction, a “selling out” in a career spent filling the bank account and emptying the soul.
Chasing financial reward alone to the detriment of all other aspects of success is a recipe for disaster. There can be nothing worse than reaching the end of your working life and observing decades of delivering in the pursuit of organizational growth targets, decades of life shaped by the objectives of others in the pursuit of being financially “comfortable”.
Think this through deeply. Beyond primary education we are not taught and raised to work with our imagination to create a vision of success for ourselves, so many of us end up in careers by default, ones that are often meaningless to us, pursuing promotions for no other reason than being seen to get up the ladder and the trimmings that go with it, all the while the sand is pouring through the sand timer…. the only thing we spend and cannot earn is slipping away. It’s the proverbial hamster on a wheel scenario, trading a life hoping to make it safely to just a few years of comfortable retirement and death.
If you are one of the visionless generation, ask yourself: What are the implications of continuing as you are? Without a personal vision of what you want to achieve in your life, where are you likely to be in 3, 5, 10 years time? What do you want to observe about this life when it is coming to an end?
It’s your life and your career, to live both outside of your own terms is a criminal waste of your potential. Where there is no vision, the people perish.
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Thursday, September 10th, 2009
In these times of economic turbulence it’s astounding to witness those occupying senior leadership positions following the tried (and flawed) methods of their 20th century counterparts. What has become a default decision in times of recession to divert or cut people development budgets is nothing more than a reaction as opposed to a well-thought out response. It’s more lazy management than leadership.
A re-action is exactly what the word describes, an action that has been undertaken before. There isn’t much qualitative thought required for a reaction, and as always, the universal principle of cause and effect will deliver the implications in results. In the very different dynamics of the modern economy, those implications are likely to be much more severe than in the past.
Back in the industrial age, when manual work was prevalent and talent was predominantly assessed by physical attributes, the employee required for more brawn than brains tended not to need much development in order to achieve what the business required to prosper. In the service-base economy of the 21st century, where differentiation in product and proposition is sustainable for a matter of days at the most, it’s the mind, the creative faculties of human potential and how well they are utlized that decrees the fine line between commercial success and failure. Thought is the new currency.
The strategy that kills the goose that lays the golden egg is the strategy of lazy corporate incompetents. It doesn’t take a genius to know that when you effectively liquidate an organizations primary asset, it’s people, for the purpose of an immediate relief on the balance sheet, the medium to long term implication on performance is likely to be disasterous.
Benjamin Franklin once said that the very definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. At least that accusation can’t be thrown at those modern senior leaders who, in sheep-like fashion, divert people development budgets elsewhere to make their balance sheets look prettier. In todays fast-paced economy with its workplace of predominantly Generation Y talent, the implications of not developing people will most certainly differ in severity from those of previous periods of recession.
There’s only one thing worse than in investing in people and seeing them leave, that’s not investing in them and seeing them stay. Archaic leadership habits die hard, performance, however, is much more obliging.
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Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Letting people go has to be one of the most difficult responsibilities of leadership. It’s often forgotten by those affected by redundancy that it isn’t about personalities. No one responsible for performance through people gets up in the morning excited at the prospect of people losing their jobs. It’s the role that is surplus to requirements, not the person.
Challenging times demand the best from leaders. Many corporations fail to recognize the fragility of morale and performance as a consequence of headcount reduction exercises. What has become known as “survivor syndrome” has significant potential to drag any unsuspecting business back in the mire it has attempted to clear itself of in the first place.
This is where leaders earn their crust. “Survivor syndrome” can be catastrophic to performance. It’s natural for those escaping this round of redundancies to be nervous about what comes next. They’ve witnessed colleagues leave, some unwillingly, and working friendships and relationships of reasonable longevity have been severed.
Employees who remain in situ after the process often suffer mixed emotions, grateful to have survived, yet struggling to feel as loyal and committed to an organization that they now perceive to be heartless. The commercial realities matter little to the employee who has fallen out of love with the company they once felt so proud to be associated with. It’s little wonder survivors often become dysfunctional in their performance.
A leader’s responsibility is to help survivors understand the commercial reasons for the process, and subtly reignite their commitment and passion. It’s where the true leader demonstrates the essential arts of empathy and coaching, seeking first to understand before being understood, and, by listening deeply, help each individual reconnect to their desire for success.
So the question to ask is: how much time are you spending with your people? And, most importantly of all, what are you doing with that time? Are you genuinely coaching for performance, or are you telling them what needs to be done? Are you leading or managing? Think deeply about your approach to those you lead, never more than now has it been so important to get it right.
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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
It’s inevitable in difficult economic conditions that corporations shed jobs in order to survive. A business is like a ship, when facing trouble it has to discard everything that isn’t absolutely essential to it’s core operation and cast it “over-board’. No leader worth their salt enjoys laying people off, however, survival must be the priority in difficult times for the good of all stakeholders from investors to current and future employees.
Like everything in life, it isn’t so much about what you do but how you do it. Many corporations apply little intelligence or sensitivity to the process, it’s often conducted as a numbers game, with the inevitable loss of key talent. In the creative economy business ignores talent at a cost.
Sadly, when headcount reductions are poorly handled, talent walks. That creates medium to long-term pain in terms of increased cost and poor performance. Replacing talent with many years of experience and intellectual property is a number few organizations are willing to measure. It doesn’t take much to work out why. Then there is the inevitable impact on the performance of those surviving the process. Unfortunately, it’s a significant threat that few organizations appear to be taking seriously.
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
In my forthcoming book I outline the 4 essential intelligences of successful leadership in the 21st Century.
Despite the evidence to the contrary, the business world remains loyal to the now outdated premise that IQ is the primary intelligence relating to success. This is significantly limiting upon performance, particularly in the creative economy.
There are two groups of intelligences relating to successful leadership for the 21st century: analytical and relational. Both include two distinct groups of intelligences. The analytical intelligences are IQ (intelligence quotient or cognitive intelligence) and CQ (commercial intelligence). The relational intelligences, which represent the most critical for leaders in the new economy, are EQ (emotional intelligence) and SQ (spiritual intelligence).
Whilst Emotional Intelligence is increasingly finding acceptance in leadership education, Spiritual Intelligence, the very essence behind inspiration, growth and high performance, remains illusive probably due to the stigma attached to the word “spirit”.
Until our business world gets past the ignorance relating to the semantics and awakens to how human capital, it’s most prized asset, is fundamentally structured, performance will continue to be hit and miss and the conventional means of developing leaders will fail to hit the mark.
The industrial and information ages have passed. This is the creative age. It is time to evolve.
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Monday, July 20th, 2009
I can’t help thinking the writing’s on the wall for British Airways. In an economy where success is built upon the client experience, the company isn’t a match for its main rivals.
After suffering in the fiasco of the opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 , where my luggage was lost for 19 days (no fun when you are travelling on business), I switched allegiances to enjoy trouble-free travel thanks to Branson’s commitment to raise the stakes in the client experience. Now there’s a leader who understands the fundamentals of the modern economy.
Regrettably, Virgin don’t fly directly to Atlanta, so last month I nervously booked myself a flight with BA. It didn’t take long for the experience to live up to expectations, the outbound flight ran out or water in the first 90 minutes of a 9 hour journey and the entertainment system fell over shortly afterwards.
In fairness to BA, on the return flight, the on board staff provided some excellent customer service, and for a fleeting few hours my faith was restored, until I landed back at Terminal 5, where my luggage was nowhere to be found (and remains so!)
Perhaps I’m just unfortunate with my experience of BA, luggage loss is a hazard of travelling extensively, however, I’ve not experienced any problems during my travels with any other airline.
Times are tough enough in the aviation business without making life more difficult by failing to do the simple things right. In today’s economy of consumer choice, failure to address such fundamental mishaps in the client experience is a risky affair. I do hope the leadership at BA are watching, listening and taking remedial action. The survival of their business depends on it.
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Many corporations are reacting to these turbulent times by downsizing. I’m working with leaders who are currently faced with the difficult task of letting people go. For some organisations it’s an intelligent pruning exercise (however unpleasant) that maintains the health of the business whilst it’s senior leaders, (assuming they are at the races) awaken to the unique demands of the emerging economic territory.
For others, sadly, little intelligence is applied, it’s more butchery that pruning, cutting far to close to the bone, and whilst it may provide short term relief on the cost base, it ‘s medium to long term implications are disasterous for profits, especially now the economy is evolving beyond recognition. If the employee experience suffers, so does the clients. If there is one sure thing that corporations are going to be need after this downturn subsides it’s talented and committed employees.
What makes matters much worse is the lack of intelligence applied to who is let go – often it’s simply a numbers game, with very little consideration given to the quality of talent lost. In general people do understand the necessity of restructuring and downsizing in times such as these, and whilst it’s never a pleasant experience, it’s how it is achieved that makes the difference, not just to those who are departing, but also to those left behind. ‘Survival syndrome’ results in dysfunctional performance from employees who have fallen out of love with the organisation and it’s purpose.
Corporations do have responsibilities to both communities, and many fail to consider (and of course) measure the damaging effect of poorly led change in terms of medium to long term performance.
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