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LEADERSHIP: WHAT IF THE WORLD ERUPTS?
published: 2008-07-21
The chameleon lizard changes colour with its environment. As a leader, you have to do much more. When the world changes, you have to transform your organisation and how it operates. Otherwise, it may fail. And, to start the organisational change, you have to change. New situations bring new leadership challenges.
LEADERSHIP: AVOID NEW YEAR'S IRRESOLUTION
published: 2009-01-19
Every year's different. But, 2009 looks like being really different. For many, the most challenging year ever. So, let's cut to the chase: as you return to work, which of your stakeholders is most frightened - in relation to their dealings with you and your business? Is it customers, employees, suppliers or, perhaps, your bankers? And, what are you going to do to ensure they don't abandon you?
LEADERSHIP: DELEGATE? OR JUST STOP IT
published: 2008-07-07
When did you last reprioritise your diary? But that's the easy part. When did you actually stop doing something? Dropped, finished, gone! That's the tough one.
LEADERSHIP: COACHING AND SELF-COACHING
published: 2009-01-03
Think of your favourite sporting figure! Who's their coach? Call to mind how they watch each play or shot – then gently (often almost invisibly) send a message: to relax, focus, push harder or whatever’s necessary. It's powerful stuff.
LEADERSHIP: HAS GEITHNER GAGGED?
published: 2009-03-16
The US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, hasn't asked my advice. But, he looks as though he needs some. He's like a stalled driver on a railway crossing and the runaway financial express is already on top of him. His lack of resolve is worrying both Americans and investors across the world. Obama's land of "hope" and "yes, we can" is at risk of becoming a desert of "nope". Many CFOs (and their CEOs) face similar challenges - albeit smaller. So, how are you going? Perhaps this advice may be of help to you as well!
LEADERSHIP: OF MID-LEVEL AND FRONT-LINE TEAMS
published: 2009-06-15
Team leaders split their time between "leading" and "doing". But daily pressures (particularly now) drag leaders towards the latter: getting things delivered, resolving technical challenges, responding to HO demands, and keeping the admin. flowing. Too often, they stop leading; and, become managers at best or merely operatives at worst. Sounds familiar?
LEADERSHIP: G20, GEE PLENTY
published: 2009-04-08
Committees are often the worst way to get things done. Particularly in nervous times. And, the pre-G20 vibes were net nervous. There was positive energy (particularly from Barack Obama) about working together to restore financial and economic vitality. But, from others, finger-pointing - for example, at bankers and, more generally, those with "blue eyes". And, insistence (from Nicolas Sarkozy) that it would be his solution or none - with a walk-out threatened for good measure. And, as always, cries for legislation and regulation - noisily slamming stable doors after the credits have bolted. Sadly, it's often no different in business. When things go bad, there can be a rush to blaming - and backside covering. Also, pushing personal solutions. So, how have you and your people behaved in the downturn?
LEADERSHIP: LESSONS FROM TIANANMEN SQUARE
published: 2009-07-06
Most of us would rate the Chinese Communist Party as both tough and inflexible. And, we'd be right about tough. But, wrong about inflexible. Reflecting on the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, here are some quotes from the May 30th edition of The Economist. "After the massacre, the Communist Party set about transforming itself." And, today, "the outcome is a wholesale reinvention." If colleagues reviewed your leadership over the last two decades, would they report "wholesale reinvention"? Or, more of the same? And, if the Chinese Communist Party can change so radically, what can you learn from it?
LEADERSHIP: THE LOWEST-HANGING FRUIT
published: 2009-09-07
To the question "Why aren't things going to plan?", a cynic commented "Because there ain't no plan." And, from time to time, this afflicts all aspects of business. The well-conceived launch is modified so often it ends up having no real plan. The technical upgrade is derailed by a system failure and morphs into a series of ad-hoc adjustments. The long-planned acquisition becomes overrun by legal and ego battles, and key conditions get forgotten. The results: time and cost overruns; and, crashed performance. But, for leadership, most people don't even start with a plan - of actions to ensure people will want to deliver a successful project. And, that's why leadership is the lowest-hanging fruit of performance improvement. And, it's also high-energy fruit, affecting all business functions.
LEADERSHIP: ARE YOU AMATEUR OR PROFESSIONAL?
published: 2009-10-19
Heading for work recently, I ran into a neighbour I don't see very often. He was leaving for his Wednesday, early-morning game of golf. I noted his smart, all-weather jacket and his bag of high-quality clubs. Clearly a serious player, I thought. But, from our brief conversation, I soon learnt that though he'd played for years, he was still a hacker. Sadly, many of us are like that with our leadership. We do it every day and we've been at it for years. But we make little improvement. We're paid (and are therefore professionals) but we lead unthinkingly, like total amateurs. So, what do serious golfers and leaders do? And, could you do the same?
LEADERSHIP: POWER AND PURPOSE
published: 2010-01-28
US decline and China's inexorable rise are much talked of. But, in a recent article, Josef Joffe* concludes his rebuttal thus. "Gainsayers will still dramatise China's growth rates as a harbinger of a grand power shift. But as the 21st century unfolds, the US will be younger and more dynamic than its competitors." Whether right or wrong, it's an important issue. And, his arguments have resonance for the durability of leaders, as well as nations. He stresses the requirement for "requisite power and purpose." If asked, would your colleagues say you still have these?
LEADERSHIP: TRUST ME, TRUST ME NOT
published: 2010-02-15
In his first year as Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd enjoyed unusually high poll ratings. He represented a change of both priorities and approach that many voters welcomed. That was 2007. But now in 2010, a survey of five capital-city talk-back hosts* gives us the following quotes. He "talks about taking tough decisions, but I don't think our audience necessarily buys that he's made any tough decisions." "They see his language as contrived, his personality as plastic and they don't think he's got a sense of humour." They "can't understand what he's on about." Assuming you're past the honeymoon phase of your current leadership role, what are people saying about you? What do they want you to do differently? Here are six actions I've read that journalists or other commentators have suggested for Kevin Rudd in recent months.
LEADERSHIP: WHEN YOU’RE NEWLY APPOINTED
published: 2010-08-09
If you’ve just been promoted, you might want to read “Letter to a newly appointed CEO” by Ian Davis, a former Managing Director of McKinsey & Co. It’s a practical checklist whatever your seniority – and even if you’ve been in your role for some time. When did you last re-think your priorities: what to do more of and what less? How to allocate your time? I bet if I asked your colleagues they’d have some suggestions. Why not get in first? Here’s a summary of Davis’s ten points plus some comments.
LEADERSHIP: HOW’S YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND COURAGE?
published: 2010-08-30
What do lobsters, scorpions and bees have in common? Yes, a capacity to inflict a nasty bite. But they also all lack a spine. An exoskeleton (the lobster’s hard shell) is all that holds their bodies together. There’s no internal bone structure. Some leaders are like this. Outer toughness and a nasty bite: the cutting remark or petulant decision. But little inner structure or resolve that makes for true leadership that will deliver results and build respect. What would people say about you: outer show or inner strength? Here are some action options.
LEADERSHIP: TURNING AROUND FAILURE
published: 2010-09-06
I’ve just discovered that my favourite blogger, Seth Godin, is also a columnist with the Harvard Business Review. However, even in this mainstream venue, he retains his quirky preoccupation with what’s wrong in the world. He prises open our minds and this is certainly true when he redefines failure, so we recognise various forms of “getting by” as actually various ways of failing. Below are his eight examples with his introductory wording. For each, I’ve appended an action option – taken from my V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership framework. Ask yourself this: how would colleagues rate you on your readiness to take such actions?