The Pied Piper of Leadership

On a recent trip to NZ I finally had time to visit the Hard to Find (but worth the effort) Book Shop in Auckland. It’s actually quite easy to find if you know where to look and once you’re in there very easy to get lost amongst the huge and eclectic collection of books. I was on the hunt for a birthday gift and once I found what I wanted hidden in English History amongst a host of fascinating titles, I was distracted by the business section. As I looked up and down the shelves Amanda Sinclair’s Leadership for the Disillusioned caught my eye. It was the word disillusioned that got me and my interest increased as I scanned the Introduction where the first 2 sentences read:

“This leadership book is not about how to run a company. It is for those who are disillusioned by their encounters with leaders and leadership: with idealised heroic performances, impoverished theories and oversimplified templates.”

I bought the book and this post expands one particular gem that when read made me exclaim ‘Yes, that’s exactly what it is!’

4 Tips from a Sling Shot

We know change projects can be difficult beasts. Yet we often ignore how we, the people involved in delivering or receiving the change, multiply those difficulties through our own learned behaviours. We’ve let what we’ve been told or read in the multitude of business books, blogs and training programmes automate us and what we do. Don’t get me wrong, process has its place. Checks and balances are necessary and process provides them but when the spotlight focuses on following the process rather than on the results it’s there to enable, the reasons behind implementing a process have been lost.

So if we simplify the process we’ll get better results, right? That will definitely help. However too often the process remains centre stage and other difficulties are left unresolved. In order to effect change fully we must apply different thinking and it’s in this area we can find parallels between change projects and Michaelangelo’s David. 

Yes I’m a bit of a Michelangelo fan and am particularly awed by his sculpture of David, which stands majestically in the Accademia di Belle Arte in Florence, Italy.  Every time I see it, in real or on the postcard image stuck to my office notice board, I’m struck by its magnificence. I’m also reminded of how David saw things differently, simplified the approach and through that successfully delivered the change everyone was striving for. Here are 4 tips he can teach us:

Tip 1: Use what makes sense when it makes sense to do so – Those before him had each wielded swords and various other armaments without success. David chose a slingshot and stones. He may have been careful in his stone selection taking enough to do the job with some in reserve for risk mitigation. He didn’t ignore the sword and used it to great effect when it mattered most.

Lesson: Process for process sake adds little value and blindly following a method will not improve either the method or its results. 

Tip 2: Use understanding and insight – David saw and understood what others had done. He took a different view and applied some intelligent thinking. He figured out the exact spot to hit in order to maximise results.

Lesson: Sometimes the ideas, thoughts or perceptions that initially seem crazy, counter-intuitive or sit outside the bounds of the process can deliver the greatest benefits.

Tip 3: Show willingness to do what’s right – The situation David walked into had been created based on fear and intimidation. It wasn’t going to change any time soon using the current process. While there was an incentive at stake he saw something wasn’t right and took action to change it.

Lesson: Only by changing our own behaviour will we change the behaviour of others.

Tip 4: Put things into perspective – David could clearly see his adversary had a big reputation and a lot of power with his army and over others. Putting what he saw into perspective against what needed to be done meant David could figure out a way to deal with the situation and did it.

Lesson: Bigger isn’t always better. 

By breaking out of the ‘process is King’ belief organisations will be able to deliver increased cost reductions for greater shareholder value. Or in other words, stay in business. Instead many punt for more processes, recycling operating models from the past or expounding empty declarations of co-creation and innovation.

They’re missing a huge opportunity because what comes next inevitably compounds difficulty. 

Stop making the process important. Refocus and simplify. Use process to work for you.

Has Leadership lost all Accountability?

I’ve just finished reading Chapter 14 of William Tate’s book “The Search for Leadership – An Organisational Perspective”. As the phone hacking scandal at News of the World was exposed and continues to explode across all forms of media, my timing couldn’t have been better. You see Chapter 14 focuses on Leadership and Accountability and as more and more details come out about News of the World and News International the more William Tate’s writings make sense.

Email Emancipation

Remember the days of typewriters and memo’s, internal mail deliveries and the excitement that came with the introduction of word processors? Your desk had a work space, an in- and an out-tray, and your secretary would make sure the out-tray was emptied regularly in line with internal mail and the in-tray was organised with post-it instructions like ‘sign here’, ‘urgent’, or ‘for your attention’. You had time to ‘do’ work.

And then email arrived...

5 Rules for Email Emancipation

Is email managing you or are you managing your email? Meetings used to take up every spare minute of the day and now there's email to contend with before, during and after all those meetings. The amount of time we spend in front of our computers has taken the personal out of almost all our interactions and we're probably still not getting any real work done.

Here are 5 Rules or suggestions on how to take control back and liberate yourself from the burden of email, bring some personal back into play and become the IT Managers new best friend.

Age doesn't equal Maturity

Some things do improve as they age – fine wines or certain cheeses are prime examples. Unfortunately age is no guarantee that either will deliver excellent results to the consumer. The wine may be from a poor vintage or not be stored properly for good maturation, and the cheese well, the less said about rank cheese the better.

Organisations and how they deliver projects or services are a bit like good wine and cheese; successful quality outcomes depend on many inputs. In an organisations case those inputs can be identified as the maturity of people, process, technology and the organisation itself.

What is maturity if it’s not about age?

The Value of Values

Values, everyone has them whether they’re written down or not. Some are negative and some are positive. It’s belief in them that gives them credibility and establishes their value. Where a mission statement defines a company’s purpose, it is the values that help define the behaviours it wants exhibited in order to achieve the mission. Companies can spend ridiculously large sums of money defining, documenting and displaying their values. They’re often quick to capitalise both internally to staff and externally to their market, when they (usually senior management or executives) are displaying those carefully crafted values. Yet it’s interesting to observe how much faster they are to minimise, possibly even ignore, when they’re not. Dare I suggest these often very expensive values only have value when it suits?

Mind the Gap – Where emotional intelligence rules

Anyone who’s been on London’s Underground will have heard the world famous warning for passengers. “Mind the Gap” was introduced in 1969 to warn passengers about the space between the train carriage and the platform. Just like passengers in a hurry or who think they know best run the risk of falling between the two, businesses need to maintain conscious awareness of the very real and tangible gap existing between their strategy and desire to achieve effective operational change.

Business Strategies are specific when it comes to the organisation's mission, vision and objectives; Direction is clear, ROI specified, and growth expectations and market share targets listed to support both. Now the challenge starts. This beautifully constructed well thought out strategy must be turned into operational reality and if the strategy is one that sees the business moving through previously uncharted waters, there will be the inevitable changes along the way to operational practises.

What's all this got to do with emotional intelligence?

How different is Leadership from Public Speaking?

I went to Milan yesterday for lunch. It sounds rather exotic but it had a serious underlying purpose. The lunch was being hosted by The British Chamber of Commerce in Italy and as we’re interested in joining the Chamber their invitation was an opportunity to find out more. It also allowed me to meet new people, talk about our business and expand our list of contacts here in Italy. And, the 1½ hour drive was a pleasant change, fog excluded.

It was a worthwhile investment as not only did I meet some nice people and eat a nice lunch but I was also reminded of 2 very important things:

5 Positive Effects to Walking Your Talk

As leaders and managers we’re constantly bombarded with information that needs digesting and disseminating to others. Some of it good and some of it not so great. While there’s no ‘right’ way to do it there are certainly some simple and effective ways to minimise disruption and maintain or increase motivation and buy-in. Here are 5 positive effects of how when you Walk your Talk you can achieve more with ease whether you're delivering good or bad news.