SATURDAY 15 DECEMBER 2018
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BEING
VERSATILE 3 6 8
HOW TO GIVE TOUGH FEEDBACK
CREATING A HYBRID COMPANY THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATIONAL BELIEFS
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Leaders are responsible for guiding behaviours through their collective strategic initiatives, goals and messages that align with the mission, vision and core values of the company. Here’s how to prioritise your people and culture for winning results: bit.ly/ culture-people
SUSTAINABLE IMPROVEMENTS HOW CHANGING CULTURE CAN BOOST EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT By JEROME PARISSE-BRASSENS editor@leaderonomics.com
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HANGING culture is a critical element to long-term, sustainable improvements in employee engagement and human resources (HR) needs to understand what is happening beneath the surface of an organisation. Engagement and culture are often confused with in transformation agendas. They are, however, quite different, and it is critical that HR is able to differentiate the two if they want to have a sustainable impact on the workplace.
DISTINGUISHING CULTURE AND ENGAGEMENT
Engagement can be defined as “the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organisation, and how hard they work and how long they stay as a result of that commitment.” Culture, on the other hand, can be defined as “the patterns of behaviour that are encouraged, discouraged or tolerated by people and systems over time.” Engagement provides a gauge on how individuals feel about their work, whereas culture is a measure of how people go about doing their work. Other differences are that engagement is time-specific and quickly outdated. For many, by the time the results are communicated and cascaded, things will have changed, and the data no longer reflects the reality of the organisation.
employees of Wells Fargo were not engaged when they were busy illegally creating credit card accounts for their clients. If anything, the data shows they were engaged. Yet they were behaving in a way that led to massive losses of reputation and money for the bank.
WHY HR SHOULD MEASURE THE CULTURE PULSE
Engagement is what you see above the surface and culture is what lies underneath.
n Jerome ParisseBrassens is a culture change expert and a management consultant with over 25 years of experience in culture transformation, change management, leadership development, and business improvement. He helps organisations assess and shape their culture in alignment with their strategic goals. To contact him, e-mail us at editor@ leaderonomics.com.
Because engagement is sensitive to short-term activities designed to reinvigorate employees’ commitment such as new perks or salary increases, engagement measures can vary dramatically in a short period of time. On the other hand, culture is less sensitive to external influences. One of the other differences between the two concepts is that engagement is based on an individual’s opinion. For this reason, results collected from an individual perspective have limited relevance when applied in other contexts or used to predict reactions or behaviours of the collective in the organisation. Questions in a culture assessment are about patterns, about the organisation as a whole rather than the ‘I’ which may reflect how individuals might be feeling on any particular day.
LOOKING BELOW THE SURFACE
With many of our clients, we see engagement levels either start to plateau after some time with results varying little despite continuing efforts, or results start to decline. This is because the underlying issue may not sit with engagement, but with
culture. Engagement is therefore not the right data to use to understand what is happening ‘below the surface’. If you think about the iceberg model, the root cause of issues will be happening under the surface of the water and are not visible.
HR directors who use engagement as proxy for culture run the risk of using the wrong measure.
Applying this principle, engagement is what you see above the surface and culture is what lies underneath. With culture, the collective beliefs and assumptions of the organisation, which guide behaviour and influence what people do, how they interact and consequently how the organisation performs, lie in the lower part of the iceberg.
Understanding these drivers is fundamental to understanding and changing your culture, and in turn, your engagement.
A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF CULTURE
Getting to the levels where values, beliefs and feelings reside requires more than a rating scale on a statement. Unlike engagement, true measures of culture will involve opportunities for interviews or focus groups where people are asked ‘why’ for observed behaviours or ‘why not’ for absent behaviours. Without qualitative data at this level, culture cannot truly be measured. This information will complement the more classic quantitative data from a culture survey. HR directors who use engagement as proxy for culture run the risk of using the wrong measure. Using engagement, which is a lagging indicator, to pilot the organisation and determine whether employees are doing the right thing to support the strategic objectives, is dangerous. You need people to be engaged to boost results, but you also need people to behave the way you want them to. There is nothing to say that the
So, what does this mean? Should HR drop the engagement survey and replace it with a culture survey? Not at all. Engagement is a powerful tool that monitors the extra effort that people are ready to make in the interest of the organisation. As mentioned above, it can reveal deeper issues that are often cultural. This is why conducting a culture assessment adds value to your people survey. Engagement used to be measured annually, whereas today, many organisations are conducting pulse surveys two or three times a year or even moving to ongoing measurement using specific apps or other tools. Culture should also be measured on a regular basis. My advice to HR managers is to assess their whole culture every second or third year, but to also pulse those cultural attributes they are working on several times a year. An ongoing measure of the shift happening in those areas where they are focusing their culture effort is indispensable. Without it, it will be difficult to demonstrate that change is happening, and budgets may be reallocated to other areas of the business.
IN CONCLUSION
The people and engagement survey are a good indicator of what is happening in the organisation at the ‘visible’ level. With a measure of culture to provide an understanding of what drives people to do the things they do, HR teams will have all the data they need to pilot the organisation with the long-term in mind.
www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 15 December 2018
OFFERING TOUGH FEEDBACK HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT
By ROSHAN THIRAN roshan.thiran@leaderonomics.com
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VERY leader has the same experience. Whether we’re in an elevator with colleagues, grabbing a drink of water, or walking around the floor, the conversation rarely deviates from the norm. “Hey guys, how’s it going?” “Oh hey, boss – yeah, everything’s good, thanks!” “Anything you need, or anything I should know about?” “No, no, everything’s great!” Any leader worth their salt will know that it’s unlikely that everything is great all the time within their organisation. Of course, particularly in this part of the world, employees rarely like to make a fuss, and so they tend to keep quiet about any issues they might have. Or, worse still, they might fear upsetting the boss should they bring a problem to his or her attention. Neither of these situations are ideal. Any organisation that claims to espouse openness, transparency and empowering others should actively encourage employees, team leads, and even managers to highlight anything they feel might be holding back progress or cohesion within the team. Otherwise, leaders risk being left with unresolved concerns, which tend to fester over time and cause bigger problems in the long run. Now, it’s important to be clear: as a leader, it’s never nice for me to hear tough feedback, but it is necessary for me to hear it. What I’ve discovered over the years – in my own experience and when coaching other leaders – is that, when leaders aren’t made aware of problems that are cause for concern, they are unable to take any action to improve the situation. It makes sense, right? No matter how great or how intuitive a leader might be, they can’t fix something if they’re not aware that it’s broken. Before I go into some reasons why
tough feedback is necessary, it’s worth noting the importance of how providing feedback should be done, to make everyone’s life easier. Consider the following examples:
In this series of Raise Your Game and The Science of Building Leaders, Sheera Hussin shares with us on the art of giving and receiving feedback effectively. Check it out here: bit.ly/ RYG-feedback
Leaders have, at one time or another, heard these complaints. Or, they might have even been the ones giving them early on in their professional lives. With these examples in mind, I’d like to shed some light on why offering tough feedback is vital, and how we can best provide it.
Let’s say your department is disorganised. Chances are, you’ll know your department much better than a senior manager or leader. While knowing the problem is valuable, having an idea of possible solutions is even more worthwhile. It gives you the chance to show your leader that, not only are you conscientious, you’re also a problem-solver. And as any leader will tell you, a good problem-solver is worth their weight in gold.
CAN BE 2 NOTHING SEEN IN THE DARK
Most leaders are aware that people say, “Great, boss!” whenever they ask employees how things are going, and yet conversations crop up between employees where they share an entirely different message among themselves. As effective as your leader might be, it’s highly unlikely they’re a mind reader. We can’t focus on something we can’t see. Keep in mind that leaders can’t know everything that’s going on. We rely
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“My department is so disorganised. How do we do any work when we can’t even arrange our time properly?” “My manager is such a pain. He expects us to work so many hours... we have lives outside of work, you know!” “The system we use is terrible. Half the time it doesn’t work, the rest of the time it’s so slow. Seriously, it’s such a drain on time, it makes me so annoyed.”
BEYOND THE 1 GO PROBLEM
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on our teams to be as open and up front as our teams expect us to be.
3 BE COURAGEOUS
For those who might be reading this and thinking, “This all sounds good and well, but try telling this to my boss!” I would still encourage you to use your voice. For the most part, leaders appreciate it when important matters are brought to their attention. Yes, we’re busy and yes, we have many things to juggle, but we’d rather know what’s going on in our organisation and help solve any issues before they have a chance to grow. If your boss really is someone who doesn’t welcome tough feedback, speak out anyway. That way, should the problem come to light when it gets worse, no-one can say you didn’t try to raise awareness.
4 IT’S OUR ORGANISATION Especially in Asia, it’s easy to get caught up in giving too much respect to people in positions of authority or
influence. While (mutual) respect is admirable, it’s worth noting that, without people alongside him, Jack Ma’s Alibaba wouldn’t exist. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook would have remained a college sharing space, and if Steve Jobs hadn’t surrounded himself with talented people, today when someone said, “Are you an Apple fan?” you’d perhaps reply, “No, I prefer oranges.” You are an important part of the organisation because you contribute to its performance. With that in mind, you should use your voice with the realisation that you’re helping our organisation to improve and flourish. As for us leaders, a point of self-reflection is that we’d be nowhere without the great people who surround us. On that note, I’d like to say that, at Leaderonomics, I’m very much blessed with the creative, innovative and talented people that make up our team. Keep up the great work, guys!
n Roshan is the CEO of Leaderonomics Group. He believes that everyone can be a leader and make a dent in the universe in their own special ways. Connect with Roshan on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter @lepaker for more insights into business, personal development and leadership.
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www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 15 December 2018
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All entrepreneurs have strong positive traits, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. The key to finding a balance is self-awareness. Monitor your own emotions and understand how they affect you, your colleagues and your business decisions. If you can master that, you’re halfway there. To learn more click here: bit.ly/7traitsentrepreneur
By KARIN HURT editor@leaderonomics.com “Entrepreneurship is a chance to trade a solution to someone who has a problem that needs solving. Solve more problems, solve bigger problems, solve problems more widely, and you’re an entrepreneur. It’s tempting to industrialise this work, to make it something with rules and bosses and processes. But that’s not the heart of it. The work is to solve problems in a way that you’re proud of.” – Seth Godin
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NE of the real joys of what we chose to do in life is working with leaders across a wide range of companies, big and small, established and new. So many of the challenges and opportunities are similar. Almost every company struggles in some way, shape, or form to stay focused on what’s really important. Holding tough conversations is a real issue for most managers around the globe. And, attracting and retaining the right talent for your key positions and culture never goes away. There are also some challenges that seem to trend with company maturity and size. With start-ups, there’s usually a scrappy, “How can we?” attitude that makes the folks at every level thirsty to Own the U.G.L.Y. and make things better. Love that. Of course, there are usually some operational challenges and growing pains, but that’s another post.
5 WAYS TO THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR We’ve had some exciting opportunities recently to cross-pollinate some of the mindsets and best-practices we’re seeing from our start-up clients with some of the leaders in more established cultures with legacy operating norms (and vice versa). Of course, this is big fun for me since I spent 20 years at Fortune 50, Verizon, and now run our own fastgrowing entrepreneurial start-up working to make a global impact. Here are just a few of my thoughts on how to think like an entrepreneur:
EVERY 1 MAKE HIRE MATTER
I’ve never met a successful entrepreneur who’s staffing strategy was putting people in seats. They’re hiring for values alignment, key skill sets, creativity and gung-ho. People are pricey and there’s no margin for a bad hire. Now running my own company, I know there’s nothing more vital than building an A-team.
IS 2 ACCOUNTABILITY THE FABRIC OF SUCCESS
What I see in these scrappy, successful companies is a tenacious focus on
executing the plan. When necessary pivots occur, there’s a quick huddle and smart decisions around what’s got to go to accomplish the next strategic move. ‘I didn’t get to it’, doesn’t go over really well when the visionary CEO is staring at you wondering why.
3 OWN YOUR OUTCOMES
When you’re an entrepreneur, you can look around for someone else to blame for your problems (e.g. the market, the economy), but at the end of the day, they’re still your problems. Entrepreneurs know the blame game just wastes time. Entrepreneurial thinking is about where we place the responsibility for our experiences. Although it’s not realistic to think that we have complete control of all our experiences, it’s martyrdom to think that we have none. An entrepreneur is someone who is deeply engaged in his or her experience of life and willing to do the daily work of transforming it. Very successful entrepreneurs take the time to analyse their lives and to look closely at their vision and their purpose in life.
PUT A STOP TO 4 UNPRODUCTIVE MEETINGS
I learned this one fast. As an entrepreneur, when you calculate the hourly rate of everyone in the scene, yikes, it adds up. Learn to make your meetings the very best use of everyone’s time.
NEW IDEAS 5 PILOT AND FAIL FAST
My experience at Verizon is that we stayed at initiatives too long, riding that horse way past its death for political reasons, face-saving reasons, inertia reasons… I don’t see that in the start-ups I admire. They experiment and are willing to get over the sunk costs to do what really makes sense. n Karin Hurt is a keynote speaker, leadership consultant, and MBA professor. She has decades of experience in sales, customer service, and HR which she uses to help clients turn around results through deeper engagement. If you want more opportunities to win well, email us at editor@leaderonomics. com.
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“You can’t say that you’ll have a successful business first before you talk about culture – both have to run concurrently. When we have the right culture and the right talents to help us to grow, the business will flourish,” says Plus Solar Systems CEO Ko Chuan Zhen. Read on to find out about growing a business through company culture and how HR fits in with this: bit.ly/ HR-culture
FROM WAR TO VICTORY MANAGING TALENT THROUGH ORGANISATION By DAVE ULRICH editor@leaderonomics.com
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new senior chief human resources officer (CHRO) from operations reflected on his first 90 days as CHRO. He noted that people from human resources (HR) seemed consumed with improving talent processes. He observed that they had developed many good disciplines at bringing people into the organisation and helping them be productive. He said that he felt they were 65 to 75 per cent up the ‘S-curve’ of managing talent. But he realised that the challenge in his organisation was not about talent alone, but about building a culture. He shared that his organisation was changing its business focus, and merely getting good people into the organisation was not enough; the organisation needed to create a more adaptive culture. He believed the tagline, “culture eats strategy for lunch” and he felt that HR should be the steward of culture as well as talent.
TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH
In the last 15 to 20 years, leaders have been encouraged by remarkable work captured in the ‘war for talent’. Many have built systems for bringing people into the organisation (sourcing, having a value proposition), moving them through the organisation (development, performance management, engagement), and removing them from the organisation (outsourcing). The war for talent was a great battle, but we now need to turn to victory through organisation. Talent is not enough. Individuals are champions, but teams win championships.
In today’s rapidly changing business world, the challenge of building the right organisation complements and supersedes the talent challenge. It is interesting to note that the Chartered Institute of Auditors has prepared documentation to help auditors monitor culture. Getting good people into the organisation falls with creating a culture where people work hard on the right things. One of the challenges for HR professionals to facilitate building the right organisation is that there are related concepts, terms and prescriptions that require clarity. Are organisations to be thought of as resources, core competencies, health, climate, processes, values, shared mindsets, organisation types or systems? With these confusing concepts, no wonder leaders have difficulty in creating competitive organisations. The concept clearly matters, but it seems impossible to articulate or define with any precision. Let me propose a three-step process for leaders to bring discipline to creating victory through organisation. Capability of the organisation Organisation capabilities represent what the organisation is known for, what it is good at doing, and how it allocates resources to win in its market. Organisations should be defined less by their structure and more by their ability to establish the capabilities required to win – that is, to serve customers in ways that competitors cannot readily copy. Organisation capabilities might include the ability to respond to or serve customers, drive efficiency, manage change, collaborate both inside and outside, innovate on products and business model, access information, and establish the right culture.
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Leaders can facilitate capability audits to determine if the organisation has prioritised the right capabilities to win.
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Effects of culture Culture represents the pattern of how people think and act in the organisation. While organisations can have many capabilities, culture is likely the key for future success. The right culture takes what the organisation should be known for by key customers and uses this external identity to shape internal thought and action. Leaders can audit the extent to which an organisation has the right culture.
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Action through agendas Management actions can be identified and implemented to create and sustain the desired culture. My colleagues and I have classified these actions into intellectual, behavioural and process agendas. Intellectual agendas ensure that managers create a shared culture inside and outside the organisation; behavioural agendas show the extent to which all employees behave consistently with the desired culture; and process agendas institutionalise the culture through management practices.
COMING DOWN TO INDIVIDUALS
The three dimensions in this organisation logic parallel psychologists’ understanding of individuals. Individuals have personalities (parallel to organisation capabilities) that have been categorised into the ‘Big 5’: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These five personality traits capture domains that can be observed and measured.
Individuals then have habits (organisation culture or patterns) that determine how they approach life. Psychologists say that 50 to 80 per cent of what people do come from habits or routines. These habits show up in how people think (cultural intellectual agenda), act (cultural behavioural agenda), and manage emotions or sentiments that signal and sustain behaviours (cultural process agenda).
In today’s rapidly changing business world, the challenge of building the right organisation complements and supersedes the talent challenge. Psychologists who diagnose individuals look at each of the three levels (personality, habit, action). Likewise, HR professionals who assess organisations can look at three levels (capability, culture and management action).
IMPLICATIONS
Leaders who manage talent, leadership and culture bring similar rigour to organisations as they have to talent and leadership – they will add even more value to their organisations. The wars for talent will be changed into victories through organisation.
n Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor of Business, Ross School of Business, is a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organisations and leaders deliver value. He studies how organisations build capabilities of leadership, learning, accountability, and talent through leveraging human resources. To connect with him, send an email to editor@ leaderonomics.com.
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www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 15 December 2018
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By BROOK MANVILLE editor@leaderonomics.com
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O you find leading your organisation to be a constant balancing act? Sometimes you’re giving people flexibility to link up and learn, to ‘be their best’– but then, you’re pushing them to the limit, demanding results. You want to be interconnected, horizontal, and coolly supportive of people far and wide – a true ‘network leader’ – but you also want discipline and vertical respect. Old-fashioned hierarchy can still have its place. Tired of balancing ‘command’ versus ‘community’? Maybe it’s time to get off the horizontal/vertical see-saw and think differently about your organisation.
www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 15 December 2018
BECOMING A HYBRID LEADER
WORKING SMART By DR TRAVIS BRADBERRY editor@leaderonomics.com
CAN HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL LEADERSHIP CO-EXIST IN THE SAME COMPANY?
SOME people have an uncanny ability to get things done. They keep their nights and weekends sacred and still get more done than people who work 10 or 20 hours more per week than they do. A study from Stanford shows that they are on to something. The study found that productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours, and productivity drops off so much after 55 hours that there’s no point in working any more. That’s right, people who work as much as 70 hours (or more) per week actually get the same amount done as people who work 55 hours.
GETTING TO BOTH/AND Good and sustainable leadership depends on an ability to influence others. Moreover, people are more inclined to follow an individual who is likeable. Here are our Top 10 traits of likeable influencers in infographic format: bit.ly/igTop10 likeable
In leadership, few things are more destructive to an organisation than low morale among employees, and research by Gallup shows that between 70–80% of people consider themselves to be disengaged at work. Read this article: bit.ly/ RTyourwhy
n Brooke Manville is principal of Brook Manville LLC, consulting on strategy and organisation, with special interest in networks, learning, and leadership. In his earlier career, he was a professor of Ancient History at Northwestern University, a partner of McKinsey & Co., and also held senior positions at CBS, Saba Software and United Way of America. He is also the co-author of The Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook (2018). Connect with him by sending an email to editor@ leaderonomics.com.
So argues Chris Fussell’s new book, One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams. Fussell (assisted by C.W. Goodyear) sketches a compelling ‘both/ and’ approach, exhorting leaders to build ‘hybrid organisations’ that blend networks and hierarchy in the same enterprise. The former Navy SEAL and now McChrystal Group business consultant writes that network-hierarchy fusion is not only doable, but even critical. And why not? Today’s global economy forces every leader to master the cognitive dissonance of granting freedom all around, while also continually seeking higher performance. One Mission is a blueprint for building a winning hybrid organisation to support your business strategy.
BEYOND A TEAM OF TEAMS
A decade ago, Fussell was aide-decamp to Stan McChrystal who was leading a global Counter-terrorism Task Force in the Middle East. The two worked together, developing what McChrystal described in his own book as a ‘team of teams’ – a high performance intelligence and commando operation across the region to meet the then unprecedented network terrorism of Al-Qaeda. McChrystal’s strategy-cum-memoir of 2015 painted an inspiring picture of transforming the bureaucratic dinosaur of allied military intelligence units into a nimble and deadly effective network, dramatically increasing successful strikes against insurgents. McChrystal’s story highlighted a new organisation model that combined ‘shared consciousness’ among networked but still hierarchically-organised units with ‘empowered execution’ by front-line soldiers. The book insisted it was a formula that could also benefit commercial organisations competing in today’s interconnected and volatile world. Business leaders rallied to McChrystal’s New York Times bestseller, but for many, the book lacked how-to, non-military detail. Fussell’s successor volume, crafted with two subsequent years of business applications, redresses the gap. One Mission serves up valuable, under-thehood analysis of what McChrystal first pioneered – making the team-of-teams vision that much more actionable for businesses today.
THE HIGH-PERFORMING HYBRID ORGANISATION
One Mission now explains why ‘team of teams’ worked so well in war, and more important, how its hybrid organisational model is now delivering higher performance in business. Fussell explains that the magic is created by leveraging the strengths of each organisational approach and in tandem,
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – William Penn
offsetting the negatives. The big idea is that savvy hybrid leaders leaven the structure of vertical bureaucracy with a more respectful and empowering culture of horizontal networks. This is not the first call for bringing network and hierarchy together in one enterprise. As Fussell notes, “academics have been writing about this for years,” and of course, the infamous matrix organsation model is a living museum of corporations trying to achieve the both/and of org-chart structure and team-based flexibility. More recent experiments to note might also include Nonaka’s ‘hypertext organisation’, networked community platform businesses (e.g. Uber, Task Rabbit, Airbnb), Red Hat’s ‘open-ish organisation’, Zappo’s holacracy, and others. But there’s something new and valuable in Fussell’s book: One Mission goes beyond the original McChrystal teamof-teams story, now providing a more detailed discussion of what it takes to actually build the hybrid. As Fussell explained, “Structure is important, but this hybrid only works with the right kind of leader constantly setting an operating context for people to work together across silos and boundaries.” So, how does a leader create that context?
UNDERSTANDING ORGANISATIONAL DYNAMICS “It begins,” Chris Fussell elaborated, “by understanding the positives and negatives of both parts of the potential hybrid. You have to get beyond the traditional framing of either/or.” “You can’t throw away what works in a bureaucracy – optimisation of assets, accountability, long-term planning and development of talent, certain linear decision-making processes. But we also know bureaucracies can be rigid, slow and risk-averse.” “Teams and small units, by contrast, are unmatched for their spirit and agility of performance; also, their ability to make non-linear decisions and innovate on the fly. But they have disadvantages too: they get dug in with their own micro-cultures, creating parochial echo chambers, and then they won’t collaborate with other units.” “Sometimes, a small team will connect with other people – which is human – and form networks, which is good. But then another negative: there’s
no real plan or accountability when they do. Flash mobs or loose communities will arise, but they don’t get anything done long-term. Just remember, for example, Occupy Wall Street: lots of engagement, but no lasting change.” “After working with several business clients, we realised that capturing the right strengths of both hierarchy and networks is partly design but mostly about leadership – showcasing expected behaviour, setting context, and encouraging ongoing experimentation – building a culture that honours and signals the need for both structure and freedom at the same time. The leader of a hybrid organisation has to let go of control, but also not let go too much.”
FOUR IMPERATIVES
So, how do we do that? Fussell’s book offers four imperatives for leaders, each framed under a ‘one mission’ culture: many small teams operating as a structured but flexible community; freely operating, but engaging and accountable to another; guided to keep learning and take action towards a shared performance goal. The four imperatives each demonstrate a synthesis of horizontal freedom and vertical structure that shapes the performance of a ‘networked hierarchy’.
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Create an ‘aligning narrative’ The all-dominant performance mission begins with leaders creating an ‘aligning narrative’. This first step is a bonding story of community and duty that cuts across ‘tribal prejudices’, aimed at building shared commitment among all. The narrative appeals to both reason and emotions to focus everyone on the same meaningful outcome – a classic tool of hierarchical alignment. But the storytelling must also still respect the frequent need for individual units to go their own way to meet the challenges of a shared mission – thus swinging the pendulum towards network freedom and flexibility. As Fussell commented, “the leader must weave stories in a way that each of the ‘tribal units’ sees threats and opportunities beyond their own smaller perspectives – and come to the realisation that only by working together can they ever reach the desired performance.”
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Foster ‘interconnection’ Small teams and ‘tribal units’ create their own realities that silently block listening to others, retarding collabora-
Smart people know the importance of shifting gears on the weekend to relaxing and rejuvenating activities. They use their weekends to create a better week ahead. This is easier said than done, so here’s some help. The following are some things that you can do to find balance on the weekend and come into work at 110% on Monday morning.
DISCONNECT
tive innovation (endemic to a hierarchy). So, the leader must work tirelessly to foster communication and learning among all, going beyond formal structures (facilitating open, organisationwide exchange; cross-team problemsolving and reflection to form social networks, and vice versa). He or she must also accelerate crossboundary communication by judicious ‘embedding’ of key influencers across and even beyond the organisation. These ‘planted advocates’ tap into knowledge and trade problem-solving insights with sympathetic partners. In the Middle East military theatre, McChrystal achieved ‘interconnection’ by hosting and moderating communitywide open intelligence briefings, and also placing knowledgeable allies in contributing civilian organisations (e.g. the CIA). Fussell has now been profitably applying the same approach in commercial organisations, for example, by creating multi-unit briefings and network formation among historically adversarial groups working on one company’s technology service programmes. “The key,” Fussell noted, “is for leaders to facilitate the information-sharing, encouraging people to start ‘thinking out loud together’. A good leader will pull the right values and ideas out of a community, by challenging people to reflect on the bigger issues that the leader himself or herself is facing. That raises the level of thinking and helps build the aligning narrative.”
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Shape the hybrid organisation’s ‘operating rhythm’ A hierarchical organisation moves slowly but acts deliberately and hedges risk. Networks can be fast and fluid, but also volatile, or sometimes ephemeral. At its best, a hybrid organisation will not just balance deliberation and execution but actually create a self-reinforcing cycle of both.
“The leader’s challenge,” Fussell explained, “is to help the broader organisation find the right cadence to meet the pace of external threats and competition. The leader has to help the widelydistributed teams develop a sense of when to fall back – and listen and learn from others – and when to turn those lessons into action.” In fighting Al-Qaeda, McChrystal wanted to ensure field operatives were continuously sharing intelligence across the entire network – and then, at suitable moments, converting that knowledge into living strategy, using new, superior insights about the enemy to beat terrorists at their own game. Fussell highlighted a similar tempo he helped establish between group learning and front-line action in a major sportswear manufacturer plagued by supply chain issues. “Over time, the company evolved an effective rhythm of continuous improvement, with different units learning how to problem-solve together: first understanding what was causing delivery failures; then moving rapidly to implement fixes; and then falling back to analyse the next and higher level of issues, then to collaborate on solutions again, and so on.”
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Reinforce ‘decision spaces’ for front-line operating units ‘Better to ask forgiveness than seek permission’ goes the old cliché – and a liberating cry for anyone frustrated in a bureaucracy. But too much ‘permissionfree’ action can literally bring down a company, and yet, not enough innovating freedom can also spell doom if competitors are moving faster than you – which they always seem to do. Thus, another hybrid organisational solution, again reflecting ‘both/and’ define specific boundaries (as a hierarchy) for when permission-free action is not only allowed but encouraged (as a network). It’s the job of the leader to unleash
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and also leash: delineate well-defined decision-spaces that clarify when acting on your own might risk the success of the entire mission, but at the same time, within ‘the red lines’, also encourage rapid entrepreneurial action when need or opportunity arises. As Fussell recalled: “McChrystal’s development of decision spaces across the Counter-terrorism Task Force was a major breakthrough, enabling the collected operational units to up significantly their strikes against the enemy. In businesses, we’re seeing the same liberating power of decision spaces, leaders intentionally framing front-line empowerment, so they can act more quickly and confidently than before.”
Disconnecting is the most important weekend strategy, because if you can’t find a way to remove yourself electronically from your work Friday evening through Monday morning, then you’ve never really left work. Making yourself available to your work 24/7 exposes you to a constant barrage of stressors that prevent you from refocusing and recharging. If taking the entire weekend off handling work e-mails and calls isn’t realistic, try designating specific times on Saturday and Sunday for checking e-mails and responding to voicemails. For example, check your messages on Saturday afternoon while your kids are getting a haircut and on Sunday evenings after dinner. Scheduling short blocks of time will alleviate stress without sacrificing availability.
BECOMING A HYBRID LEADER
MINIMISE CHORES
One Mission is rich with technical insights and examples that bring to life building an effective hybrid organisation. But as I questioned Chris Fussell, he kept returning to leadership itself. He concluded our conversation with quiet reflection about the man at whose side he had learnt so much – and then went on to extend his comments in more impersonal terms. “McChrystal always says how building a ‘team of teams’ forever changed his assumptions about being a leader. He had to begin by transforming himself, shifting his own identity to someone who doesn’t command so much as instead creating context for others to be successful.” “Good leaders, including now many of our commercial clients, become humble. They don’t abandon control but use it to create structure for continuous development of a performance community. And instead of focusing on themselves, they devote their efforts to building the capabilities of others, giving them the knowledge and freedom to act whenever mission demands. That allows them to achieve things far greater than any one person or team could ever produce.”
Chores have a funny habit of completely taking over your weekends. When this happens, you lose the opportunity to relax and reflect. What’s worse is that a lot of chores feel like work, and if you spend all weekend doing them, you just put in a sevenday workweek. To keep this from happening, you need to schedule your chores like you would anything else during the week, and if you don’t complete them during the allotted time, you move on and finish them the following weekend.
EXERCISE
No time to exercise during the week? You have 48 hours every weekend to make it happen. Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a soothing neurotransmitter that reduces stress. Exercise is also a great way to come up with new ideas. Innovators and
other successful people know that being outdoors often sparks creativity. I know that a lot of my best ideas come to me while I’m surfing. While you’re out in the ocean, the combination of invigorating activity and beautiful scenery creates the perfect environment for an influx of creativity. Whether you’re running, cycling or gardening, exercise leads to endorphinfueled introspection. The key is to find a physical activity that does this for you and then, to make it an important part of your weekend routine.
REFLECT
Weekly reflection is a powerful tool for improvement. Use the weekend to contemplate the larger forces that are shaping your industry, your organisation and your job. Without the distractions of Monday to Friday busy work, you should be able to see things in a whole new light. Use this insight to alter your approach to the coming week, improving the efficiency and efficacy of your work.
PURSUE A PASSION
You might be surprised at what happens when you pursue something you’re passionate about on weekends. Indulging your passions is a great way to escape stress and to open your mind to new ways of thinking. Things like playing music, reading, writing, painting, or even playing catch with your children can help stimulate different modes of thought that can reap huge dividends over the coming week.
SPEND QUALITY TIME WITH FAMILY
Spending quality time with your family over the weekend is essential if you want to recharge and relax. Weekdays are so hectic that the entire week can fly by with little quality family time. Don’t let this bleed into your weekends. Take your children to the park, take your spouse to his or her favourite restaurant, and go visit your parents. You’ll be glad you did.
SCHEDULE MICROADVENTURES
Buy tickets to a concert or play, or get reservations for that cool new hotel that just opened downtown. Instead of running on a treadmill, plan a hike. Try something you haven’t done before or perhaps something you haven’t done in a long time.
Studies show that anticipating something good to come is a significant part of what makes the activity pleasurable. Knowing that you have something interesting planned for Saturday will not only be fun come Saturday, but it will significantly improve your mood throughout the week.
WAKE UP AT THE SAME TIME It’s tempting to sleep in on the weekend to catch up on your sleep. Though it feels good temporarily, having an inconsistent wake-up time disturbs your circadian rhythm. Your body cycles through an elaborate series of sleep phases in order for you to wake up rested and refreshed. One of these phases involves preparing your mind to be awake and alert, which is why people often wake up just before their alarm clock goes off (the brain is trained and ready). When you sleep past your regular wake-up time on the weekend, you end up feeling groggy and tired. This isn’t just disruptive to your day off, it also makes you less productive on Monday because your brain isn’t ready to wake up at your regular time. If you need to catch up on sleep, just go to bed earlier.
DESIGNATE MORNINGS AS ME TIME
It can be difficult to get time to yourself on the weekends, especially if you have family. Finding a way to engage in an activity you’re passionate about first thing in the morning can pay massive dividends in happiness and cleanliness of mind. It’s also a great way to perfect your circadian rhythm by forcing yourself to wake up at the same time you do on weekdays. Your mind achieves peak performance two-to-four hours after you wake up, so get up early to do something physical, and then sit down and engage in something mental while your mind is at its peak.
PREPARE FOR THE UPCOMING WEEK
The weekend is a great time to spend a few moments planning your upcoming week. As little as 30 minutes of planning can yield significant gains in productivity and reduce stress. The week feels a lot more manageable when you go into it with a plan because all you have to focus on is execution. n Dr Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the co-founder of TalentSmart, a provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr Bradberry has written for, or been covered by Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review. Productivity, productivity, productivity. Here’s what you need to know: bit.ly/LDRproductivity
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THE SILENT INFLUENCER IN YOUR ORGANISATION
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IT CAN LIBERATE OR LIMIT YOUR BUSINESS
Our beliefs can eventually become obstacles in our journey. If we believe a colleague is not pulling his or her weight in a team, we may unconsciously be reinforcing that story by looking at his or her behaviour. So how do you distinguish fact from belief? Find out here: bit.ly/ clouded-facts
By CAROLYN TAYLOR editor@leaderonomics.com There’s a silent power within your organisation that’s quietly moulding the patterns of behaviour that will determine your culture. A survey probably won’t detect it but identifying and shifting it will have a significant impact on performance. We’re not talking about values or behaviours here, but something far less universal and more specific to individual organisations. The dominant, but tacit, influencer that has the capacity to both limit and liberate a business: our shared organisational beliefs.
I n Carolyn Taylor is one of the world’s foremost experts in organisational culture change and the CEO of Walking the Talk. She has run workshops with 50,000 leaders, worked alongside 200 culture change journeys, consulted on 15 mergers & acquisitions, coached 60 CEOs and worked in 35 countries. She is also the author of Walking the Talk: Building a Culture for Success (Random House). To engage with her, email us at editor@ leaderonomics.com.
spent many of my early years as a culture consultant focusing on values and their relationship to culture. It is only in more recent years, however, that my colleagues at Walking the Talk have dedicated significant energy towards identifying and understanding the impact that beliefs have on culture. Although limiting beliefs can be more challenging to locate and shift, when it comes to business outcomes, the process is well worth the effort.
WHAT IS A BELIEF?
A belief is a conclusion about how the world works. Once formed, we use our beliefs to direct our future actions. For example, if I believe that coaching helps people to become more effective, then I will invest in coaching for myself and my employees. However, if I believe coaching is a waste of time and money, then I will not invest in it. My beliefs about coaching may have been formed by a negative personal experience, or from something that I read about coaching, or even by what my peers have told me about coaching –based on their own experience, or what they themselves have heard from others. Beliefs become particularly potent once we have persuaded ourselves that our beliefs are actual truths, rather than our opinion.
When this happens, we tend to close off from new information that could challenge or negate our belief. Once I have formed the belief that coaching is a waste of money, then if someone tells me about a good experience they have had with coaching, I might conclude that they have been brainwashed, or that the benefits won’t last.
Beliefs become particularly potent once we have persuaded ourselves that our beliefs are actual truths, rather than our opinion. Beliefs can be about trivial things, such as the best restaurant in town, or they can be more deeply embedded, such as the belief that ‘I am not good enough’ or ‘if you want something done well, you have to do it yourself’. Either way, our beliefs are the framework on which we base our day to day decisions and the way we behave. From a cognitive point of view, beliefs can be incredibly useful: If we were to evaluate every situation with brand new eyes, then we would never get anything done. Beliefs free up mental real estate because they offer us a go-to shortcut for knowing the right thing to do. Whilst beliefs are applied by individuals, they are also formed and applied by groups. And it is in this regard that they play such an important role in organisational life and culture shaping. Most organisations have a set of values that describe the aspirational features in the culture: integrity, teamwork, customer focus, accountability, innovation, and so on.
But few organisations describe the beliefs on which they want to build their organisation. Fewer still can describe the beliefs on which they are currently operating. Beliefs are subtle and often invisible, but they can be very persuasive when it comes to directing group behaviour.
CAUSE AND EFFECT (ON CULTURE)
The shared organisational beliefs that impact performance can take many forms. Over the years, we’ve uncovered some that were particularly powerful in shaping behaviour. Here are a few anonymous examples. Do any of these sounds familiar to you? “We can do anything we put our minds to” – this belief generated a willingness to experiment and move into new markets. Sometimes with unrealistic goals and plans. “We are too big to fail” – this shared organisational belief bred arrogance and a lack of customer empathy. “Sheer willpower and brute force will allow us to push things through” – although this led to strong execution, it also produced bullying behaviour both internally and externally. “People either have what it takes, or they don’t” – created an ‘up or out’ culture with little development or coaching. “More is always better” – this belief brought about continuous stretch, as well as poor prioritisation and high burnout. If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that a good thing? – Somerset Maugham
DIAGNOSING BELIEFS
Identifying core beliefs takes patience and forensic diagnostics. Unlike behaviours and values, people find it hard to articulate beliefs because they are often simply seen as the truth. Sometimes you need an external eye to spot them. At Walking the Talk, we have not found surveys to be effective at uncovering the
most powerful shared beliefs. Instead, we favour qualitative research techniques to extract the subtleties of deeply held organisational beliefs. When we do unearth a core belief, we know it, because it engenders two strong responses: some gasp in shocked recognition, others start arguing that it is not a belief, but rather “just the way things are”. The strength of both reactions is often the test of how close you are to a core belief.
WANT TO CHANGE BELIEFS? GET MARKETING!
Changing beliefs requires time and a coordinated process of communication, conversation, education, and presentation of new evidence. We liken this process to a successful marketing campaign. Following good research, you’ll need to form a ‘campaign’ – one with very clear goals. Once the new, or reframed belief has been defined, you can then enrol a large group of leaders, opinion influencers, and viral techniques to seed new thinking in the organisation. This is not an easy process, which is why it is important to treat it with the seriousness with which the marketing department would treat a major campaign.
IN CONCLUSION
Changing the shared beliefs held within the culture is just as difficult as changing beliefs that customers hold about a particular brand or its products. And if the beliefs do not change, neither will the behaviours that they drive. The culture will continue as it did before. How will you know that shared beliefs are shifting? Evidence comes in the form of changing behaviours and decisions, as the new beliefs start to drive a new approach. That approach then starts producing a different outcome in the market. In this way, a force that was once insidiously limiting can become an agent for transformation and growth organisationwide.
www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 15 December 2018
By GREG SATELL editor@leaderonomics.com
I
N the first half of the 20th century, Alfred Sloan created the modern corporation at General Motors. In many ways, it was based on the military. Senior leadership at headquarters would make plans, while managers at individual units would be allocated resources and made responsible for achieving mission objectives. The rise of digital technology made this kind of structure untenable. By the time strategic information was gathered centrally, it was often too old to be effective. In much the same way, by the time information flowed up from operating units, it was too late to alter the plan. It had already failed. So, in recent years, agility and iteration has become the mantra. Due to pressures from the market and from shareholders, long-term planning is often eschewed for the needs of the moment. Yet today, the digital era is ending and organisations will need to shift once again. We’re going to need to learn to combine long-range planning with empowered execution.
SHIFTING FROM ITERATION TO EXPLORATION
When Steve Jobs came up with the idea for a device that would hold “a thousand songs in my pocket”, it wasn’t technically feasible. There was simply no hard drive available that could fit that much storage into that little space. Nevertheless, within a few years, a supplier developed the necessary technology and the iPod was born. Notice how the bulk of the profits went to Apple, which designed the application and very little to the supplier who developed the technology that made it possible. That’s because the technology for developing hard drives was very well understood. If it hadn’t been that supplier, another would have developed what Jobs needed in six months or so. Yet today, we’re on the brink of a new era of innovation. New technologies, such as revolutionary computing architectures, genomics, and artificial intelligence are coming to the fore that aren’t nearly as well understood as digital technology. So, we will have to spend years learning about them before we can develop applications safely and effectively. For example, companies ranging from Daimler and Samsung to JP Morgan
SHIFTING TO EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY STAYING RELEVANT IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE
Chase and Barclays have joined IBM’s Q Network to explore quantum computing, even though it will be years before that technology has a commercial impact. Leading tech companies have formed the Partnership on AI to better understand the consequences of artificial intelligence. Hundreds of companies have joined manufacturing hubs to learn about next generation technology. It’s becoming more important to prepare than adapt. By the time you realise the need to adapt, it may already be too late.
BUILDING A PIPELINE OF PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED
While the need to explore technologies long before they become commercially viable is increasing, competitive pressures show no signs of abating. Just because digital technology is not advancing the way it once did doesn’t mean that it will disappear. Many aspects of the digital world, such as the speed at which we communicate, will continue. Therefore, it is crucial to build a continuous pipeline of problems to solve. Most will be fairly incremental, either improving on an existing product or developing new ones based on standard technology. Others will be a bit more aspirational, such as applying existing capabilities to a completely new market or adopting exciting new technology to improve service to existing customers. However, as the value generated from digital technology continues to level off, much like it did for earlier technologies such as internal combustion and electricity, there will be an increasing need to pursue grand challenges to solve fundamental problems. That’s how truly new markets are created. Clearly, this presents some issues with resource allocation. Senior managers will have to combine the need to move fast and keep up with immediate competitive pressures with the long-term thinking it takes to invest in years of exploration with an uncertain payoff. There’s no magic bullet, but it is
generally accepted that the 70/20/10 principle for incremental, adjacent and fundamental innovation is a good rule of thumb.
EMPOWERING CONNECTIVITY
When Sloan designed the modern corporation, capacity was a key constraint. The core challenge was to design and build products for the mass market. Long-term planning to effectively organise plant, equipment, distribution and other resources was an important, if not decisive, competitive attribute. Digitisation and globalisation, however, flipped this model and vertical integration gave way to radical specialisation.
To survive, leadership should understand that when the game is up, you need to learn how to play a new one.
Because resources were no longer concentrated in large enterprises but distributed across global networks, integration within global supply chains became increasingly important. With the rise of cloud technology, this trend became even more decisive in the digital world. Creating proprietary technology that is closed off to the rest of the world has become unacceptable to customers who expect you to maintain API’s that integrate with open technologies and those of your competitors. Over the next decade, it will become increasingly important to build similar connection points for innovation. For example, the United States military set up the Rapid Equipping Force that was specifically designed to connect new
technologies with soldiers in the field who needed them. Many companies are setting up incubators, accelerators, and corporate venture funds for the same reason. Others have set up programs to connect to academic research. What’s clear is that going in alone is no longer an option and we need to set up specific structures that not only connect to new technology, but ensure that it is understood and adopted throughout the enterprise.
THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
The shift from one era to another doesn’t mean that old challenges are eliminated. Even today, we need to scale businesses to service mass markets and rapidly iterate new applications. The problems we need to take on in this new era of innovation won’t replace the old ones – they will simply add to them. Still, we can expect value to shift from agility to exploration as fundamental technologies rise to the fore. Organisations that are able to deliver new computing architectures, revolutionary new materials, and miracle cures will have a distinct competitive advantage over those who can merely engineer and design new applications. It is only senior leaders who can empower these shifts and it won’t be easy. Shareholders will continue to demand quarterly profit performance. Customers will continue to demand product performance and service. Yet, it is only those who are able to harness the technologies of this new era – which will not contribute to profits or customer satisfaction for years to come – who will survive the next decade. The one true constant is that success eventually breeds failure. The skills and strategies of one era do not translate to another. To survive, the key organisational attribute will not be speed, agility, or even operational excellence, but leadership that understands that when the game is up, you need to learn how to play a new one.
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Futurist James Canton recently identified 7 cutting-edge innovations that he believes will change the world. We agree these are potentially huge shockwaves heading our beachfronts. Check them out here: bit.ly/disruptiveinnovations
n Greg Satell is a bestselling author, international keynote speaker and adviser, who frequently contributes to Harvard Business Review, Inc. and other A-list publications. His first book, Mapping Innovation, was chosen as one of the best business books of 2017 by 800-CEO-READ. His new book, Cascades, will be published by McGraw-Hill in April 2019. To connect with Greg, send an email to editor@leaderonomics. com.
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How many times has a new email notification disrupted your flow, causing you to spend a little bit more time getting back to meeting that urgent deadline? Here are 3 ways to strengthen your focus: bit.ly/ strengthen-focus
4 STEPS TO STAY FOCUSED By ANDREW GRIFFITHS editor@leaderonomics.com
I n Andrew Griffiths is an inspirational mentor, global speaker and an international best-selling author with 12 books now sold in over 60 countries. To connect with him, send an email to editor@ leaderonomics.com.
’M pretty certain that anyone reading this article is very familiar with the concept of ‘overwhelm’. It seems that every year that goes by, we have more to do – with the big problem being we don’t always focus on doing the right things at the right time, and this can lead to some major issues. Most of us tend to focus on what, or who, needs our attention right here, right now. Sometimes it’s a matter of which client needs our attention, and that normally comes back to the squeaky wheel principle of which client makes the most noise. So our attention is drawn in different directions, but are these the right directions to ensure our business grows, that it becomes financially stable and successful, and we get to enjoy what we do? “Never underestimate the power of priorities and focus in achieving your big life goals.”
Over the years I’ve learnt a simple process that ensures I stay focused on what’s important in my business right here right now. It’s a simple way of setting business priorities and I’m going to share it.
A PRIORITY 1 ESTABLISH FOR THE MONTH
At the beginning of every month, I establish a very clear priority and theme for where I need to focus my attention during the month ahead. For example, if I know that a major project is about to come to an end, it’s pretty clear that I’m going to need some work to replace that income, my focus for the month ahead is going to be on business development.
EXACTLY WHAT 2 DEFINE NEEDS TO BE ACHIEVED
Next, I define exactly what I want to achieve on that priority theme for the month ahead. What are my goals, objectives, reasons for achieving them, etc.? I really spell these out in detail to make sure they are super clear in my mind.
IN 3 SCHEDULE QUALITY TIME
Every day I allocate quality time (not leftover time at 10 p.m. at night) to working on the priority. Generally, I make it the first few hours of the day. This can be really tough because everything else pops up wanting your attention. If you start to neglect your priority early in the month, it will fall by the wayside within a few days and nothing will happen. The priority theme needs to be given the attention it deserves and this takes discipline and focus.
FOCUS 4 MAKE A HABIT
In the early days of doing this, I used to have Post-It notes all over the place reminding me what to focus on. Today when I’m planning my day ahead or week, it’s the first thing I schedule in. It goes into my calendar on a daily basis. It’s everywhere. I don’t give myself the chance to forget about it or for other demands to push it out of the priority spotlight.
IN CONCLUSION
I have a number of monthly themes. They can include anything from recharging my batteries, developing new products, systemisation, marketing, client projects, personal development, learning a new skill and so on. The process is the same, get clear on the priority for the month, name it and be specific about what it needs to be and treat it as a priority. I start every day with a focus on the theme for the month and investing as much time as I need to make it happen. I do this religiously every month and I certainly feel a lot more in control of my business. It helps me to get and stay focused. I get the important things done, not just the things that cry out for my attention and, most importantly, I feel like I’m making progress – not just spinning a pile of plates, day after day. Sometimes, the simplest of ideas can have the most profound impact on our business (and life). This might be one of those for you, it certainly has been for me.
www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 15 December 2018
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HOW TO BUILD WINNING TEAMS
By JOE HIRSCH editor@leaderonomics.com
A
LL managers want their teams to take ownership, work collaboratively, and exhibit a growth mindset. But what concrete steps can they take to supercharge others and bring out their best? In my work with leadership teams, I’ve noticed that managers of highperforming teams consistently broaden and build the talents of the people around them. These leaders recognise that making adjustments to their management style is the key to building winning teams.
THEY PLAY TO PEOPLE’S STRENGTHS
They are also more likely to strongly agree that they like what they do each day. When people are untethered from management, their strengths can rise.
failure is just the first step towards progress.
THEY CREATE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Great teams need a shared roadmap for success: What does it look like, where are the challenges, and how will they get there? Developing a common vision means that all team members know what’s expected of them and how their role fits into the team’s larger purpose and priorities. Naturally, managers are at the centre of this – it’s their job to help challenge and develop their reports to identify and practise these values. When managers pay attention to their employees with greater frequency, providing just-in-time feedback, and holding regular conversations focused on coaching and development, the better their teams will perform.
The litmus test of team effectiveness is psychological safety, the ability of group members to think and act without worrying about social repercussions – in essence, to just be themselves. Google discovered this first-hand when it studied 180 of its own teams to learn why some were successful and others were not. After a series of trials, research analysts turned up only one reliably consistent pattern of high performance: psychological safety. Managers can promote psychological safety by modelling vulnerability. When leaders acknowledge mistakes, ask for feedback, and demonstrate a willingness to listen, they show that
In a survey I conducted among nearly 500 employees in the professional services industry, members of high-achieving teams said they felt “empowered to do their best work” and that team leaders “encouraged them to use their strengths every day”. This is hardly surprising. A recent report by Gallup showed that strengths-based leadership has the potential to deliver improved business outcomes: Employees who say they use their strengths every day are 8 per cent more productive and 15 per cent less likely to quit their jobs.
THEY RALLY AROUND COMMON GOALS
TYING IT TOGETHER
There’s no secret formula for winning teams. They are built over time and assembled from the ground up. With the right tools – a focus on strengths, safety, and communication – managers can design something that’s built to last. n Joe Hirsch specialises in helping organisations apply behavioural science to strengthen the way leaders train, support, and empower their teams for success. As managing
director of Semaca Partners, Joe has helped a diverse set of clients, including Fortune 500 companies. To connect with him, send an email to editor@ leaderonomics.com. Karin Hurt shares six secrets to building great teams, based on what she has discovered from 20 years of watching, listening, leading, and being a member of great and mediocre teams. Learn from her at: bit.ly/KH-buildingteams
Online Feature Leadership endurance is not necessarily something we are born with, but it can be learnt. It’s similar to physical endurance. How do we build leadership endurance? Read: bit.ly/LeadershipEndurance
Leadership is not about the next election, it’s about the next generation. — Simon Sinek
Genghis Khan was ruthless, brutal and unyielding in his quest for world domination. Roshan Thiran shares the various leadership lessons he learnt from the historical Mongol warrior. Listen: bit.ly/RYGlessonsfromGenghisKhan FOR other great leadership insights, including those by John Maxwell, visit www.leaderonomics.com. If you missed any of our past issues, go to www.leaderonomics.com/publications and download for FREE! EDITOR ROSHAN THIRAN MANAGING EDITOR LYDIA GOMEZ
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By REBECCA ANDREE editor@leaderonomics.com
L
EARNING and development can be thought as having two aspects: horizontal (what you know) – increasing knowledge, and vertical (how you think) – increasing complexity. Horizontal development can happen without vertical development, but vertical development can’t happen without horizontal development. People can know a lot of stuff without being able to use it to resolve complex problems or make complex decisions. To become a complex thinker, you really need to know your stuff! When I talk about vertical development, I’m really talking about both horizontal and vertical. Vertical development can’t be taught. You can’t just add another topic or class and expect vertical development. It happens when we reflectively apply our knowledge in the real world. Three things help people develop vertically faster and better (optimally): l Learning through continuous cycles of goal setting, information gathering, application and reflection l Deliberately building personal skills for learning, thinking, and deciding l Working in environments that encourage the use of decisionmaking and collaboration tools that support iteration These activities and conditions are essential supports for vertical development, but they work best when the learner knows where to start! To identify a growth edge, we need a reliable measure of vertical development.
VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT
3 THINGS TO HELP PEOPLE DEVELOP FASTER AND BETTER MEASURING VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT
An ideal measure of vertical development can tell us about an individual’s current level of performance, identify their growth edge, and provide suggestions for activities and practices based on that growth edge. This makes it possible to tailor coaching or training to meet the specific learning needs of each individual. I have found two tools that meet these requirements, while still being highly practical and relevant in the business context: Lectical Assessments and Immunity to Change Map. Lectical Assessments make it possible to go one step further, it can be used to match people to roles by determining both the thinking complexity of individuals AND the complexity of workplace roles. This capability makes it possible to fit people to roles with unprecedented precision and has implications for the entire Talent Management value chain – from role design to recruitment to succession planning.
Here are three ways to get started integrating vertical development into your organisation’s learning and development programs: 1. Evaluate how well your learning and development programmes create the three things that help people develop vertically faster and better (optimally) – What are you doing already? What are the opportunities? 2. Use the opportunities to create a continuous cycle of learning for yourself as you integrate vertical. Your continuous learning cycle might look something like this (refer to Table 1).
3. Reach out to a certified vertical development expert to explore integrating vertical development measures to support your leaders and organisation. How do we move ourselves from incidental learners to intentional learners? We can do so by understanding the different needs of learners. Leaderonomics director of corporate solutions, Sashe Kanapathi discusses these needs and the solutions available to address them: bit.ly/intentional-learning1
INTEGRATING VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT INTO L&D
Now that you understand the relationship between horizontal and vertical development, you might be wondering ‘where do I start?’
Table 1
UNFORGETTABLE. TRANSFORMATIONAL.
MOVE INTO THE WORLD OF IMMERSIVE LEARNING with Based on the true story of Swiss executive J.P. Mottu, who in 1988 found himself in charge of saving an employee kidnapped by Colombian rebels, the program thrusts participants into real-life negotiations that had been kept secret for over 25 years. As individuals and in groups, participants are immersed in an interactive experience incorporating film, multimedia, and live moderation. The high-stake situation experience allows them to exchange invaluable insights and forge memorable relationships with peers.
MOST LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COURSES TEACH YOU SOMETHING. GEORGE KOHLRIESER AND OUR TEAM WANTED TO DESIGN A PROGRAM THAT AWAKENS SOMETHING IN YOU. Edouard Getaz, InsideRisk Founder
InsideRisk is a unique way to enhance your ability to think critically and thrive within constant change.
Watch the trailer at bit.ly/InsideRiskLDR
For more information, email info@leaderonomics.com