A friend of mine is an Asia Pacific Managing Director for a global firm. We were chatting over lunch and I was sharing the need for a longer term approach to developing leaders; “I agree”, he said, “but my company would never sign up for something like that.” When I inquired as to why not, he explained that any commitment to learning and development would be viewed by quarter, because, with the uncertain future in 2012 they would want to be able to cut back on any non-essential expenditure!
This conversation highlights the dangerous lack of preparedness that many leadership teams are in. If 2012 is going to be uncertain or tough, then shouldn’t we get ready for it? Shouldn’t we put the best leadership team in place and make sure they have the competencies required? Or is this a non-essential expense?
Consider that, post the Global Financial Crisis, many leadership teams were decimated by cut backs and organizations are talking about growth when they don’t have the bench strength of talent to achieve it. It is frightening that less than 10% of executives have a plan to develop their strengths and the more senior they get; the less likely they are to receive constructive performance and strategic feedback. Continue Reading »
The answer as to whether culture can be taught, lies not in the new culture but with the individual who is in the new culture. The cross cultural training programmes certainly help in guiding individuals in understanding generic cultural attributes that may differ; such as high context versus low context, direct versus indirect communication styles. However, learning about these differences does not mean that we can change these behaviours and values of that culture. On the contrary, what it actually achieves is to make us aware of our instinctive reactions to these differences. From this awareness, we can begin to learn and potentially then collaborate towards appropriate actions and outcomes. Continue Reading »
A leader who wishes to bypass resistance, prepare hearts and minds and facilitate lasting changes for his or her organisation must understand and be able to use the power of story and metaphor. In a previous post I shared about the construction of metaphors and wanted to expand on this with specific relevance to leadership in today’s challenging environment.
What stories are you telling your people? Do you know what stories are you telling yourself? Continue Reading »
As we watch scenes of wanton distruction and looting in London we must ask ourselves, is there any situation or circumstance that warrants this kind of behaviour? Just before I wrote this blog I was listening to the BBC World Service and heard someone say that we have created a culture of Self and Self-interest and that this was the cause. I don’t subcribe to simplistic cause-effect statements and don’t believe the London riot is the result of one problem or one group of people but I would like to comment on why this kind of selfish behaviour is NOT Self-leadership. Continue Reading »
Whether you are running a small business or leading a multi-national company, building and protecting your reputation is essential. Consider some reputation disasters; Toyota denying their ‘sticky’ break pedals, Pizza Hut employees posting a Youtube video of of unsanitary food practices or United Airlines breaking guitars on the tarmac.
With blogs, YouTube and Facebook pages it is now possible for people to let the world know what they think about you.
Corporate reputation is based on the perceptions of any stakeholder group such as consumers, investors, employees, or key influencers. Charles J. Fombrun has listed six drivers of corporate reputation:
Many organisations are suffering a critical shortage of effective senior managers. A senior manager is usually a manager of managers or a manager that needs to lead highly competent individuals. It is critical that that senior managers master some foundational skills if they are to be successful in this role. Here are some of the critical skills that I teach during my Critical Skills for Senior Managers Program.
As a leadership consultant and executive coach I am often asked by my clients to help them understand and navigate organisational politics.
Most people I speak to have a negative perspective of politics, they associate it with backstabbing and pushing your own agenda at a cost to others. I have a different perspective; my experience is that business politics is about human nature and to ignore it is to ignore reality. In a perfect world the best workers would be promoted on merit alone and the best ideas would be adopted regardless of personal interest – but we do not live in Utopia we live in the real world. If you want to survive and prosper in the real world you need to combine good work with smart politics.
The term ‘Machiavellian’ is often used to negatively label those who have mastered the Art of Politics in Businesss but this may be paying a disservice to Nicolo Machievelli ( 1469 -1527) who wrote a handbook for politics and human nature called “The Prince”. I read The Prince as a young man but I recommend that my coaching clients read “The New Machievelli” by Alistair McAlpine. Continue Reading »
As well as researching, writing about and coaching about Self-leadership I often give keynote speeches.
Recently I gave a presentation to a company who wanted to inspire their people to live their value ‘Do What’s Right’. You can watch 4 minutes of it right here.
Culminating in last Saturday’s election, Singaporeans from all walks of life, representing the full range of political views and associations, have recently taken part in an unprecedentedly open and passionate debate about who their leaders would be. While the PAP won a clear majority of votes, it’s also clear that many people aren’t happy with the status quo.
In short: Singaporeans may not yet be ready to change their leaders, but they are ready for their leaders to change.
As coaches to corporate executives across Asia, we have seen this played out many times before. Of course, the context is a bit different: employees don’t get to vote for their CEOs. But their voice is still heard, through the strength (or lack) of their commitment to the leadership team’s strategy and vision. In our experience, when employees don’t commit, it’s usually because they lack a strong connection to their leaders – not because they think the strategy is wrong. Continue Reading »
…the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling and behaviors to achieve your objective.
Self-leaders have a drive for autonomy, can make decisions, are more creative and persist, even in the face of adversity.
Some of the intentional behaviours that characterise Self-leadership are; self-awareness, self-goal setting, self-motivation, positive self-talk, assertive communication and the ability to receive and act on feedback.
Becoming a Self-leader and maintaining Self-leadership is a self-development activity; but organizations that encourage Self-leadership reap the benefit.
A friend of mine is an Asia Pacific Managing Director for a global firm. We were chatting over lunch and I was sharing the need for a longer term approach to developing leaders; “I agree”, he said, “but my company would never sign up for something like that.” When I inquired as to why not, he explained that any commitment to learning and development would be viewed by quarter, because, with the uncertain future in 2012 they would want to be able to cut back on any non-essential expenditure!
