MBTI

The Myers Briggs Test Indicator is an employee assessment tool that, if used properly, can enhance communications, improve teambuilding, and shed light on certain personality conflicts.

http://www.myersbriggs.org

Elton Mayo

George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) has been widely recognized as the progenitor of the human relations movement in management and his work laid down the fundamentals for modern management and organizational thinking.Mayo's work highlighted the importance of communication between management and workers and identified the , in our days somehow-accepted notion that work satisfaction, and therefore productivity, lies in recognition, security, and a sense of belonging, rather than monetary rewards. His findings were contrary to the theories of his contemporaries that the worker is motivated solely by self-interest (e.g. Taylorism). Mayo's work on human motivation revolutionized the theory and practice of management into our current days, is it worthwhile and because we are cruising some very hard troubled waters to reflect a bit on Elton Mayo´s theory ? What do You think ?

Transparancy...

It takes courage to admit to publicly that we make mistakes, besides being good at what we do. Some leaders might not feel comfortable doing this, but it should be always about being open and accountable for what one claims and about being honest in what we preach and practice. What do You think ?

Rise and Fall.....

The Principle developed by L.J. Peter is embedded in the phrase: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” This sentence first appeared on the cover of a book of the same name, written by Laurence J. Peter (1919-1990), a teacher and professor of education, and Raymond Hull, and it has since then become part of the English language.

Knowledge development,...

As the economical downturn continues and the threat of cost
cutting is ever-present, the importance of knowledge
development in a recession is the most important asset to retain. some people argue,..
What do You think ?

Ludwig Van Mieses

Ludwig Von Mieses, an Austria Economist published in 1912 his Book : „Die Theorie des Geldes“. Mieses predicted the “big crash” in 1924 and after being offered him a senior position at the Kreditanstalt Bank in Vienna, that he refused, he explained his wife the following:

“A great crash is coming, and I don’t want my name in any way connected with it.” “If you want a rich man,” he said, “don’t marry me. I am not interested in earning money. I am writing about money, but will never have much of my own.” 1)

Instead, he preferred to write and teach.

1) Mises, Margit von. 1984. My Years With Ludwig von Mises, 2nd ed. Cedar Falls, IA: Center for Futures Education. pp. 23-24.

Ba...

Ikujiro Nonaka is a professor at the graduate school of international strategy at Japan’s Hitotsubashi University.
He developed the word “Ba” that defines a kind of a meeting place of minds in an organisation. Ba could be meant as a physical place —an office or a restaurant—or it can be purely virtual , as a kind of shared experiences of the organisational culture. The word has now a broader acceptance and, allows people inside a organization to work together knowing that their commun objectives are alligned and that they are following a commun path.

It is in tough times where excellent leadership can make the difference, when the economy is “ booming”, it is fairly easy to have success. What do You think ?

Paradigm shift ?

Jack Welch, who is regarded as the father of the “shareholder value” movement that has dominated the corporate world for more than 20 years, has said it was “a dumb idea” for executives to focus so heavily on quarterly profits and share price gains, as it was quoted on the latest Financial times.com edition.
I have been pledging in the last couple of years that this idea was not sustainable long term , and that the focus should lie on maximazing stakeholders value and not shareholders.

Re-build,Re-construct, Re-shape,Re-invent.....

Going against former believes Tom Peters stated some years ago that there are no excellent companies. According to him: “it is no longer enough to be excellent; companies have to stand out from the crowd. Companies have to shrink, even deconstruct. They have to innovate. They must make the workplace more interesting.”. In our current financial turmoil, is this statement more relevant than ever? What do you think?

Leading by example ?

Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension arrangements were the central theme of a war of words on Thursday as the former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland traded allegations over the terms of his departure from the financial institut with Lord Myners, the City minister. Sir Fred Goodwin, who was forced out of RBS last October, had started collecting a £693,000-a-year pension. The fact that he stands firm on that amount ( under actual circumstances) is a behaviour one should expect from a former Business Leader ? What do You think ?

So ?

In times of turmoil most of those in leading positions create distractions and diminish energy. In these difficult times our enemy is fear, and fear always creates a distraction. Therefore actions must be taken to attack fear and build confidence.

Risk Taking

Some people are arguing lately that just as executive involvement is Key in designing and implementing corporate strategy, it is not less important to be also actively involved in risk decisions. We generally agree now that real-estate bubble was in part boosted by a wide spectrum of mortgages that were, in various forms, deceitful, incomplete or mildly formulated not according to “mainstream” account practices. A group of “traditionally” trained credit Risk Managers stressed the fact that these mortgagees were considered to be “high risk”, and, yet, for a big chunk of the “financial” organizations the stubborn focus on short term interests and earnings, the continous “drilled” will to outplace competition made the communication of risk, diminished, incomplete , yes even sometimes silenced while honestly and candid/ open communication were more exceptions than the rule. What do You think ?

Being accountable,...

Encouraging creativity and risk taking but always fostering a culture of taking responsibility and being accountable for own actions are key competencies that BBBB is promoting and as a fact written on our mission statement.
We have been hearing a lot lately concerning the creation of Bad Banks in the US and Europe in order to help the Credit Institutions to clean up their accounts, but one can ask why should the tax payer be called to take over the ”mess” caused by, as many say “ greedy bankers “, where is the social responsibility of these “leaders” , why are they not been called to stand up and “pay” for their “mismanagement”, why is one big bank in Europe paying 90 millions Euros in form of Bonus to their management when the bank has reported a operating loss of 400 Millions in the same period ?
What do you think?

Can we do it ?

Ten thousands of people live on the streets of Washington and millions worldwide over the TV screens heard President’s Obama Inaugural Address to promise the regeneration of the US.
During the campaign he constantly emphasized his Slogan ,” It is time to change, Yes we can do it”,…… well now time has come to let actions follow brilliant rhetoric or excellent communication skills, and Mr. Obama missed, in my view, his first major opportunity to put action behind words, he could had perform a small quick intimate ceremony, instead of spending a full work day of his time and millions of dollars of taxpayers money in a ” Oscar Like “ ceremony” ,.. and providing the example to the people that elected him by starting to work right from the first minute and place hands on actions that really matters to our future. In times of crisis You need to take special initiatives as true visionaries lead by example. What do You think ?

RBS sponsors Williams F1 Team 2009

The UK prime Minister Mr. Gordon Brown unveiled today a second bank rescue package including powers for the Bank of England to lend up to £50bn directly to businesses, as he accused the Royal Bank of Scotland of taking ”irresponsible risks” as the bank’s shares collapsed.
His comments came as RBS warned it could report an annual loss of up to £28bn, following the mis-timed acquisition of ABN Amro, the Dutch lender it acquired as part of a €71bn (£63bn) hostile break-up bid in 2007.
”Almost all their losses are in subprime mortgages in America and related to the acquisition of ABN Amro. These are irresponsible risks taken by the bank with people’s money in the UK,” Mr Brown said, adding that the decision to buy ABN ”was wrong”. Source FT Online 19/1/2008.

On the same day Williams is presenting their new 2009 Formula 1 car in Algarve where RBS is still being figured as a main sponsor, is that not a contradiction and, at least not very ethical, when in times of economic downturn and deep banking crisis where the industry is laying people off, with government bailouts,….just ,... To go, …..and keep sending corporate guests around the world for entertainment by still being involved in Motorsport Sponsorship? What do You think ?

Adolf Merckle, a wealthy German industrialist, committed suicide after making a wrong bet on the direction of Volkswagen’s share price. Source: The Economist

“The desperate situation of his companies caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act, have broken the passionate family entrepreneur and he took his own life,” a family statement said.


This is not the kind of news one expect to hear concerning successful leadership. What do you think? What main learnings can we take out of this ?

Federal agents arrested Madoff at his apartment on Thursday after prosecutors said he told senior employees that his money management operations were "all just one big lie" and "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme."
A Ponzi scheme is an illegal investment vehicle that pays off old investors with money from new ones, and is dependent on a constant stream of new investment. Because the invested capital is not earning a sufficient return on its own, such schemes eventually collapse under their own weight….. Source Yahoo News

A good example of where greed can lead us to, let´s learn from this by trying to reshape a new ethical culture linked to a Leadership style based on true values, ........which are they ?......What do You think ?

The Detroit Bailout,....

Newly elected president Barak Obama went on to describe, what he believes is a long-term bailout that will be conditioned on federal oversight. Could that mean that the government is mandated, or at least to heavily influence, what kind of cars the 3 Big ones from Detroit make, what mileage and environmental standards they must meet and what large investments they are permitted to make — to recreate an industry that Mr. Obama wishes “ that actually works, that actually functions.”
It all sounds me too close to nationalization.
My big question is, those 3 companies have been underperforming regularly in the last couple of Years even in the Booming ones, pursuing wrong business strategies, obsolete models, too many brands, so, why should the government ,as most will admit , historically, haven’t done that very well, be able to change that course and appear as the salvation management option ?
Plus it is a protection for the National American car manufacturers, what if the result is just the extension of the actual agony? Where is the American spirit of free trade and free market, what happens with the foreign manufacturers that invested in plants in the US and fostered the creation of thousands of new jobs, will they also be able to benefit form those massive financial injections ?
Would not be that money more wisely invested in long term actions that help boost economy by, lowering taxes and give the power back to those that more wisely can take the purchasing decisions. The taxpayers themselves, it is all a question of placing the right balance between back between offer and demand. What do you think?

Workout vs. Bailout: Should Government Take Advantage of the Buffett Effect?

James Heskett is a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus at Harvard Business School

Published:
October 2, 2008
Author:
Jim Heskett

Summing Up
The depth of the global financial crisis is becoming clearer day by day. In the United States, it is being used as a reason to set aside ideology regarding government ownership of important financial institutions, possibly including those that also manufacture automobiles. Our changing attitudes toward these matters may help explain the reasoned responses to this month's questions, responses surprisingly devoid of emotion. Granted, the emphasis of the column was on how the Government should act, not whether. But responses, by and large, resisted the temptation to venture into the realm of ideology.
Some respondents doubted the Government's ability to achieve the Buffett result, if not the "Buffett Effect" of the column's title. Several argued that the Government, by necessity, has different goals and constraints. Dave Guenthner wondered whether "a government would have the same financial-only interest that Buffett has. He is investing to make money, not save the economy." Sameer Kamat cited several reasons—lack of "credibility" as an investor, a "business model" that avoids hard-to-understand business, and "patience" (the pressure for Government to exit its investments as soon as possible)—as reasons why "a Government bailout may not be perceived in the same way as a Buffett style investment." Henrique Abreu cited a lesson of the late Milton Friedman that "it is a different thing spending your money on someone else (Warren Buffett) or spending someone else's money on someone else (government intervention)." But at the same time, most were resigned to the necessity of government action. In Tom Henkel's words, "Government intervention, while appalling, is really the only short-term fix."
One at least partial solution to these concerns was put forth by Amit Maheshwari, who asked, "Why not ask Warren Buffett to invest the bailout amount on behalf of Govt (he works for money, does he not?) …." Several responding as a group from Bethel University asked whether it would be possible to find an expert investor, including Buffett, who truly is a "disinterested party."
This sparked a side discussion about regulation. As Wilson Kimutai put it, "If we bring in Government to bail out, … more regulation should be brought to stabilize the market." David Moore echoed this thought and went further, suggesting that American people should not be allowed "to obligate themselves to loans they cannot afford." Elizabeth Doty commented, "The promise that individual actions lead to societal gain also means that individual failures of judgment lead to societal risk and pain, as we are seeing…. This is why I think we need to step up to the regulation challenge."
Those trying to fix the blame for the problem pointed in several directions. Bottoms-up (mortgage related) as well as top-down (concerning only financial institutions) solutions were favored. Now the definition of those institutions qualifying for either work out or bail out will be tested further, leading us to the question of whether the U.S. automobile industry should qualify for help. Where should we draw the line? Is it now time for ideology to take over? What do you think?

Original Transcription : HBS Working Knowledge November 2008

There are many books I could have written that are better than the ones I actually wrote. My best book would have been 'Managing Ignorance', and I’m very sorry I didn’t write it.”


Peter Drucker

Over the coming months, The New York Times will track six small businesses, and start a series in times of this financial turmoil on how their daily operations will be affected and the way they will handle this crisis, a very interesting idea by PATRICK McGEEHAN and KEN BELSON

Paul Krugman warned against the threats posed by the expanding non-regulated financial entities about a decade ago

To be a man is, ....precisely,..... to be responsible.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Paulson plan: A great idea if you have no idea how to read a balance sheet. --John Hussman

I believe that one thing the actual financial crisis showed us is that free markets do work, it is the old rule of demand pull inflation, (if someone comes and offers 20 % interest rates a year, should no one start to be suspicious? The old economic rule; low interest rate low risk, high interest rate high risk?) if there are people interested in buying any asset at any risk at any price regardless of his true value, we can have at the end bubbles that will blow when this balance starts shifting.
So should the government intervene and take care of the so called "toxic assets"? (By the way I still struggle with the content of that definition.) Normally politicians are not the most suitable persons to manage taxpayers' money, that reminds me one of the lessons of the late Milton Friedman, it is a different thing spending your money on someone else (Warren Buffett) or spending someone else's money on someone else (government intervention). Should we let the free market forces act and start a self-healing process? Or should bureaucracy intervene and start to regulate what is anyway difficult to regulate? It is a bit like the old analogy of the glass that is half full or half empty; on one hand we can see this as a collapse of the existing financial system with all its negative impact, but we can also take a look at it as a major and new business opportunity.
There are solid companies in the marketplace whose share values reached an all-time low in the stock markets. Those willing to buy now will be able to make some excellent deals. There is liquidity out there, so a major opportunity to see companies and individuals start to purchase shares massively. A huge opportunity to invest - probably that is what Warren Buffett is all about. In these times we see true entrepreneurs start a workout and help a deregulated economy to recover from this downturn and start to rise again, but at what cost, in what timeframe and at what speed?
Those are questions whose answers I do not have, but I truly believe that markets will stay frozen until confidence is restored, and to achieve that goal all involved agents have to behave responsibly and with transparence, acting like they would always and in every situation be spending their own money on themselves.

By Henrique Abreu

Extract of the open forum discussion on the Harvard Business Review Working Knowledge October 2008

Quotation from: Milton Friedman
It's hard to know what is meant by business ethics. Only people, not businesses, have ethics. Ethics is me, the individual, as a person. I'm ethical or unethical. If I'm employed in a business that I think is unethical, I have a clear choice. I can get out of that business and find something else to do. It doesn't seem to me it's ethical for me to do unethical things because the business can let me do it.
Original Source: Stanford Business

In times of uncertainty and financial turmoil how important is it to foster strong leadership at multiple levels in the organization to deal better with crises and other unexpected circumstances? Ideas? Opinions ?
We will try to dig deeper into this hot subject during the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned…….

Quotes

It is in times of turmoil and strife that true manliness is shown. A life without adversity makes a man weak, dull, and effeminate.

Seneca

The Art of War

Attack Your enemy where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

Payback

Description:
If you're like most people, you bet your career and company on innovation--because you must. Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation offers you a new way to think about and manage innovation that will dramatically improve the odds of success. Authors James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin, senior partners at The Boston Consulting Group, describe an approach to managing innovation based on the concept of a cash curve--which tracks investment against time. They ask the questions you need to ask: How much should you invest in a new product or service? How fast should you push it to market? How quickly can you get to optimal value? How much additional investment should you pour into sustaining and building the product or service? Payback offers you practical and economically sound advice on when to pursue cash flow indirectly by first pursuing other benefits, such as brand and knowledge. It also shows you how to reshape the cash curve by using different business models--integrator, orchestrator, and licenser--each of which balances risk and reward differently. The authors then present a short list of decisions and activities that you must make--not delegate--to achieve a high return on innovation. You won't find facile answers in Payback. Instead, you will find valuable insights and practical guidance for mastering one of the most challenging and critical business activities: innovation

Source: Harvard Business Publishing

Quotes

People are willing to adjust their behavior to facilitate teamwork, but they expect others to make a similar effort.
— Irina Gaida, BCG

Quotation

If the primary aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in Port forever.
"Thomas Aquinas"

When is a Innovation profitable ?

An Idea becomes an Innovation as soon as it generates cash in a profitable way.

the elevator pitch

An elevator pitch (or elevator speech) is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (say, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).
The term is typically used in the context of an entrepreneurr pitching an idea to a venture capitalist to receive funding. Venture capitalists often judge the quality of an idea and team on the basis of the quality of its elevator pitch, and will ask entrepreneurs for the elevator pitch to quickly weed out bad ideas.
It is said that many of the most important decisions made on the floor of the United States's Housee or Senatee are made "within the span of an elevator ride" as a staff aide whispers into a Congressman or Senator's ear while they head down to the floor to cast their vote.
A variety of other people, including entrepreneurs, project managers, salespeople, evangelists, job seekers, and speed daters commonly use elevator pitches to get their point across quickly.
An effective elevator pitch generally answers questions like...
What the product is
What it does for the buyer (e.g. the benefits)
Who we are

Source: Wikipedia

Some Key Characteristics of effective Leadership

Effective leaders have the ability to understand themselves and others, are great listeners strong communicators (both oral and written) get and keep people in action and develop a drive for achieving positive results consistently.

Why are Communications skills so important…..

The ability to communicate effectively is the most important skill you need to develop, whether you're giving speeches, pitching ideas to your boss, sending off an email, leaving a voice message or having a face to face discussion.
In a recent survey, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School among HR managers from companies with more than 50,000 employees, communication skills were cited as the single most important decisive factor in choosing managers. The survey points out that Communication skills, including written and oral presentations, as well as the ability to work with others, are the main factor contributing to success.
Employees in organizations spend more than 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; therefore it is no surprise to find out that at the source of a large number of organizational problems we find poor communication.

As a consequence of that, employers are looking for more than a specific set of skills, they are looking at a candidate's flexibility, at their ability to change and to be trained for different roles. But, fundamentaly they are also looking for those who have strong communication and interpersonal ability .

Power Point .............

I have mixed feelings towards PowerPoint®. Used porperly, it can be a great presentation tool. Used wrongly (unfortunately its too often the case ) they are a unbroken stream of boring slide shows narrated by mediocre communicators.

Sex, Leadership And Rock N' Roll

"At last, a book that cuts through the jargon of leadership and personal development. It offers a real world source of inspiration and provocation in areas such as: creativity, innovation, relationships, motivation, leadership, high performance, learning and reinvention. The unique approach springs from the mix of leading edge concepts with the wisdom of the street in the form of rock music. This is served up in a quirky, challenging but intelligent way. Peter Cook has skillfully synthesized these diverse viewpoints using his background, both as a business academic, MBA graduate and tutor, strategy consultant and thought leader as well as a musician, writing and performing music, in rock bands. The book examines the issues using the analogy of "Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll" rather than the language of prophets, consultants and gurus. In this context, the letters MBA stand for "Management By Attitude." Let there be Rock n Roll Leadership!"

Source: Amazon

A shift in paradigm

In order to be successful in the future we need to change our attitude towards work in general and management practices in particular; instead of working harder we should focus on working smarter, and do this by:

• Increasing the speed of decision-making. Decisions need to be made faster, even if not always 100% right, we need to take our decisions embedded in a lot of uncertainty under a volatile environment.
• Much slimmer structure around organizations, much more entrepreneurship and initiative taken by individuals.
• Shift from “power and status” to “ownership and achievement.”
• Seek for new ways of compensation and reward, with more participation in the risk of Profit & Loss with ALL levels of employees involved in the business structure, enhancing the opportunity of bigger pay-offs.
• Start to shift the term employee to business partner.
• Foster higher level of creativity and innovation among all key stakeholders and extended it to all parts of the company.

The Future of Management

:For me, management innovation is about innovation in management principles and processes that ultimately change the actual practice of what managers do, and how they get it done. That’s different to operational innovation, which is really talking about how the actual work of transforming inputs into outputs, gets done. "

Gary Hamel

InnoExecution

Is a leadership philosophy developed from the result of a study focused on Corporate Leadership and goal achievement of enterprises. The study aimed to find out the reasons and solutions of the following problems common to most organizations under a competitive environment:
Most of the enterprises cannot meet its goals effectively? Why?
What is the most important factors affecting its performance?
What is the most important capability of an enterprise?
To answer these questions, extensive research has been conducted by Mr. Ka-Keung Chan on a large number of corporations and organizations in the following status:
Successful organizations
Growing corporations
Falling organizations
The study extended to historical events, fall and raise of nations, important battles and the leadership of their generals.
The result: Successful corporate leadership relies on the art of identifying the driving forces of an enterprise, and the balance of them
The most important factors that affect the value and existence of an enterprise is:
1. Innovation power - create new product or services for the client
2. Execution power – realize what is innovated
Innovation power is the ability to create new product to meet the changing needs of the market. Executive power is the ability to deliver the new product to the market effectively.

Source: Wikipedia

Power Map

“Sometimes at IMD we use a questionnaire called the Power Map to help participants identify their own culture (i.e. values they cherish, leading to certain behaviors), to identify other executives' profiles and discuss consequences on communication and leadership in a team.
To simplify, the four main types of profiles that our survey identified are:
People who like to 'control things' and introduce processes, develop more the 'now';
People who are more concerned with people, develop more the impact on people;
People who are more concerned with getting things done, start with key actions;
People who are more concerned with ideas, frame proposals in concepts. “

Jacques Horovitz is Professor of Service Strategy, Service Marketing & Service Management at IMD, one of the world's leading business schools.

Quotes#16

There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential."
-Rusty Berkus

Big Think Strategy

Bernd H. Schmitt argues that Business leaders need bold strategies to stay relevant and win. In "Big Think Strategy," the author explains ( based on some corporate examples) how one can bring bold thinking into current business by sourcing big ideas and executing them creatively.
According to Schmitt any leader can overcome institutionalized "small think"--the inertia, the narrow-mindedness, and the aversion to risk that block true innovation. A great Book from the Harvard Business School Press

Why is it that by presenting a new idea/challenge/project; people tend to see things from different perspectives? While some might search for the positive points in it looking at ( for example) new business opportunities , others will tend to search for roadblocks and for reasons not to go for it ? Is the glass half empty or half full? according to Wikipedia this is a common expression, used rhetorically to indicate that a particular situation could be a cause for optimism (half full), pessimism (half empty) or as a general litmus test simply determine if an individual is an optimist or a pessimist. The purpose of the question is to demonstrate that the situation may be seen in different ways depending on one's point of view and that there may be opportunity in the situation as well as trouble.

Quotes#15

A leader leads by example not by Force.

Sun Tzu

"I think it's very difficult to lead today when people are not really truly participating in the decision. You won't be able to attract and retain great people if they don't feel like they are part of the authorship of the strategy and the authorship of the really critical issues. If you don't give people an opportunity to really be engaged, they won't stay."
Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

The Language of Business ...........Part 1

By negotiating with a Japanese counterpart some rules should be respected,… among others;… you should always be concerned that Your Japanese counterpart never looses his face; you can avoid this by, NOT; expressing sharp disagreement, embarrassing him, criticizing him in public or by showing disrespect. Causing loss of face can completely disrupt a promising business negotiation.Instead you should be committed to use polite forms of address and observing local customs and traditions, by acting like this you are effectively building a solid long-lasting Business relationship.If you make a mistake you may be able to save your face with a humble apology. And you can save the other party's face for example by allowing him a graceful exit from a difficult negotiating position.
Shouldn’t we also apply these rules as a universal rule in The Global Language of Business?
What do you think?

Let´s Brainstorm a bit of what is acknowledged as one of the most common Business killers: lack of focus.
With scarce resources to expend, heading to a specific, well-defined vision is critical for new companies. When entrepreneurs try to tackle too many problems or chase too many business opportunities at one time, they often end up with no trophy at All.
What do You think?

Assertiveness

A leader’s goal is to steer the direction of his or her company. By being assertive in delegating tasks to his subordinates without being too autocratic or threatening, assertive leaders will achieve high levels of confidence and respect among their followers.

According to Wikipedia, Assertiveness is a trait taught by many personal development experts and psychotherapists and the subject of many popular self-help books. It is linked to self-esteem and considered an important communication skill.
As a communication style and strategy, assertiveness is distinguished from aggression and passivity. How people deal with personal boundaries; their own and those of other people, helps to distinguish between these three concepts. Passive communicators do not defend their own personal boundaries and thus allow aggressive people to harm or otherwise unduly influence them. They are also typically not likely to risk trying to influence anyone else. Aggressive people do not respect the personal boundaries of others and thus are liable to harm others while trying to influence them. A person communicates assertively by not being afraid to speak his or her mind or trying to influence others, but doing so in a way that respects the personal boundaries of others. They are also willing to defend themselves against aggressive incursions.

By definition Assertive style of behavior is to express your own feelings in an honest and respectful way that does not insult people and to stand up for your rights while you know what you say is not the only valid truth. Being assertive is to one's benefit most of the time but it does not mean that one always gets what he/she wants. The result of being assertive is that 1) you feel good about yourself 2) other people know how to deal with you and there is nothing vague about dealing with you.
Assertiveness seems to be a key characteristic that describes a competent leader it can be also confused as overbearing or being pushy, but in general terms it is more clearly stated as the ability to pursue the path that seems the best for the organization/company.
What do You think ?

Charisma

Every Leader in the business world in his relentless quest to achieve significant success is obsessed with getting things done; effectively and efficiently. Those leaders want to be heard, seen, respected, and appreciated.
They are often willing to go more than the “usual” “extra mile” to reach the top of success. But often, in spite of all the efforts, success is still absent. Could the answer lie in the need to develop `Leadership Charisma’ ?
What do we exactly mean by Charisma ?
According to Wikipedia, The word charisma (from the Greek word χάρισμα (kharisma), "gift" or "divine favor," from kharizesthai, "to favor," from kharis, "favor": see also charism) refers to a rare trait found in certain human personalities usually including extreme charm and a 'magnetic' quality of personality and/or appearance along with innate and powerfully sophisticated personal communicability and persuasiveness. Though very difficult or even impossible to define accurately (due to a lack of widely accepted criteria in regard to the trait), charisma is often used to describe an (elusive, even undefinable) personality trait that often includes the seemingly 'supernatural' or uncanny ability to lead, charm, persuade, inspire, and/or influence people. It refers especially to a quality in certain people who easily draw the attention and admiration (or even hatred if the charisma is negative) of others due to a 'magnetic' quality of personality and/or appearance. Similar terms/phrases related to charisma include: grace, exuberance, equanimity, mystique, positive energy, joie de vivre, extreme charm, personal magnetism, personal appeal, "electricity," and allure, among many others. Usually many of these specific qualities must be present within a single individual for the person to be considered highly charismatic by the public and their peers.
Despite the strong emotions they so often induce in others, charismatic individuals generally project unusual calmness, confidence, assertiveness, dominance, authenticity, and focus, and almost always possess superb communication and/or oral skills. Although the etymology of the word ("divine gift") might suggest that charisma can't be acquired, and despite the persistent inability to accurately define or even fully understand the concept, it is believed that charisma can be taught and/or learned. Others disagree with this assertion and maintain that it is an inborn trait and that it cannot be learned, taught, or 'gained.'

The power of a solid vision…

The Spirit of St. Louis is the name of the airplane that Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic .In search of potential sponsors for that project Lindbergh was put in contact with the head of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, Harold Bixby. Meeting with Bixby, Lindbergh predicted great things for St. Louis if the city were to put its support behind such an historic flight. Painting a picture of St. Louis as an aviation hub, Lindbergh convinced Bixby to sponsor his flight. A budget of $15,000 was agreed upon.
http://www.charleslindbergh.com/

How to motivate employees ?

“Alignment of aims, purpose and values between staff, teams and organization is the most fundamental aspect of motivation. The better the alignment and personal association with organizational aims, the better the platform for motivation. Where people find it difficult to align and associate with the organizational aims, then most motivational ideas and activities will have a reduced level of success. Motivation is a complex area. It's different for each person. Motivational receptiveness and potential in everyone changes from day to day, from situation to situation. Get the alignment and values right, and motivational methods work better. Motivational methods of any sort will not work if people and organisation are not aligned. People are motivated towards something they can relate to and something they can believe in. Times have changed. People want more. You should view the following motivational methods and ideas as structures, activities and building blocks, to be used when you have a solid foundation in place. The foundation is a cohesive alignment of people's needs and values with the aims and purpose of the organization.”

Source: http://www.businessballs.com

Quotes # 14

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
This is a text extract of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, and delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University

What is the impact of my performance in the overall picture?

Some Workplace surveys I had access to indicated that only a low percentage of inquiries (15-25% ) stated that the organizations these people work for had their organization's strategy well communicated, and everyone's work priorities aligned to support those strategies .I assume that a huge amount of performance being "managed" in the marketplace may not have a positive impact in the companies performance.
Are the goal-settings form the organizations aligned top –down ?
Are managers' goals linked to global strategy?
Is it not wiser to link all employees' goals ?
Does everybody in the organization understand why their personal goal matter to the organization?
Some more food for thought ?

Quotes # 13

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men; the other 999 follow women

"Groucho Marx"

Leading versus Managing ( Part 5)

" To improve our performance and achive our goals we need strong leaders:
people who can motivate their teams to achieve their objectives and deliver results.
We need managers who are accountable, agressive, adaptable, assertive, motivating and forward thinking, mature and international in their outlook. We call these qualities the leadership Imperatives and we recruit , appraise and develop our managers against them."

"Managing for value" Cadbury Schweppes

Quotes # 12

“Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others. “

Jonathan Winters

Shakleton´s Leadership Example

One of the biggest leadership lesson one can extract from Shackleton's experiences while his expedition ship, the Endurance, was trapped and then crushed in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea was the fact that during the 22-month Shackleton had to face changing circumstances and constant danger that enabled to bring the best in each of his crew member. Each contributed to the team's survival, starting with Captain Frank Worsley, whose exceptional navigation guided the men to Elephant and South Georgia Islands, carpenter Chippy McNeish, who tooke care of the lifeboats, cook Charles Green, who created meals day after day with scarce resources, Alexander Macklin and James McIlroy, two doctors, who saved steward Perce Blackborow from gangrene resulting from frostbite and ending in the second-in-command Frank Wild, who served as front man of the 21 men on Elephant Island after the departure of Shackleton for South Georgia. Twenty-eight ordinary-turned-extraordinary men, who survived nearly two years of unimaginable hardship at the end of the Earth, led by Shackleton's example and his ability to constantly ,under blistering conditions, boosting Team spirit and morale motivating and inspiring his crew to achieve their common objective the survival of All expedition members.

Quotes #11

“The fastest growth industry in the US will soon be continuous education of adults because everything happens and changes so fast” Peter F. Drucker

“Leaders should have self-confidence. They get comfortable in their own skin by being grounded emotionally, being supportive of others, and having had the freedom to fail.”

US. Army Colonel Thomas Matthews who led the Task Force Ranger mission in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 . Those events served as basis for the Film “ Black Hawk Down “ from Ridley Scott.

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, and safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. – Sir Ernest Shackleston in a 1890 job ad description for his first Antarctic expedition.
Would this be motivation enough to apply currently for a job in today’s corporate world?

Persuasion

According to the Wikipdia :”Persuasion is a form of influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving strategy and relies on "appeals" rather than force.” If that is to be true than we are facing Leadership in his deepest roots. What do You think ?

WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.

http://www.worldchanging.com/about/

The WILL to improve.....(2)

This small and intense project-based class will involve a series of team efforts to “spread” positive behavior, which will be bolstered by exposure to and coaching from industry experts and academics. The projects will include spreading the adoption of Firefox web browser, learning and applying methods from hip-hop to fuel the spread of fads, and a capstone project on spreading financially responsible individual behavior. Project teams will be composed of master’s students from diverse disciplines including engineering, design, business, the behavioral sciences, and education.
Learning how to become a better design thinker will be a major focus of this course. Students will apply the “build to think” philosophy of the d.school and create prototypes of everything from viral marketing campaigns to entire businesses. While there will substantial helpings of theory delivered throughout the quarter, this is a course for people who want to get their hands dirty, to get out in the world and do things.

Source: Stanford University

The WILL to improve.....

There is a broad agreement about the fact that competent teams improve productivity, are able to reduce dramatically project implementation time, and boost the generation of innovative solutions. Yet, many managers complain on how ineffective their teams work , wasting time and resources on projects that do not achieve the desired results, or are not linked to the business or to its customers. As a result, it is critical that these teams have the right knowledge and develop skills and competencies in order to be able to make meaningful contributions to the company's business goals and to their customers' needs. But, how can we effectively access those competencies, measure and monitor its improvement and define realistic achievable and measurable targets?
Let us together approach this topic as one of the big challenges for 2007 in this blog.
Wish You All a Happy New Year.

A great project......

Dear Community:

Welcome to We Are Smarter Than Me, an ambitious community addressing a crucial shift in how businesses operate as they learn to leverage the power of "community."
The central premise of We Are Smarter Than Me is that large groups of people ("We") can, and should, take responsibility for traditional business functions that are currently performed by companies, industries and experts ("Me").
What do we mean? Let's look at some recent examples:
Procter & Gamble is recruiting 600,000 housewives to help market its products through word of mouth. In return for much greater reach and impact, the company is giving up control of the marketing message, relying on its community of customers/marketers to craft their own message in the most appropriate fashion.
Microlending websites provide the ability for individuals to lend to small businesses directly. The underwriting decisions (assessing the risk of each loan) are made by individuals, and the price of loan is established through lender bidding. We expect these lending decisions to be superior to the same decisions currently made by experts at banks.
Patients faced with rare diseases are increasingly turning to internet discussion groups to learn more about risks and treatment options, and as a result are participating with doctors more actively (in some cases much more actively) in decisions regarding their care.
A few books have recently been written on this topic, but they all fail to confront one central paradox. While they extol the power of communities, they were each written by only one person.
We're putting this paradox to the test by inviting hundreds of thousands of authors to contribute to this "network book" using today's technologies.
The book will be published by Pearson, and each contributor will be listed as an author of the book. All authors will receive an equal vote on the distribution of book royalties to charity.
We're seeking from our authors real examples of companies who are trying — successfully, or unsuccessfully — to harness the power of "community." And we're looking to develop and share insights about why these approaches work or don't work; and what companies have to do to make them work better.
Finally, we have invited you — members of the Wharton and Sloan School communities — to become authors in your own right. You are the students, faculty and alumni of two illustrious institutions, leaders in management and technology. We look forward to your participation and to the insights you can contribute to the project.
Sincerely,

Timothy MooreEditor in Chief, Pearson Education
Jon SpectorVice Dean, The Wharton SchoolDirector, Aresty Institute of Executive Education
Barry LibertChief Executive OfficerShared Insights US, LLC
Thomas Malone,Patrick J. McGovern Professor of ManagementMIT Sloan School of Management

Entrepreneurship ( Part 1)

The understanding of entrepreneurship owes a lot to the work of economist Joseph Schumpeter and the Austrian School of economics. In Schumpeter (1950), an entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation. Entrepreneurship forces "creative destruction" across markets and industries, simultaneously creating new products and business models. In this way, creative destruction is largely responsible for the dynamism of industries and long-run economic growth. Despite Schumpeter's early 20th-century contributions, the traditional microeconomic theory of economics has had little room for entrepreneurs in their theoretical frameworks (instead assuming that resources would find each other through a price system). (source Wikipedia with ref. The Economist Magazine, March 11, 2006, pp 67).

Coaching ( Part 1)

It's the time of the Year for many employee performance reviews, and what are we doing about it?
This process should be linked to the vision and mission statement of every organization and embedded in its corporate culture, meaning that rather than being a evaluation based on analyzing last Years sales or general figures results, which often is mainly about managing numbers and expectations, those reviews should focus on the qualitative aspect of performance, by analyzing which actions contributed the most for helping the company achieve its main goals.
A review serves also to identify individual gaps to be developed in every managers pool of skills and competencies, therefore this process should be performed at a regular basis, at least 4 times a year, and with a very strong coaching component.
The main asset for any company is the wealth of experience that every senior employee brings with him. If those MVP are not able to pass their testimony by teaching, coaching and mentoring Young managers, than they failed as leaders.
Looking backward is important, in order to learn from mistakes as well as analyzing successes, but, a stronger focus should be placed on , together ( appraiser and employee) build a measurable and accountable action plan for both performance and personal development targets.
As every leader should see his role in motivating and inspiring his followers to achieve common objectives, ideally we could call these reviews, a personal leadership development plan.

Networking ( Part 2 )

“Life truly is a boomerang. What you give, you get. ”
- Dale Carnegie

Networking ( Part 1 )

Can we generate sales Leads only by running an expensive marketing campaign? It should not necessarily be that way.
We have being told that the most effective form of sales lead generation is to build long-term business and private relationships through word-of-mouth marketing.
We all do attend on a regular basis social, private and business Networking group events, which are all, “trade fairs” for building new relationships and reinforcing existing ones. Still, many of us find that the attendance at these meetings fail to result in lead generation. But why is that?
Maybe we did not develop the RIGHT attitude for building up a solid Business/private Network;
The time spent on these events is also an important time and money investment. And, in order to get the right ROI, we need to develop a systematic approach.
.Here are some ideas I came up with in my networking experience that I would like to share with You :
To take the initiative not only in building our personal network but also in maintaining and caring with that same network, that means that we need to make the first move.
To learn how to feel confident in “other people shoes”, it is about trading places.
To be “catchy” and “interesting” on our introduction. We have to be aware that the first impression is the one that “counts” in our “prospects” minds.
Focus on Our Unique selling proposition.
Highlight what people will gain by listening to us.
Learn how to be A effective listener.
Time is the scarcest of all “GOODS” we need to be very careful on how to use ours and others people time.
Follow up our contacts after the event
We should always play “win-win”
To Be patient.
Not to be too persistent.

What do You Think ?

Are We Ready for Self-Management ?

The question is closely linked to the level of skills and competencies that entry level employees bring with them.
Generally speaking I prefer to think about managing/coaching with a long leash rather than micromanaging, meaning empowering people to take actions and to be accountable for them.
Creating a self management culture within a business organization has to do more with leadership than management, because leaders have a vision of where, when, and how the organization is heading. They are able to share this dream and the direction that other people want to follow. True leadership vision goes beyond a written organizational mission statement or vision statement. The vision of a leader is found throughout the workplace and is manifested in the actions, beliefs, values, and goals of the organization's staff.
A leader inspires his followers by appealing to their common sense rather than resting on his formal authority.
A leader fosters hope rather than fear.
A leader says "we" rather than "I".
A leader do not need to ask for respect; followers willingly respect him.
A particularly helpful way to support new-entry employees in their quest to become future leaders is through mentoring. A close relationship with a senior executive of proven leadership skills is likely to keep a young manager open and willing for growth. Mentoring should be paired with a portion of warm, friendly, positive, and proactive support, which means that the mentor should free up important time on his agenda to perform this task.

Comment published in Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5507.html

Attitude......

Is the glass half empty or half full? The purpose of the question is to demonstrate that a business project may be seen in different ways depending on one's point of view and that there may be opportunity in the situation as well as trouble. A successful entrepreneur maybe aware of the risks he is taking, but he always focus on the postive aspects and strenghts of the project, for him failure is not an option.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) once quoted: "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."
Having the right attitude is believing that the mountains You wish to conquer will not grow taller as the climb gets closer and closer to the Top.

See You in September.....

Has Globalization Reached Its Peak? *

Summing Up
The global corporation and globalization in general are poised to achieve new and different heights, if responses to this month's column are to be believed. As Greg Bownik put it, "for globalization to peak businesses would have to stop communicating, marketing, and selling on a global basis . . . nothing short of dismantling the global economy could reverse the trend." Nari Kannan commented, "Clamping down on globalization by any country or company will ensure its own demise that much quicker."
How will we know when globalization has truly peaked? Mark Opperman suggests that "Globalization will have reached its peak when we have global citizens who can pay their taxes where they please and enjoy the benefits of the government that serves them best no matter their geographic location . . . will it be any different from those of ages past who paid their taxes to Rome?" Sunil Unni echoes this point of view: "Globalization is an ongoing process that can only peak when citizens across the world enjoy its benefits without any barriers whatsoever." Henrique Plöger Abreu approaches the question from another direction in commenting, "If we look at all the regional trade barriers, subvention politics, protective measures, and legal and fiscal barriers that exist worldwide, I think one can assume that globalization is far from having reached its peak."
Elisio Neto proposes an interesting notion that "Globalization comes in waves. We are just seeing the aftereffects of one peak . . . this wave will be different from the one before . . . natural resources will play a strong role, and immigration will be an issue." The next step of globalization, according to Akhil Aggarwal, will involve companies currently performing outsourced tasks sending much of their work abroad, enabling them to "further outsource non-strategic work so as to concentrate on strategic issues that their audiences (the U.S. firms) would be more interested in." Gregory Black describes another aspect of change while sounding a cautionary note: ". . . the elephant in the room is the assumption of the availability and cost of petroleum . . . the economics of globalization will change dramatically in the decades ahead."
Will what is true for the world turn out to be true for individual global corporations? Biju Cherian weighs in with this comment: ". . . there could be a rise and fall in global corporations—a rise of corporations from new economy nations and a fall in corporations in old economy nations." As M. P. Jayaprakash puts it, "Like water finding its own level, globalization will go on until such time that disparity between the haves (U.S., Europe, etc.,) and the have-nots is significantly bridged."One theme common to several of these comments is that globalization (and the outsourcing it promotes) will turn out to be an equalizing force between have and have-not countries and corporations. This is a far cry from the claims of the protesters at the World Trade Organization summits. Is it possible that globalization will be the catalyst that speeds up a process by which the poor get richer instead of poorer and that this process has just fully gotten under way? What do you think?

* This is a transcription of a text originally published by Professor James Heskett at the Harvard Business Review , Working Knowledge

Quotes # 10

"Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand"Benjamin Franklin

Instinct and Intuition

"Most of entrepreneurship, for me, is about instinct and intuition. Many times I have been asked by someone considering a new venture if he should go for it. But an entrepreneur knows instinctively when to go for it." Michael Dell from Dell Computers.

There is written in a lot of books that Instinct is something that we are born with; it is something that we do naturally without thinking. Instincts are generally an inherited pattern of responses or reactions to certain kinds of situations, and can be seen as a reaction. The word "intuition" can be seen as the direct perception of meaning or truth, without conscious reasoning, but, both words suggest us the idea that some amount of knowledge and awareness is involved, but how reliable are our instincts and intuition?
Instinct and intuition are two attributes that don't fit the scientific mold and are very hard to measure. Yet they are vital in order to create real entrepreneurship.

Vision and Entrepreneurship

“An entrepreneur is ambitious, has a vision for the future of his firm and for the future in general. With regard to a hi-tech enterprise, this vision is basically all that an entrepreneur has to have. All the rest can be outsourced “ Jane Royston.

In order to succeed an entrepreneur must develop a solid vision, he must be able to surround himself with talented people, effectively communicate his vision and allow it to be improved by colleagues, mentors and stakeholders. Vision is important because it is all about ones ability to dream the future.

A Leader is passionate about.....

I am fully convinced that passion is a main attribute of a successful entrepreneur. I can not imagine someone driving a Team/project and ultimately celebrate success if this same person has no passion about it. To get commitment has to do primarily with pulling people rather than pushing them. To pull you have to be able to influence their opinions, to inspire them to follow you and to motivate them to collaborate. I can not picture any successful leader/company/project that hasn't been started with a huge portion of passion.

A Leader has Courage to Take Risks

In order to succeed, leaders need to have courage, because, by going down the road trying to achieve your objectives you also will experience fear. It is a natural feeling. Being courageous is not about lacking fear. It’s learning how to deal and to cope with it, but knowing that at the end you’re going to be okay.” If we would not experience fear we would not need to have courage in the first place. According to the Wikipedia definition Courage, is also known as fortitude, and is the ability to confront fear, pain,danger,uncertainty,or intimidation . It can be divided into "physical courage" -- in face of physical pain, hardship, and threat of death -- and "moral courage" -- in the face of shame , scandal, and discouragement.The root word of courage comes from the Latin , and means "heart". It is not surprising then that we find courage to be at the heart of all other traits in effective leaders. I define courage as the ability to drive projects and actions that are hard for us to perform. I truly believe, that one can achieve almost anything, provided that one has the right education, enough self- confidence, the will, the commitment, and ……………….the courage.

Innovation has become a corporate buzzword. But constantly talking about an idea is totally different from practicing it: One is about wishful thinking; the other, is about action. Innovators are doers, they act.
But how can a business organization achieve this goal? Well one way is to build a companywide culture of innovation. This strategy should require tangible steps like creating the right internal teams, setting up the right processes and procedures and rewards but also require intangible steps like giving employees room to be creative, and even more important is encouraging them to take risks and initiatives.
But at the end what counts is the perception that a costumer builds in his mind about the value of a firm goods or services. Innovation has to be good value. It’s not innovation at any price or cost.

Today is the first anniversary of this blog.
What do You like most? the least ? Suggestions for improvement?
Would appreciate your feedback.

What it takes to be an entrepreneur ? ( Part 1)

A survey of Stanford MBAs suggests that the decisive factor that divides entrepreneurs from the rest of the pack is their well-rounded experience.
Business School Professor Edward Lazear, is the Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources Management and Economics, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also the founding editor of the Journal of Labor Economics. He conducted a research centered on employee incentives, promotions, compensation and productivity in firms. The main factor affecting whether someone was more likely or less likely than average to become an entrepreneur, was, the number of different positions the individual occupied previously. Lazear stated that, "If you perform different roles, you pick up different skills and that makes you multidimensional” and added that: "Entrepreneurs are jacks-of-all-trades, not specialists."

From a financial perspective we can state that competitive advantage exists when the global sales turnover of a company is greater than the sum of its costs, including those of the opportunity of capital.
Competitive advantage can be achieved in different ways, by selling a product or service that customers perceive as possessing superior value, therefore the supplier is able to set a premium price, but, competitive advantage can also be achieved by lowering the costs in relation to the direct competition.
The challenging question is the following, which approach impacts most in value creation ?

Quotes # 9

"There's nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all". ( Peter F. Drucker)

Do we plan Strategically ?

The essence of Strategic Planning is in my view: defining where You want to go, finding out where You are now, and then determine how to get there .
To achieve this You need to have the ability to steer the organization as a whole through strategic change under conditions of complexity and uncertainty .

How well do we manage ourselves, or, the art of Self-Leadership

Which is the most overlooked leadership challenge? What is your toughest leadership challenge? I think it is managing us. All effective leaders must master the art of Self-Leadership, which means knowing how to achieve the results one aspires in his or her personal and work life and, as Daniel Goldman stated, “it is all about self control”, before You go out there and try to lead others by being a source of inspiration and motivation, we have to learn how to balance our "emotional self-control." What characterizes full leadership potential, according to Goldman? Continuously staying in leadership despite overwhelming opposition or discouragement. Staying in the leadership role and maintaining a cool head and clear mind during times of crisis. Keeping ego at home. Staying focused on the mission and vision instead of being distracted by someone else's agenda. All these indicate high levels of emotional self-control. Goldman says, "Exceptional leaders distinguish themselves because of superior self-leadership.” This is a task that is difficult to master, if You do not know how to dig deep into this, You can always seek the help and advice of a professional coach.

Execution ( Part 2 )

Hold Everyone Accountable—All the TimeStephen R. Covey, Ph.D.
At the bottom of the execution gap is the lack of accountability. In the Industrial Age, the theory was that people performed to expectation—or else. With the rise of knowledge work, goals get blurry and workers have more autonomy. Most leaders are deeply conflicted about how to manage knowledge workers: Do I spell out what’s expected and then crack down? Or, do I let workers choose their own way and hope for the best?
Organizations that execute with excellence invar-iably have strong accountability systems. The data indicate, however, that such systems are not very common. In a recent Franklin-Covey xQ study, more than 12,000 U.S. workers were asked to describe accountability within their organizations.
These are key symptoms of weak accountability for commitments:
Only about two in five (41 percent) of respondents talk to each other routinely about progress toward their goals.
Only about one in four (26 percent) meets at least monthly with a manager to review progress on goals.
Only about a third (31 percent) said they stay on budget.
A few more than half the respondents (58 percent) indicated that they keep commitments in a timely fashion, meaning deadlines are only met around half the time.
One in three said that no one cares much if they deliver with quality.
If sharp execution requires precise accountability, the typical organization is in trouble.
Teams known for excellent execution are also known for “mutual accountability.” They feel themselves accountable not only to owners, bosses and supervisors, but also to each other. They have clear roles in executing a few core goals, and they regularly and often answer to one another in keeping their commitments.
That’s why the fourth discipline of execution is to hold everyone accountable—all of the time. Those who practice this discipline do three things extremely well:
Hold frequent accountability sessions—at least weekly: Most knowledge workers aren’t asked to account to their managers even monthly. It is so easy to lose focus on key goals without intense and frequent focus. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s turn-around team met every day in a “morning meeting” to keep key goals in constant sight.
Focus on the “wildly important goals”: Many goals are important, but only a few are “wildly important”—that is, crucial to the mission. Examine the scoreboard on those crucial goals. Ensure that everyone agrees precisely and individually on what to do this week to move those goals forward.
Clear the path for each other: The notion that the boss holds subordinates accountable, that accountability flows only one way, is not characteristic of an execution culture. On a real work team, everyone accounts to everyone else. Everyone has individual tasks, and everyone encounters obstacles. If I’m the leader, I clear the path for you by getting you resources or approvals or making important contacts. In turn, you clear the path for me by giving me technical assistance or research data.
Only organizations that execute with excellence can sustain results over time. Practicing the four disciplines of execution is truly a key to superior performance.
Stephen R. Covey, Ph.D., is co-founder of FranklinCovey, a leading global professional services firm. Stephen is also author of the best-selling“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Execution ( Part 1 )

The “execution gap” is the difference between what a Business company promises and what she actually delivers. The “execution gap” represents a lack of execution capability which should be monitored closely. The key factors influencing this “execution gap” are; people, strategy and operations. From these three key factors the people element is the most sensitive one, according to the old business saying that; “ People make your business successful “.

Quotes # 8

“There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself.”—Stephen Lundin, business coach and author

Is Leadership Art ?

We can consider that Leadership is more an art than a science, but,
Within any profession or sector, one of the primary characteristics of the art of leadership is the willingness to work on an edge—the edge between the familiar and the emergent. Harvard University professor Ronald A. Heifetz refers to this edge when he speaks of :”the capacity to lead with only good questions in hand—and that acts of leadership require the ability to walk the razor's edge without getting your feet too cut up—working that edge place between known problems and unknown solutions, between popularity and anxious hostility “.

Quotes # 7

"When planning for a year, plant corn.When planning for a decade, plant trees.When planning for life, train and educate people."Chinese proverb: Guanzi (c. 645BC)

Education (1)

The path to sustainable growth is the ability to innovate, create knowledge and apply this to new products and services. Here should lye the foundation for profitable growth of a business organization which is the backbone of a nation’s economy and the development of society. But, in order to be effective creative Leaders know that it is not about having the most knowledge; but to know how and when to use it. Traditional education systems are not meeting increased challenges from young people, many of them are becoming more and more disappointed with current teaching approaches and start to feel that their education is becoming obsolete to their daily lives and future careers . The first aim and goal of all education should be to bring enlightenment to the students. TRAINING THE MIND, and NOT STUFFING THE BRAIN with facts and formulas, is what they need.

What does it need to become a...........

What are the key characteristics a great Leader should have? Warren Bennis stated that all leaders seem to share some common traits:
1.) The ability to “dream” a vision,
2.) To have a very clear picture of what she or he wants to do professionally and personally, and will try to accomplish those goals relentless and regardless of some setbacks
3.) Being passionate and having the motivation, enthusiasm and the ability to communicate, inspire and motivate others for that passion.
4.) Self-knowledge
5.) The ability to make judgments free from discrimination or dishonesty
6.) Maturity achieved from learning by doing and learning from past mistakes
7.) Being capable to learn as much as possible
8.) The will to take risks.

Inspired in a WSJ Online article.............

These days, the recruiter's main ideal target is the job applicant who shows the potential of being an articulate leader. But , such candidates ( MBA´s) are proving to be all too rare. Of all the complaints some recruiters register about M.B.A. students (in The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey) top of the list are: inferior communication skills and a close second the lacking of leadership skills.
Leadership should be about developing the ability to inspire people to reach high levels of performance and success .Being able to dream a vision , having the passion to communicate that vision and concentrating the attention at key strategies , listening ,coaching, mentoring being an inspiration for others while managing the change culture of your organization.
Leaders should have the ability to tell THE right story to their stakeholders/customers , and to communicate these stories in the most compelling, consistent and credible way possible.
Leaders should develop the ability to proper listen to people, by focusing time and energy on really actively listen to what other people have to say. By doing this, they will become better listeners and better critical and creative thinkers.
Leaders daily face an endless exchange of ideas, messages, and information by dealing with their internal and external network day after day. How well they communicate and listen can help determine whether their companies quickly grow into an industry leader or join thousands of other businesses stranded in mediocrity.

Quotes # 7

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

Jane Austen
English novelist (1775 - 1817)

Create Brand Awareness

Have You heard about this? That Branding is all about creating an emotional engagement between the consumer and the brand, that the brand must inspire high degrees of confidence, integrity, pride, and passion ?
If this applies to the way we market brands to our customers/consumers, why don’t we use the same approach to market our internal projects by engaging team members and stakeholders with a similar level of passion that lies behind premium brands .It is important to show the soul of real people that make it all happen. This human dimension not only bonds customers with brands but it strenghtens the ties that connect leaders to their followers even when they are working in and for the same company , it raises empathy levels, making them more patient and understanding when things do go wrong.
Can this be an effective strategy ?

Quotes # 6

"You can buy a person's hands but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is."

Stephen Covey