Mirror, Mirror on the Wall – the essential role of feedback for the Leader

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” So goes the question embedded in the fanciful world of a children’s tale and a question that hauntingly stalks most of us for the remainder of our adult journey. Not that we would admit to such for over the years, not only have we learnt how to conceal and disguise the question, we have learnt to train the mirror into giving us the answer we wish to hear.  Hearing the truth? Now that is real fantasy!

For those in leadership it is a question that provides the yardstick of measurement, recognition and reputation. With so much at stake, it is the question that demands the answer, “why of course, you are”- be that true or not.

The real problem is not the question but rather the expectation surrounding the answer.  … Continue Reading

Are you wasting your money on leadership development?

Behaviourist B.F. Skinner maintained that education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten. There has been much written about the need to create learning organisations and more resources than fleas on a stray dog have been spent on leadership formation (learning) within organisations. The fact that leadership formation assumes such a high priority within most organisations is fully justified but in terms of how it is done, is it money well spent?

In the face of this learning avalanche, a nagging question persists: Is the effort surrounding leadership formation producing learning or education (as per Skinner’s definition)?  In other words, are organisations and the individuals within them, better off for all the attention on leadership development? Are our leadership programmes really making a significant impact on the way we think, do business, and live our lives? … Continue Reading

Savvy Leadership: Leading in the Connection Economy

Challenged recently to ‘frame’ a leadership development process has led me to set out the following offering. Having had the opportunity to participate in several international leadership formation programmes I am, for the most part, left with a disquiet that is hard to articulate.

For one thing much of leadership formation is seen as a progamme rather than a process. Now, some might howl indignantly at this accusation and accuse me of splitting hairs or just playing with words. Perhaps they are right but let me give you an example of what I am getting at and you can make-up your own mind.

The ‘progamme mentality’ drives towards an end result. ‘Complete the programme and you have a leader’ is basically how it goes. Not too dissimilar I might add to a recipe which instructs the user to simply add some water, shake well and presto…you have the finished product.  Most programmes end with some or other certificate just to prove the point. As a consequence of this programme-obsessive approach is a surplus of leadership formation programmes but a dearth of leaders equipped to lead in an unforgiving and bewilderingly complex world. One of the more tangible outcomes of this approach is leaders who understand leadership as a qualification and a position rather than a process and about character. It has tended to produced a generation of leaders who emerge from such programmes with only answers and tragically few questions; leaders who now ‘know how to lead’ rather than inquiring leaders who realize that they are only at the beginning of the process in what will be a life-long pursuit.

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Presenting TomorrowTraining

If you have been following Keith, Barrie, Graeme and Dean’s informative, intriguing, interesting and investigative antics via ezine over the past while, you are no doubt becoming familiar with what the New World of Work implies. You have probably been introduced to some of the challenges people face, in the vein of feeling like nobody really understands your perspective because you all labour away in multi-generational workplaces. The Tomorrow Today team have surely talked you through how the economy has changed over the last 100 years, from agricultural, to industrial to service-orientated to where we are today: in an emotional or connective economy. What’s fascinating now is how people’s collective behaviour has shifted in response to a more EQ based mindset in reaction to a need to build relationships because ultimately we are all emotional beings in a competitive market. We can access knowledge at the push of a button, so really to cope with the New World of Work one has to develop versatile and diverse skills, an open-minded attitude and appropriate values for this contemporary climate. Selling, in particular, in this connective economy requires a completely different focus and big players like Coca Cola; Pepsi Cola; JP Morgan and American Express have been selling charity to attract attention to themselves because consumers increasingly want to give back as they spend. Is this in response to what the world needs environmentally or are people just discovering their philanthropic side?

Being experts in societal change, generational clashes, people adaptability and communication Tomorrow Training can offer you and your colleagues a wealth of information, skills transformation and application tailor-made to suit your line of work in the context of the new world of work. Essentially we can provide your workforce with skills that will enable them to do things differently in order to increase productivity. Whether it’s working with your sales team, your call centre, your receptionists, your management teams, internally and interdepartmentally or with your clients, we can help you communicate more effectively. Whether that’s formally or informally, verbal or written communication, the insights we provide will prove invaluable to you as you progress through this ever-changing, fast paced, technologically driven, competitive global village that the world has become. We will help you see how this change is exciting and can be used to your advantage, rather than something to be afraid of.

For more information, to request details of our courses or to make a booking, please contact Laura Eickhaus in South Africa, or Dean van Leeuwen in the United Kingdom.

Leadership Thought: Ordering Steak Whilst Working With Vegetables

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain, made no secret of her contempt for those who couldn’t keep pace with her legendary endurance and appetite for hard work. This was especially poignant given that those who surrounded her were men. There is a joke about her going out to dinner with her cabinet. “Steak or fish” inquires the waiter. “Steak of course,” she replies. “And for your vegetables?” “They’ll have steak as well” came the snappy reply. Many leaders pride themselves on their toughness and ability to get satisfactory performance from the vegetables that surround them. With this goes a silent self-congratulatory pat on the back on their tolerance for the vegetable stew that surrounds them.

Invitational Leadership invites leaders to believe the best in others and then create an environment that is able to invite this potential out into the open. It takes hard work and an unshakable belief that others have a worthwhile contribution to make. Without this starting point, Invitational Leadership cannot be practiced.  New frameworks are needed from which to explore what it will take to lead successfully in the new world of work. Invitational leadership offers one such framework.

How’s That! 4 Leadership Tips for Leaders Everywhere from Gary Kirsten

In the February edition of Sports Illustrated, Gary Kirsten was asked what leadership lessons he had learnt whilst being in what has been described as the ‘toughest job in cricket, managing the Indian team (and the entire Nation’s expectations). Kirsten listed four things. They make for interesting reading and are applicable to leadership everywhere.

Firstly, he spoke the importance of building and nurturing relationships and trust with the players. Trust is the currency of any relationship and when leaders lose the trust of those they lead, the ability to truly lead is lost. Authentic leadership is always conferred, never claimed. Mutual trust is what makes this possible.

Secondly, Kirsten listed the focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. A strengths based approach to personal development is not new but is seldom practiced in the corporate environment. Here the emphasis is usually on improving and correcting weakness.

Thirdly, he mentioned the need to focus on solutions not problems. I have an associate who used to work at Proctor & Gamble where he had a boss who would insist that any problem presented to him, was accompanied by three solutions. Arriving with merely one solution was simply punting the ‘opposite’ to the stated problem and so wasn’t good enough. Having a second solution demonstrated a measure of creative thinking and arriving with three possible solutions demonstrated the ability to think more strategically. This solution would also most likely be one that considered all of the other stakeholders.

Lastly, Kirsten spoke of encouraging individuals to think for themselves and express themselves more fully. “Can’t have that…will be bloody chaos” echoes the barely muted refrain from the corner office. Wrong! Done appropriately and correctly, freedom of expression allows for greater accountability, ownership and participation. It can be done – it has been done. As for allowing staff to ‘think for themselves’ – well there is a new concept for many a leader! Anyone who has had to deal with a typical customer service department would know this only to well.

Now Gary, please hold off on the application of all this until after the series against your fellow nationals. Either that, or come and apply them at home!

Redundant: The School Reunion: A Reminder to Leaders Everywhere

It was one of those father / son conversations that fathers are inclined to indulge in from time to time and that are usually invoked by some or other important milestone or ritual.

The ritual in question? My youngest son beginning his University career. Well let’s hope it isn’t a ‘career’ but rather a short stopover on the way to bigger things!

The parental wisdom I was freely dispensing had to do with the fact that at University he would make new friends and it was most likely that these newly acquired friends, would be the ones that would last a lifetime…unlike his school friends. “Why’s that?” he asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Well” I said, “once you exit school your generation tends to funnel into society at large and you will end up losing contact with them,” before going on to add some personal experience to the wisdom.

“But of course we’ll stay in touch…we’ve got Facebook” came the instantaneous retort in which I sensed a thinly masked tone of exasperation, maybe tolerance.

Immediately I realize the error of my ‘wisdom’ and the pitfall that had been my ‘experience’.  He’s right. His generation will stay in touch effortlessly and so, in one small matter, technology has again changed the way things will be.

How could I have been so stupid? Oh, and one last thing: be aware of ‘your experience’. In a world changing at the pace it is, experience is not all it’s made up to be.

Learners with Disabilities

It was an interesting sign to have on the school bus I thought – ‘Learners with Disabilities’. Soon the school bus was to take another route to that of mine and then it was gone. The bus was no longer in sight but the bold sign emblazed across the back of the bus stuck with me as I continued on.

Learners with disabilities. What a pity contemporary corporate leaders don’t have that signage on their office door or perhaps on their desks: ‘CEO / Learner with Disabilities’. It wouldn’t be for a lack of space on their desk for we both know that isn’t the problem.  The real problem is, that no leader would come close to admitting a learning disability, much less advertize it. The system that has seen them make it to the corner office has long since squeezed out any doubt, questioning or openness to new learnings. Leaders aren’t expected to be ‘learners’ – they’re expected to know; they know what is best, they know what is needed and they know because, well because they have the track record to prove they know it. It is referred to as ‘experience’. As Mark twain so eloquently put it: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.  It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so”

If we’re honest, often times we also want them to know for it relieves us of taking responsibility – and gives us someone to blame.  So we need to acknowledge that in part, the leader’s knowing is fueled by the expectations of others who look for certainty, answers and direction. After all, isn’t that all part of leadership?

Well this is how it works for the most part and I suspect you know this to be the case. Why just today I learnt of a CEO who used his authority to ensure that a key facilitator in a vital and delicate process concerning his executive team, would no longer be part of the process. The reason…the real reason? Well the Facilitator in question was simply too perceptive and not afraid to share her insights. Way too threatening for him is my guess. Leaders with disabilities: we meet them every day but unlike those school children, they refuse to acknowledge it.

Learning is not easy. For one thing it requires that the Learner is open to new information. Information about themselves, how they do – or don’t do things, about how things work or about alternative opinions and realities that differ from their own. Hearing such things is never easy and taking further steps toward understanding such things requires courage and conviction. It is the way of the Learner. Don’t ever be fooled into believing that the leader’s learning is inhibited by the lack of teachers – the teachers are all around him or her; rather it is the leader’s inability to recognize the teachers that surround them that is the chief inhibitor to the learning process.

This is a problem. Now more than ever we need learner leaders. In a world where the rules of the game are changing as they are; where things will not go ‘back to the way they were’; where a ‘new normal’ is emerging – in such a world, more than ever, we need leaders who are willing to learn.

And the first step? Simply admit to your learning disability. Sounds simple but it’s not. And without that first step, you’ll never get on the bus!

Knowing What You Don’t Know is Important

Yes it’s true. I’m getting coached in ‘Social Media’. “About time” some might say but it’s not just about how to engage in the various kinds of social media available – it’s about learning how to, ‘connect the dots’. It is about understanding how to work with all the options in an integrated manner that makes professional and personal sense. I suspect many more of my ilk could do with some time with my Coach and the reality is that knowing this stuff simply isn’t optional – it’s an imperative.

W. C. Howell is credited with the model with which most of us are familiar when it comes to acquiring a skill. The model moves from a level of ‘unconscious incompetence’ to ‘conscious incompetence’ to ‘conscious competence’ to ultimately, ‘unconscious competence’.  So what does this look like when applied to my development path in the area of social media education?

Unconscious incompetence: A what? ‘c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r. Don’t only major international companies and governments have access to this kind of thing?  I’m not sure I’ll need one, but thanks anyway. The future? Yes, yes…(late 1980’s – early 1990’s)

Conscious incompetence: Wow…how do you switch this thing on? It sure takes up a lot of desk space but looks important, even impressive…where did you say I turn it on? How come there is this blue screen…and what’s that noise? Show me how you did that…that’s really cool, I need to be able to do that stuff. Hold on, not so fast…I just need to make a note of that. (mid 1990’s – early 2000’s)

Conscious competence: Sure I’m on Facebook and I even know that ‘Twitter’ isn’t a term of insult nor is it some sort of birdcall heard only in the mating season. Sure I know how to access that information, open multiple windows and load useful software. How did I ever survive without email?  I know how to solve that problem…just reboot…there see, anything else I can help you with? With some concentration and focus I can link some of my technology gadgets and to really impress fellow travelers, even produce my iPod on flights whilst banging away on my laptop keyboard. Laptop? Apple of course.  Check out that cool little Apple logo that lights up on the lid! (mid – late 2000’s)

Unconscious competence: My tweet directs people to my latest blog which drives folk to the article and website resulting in conversations, connections and further helpful information, relationships and opportunities. There, dots connected and a seamless integration of knowing the why and how behind it all. By catching up I’ve actually been able to slow down and I feel an intricate part of an amazing reality that is unfolding all around me…connections, information and well, relevance. (the future)

Knowing what you don’t know is important. It is your learning pathway into Tomorrow, and it is a journey that shouldn’t be delayed. Let me know and I will put you onto a great social media Coach…

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Lost in Translation: The Essential Guide to Understanding the Male Species

Of course much has been said about the translation gap between the male and female of our species, why it is and what it is – including the theory that we each originate from different parts of the Universe.This is maybe so. However, bringing it all down to earth, here are some helpful translations that may assist either side, although I suspect that it will help those tasked with ‘looking after their boss’ when that means crossing this particular gender border.

Male: “Yes okay”…Translation: Absolutely nothing. It’s just a conditioned response

Male: “It would take too long to explain”…Translation: I have no idea

Male: :That’s interesting”…Translation: Why are you still talking?

Male: “It’s a guy thing”…Translation: There is no rational thought pattern evident

Male: “I can’t find the report”…Translation: It didn’t fall into my hands

Male: “Can I help with that?”…Translation: Why isn’t it already done

Hope to have helped you make better sense of it all. Lost in translation…it plagues us all both at work and at home.

Invictus The inspiration of Nelson Mandela

Although the movie Invictus is only released in cinemas this coming weekend I was fortunate to get an early viewing this past Saturday and for me the film is simply brilliant. A week ago I’d decided to read Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom, so watching Invictus after having reread the book evoked a number of emotions and I must admit there were parts where I felt very teary. My colleague Graeme Codrington wrote a post below and mentions that today, the 2nd of Feb 2010 is exactly 20 years after Madiba was released. As a South African I find this amazing. Twenty years ago SA was on the brink of a bloody civil war, there are still problems but the SA I know today is a much better place than it was back then. In Invictus, Mandela played by Mr Freeman is portrayed as a man both burdened and blessed by having become a living icon after years of political struggle. Now as a newly elected President, Mandela takes his astute wisdom, insight into people, and incredible leadership to unite a nation still fearful on one another. I still remember clearly the 1995 world cup victory, how all South Africans partied in the street rejoicing the rainbow nation. The Economist has written an excellent review of the film and you can read it below. In Invictus, Mr Freeman and Mr Eastwood to made their sunniest film yet.

… Continue Reading

What if a Board Meeting was like the State Of The Union?

Thinking About Thinking suggests that if board meetings looked like a state of the union, the agenda would play itself out like this:

“The CEO would make his way to the board room through a processional in the company’s hallways, flanked by clapping employees, shaking hands and giving thumbs up to the staff along the way.

The meeting would start with the CFO announcing the entrance of the CEO, and all board members standing and applauding.

The CEO would stand at the head of the table, with the CFO and CTO sitting in oversized chairs on a raised platform behind him.

All powerpoint slides and the projector would be replaced with a teleprompter.

When the CEO talked about cutting spending, lowering the burn and a hiring freeze, investors on both sides of the table would stand up and applause.

When the CEO talked about changing the healthcare plan to cover all employees and shareholders, the investors on the left side of the table would stand up and applause while the other investors sit stoicly.

Thereafter, the CEO would have to remind all investors that their job is to represent the shareholders, not their own partisan interests.

Rather than talking during the meeting, the CTO and CFO would convey their opinion by smirking, giggling, and giving standing ovations as the CEO spoke.

Meanwhile, outside legal counsel, sitting in the first row facing the CEO, would never applaud and would be generally expressionless throughout.

At the appropriate time, the CEO would give a carefully calculated shout out to his wife who is sitting at the outer edge of the board room next to some carefully selected key partners and customers.  She waves at the mention of her name.

The CEO closes the meeting by saying God Bless this company.”

Nice one : )

Once Upon a Time: The Power of Story to Connect

I find myself at a large hospitality group’s General Managers Conference. The group has seen a lot of change over the past tumultuous year and as a result, about 40% of those attending the conference are here for the first time. That’s a significant percentage. The exercise I have facilitated to help people connect and get to know each other is currently in full swing and is working a treat! The exercise? A basic methodology for facilitating what the Hawaiians term, ‘talk story’.

Talk Story, as its name implies, is sitting together and sharing one’s story. In this case the process is helped by the participants drawing a ‘river of life’ depicting their own journey. Magazines, glue, paper, crayons, scissors, ribbon and ‘other stuff’ are all part of the mix. It hasn’t taken long for the staid conference room to be transformed into a kindergarten type mess…along with the expected laughter, banter and general feeling of ‘having fun’.

Soon the delegates will get to share their ‘river’ and the mood will change. I know that as I have done this exercise often enough to know that when it gets to the telling, the mood gets somber. The simple reason is that for most of us, telling our story allows us to share things that we are often reluctant to share, things that don’t usually ‘come up in normal conversation’. Therein is the power of the story and it never ceases to amaze me. I have seen people get to change their perception of others based on ‘listening to their story’. I have seen attitudes soften and change; I have seen previously unlikely connections being made; I have seen understanding develop and I have witnessed both tears and laughter.

Most group start with a, ‘this will only take a few minutes’ mentality only to be surprised by how caught-up they become in their own – as well as other’s story. Every group is different but it is a wonderful way to deepen relationships, build understanding around diversity and difference and – well, do something that gives authenticity to the ‘values’ we usually have placed on the office walls. It is fun, constructive and taps into a root within all of us…the love of story.

You really need to try it sometime…and I’d be happy to assist you for each time I participate in the exercise, I leave with greater clarity about what it is our workspace is meant to be.

A Note to CEO’s…everywhere.

Guiseppe Garibaldi, the old soldier-patriot who unified Italy in the mid-nineteenth century, following his military campaign was quoted as saying, “We have made Italy, now we must make Italians”

In South Africa the ‘Proudly South African’ campaign is widely known and I recall my colleague, Barrie once saying something along the lines of, “They’ve missed the point on this…’proudly South African’ should not refer to a ‘product’ but rather be a set of behaviors…behaviors that, if lived, could then make anyone, anywhere ‘South African”. Both Garibaldi and Barrie make sense. What they are pointing towards is the realization of an authentic living of a particular culture, or set of values. They are pointing to something deeper, more elusive but ultimately, more desirable and transferable than what we tend to focus on.

Now think about the culture within your company. How do you get to an authentic realization of people living your desired culture much like there was once the renown, ‘IBM Man’? Your culture, and there always is ‘a culture’, is a vital part of any organisation. The culture is essentially ‘how things get done’ and reveals attitudes, displays behaviors and determines the ‘climate’ within your environment. If we’re to be honest, this reality seldom reflects what is written on the corporate walls by way of mission statements, values etc…

Your organisational culture will benchmark your company’s learning mentality; the ability to bounce back or adapt to change; the ability to innovate or tough it out. It shapes important organisational elements such as a sense of belonging, motivation and accountability. Essentially it is the very oxygen, the quality of air that will either allow you to thrive or deprive you of the needed resources to ‘live’. It is that important.

But most leaders don’t do enough work to fully understand ‘organisational culture’ and how they influence it, for good or for bad.  There is no shortage of resources on the subject but not all of it helpful and invariably the resources point to quick fixes and band-aid approachs that often only mask the real problems.

So where to start? Well for one, how about having some real conversations with people within your organisation about how they experience things? If they do talk freely, or don’t talk freely will in itself be a strong indicator of the quality of ‘your air’. How about walking the floor and learning to observe, to ‘listen with your eyes’ as Malcolm Gladwell calls it in his book, Blink? How about sitting down with a cultural anthropologist and getting some basic frameworks for an expert in the field and could then be applied to your organisation? How about dropping in to select meetings as an observer and see how things are being done?

How about doing some thinking on the matter? The source of organisational culture starts with you, the CEO. It may just be the most important part of your leadership responsibilities – I’m prepared to bet, it may also be the most neglected?

Why you shouldn’t change your Twitter Profile Pic

There are literally thousands of articles and opinions out there spelling out the ‘laws’ of how to use Twitter. If the authors of those articles were honest, they’d admit that those ’so-called laws’ are really just opinions. Their opinions. How on earth can anyone claim, at this early stage in Twitter’s life, to have a list of irrefutable laws’?

This post falls into the opinion category then. An irrefutable opinion according to me : )

I’m on Twitter everyday. Several times a day. It’s become the biggest influence in my world when it comes to learning. I’ve come to trust the voices and thoughts of a group of people, many of whom I have never met, to share their insights in a variety of fields that interest me. Even some that don’t.

I follow aprox 400 people, and as I scroll through my Twitter feed on my iPhone (I use 4 different Twitter Apps) my most relied upon method of finding those people I really enjoy is through their Twitter Profile Pic. I imagine I should be using their usernames for this, but I don’t. I’m a picture person. I possibly should be using ‘Twitter Lists’? I don’t, I’m a picture person.

And so when someone updates their image I lose them in the noise of my stream. It sometimes can take me weeks to re-orientate myself to their new image.

And that’s my irrefutable opinion then. It’s also a plea to those interesting people I rely on everyday. Don’t change who you are. You don’t need to update your ‘image’. I’ve come to like and appreciate you just the way you are : )

P.S. While writing this I found a mildly amusing post on 10 types of Twitter Profile Avatars. Click here to see for yourself.

Designed by women – can you tell?

A great little ‘image test’ appeared on FastCompany last week. It’s a focus on architecture and whether you can tell by looking at a building whether it’s been designed by a woman or a man? I couldn’t tell very easily at all. I thought I was being clever when any of the buildings that had some sort of phallic design to them I guessed as men (isn’t that what we’ve always been told) but I wasn’t always correct.

Take a look for yourself and see if you do any better than me. There are some beautiful and interesting designs in the mix.

Change is Changing

It was Machiavelli who wrote that, ‘Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times’. That of course is easier said than done! However is also a non-negotiable part of contemporary leadership. Perhaps the best way to describe what is needed here is one word: Unlearning. Today experienced leaders paradoxically need to be able to unlearn things before they can learn what is required for leading in the new world of work. What, you may ask, is the best way to ‘unlearn’? Well, a good starting point is to be intentionally open to feedback from others and, when coupled with a willingness to act on the feedback, the first steps in the unlearning process have been taken. Cultivating a different view from the one entrenched – or the one that has ‘worked for you’  is difficult. It starts with openness (to different viewpoints, ways of thinking and acting) but is helped by making the time to think things through. Bill Lucas in his excellent book, ‘rEvolution’ suggests that two key questions in the process of thinking about things are: (1) What is going on here? and (2) What do you see that makes you say so? His point is that such questions lead to a ‘process of thinking’ necessary to change habits of the mind.

No longer do leaders have the luxury of ‘gradual change’. Leaders need different mindware if they are to keep pace with a world in which change itself has changed. It is fast, furious and constant. And so, the old wisdom of Reinhold Niebuhr is a good reminder to those tasked with leading in such a context: ‘God give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other’. Amen.

Are you working for a TALENTED COMPANY, or do you know of examples?

I’m on a quest to find companies that are extraordinary, companies that not only achieve good financial results but also contribute positively to society as a whole. I’m intrigued at how many companies have fallen down in the past few years because a number of very talented people have been behaving badly – think Enron, the financial crisis, Bernie Madoff, Lehman Brothers and the US motor industry to name but a few. Companies have wrongly convinced themselves that they need the best of the best, the most talented people, to succeed and they have been rewarding their “talent” excessively. This has resulted in a bonus culture that is eating away at the fabric and moral code of business.

Rather than build a business around star individuals I believe that companies need to be building talented systems processes and cultures. They need to be focusing on building the star company. I’m currently conducting research to form the basis of a new book about talented companies. if you know of or work for a company that has talented structures, organisational designs, cultures, systems and corporate DNA I’d love to hear from you.

The Next Wave or just a ripple?

Earier this month I posted a blog titled Is the bubble set to burst again in 2010? Today in The Times is reporting that the second wave may be hitting earlier than expected. The front cover article titled Dubai in deep water as ripples from debt crisis spread informs of the £14b in value lost by UK banks yesterday as fears spread of a dangerous new phase in the economic crisis that swept around the globe yesterday as traders responded to the shock announcement that a debt-laden Dubai state corporation was unable to meet its interest bill. The latest reports are that the market has recovered some ground but fears still remain on who is exposed the most to this new crisis. Is this the AfterShock from the tsunami that hit the world financial market just over a year ago and will our markets be able to withstand the next wave? Only time will tell but one thing that this new event does reinforce is our view at TomorrowToday that even as we emerge from the longest recession in UK records, there is now a new normal and the world has changed. Only the boldest and bravest companies will survive this Brave New World. Contact us to learn more about the trends we have identified in the New World of Work.

You can read the article in The Times or read on below … Continue Reading

25 “talented” people behind the meltdown

I’m currently researching and writing an article called “Talent has given business a bad name” and came across a really good article in The Guardian In this article Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who led us into the current crisis. Most of these individuals were the top of their class, hand picked individuals – talent who got it wrong! People like Andy Hornby, former HBOS boss so highly respected, so admired and so clever – top of his 800-strong class at Harvard – but it was his strategy, that got HBOS in the trouble destroying billions of pounds worth of wealth and thousands of jobs. The article by Julia makes a for a compelling read and names and shames a number of high profile business people and politicians

You can read the article below or click here to read article at The Guardian
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The Hand of God – Part 2.

I watched in horror last night has one of the world’s finest footballers, Thierry Henry cheated in order to secure his country’s participation in FIFA’s World Cup next year. His blatant handball allowed France to score the goal that broke Irish hearts and shattered the potential upset that would have dumped the previous finalist out next year’s showpiece. Simply stated: France don’t deserve to be making the trip to South Africa!

Something is wrong when this kind of act is allowed to go unpunished and the stain that it will surely be on Henry’s otherwise great career will be something he will have to live with for the rest of his days.

While his is a massive moral failure, there is another equally damning failure in this sad scenario: That of the beautiful game’s powers that be. Their obstinate refusal to allow the use of technology that would all but eliminate such unfairness and ensure that we all can sleep easy, is stupidity at best and plain arrogance at worse. Whilst other sporting codes have found ways to ensure greater fairness through employing technology, football stubbornly remains in the Dark Ages by denying what we all know could not only ensure the right decisions are made but that everyone is left in a better place for it.

If Henry gets what he deserves as a result of his indiscretion, no let’s call it what it is, his cheating, he might live to wish there had been technology available that could have ensured immediate justice was done.

Where is he now? Most likely having a consoling drink with one Diego Maradona. They deserve each other.

Help! Linking Theory & Practice

I am attending a leadership symposium titled, Indigenous Knowledge and Leadership in Africa Colloquium: Leading in Africa hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Leadership Centre and Africa Ignite. Gathered here are some of the Continent’s most impressive minds when it comes to the subject of African leadership.  Academics are a strange lot. They are a unique species with their own norms and ways of interacting and engagement. They have a hard language to understand, one they use effortlessly but one that can be somewhat exclusive and act as an intimidating ‘barrier to entry’. If you want to enter, to engage…you best learn the language. Speaking simply comes a distant second to complex terminology. Perhaps this is true of all knowledge enclaves be that accountants, lawyers, the medical fraternity and yes, consultants.

The challenge is that theory needs to inform practice and one without the other creates problems. As I listen to what can only be described as ‘deep knowledge’ I am challenged by how best to ensure this is translated, applied and expressed in ‘mainline’ leadership streams. This wisdom seldom impacts the corporate reality where it is so needed. Responsibility for this failure rests with both ‘sides’ and this ‘failure’ creates a new opportunity.

On the side of academia, there is the need to work harder to connect their knowledge by way of application to ‘the real world’ from which they extract their knowledge in the first place. They need to find ways to invite greater diversity into their discourses and deliberations. They need to open the greenhouse door to others who would benefit from witnessing firsthand the growth in knowledge as it occurs. They need to work harder at the ‘so what?’ question and look to connect their deep knowledge to a pragmatic context. They need to ‘interrogate’ (a popular academic word) the process whereby their own insights and understanding finds practical expressions. And just to answer the anticipated answer already forming on the lips of academics: Publishing journals isn’t the answer. Such publications serve to fuel internal debate and form part of the peer review knowledge process but, for the most part, remain secret code hidden and inaccessible to those who need it most.

On the other side, executive leaders need to do more to become learners and to engage in a learning process through which current assumptions and paradigms can be challenged and informed. All too often corporate leaders are seduced by the operational demands they face and so choose what they know (and the area in which they feel competent) over the opportunity to learn and explore unknown terrain. The learning journey is all too threatening to many senior leaders who for the most part give lip service to the need to learn.

And so the gulf widens. The two sides view each other with suspicion and an initial sense of helplessness as to how to embrace the value and lessons embedded within each reality, gives way to a denial that one has anything worthwhile to learn from the other.

This gives rise to the ‘opportunity’ that this divide creates. The opportunity is for bridge-builders, for interpreters to step into the gap: Those capable of translating the best of both sides for the benefit of both sides. Who are these people? I am not sure but one challenge they will face is how to develop and maintain credibility with both sides. Some attempts at translation have met with distain by academia, viewed as a type of ‘commercial sell-out’. ‘ In the same way, anything ‘theoretical’ carries little weighting in the fast paced and measured pragmatic world of the corporate.

So, fancy yourself as a ‘bridge-builder’? A start might be to attend some relevant symposium should you have a large desk and corner office; on the other hand, if your office is filled with strange trinkets and ‘stuff’ – as well as piles of papers, journals and books, best try to get into a board room sometime soo

Nike’s considered sustainability programme

Nike has some aggressive sustainability targets. Nike CEO Mark Parke believes that corporate responsibility is no longer a staff function at Nike. It’s a design function, a sourcing function, a consumer experience function, part of how we operate.

Lorrie Vogel is the general manager of Nike Considered, Nike’s in-house sustainability think tank says that the long-term vision for Considered is to design products that are fully closed loop: produced using the fewest possible materials, designed for easy disassembly while allowing them to be recycled into new product or safely returned to nature at the end of their life. By 2011, 100 percent of footwear will meet baseline Considered standards, apparel by 2015 and equipment by 2020 – creating better performing products while minimizing environmental impact by reducing waste, using environmentally preferred materials and eliminate toxins.

Wikipedia says that the “Nike Considered line utilizes materials found primarily within 200 miles (320 km) of the Nike factory which reduces the energy used for transportation, diminishing the resulting climate change impact. The manufacturing process reduces solvent use by more than 80% compared with Nike’s typical products. The leather comes from a tannery that recycles wastewater to ensure toxins are kept out of the environment, and it is colored using vegetable-based dyes. Hemp and polyester are used to make the shoe’s woven upper and shoelaces. The mid-sole is cut to lock into the outer sole, reducing the need for toxic adhesives. The shoe’s outer sole includes rubber made from recycled factory rubber waste. Considered is part of a larger effort Nike has been undertaking for several years to reduce waste, eliminate toxic substances, and otherwise lessen the environmental impact of the world’s largest athletic shoe manufacturer. The company has a publicly stated goal to “Minimize or eliminate all substances known to be harmful to the health of biological or ecological systems.”

You can read a recent interview with Lorrie on CleanTechnica’s blog and I’ve sourced an excellent MIT case study for you on how Nike is becoming more greendownload an MIT case study, alternatively contact me and I will send you the report

Is the bubble set to burst again in 2010?

A few weeks ago I commented on whether or not the recession would be a U or a W (see blog Is the economy in for a V, a U or a W? HSBC Chief thinks it’s a W) Our research definitely suggests that we have entered a new season and that the next few years are going to be characterised by increased volatility. Further evidence is arising to support the notion that those businesses who think things are going back to “normal” are in for a shock. Larry Elliott and Heather Stewart from The Observer write that central banks are relaxed about booming asset markets. But with repossessions rising and jobs still scarce, some fear we’re heading straight for another bust.

You can read the article here or follow the link to The Observer

… Continue Reading

Millennial Muddle

Kids these days. Just look at them. They’ve got those headphones in their ears and a gadget in every hand. They speak in tongues and text in code. They wear flip-flops everywhere. Does anyone really understand them? Only some people do, or so it seems. They are experts who have earned advanced degrees, dissected data, and published books. If the minds of college students are a maze, these specialists sell maps, so says Eric Hoover in his recent article in The Chronicle called The Millennial Muddle

The article covers the thoughts of leading authors, covering issues they agree on and disagree. It’s lengthy but well worth the read.

… Continue Reading

Was I only dreaming?

Last night I had the wierdest experience. I woke up in the early hours of the morning, wakened by a disturbing moment in a fairly vivid dream (the contents of which are not important for this story). My throat was parched, and I needed a glass of water. I knew I had an empty glass next to my bed on the bedside table, and so, not wanting to switch on a light and waken completely, I stumbled out of bed and peered through my bleary eyes into the pitch darkness of the hotel room, trying to find the glass.

I saw the shadowy outline of the glass exactly where I thought I had left it as I went to bed, and reached for it. But it wasn’t there. The shadowy circle that I thought had been the glass immediately shifted a few inches to the right. I reached for it again. It wasn’t there either. Now I became half aware that my brain was telling me where it thought the glass was, rather than actually showing me what was on the table. I ignored what I thought I could see, and swept my hands across the table until I found the actual glass.

OK, so this was not a science experiment. But it did remind me of a TED video I watched recently on optical illusions and why we need to be carefully of thinking we can know anything objectively and how we learn. Check out Beau Lotto on Optical Illusions. You can also see another example of an illusion here. Finally, there is just a fun look at optical illusions here.

When we are developing strategies and looking at the world around us, we need to be careful not to allow our brains to tell us what it thinks we want to see there. It happens all the time. Watch the TED videos – they’ll amaze (and humble) you. Then, check out our presentation on “Seeing the world through other people’s eyes“.

Fly Me To The Moon

I love travel. The last 21 days has seen me board 12 flights, spend 83 hours in planes (plus 20 hours in nine different airports) and visit five countries on three Continents. That is a fair amount of travel by anyone’s standards.

The most common question: “You must be so tired?” and when it emerges that the two primary destinations were Hawaii and Rio, any trace of sympathy evaporates quicker than one can say, ‘Aloha’.

We live in a small world. One made accessible through the speed of connection, be that electronic or through travel. This can only increase with the passing of time and with it a new understanding of  ‘global citizenship’.  One of the research findings of the Education 2020 Conference (initiated and hosted by the East West Center in Honolulu) reveals societies of increasing complexity and a world where, in spite of increasing homogenization, difference matters.

Leaders and organizations that understand these emerging realities and how the rules of the game are constantly changing will be the ones that survive. Building adaptive character traits into organizations will become a primary focus for leaders and this will necessitate a shift in not only how we understand leadership, but also how we build organizations.

Leading adaptive change will demand of leaders an ability to hold lightly to past success as well as necessitate a need to be able to be comfortable with paradox. Less and less will appear to be ‘black and white’ and leading diversity in interconnected enterprises will evoke a whole new agenda for the Leader of tomorrow. It is an exciting prospect and the new agenda will challenge much of our conventional wisdom. The models of how we ‘learn leadership’ will have to change to keep pace with this new agenda and some of the current leadership educational giants in this area will be hard pressed to keep up with the change that is required.

Tired from the travel? Not at all! I have had the wonderful opportunity to see and experience different places; to engage in conversations with many smart people from all over Asia Pacific and to learn, unlearn and relearn. What a privilege, what a responsibility!

Tomorrow I will be delivering a key note address at a large conference at Sun City, South Africa  - presenting on,‘9 Global Trends Changing the Face of Business & Leadership’.  Can’t wait! This is the crux of the new agenda, a balcony view that will allow leaders to see the emerging patterns and then adapt accordingly.

There needs to be boldness in proclaiming and revealing this emerging brave new world. Some will embrace it; others will resist it; and many will remain uncertain.  As a Leader you have no choice: engagement is your only option. So what are the questions you are asking? What are you unlearning, relearning and learning? What are you reading and with whom are you conversing? What is your balcony and what is it you are seeing from this vantage point? These are just some of the important questions!

Please put your seat upright, ensure your seatbelt is fastened and tray table is stowed away…we are ready for take-off.

Can I help you pack Sir?

An amazing article appeared in the Business Day on the 8th July 2009. It was a Business Day interview with the former Anglo American deputy chairman, Graham Boustred, 84. It was an interview at his request in order for him to share his views on the current state of Anglo American. What follows has one suspiciously looking for the candid camera equivalent of the print media! Boustred states that Xstrata’s proposed bid for Anglo American is simply a mechanism for getting rid of current Anglo CEO, Cynthia Caroll who he goes on to describe as “hopeless”and implies that she is sexually frustrated. The then illuminates why it is difficult to find a female CEO: “It is because most women are sexually frustrated. men are not, because they can fall back on call girls, go to erectile dysfunction clinics. If you have a CEO who is sexually frustrated she can’t act properly”.

Boustred talks about the possibility of having an exit strtaegy should the wheels come off in South Africa. His prefered safe haven? The Isle of Man. His reason being that on the Isle of Man “there are no Muslims, no blacks”. There were compelling other reasons such as a good health care system but these are all too sane to be taken seriously.

The tone of Boustred’s ranting as reported is self-centred, arrogant, dogmatic, bigited and plain insulting. He represents a perplexing case study in past leaders grown old and begs the question of just how much of the present characteristics and opinions were in evidence during his leadership reign? He is aptly described in the interview as an “old man of South African business” where his world is “an anachronism that is growing smaller all the time”.

Oh yes, and the answer to Anglo’s current “disaster”? Well, for Boustred to return of course! reading to full article will have you queing to help the pensioner pack.
 

Leaders with Foot ‘n Mouth

De Villiers was always likely going to have to work that bit harder to gain the respect the position deserves. Unfortunate, but that was the braai boardroom reality. 

Well, de Villiers has shot himself in the foot – well both feet actually. What were at first rather humorous analogies, mixed metaphors and plain nonsensical explanations that provided plenty of copy, has now become plain embarrassing. More seriously, his recent utterings have dangerously eroded any personal or positional creditability and raises serious questions. Not to mention that others, well OK one, has been fired for less – not so Nick?

You only have yourself to blame Pieter. Perhaps SARU share some culpability in that they ought to have provided some coaching to the Coach in those matters other than rugby. It may not be fair, but today ‘those matters’ are an integral part of the Coach’s responsibility and more should have been done to avoid the situation getting to the state of play it has done.