|
|
ARCHIVED INSIGHTS
This Month
|
"One of the greatest paradoxes is how you can get ahead by helping others. It's a paradox because if you seek to help others primarily to get a certain advantage, you will come across as fake, utilitarian and manipulative. However, if you can forget about your own advantage and look for ways to contribute, help others, and be a source of value, your own personal brand will benefit, and people will refer you, recommend you, and keep you in mind. This isn't a mystic nostrum, it's sheer pragmatism. In a world in which we are bombarded with sales pitches and everyone seems to want a piece of our action, when we run into genuine service, and true support, we are overjoyed. And that joy converts into advocacy, expressed enthusiasm, and in the client realm, loyal repeat business. Decide you're going to help others win. Do so and you'll be astonished at the support, collaboration and back-up you receive. You'll find that inevitably leaders most significantly achieve their goals by helping others achieve theirs."
|
|
Archived Insights
|
"In periods of change we know we have new needs and imperatives. However we so often feel overwhelmed because we only "add" things. Leaders have to decide when change occurs, what they will STOP doing as well. Secondly, work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Just keep going and it will literally take forever. Limit how much time you have, and you'll sharpen your attention, your focus, your energy, and your edge (in terms of making necessary calls). Finally, a change task may be overwhelming, hence milestones (significant intervening achievements) matter and exulting in forward movement is far more critical than being "done." We may celebrate achievement, but we learn from progress. If we can set learning goals, enjoyment goals as well as achievement goals, for the change journey, we'll fire on all cylinders and convert the challenge of change into an exciting open sesame."
|
|
|
"Don't let barriers limit what you attempt. For years, it was considered a given that top cuisine was produced by European chefs, or chefs from that heritage. Today one of the world's most accomplished chefs is American-born Thomas Keller, who created the iconic French Laundry in Napa, and now the stunning Per Se in Manhattan. Mr. Keller has accumulated a total of 7 Michelin stars from the French Bible of Gastronomy, MIchelin (3 each for the French Laundry and Per Se and another for one of his other restaurants, Bouchon). That puts him hot on the heels of legends like Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse. And no one begrudges Mr. Keller his achievements. Recently at a global Wine and Food experience, Mr. Keller was the headliner, though two other top French and Spanish chefs with three stars each were in attendance. But Mr. Keller was the evident "rock star", with a waiting list of almost hundreds for each of his events. Personally, he is an affable, charming, unprepossessing artist of unquestionable accomplishment. The learning? Excel, hone your art, refuse to be limited by "conventional wisdom", and trust that true excellence and distinctive mastery will trump most qualms or prejudice. This is true in organizations, in kitchens, and throughout life."
|
|
|
"Recently while skiing in Courchevel late in the afternoon when the snow had become a tad icier, we saw a woman painfully trying to make it down a run that was far too advanced for her. In so doing, she created hazard for those navigating this run for whom it was an appropriate challenge, as well as for those whizzing by, simply because she was unpredictable, often froze, and flailed around.
This leads to an evident realization about achievement, inner drive and application. At one level, it is wonderful to go beyond today's limits, to be comfortable being uncomfortable. We can't grow in a comfort zone. And indeed an attitude of audacity and courage often propels us several levels beyond our current competence and allows us to get out there, to experiment, to try, even to flounder, but hopefully to fail forward and ultimately grow.
Yet, there are limits. The state of flow is a dynamic equilibrium between challenge and ability. We need to push both to experience our potential. So we also, along with courage and will, need the patience to work on our skills, rather than wanting to leapfrog all the stages of development. We have to be conscious of the needs and legitimate expectations of those around us (in this case the fellow skiers). We also have to have the very different but equally needed courage of perseverance.
A ski instructor told us his heart sank when he worked on the foundations of skiing one morning with someone, only to see them find that boring, and go careening down a far too steep hill that afternoon, thereby undermining everything they learned. Alas, they will then continue to careen. And is the aim to 'get down the hill' (they aren't Shackleton trying to make it to safety after all), or to truly learn to ski? And so in leadership and life, the aim is not just to get the job done, but to learn to lead. Only then will we be able to 'manage' not only this hill, but the many other hills we will encounter as we seek to get to where we are really going."
|
|
|
"As we walk around over this potentially magnificent season of togetherness and the sharing of love, we are sometimes awash in the spirit-numbing commercialism that threatens to take over and make our attempt at family community, ultimately a bit hollow. Our choices have to be about more than which brands to acquire, and they hopefully have to be about more than being passively entertained. A recent ad shows a girl depressed because her family bought her a pony, while her two friends received the latest cell phones. Of course the pony shown is unattractive, cantankerous, and roped to a dog house! Implication: activity, getting out there, having experiences, is so 'yesterday'. The only way to be 'in' is to get yet another gadget that allows us to passively imbibe videos, music and to exchange as much chatter as possible. Now, we don't have to be Luddites and we can all be wowed by great new technology and wonderful new design. But we are multidimensional creatures, so let's not let our kids or ourselves forget, that ENGAGING with the world, and adding our own imagination and passion and energy to it and to our experiences are a lot of what life's real fun and meaning are all about. This year, let's actively MAKE our own fun as much as we imbibe it from other sources. And let's make larger choices than which consumer item we're currently after...about who we're hoping to be, the results we'd like to produce, and the relationships we wish to experience, enhance and even create."
|
|
|
"US airlines are notoriously complaining about poor profitability. And our airports are truly atrocious in terms of service, sagging infrastructure, and overworked air traffic controllers. Somehow or the other, we don't plot cause and effect. World class airlines like Singapore Airlines pick people with the attitude of service superstars and it shines through. Singapore's Changi as a hub is a model of incomparable civility AND efficiency. Even immigration officers are pleasant! Changi has movie theaters, spas, even a health club and swimming pool, and even organizes city tours for long layovers! Perhaps we have to realize that we can't keep offering wretched service, and mediocre surroundings, and expect to generate profits, or loyalty. But this extends far beyond airlines. There are usually 3-4 key 'perception points' for each type of business. If those 3 to 4 areas shine, then brand communication will probably be decisive. If those 3-4 are unremarkable or if one or more of those key 'perception points' (for example ATM accessibility in a Bank, or layout in a bookstore, or accessibility and responsiveness for consulting partners, or user friendly online account management for a credit card company) let us down, we will flee that service or business in droves, no matter what the ad jingles say. Review your own business, and decide whether you are coming across as a Changi and Singapore Airlines or one of our distressing airport dumps that send weary passengers into under-oxygenated cabins where scowling harpies provide insipid attention."
|
|
|
"When we learn something new we become, to some extent, someone new. We have to reconfigure who we are, perhaps even some of our values and priorities, around this new learning. The more we accentuate our knowledge, our understanding of the world, our insight into other people, our capacities or competencies, the more expansive we become as people and professionals. In a high-tech world, high-touch has never been more important. Since so much can be delegated to technology, emails, text messages, video conferences, the moments of actual interaction may be lessened in number, but they surge in importance. As time is in short-supply in a 24/7 world, the time we spend with others and they with us has to count, to matter, to be productive and/or refreshing. The more we're interested in, the more interesting we become -- the more we can be a distinctive presence for others to enjoy and tap. So, as a simple suggestion, do something in the coming period differently, distinctively, or anew. Taste a rarer wine, hike a more challenging peak, practice taking a full day off (no business, no texts, no emails), learn sensual massage with a loved one, dive into Dickens, gain a new technological capability, volunteer somewhere, listen to the beliefs of someone from a different faith, attend a classical recital, savor the company of someone you'd like to get to know better. Pick a new experience to wallow in and discover one of the most accessible and rewarding ways of revitalizing yourself."
|
|
|
"Our capacity to get value from experiences determines to a large extent the quality of our own thinking, the depth and breadth of our emotions, possibly some of the content of our character, and perhaps even the vitality of the ideas and impulses that course through us. In the last week, we've been from New York to Istanbul (for a Leadership Journey -- please see 'Leadership Quest' under 'How We Can Help' if interested in the concept), to Hampshire (in a picturesque corner of Surrey England), Elsinore (site of where Shakespeare placed Hamlet's castle), London, Copenhagen, and are now on the TGV from Paris to Aix-en-Provence for several days off. There have been highs and lows, glorious moments, and wearying travel, inspiring sessions and work-related moments of just slogging forward. If we close ourselves to the full range of lessons and emotions and insights and learnings, we then just 'endure' such periods of intense activity and challenge -- which also can be periods of intense stimulus and learning. If instead we open ourselves up to what we can experience, grow in and evolve from, such periods become a true 'value bonanza'. Whatever your week and wherever you spend it, let's learn to be sponges of value, taking in all we can so we can then share it with those we care about and express it powerfully in the work we do and the value we seek to add."
|
|
|
"Very rarely do companies offer comprehensive guidance to their customers so that they can easily avail of their service. This month using a Passport and Visa services company to get a visa, we were given a routine list of documents to provide. Our own experience suggested that a travel itinerary would also be needed. As the request was time-intensive, when we got the panic call from them the next day saying a confirmed travel itinerary would be needed immediately, we were happily ready. They are in this business and specialize in facilitating requests despite tight time-lines -- yet they offer an incomplete list of requirements and then call 'in panic'...when they are supposed to alleviate that in us!
Again, we were booking a private flight from Miami to New York with and for some clients, as we were going to do some coaching en route. We were emailed a confirmation. When we arrived at the private hangar, we were asked by three people (security, baggage handler, reception), 'What's the tail number?' We thought they were speaking in tongues initially. It turns out this is the most fundamental piece of information you need to enter the hangar, help them locate the airplane, or even to arrange for transportation to meet you at the other end. Fortunately, quickly reviewing the emailed confirmation we located it -- however, this clearly should have been the lead item in their communication to us, and indeed highlighted presumably in the several phone calls exchanged with our office.
Each week we could multiply numerous additional examples. Why don't we all take a little extra time, to provide comprehensive guidance to enable our customers to have a seamless and trouble-free experience? Taking that time and energy, even more than all the marketing hype, lets customers know they can trust us, that we care about their experience, and that the acumen we're showing here will also likely be demonstrated in whatever primary service they are asking us for."
|
|
|
"Most companies provide slipshod, mediocre service whenever anyone approaches them 'outside of their script'.
I sent a piece of luggage via DHL so it would be in Toronto when we landed. The contents were clothes for our summer trip and a few books. Customs held the bag in Canada because they didn't spot the combination to the lock we had provided in the paperwork. They didn't want to damage the case and so asked that we come by in person.
DHL never managed to learn the reason. Had they done so, they could have supplied the combination themselves (we had given it to them). Instead they 'assumed' it was due to the contents (Customs had never opened it, that was the point!). And when we pressed them from overseas, all they would say is, 'We can't do anything with Customs...' You could almost 'hear' her roll her eyes.
Of course had she listened to me -- i.e. that we send luggage all the time, it passes Customs all the time, just 'ask' what the nature of the issue is -- we wouldn't have had to drag ourselves there in person (thereby removing the advantage of using DHL at all). We weren't asking her to overwhelm Customs or raid the warehouse. We just wanted them to 'think', and show a modicum of proactivity.
This is commonplace, sadly not exceptional.
We need to each ask how many 'default' responses we give to our customers, our teams, our partners. Service isn't about a script, it's about inventing and imagining responses and solutions that make our collective lives easier and better. As we make that real, we express real leadership and earn real achievement. Let's make it so!"
|
|
|
"We often keep bad news from our teams until it's too late. Or else we don't tell them what might happen, as we struggle to avert it. However, word gets out, they can see we're anxious, and if it comes to pass, they feel betrayed because we didn't earlier take them into our confidence so they could adjust and get ready. Teams aren't children, we can't shield them from reality. When we act too parentally, we train them to become whining and immature in response. When we share 'what is', we may gain immeasurable support and insight from them. Even if they are disappointed, working through that together, brings the team together. Moreover, then our energy can go to tackling the challenge, not dreading the fallout to people who are meant to be facing and transforming it alongside us. Take the high road by engaging your team early and invite them to help you solve the problems they and you are facing. Only then will they grow, only then will you become truly a team of all leaders."
|
|
|
"During a Leadership Journey (please see 'Leadership Quest' under "How We Can Help' if you want to learn more about these), a client was delivering food parcels in South Africa to an HIV victim. He said he was both dazzled and humbled by the radiant smile the lady he was delivering the food to greeted him with -- the evident physical ravages of the disease had clearly not infiltrated her abundant spirit. She thanked him and the team for the food and pointed to a photograph of what she had looked like before being afflicted. He said that this woman, and her smile, courage, heart and grace would stay with him forever. Gratitude for life, choosing joy, are active aptitudes. They have to be exercised to reach their full potential. We cannot just passively imbibe life -- we have to choose to draw value from it. . Not surprisingly, these aptitudes are most often flexed by those who have little, and who therefore have to extract all possible joy and appreciation from every aspect of their lives. Let's flex our own capacity for joy, appreciation and gratitude. Let's reach 'in' to ourselves as we reach 'out' to others. Leadership is about contribution. Appreciation is the spark that animates us, vitalizes us, to deliver."
|
|
|
"Many times we forget wisdom that's been around for a long time. If not jazzed up in modern vernacular we sometimes discount it...to our disadvantage. Years ago, I remember reading what Dale Carnegie said: "You can gather a lot more bees with honey than you can with vinegar.' Simplistic? Possibly, but so often honored in the breach rather than the observance. I see so many leaders, team-members and individuals 'look through' people rather than really 'at' them -- and I notice at times such lack of warmth, empathy and even minimally extended kindness -- presumably out of apathy, laziness or self-absorption. The leader who can show genuine interest in others, and affirm them authentically (which requires paying attention and observing what there is to BE affirmed) will set themselves apart -- and people will line up to collaborate, to support and to work with them. Let's be one of these people! Let's dedicate ourselves to building people up. Then even when we challenge them, they'll welcome it -- because they'll know that the intent is to help them WIN."
|
|
|
"As a coach and a counsellor I am often confronted by the central conundrum of change. Namely that we all want progress, we all want breakthroughs and greater happiness -- just as long as we don't personally have to make painful changes to achieve them. Often when we say 'nothing has worked'...we mean we haven't been able to find a way out of our problems that doesn't require our personal evolution. Well, there isn't one. A repeated frustration, a chronic meltdown, or a recurring mess, usually signals a learning we're ducking or an issue we're unwilling to face. When we can accept that we are being architects of our own despair...we then empower ourselves to become architects of fresh design and fresh possibility instead. Only then can we model and enable this potential in our teams. We become then a true catalyst -- and our failings become beacons...they ignite the act of 'growing up' -- the final test of a leader. Most interesting problems as Carl Jung pointed out can't be solved, they can only be outgrown."
|
|
|
"One of the stock excuses given for why we don't confront each other effectively or have the necessary 'brave conversations' required is that we may damage relationships. It is argued that at least now we are getting things done, even if suboptimally. If we challenge each other, we may lose even that. I've never found this to be true. I am told over and over by people that they in fact DON'T have a relationship with people they can't engage honestly; rather, it is the people they are closest to, and trust the most, they are most candid and proactive with. The issue is that 'relationship' means not only challenge, but ongoing communication and appreciation. A relationship is what entitles us to occasionally challenge, to be 'brave' together. If we actually expend the energy to connect with and appreciate each other first, if we deepen relationships, we'll also deepen all the communication that flows from them -- including the brave and challenging exchanges that are sometimes critical."
|
|
|
"It's hard to improve if we won't face our own need for improvement. The Arbinger Institute rightly points out that one of the greatest problems is self-deception. If I won't concede my culpability in my own distress, in my business unit's problems, in my organization's woes, then I have to blame others. Either I blame impersonal external forces, or individuals. Either way, I disempower myself. It's not the case that I am the only cause, or even the primary cause. But if I can't start with where I can take different action, then I have no leadership credibility. We are best led by those who make the changes in themselves that they ask for in others. On the plus side, when we don't feel compelled to manically blame others when holding them accountable, we can still connect with them and hopefully inspire new choices in them as well. Emotionally attacking someone just leads to them defending themselves and counterattacking. As leaders, we need to create more imaginative, more intelligently future-paving options."
|
|
|
"We end up reflecting at natural junctures -- the end of a project, when moving homes, at holidays, at births and deaths --- about life, about significance, about how we could have done or could do things better or differently. How fascinating and productive our leadership lives would be if we made reflection an ongoing and natural ingredient of our action. As long as thought doesn't remain abstract and produces more than private soliloquies, it is an extraordinary additive. Indeed, not only is the unexamined life not worth living, it is a life that is setting itself up for unnecessary aggravation and failure. Let's examine our motives, our assumptions, our opportunities, the facts, the challenges, the resources, and seek to glimpse a future we could help deliver. Let's also reflect on all that has worked and all the allies we have,and both experience and offer deep appreciation. Let's take enough time to reflect, so that our action can have the power that comes from being both inspired and well guided."
|
|
|
"People often speak about joy at work as a toss-away, as if it's about empty celebrations, or dull plaques. But joy at work emanates from a shared sense of purpose -- by caring about the company and caring about its culture. It comes from people we have invested time in building relationships with and whom we trust. Joy at work is about meeting and exceeding a customer's needs. Joy is verified when we produce a profit while also meeting the needs the people who work with us. Joy is a large word for a large number of causes. When profit and purpose support each other, when we enjoy and can respect the process by which our results are produced, and value the people who make that possible while feeling valued ourselves...THAT'S joy at work! Then, let's toss in a few parties, let our hair down, and share some good times. Wonderful additions, great icing...as long as the real ingredients for joy are present."
|
|
|
"Much has been written about the knowing-doing gap as it is called. It has two dimensions. The first is that we are 'technically taught' how to do something -- use an IT system, project management, how to conduct a performance review, whatever. However, the human and interactive dimensions are not addressed. We are taught it as a 'technical practise', whereas in reality all value-adding skills are finally 'adaptive achievements' -- we have to adapt our paradigms, personal mindsets and heartsets, and behaviors. The second aspect is that we are rarely stimulated, challenged, coached and supported to take that critical FIRST STEP. The biggest enemy of growth is inertia. Winning is indeed, to a large extent, beginning. And then, getting to a first achievement or milestone FAST."
|
|
|
"Leadership is often about the decisive few things needed to make a really big difference. Our teams languish when barraged with high-sounding abstractions, idealistic rhetoric not anchored in the imperatives of the day. Real leaders, the type that people enthusiastically sign up to follow and collaborate with, create an adamantine sense of priority based on market and customer value, instill and model urgency (not panic) to deliver it, and enroll and energise people through their own credibility and engagement to make it happen."
|
|
|
"Often the most devastating thing leaders can do is make it impossible to raise contentious issues, to challenge pet theories, or to offer a critique of the current consensus. What happens is that since 'unreality' becomes the norm, and people say one thing (to get along) while feeling something else entirely, the chief casualty is trust. And so when we can't challenge openly, we lose the will also to recognize others openly. Appreciation, or affirmation, or creatively supportive ideas, also remain unarticulated. Corporate communication overall then becomes tinsel as well as a charade. Ensuring that it instead remains a force for change and a way to connect with and embolden good people to support each other's performance, is a key plank of good leadership."
|
|
|
"People so often complain they don't have time for the things they want to do. However, we always have enough time for whatever we truly want to do. The problem is that it's politically incorrect to concede that my people aren't important enough to me, or that family time doesn't matter adequately to me. So we generate all kinds of rationalisations and smokescreens. It's time to 'personalize' the things we value -- link our values to our behaviors and commitment. 'Caring' in life as in grammar is a verb, not a noun. It is shown by what we DO, not what we profess. Making time for what matters, and generating the energy to 'show up' fully for that time, is the essence of personal leadership."
|
|
|
"The concept of corporate loyalty is misunderstood. Loyalty to what? Leaders build personal loyalty through being credible, through engaging and inspiring their teams. How? By giving them a clear purpose and vision to aim for, by actively committing to their personal growth, and by being authentic. But the real test of leadership is then transferring that personal loyalty to the organisation's mission. During WWII people came to love Churchill, but it was England they wanted to save, perhaps all of civilization they felt they were taking a stand on behalf of."
|
|
|
"One of the contributors to Sid Caesar's legendary comedy writing team said: 'He had total control and we had total freedom.' That's the winning paradox of leadership. Provide absolute visionary clarity, let there be no ambiguity about what is True North for your business. Also make sure you and your team are aligned on your 'values in action'. Other than that, allow and even demand that people challenge and seek to improve everything else -- in service of that overriding aim and the values you've chosen to be defined by. If you don't, you neuter talent and enterprise. However without havng that absolute clarity as a referee -- if you don't clarify both the goal and the penalty lines -- you are abdicating and will promote chaos rather than creativity."
|
|
|
"Everybody clamors to have teams. But teams require enormous energy, focus, maturity and consistent accountability. So the real question is, what objectives do you have that are large enough, to merit a team? What are some bullseyes you can articulate that are impossible to take aim at, without being a team? Trying to build a team otherwise is really just a temporary sugar high."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
