by George Ambler on Sunday, January 3, 2010
by George Ambler on Sunday, January 3, 2010
Photo by apesara
John Kotter author of “What Leaders Really Do” and more recently “A Sense of Urgency” provides the following definition of leadership from his book “Leading Change”.
“Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”
Leadership is about bringing about change and effective change requires vision, inspiration and effective communication. A vision that is so clear and compelling that people align to make it happen.
Today more than ever business and society requires leadership that brings about positive and productive change. The results of all this change? More change demands more leadership! Without leadership organisations are doomed to remain stuck in the past. Trapped by their past success. Bogged down by inertia.
The fundamental task of leadership is to bring about the right kind of change.
- What are the three critical changes that your leadership aims to bring about this year?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Change, Kotter, Leader, Management, Business
Tagged as:
Change,
Definitions
by George Ambler on Tuesday, November 17, 2009
New research from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) which surveyed 2,200 leaders from 15 organizations, in three countries between 2006 and 2008 produced some interesting findings. The research project was designed to answer the following questions:
- What leadership skills and perspectives are critical for success now and in the future?
- How strong are current leaders in these critical skills and perspectives?
- How aligned is today’s leadership strength with what will be the most important skills and perspectives in the future?
A comparison of the leadership strength from the research contrasts existing leadership skill levels with what skill would be required in the future the results are illustrated below.
The research identified the following seven competencies as most critical for success, now and in the future:
- Leading people: directing and motivating people.
- Strategic planning: translating vision into realistic business strategies, including long-term objectives.
- Managing change: using effective strategies to facilitate organizational change.
- Inspiring commitment: recognizing and rewarding employees’ achievements.
- Resourcefulness: working effectively with top management.
- Doing whatever it takes: persevering under adverse conditions.
- Being a quick learner: quickly learning new technical or business knowledge.
The interesting thing to note from this research is that only resourcefulness is a current top ten skill! All the others rated as important for success in the study are not skills that leaders have mastered today. This means that today’s leaders are not meeting the demands of their organisations. The CLL call this the “Leadership Gap”, referring to the huge gap that exists between the leadership skills organisations have today and the skills they will require in five years time.
Given these findings we need to take personal responsibility and ask ourselves:
- What are we doing personally to improve our leadership skills?
- What are we doing to help others improve their leadership skills?
- If we are taking action, are we doing enough?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Research, Change Management, Strategy, Planning, Learning, Business, Future
by George Ambler on Sunday, November 1, 2009
Photo by schoschie
The act and practice of leadership is a risky undertaking. Leadership is the act or bringing about positive change. This requires leaders to initiate, to blaze new trails, to venture into the unknown and unexplored terrain. All of this entails risk. Kouzes and Posner in their bestselling book, “The Leadership Challenge” describes it this way:
“Leaders are pioneers – people who are willing to step out into the unknown. They are people who are willing to take risks, to innovate and experiment in order to find new an better ways of doing things.”
Leaders take these risk because they have a vision, they see a future and a new world that inspires action and makes the risk worthwhile. Leaders are pioneers… not settlers. Great leaders take risk. They push past the edge of their current reality. Striving to bring their vision into today. How about you?
- Are you a pioneer or a settler?
- Are you taking the necessary risks to find better ways of doing things?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Risk, Pioneer
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Risk
by George Ambler on Sunday, November 1, 2009
I can across a really stunning post on failure by Tony Morgan, “10 Reasons Why You’re Probably Going to Fail” that is really worth sharing, so here is Tony’s list…
10 Reasons Why You’re Probably Going to Fail
- It’s not your passion. If it doesn’t make your heart beat fast or cause your mind to race when you’re trying to sleep, you’re probably doing the wrong thing.
- You don’t have a plan. You need a vision, and you need to identify specific steps to make that vision become reality. That includes a financial plan. (I happen to believe you need direction from God on this.)
- You’re waiting for it to be perfect. Test-drive it. Beta-test that new idea. You’ll fall into the trap of inaction if you think it has to be absolutely right from day one.
- You’re not willing to work hard. Everything worth pursuing in my life has involved discipline and perseverance.
- It’ll outgrow you. Keep learning. Keep growing. But more importantly, build a team of people including leaders that can be who you’re not.
- You’ve had success in the past. I’ve watched organizations hang on to a good idea for too long. Time passes. Momentum fades. It’s risky to let go of the past and jump on the next wave.
- You’re unwilling to stop doing something else. Complexity is easy. Simplicity takes discipline. You can’t build a healthy marriage if you’re unwilling to give up dating other women. Who/what do you need to stop dating?
- You won’t build a team of friends. Anyone can hire from a resume. You need to find people you want to share life with. In the long run, great relationships will get you out of bed in the morning.
- You won’t have the tough conversations. When breakdown happens (and it always does), someone needs to put on their big-boy pants and initiate the difficult conversation that leads to relational healing.
- You’re afraid of failure. When fear consumes you, it will cause you to do stupid things. You’ll let negativity distract you. You’ll embrace the known, and grow comfortable with mediocrity. The more often you fail, though, the more often you’ll find success.
Tony writes a great blog, worth reading. This is a really great list to work through when embarking on a new and challenging initiative. Any thoughts on what may be missing from this list?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Success, Failure, Goals, Business
Tagged as:
Failure,
Success
by George Ambler on Sunday, November 1, 2009
Forbes.com released their 2009 “The Most Influential business Thinkers” results. The consulting firm CrainerDearlove compiled this list of today’s top thinkers, by surveyed 3,500 people and a panel of experts to determine the 2009 edition of the Thinkers 50, the fifth edition of a biennial list of the most influential living management thinkers. This years results are listed below.
| Rank |
Name |
2007 Rank |
Country |
Day Job |
| 1 |
C.K. Prahalad |
1 |
India/U.S. |
University of Michigan Academic |
| 2 |
Malcolm Gladwell |
18 |
Canada |
New Yorker Columnist |
| 3 |
Paul Krugman |
- |
U.S. |
Princeton Academic |
| 4 |
Steve Jobs |
29 |
U.S. |
CEO of Apple |
| 5 |
W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne |
6 |
Korea/U.S. |
Insead Academics |
| 6 |
Muhammad Yunus |
- |
Bangladesh |
Founder of Grameen Bank, Economist |
| 7 |
Bill Gates |
2 |
U.S. |
Founder of Microsoft, Philanthropist |
| 8 |
Richard Branson |
9 |
U.K. |
Founder of Virgin, Entrepreneur |
| 9 |
Philip Kotler |
11 |
U.S. |
Northwestern University Academic |
| 10 |
Gary Hamel |
5 |
U.S. |
Co-founder Mlab, Consultant |
| 11 |
Michael Porter |
4 |
U.S. |
Harvard Academic |
| 12 |
Ratan Tata |
- |
India |
Chairman of Tata |
| 13 |
Ram Charan |
22 |
India |
Executive Coach |
| 14 |
Marshall Goldsmith |
34 |
U.S. |
Executive Coach |
| 15 |
S.Kris Gopalakrishnan |
- |
India |
Co-founder and CEO of Infosys |
| 16 |
Howard Gardner |
39 |
U.S. |
Harvard Academic |
| 17 |
Jim Collins |
10 |
U.S. |
Consultant |
| 18 |
Lynda Gratton |
19 |
U.K. |
London Business School Academic |
| 19 |
Tom Peters |
7 |
U.S. |
Consultant |
| 20 |
Jack Welch |
8 |
U.S. |
Retired Executive |
| 21 |
Eric Schmidt |
- |
U.S. |
CEO of Google |
| 22 |
Joseph Stiglitz |
- |
U.S. |
Columbia Academic |
| 23 |
Kjell Nordstrom & Jonas Ridderstrale |
13 |
Sweden |
Speakers and Academics |
| 24 |
Vijay Govindarajan |
23 |
India/U.S. |
Academic in Residence for GE |
| 25 |
Marcus Buckingham |
38 |
U.K. |
Speaker |
| 26 |
Richard D’Aveni |
46 |
U.S. |
Dartmouth Academic |
| 27 |
Rosabeth Moss Kanter |
28 |
U.S. |
Harvard Academic |
| 28 |
Clayton Christensen |
25 |
U.S. |
Harvard Academic |
| 29 |
Stephen Covey |
15 |
U.S. |
Speaker and Author |
| 30 |
Thomas Friedman |
26 |
U.S. |
New York Times Columnist |
| 31 |
David Ulrich |
42 |
U.S. |
University of Michigan Academic |
| 32 |
Roger Martin |
- |
Canada |
Dean of University of Toronto Rotman School |
| 33 |
Henry Mintzberg |
16 |
Canada |
McGill Academic |
| 34 |
Daniel Goleman |
37 |
U.S. |
Author and Consultant |
| 35 |
Chris Anderson |
- |
U.S. |
Wired Editor-in-chief |
| 36 |
Warren Bennis |
24 |
U.S. |
University of Southern California Academic |
| 37 |
Robert Kaplan & David Norton |
12 |
U.S. |
Consultants |
| 38 |
Jeff Immelt |
31 |
U.S. |
CEO of General Electric |
| 39 |
Don Tapscott |
- |
Canada |
Consultant |
| 40 |
Nassim Taleb |
- |
Lebanon |
Academic |
| 41 |
John Kotter |
30 |
U.S. |
Harvard Academic |
| 42 |
Niall Ferguson |
- |
U.K. |
Harvard and Oxford Academic |
| 43 |
Charles Handy |
14 |
Ireland |
Author |
| 44 |
Rakesh Khurana |
45 |
India/U.S. |
Harvard Academic |
| 45 |
Manfred Kets De Vries |
- |
Holland |
Insead Academic |
| 46 |
Tammy Erickson |
- |
U.S. |
Author and Consultant |
| 47 |
Costas Markides |
44 |
Cyprus |
London Business School Academic |
| 48 |
Barbara Kellerman |
- |
U.S. |
Harvard Academic |
| 49 |
Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones |
32 |
U.K. |
Academics |
| 50 |
Jimmy Wales |
- |
U.S. |
Co-founder of Wikipedia |
Source: CrainerDearlove, www.crainerdearlove.com.
All in all a pretty impressive list. I have read many of the books an article by many of the top 50 and I have been impressed by their thinking and insights. All leaders in their respective fields.
Technorati Tags: Guru, Leaders, Top Thinkers, Management, Strategy, Thought Leaders
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Resources
by George Ambler on Sunday, August 30, 2009
Photo by kevindooley
The article “For This Guru, No Question Is Too Big” from the NY Times discusses the work of the best selling business author Jim Collins. Given the popularity of Jim Collins the article discussed how he allocates his time, which is as follows:
“… in a corner of the white board at the end of his long conference room, Mr. Collins keeps this short list:
Creative 53%
Teaching 28%
Other 19%
That, he explains, is a running tally of how he’s spending his time, and whether he’s sticking to a big goal he set for himself years ago: to spend 50 percent of his workdays on creative pursuits like research and writing books, 30 percent on teaching-related activities, and 20 percent on all the other things he has to do.”
This seems to be an odd approach to allocating how to spend one’s time! However, this time allocation suddenly makes sense when you consider Jim Collins “overarching goal,” which is “to produce a lasting and distinctive body of work.”
Besides making wise use of his time in a way that supports his overarching goal, Mr. Collins keeps focused, making sure he is not distracted.
“Mr. Collins also is quite practiced at saying ‘no.’ Requests pour in every week for him to give speeches to corporations and trade associations…”
To achieve meaningful and challenging goals requires “… a willingness to say no and focus on what not to do as much as what to do…”! All leader’s who are passionate about perusing a challenging vision, have to ensure they spend their time wisely and remain focused on their goals. How are you doing?
- Have you allocated your time in a way that support your overarching goal?
- Do you say “no” to distractions?
Technorati Tags: Goals, Vision, Leadership, Management, Time Management, Business, Focus
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Goal-Setting,
Time Management
by George Ambler on Sunday, August 30, 2009
Photo by maessive
Stew Friedman writes a great post titled “Define Your Personal Leadership Vision” in which he provides some guidance on how to go about defining your personal leadership vision. He describes a personal leadership vision as…
“… an essential means for focusing attention on what matters most; what you want to accomplish in your life and what kind of leader you wish to be. A useful vision has to be rooted in your past, address the future, and deal with today’s realities. It represents who you are and what you stand for. It inspires you, and the people whose commitment you need, to act to make constructive change towards a future you all want to see.”
The personal leadership vision is comprised of the following four components:
- A compelling story of the future is engaging; it captures the heart, forces you to pay attention. Those who hear it want to be a part of it somehow. And they are moved.
- What does your future look like – what’s the image? If others could travel into the future with you, what would they find? A well-crafted leadership vision is described in concrete terms that are easy to visualize and remember.
- The story of your future should be a stretch, but it must be achievable, too. If it were not achievable, you would have little motivation to even bother trying.
- Finally, future simply means out there – some time from this moment forward, but not so far away that’s it’s out of reach.
A personal leadership vision provides an anchor for uncertain times. Without out a clear leadership vision we are too easily tossed to a fro by every wind change. Finding it difficult to make progress and distracted by unnecessary work.
- Is your personal leadership vision clear?
- What dies the future look like?
- Is it achievable and future-focused?
Technorati Tags: Vision, Leadership, Future, Management, Business, Leader
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Vision
by George Ambler on Sunday, August 30, 2009
Photo by Thorne Enterprises
I an busy reading the book “Just Enough Anxiety” by Robert Rosen, which proposes the following five tasks of leadership.
- Leadership: Successful leaders willingly travel into the unknown.
- Strategy: Successful leaders set an evolving course through ambiguity, complexity, and change.
- Engagement: Successful leaders inspire and challenge people to perform beyond their own expectations.
- Growth: Successful leaders learn and relearn in real time by stretching themselves and the business.
- Innovation: Successful leaders imagine possibilities, discover opportunities, and release creative energies inside their organization.
I thought this a great summary of the five key tasks of leadership. How effectively are you performing these five leadership tasks?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Practice, Strategy, Growth, Innovation
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Practice
by George Ambler on Sunday, August 9, 2009
Photo by Bombardier
“Every leader should routinely keep a substantial portion of his or her time—I would say as much as 50 percent—unscheduled. … Only when you have substantial ’slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes. Leaders without such free time end up tackling issues only when there is an immediate or visible problem. Managers’ typical response to my argument about free time is, ‘That’s all well and good, but there are things I have to do.’ Yet we waste so much time in unproductive activity—it takes an enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things.” – Dov Frohman
Making time to reflect and think is a critical leadership practice. In its simplest form, reflecting is just thinking about what happened. It’s the process of thinking about and examining what we’ve experienced, how we reacted and what changes we need to make to become more effective.
There are few people who make a conscious effort to learn from their experiences and fewer still learn from their mistakes. This is because reflection is not an automatic process for most people. Most of use make our way through life simply reacting to circumstances. To be effective leaders must make reflection a regular practice.
“Leaders like everyone else, are the sum of all their experiences, but, unlike others, they amount to more than the sum, because they make more of their experiences.” – Warren Bennis, Why Leaders Can’t Lead
A simple way to start the practice of reflection is by asking questions, questions about how we feel, about the results we are getting in our life, and what we can do differently to get different results. For example, find a quite place where you are not going to be disturbed then, take an issue that’s important to you, and ask yourself the following questions:
- What happened?
- What was I trying to achieve?
- What went well and why?
- What didn’t go so well and why?
- How did it affect me?
- How did it affect others?
- What were the consequences (positive or negative) for myself and others?
- What could be done differently next time?
- Would this change improve the consequences?
“Reflection is asking the questions that provoke self-awareness” – Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader
As leaders much of our success is dependent on the way we think. Given this, it’s important that we schedule regular time-out to reflect on how we are behaving, how we are thinking about a situation and what adjustments we might need to make to improve our effectiveness. When was the last time you spent reflecting on an issue that is important to you?
Technorati Tags: Leader, Reflect, Leadership, Reflection, Management, Business, Experience, Learning
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Learning,
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