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Simplicity is critical to the effective execution of an organisation’s strategy. Raj Sheelvant’s discusses the importance of simplicity in his post “Simplicity Minded Management“.  He refers to Ron Ashkenas’s HBR article “Simplicity Minded Management”, where the author provides the following checklist as a guide to help to reduce complexity:

Make simplification a goal, not a virtue

• Include simplicity as a theme of the organization’s strategy
• Set specific targets for reducing complexity
• Create performance incentives that reward simplicity

Simplify the organizational structure

• Reduce levels and layers
• Increase spans of controls
• Consolidate similar functions

Prune and simplify products and services

• Employ product portfolio strategy
• Eliminate, phase out, or sell low-value products
• Counter feature creep

Discipline business and governance processes

• Create well-defined decision structures (councils, committees)
• Streamline operating processes (planning, budgeting, and so on)
• Involve employees at the grassroots level

Simplify personal patterns

• Counter communication overload
• Manage meeting time
• Facilitate collaboration across organizational boundaries

I thought this a great checklist to help reduce the complexity. Leaders are great a simplifying complex ideas into something everyone can understand and support. Simplicity also helps to improve an organisations ability to execute it’s strategy. What component of your strategy can you focus on simplifying this week?

 

Technorati Tags: Simplify, Simple, Leadership, Execution, Focus, Strategy, Management, Business

Rapid change whilst facing uncertainty, requires great courage. I found the article in the Pegasus newsletter titles “Landmarks for Leaders in Times of Uncertainty and Chaos” by Bob Stilger very insightful. The article discusses how community leaders are creating change inspite of the uncertainty around them.

“All around the world, people are stepping forward in new ways to provide leadership. In many cases, they are not the people in positions of power in organizations or communities; they are simply those who see what must be done and are willing to speak and then to act. Often, as they begin to step forward, their hearts are pounding with fear, but they believe the time has come to offer a new possibility for the future.

Where do these leaders come from? What gives them the courage to speak up? What capacities and practices, if cultivated, support people in developing their own leadership?”

In the article the author has identified six key landmarks of these enspirited leaders…..

 

1. A Sense of True Calling: “Each of these pioneering leaders has stepped into his or her work because of a strong sense of calling, rather than through a methodical, strategic decision-making process. In many ways, life leads them to their work. And, of course, their work then leads them to their life….. What stands out to me from many conversations is that these leaders follow deep gut instincts that tell them where to place their attention and where to create their intentions for action. Their actions are conceived in a place of spirit, not in a place of thought.”
2. In the Company of Others: “Part of the answer is that they don’t do their work alone. Close friends and family who share deep bonds of trust, love, and respect are essential for finding the courage to follow the inner voice….. There may be some who believe they can make these journeys alone, as rugged individuals. But why? Why wouldn’t we all want to find close companions to share our journey? Why wouldn’t we seek others excited by the same possibilities and the same questions? Where would we find nourishment if we traveled alone? ”
3. A Spiritual Center: “What do leaders need to have in order to stand with confidence in a complex, changing, and unpredictable world? A partial answer, I suspect, is that holding an encompassing view requires, at least from time to time, a higher level of consciousness. The evolution of such consciousness seems to require a spiritual practice…… The presence of a spiritual center is what allows these leaders to hear and trust their inner voices and follow their calls. They also move, with that spirit, into a place of reflective learning that acts as a compass to guide their action.”
4. A Demand for Diversity: “When these young leaders look at a given situation, they look for the surrounding web of relationships and systems. They look for the whole picture….. The capacity to understand that the way we view our lives is a construct our minds have created makes it easier to let go of false certainties…..  The presence of others whose ideas and experiences differ greatly from our own invites us to let go of our limited view of what’s needed and what can happen. Diversity is a key to open exploration and inquiry. It is what helps us let go of old ideas and solutions and search for what else might be possible.”
5. Reflective Learning as a Guide: “For these leaders, the search for spiritual grounding is accompanied by a continuous process of surfacing facts and impressions, revealing patterns and assumptions, examining actions and behaviors, and affirming or changing the course of action. This continuous process makes up reflective learning….. These reflections are alive. They hold a sense of genuine curiosity. This kind of reflective learning affirms life and invites inquiry into the uncertain path of transformation. The process of making such reflections explicit is as ordinary for these leaders as their spirituality is. They have a capacity to move easily from the realm of spirit to the realm of thought, and this motion gives them balance.”
6. Ambiguity and Uncertainty: “Ambiguity and uncertainty are befriended in this work. To follow a sense of calling, in the company of others, aware of a diverse world, from a spiritual center, and with an awareness of assumptions is to let go of control. There is simply no other way. Doing all of those things throws the doors of ambiguity and uncertainty wide open….. A choice each of us can make is whether ambiguity and uncertainty open a pathway to fear or a pathway to balance. When we think we are supposed to be in charge, when our self-confidence is based on being able to predict what will happen and how things will turn out, then ambiguity and uncertainty usually invite our fear to rise up and bite us… When we are able to release ourselves into the uncertainty, we are invited to become explorers, to discover what lies ahead as we work with others to create that future.”

Community leadership is one of the most demanding leadership environment from which to lead. It requires great courage and commitment. These six “landmarks” provide an excellent foundation for community leadership practices.

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Community, Calling, Purpose, Uncertainty, Spiritual, Learning, Relationships

Photo by homelessballoon

 

An article by Dan Heath and Chip Heath, in Fast Company, Analysis of Paralysis discusses a key principle, "If your strategy doesn’t help employees act, it’s not a strategy.", as discussed in the article….

"Researchers Eldar Shafir and Donald Redelmeier helped prove this point in an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association. They gave doctors the medical history of a 67-year-old man who’d been suffering chronic hip pain from osteoarthritis. He’d been given drugs to treat his pain, but they had been ineffective, so there was only one viable option: hip-replacement surgery, which would involve a long and painful recovery. Then a final check with the pharmacy uncovered one medication that hadn’t been tried. Would the doctors like to give the drug a shot? Forty-seven percent of doctors chose to try the medication in a final attempt to keep the patient from going under the knife.

Another group of doctors saw the same facts, except they were told that the pharmacy had discovered two medications that hadn’t been tried. If you were the patient with the bum hip, you’d be thrilled–two nonsurgical options are better than one. But when the doctors were presented with two nonsurgical options, only 28% chose to try either one.

What happened here is decision paralysis. More options, even good ones, can freeze us, leading us to stick with the "default" plan, which in this case was slicing open someone’s hip. This clearly is not rational behavior, but it is human behavior. Similar tests with different groups have revealed consistent results.

Think about the sources of decision paralysis in your organization. Every business must choose among attractive options: growing revenue versus maximizing profitability, quality versus speed to market. Fold together lots of these tensions, and you have a surefire recipe for paralysis. It took only two options to fuzz the doctors’ brains. How many options have your people got? As Barry Schwartz puts it in his book The Paradox of Choice, as we face more and more options, ‘we become overloaded…. Choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.’ …. Simplicity is the way out. Imagine if the doctors in the psychology study had worked for a hospital with the mission statement, ‘Invasive treatments should be a last resort.’ Suddenly, the choice isn’t so paralyzing, even with two drugs. The statement is simple because it makes a decision easier, not because it’s dumbed down. Doctors aren’t idiots."

The underlying principle is that: Simplicity allows people to act.

 

Leaders need a clear leadership philosophy, resulting in a set of principles that are clear and simple. When leaders are clear about their leadership philosophy and openly communicate it to their teams, people can confidently make decisions and act to bring about the leader’s vision. A good example of a leader communicating the principles that others can use to guide the organisation towards a vision is Jack Welch from GE. Remember Jack’s set of six leadership principles….

1. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were.
2. Be candid with everyone.
3. Don’t manage, lead.
4. Change before you have to.
5. If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete!
6. Control your own destiny or someone else will.

These principles gave people a means to guide their decision making and actions, knowing that they were acting in the spirit of their leader’s vision. What principles do you use to guide your actions? Is your team aware of your principles? Do they understand them? Do you use principle with your team to guide how you go about achieving your vision? If not, this may be a good time to focus on developing a set of principles to guide how your team goes about achieving your vision.

 

Technorati Tags: Principles, Character, Philosophy, Decisions, Vision, Execution, Action, Leadership, Management, Business, Jack Welch, Simplicity

Photo by gsherman

 

To be effective a leaders vision must take root deep within the organisation, inspiring the hearts and minds of the people. Without effective communication visions never take root. A great vision, requires great communication, communication that  inspires and paints a vivid picture of the future. A recent Leading Effectively article discusses how leaders can effectively communicate their vision. The article defines a vision as follows:

"A vision describes some achievement or future state that the organization will accomplish or realize. A vision has to be shared in order to do what it is meant to do: inspire, clarify and focus the work."

The article provides the following list of useful communication tactics that leaders can use to improve their effectiveness when communicating their vision:

• Stories. When you tell a good story, you give life to a vision. The telling of stories creates trust, captures hearts and minds, and serves as a reminder of the vision. Plus, people find it easier to repeat a story than talk about a vision statement.
• The elevator speech. Every leader needs to be able to communicate the vision in a clear, brief way. What compelling vision can you describe in the amount of time you have during a typical elevator ride? Be prepared to reinforce the vision in line at the cafeteria, when you visit the customer service department, and even walking through the parking lot at the end of the day.
• Multiple media. The more channels of communication you use, the better your chance of creating an organization that "gets" the vision. Use the newest communication technologies, but don’t forget the tangibles: coffee mugs, t-shirts, luggage tags and whatever else you can think of that will keep the message in circulation.
• Talk to me. Individualize the vision by engaging others in one-on-one conversations. Personal connections give leaders opportunities to transmit information, receive feedback, build support and create energy around the vision.
• Draw a crowd. Identify key players, communicators, stakeholders and supporters throughout the organization who will motivate others to reflect on and be engaged with the vision.
• Go outside. Communicate to external customers, partners and vendors with advertising and public relations campaigns, catalogs, announcements and other statements.
• Make memories. Create metaphors, figures of speech and slogans — and find creative ways to use them. Write a theme song or a memorable motto.
• Guide the expedition. Use visual aids and updates to keep everyone aware of the progress you are making toward your vision. Create a vision GPS, but don’t just give out maps. Travel alongside, stay out in front, offer directions and point out guideposts.
• Back it up. If you’re talking it up, be sure to back it up with actions and behaviors. If people see one thing and hear another, your credibility is shot and your vision is dead.

 

A leader can never spend enough time communicating their vision. Are you using as many tactics as you can to communicate your vision? Is it taking root deep within your organisation?

 

Technorati Tags: Communication, Vision, Leadership, Management, Business, Communicate, Stories, Purpose

Effective leaders not only recognise the unique strengths and weaknesses of others. They have sufficient self-awareness to recognise their own, personal strengths and weaknesses.

“Leaders know themselves; they know their strengths and mature them. They also have a faculty I think of as the Wallenda Factor. The flying Wallendas are perhaps the world’s greatest family of aerialists and tightrope walkers. I was fascinated when, in the early 1970s seventy-one-year-old Karl Wallenda said that for him living was walking the tightrope, and everything else was waiting. I was struck by his capacity for concentration on intention, the task, the decision. I was even more intrigued when, several months later, Wallenda fell to his death while walking a tightrope without a safety net between two high-rise buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda fell still clutching the balancing pole, he had warned his family never to drop lest it hurt somebody below. Later Wallenda’s wife said that before her husband had fallen, for the first time since she had known him he had been concentrating on falling, instead of on walking the tightrope. He had personally supervised the attachment of the guide wires, which he had never done before” – Warren Bennis, Why Leaders Can’t Lead

When we focus on our strengths it’s amazing how our weaknesses take care of themselves. Where is your focus? Is it on your areas of strength? Is it on what you want to create?

 

Technorati Tags: Strategy, Strengths, Weaknesses, Focus, Leadership, Management, Business

 Photo by 2757

 

What type of trail are you leaving?

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Example, Model, Inspiration, Motivation

The "Integer Leadership Consulting" blog has a great post "Thinking about Self-Leadership: A brief reflection" which builds on what Greg Thomas describes as personal leadership which is..

“the desire of an individual to take charge of his or her own life. Personal leaders realize that leadership is not a position or title, but an outlook on life and their role in the world…..If personal leadership had a motto it would be this, ‘Before I seek to change or motivate others I must first learn to change and motivate myself. I must first become the change I wish to see in others.’”

and Jeffrey calls personal leadership his post self-leadership and defines it as:

"…the ongoing discipline of cultivating inner personal meaning, constructing an engaging personal vision and assessing personal impact."

In our rushed and busy life we often neglect taking the time out to strengthen our personal leadership practice. How often do you take time out to focus on the development of your personal meaning and purpose, the pursuit of a your personal vision and taking the time to reflect on the personal impact that you’re making on the world around you. And, the consequences of not strengthening your personal leadership? I think Jeffery puts it best….

Unfortunately, leader’s who disregard the practice and discipline of self-leadership can eventually pay a steep price on the personal and professional level. When leaders become detached from their inner moorings and abandon the work of maintaining inner congruence due to the “tyranny of the urgent,” their integrity, moral compass and external performance is in danger of eventual collapse. This slow-burn or incremental deterioration resulting from the ongoing (and often unconscious) neglect of one’s sense of self, sense of rootedness and personal vision is more often than not realized only after there has been damage to self, others as well as to one’s professional standing and trajectory. The cumulative effect of ignoring the work of self-leadership is not unlike the metaphor of the “Frog in the Kettle.”

This is a really challenging leadership practice, one we usually neglect and fail to invest in meaningfully. What’s the state of your inner life? How effective is your personal leadership?

 

Posts that may be of help in developing your personal leadership include:

• Developing a Leadership Philosophy
• How to develop your personal growth plan
• The Practice of Mindfulness
• Developing 3-Dimensional Leaders
• Understanding Leadership Context

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership, Management, Practice, Business, Purpose, Reflection, Growth, Vision

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