In A Complex Situation

I’ve been in a series of meetings over the past few weeks where I’ve come face-to-face with truly how complex a situation can be – whether it is an organization or the issue at hand. Here’s what I’ve learned: In a complex situation, people tend to simplify.

The brain thinks in terms of {constructs} – struggling to find some sort of method to the madness, or order out of chaos.

So, they adapt accordingly by:

1. Compartmentalizing things – or working out of silos
2. Resolutely focusing – which means they also ignore everything else
3. Telling a story – to link all the complex moving parts to make some coherent sense of things.

If your brand, situation, organization is far too complex – you can bet that your audience will tend to rely on one of these coping strategies. The questions to ask, then, are: 1) Which strategy would be to your advantage? and 2) How can you ensure you guide them to that and make the most out of it?

3 Ways to Effectively Communicate Your Vision (Harvard Business Review)

Never underestimate the importance of Vision… and, even more so, how to effectively communicate it. The greatest, most dynamic companies that I have seen tend to be those who have a clear vision that is easily articulated and shared by everyone – akin to a mantra or mythos for the organisation. Heck, I’ll go as far as to say that even the Bible considers having a Vision vital to the survival of a team: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).

So, the Harvard Business Review highlights 3 ways to more effectively communicate your vision:

1. Repeat yourself. To rally people around your vision, you need to remind them of your message and reinforce what you are trying to achieve. Don’t worry about sounding like a broken record. In fact, I will go on as far as to say that – even though it sounds like “old news” to you – someone, somewhere may need to hear it yet again to spur them on.
2. Make it two-way. Don’t pick up a megaphone. Be sure to create dialogue around your message so that people hear it and understand it. Not only that, as I mentioned earlier, an easily articulated vision that people are engaged with eventually becomes a mantra or mythos that everyone participates in and owns collectively.
3. Put out calls to action. Don’t just tell people what you imagine for the future, ask for their help in making it a reality. Be specific about what you want people to do and why. This is, to me, one of the most important steps that leaders often forget. Many people listen to a vision-casting speech and end up enamoured by the charisma of the leader – but often walk away wondering just what in the world are they supposed to do to pitch in.

The Purpose Of Leadership (McKinsey)

I’m a huge fan of the work that McKinsey & Company does – but I think I’ve never been more impressed than when I read this definition of leadership from the McKinsey Quarterly article, “Revealing your moment of truth” by Stan Slap:

The purpose of leadership isn’t to increase shareholder value or the productivity of work teams, though effective leadership does these things. Rather, the purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully and use them to make life better for others.

The rest of the article also gave me some great insights (and reminders) on leadership:

5 Powers That Get Ideas Off The Ground (via Harvard Business Review)

As a self-proclaimed student of “influence” – I always enjoy articles like this, “5 Powers That Get Ideas Off The Ground” via the Harvard Business Review. The article talks about 5 important powers that a person needs in order to kick start their idea – so that it is adopted and implemented onwards to success.

Although they may seem quite self-evident, I think the reality on the ground is that they are often overlooked or even ignored – to the detriment of the initiative mooted.

From the article, the 5 powers are:

10 Business Heroes We Can Still Look Up To

First off… I apologise for being remiss in updating my blog. It’s been really, really crazy with work and such offline that I’ve really had not much time to update this blog.

Nevertheless, I’m back!

And to kick things off, I’d like to share with you this list of 10 business leaders that are hailed as “heroes we can still look up to”. I think it’s very encouraging to note that there are still inspirational leaders out there who, as the article states, aren’t those that reveal themselves later to be really corrupt or irresponsible creeps underneath it all. It’s certainly a breath of fresh air to see that the world of business isn’t just exclusively made up of greed and dirty tricks.

In fact, I have to say that I count myself lucky to have worked for very capable and inspirational leaders throughout my career. Having had the privilege of working with such luminaries have certainly helped me achieve all that I have so far…

The full listing of the 10 Business Heroes are:

7 Leadership Realities You Won’t Read In Leadership Books

I just read this article via BNetUK about 7 leadership qualities that are seldom talked and concluded: It really *is* lonely at the top… it’s not just a commonly said platitude! This was underscored by two observations at the end of the article:

These seven qualities add up to a person who is pretty driven: they are often not comfortable people to be with. Not surprisingly, many people prefer to keep their humanity and their life than make the sacrifices to get to the top.

When I first started out, my boss told me: “one of the benefits of this job is that you will never suffer the rush hour. You will arrive before it and leave after it.” And if you keep that lifestyle going for ten to twenty years, you can reach the top. It was not a good choice, but at least it was a clear choice.

Anyway, the following are the seven “realities” – I can’t relate with point no.1 (yet) and I need to work on the rest!

12 Things Good Bosses Believe

I’ve been blessed with having many good bosses throughout my career; and can only cringe in empathy as my friends tell me about their bad ones. This article in Harvard Business Review lists the 12 “mantras” (if I may call them that) that good bosses believe – which will influence the way they act and treat other people (especially subordinates!). It’s a very interesting list – and I realise I have a few things I need to work on.

What do you think? Full list of 12 after the jump.

How to be a politician at work

Loathe as I am to admit it, politics at work is unavoidable – and everyone, regardless of how opposed they are to its existence, participates. However, this Forbes article “Why You Have To Be A Politician At Your Job” really gives a surprisingly balanced justification for why and how you should participate in the politics of your workplace.

My key takeaways:

5 Thinking Skills Of Innovative Leaders

With findings from a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and an additional 500 individual interviews, HBR Editors blog discusses an always-interesting-subject: How Do Innovators Think?

5 key “discovery skills” were identified:

1. Associating - making connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas.
2. Questioning - an ability to ask “what if”, “why”, and “why not” questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture.
3. Detailed - they closely observed details, particularly the details of people’s behavior.
4. Experimental - the people studied are always trying on new experiences and exploring new worlds.
5. Networking - with smart people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can learn.

These 5 skills can be summed up in a single word: “inquisitiveness” – the same kind you see in small children.

(Full article here)

5 Critical Areas Every Manager Must Be Adept In

As I continue to grow more and more into leadership and management roles within my current organisation, I find insights and advice like this increasingly helpful. It’s pretty amazing that, in the grand scheme of things, organisations tend to end up valuing “leadership” and “management” skills far more than mere “technical” skills.

Once, when I was trying to understand the world of C-level executives, I asked someone who was in such a position: “What do you do, actually?” I really liked his response: “What you can do, I can’t necessarily do. But what I can do, you can too. In the end, people come to me for decisions.” In short – leadership and management skills can often trump technical expertise, in an organisation.

So, coming across this collection of ideas on leadership and management via BNet Insights – The Corner Office blog, was pretty helpful. I’m collated and summarised the findings into a single reference point now for convenience and future reference.

5 Critical Areas Every Manager Must Be Adept In