Leadership

October 20, 2013

Successful People are Not Always Successful Leaders

Man on rope — Courtesy of chanpipat and FreeDigitalPhotos

Many people assume that if someone is successful it is because they have good leadership skills. Some people assume that if a business is successful it is because it has good leaders. Leadership isn’t something that is particularly easy to pass on to other people. Sometimes a company is successful because a past leader was very skilled as a leader and the current leader simply has kept things running the same as before.

Great leadership is a rare skill. For most people it doesn’t come naturally. It is amazing how many organizations are successful even though they have only marginally competent people leading them. Many times this is because the structure of the organization helps make up for a leaders short comings.

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October 17, 2013

9 Tips for Effective Collaborative Partnerships

Courtesy of digitalart and FreeDigitalPhotos.

As many today are indicating, we are moving into a time of the collaborative economy. Few large organizations can provide all raw materials, services or product knowledge to be a single dominant market leader. More and more companies are relying on development of solid partnerships to become a sum that is larger than the component parts. Whether the collaboration is between firms, individuals or individuals working with firms, all collaborative partnerships are built on a foundation of honesty, trust, and attraction, but why do some, not all, last, endure and actually prosper over time?

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October 6, 2013

Disruption – Buzzword or Active Possibility for Leaders?

Recently, we have changed my title from Executive Coach to Disruptive Executive Coach since so much of what we have been discussing with people seems to disrupt their comfort levels. The key is that it seems to be in a positive manner. Unfortunately, the word is over used. It has been grossly expanded by all of the uses that seem to be tied to it in literature and brochures.

As you undoubtedly know, the term “disruptive innovation” comes to us from Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen and his excellent 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma. Christensen observes that many successful companies spend most of their time working on what he calls “sustaining innovations.” By spending this time on maintaining and incrementally improving existing products or services, they become susceptible to a “disruptive innovation” from competitors or start-ups that no one even heard of in the current period. Examples range from technology leaders in computers to the impact of iPhone and iPads on society to non-technical ideas such as crowd sourcing and ecollaboration. The primary applications were in the technology arena but then it began to expand to business processes and other non-technical fields, hence the over use.

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September 29, 2013

Another View of Pink

“The future belongs to a different kind of person,” says Daniel Pink, in his book, A Whole New Mind.

It belongs to “…creative and empathetic right-brain thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.”

Pink claims we are living in a different age. A different time that demands different thinking.

According to Pink, right-brain creative thinking coupled with left-brain logistical reasoning is the great differentiation that separates the wheat from the chaff. I concur and expand it to incorporate a move to the next level:

From The Information Age to the Conceptual Age to the Collaborative Age

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September 15, 2013

Career Management and Interim Solutioning

There is a perception that employers look only towards people with less experience in the market place. Why is that? Do they consider the mature applicant to be less flexible, less driven, more expensive or less technologically aware? It would be naive to think that age isn’t taken into account, when employers are looking at a prospective applicant. However, the number of people working beyond the age of 65, is, apparently, rising significantly, according to the ‘UK Office of National Statistics and so the competition for challenging senior roles will increase; this is especially true of the ‘Interim Management’ market place.

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September 7, 2013

6 Techniques to Aid in Difficult Communications

Effective leaders are known for being excellent communicators. Effective communicators also know how to deal with difficult situations when dealing with clients. If you struggle in this arena: Here are some ideas of what to do.

1) Avoid “Negatives.” Negative talk encourages arguments, counter attacks, and futile attempts to solve your problems. It also creates a negative impression. For example, when you say, “I can’t,” you appear helpless and ineffective. Instead, talk about what you can do and what you would like to happen. Keep your cool in the situation because the minute you become negative the other person has won.

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August 8, 2013

5 Ways to Improve Personal Productivity

In many businesses, too much time is wasted by owners and management on nonproductive activities. The result is lower productivity, less customer satisfaction and a significant loss of profits.

Here are 5 simple ways to get rid of nonproductive tasks and boost your productivity.

Do you know that you get 80% of your results from just 20% of your time and effort and consequently 80% of your time is virtually wasted on nonproductive activities? Once you recognize this, it is easy to either reduce the hours you work or significantly improve your productivity.

The 80-20(Pareto) rule was first discovered by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto a hundred years ago. Using this knowledge is incredibly powerful in combating the “not enough hours in the day” mentality of today’s society.

The 80-20 rule means that in any area of our lives, literally 80 percent of our fruits are derived from only 20 percent of doing “what matters”. In other words, there is only a very small portion of all that we do each day, regardless of the situation, that brings us the “higher return”.

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