Thursday, March 17, 2011

Few Leaders - Others Just Pretending!

“There is no such thing as a perfect leader, either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inverting spring onions into his nose in an effort to look like an elephant.” —Liu Shao-Chi — Which means we must consistently strive to improve ourselves”.
Realizing that there aren't many strive for improvement, the above stuck me hard! Does it mean that leaders around us are just pretending?
To me, One can improve only if he has the realization about self-accountability, and courage to take criticism in a positive manner.
There aren't many who can describe things that they should not be doing as leaders!
Continuous improvement is the key challenge for leaders..... only few meet this challenge...... so there are only few leaders, others are just pretending!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Collective Wisdom – Power to Generate Solutions

Over the past 22 years of my interactions with top executives, I have noticed that most of them never realize the knowledge and expertise exist within their own organizations.

Often stuck in issues such as decline in sales, increasing production losses/costs, staffing, branding etc, they look outside the organization by hiring an “Independent Consultant” for advice.

I ask them why an outside Consultant? You have people who know the company, product and customers. They look at me with blank faces and say “That’s the best practice” or there is any other way out?

Neglecting the wealth of internal knowledge and expertise, most businesses end-up paying massive amount of consultation fee for advice that is often too expensive to implement. Smaller business can’t afford that fee and either vanish or go into deep trouble.

One of the most effective way to overcome issues mentioned above is by encouraging staff and senior management to get engaged in creative discussions focusing Issues-vs-Solutions.

Nothing can beat the power of “Collective Wisdom”. By effective interactions between the staff and senior management, the knowledge and insight gained is invaluable. It not only helps identify solutions to major issues, but also create ownership among staff and boost morale.

Process is easy! Find couple of enthusiastic individuals within the organization and ask them to prepare questions relevant to a specific issue for group discussions. Once questions are validated, call group meetings (ideally 10-15 relevant participants), break them into equal groups. In a relaxed environment float questions one-by-one and generate debate. You will soon realize the extraordinary co-creative potential that exists when human beings start close interaction. You will see the energy, bindings and ownership values emerging.

This "Collective Wisdom" generated by group discussions will layout a clearer path towards solutions that are practical to implement describing “How to –and “How not to”.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Corporate Culture – The Performance Driver

At a gathering of business people, I was approached by a mid-aged entrepreneur. He wanted me to advise him how small companies can introduce “Corporate Culture”?

I said “to me corporate culture is to do with people’s behavior at work and it starts with the BOSS. He is the one who creates vision and practice some specific values”.

When Vision and Values penetrate in the day-to-day working practice of the rest of the team, some specific systems or “Behaviors” emerge and become “Corporate Culture” of that particular company.

Readers would agree with me that entrepreneurs, particularly owners that run smaller companies, often get busy in FIRE FIGHTING and ignore the fact that their own believes are fundamental to determining corporate culture in their organizations and in the long run, vision and values are the two factors help shape the work environment and serve as performance drivers.

In my seventeen years of engagement with the British Deputy High Commission, I observed that in some cases, corporate culture exist by default, however, in smaller and younger organizations, owner’s behavior determines the direction.

So the challenge for you gentlemen is to create good values at your workplace, the corporate culture will emerge automatically!