Archive for the ‘Global’ Category
May 27, 2011
As outlined in Control Cataracts (Part 1) , Control Cataracts is a disorder that occurs in a leader’s vision. It happens when someone becomes desperate to maintain control at the expense of the group or the organization. He or she becomes reluctant to share any measure of authority for fear of losing control. This results in a blindness to the value that could be added by those around them, as well as a short-sightedness as to what success really looks like. Competent employees do not appreciate Control Cataracts; this leadership style erodes confidence and motivation, and will eventually drive them away.
Improve leadership skills, and reduce the tendency to micromanage in your organization, with the following strategies:
1) Expect more of your employees; encourage them to have powerful expectations of themselves. Knowing that you believe in them and hold them to a higher standard is vital to improving organizational performance.
2) Improved communication will reduce the acute nature of Control Cataracts. Encourage those with the disorder to hold feedback sessions with employees in which they, first, compliment them for something they have achieved or done well. Only then can they provide feedback and ask questions about an issue that may concern them. Finally, encourage your micromanagers to finish the session with another commendation. By finishing the feedback sessions on a positive note, they will preserve employee’s dignity and commitment to the job.
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Posted in Communication, Control Cataracts, Cross-cultural, Danger Series, Development, Education, Global, Global Leadership, Leadership, Potential, Resources, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged challenge, communication, competitive advantage, global business, Global Leadership, influence, Leadership, results, success, winning results | Leave a Comment »
May 23, 2011
Control Cataracts is a disorder that occurs in a leader’s vision. It happens when someone becomes desperate to maintain control at the expense of the group or the organization. He or she becomes reluctant to share any measure of authority for fear of losing control. This results in a blindness to the value that could be added by those around them, as well as a short-sightedness as to what success really is.
Leadership is about influence – not control. I am not the only person to make this observation, but it is worth repeating. If leadership involves control, it is only over setting an organization’s course and priorities. Those companies increasing in value the most are those with leaders that have a clear vision, continually communicate that vision, and then get out of the way and let their people do what they are paid to do. Trust is one of the most valuable things you can give to both individuals and teams. It is important to keep in mind that often our people can do things just as well, or in some cases, better than we do.
Your role as a leader is to bring people to a higher level of effectiveness, whatever the goal might be. A team is only as effective as its weakest link. If you have the unfortunate disorder of Control Cataracts within your organization and fail to eradicate it, you make your organization weak because over time self-confidence wanes and self-esteem diminishes across the board.
Even the best leaders, however, sometimes fall into the trap of involving themselves in minute details where they would do better to leave well enough alone. When leaders succumb to Control Cataracts, they are very likely to fail. Even good leaders need reminding of that. Delegate responsibilities and let those responsible for the tasks be accountable for getting them done.
Micromanagers prevent employees from making – and taking responsibility for – their own decisions. But it’s precisely the process of making decisions, and living with the consequences of those decisions, that allows people to grow and improve. Effective leaders empower employees to do well by providing opportunities to excel; Less effective leaders disempower their employees by hoarding opportunities. And because a disempowered employee is an ineffective employee he or she will require a lot of time and energy. It’s that time and energy, multiplied across an organization of timid, intimidated employees that amounts to a serious and self-defeating drain on a leader’s time.
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Posted in Communication, Control Cataracts, Danger Series, Development, Education, Global, Global Leadership, Innovation, Leadership, Leveraging Leaders, Potential, Resources, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged challenge, Change Management, communication, competitive advantage, Execution, global organizations, influence, Leadership, Potential, results, winning results | 1 Comment »
April 15, 2011
As my husband, Steve, and I traveled through the Carribean last week on the Re:create cruise, I realized that not only were we on board to hear wise men speak on our ability to be creative (and to enjoy the Carribean in April), but also to meet new people and establish new friendships.
As Steve and I spent time on the cruise with Rob and Kim Bruce and Scott and Idelette McVicker, I was reminded of our dear friends at home and how friendships, both new and old, enrich and add texture to our lives. Today, I am in Denver speaking at a conference, and guess what? I was able to meet Kim for lunch and catch up on what has been going on since we returned! The Re:create cruise really brought the importance and value of friendship to the forefront for me.
Often as leaders, we believe we are too busy for friends. We forget how important it is for us to surround ourselves with people we can trust and that care about us unconditionally. Things have been tough across most industries over the past couple of years, job security for the global executive is often precarious at best, and we are often stretched to our limits at work. When things get really tough, do you have a group of friends you can rely on to commisurate and help pick up the pieces? When times are good, do you have a select group of people you can celebrate and relax with? Pete Wilson said something very important on the cruise. I am paraphrasing, but he made the point that leaders need “cliques” and that it is a good thing when we are surrounded by people with like interests who genuinely care about our well being. It is one thing to be friendly at work, but it entirely something else to invest yourself in friendships. If you have them, treasure them. If you don’t have them, you need to get out there and actively search them out. In both good times and bad, friendships are an essential part of life, and we all need to regard them as such. Leaders, you need true friends in your life.
Leaders, what are you doing to invest in meaningful friendships?
Please engage the discussion and let us know how maintain balance in your life through friendships. Feel free to contact me at Sheri.Mackey@LuminosityGlobal.com or by visiting our website at www.LuminosityGlobal.com. Check back soon for the next post on Leadership Across Boundaries and Borders.
Posted in Communication, Culture, Development, Global, Leadership, Networking, Potential, Re:create Series, Re:create... Friendships | Tagged challenge, Change Management, communication, Game Changing Future, Potential, reinvention, reward, success, winning results | Leave a Comment »
February 10, 2011
This post is about you - as an organizational leader. Lifelong learning is a critical component of our personal and professional growth that we often seem to forget as we rise through the ranks. Unfortunately, as most of us become more senior within the organization, there is an undeniable challenge we face – facilitating our own ongoing growth and development. It becomes more and more difficult to identify growth opportunities, training, relevant readings, etc. and to deny the pull to remain stagnant – focusing on what we already know vs. the potential we have to know more. Perhaps most importantly, there is often a stealth sense of false complacency that emerges as a result of past success. However, the reality is that with the frequency and scale of change in global organizations, the leader that is not continually growing and changing with the environment may very well find that s/he has been left behind at the last jumping off point.
Ultimately, you are responsible for your own personal development…and reaching your potential. Many leaders let the business take priority over reaching their potential, or wait for the company to assume ownership of their development. Is this really what is most beneficial for you, and by default, the organizaion? As leaders, it is easy to forget that it is far more effective to stretch ourselves, and thereby our organizations, than it is to settle for the status quo. But how do you continually push yourself to think harder and go further? You can employ any number of self-help philosophies, but the reality is that you will probably not follow through – and if you do, they will typically not generate the results you hoped they would.
Finding and engaging a good mentor may be a critical success factor you are missing. Mentoring is a process about enabling and supporting your personal and professional growth. Organizational life can sometimes feel like climbing up the side of a mountain – as we struggle up the steep parts we are breathless, challenged, single-minded, and in need of support and sustenance. There may even be some moves we can not make without being tied to a partner. Mentoring can help with your changes in altitude, and enable you to get to higher ground – where you just may be able to see things from a different perspective. You will be able to see the mountains in the distance and new ways forward that were just not visible from your position below. Your mentor should facilitate a process that leads you to consider different perspectives, new ways of thinking, and deeper self-knowledge.
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Posted in Are You Reaching For It?, Development, Education, Global, Leadership, Mentoring, Potential, Resources, Strategic Planning, Value Creation | Tagged challenge, communication, Execution, Extreme Global Leader, innovation, inspiration, intellectual acumen, Lead Creatively, Leadership, Mentor, mentoring, Organizational Politics, Potential, results, success, transformational management, winning results | 1 Comment »
January 27, 2011
In an ever-changing global marketplace, those who lead across boundaries and borders are increasingly required to become Extreme Team Captains – guiding the organization through unfamiliar and turbulent environments, while maximizing the functional, geographical, and cultural diversity of their teams. In today’s multicultural, dynamic world, ensuring the continuous learning and growth of global leaders is critical to achieving high performance and sustainable growth in every organization.
With markets, suppliers, competitors, technology, and customers around the world constantly changing the rules of the game, traditional leadership models no longer work. Companies need leaders of exceptionally high caliber and quality, as they are a key component of the only true source of competitive advantage – people. But how do we create this Extreme Global LeaderTM? Is there the possibility of exceptional leadership that transcends accepted leadership characteristics to create a global leader that is emotionally, politically, and culturally intelligent? How do these high-potential leaders evolve and become extreme? What is the most effective method of creating a transformational leader?
Last week we pondered potential and its source. If we look at the critical components of what we perceive to be potential (performance, emotional intelligence, motivation, and agility), is it possible to leverage potential through traditional training and/or coaching? Both are valuable tools for learning, but have entirely different purposes and outcomes.
The purpose of training is to teach:
- skills
- methods
- theories
- tactics
- strategies
It is the process of disseminating information from the trainer to the leader. Training provides a pre-set curriculum and the trainer imparts what is important for the student to know. Trainers have subject matter expertise and an understanding of teaching methods that work well with adult learners. Training offers economies of scale so, even when customized, it is often less expensive than coaching for a comparable number of students. Because training is typically a one-time event with little to no reinforcement, the benefits may have a very short shelf life.
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Posted in Development, Education, Global, Global Leadership, Innovation, Leadership, Leveraged Learning, Planning, Potential, Potential Series, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Uncategorized, Value Creation | Tagged alignment, challenge, coaching, competitive advantage, complexity, Extreme Global Leader, Global Leadership, innovation, Leadership, Potential, results, Strategic Planning, success, transformational management | Leave a Comment »
January 21, 2011
From a very young age, we all want to be considered as having potential, however potential is often an overused and ambiguous word. Potential… for what? It doesn’t mean a lot by itself, so what do we mean by potential? What is it? What does it look like? How do we define it and make it more measurable and tangible? What is potential, really? Is it a possibility…a proposed capability for becoming something more? But what? How does a leader reach their potential if it cannot clearly be defined? Can we ever really grasp our potential? If we do and we reach it… what then?
In some ways potential is a limiting descriptor because there is really no way of knowing if we have reached our potential. Most of us know of The Peter Principle… does our potential equate only to rising to our own level of incompetence? Personally, I hope not!
Potential is a complex concept and there is little agreement about what it actually means, so we need to start by breaking it down into some key components that are generally expected of people considered to have potential:
- Performance: the consistent capability to exceed expectations in regards to the accomplishment of specific tasks measured against preset standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed.
- Emotional Intelligence: the ability, capacity, or skill to identify, assess, and control the emotions of self, others, and groups.
- Motivation/ Ambition: the inspiration or driving force to succeed.
- Agility: the cognitive bandwidth to learn from past experiences, seeing things in a broader context and quickly applying observations to new situations – applying life experience, noticing patterns, and deriving general guidelines that can be applied to new situations.
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Posted in Cross-cultural, Development, Education, Global, Global Leadership, Innovation, Leadership, Learning Agility, Planning, Potential Series, Strategy, Value Creation, What Is It? | Tagged challenge, competitive advantage, global business, Lead Creatively, Leadership, Potential, results, Talent Acquisition, winning results | Leave a Comment »
January 7, 2011
Exceptional leaders convey a vision and, through their example, expand others’ view of what is possible – rather than what is not. They know their business, set high expectations across boundaries and borders, create a strong sense of community, and through effective team-building and mentoring – they get results.
Leaders demonstrate “how” to achieve results both in what they do, as well as in who they show themselves to be. It is no longer enough to have superior “technical” skills – people are looking for inspiration and accountability in their leaders. In terms of responsibilities, strong leaders emphasize the importance and priority of enhancing the skills and knowledge of the people in the organization, creating a common culture of expectations around the use of skills and knowledge, facilitating the ability of the organization to align in a productive way, and holding individuals accountable for their contributions to the collective results.
In addition, when great leaders act, they do so not only because their role demands it, but also because their own purpose, values, beliefs, and assumptions require it. Who they are, what they do, and how they do it is powerfully congruent and is leveraged for the good of the organization and the people within it. As a result, they are highly authentic, credible, and inspirational – which, in turn, motivates others to act genuinely and powerfully, as well.
Some people are born with a burning desire to succeed, some develop the desire to achieve greatness through life circumstance, and some people are okay with the status quo – they wake up every day and just let the world happen to them. The reality is that we need all types of people to function successfully, however in most successful global organizations there are a handful of extraordinary leaders who make all the difference – but there are also hundreds of ordinary leaders who are more concerned with meeting this years’ numbers than anything else. But what would happen if we could double that handful of “Extreme LeadersTM” in organizations? Imagine the impact it would have on any business – not to mention partners and customers – if we could accurately identify those high potential leaders that are prepared to go above and beyond and develop them into Extreme LeadersTM that sustainably produce game-changing results.
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Posted in Development, Education, Global, Global Leadership, Leadership, Leveraging Leaders, Planning, Potential, Potential Series, Resources, Strategy, Uncategorized, Value Creation | Tagged challenge, competitive advantage, Extreme Global Leader, Global Leadership, Leadership, Potential, results, transformational management, winning results | 2 Comments »
November 18, 2010
Do you fully understand the impact the financial crisis has on your company, your division, your teams…your people? How do you make a conscious effort to sustain your company through the crisis?How often do you lead by financial measures other than budget? The reality of the situation is this – if you are a leader in any capacity, you should be thinking about how the global financial crisis is affecting your domain and what you are going to do to contribute to your own sustainability.
The responsibility to keep the organization (and your livelihood) afloat is not for the CEO and CFO alone. While they are the structural and functional center in the midst of the contracting economic environment, every single leader has an important role to play. From Customer Service to the Board of Directors, everyone should be actively contributing to the future of the company – in good times and bad. We typically don’t think that way, however, it is critical to understand how the efforts of each and every function must align and coordinate in such a way that the entire fleet is headed in one direction. If we are to emerge from this crisis better, faster, and stronger…we had better begin to navigate our way more effectively in these turbulent economic seas.
This week, let’s consider a few high level thoughts for keeping your Operations afloat in rough seas:
1) Command Your Crew. People are essentially the engine of production in service and manufacturing and the principle of managing for cash flow remains at the forefront of what you, as the Captain, need to command. People are the key to your success, and one critical aspect pertains to how you are leveraging your resources. Obviously an idle staff is an unproductive staff – constantly re-evaluate and staff operations in line with the operational needs. In addition, remember that your crew is made up of humans and times are tough – ensure your people feel they are treated equitably while also ensuring rewards and recognition are available for those who go above and beyond – they don’t have to be cash related…
2) Lower your cash breakeven point ahead of falling revenues – fast. How will you consolidate production and how will your choices affect cash flow and other priorities? Will a software investment make your system more responsive and efficient? Is subcontracting a part of the process an option to better managing costs? Whatever you decide, know and understand that any decision you make may have far reaching consequences on the entire system – make sure you consider the full impact of any changes and get input from all affected parties.
3) Rethink your capital investments. As you continue your quest for cash, it may seem obvious to postpone or cancel capital expenditures. This should be evaluated carefully…remember that depreciation alone will allow you some expenditures without any real cost. While it may be tempting to abandon ship on spending, always keep in mind that what you delay today, may cost you more tomorrow…stringently evaluate every expenditure, carefully weighing both benefits and costs equally. Projects with high strategic value shouldn’t be delayed. Most competitors choose cost savings over strategic investments when they come upon turbulent waters – if you choose investments wisely, the winds will be with you as we emerge from the storm of economic crisis. Knowing where to spend and where to cut is a skill that will test your aptitude for navigation, not only as the Captain of your ship, but also in regards to your capacity to rule the seas in an ocean full of pirates – once the seas have calmed.
4) Manage your product lines. Be merciless in evaluating which product lines with their multitude of versions and extensions should walk the plank. The unnecessary complexity of multiple, complex product lines could sink your ship – weighing it down with additional cash expenditures that will not allow your vessel to stay afloat. Remember the 5:50 rule: 5% of your inventory will derive 50% of your revenue.
5) Consider Outsourcing – and Insourcing. Lighten your load wherever possible – you will be more flexible to navigate in rough seas. Carefully review operations, focusing on what differentiates you from the competition – that is your bottom-line value. Everything else should be considered fair-game for outsourcing – especially those aspects of the business that may create economies of scale that are not possible in-house. A viable alternative may be insourcing – keeping redundant employees onboard to reduce or eliminate the current cost of outsourcing. It may be advantageous to drop anchor on outside contractors and let your existing crew take up the load. Weigh your options carefully, and evaluate the impact on your overall cash flow to see where you come out ahead…
6) Manage Inventory. It is critically important that you are aware of the financial implications that inventory brings – both raw materials and finished products are cash traps. Tie yourself tightly to sales and marketing to ensure that cash remains the focus at all times and base your manufacturing processes on just-in-time, produce-on-demand, or some variance of these practices to ensure that all aspects of inventory at maintained at minimal levels.
Whether you are in a manufacturing, retail, or a service environment the above points will apply – what will change is the lens from which you are viewing them. Just the same, they should all be considered and evaluated as to how they can be applied on your ship – otherwise, you may find yourself thrown overboard in stormy, shark infested seas, treading water and hoping for a rescue that may not arrive in time.
Please engage the discussion and let us know how you keep operations afloat in rough seas. Please feel free to contact me at Sheri.Mackey@LuminosityGlobal.com or by visiting our website at www.LuminosityGlobal.com. Check back next week for the next post on Leadership Across Boundaries and Borders.
Posted in alignment, Cash Management, Financial, Global, Into The Deep Series, Leadership, Lighten The Load, Lighten The Load, Planning, Strategy, Value Creation | Tagged alignment, Cash Management, challenge, competitive advantage, complexity, Execution, Financial, Global Leadership, Potential, results, Strategic Planning | 1 Comment »
November 5, 2010
As a business leader today, you have the unprecedented challenge not only of surviving, but accelerating through, the worldwide economic downturn. Credit is scarce, sales forecasts are depressing, unemployment is rampant, and the morale of remaining employees is sinking fast. To make matters worse, we are adrift at sea in a squall of epic proportions and no one seems to have a compass to navigate out of the eye of the storm. When we do eventually emerge, we have no idea where we will land or what the conditions will be. What we do know, is that this is a time of turbulent change worldwide – and with turbulent change comes both opportunity and risk. As people look to you for strength and guidance, you can be sure that you will be tested like never before. How you manage the ongoing crisis will have an enormous impact on your employees and your organization.
As the Captain of your ship, will you be the leader who seeks opportunity in chaos? Will you see the changes coming before others, put up the sails, and move faster than the competition? Will you ensure every business function, in every region, is aligned and coordinated so that everyone is in the same lifeboat, rowing in the same direction? Will you engage risk as a critical component of opportunity? Are you willing to rethink your strategy, so that you are financially agile and able to engage the opportunities the markets offer in times such as these? Or…not?
In recent times, the importance of holding cash has often been overlooked. However, as we struggle to stay afloat in rough seas, the best opportunities often reveal themselves when credit is tight and access to capital is limited. Cash allows access to hidden treasure – providing a mechanism to take advantage of market downturns when other investors are cash poor. The more cash is accessible, the better a company is able to gain access to capital and investment markets with a lower rate of borrowing for capital expenditures, acquisitions, or share repurchase.
Throughout the world, businesses are being forced to re-think how to operate in an environment where cash, once again, is king. The ability to adapt to the changing tides remains a crucial competitive advantage – and for the foreseeable future, that competitive advantage is most accessible to those aggressively managing cash as a critical metric. Given today’s technology, there is no excuse for any leadership team not knowing the corporate cash position, across the organization, every day.
As you attempt to keep your eyes on the horizon, revenue growth is not the benchmark it once was. Now, every leader with financial responsibility must consider cash flow implications as part of the decision making process. That doesn’t mean savagely cutting all costs and hiding below decks until the storm has passed – good investments should be made, however any cash expenditures should be carefully scrutinized and evaluated from three internal perspectives: earnings from operations, working capital, and the sale of assets. Sales should be weighed not so much by margin, but instead by how much inventory and receivables will be tied up and for how long. Projects previously evaluated on ROI, must now also be judged in terms of how much cash they consume vs. how much they can generate – and how soon they will actually bring in a return.
As leaders navigate their way through turbulent environments and confront the inability to secure capital due to increased credit restrictions, those who shift from a focus on the income statement to the balance sheet and cash reserves will triumph – coming out of the economic downturn much stronger, and more competitive, that ever before. While top and bottom-line growth are important, the necessary condition to fuel growth is the availability of cash. As we are all well aware, even profitable companies can find themselves submerged in rough seas if they are not aggressively managing their cash. Although a critical success factor in its own right, profit is an accounting principle – bills and employees are paid with cash, not profit. With the ongoing financial crisis, companies that want to survive the storm had better hold onto cash as if were a life preserver, and declare credit dead weight. Those who ignore the need to refocus and neglect their cash flows may find themselves in Davy Jones Locker – as permanent residents!
How has your company changed the way it manages the financials in turbulent times?
Please engage the discussion and let us know how you stay afloat in rough seas. Please feel free to contact me at Sheri.Mackey@LuminosityGlobal.com or by visiting our website at www.LuminosityGlobal.com. Check back next week for the next post on Leadership Across Boundaries and Borders.
Posted in Cash Management, Financial, Global, Into The Deep Series, Planning, Potential, Resources, Strategic Planning, Turbulent Times, Value Creation | Tagged competitive advantage, complexity, Execution, Global Leadership, global organizations, Leadership, Potential, results, Strategic Planning, winning results | Leave a Comment »
September 8, 2010
A few weeks ago my husband and I led a missions team to Haiti. As I was observing (and serving) in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, I began to think about how there are some leadership lessons inherent in the environment in Haiti that most of us could stand to think about more often. You may think to yourself, “what can I learn from a country that has 90% unemployment and a 70% illiteracy rate?” These statistics are correct… and there are some important reminders (lessons) that impact how we interact with people as leaders and how far people are willing to go to serve you. Here are just a few of the things that come to mind:
- Understand, you can’t possibly understand…
Living and visiting third world countries on a regular basis throughout most of my life, I am more aware than most of cultural diversity and the impact it has within a single culture, much less a wider application. In Haiti, I was reminded that because I live within my own paradigms, I can never fully understand the plight of those outside of them. Despite seeing poverty in its most extreme, I have never been that poor….despite witnessing oppression at its worst, I have never really been oppressed…No matter how much, as global leaders we would like to think we understand, chances are we are just not equipped to comprehend the complexity and diversity that resides within our global organizations. The myriad of cultural challenges our diverse global communities present, only serves to remind us that while we can certainly learn and understand general orientations and respect and value others worldviews, we can not fully understand individual people by observing from a physical or psychological level. The diversity and complexity of those individuals is shaped not only by their culture, but by their life experiences and the dozens of values, thousands of attitudes and tens of thousands of beliefs that continually evolve throughout a lifetime. As global leaders, where we can be effective is through active listening, understanding that there is more than one “best way”, and having the capacity to facilitate the blending of the best of all cultural elements to make the whole more than the sum of the parts.
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Posted in Communication, Cross-cultural, Development, Education, Global, Leadership, Leadership Lessons From Haiti, Leadership Lessons: Haiti, Lessons From Abroad Series, Potential, Resources, Team Building, Value Creation | Tagged complexity, culture, diversity, Execution, Global Leadership, GlobalLeadership, Haiti, impossible future, leadership lessons, sacrifice, teamwork | 6 Comments »
