Changing Business

Where does vision come from?

I hear so many people say “the trouble with our company is that it lacks vision” or “The trouble with him is that he lacks vision” and just as I mentioned in my blog “Who are they”, a few weeks back, this is mostly about blaming everyone else but yourself.  “they should have seen it coming”, “They would never allow it”, “they are never open to new ideas”. The same applies to vision and the apparent lack of it.

However it is important that I do not raise your expectations too high here, by confusing ‘eureka’ invention moments with vision. More often than not, it is not the inventor that is the visionary but an ordinary team member that sees a useful application for what they have just invented. In much the same way, leadership vision is not so much about inventing something new but understanding the complexity of the problem and then focusing people to work together, in the right direction, in order to solve it for good.

In this way, with enough time, effort and practice, everyone can become a visionary. It’s just like learning to cook. Here’s how:

Step one:

Identify two or three things you see around you that you find annoying (this can be anything from an unreliable multifunctional printer to world hunger, take your pick). Imagine ( visualize) what your world would look like if your annoying problems were solved.

Step two:

Group your problems into clusters and then (the toughest part) give each cluster your ‘vision’ by applying an inspiring title, such as: (for the case of the printer) ‘The paperless office’.

Step three:

Set up a series of goals (measurable objectives) that could bring this eventuality about.

Step four:

Give your vision a time frame

At first visionary exercises are extremely difficult, but played out in a group, and with practice, it gets much easier. (The trouble is that we tend to only try these things in haphazard ways, without proper structure and with real life situations that are too close to home, where our emotions cloud the real issues).

When President Kennedy gave his nation nine years to go from nothing to putting a man on the moon and bringing him safely back again, he overtook the short term technological advantage that Russia had over the US. In doing so he turned his nation into the leading technology player in the world, thereby secured its long term financial strength.

Not every vision needs to be a ‘Kennedy’ moment, but vision is vision and just like with any recipe, it needs to have the right blend of practicality (solving a real problem) and imagination.

Have a good week

Brilliant But Stupid!

I try not to use the word ‘stupid’ too often. Everyone does something stupid once in a while; makes a mistake that they later regret, but this is not the kind of stupidity I am referring to.  My definition of a stupid person is someone that continues to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, not because they are unable to learn but because they are simply either too arrogant or lazy.

And yet we are all prepared to act ‘stupid’ when it suits us.  For example, in my case it is mastering Dutch grammar.  I am prepared to continue to making the same mistakes year in year out.  It seems that I have no desire to focus on perfecting it right now.  In my wife’s case it is setting up any kind of new electronic machine, it simply does not interest her and so she bows to my ‘superior intellect’, knowing that the complete reverse is true.  The point here is that this kind of stupidity is not a problem because the ‘stupid person’ is not disadvantaged, in fact in many cases they are gaining it (my wife gets the video system re-programmed the way she wants it, without the hassle of learning to do it herself).

I was once in a meeting where a manager who happened to be a brilliant scientist was talking through a new proposal.  It was complicated and although he knew his material inside out, he was going at it at such a pace everyone in the room could hardly keep up with him. He genuinely thought that his entire audience was stupid.  Sadly this situation is not uncommon in Universities where genius is encouraged and marketed, even at the cost of the student’s rate of personal development.  However in business this behavior is unacceptable.

Here’s a typical scenario:

Assume you are in a situation where you need to win the approval of a group of people in order to implement a new idea or procedure. What you have to explain to them is rather complex but it is necessary that they understand it, if they are to give their approval.

In this case you need to go at the pace of the slowest in the group. Go any faster and you will leave them behind. Once you have one or two stragglers your meeting is destined to fail because people that cannot keep up become restless and bored. And instead of trying to follow your reasoning they look for objections and flaws in your arguments, anything, no matter how trivial.  They will raise them and interrupt your flow, looking for support from others that are possibly struggling to keep up too.  A few minutes later and your presentation has turned into an all round debating forum that is spinning out of control.

I know of a few managers that regularly fall into this pit. The sad thing is that they tend to believe that their colleagues are unintelligent, stupid even.  If you find this happening to you on a fairly regular basis, you need to change your way of working, you need to find a personal coach.  Because getting one’s own way is an essential part of leadership.  You can have the best idea ever, but if people don’t recognize or follow it you are not a leader but a prophet crying in the wilderness.

Have a good week,

“Yes, you’re right!” (the trouble with ‘Yes men’)

I can think of three main reasons why people use this misleading phrase: One is to simply agree with whatever the person is saying because their mind is on something else and they cannot be bothered to engage in a discussion. Two, they genuinely agree with what has just been said. And three, they want to disagree but they are either too polite or scared because the person they are supposedly agreeing with is their boss.

‘Yes men’, as they are sometimes politically incorrectly referred to, can be a real pain and cause all sorts of needless damage. I once inadvertently agreed with the CEO of a company I was a board member of and immediately he started to set up meetings with his key sales managers to discuss about reducing their bonuses. When I challenged him as to what the hell he was doing he said “Well you agreed!” Indeed, I had, but I did not mean it literally, it was more of a principle thing, and anyway, I didn’t think he would really act on it. It was an expensive lesson for me. 

Even the most confident leader has doubts sometimes and looks for people to share their ideas with. A strong sparring partner can save them a great deal of time and often helps them to quickly take the topic to a deeper level.

Unfortunately there are far too many ‘yes men’ around. Even without consciously knowing it we can become susceptible ourselves because agreeing with someone is much less hassle than rejecting them head on.  This is especially true of any topic that has a degree of uncertainty.  Think about it.  How many times last week did you say “Yes you’re right” without one hundred percent meaning it? And who did you say it to?  They might be right now, out and about acting upon ‘your advice’!

Consultants, coaches and interim managers are paid for their advice and should never say “yes you’re right” unless they genuinely mean it.  However, very sadly, far too many do. It’s a professional curse that needs eradicating.

One way of dealing with it is, the next time someone says to you “yes you’re right”, challenge them. They won’t expect it: ask them “That’s interesting, what exactly was it in my argument that motivated you to agree so readily”? You never know, perhaps their answer might be useful?  In any case it is very likely to encourage a more thoughtful response in  future!

Have a good week

Who are ‘they’?

Last week I heard three different people say “great idea but they would never allow it”, “they would not accept it”, “they simply would never agree”. In fact, because I hear the ‘they’ phrase used so often these days, I am beginning to wonder who ‘they’ are and why they are so damned negative?

The truth of the matter is on one level, the phrase can mean ‘please don't bother me with a solution; I am just in a self indulgent mood and want to bring you down to my level’. And yet on another level, more often than not, people simply use it as a very weak excuse for inaction. They do not want to hear your solution or advice because they have no intention of trying to bring about the change it implies.

When you think about it, abandoning a creative idea by blaming figurative groups of people for something you have not even bothered to consult them on, is quite is simply ridiculous.

From now on, whenever you hear the ‘they’ phrase, challenge it. Ask “Who are they? What are their functions in the company and why do you think ‘they’ would block you?” Remind the person that uses it, that if their idea is sound; if it has been well thought through and has received a degree of verification, then it is simply is their duty to at least try to get support for it.

It seems that once we have left full time education, the pressures and responsibilities of daily life entrench us with an inner fear of failure. The enterprising spirit that won us our job in the first place seems to diminish with each passing year. And yet we know that nothing worth achieving was ever achieved by anyone without strong opposition. Opposition is, after all, what we humans are frighteningly good at. We enjoy putting each other down, we even put ourselves down, making ourselves feel small and insignificant, until eventually we decide that it is easier to give up before we even begin. After all who wants to make a fool of themselves by being turned down, especially in public?

Having an idea rejected in business, is not as emotionally draining as being rejected by a teenage sweetheart, and yet many of us act as if it is and do everything to avoid it.

Have a good week,

Harley

Applying for a new position

“In no more than 300 words, describe a time where you faced a challenging situation, how did you try and resolve it and what would you do differently next time?” This question was posed to someone I know who was applying for a job on line. They wanted the job badly and came to me for advice on how best to tackle it. After advising them to keep it ‘personal and true’ I thought about many suitable instances in their short career but found it hard to find a single one in my own. After much thought, I came up with this…

12 years ago I was the COO of a small software company. It was growing fast and, as is typical in this situation, the employees were growing with it. My PA had taken on a more senior role and I needed someone to fill the open position. Because I was away a great deal I was looking for a personal assistant that could ‘hold the fort’ when I was gone.

The person I recruited was very intelligent and dynamic. She had a friendly smile and a reassuring ‘I can handle it’ attitude. But it turned out to be a disaster. While I was in the office, her work was perfect. Even when away, she would give an extremely precise picture of what was, and what was not, happening.

However, behind the scene my new PA was not so well received. Mistrust had set in. Jealousies and rivalries were threatening the fabric of the team the CEO and I had meticulously built. After a couple of months the situation came to a head when my former PA told me ‘it is either her or me?’ I had to make a quick decision. Although her replacement had done nothing wrong, I fired her and set about restoring confidence.

From that day onwards, I discussed all open positions with two key colleagues. I explained the need for additional people and what I was expecting from them. Time was given to come back with suggestions. Only then would the recruitment process begin. Times of interviews were scheduled to coincide with lunch, so that selected staff in the dining area could give informal feedback.

The team we had built was too precious to lose and was too small for dynamic changes in one jump.

What would you have answered?

Have a good week

Clearing up before the cleaner comes

I don’t suppose that my wife and I are the only ones that tidy up before the cleaner comes? I know some may laugh and ask ‘why are you cleaning when you have a cleaner?’, my reply “I am not cleaning, I am just clearing up before the cleaner comes”! The difference is subtle but it makes all the difference, especially in management.

When I was young business leader I had a strict open door policy. People could wonder in, bringing their troubles and ideas with them as they pleased. Today my door is kept shut, except by appointment, unless there is something extremely urgent, and why is this?

I found that if you have a real ‘open door’ it is very hard to get any work done, one is always interrupted. But this is not the most serious problem. When my door was open, people just expected me to solve their problems whenever they had them. The better I became at it, the lazier they became. But this was also not the most serious problem. If I solved their problem, they went away happy – if it worked out, it became ‘their solution’ if it went wrong, it was always mine.  I lost, no matter the outcome. I found myself becoming more and more tired. No one seemed to gained in the long run.

When you think about it, it boils down to a question of respect. In India, people spent a life time of servitude for ten minutes of enlightenment with their guru. Surely a few hours, or even minutes of preparation is not too much to ask for an hour with me?

Working at senior management level teaches the importance of preparation. To think the problem through, prior sharing it with ones peers. To look at it from all sides: ‘How would the finance director see it’? ‘What would the sales director say’? ‘Would the marketing director back it, what arguments would I use to defend it’? Etc. etc.

Five PowerPoint slides: one with the problem, one with two alternatives, another with the for’s and against each for the first and another with for’s and against of the second. The last slide with a conclusion, suggesting the best way to progress. With this system, as if by magic, more often than not the solution is at least partly solved before it even enters my room.

Leaders need to make sure they lead. They need to respect their managers and staff enough to have them use their brains and draw their own analytical conclusions, after all that is what they are paid for. Leaders should act as mirrors. They should endeavor to keep above the chores of daily business life, only dipping down into the details once in a while to be sure their footings are still on secure ground.

And so it is just like with my cleaner. I need to prepare for her. How can she sweep the floor if it has boxes and bags on it? How can she clean the worktops efficiently if they have last night’s wine glasses and dinner plates upon them?

As for the cleaner in my office, my challenge there is simply to see if I can make her smile, it’s a tough job but somebody has got to do it!

Have a good week,

Harley

Interesting people

I am very selective with whom I spend my precious free time. If it is not the obligations of family (to which this piece does not apply) then it has to be friends, but when I think about it, I do not spend that much time with friends either.  This is mainly because I am too easily bored.  A friend for me is not just a fine companion, he or she must also be very interesting.  But what exactly is it that makes someone interesting rather than boring?

An interesting person fills me with new ideas. They challenge the way I think, they have a deeper knowledge than I, on a whole variety of subjects. They constantly come up with interesting conundrums or theories. They have always just discovered something, not necessarily at work but perhaps in a new book, or play, or piece of music or work of art. They are always very busy with a wide variety of hobbies and interests which exercises their intellect. An interesting person needs also to be funny too. Not necessarily by telling jokes but simply by finding comical connections with themselves, the world and their subject matter. They should not take themselves too seriously, after all we are all only passing through, our time is now, but it will fade and for that one needs a sense of humor!

In much the same way leaders, like friends, need to be interesting too. Leaders need to be inspiring, but how can they be if they are boring? When I think of the leaders I enjoyed working for, they were all inspiring. Every one of them had the ability to plant a new seed or idea in my mind to motivate me further on my journey.

I do not suppose there is anyone on the planet today that can be interesting to everyone, all of the time. Perhaps even Leonardo Da Vinci was boring once in a while? And this is one reason why leaders need to restrict the amount of time they spend with any one person.

The question is: where do interesting people get their ideas? This is easy; from life, from others, from books, from newspapers, from research, from self study, from travel, from exploring new ideas, from trying new hobbies. By ensuring that all their senses are stimulated as much and as often as possible, by ensuring that they are alive and living life to the full.

My book of the month for February is ‘Think like Da Vinci’. I found it interesting not only because it takes as its subject probably the most brilliant person that ever lived but also the author Michael J. Gelb brings Da Vinci to life and then gives us exercises to do in order to learn how to think more like the great man himself, to understand how he saw the world and how it shaped his life.

Just this weekend a friend of mine reminded me that in the fifteenth and sixteenth century it was normal for a man to study everything. That a scientist was measured by the depth and breadth of his knowledge, and that it was only in the 18^th and 19^th century that narrow research papers became the normal output from our universities.

A question: on a scale of one to ten (compared with Leonardo Da Vinci or Francis Bacon) how interesting are you?

Have a good week

Working with the team you are given

I don’t personally know anyone that is not under pressure to deliver more, in less time, of a higher quality and with the team they have been given. When you think of it logically, at a certain time it becomes impossible?

Every year all the political parties in the UK talk about getting more out of the National Health Service (NHS). Every year they say they will reduce inefficiency. If any, or all, of them were ever successful: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, you would expect the NHS to be so efficient by now that there would be absolutely no room for improvement at all? But still, here we are, being constantly told the opposite.

I was reviewing the structure of a project team this week, following my own advice of trying to match the talent to the needs of the project. On paper, you could be forgiven for thinking that the situation was hopeless. There were simply not enough profiles with the right experience and quality to deliver the results required. And yet, out of the most unlikely teams, truly amazing results can come. It’s all a question of recognizing the hidden talent that lies within.

By creating a strong team dynamic, talent almost naturally comes to the surface. After that it is simply a question of careful delegation, combined with handing over complete responsibility (ownership) to those that are keen to take on the challenge you offer them. When people feel responsible (and believe they can handle the tasks they are given) the results are often far better than ever imagined, it’s as if shackles have been released from their inner confidence and pride.

Too often we damp out the fires of willingness and creativity even without realizing it. I am reminded of a ‘Simpsons’ episode where Lisa has invented a perpetual machine and Homer and Marge are upset because their kids are not ‘normal’:

Homer: “Lisa!  Get in here.  (Lisa walks in, chuckling nervously),   in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!”

Have a good week!

Harley

“You’re not listening”

Last week I went to see my publisher to tell them about my next book. However they were not happy with what they heard and instead of understanding that it was going to be very different from ‘Making a Difference’ and indeed most of their other titles, they kept trying to impress on me what they wanted, what I should do and what sells best.

At a certain point, when my patience had run out and my temper was on the point of breaking, I said very bluntly “You’re not listening!” Silence filled the room. After a short pause I tried again, this time more calmly and in much more detail. I told them about my approach, my vision my long term objectives and eventually it began to sink in.

Slowly, ever so slowly the review panel came around to the point of understanding what I wanted to achieve and why. However, it was only later in the evening that I started thinking about what they had been saying, before I interrupted them, and what it might mean on the potential sales of the new book.

I had not gone to my publisher to listen to their views, I had only the intention of telling them my plans in the naive expectancy that they would say “great, how soon can we have the manuscript?” The result of the heated debate could have so easily been a disaster. Luckily for everyone we all kept our cool and remained polite and continued to work at finding a creative solution.

Listening is not passive, it is engaging.
Listening is allowing your mind and soul to empathize with the person that is speaking. 
Listening is not about agreement or disagreement, it is not about what you think or believe in - that is a lecture.  
Listening is about understanding where the message is coming from and the circumstances that surround it.
In everything we do, perhaps listening is the hardest of them all?

Have a good week,

Harley

Company Politics: How would you describe it?

I was 27 years old when the communications and marketing company I had formed three years earlier had grown to the extent where I needed to take on a third employee.  Soon afterwards, I re-lived the nightmare that I thought I had escaped from during my short career as an employee.  Namely: Company politics!

Competing against other companies to win a new order is still the adrenaline rush that fires me up twenty five years later. Whereas competing against another employee for the attention of someone with influence, within one’s own company, simply bores me.  The waste of company time and money, only to serve the purpose of one’s own career, is abhorrent to me. And yet it is the life blood that sadly runs through far too many companies, eating away at the attention that should be focused on the outside world.

I was working on my new book this weekend, trying to come up with a short description to headline my chapter on ‘Company Politics’, the result was this:

“There is a difference between playing politics and active self promotion: Politics is the hollow game to obtain something more than you truly deserve, whereas self promotion is the open display of one’s natural talents and achievements”.

I wonder if this is how you would describe it? And I also wonder whether anyone, anywhere, has ever experienced a company without it?

Have a good week,

Harley