What am I Missing?
Leadership
Although I have enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s writings over the years, my initial reaction to his latest book, Talking to Strangers, was a bit lukewarm based completely on the title. It sounded like a self-help book for introverts. But after reading a few reviews, I realized the book had something to offer to the leadership conversation. Gladwell adds his voice to the chorus of writers reminding us we are not as competent as we think we are in some very important aspects of communication and decision making.
In Gladwell style, he illustrates his points with stories from the world of espionage,…
Read more.Overcoming the Blame Game
Leadership
One of the leadership lessons learned in your first management assignment is the responsibility for the actions of others. While team activities may be a big part of growing up, most academic and extra-curricular activities focus on your individual performance. Grades given by teachers are intended to reflect individual learning and performance. The team may win or lose but the players generally know their personal statistics and remember well the coach’s feedback about their specific actions. So, the first time you receive negative feedback because someone else performed poorly can come as quite a shock.
Some emerging leaders embrace…
Read more.Don’t Let the Past Limit Today’s Options
Leadership
Failed military battles produce some of our best leadership lessons. In hindsight it becomes clear whether it was simply a lack of resources, a flawed strategy, a superior enemy or a series of unforced leadership errors. Errors like a lack of preparation or poor decision making and communication can often be traced back to pride, overconfidence and fear. Usually these errors are not the result of a single mistake in thinking or action, but a series of cascading miscalculations and leadership behaviors.
In David McCullough’s book, Pioneers,about the settling of the Ohio Valley after the American Revolutionary War, he chronicles a…
Read more.Hoping For the Worst
Strategy
Most effective decision-making approaches seek to identify risks and to create some mitigation strategies. But what if you could design a solution so you actually do better under worsening conditions. This is part of the premise behind the concept of “Antifragility” introduced by Nassem Taleb who also gave us “The Black Swan” concept. (A difficult to predict event that has catastrophic consequences).
When we develop complicated systems with lots of interdependent parts we create greater probabilities that failure will occur. So, we create additional systems and processes to raise the level of resilience and robustness. Taleb draws a distinction between resilience and…
Read more.Growing Towards Who You Want to Be
Organizational Transformation
“Grow or die” seems to be the mantra for most organizations. The vast majority of companies use some form of comparative metrics in order to see if they are making progress compared to their past efforts. Top line growth (revenue) has often been enough to provide the next round of financing, a larger bonus, or consideration for a better position. Growth implies positive movement and momentum towards achieving potential. The good news is that companies can choose a number of paths to achieve growth.
In Growth IQ, Tiffani Bova, identifies ten different approaches available to organizations looking to grow. Bova cites…
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