Monthly Archives: November 2010
In a recent blog I mentioned how critical it is for leaders to stay focused during tough times but of course, this is much easier said than done. I suggest that you all take a moment to think back on this past week. Where did you spend a majority of your time? What were the distractions that derailed you? What things got in the way of you getting done what you know needs to be done? Could you sense employees were distracted? What about your customers or clients? Did you pause to think through and communicate why certain decisions are being made or why changes are occurring? Right now, the question from many of my clients is: How do you stay focused when everything around you is utterly chaotic? I remind them that as leaders and managers, it is their responsibility to create a sense of calm confidence to convey … Continue reading
Good artists borrow and great artists steal. Today I am a great artist, and stealing from another. At a recent speaking engagement which I attended virtually through a Twitter stream, Rob Shelton described an innovation culture as being made of vision and metrics and motivation. I thought this was an excellent summation of the attributes of an innovation culture, and I’d like to tell you why. I’ll also tell you one other component I’m sure Rob talked about but isn’t explicitly in this list. Even the order of the attributes is important. Vision is first. Vision in this definition describes some strategic goal for the organization that can be linked to innovation. This is where many firms fall down. Vision is such an ephemeral thing that we often skip right past it. Then we are left using innovation as a one time tool, rather …
Field trip! What child doesn’t get excited when a teacher proclaims these magic words? The permission slip is the first thing out of the backpack. I remember counting down the days until the day finally arrived. You can probably still remember those school adventures like they were yesterday. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to get out of the boring classroom and to experience the real world? The destination doesn’t matter. Anywhere out of the classroom works. The enthusiasm and student energy is palpable whether the destination is the zoo, aquarium, museum, or a historical reenactment. Experience beats a boring lecture every time. With all of today’s technology why can’t we make every day in the classroom feel like a field trip? An article in the New York Times recently, Museums Take Their Lessons to the Schools, caught my attention. Apparently with school …
In this excellent blog post Stanford University professor, Robert Sutton, points out that it’s not only critical that leaders forgive failure; it’s also vital that they remember it as well so that the organization can learn from mistakes. Sutton writes that, “A vital difference between good and bad bosses is that the former consider it their responsibility to surface and learn from past setbacks, errors, and failure. They apply their management skills and dedication to building trust and an atmosphere of psychological safety.” According to Sutton, many organizations exist in which leaders do not even accept the fact that “failure is a by-product of risk-taking” and, as such, must be forgiven. While the wisdom of forgiving failure sounds obvious, he writes, “…consider how rare it is in large organizations rife with personal ambitions, politics, and scapegoating. If people perceive that the best way to look good is to make others … Continue reading
As much as some people won’t want to hear this, “help” is not a dirty word. Rather asking for help is a sign of maturity as a leader. So my question is this: Are you easy to help? Think about it…do you make it easy for others to want to help you, or is your demeanor such that most people won’t lift a finger to assist you in a time of need? How many times during the course of your career have you witnessed executives and entrepreneurs who desperately need help, but either don’t recognize it, or worse yet, make it virtually impossible for someone to help them? In today’s post I’ll address the importance of positioning yourself to be helped… If your pride, ego, arrogance, ignorance, the way you were raised or any other excuse (yes I did say excuse) keeps you from asking for help, it is precisely … Continue reading
So often our innovation health seems to change abruptly or equally just simply slip away. It could be caused by many things: a call for reorganization or restructuring or a key part of the team decides to leave. It might be the organization has a second quarterly drop in sales and profits or those layoff simply keep cutting away until you are into the bone. Suddenly the ‘beating heart’ of innovation seems to slow and sometimes even stops completely. Innovation abruptly goes into intensive care. We so often miss the ‘vital signs’ of healthy innovation as we get caught up in the issues of the day, in defending our corner or simply playing safe, hoping the ‘ill winds’ that constantly blow over us go away. In the meantime we often we fail to recognize what has ebbed away in creative energy or innovation initiatives until we are heading for the … Continue reading
