Leadership Inspirations – Attitude
“Attitude is the foundation and support for everything you do. It’s the key element in the process of controlling your destiny.”
Keith D. Harrell
Motivational speaker, America’s Attitude Coach
StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 28 – An Interview with Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level
StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles published on the StrategyDriven website.
Special Edition 28 – An Interview with Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level examines how world-class leaders create a compelling vision; ensuring their employees know who the leader is, where they are going, and the values that will guide the journey. During our discussion, Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level, Revised and Expanded Edition: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations
- the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of a high performing organization
- what the High Performing Organization (HPO) Scores model is and how it can be used to identify organizational performance improvement opportunities
- using Situational Leadership to foster improved individual and team performance
- establishing and reinforcing individual accountability
- what differentiates servant leadership from traditional leadership approaches and why this approach is so powerful
- benefits of developing and communicating a leadership point of view
Additional Information
In addition to the incredible insights Ken shares in Leading at a Higher Level
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About the Author
Ken Blanchard, author of Leading at a Higher Level
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Adjusting Your Character Settings: The Authenticity of Leadership
If you are a member of Facebook, then you may be aware that the default privacy settings are being changed. I don’t lay awake at night worrying that someone is going to do something awful with the information that I post on Facebook, but I took the recommendation to adjust my settings so that only my “friends” can see my wall, photos and have access to any personal information on the site.
After I did this, I noticed that a friend had posted a link to directions for changing the settings. I was thankful to get the extra help because there was one setting that I had forgotten. But as I read down through the very long document, I was dismayed at the length some people will go to customize their privacy settings. I understand the need to protect your identity and all of that. But so much of this document alluded to adjusting settings to protect your image with certain people.
[wcm_restrict]For instance, it stated that if you didn’t want your mom to see your profanity riddled posts, then you could just easily turn off wall posts to your mom, but she could see your photos. Or if you don’t want certain people in your workplace to see the photos for you getting wild at the beach, then you can secure this one album so that only certain groups can see the pictures. This customization of privacy settings could eat up a whole evening. Who would have so much to hide that they would need to miss 30 Rock just being sure certain people were seeing the right (or wrong) side of them?
I suppose this bothered me even more because of the number of high profile cases lately where a celebrity/athlete/politician fell from their pedestal simply because he or she ended up being far different from the person the world thought they were. I stand not in judgment of these sorry souls, but am left wondering why they would ante up their marriages, family, friendships and livelihood for a shot at a secret lifestyle that could lead to their ruin. Can you really know anyone these days? Is anyone trustworthy and authentic?
The truth is, we as humans are so complex. As multifaceted individuals, there is a side of you that shows up when you are with your friends, and then there is the one that shines as a parent. There is even a side that pops up at work, but really nowhere else. The characteristic of being multifaceted reminds me a diamond’s surface. With a genuine stone, the surface is brilliant, radiating light as it is turned from side to side. But when the core of the stone is of poor quality or worse, a fake, then even the best cuts in the surface will make it look cheap, flat and dull. The only way to know for sure if what you’ve got is the real deal is to bring it to the light and expose to scrutiny. If life is lived in an authentic way, then the light is welcoming because if gives the opportunity to shine due to its genuine and pure nature. But for those that have so much to hide, those that make a habit of deception, this light exposes the truth about their integrity, authenticity and character.
In survey after survey about leadership, respondents list honesty, integrity and trustworthiness as the most important attributes for leaders. And whether you’re in the boardroom or the breakfast nook at home, your people- your employees, your family, and your friends- are going to expect that the person that is standing in front of them is the real deal. So what about you? Are you the reflecting the light of a high character and integrity, or is your light dulled due to frequent indiscretions and deceit. One of the best gifts you can give to your people this year is a thorough self-examination and a willingness to make tough changes if necessary. This is the year to step into the light… and shine![/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]
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About the Author
Shelli Stinson is the VP of Business Development at WealthBridge Connect. She brings experience from education, sales and marketing as well as project management. Most recently, Shelli was the employee wellness manager at Northern Kentucky University. In this position, she learned how much influence that leadership has on the physical, emotional and mental wellness of employees in the workplace. After graduating from NKU with a Masters degree in Executive Leadership and Organizational Change, she joined WealthBridge Connect. In this new role, she hopes to influence businesses to invest in their employees through comprehensive leadership development initiatives, promoting healthier and more productive workplaces- from the top down and the inside out.
Decision-Making Best Practice 6 – Follow-up Assessments
Decisions, both large and small, define an organization, its culture, its direction, its public image, and ultimately its success or failure. Each decision and the process of making and executing on it provide all those involved with a new experience from which to draw upon when making future selections. Organizations, however, are living things; people come and go, memories fade, and circumstances change. Therefore, in order to fully benefit from the hard won and often expensive experience gained through decision-making, a mechanism must be in place to gather, assess, and then make available these lessons learned.[wcm_restrict plans=”49252, 25542, 25653″]
Principles of Effective Follow-up Assessments
A well defined post-decision assessment process maximizes the amount of insightful knowledge gathered and the effectiveness of imparting that knowledge to other organization leaders. Such a decision assessment process is most effective when it:
- occurs sat a predefined time following the decision; balancing the evaluation team’s ability to assess decision outcomes (longer-term) with ability to gather critical information regarding situational conditions, individual judgments, and decision reasoning before nuanced memories fade (short-term)
- evaluates decision reasoning and actions taken against established expectations
- assesses impacts to the organization’s culture, relationship with key stakeholders (employees, shareholders, government agencies and regulators, suppliers and vendors, and customers), ant public perception
- includes input from all significant decision-making process participants
- reviews the decision-making process; asking questions such as:
- How readily did the organization recognize a decision needed to be made (degree of situational surprise)?
- How were solution options identified and risks assessed?
- Did participants identify all reasonably available options?
- What was the level and quality of contribution by multidiscipline team members?
- Was the speed of decision-making appropriate for the risk involved and the rate of situational evolution?
- Were decision communications clear? Did decision communications reach their intended audience and were they accurately interpreted?
- Were implantation resources, including skilled personnel and material/component/tool resources available and acquired?
- Were follow-up actions implemented as intended?
- Were decision response mechanisms employed and appropriate adjustments made as conditions changed?
- examines the mechanical processes performance including mathematical calculations and decision logic
- determines the degree to which outcomes aligned with decision objectives and if those outcomes resulted from the decision and actions taken or in spite of those actions (the result of circumstances beyond the influence of the organization and/or simple luck)
- is performed by someone or group outside of the decision being assessed but well informed of the decision and trained in the decision-making process and accompanying practices
- documents lessons learned and makes them readily available and easily retrievable
- communicates results, updates processes, and incorporates lessons learned into training programs
Final Thoughts…
Aggregate the lessons learned across decisions made over time to help readily identify programmatic improvement opportunities with the decision-making process and supporting training courses. These assessments can also be used to measure the effectiveness of decision-making training and applications of lessons learned by evaluating whether or not decision errors are repeated.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”49252, 25542, 25653″]
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MacroScope: Big Picture Perspective Takes Your Business Further
It seems so basic and so simple: Look at the whole of the organization, then at the parts as components of the whole and back to the bigger picture.
The Big Picture of business is a continuing realignment of current conditions, diced with opportunities. The result will be creative new variations.
Business must review, revise and reinvent itself for the 21st Century. The great mistake is thinking that tomorrow will be the same as today. 90% of all firms are out of business by year 10. 70% of businesses cannot or should not grow any further.
Companies spend so much time rearranging small pieces of their business puzzles that they neglect long-term Strategic Planning and miss potential successes. 98% of companies have no real plan of action and meander toward uncertainty and perils.
Each year, one-third of the U.S. Gross National Product goes toward cleaning up damages caused by companies that failed to take proper actions. The costs of band-aid surgery for problems and make-good work cost business six times that of proper planning, oversight and accountability. 92% of problems stem from poor management decisions.
98% of all organizations – including major corporations, small businesses, public-sector entities and community groups — have no real plan for where they are going or how they will get there. Of the two percent that do, their plans usually consist of sales goals, lists of projects to be completed, trite slogans that pass for mission statements, or marketing hype.
Organizations stop growing because they have failed to make investments for the future. Rather than plan to grow and follow the plan, they rationalize organizational setbacks, excuse poor service or quality, and avoid change, all the while denying the need for change and avoiding any planning. Too often, they rely on what worked for them in the past, on buzzwords, and on incomplete strategies. I’ve also seen businesses in which a paralysis creeps in, keeping them from doing anything at all.
To benefit from change and to grow, each organization may take these actions in order to move forward:
- Understand where you’ve been and where you might go.
- Research trends and spot opportunities.
- Heed messages from the marketplace telling them of changing market conditions, new global business imperatives, new partnering concepts, recognition of new stakeholders, and other changes outside of their influence that may profoundly affect them.
- Put more focus upon running a successful organization.
- Get a qualified business mentor.
- Identify the company’s stakeholders and work with them.
- Predict and benefit from cycles in business.
- Broaden the scope of your services.
- Find creative ways to collaborate with other companies. Collaborations, partnering and joint-venturing are the major business emphasis for economic survival and future growth.
A growth plan or strategic plan is a must for any organization that intends to survive and thrive in today’s rapidly changing business environment. Take a big picture business approach by looking at the whole, then at the parts as they relate to the whole, then at the whole again. Plan to grow, and grow by the plan.
These are the basics of Big Picture business growth strategies:
- Know the business you’re really in. Prioritize the actual reasons why you provide services, what customers want and external influences. Where all three intersect constitutes the Growth Strategy.
- Focus more upon service. Dispel the widely-held expectations of poor customer service. Building relationships is paramount to adding, holding and getting referrals for further business. Retaining 2% of customers from deflecting has a bigger impact on your bottom line than cutting 10% out of operating expenses.
- Plans do not work unless they consider input and practicalities from those who will carry them out. Know the people involved, and develop their leadership abilities. Plans must have commitment and ownership.
- Markets will always seek new and more profitable customer bases. Planning must prepare for crises, profit from change and benchmark the progress. “More of the same” is not a Growth Strategy. A company cannot solely focus inward. Understand forces outside your company that can drastically alter plans and adapt strategies accordingly.
- Evaluate the things that your company really can accomplish. Overcome the “nothing works” cynicism via partnerships and long-range problem solving. It requires more than traditional or short-term measures. He who upsets something should know how to rearrange it. Anyone can poke holes at organizations. The valuable ones know the processes of pro-active change, implementation and benchmarking the achievements.
- Take a holistic approach toward individual and corporate development. Band-aid surgery only perpetuates problems. Focus upon substance, rather than “flash and sizzle.” Success is incrementally attained, and then the yardstick is pushed progressively higher.
Management and leadership activities must be fine-tuned to the company’s Big Picture. Vision is an organization’s way. Corporate culture is the methodology by which they successfully accomplish Vision.
For companies to succeed long-term, the Visioning process begins with forethought, continues with research and culminates in a Strategic Plan, including mission, core values, goals, objectives (per each key results area), tactics to address and accomplish, timeline and benchmarking criteria.
Corporate Visioning goes beyond the Strategic Plan. It sculpts how the organization will progress, its character and spirit, participation of its people and steps that will carry the organization to the next tiers of desired achievement, involvement and quality.
Both the Strategic Plan and the Visioning process must be followed through. This investment is one-sixth that of later performing band-aid surgery on an ailing organization.
Key Messages to Recall and Apply Toward Your Business:
- Understand the Big Picture
- Benefit from Change
- Avoid False Idols and Facades
- Remediate the High Costs of Band-Aid Surgery
- Learning Organizations Are More Successful
- Plan and Benchmark
- Craft and Sustain the Vision
About the Author
Hank Moore has advised 5,000+ client organizations worldwide (including 100 of the Fortune 500, public sector agencies, small businesses and non-profit organizations). He has advised two U.S. Presidents and spoke at five Economic Summits. He guides companies through growth strategies, visioning, strategic planning, executive leadership development, Futurism and Big Picture issues which profoundly affect the business climate. He conducts company evaluations, creates the big ideas and anchors the enterprise to its next tier. The Business Tree™ is his trademarked approach to growing, strengthening and evolving business, while mastering change. To read Hank’s complete biography, click here.