Monthly Archives: August 2017

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Submit and Hope

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When planning a change or presented with a change to consider most people follow a simple three step approach.  This can be a conscious or unconcious activity.

First, analyze, then based on the analysis act and finally judge the results, ie, succeed or fail and repeat.  The choices to act can range from wait and see, submit and hope for the best or to proactively influence the change.

For Example

You are thinking of making a lifestyle change from a single to married status.  Whether conciously or without great direct thought the impacts of the change  are considered ( this happens whether you realize it or not).

You may actively list pros and cons or just let emotions and intuition drive your action.  Or a combination of conscious and unconscious thoughts may lead to the decision.  You will get married, or not and you will be happy with the decision or not.

Waiting, Hoping

As you move through life you may encounter change initiated externally to you .  That is, a change made for you, not by you .  In these cases, the process, analize, act, check results is the same.

When the change appears positive or exciting, something that creates an opportunity for you you may decide to wait before acting or submitting your thoughts and then hoping for the best.

This does raise an interesting question about the correct balance between creating your own destiny (being proactive and working to control the results) versus waiting/hoping for the best (like winning the lottery)

People do win lotteries but my recommendation is always take some proactive steps to influence the results ( to some extent).  After all, it is your destiny.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Secret Information

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Information generally falls into one of four categories.

  • things you know that others do not (potentially restricted information)
  • things others know that you do not (potentially restricted information)
  • things you know and others know (public information)
  • things nobody knows, you do not even know you don’t know in some cases (the unknown)

Why Restricted?

The first two categories (info you know or info known by others) can be shared but that is not always the case.  In cases where it is knowingly withheld, it becomes restricted or secret information.

In the case of restricted information, people may be aware it exists but some people are purposely denied access to this information based on specific criteria.

The restriction principle is based on a belief the information could be misused or cause undesirable results if broadly or publically disseminated.

Secret Information

Secret information is actively hidden.  The subtle difference between this and restricted information is the intent is the information owner not only restricts access to the information but also supresses awareness that the information even exists .

Leveraging Restricted and Secret Information

Secret and restricted information exist for the purpose of manipulation.  That is,  limiting the availabilty of information is solely for the purpose of influencing or manipulating outcomes.

For me, this raises an interesting question.  Is there really any value to restricted or secret information.  Would not results be more collaberative and of a higher quality if everyone had a chance to participate?

Isn’t the practice of withholding or hiding things you know, more for your personal agenda (self interest) than for the protection of others?  Universal sharing reduces fear of the unknown and can make the job of influencing or manipulating more difficult.

The old saw, information is power, becomes less overarching a principle within environments where all information is shared openly.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Being the difference

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Why do some organizations produce better results then others?  Some athletes, scholars, sales men and women, excel.  Others do not not.

What drives the difference between exceptional, average and mediocracy?  This question probably has no simple answer with an array of factors contributing.

The multitude of attitudes, behaviours and experiences contributing to outcomes, both personal and organizational, make it difficult if not immpossible to definitively identify a single factor or combination  that would consistently lead to success.

Leadership

Intuitively, the practice of leading a group of people, an organization or even personal leadership is critical to results.  Most often lack of leadership can be associated with lack of results.

While not necessarily a singularly definitive aspect of attaining success, most would agree the quality of leadership makes a difference.

In the context of this post, I consider leadership to be those behaviours that influence and impact outcomes, but do not necessarily need to be practiced from the front (e.g., leading from behind) or requiring organizational (e.g., CEO) or personal power (e.g., imposing physical or mental prowess).

Making the Difference

Leaders are a key factor in the difference between mediocre and exceptional.  Their contributions might be clearly recognized (and rewarded) or it might be seamless and unseen.

Without the influence, facilitation and perseverance of a strong leader, good results might be attained but the likelihood is greatly increased the better the leadership.

The ability to lead lies within each of us and whether associated with personal or organizational success, nuturing the leader within really increases the chance of success.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Taking control

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If you are not controlling the shape of your own destiny, who is?  If not you, who should it be?  That is, does it make sense to follow and let others drive? Probably, sometimes.

No Simple Answer

The amount of control you influence over yourself and others is best balanced carefully.  Too much control can disaffect others and lead to bad results.

Exercising too little control over events that can directly affect you can likewise cause frustration, anger, sadness(for both you and others).  While, exercising just the right amount can help you achieve the personal destiny you seek.

Control and Leadership

Leaders exercise control through reliance on specific behavioural attributes like strong communication and self awareness skills.  Exercising control through micro or direct management skills is not always the most effective methodology.

Control is simply the exercise of power (whether earned or granted)  to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.  Events such as your own personal destiny.

The exercise of power in inappropriate ways can backfire.  Leaders recognize a careful balance of technique is more likely to achieve the desired results.

Exercising control through power can be effective whether you have been granted power (like an army officer) or earned it through indirect facilitation and advice.

Judging a scenario (self awareness) is critical to assessing the optimal balance of technique and earned versus granted power when exercising control.

Next time you encounter a situation where your input (control) can influence positive outcomes, or you want to influence the outcome,  give some thought to the best approach before leaping into the fray.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Open or Boxed

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Resistance to change is a natural behaviour.  The risk of the unknown is a key factor, creating fear and resistance.  There is a comfort in knowing how to behave based on past experience.

Many people “box” their day to day existence.  Surrounded by the familiar they can relax.  Adventures in travel and other activities can be controled and risk of the unknown minimized.

Embracing Change

Accepting change fits the standard risk reward model.  Typically the greater the risk, the greater the reward.  Not being too bothered by change can be very satisfying.

Unfortunately the changes could also have negative results.  Embracing change therefore, is not always the best approach.  Like most things striking a balance between resistance and acceptance is probably the best approach.

Staying in the Box

Typically routine is relaxing and while it may have some boring aspects, your basic needs can probably be well satisfied.  For example get-up, get on the bus, take the 9:15 to city, work all day for some pay and so on  (I think theres a song in there somewhere).

Entrepreneurs and senior leaders behaviours typically burst out of the boxes walls.  They are open and ready to take on what comes, good or bad.

This behavioural group is less common, most people stay in the boundaries of their box, these are followers.  A key atrribute of those that embrace change, open to try new things, is usually high levels of grit.

Recognizing openess can lead to both good and bad scenarios, through the application of grit you hang in there and work your way through to success.  This may take a bit of effort though, that’s what grit is all about.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Making Decisions

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A past boss of mine,who was a senior executive within the companies C-suite, used to describe one of his key activities as facilitating decisions.

Given his level within the company the focus of his decision facilitation was focused far more on strategic than tactical topics.  Nether the less , his own view of his functional role coincided with mine.

Actually there was a real synergy and integration among his leadership team, including himself, for that reason.  As the senior leader he focused on the achievement of the highest quality decisions.

Most importantly though, he enabled the decision making utilizing the best resources and sources.

Guide don’t Drive

Decision making is simply the thought process of selecting a logical choice from the available options.  It involves gathering and analzing the pro’s and con’s of the available data.

The process of making decisions can suffer in quality with too much or too little consideration.  This level of attention is a delicate balance.

My former boss recognized his teams success rested on the quality of decisions.   This then, producing high quality decisions,  became a focus.

This is not to say seemless execution is not needed and expected but rather the critical path to success starts with decision quality.

For Example

A quick and simple example of the potential benefits and risks associated with decision making is that of picking a stock.  A good decision can bring you wealth, while a bad pick could be costly.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Strategic Alignment

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Today I had a discussion with my colleagues about strategic alignment.  Typically in organizations there is some heirarchical structure.  Strategy must bridge this structure.

Overriding strategies start at the institutional level and cascade down.  The overall strategy is by its very nature more indicative or directional than specific.

For example, the three year strategy institutional strategy could be to reduce costs while maintaining a constant revenue.  Although this can be simply stated, of course, the execution plan is more complex.

Reaching All Levels

A litmus test for organizational alignment lies with results.  Strong alignment throughout the organization is far more likely to contribute to the overall strategic objective.

Defining strategies within any section of the organization that will contribute to the overall organization goals can be difficult because there is some subjectivity inolved.

For example, cutting staff in one department might appear to support a cost reduction strategy, and is easily measured at that level ( staff were reduced or they were not).

The rub is, the staff reductions could seriuosly impact revenue, which maintaining flat was the other part of the strategy.  Simply put, aligning the strategies of parts to the whole is not easy.

Thinking Strategically

A potential assist to the pitfalls of strategic alignment is to expect everyone to think strategically with the institutional high level goals in mind.

Years ago I attended a seminar where the speaker highlighted what this kind of thinking looks like.  He was doing an organizational assessment at Boeing, probing employees about their work.

He asked a janitor he interviewed what his job was.  The janitor replied, “I build planes”.  Hard to argue that employee was not thinking about the companies strategy and didn’t get at.

At there very core in every aspect of the company, in fact, as simply put by the janitor, ultimately the employees build planes.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Let me Help

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In his novel “1984, author George Orwell struck new ground and invented some words that have become part of the English lexicon (i.e, the vocabulary of the lanuage.

Orwell used the term doublespeak in reference to deliberately euphemistic, ambiguous, or obscure language.  The novel, published in 1949, was prognostic of the future, that is the year 1984.

Although visioning changes in culture, politics and human behaviour some 55 years in the future, some of the novel was surprisingly accurate.

Fortunately though many scenarios he described , although possibly still on the horizon, have not yet arrived to the extreme  level of the examples in the novel.

Doublespeak Lives

Double speak though,  thrives in our cuurent cultures.  Well, at least in English although I would not be surprised if has permeated most languages.

Examples are things like:

  • passed on instead of dead
  • downsizing instead of firing
  • experienced instead of old
  • ethnic cleansing instead of genocide
  • curvy instead of fat.

For me the concept of softening a harsh reality has always been humerous.   I mean dead is dead however you say it, passed on is still dead.

Amazon Quote

I recently came across an argument suggesting retail and service organizations should adopt the Amazon philosophy to sales.  In 1996  Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon said , “We don’t sell products.  We help people make purchase decisions.

What a great example of double speak.  I m not selling you anything, actually, I am helping you.  Excuse me while I choke on the sentiment. Yuck.

I am sure there is a fine subtly here (which I don’t get).  Perhaps since I decided to buy the product Amazon (or their agent) did not sell it to me.

However, they were motivated by profit for me to buy something using their website. So this was not an altruistic act, as you might ascribe to it by the double speak.

My advice to sales folks out there, offer to help – sure but don’t be dishonest about your motivation to sell.  I don’t think most people are naive enough to fall for that anyway.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Personal Branding

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Yesterdays post focused on why your personal brand is of value to you.  In brief, your brand is carries your reputation and everyone associated with you and therefore your brand is a potential ambassador for you or a detraction.

People you know well and those you don’t (acquaintances) can carry your brand.  Social media is another great way to promote your brand.  Networking sites like linkedin, or namez.com.

Where to Start

The first step is determining what you want your reputation to be.  To develop the profile you want should not be rushed.  Take your time recording the attributes and qualities you want to be known for.

Review the list several times over a couple of weeks to be sure it is natural and intuitive to you.  The reputation you create for yourself needs to fit you like a glove

While some detail is needed, at a top level your personal brand can be things like a charismatic  and empathtic leader.  Or perhaps you want your reputation to be more like a superman – just give me the task or problem and rest assurred it will be done.

Creating an implementation and Communication Strategy

Whether print focused (resume’s, comendation letters) or social media or digital (websites) or word of mouth network or even all of them, a plan is needed to succeed (which appraoch, when and how).

The plan should inlude not only your strategy for spreading your reputation (personal brand) but of developing it based on the profile definition step.

Is it worth the effort?  Hopefully it is intuitive that a consciously planned  approach is far more likely to create the personal brand you desire, than a happy accident.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Reputation, reputation, reputation.

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Generally held beliefs or opinions about something  constitute reputation.  This can be focused on a government, company, person, organization, well, just about anything.

Brands are often used as a bellwether of reputation.  That is the brand identifies the thing.  Through marketing, a reputation can attached to the brand.

Leveraging a brand with a solid reputation associated with it can be a method of attracting others.  Whatever the interraction is; getting a vote, selling a product or service, gaining an endorsement to name just a few objectives, your brand can help.

Your Personal Brand

In recent years pesronal coaches and talent consultants have adopted the term “personal brand”.  The intent is to define and communicate your personal reputation as a brand.

This concept treats you as a thing to market.  Sell yourself.  For consultants, job seekers or anyone with aspirations whether enterprenurial , political, professional or personal having a strong positive reputation is critical.

A strong personal brand is a solid underpinning for this.

For Example

Donald Trump is a hot topic these days.  Most people have an opinion about his personal brand.  Mine would be arrogant , dishonest and disrespectful (to start).

I know from various social and regular media sources  this description is shared by others, perhaps widely.  The point of the example is, how your brand is percieved will really drive your ability to network and get what you seek.

Building the Brand

This post focuses on your personal brand and it’s value to you.  Hopefully it encourages you to examine your brand and then develop plans to grow and market it.

More to come on that in future posts.