Leadership Wisdom
from the Wisdom Meme

Here’s another great piece linking, in its way, jazz, improvisation, creativity and leadership - of the self and others. 

“Truly creative people are always pushing the edge. If you see very talented musicians lost in spontaneous improvisation, they’ll often tell you that in that state something comes over them. There’s a certain place they describe out of which all authentic creativity springs—a mysterious point between the present and future, where a deeper current is flowing. This place is alive with the thrill of the unknown, full of risk and insecurity. It’s the very point where something comes from nothing.

Read: The Creative Edge »

“Born in a different time, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Miles Davis might have been known as the most successful corporate leaders in America instead of the most well-known jazz musicians. Why? Because of the incredible overlap between the worlds of jazz and business. The elements that make a jazz group phenomenal are similar to those that make companies great.” from CLO magazine

We think jazz is a great metaphor for jazz also - see jazzLEADERSHIP for information about our innovative leadership learning community.

Read: Where business meets jazz »

“We have a tendency to make assumptions about what might happen based on imperfect information and our natural ‘confirmation bias’. That is we look for data that confirms our beliefs, unconsciously dismissing anything that counters them.

We also tend to fall into the ‘narrative fallacy’ trap - building up a model or theory in our minds based on past events (which are static) and applying it ad infinitum to a dynamic process we call life.  We help people access more information through structure, conversation and visualization, providing greater clarity, not only of what the individuals and teams want but also of how they think about what they want. We help them think more clearly and design a better future.” - Group Partners with a nod to Nassim Taleb.

Read: Getting Unstuck »

According to Edward de Bono, many people with a high intelligence actually turn out to be poor thinkers. They get caught in the ‘intelligence trap’, of which there are many aspects. For example, a highly intelligent person may take up a view on a subject and then defend that view (through choice of premises and perception) very ably. The better someone is able to defend a view, the less inclined is that person actually to explore the subject. So the highly intelligent person can get trapped by intelligence, together with our usual sense of logic that you cannot be more right than right, into one point of view. The less intelligent person is less sure of his or her rightness and therefore more free to explore the subject and other points of view.

Read: The Intelligence Trap »

He stood outside in shirt sleeves

At 2 in the morning in the cold and drizzle

Like drunken Geordies often do

Proclaiming his love for her and
Not understanding what he had done
As I guess many young men might find themselves

She had been out with him a few times
But did not really know him
Until he was drunk

He had pushed her in his frustration
So she threw him out and
Called him a taxi

“I love you and just want to talk”
He kept repeating to the front door
But got nowhere

The intense feeling of rejection
Even penetrated his drunkenness
Although he did not experience it as this

He was so convinced he was right
And everyone else was to blame
It was the only way he could escape intact

When challenged, he denied doing anything and mouthed obsenities
At those who were really to blame until
The taxi came and took him away.

Who will teach him to be self responsible
That whether he knows it or likes it or not
Moment by moment it is he who is creating his life?

Who will teach him respect
For the self first and then for others who are
Innocently affected by his righteousness?

Who will teach him that finding inner peace
Is the path of the true man, the real warrior
Living in balance with all his relations?

Who will tell him the story of the two wolves?

Read: Who will teach him? »

This is taken from an article called The New Leaders by one of my favourite and most authentic writers about leadership, self and organisation, Tom Heuerman.

…. New principles to live by emerge for us. My principles serve as lenses to experience life through:

1. I can only control my own choices,
2. I believe in something greater than myself,
3. I live my deepest authenticity,
4. I am honest with myself about myself,
5. I share myself with another person,
6. I take action,
7. I choose a life of service,
8. I am aware of my impact on others,
9. I revere all living things,
10. I reflect on my actions,
11. I communicate with that which is greater than I,
12. I share my learning with others.

The reward of this hard work is a shift of thinking, understanding, feeling, being, and behaving that is internalized and endures. Then, for leaders, instead of relying on mindless, mechanical formulas for meaningless change, aware leaders will be in a position to utilize their wisdom, maturity, and judgment to do the appropriate thing, in the right way, at the right time, to fit the unique reality of their organization.

This journey within is the personal intellectual, psychological, and spiritual shift of consciousness people must make if they want to lead sustainable organizations in a sustainable world.

Read the full article at http://www.alike.com/html/first_issue/new_leaders.html

Read: 12 Principles for The New Leaders »

Recent research lead by INSEAD concluded that while a standard executive education approach failed to increase the likelihood of managers making socially responsible business decisions, meditation based coaching programs showed a significant impact on the probability to act in a socially responsible way.

Read: INSEAD study shows benefits of meditation in business »

“Conversations outside the organization are the chief mechanism for making change and renewal an ongoing part of the company culture. One of the many paradoxes of the Knowledge Economy is that conversation — traditionally regarded as a waste of time — is in fact the key resource for competing on time. Companies that practice the art of external conversation are far better equipped to shape the new knowledge environment to which slower competitors must then respond.”

- Alan Stewart, The Conversing Company

If we accept that conversations are a key element in creating new knowledge that leads to change and innovation, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves what more we can do to stimulate these conversations - and the more the merrier!

Read: Conversations and Innovation »

A recent book, Lasting Leadership, interviews 25 business leaders including

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com;
Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group;
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway;
Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computers;
Peter Drucker, the educator and author;
William (Bill?) Gates, chairman of Microsoft;
Louis Gerstner, former CEO of IBM;
and more of the usual suspects.

The book identifies eight attributes of leadership, each of which has its own chapter, that are evident to varying degrees in these individuals.

1. They are able to build a strong corporate culture.

2. They are truth-tellers.

3. They are able to find and cater to under-served markets.

4. They can “see the invisible” - that is, spot potential winners or faint trends before their rivals or customers.

5. They are adept at using price to build competitive advantage.

6. They excel at managing and building their organization’s brand (which in some cases may be their own name).

7. They are fast learners.

8. They are skilled at managing risk.

I think books like this are valuable up to a point. They are good at identifying the ‘what’ of leadership behaviour , and there many books that do this.

The challenging part, from my perspective, is the ‘how’. How do you develop the qualities and competences that manifest in these ‘whats’?

Read: Lasting Leadership »

I’m a bit of a magpie. I collect interesting jigsaw pieces of information about leadership and performance and store them away until I get two or three pieces that seem to fit together and shed a little more light or provide more insight. So, here’s the latest:

Research by the Engineering Employers Federation says that more than half of Britain’s manufacturing companies have failed to implement any of the 12 most widely recognized modern production methods. The result is that our manufacturing productivity lags behind our international competitors; for example the gap between the UK and USA is estimated at 45%.

Does this gap apply just to manufacturing I wonder?

The three key reasons for the lack of implementation, given by the survey, are …

Read: New Studies Highlight Real Leadership Challenges »