Passion and Values

I had the pleasure last week of exploring Passion and what role it plays in leadership, and I was really struck by people's thoughts on their Passion being about values, who you are and authenticity.

I couldn't agree more, my passion for young people is to do with my values, upbringing and life experiences and is something that does drive me massively, albeit outside of my day job.

But what really resonated, as I think about it now, is a something slightly different and a lot more personal (although values and who you are being clearly personal). In my last blog I mentioned that things for my family have been tough of late, the loss of two very dear relatives struck us deeply, knocked us off kilter and did all those things that those things do.

It's been tough, and it's been tough thinking about how christmas would be given the last 5 months, the thought of christmas joy and happiness seemed somewhat distant and unobtainable, and maybe even unwanted. However, over the past week, things have moved on. Looking at the Thames, Eye and Big Ben from the window last Thursday evening, doing some xmas shopping (well it was online but still), seeing xmas around you has first of all reminded me it's happening (and oh so soon).

I had a good chat with my folks about xmas plans, and the whole family is descending on our house, and that really gave me some xmas cheer. Somehow at that point I knew it would all be fine, that the xmas cheer would be there by the bucket load, that we would all be fine, and rejoice in each others company while remembering those that couldn't be there.

Last week we discussed what happens when you lose you passion, or when it changes dramatically because things aren't quite what they seemed. I don't have an answer to that, but I do know that my passion for my family went through a tough time as we went through a tough time (it didn't go, but it had a wobble shall we say for the want of a better way to put it), but has come back even stronger, so I guess for me, while it may be tough at times, the smallest things can put things back into perspective and remind of your passion, values, and who you are.

A

Old, New and Unknown

I have spent a lot of time over the last month away from friends as have been spending time with my family after a sad loss. While it has been necessary to be with my family, and is amazing to see everyone pull together, I have been away from London and friends for a while. Now I don’t mean to be insensitive, seem self absorbed, or “all about me”, the nature of a blog can be that that’s the case. It just struck me how much you miss that stimulation, good times, jokes, messing around and talking inane rubbish.

This may seem a no-brainer, and I guess it is, but I was surprised how just over a few weeks I have really noticed this.

So where to from here I hear you shout (although is the internet like space, where nobody can hear you scream/shout?), well it got me thinking about the old, new and unknown.

I have missed the old (friends) while spending time with the really old (family), and have many new and unknown to get to know on the course. While the old (friends and family) are like a pair of old slippers, although having never worn slippers I wouldn’t know, but I get the sentiment, I am really excited about the new and unknown, and the process of the unknown becoming the new, and then wherever it takes us.

The nature of my role is one of unknown becoming new, becoming known, becoming old, I add that I am not being ageist, but rather the process of meeting, getting to know, knowing, understanding, and then seeing what next. This is one of the best parts of the role for me, walking into a room of 50 emerging leaders, who you will spend the next 5 months with, who you know to those that are unknown is so exciting and interesting, and is a real honour, you don’t find yourself in that situation everyday.

For all of the people on the course, the unknown will become the known, and the people the unknown then the closely known, I look forward to it.

A

I had the pleasure and honour to spend the final day facilitating the final core day of the emerging leaders course a week ago and have wanted to share my thoughts on it, reflect on the good times, and share my experience of the day.

Where to start? Well I guess first and foremost I was amazed by people's ability to go 12 hours plus straight with a smile on their face, inquistiveness on their tongue, and self reflection and challenge etched on their brow, while all I felt was exhaustion etched all over me. I don't think I need to go into details of the day, this is rather a random collection of thoughts from the day as they have sunk in.

The 'tribe', thanks Houston, really shared their learning, and hopes for their leadership future in such an open and trusting way, as they shuffled, hopped and skipped into the circle as and when what was shared resonated with them. Even the close proximity of the exercise, as people hopped ever closer into a ball, really struck me as indicative of the group and the way they bonded and respected each other. I'm not one for huge sentimental gushings, well sometimes, but it really brought home to me what 5 months of challenging, supporting and working together can do for 40 strangers.

So what is the leader they want to become, as we asked them at the end of the day? That I look forward to finding out as they go out and take London, the UK and the world by storm, and I hope they continue to do it with a smile on their face, inquisitiveness on their tongues, and reflection and challenge etched on their brow.

Diversity of Networks

I spent a very enjoyable evening watching, listening to, and interacting with a group of London's emerging leaders around the topic of the Power of Networks and Social Capital. The energy in the room was exhilarating, and while a lot of what was discussed is still bouncing around in my head as thoughts and ideas form, debate with each other and evolve, I thought I would put 'pen to paper' as it were.

What struck me was that the old saying, or should I say cop-out, of one person can't change the world, really is a cop-out and quite frankly ludicrous. One person is never just one person, they are part of something so much bigger, surrounded by different people, and are never 'an island'.

What they choose to do as part of the greater I, the networks they are in, the people who look to them for leadership and direction, family friends, colleagues etc is up to them. But it is so refreshing to hear people say that a seed has been sown and that they want to work together, pool their collective social capital, and make real change happen.

Long may it last, long may they surround themselves with diverse networks, long may they offer inspiration, stimulus, drive, challenge and friendship to each other.

A

Information is Power

An often quoted phrase is, “Knowledge is Power”, which got me thinking this morning about knowledge, information, and leadership after reading Chitham’s blog. This sparked off a train of thought about how in this modern age of instant news, new media, and technologically enabled immediate transfer of knowledge, where do we get our information and knowledge from? Where do we get our stimulus, resources, drive and inspiration from?

There’s an ever expanding wealth of information and knowledge out there, and it’s instant. Think back to the demonstrations in Iran, news and pictures were being instantly uploaded to Twitter in a way that made it immediate people driven news that spread like wildfire across the internet. The traditional news sources were miles behind, granted they weren’t aided by the powers that be, but still they were shown up.

I have been using Twitter and doing my best to embrace social media, and the one thing I have really noticed and been impressed by is that they are an amazing resource of news, views, information and debate from sources and people I would never come into contact with otherwise. It’s really opened my eyes to the wealth of information and knowledge out there which is now accessible, from the far flung corners of the world.

So where is this going I ask myself? I think that it resonates with a conversation I had with my flat mates fella who we regularly mocked for reading the tabloids as being politically driven ‘news’ (while also reading a broadsheet), but he made the valid point that we were confining ourselves to one worldview by only reading one paper and getting our online resources from one site. As much as it pained me to admit it, and I didn’t to him, he was right. Social media has allowed me to find news and information from new sources, and the effect is that I have a much more balanced and critical view of goings on and viewpoints.

So how diverse are your sources of information, knowledge, views, thoughts, stimulus, resources and inspiration? If you always go to the same places, where does the new, challenging and critical information come from? While I understand people’s point about the internet being full of unsubstantiated information, is that a reason to not look for information online? As long as you cast a critical eye over it I think it’s worth the risk, and helps you to broaden your understanding of the wonderful diversity of views, news and information out there. If leadership and information run hand in hand, then the effective leader needs diverse information and inspiration to lead.

The same holds true for the team and people you have around you, if they are the same as you, work in the same field as you, where will you get the diversity of views that make you a more rounded leader? I’ll save that for another blog though....
A

Leadership - the space to fail?

In my previous leadership experience, one thing I struggled with was: how do you develop people - allowing them space to fail and learn and grow but at the same time not jeopardise your project / client / funding ? Where do you draw the line? Where do you allow space for failure so that your ‘mentee’ can learn and where do you act with the sustainability of your organisation in mind?

At the previous employer I worked for I was an External Relations Manager, in charge of a department of seven people and of a project that brought in 70% of the annual budget of our organization. Moreover, on the success of this project depended the future budget over the coming years as well.

One of the people in my department I was mentoring was elected the leader of this project. The crucial element for the success of the project was excellent marketing: attracting the right audience and footfall to the event and meeting the KPIs according to the sponsors. My mentee’s key challenge was to motivate volunteers to get them to recruit the right number and type of people to attend the event.

At the beginning of the project I was very nervous about this person’s performance- it was clear to me that he was failing. His planning was not good, he was not keeping volunteers motivated and as a result, the project was suffering. I wanted to step in all the time and I couldn’t let go of the way I normally dealt with things. I kept thinking that if I did things myself it would be easier, faster and better. I had to keep myself from taking charge all the time.

In the end I decided that I had to sit back and give him space to lead and fail. I made myself a ‘Servant Leader’ (as Stephen Covey describes the concept in his works) and waited for him to call upon my help. When he finally did, he wanted me on the ground, with the volunteers. I called in the rest of the experienced team and created a fun, friendly competition to pull in the audience.

The result of the project was not the best we ever had, but the project leader’s self esteem was intact, the team pulled together to achieve the impossible so they were motivated and the funders was happy as the project came within the KPIs of the contract.

The reason why I am thinking of this now is because I am now in the mentee position. It’ s my turn to be coached to step into the next role- the shoe is on the other foot. I am now the one scared to fail and disappoint.

One of the leaders I admire said to me: “Fail early and fail a lot so that you can learn quickly, adapt to a new environment and evolve fast”. So I find myself asking now- in order to learn quickly and gain experience: is failure an option? Will people still support me if I fail? Can I recover from it? Or as Noam put it on a recent 'Raid' session: How can I learn to fail better?

C

Change - how often do you get to write the story?

I was reading an article from the McKinsey Quarterly on change management which was discussing how despite the huge amounts of work done on understanding and implementing change programmes, only a 1/3 of them were successful.

This struck me as a very low percentage given how much expertise and resource has been dedicated to change management in theoretical and practical terms. In the article it’s argued that there are 4 basic areas that need to be considered to make change successful, there needs to be: a compelling story, role modelling, reinforcing mechanisms, and capacity building.

They go onto talk through these 4 points arguing that there needs to be a re-evaluation of them, they aren’t wrong per se but the thinking within these areas needs to be reflected upon. The piece that really stuck for me was with regards the compelling story, as they argue that often the story is of the change manager and not of the employees, what motivates them will not necessarily motivate the employees.

A famous behavioural experiment was undertaken using lottery tickets. Half the group were given random “Lucky Dip” tickets and the other half were asked to choose their numbers. They were about to draw the winning numbers (cue images of a minor celebrity starting the National Lottery draw), when they offered to buy back the tickets. They found that regardless of geographical or demographic matters, those that chose their numbers had to be offered 5 times as much to sell them than those who had a Lucky Dip.

So what?

This suggests that when you chose yourselves you are much more committed to the outcome.
What does this mean for change management?

That to succeed you need those involved and affected by the change to play a part in creating the compelling story, and to own the change through investing their time, thoughts and energies in it.

This really resonated with me with change I am going through, in terms of making sure that everyone involved is writing the story, which in turn, fingers and toes crossed, will make it an effective and smooth transition.

I have heard a lot of people's personal experiences of change, and it's often said that the issue with the change is that is has been implemented from the top to the bottom, and that it doesn't resonate with anyone apart from those that designed it. Poor communication of the compelling story doesn't help either, but would the dissonance be lessened if they had let others write the story?

How often do you get to write the story? How often are you involved in the change? How often are your motivations taken into account?

A

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14545157/The-McKinsey-QuarterlyThe-irrational-side-of-change-management

Leadership, Boundaries and Cultural Difference

I was at our all staff day in Birmingham this week and was truly inspired by the work of our international colleagues. We heard about how we run our programmes in different international settings, which while were definitely 'Common Purpose', were very much based in their local contexts.

In India we finished our Bangalore senior leaders programme, and one of the speakers was telling us how it was distinctly (and rightly) Indian in style, design, delivery and focus. This has sat with me and left me pensive for the past few days. It really had to be based in the local and national cultural context, it had to be Indian in all ways possible.

So why so much pondering about this? It led me to reflect on Core Day 2 on the theme of courage and leading across boundaries, in that when leading across boundaries, be they geographical or cultural, you need to place yourself in their context, and understand and navigate cultural difference.

While studying social anthropology at university we were challenged from the outset to leave our cultural preconceptions and worldview at the door, which isn't something that historically the discipline was particulary good at (or even considered it could be argued). We reflected, discussed and did our best to not view other people, spaces and cultures through our cultual lens, but to what extent did we ever really do that? Is it enough to be aware that you are doing this, and to bear it in mind?

As leaders how often do we reflect on our abilities to understand contexts and leave our cultural baggage behind? If we don't, can we ever be truly effective leaders across geographical and cultural boundaries?

A

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

This morning, as every morning I woke to the sounds of my 1 year old god-daughter clanging about in the living room next to my bedroom. I rose, wandered to the bathroom, and re-appeared in the living room doorway to rapturous smiles from said god-daughter. (One of the best bits of my day.) During the usual routine of getting ready for work I was interrupted by a rather excited housemate who came knocking on my door with news, “quick, come and see what M can do. She can point to the mouse in the book. It’s her new thing. It’s brilliant!”. Dutifully I wandered into the living room and observed M point to the mouse in her book as her Dad repeatedly asked her “Where’s the mouse?” as he turned the page.

Later in a quiet moment, M and I were alone together. On impulse I sat down with her on the floor. We had another go at the “point at the mouse” game, and again M scanned the pages and pointed to the little mouse hiding behind things in the pictures. How did she learn this? I don’t especially remember hours of mouse pointing in the house. Why a mouse? How does she understand “mouse” when she can’t even say it yet?

Not content with the mouse feat, on impulse I started the game of “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” intending on teaching M to recognise the different parts of her body. After about 5 mins, we both got bored and moved on to joyfully building and knocking down bricks.

On the bus in to work this morning I returned to the mouse recognition game and it got me thinking… How did M learn “mouse”? How did M learn pointing at “mouse” was the required response to “where’s the mouse”?

As young learners we learn by repetition. Learning by repetition is hard work. It requires determined intent. It requires consistent commitment. It requires absolute dedication. When was the last time as an adult I had that amount of intent, commitment & dedication to something I wanted to learn?

Perhaps last year when I lost lots of weight, but it’s creeping back on so my consistent commitment and absolute dedication are questionable. Perhaps when I learnt to scuba dive last summer, but it’s not something that I do everyday so again I’d question my dedication.
What about in my leadership? When was the last time that I learnt a new skill or behaviour and really put in the work to make it part of my everyday vocabulary and repertoire. Hmm…? Now that is a tough question…

All this reminded me of a really interesting article I read on the net “Passion and deliberate practice results in great leadership” by George Ambler on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2006/11/01/passion-and-deliberate-practice-results-in-great-leadership/ The article reflects on the work of a psychologist at Florida State University, Anders Ericsson, on what makes a superior performer a super performer:
“But it isn’t magic, and it isn’t born. It happens because some critical things line up so that a person of good intelligence can put in the sustained, focused effort it takes to achieve extraordinary mastery…… These people don’t necessarily have an especially high IQ, but they almost always have very supportive environments, and they almost always have important mentors. And the one thing they always have is this incredible investment of effort.”

Passion is just one of the magic ingredients but you can’t make it happen without the hard graft. According to most self-help / self-improvement programmes it takes 21 days of consistent repetition to form a new habit and the minimum effort to form the new habit is 15 mins a day. (There are lots of resources on the net about this. The best summary I have found is via Google Questions http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/786165.html )

So the ultimate question for me is, if M can master “mouse”, then what leadership skill or behaviour could I master with just 15 mins investment per day?
R x

Creative Dissonance

I was reading a really interesting blog post by Rob in response to the practice that was sent out on the need to be courageous, where he discussed his journey with courage and conflict. He went from avoiding conflict at all costs, often to his own detriment, to seeing how conflict opens doors to explore difference and have open and safe discussions with others.

This really resonated with me and reminded me of a very interesting discussion I heard a few months ago which was about the importance of creative dissonance. The person in question was discussing how a behemoth of an institution had to re-invent itself and do new things to try and resonate with people, as everyone had so many preconceptions of it. To do this required creating a time of creative dissonance which is confrontational and a risk, but ultimately constructive as they reassessed matters and asked themselves some very difficult questions. But to do this took the courage to step up, create dissonance and deal with the potential ramifications.

I know I shy away from dissonance at times, and know I am not on my own on that, but am I missing the opportunity to have creative and constructive dissonance and conflict, I think I probably am. So I think I will be taking a leaf out of Rob and the other person in questions book and saying yes to creative dissonance.

Andy