LeadershipWatch
A Popular Source of Inspiration for Leaders all over the World
Leadership: Do You Choose to Play in the Winners Zone or Not?
Our success, our feeling of accomplishment and our happiness, in our personal lives, as leaders, in our teams and in our businesses, it very much comes down to whether we ‘play to win’ or ‘play not to lose’. Are we truly aware of this? I strongly believe that this seemingly simple and superficial statement has a profound significance, which defines our success and that of the teams we lead.
People, teams, organizations, even whole nations can suffer from what I call a ‘playing in the not-winners zone’. I could call it the ‘losers zone’, but I don’t believe in a world of winners versus losers. We all win and lose sometimes; it’s part of life. However, we can influence the balance between winning and losing by building and nurturing a specific mindset in how we approach situations and circumstances. There is a clear distinction between a ‘playing in the winners zone’ – mindset versus ‘playing in the not-winners zone’ – mindset.
People who play in the ‘winners zone’ are busy maximizing the chance of winning and minimizing the chance of not winning.
People who play in the ‘not-winners zone’ are busy maximizing the chance of not losing and minimizing the chance of not winning.
Let this sink in! It seems obvious, but is in fact a crucial difference! It is a difference in mindset and behavior that is sometimes very subtle and not easy to recognize, but if you pay close attention you witness it all around you every day, maybe also in your own behavior. And it has a huge impact on the outcomes and success we create!
Playing in the ‘winners zone’ gives you a bigger chance of having a positive impact on your own and other people’s lives. It increases the chance to learn and grow, to innovate, to create positive change.
We are all human beings, and we are complex creatures. It is not always easy to adopt a ‘winners zone’ mindset, and we can find ourselves slipping into a ‘not winners’ mindset once in a while. It takes conscious choice, positive energy, courage, and endurance to pull ourselves into the winners zone.
“True and sustainable success arrives when we choose to play in the winners zone.”
A close friend challenged me the other day. She said: ‘I am not sure if I really believe in this focus on winning, in the end you can still lose without being able to prevent it. For example, what if you are a tree among a group of trees, and you have grown yourself into a nice strong, big, tall standing tree? You are the best tree in the group. So you get picked out and cut down, because you are the most successful tree of them all!’
I liked the example. It shows that the difference between playing to win versus playing not to lose is not a simple black and white / right or wrong comparison. It takes conscious consideration to figure out what success actually means to us. In this example it actually comes down to the following question: do you prefer to be that strong, beautiful tree that everybody looks up to and admires for its top quality wood, even if you might be cut down for it? Or would you choose not to grow big, but to stay a small weak tree with a few skimpy branches and brown leaves; a tree that is unnoticed, not used, and left behind?
Ask yourself:
- Do I really aim for the best? Or do I have multiple goals in the back of my mind: best and second best?
- Am I willing to put all my effort into reaching the best? Or do I keep a part of my energy aside?
- Do I act pro-actively; do I choose to play offensively? Or do I act re-actively, and play defensively?
- Do I perceive ‘not-winning’ as a learning experience, as getting one step closer to success? Or do I calculate the chance of ‘not-winning’, and accept it as a possible end state?
- Do I always keep the desired end result as my standard? Or do I accept to ‘poor water into my wine’ and to lower the bar?
- Do I want to inspire others and have a positive and lasting impact on people? Or do I want to maximize my personal gain and try to keep it?
Choose! In which zone do you want to play? And what about the people you’re leading?
Liked this article? Use the subscription button (PC: see right-hand sidebar; Mobile: find button below this article) to stay up to date with LeadershipWatch articles and news. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Photo: frankieleon/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Aad is a global business advisor, change leader/program manager, executive team facilitator, leadership coach, and frequently asked keynote speaker. He is founder and managing partner at HRS Business Transformation Services where he works with senior executives and their organizations globally in three key domains: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, and ‘post-merger integration’. Find out more about Aad, our services, and his keynotes. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization contact us.
Leading Change: The 4 Levels of Ownership
We all know that when people feel responsible and take ownership of a change process it drastically increases the success rate. But did you know that ownership has 4 levels? Four levels that will have a different impact on the results you and your team achieve!
Successful leaders know how to stimulate a culture of ownership by paying special attention to these 4 levels. Let me share them here with you.
Level 1: Ownership of My Tasks
At this level people feel responsible for their tasks. They want to understand their tasks. They want to know exactly what they have to do, and they want to do it well.
Typical examples of the mindset of people who take this level of ownership:
- Wanting to know how they can do their personal tasks successfully
- Focusing on how to grow their skills and competencies
- Asking for clear rules and instructions
- Seeking coaching and feedback about how they perform their tasks
- Finding motivation in becoming expert in their job
Level 2: Ownership of My Results
People feel responsible for the results of their work. They want to understand what needs to be the outcomes of their work and how they can achieve these.
Examples of the mindset of people who take this level of ownership:
- Wanting to know what results they need to achieve to be successful
- Focusing on finding effective ways to create the desired outcomes
- Asking for clear goals and targets
- Seeking for feedback and measurement of the results they achieve
- Finding motivation in outperforming standards and targets
Level 3: Ownership of My Work’s Impact on Other Team Members
At this level people feel responsible for having a positive impact on other people’s work. They see their work as part of a team effort. As part of a chain of activities and results, in which each team member plays an important role. They feel their work needs to add to the team’s success.
Examples of the mindset of people who take this level of ownership:
- Wanting to understand how their role contributes to the team’s results
- Focusing on knowing the interdependencies between team members
- Asking for clarity about team processes and operating rules
- Seeking feedback about how to improve collaboration and processes
- Finding motivation in contributing to becoming a high-performance team
Level 4: Ownership of My Contribution to the Organization’s Success
Level 4 ownership means that people feel part of a journey to achieve a bigger cause, which supersedes their personal or their team’s work. They want to contribute to the broader picture, to the organization’s success, and feel responsible for this.
Some examples of the mindset of people who take this level of ownership:
- Wanting to understand in-depth the vision and strategy of the organization
- Focusing on knowing the strategic objectives of the organization
- Asking for clarity about the relationship between the team’s objectives and the strategic objectives
- Seeking feedback and measurement of the team’s contribution to the company’s strategic objectives
- Feeling co-owner of the company and its success
Mind you! These 4 levels might come across as almost obvious. But don’t interpret these four levels the wrong way!
“Each level of ownership has its merit depending on the situation in which you and your team are. Pushing the wrong level of ownership at the wrong moment can confuse people and will have a counterproductive effect.“
Let me explain:
Level 1: Especially at the beginning of a change process, when new change initiatives are initiated in the organization, you want to pay attention to this level of ownership. Probably there is uncertainty and lack of clarity about the details of what exactly needs to be done. Especially in this phase of the change process your team is looking for guidance, structure, and clear distribution of roles. Establishing ownership of tasks is important under these circumstances.
Level 2: When the change process has started, and your team starts to recognize a structure in what they are doing, then people want to get a clear view on how they are progressing. They will need to understand whether they are moving in the right direction, whether their work needs a few adjustments. This situation makes you want to shift focus from task to results, and on guiding your people to take ownership of results.
“People who do not understand and own the results of their work cannot collaborate effectively with others!”
Level 3: In each change process, not long after the start, there is an important shift that is often underestimated. It is the shift from ‘starting’ to ‘speeding up’. This is the phase in which the team needs to create rhythm and momentum, and often starts to feel outside pressure. At this moment you want to focus your team on ‘how do we collaborate, and how can we improve this’. Establishing level 3 ownership will be a vital prerequisite for successful change and it will probably take more time and energy than anticipated.
“Under pressure we tend to focus on our own job (level 1 & 2 ownership), while improving our collaboration is likely more effective (level 3 ownership).”
Level 4: When the change process is delivering results and objectives are being achieved you want to embed these in the your team’s daily reality. You want it to become the foundation on which future changes can be built. A mistake that often occurs is to pay too little attention to this phase of thoroughly embedding what is achieved. The consequence is that most of what your team learned will be lost after a while. Level 4 ownership is vital for the organization’s success and will only emerge when your team truly understands what it achieved, and is recognized for it. Take time to celebrate and to let sink in what is achieved together.
Interesting Readings and Videos:
Harvard Business Review: Francesca Gino’s take on How to Make Employees Feel Like They Own Their Work.
MIT Sloan: An interesting film ‘We the Owners’. In ‘We the Owners’, craft beer, solar, and construction companies show the benefits and challenges of ownership culture.
Nature.org: Sharing an intriguing interview with Jack Ma (Chairman and CEO of the Alibaba Group) about taking ownership of China’s environment.
SmartBrief: Julie Winkle Giulioni’s article ‘The promise of high-ownership teams’.
Liked this article? Use the subscription button (PC: see right-hand sidebar; Mobile: find button below this article) to stay up to date with LeadershipWatch articles and news. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Photo: Umberto Salvagnin/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Aad is a global business advisor, change leader/program manager, executive team facilitator, leadership coach, and frequently asked keynote speaker. He is founder and managing partner at HRS Business Transformation Services where he works with senior executives and their organizations globally in three key domains: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, and ‘post-merger integration’. Find out more about Aad, our services, and his keynotes. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization contact us.
Leading Change: We Need More Transparency
When you are leading your business team through complex change your team’s success will to a large extent depend on the level of transparency you are able to establish. The power of transparency is often underestimated. The true meaning of transparency is often misunderstood. Therefore: some experience-based thoughts about transparency, and how to stimulate it in your team.
Transparency accelerates teamwork
Why? Because it creates trust! In our current VUCA business environment this is becoming increasingly important.
The more transparent we are to ourselves and to others, the better we understand what we want to achieve as a team. Teams who experience transparency generate a stronger mutual focus, as well as a higher level of mutual trust.
Teams who experience transparency generate a stronger mutual focus, as well as a higher level of mutual trust.
Transparency starts with you
Creating an atmosphere of transparency starts with you being transparent yourself. Transparent about your intentions, about who you are, about how you work, what you value in life and believe to be important. Transparency about your habits, about your qualities, and your weak points.
Transparency has a lot to do with being open, honest, and authentic. Especially when you are working with people with different cultural backgrounds and nationalities your transparency will help your team to develop trust despite the cultural differences.
Transparency does not mean you always have to know the answers. When you don’t know the exact end result yet, just say so, and focus your team on what needs to be done to move forward and to find the answers together.
Read more here about how to be transparent yourself.
Not being open to others because you do not have all the answers yet has often a counterproductive effect. It will undermine trust.
Listening creates transparency
No, this is not an obvious statement. Letting other people speak is not creating transparency by itself. It is the way we listen that makes the difference. Listen to learn! Listen between the lines, to what is unsaid. When people feel you are really listening and tapping into what they feel, believe, and think they will become more open and share more.
When you are willing not only to hear them out, but also to learn from them, to change your own way of looking at things, then transparency starts to grow.
Read more here about how to stimulate transparency, especially when working with Asian team members.
Transparency is about clarity, not about micro-management
Transparency is also about being clear about what you expect from other team members. This is not the same as telling them in detail what they must do. Trying to create transparency by micro-managing people will result in a lack of motivation, in complacency, and eventually in a lack of transparency.
Instead, stimulate transparency by keeping the focus on the desired end-result. Here is a question that works well in my experience: ‘How do you think this can contribute to achieving our end-result?’
You stimulate transparency by making people aware of the bigger picture, and of their contribution. True teamwork originates when team members take ownership for the end-result, see beyond their own tasks, and see how their work impacts others.
Related article: How to Stimulate People to Think Impact.
What are your thoughts about transparency? I’d love to read your comments below!
Are you leading global change programs? Find more detailed tips and insights on how to create openness here:
Leading cross-cultural teams: how to create openness – part 1
Leading cross-cultural teams: how to create openness – part 2
Liked this article? Use the subscription button (PC: see right-hand sidebar; Mobile: find button below this article) to stay up to date with LeadershipWatch articles and news. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Photo: Jenny Downing/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Aad is a global business advisor, change leader/program manager, executive team facilitator, leadership coach, and frequently asked keynote speaker. He is founder and managing partner at HRS Business Transformation Services where he works with senior executives and their organizations globally in three key domains: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, and ‘post-merger integration’. Find out more about Aad, our services, and his keynotes. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization contact us.
Skills of the Future: The Best Expert Advice on Creativity
By 2020, creativity will be one of the top 3 skills anyone who wants to be successful in the economy of the future will need, according to the Future of Jobs report. We looked for the best expert advice on creativity – and found it.
When the World Economic Forum released its Future of Jobs report in Davos, one specific image jumped out:
The image listing the Top 10 skills business leaders, managers and anyone who wants to thrive in the industries of the future will need. Here it is:
Complex problem solving, critical thinking, managing people and complex change: we have written loads of articles on those important qualities and skills (You can take a peek at our best-read articles of 2015 here), and shared our own experience.
But not on creativity – and wrongly so. Creativity jumps up from tenth (2015) to third (2020) in the ‘Skills of the Future’ list. Creativity is not just a nice-to-have, a source of inspiration visiting the lucky few. It’s a skill we’ll all need more of if we want to stand out in a workplace filled with robots, and find innovative answers to increasingly complex business questions.
So we looked for solid creativity advice, and turned to the best experts we could find: American writer Elizabeth Gilbert and Dutch designer and entrepreneur Daan Roosegaarde. Both spent their entire lives being creative. Both built a successful business (see here, and here). Both manage to inspire people worldwide: Gilbert with her bestsellers Big Magic, Creative Living Beyond Fear and Eat Pray Love, Roosegaarde with cool projects like a smog filtering tower and smart highways, amongst others.
What did their creative journeys teach them? What are their insights and best tips?
Creativity Tips from Elizabeth Gilbert (@GilbertLiz):
Stimulate your curiosity
Gilbert: ‘I believe that curiosity is the secret. Curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living. Curiosity is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Furthermore, curiosity is accessible to everyone. Passion can seem intimidatingly out of reach at times – a distant tower of flame, accessible only to geniuses. But curiosity is a milder, quieter, more welcoming, and more democratic entity. The stakes of curiosity are also far lower than the stakes of passion. Passion makes you get divorced and sell all your possessions and shave your head and move to Nepal. Curiosity doesn’t ask nearly so much of you. In fact, curiosity only ever asks one simple question: “Is there anything you’re interested in?”
“Creative living is living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.” Elizabeth Gilbert
Forget about perfect, just start
Gilbert: ‘Creativity starts by forgetting about perfect. We don’t have time for perfect. In any event, perfection is unachievable. Perfection stops people from completing their work, yes – but even worse, it often stops people from beginning their work… I think perfection is often a high-end, haute couture version of fear.’
Recommended reading:
Creativity Tips from Daan Roosegaarde (@SRoosegaarde):
Turn your idea into reality by playing ping pong, not bowling
Roosegaarde: ‘There are two ways to turn an idea into reality. You can play bowling, or you can play ping pong. The old way, at least that is what I think, is bowling. You have that ball in your hand and it’s so big, it is so heavy, it shines so beautifully. Then you throw that bowling ball and pray it will hit target.
I no longer believe this is a good way to create and innovate. I believe in playing ping pong: you take a tiny little ball, not expensive, and there you go: poek poek poek poek … and you create something together. And THAT is nice, this is how I create, this is how I learn.
Don’t push away people criticizing your ideas, but try pulling them aboard
Roosegaarde: ‘Dare to act, even when people tell you: “That’s not possible”, or: “What you have drawn is not allowed, it is against the rules.” You will always meet resistance. I generally try to involve people criticizing my ideas. I try pulling them aboard. If that proves to be impossible, here is my advice: ignore them. And just get to work.’
‘Creativity will be our most important export product.’ Daan Roosegaarde
‘Most of the breakthrough ideas come from people in their 20s,’ Bill Gates recently said when he was quizzed on innovation.
So what if your son and prospective scientist (like mine is) spends many hours acting, playing music and exploring unfamiliar cultures – when he could in fact be studying?
You guessed it. Encourage him (or her). To be successful in the economy of the future, creativity is key.
Where do you find creative inspiration? How do you turn ideas into innovative results? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Source and more tips from Liz and Daan:
Elizabeth Gilbert in her book ‘Big Magic, Creative Living Beyond Fear’ (2015), Daan Roosegaarde in College Tour, Liz Gilbert TED talks and Daan Roosegaarde TED talks.
You can read the full Future of Jobs report here.
This article is part of our ‘Skills of the future’ Expert Series in which we share valuable insights, pointers and lessons from a list of business leaders, experts and role models selected by Hanneke Siebelink. Find previous Expert Series articles here.
Liked this article? Use the subscription button (PC: see right-hand sidebar; Mobile: find button below this article) to stay up to date with LeadershipWatch articles and news. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Photo: Shutterstock.com
Hanneke is Research Partner and Writer at HRS Business Transformation Services, and author of several books. Her current research focuses on how leaders build successful organizations by increasing the quality and effectiveness of collaboration across companies, functions, and cultures. She is particularly interested in China and East-West relations and is learning Mandarin Chinese. Find out more about Hanneke and HRS services. If you would like to invite us to your organization, contact us here.
Leadership Introspection: The Only Person You Can Actually Change Is Yourself
Leading change means dealing with resistance. Whether in organizations or in our personal lives. Many change initiatives fail because people are not willing or not able to follow the new direction. A huge amount of energy goes into trying to manage the resistance and trying to convince, motivate, encourage, stimulate, or force people to follow the change. And often only with mediocre results! How can we do better? What are we missing?
There is a crucial ground rule in change management that defines our success as a leader of change. And it is very easily neglected!
Take some time to let this sink in…
‘People do not resist change, they resist being changed.’ Why? Because you and me, we all, we like to be able to lead our own lives. We like to have the ‘steering wheel’ in our own hands. We like to feel that we accomplish things by our own doing. We like to be recognized for it, it makes us feel good and successful. It gives us confidence, and motivates us to explore new changes. Being able to hold our own steering wheel gives us identity and allows us to develop ourselves, allows us to grow.
This statement may seem logical, but applying it will have a profound impact on your daily actions.
If you want people to change without taking over their steering wheel, you will need to help them to steer differently themselves, individually and collectively.
Don’t steer for them, but create a context in which they will take up the responsibility to change themselves. And this almost always means that you need to change yourself. By changing your focus, your communication, your instructions and guidance, your facilitation and coaching. By changing the way you set the context and the boundaries, and the way you respond to resistance.
You cannot force people to change, but you can change yourself and by doing that you can stimulate others to change too.
So if you are confronted with resistance or unexpected unpleasant behavior of others:
- Don’t look for the problem in their behavior – Look for the solution in your own behavior and the way you will respond
- Never blame others, it will change nor solve anything
- Take criticism seriously, but not personally – You can learn from criticism without having to beat yourself up about it
- Be open and transparent to others about what you value – If you do not know yet, make it clear to yourself first
- Be inclusive in your thinking and acting – Always aim for win-win, even if you do not feel a positive click with the other … yet
- Allow people, including yourself, to make mistakes – As long as we learn from it
- … and last but not least … if you truly believe this change will benefit us all? … NEVER GIVE UP!
What are your thoughts about this? I’d love to read your comments below!
Liked this article? Use the subscription button (PC: see right-hand sidebar; Mobile: find button below this article) to stay up to date with LeadershipWatch articles and news. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Photo: Moyan Brenn/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Aad is a global business advisor, change leader/program manager, executive team facilitator, leadership coach, and frequently asked keynote speaker. He is founder and managing partner at HRS Business Transformation Services where he works with senior executives and their organizations globally in three key domains: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, and ‘post-merger integration’. Find out more about Aad, our services, and his keynotes. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization contact us.
When East Meets West: Peter Hessler Shares His 3 Best Tips for 2016
When the American journalist and writer Peter Hessler (Peter is staff writer at the New Yorker and contributing writer for the National Geographic) moved to China to teach and write, he discovered that things were almost diametrically opposed to what he had been used to in the U.S. He was surprised, confused, often annoyed, sometimes amused. Most of the time he felt lost (‘During those early weeks I would have felt even more disjointed if it hadn’t been for the steady routines that surrounded me.’)
Here’s what he did. Every day after his Chinese language class (he found an excellent teacher) he picked up a newspaper and walked down to the local tea house. There he sat down and observed, until the people in his village started to approach this odd ‘waiguoiren’ (外国人, foreigner) and started to ask him questions.
Hessler: ‘I wanted to overcome these language and cultural barriers that made things so difficult at first. I believed that, next to teaching English literature, it was my job to develop a mutual respect and understanding that would allow me and my Chinese students and friends to exchange ideas comfortably.‘
Needless to say: he succeeded, and while your own exchanges with Chinese/Asian people are likely to take place in meeting rooms and under time constraints, Peter learned some lessons you could benefit from too:
1) A Chinese/Eastern smile can hide many emotions
People born and raised in China, or more broadly the East, are not the open books that many Western people are. A Chinese smile, for instance, often serves as a mask against deeper feelings.
Hessler: ‘Those smiles could hide many emotions – embarrassment, anger, sadness. When the people smiled like that, it was as if all of the emotion was wound tightly and displaced; sometimes you could get a glimpse of it in the eyes, or at the corner of a mouth, or perhaps in a single wrinkle stretching sadly across a forehead.’
So be prepared to be observant when you are talking to people from the East, and learn to recognize hidden signals.
2) Relationships and individuality are valued differently in East and West
Hessler: ‘The longer I lived in Fuling, the more I was struck by the view of the individual – in my opinion, this was the biggest difference between what I had known in the West and what I saw in China. For people in Fuling, the sense of ‘self’ seemed largely external; you were identified by the way that others viewed you. That had always been the goal of Confucianism, which defined the individual’s place strictly in relation to the people around her (…). Group thought could be a vicious circle: your self-identity came from the group, which was respected even if it became deranged, and thus your sense of self could fall apart instantly. There wasn’t a tradition of anchoring one’s identity to a fixed set of values regardless of what others thought.’
Though young people are finding new ways to bridge this ‘group thought versus individuality’ divide, the difference is still real and can lead to painful misunderstandings in East-West business settings. Find more background on some common mistakes we encounter as well as personalized tips here:
How to avoid making people lose face
How to stimulate your Asian team members to speak up
3) Be honest and transparent about your own traditions and values
Looking back at all those years he lived and worked in China (Peter currently lives in Egypt), how did he and his Chinese friends and students overcome the countless cultural barriers? How did mutual bewilderment eventually make room for mutual respect and understanding? What one element does he now single out as being crucial to the effort?
Hessler: ‘It required a great deal of patience and effort from everybody involved. But mostly it required honesty. Even if these moments of candor were occasionally unpleasant.’
In other words: it is all right to be different. As long as you try to see things from the other person’s side, and are honest and transparent about your own values and traditions. Read more here:
Why learning Chinese business etiquette is not enough
Peter Hessler is very observant. He does not judge. He understands the limits of generalizations (‘This not about China. It’s about a certain small part of China at a certain brief period in time.’) That makes him one of the best China experts I know, even if he disagrees (‘I am not a China expert but one of the foreigners trying to figure things out.’).
And he is a darn good writer too.
Source:
Peter Hessler interview (Capturing the essence of Chinese society, 2014) and books (Country driving, 2010 and River Town, 2001)
This article is part of our Expert Series in which we share valuable lessons from a list of business leaders, experts, and role models selected by Hanneke Siebelink. Find previous Expert Series articles here.
Hanneke is Research Partner and Writer at HRS Business Transformation Services, and author of several books. Her current research focuses on how leaders build successful organizations by increasing the quality and effectiveness of collaboration across companies, functions, and cultures. She is particularly interested in China and East-West relations and is learning Mandarin Chinese. Find out more about Hanneke and HRS services. If you would like to invite us to your organization, contact us here.
The Essence of Successful Executive Teams
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure and honor to be interviewed by John Mattone as part of their Expert Interview program.
John Mattone is one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership, talent and culture, and the author of seven books. He is currently preparing his next release, Cultural Transformations: Lessons of Leadership & Corporate Reinvention from the C-Suite Elite (Wiley, 2016).
John asked me if I would be willing to share some of my ideas and thoughts on Creating Executive and Leadership Team Alignment: Why is alignment so important to the success of an executive team? What are the most common signs that a team is not aligned? What are the biggest culprits for leadership teams failing to align?
Read the interview here:
“If you want to see real-world examples of effective team alignment, Aad Boot recommends looking at organizations that go through tough times and manage to come out strong.
“It is not in good times that you see the value of team alignment, but in difficult times,” Aad says. “Teams that manage to navigate successfully through difficult situations, that face disruptive changes and find answers, that manage to inspire the organization despite the uncertain and complex changes it has ahead.”
When teams have strong alignment, they are able to respond faster, more effectively, with more confidence and with better results.
We recently checked in with Aad to learn more about his leadership philosophy and approach to aligning leadership teams. Here’s what he had to say: (read full interview …) ”
Aad is a global business advisor, change leader, executive team facilitator, leadership coach, and frequently asked keynote speaker. He is founder and managing partner at HRS Business Transformation Services where he works with senior executives and their organizations globally in three key domains: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, and ‘post-merger integration’. Find out more about Aad, our services, and his keynotes. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization contact us.
The 10 Most Popular Articles on LeadershipWatch in 2015
Find here the Top 10 articles selected by our readers over 2015
For the fourth year in a row LeadershipWatch has welcomed an amazing amount of new readers, and together they selected the top 10 most popular articles over 2015. A nice blend of topics, tips and real-life stories about ‘How to Lead Complex Change’, ‘Cross-Cultural Leadership’, ‘Building Successful Team Collaboration’, ‘Post Merger Integration’, and more …
Enjoy!
Leading Change:
Leading Change: What Does Change Mean to You
Leading Complex Change: How to Balance Strategy Development and Execution
Leading Change: 3 Reasons Why Great Leaders are Reluctant to Compromise
Cross-Cultural Leadership:
Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Build Mutual Trust
Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Avoid Making People Lose Face
Leading Cross-Cultural Teams: Do You Understand the Cultural Differences within Your Team
5 Unusual Statements that Reveal how Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Thinks
Post Merger Integration:
Post Merger Integration: Cultural Alignment is a Prerequisite for Value Creation
Leading Multinational Companies: 3 Significant Changes in the Role of Senior Leaders
4 Tips to Make Your Team Embrace Accountability
We wish you a wonderful New Year, and we’re looking forward to welcoming you back in 2016!
Use the subscription button (PC: see right-hand sidebar; Mobile: find button below this article) to stay up to date with LeadershipWatch articles and news. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Season’s Greetings!
We wish you and your families an inspiring New Year!
Hanneke and Aad
Leading Complex Change: How to Balance Strategy Development and Execution
Finding the right balance between strategy development and execution has become a vital element in the success of your company. Many leaders struggle to find this balance. In my work I observe organizations getting stuck in a deadlock of what I would call ‘analysis addiction’, preventing the organization from making actual progress happen. On the other hand, I also witness organizations that are led by a ‘compulsion to jump to action’ without having a proper notion of what, why, and how they want to do things.
Maybe you also feel confronted with this challenge? How do you actually create the right balance between strategy development and execution? When is your strategy really finished and ready for execution? How do you set up and roll out corporate change initiatives in such a way that your company is able to follow and recognize the logic of these initiatives, despite the often complex and disruptive circumstances?
Hold on! There are no crystal clear answers to these questions, and I am not able to offer you the golden solution! Today’s business reality is too diverse to claim that one solution would fit all. However, based on practical experience in various business environments I can share some thoughts and guidelines that will help you.
First, be aware of the context in which many organizations find themselves. A few observations:
- Technology is driving change more than ever before; we live in a digital age, and technological evolutions are fast and disruptive;
- Leaders try to define appropriate answers to these digital challenges without knowing all the answers upfront;
- Transformation programs are expected to align the fast moving needs of the business with the fast moving technological evolutions.
Now, with this in mind, there are a few mechanisms that will help you find the right balance between defining your strategy and executing it. Let me briefly highlight them here:
1) Balance ‘learning by analysis’ and ‘learning by doing’
Strategy doesn’t always come before execution! Sometimes a strategy can only become fully clear after having tried things in practice. In today’s business world both are equally important. The traditional sequence of defining strategy, design, build, and deploy is in many situations no longer valid.
Signs of ‘analysis addiction’:
- Reluctance to implementing things before all the answers are known;
- Always wanting to have everything under control;
- Focus on details, interpreting not knowing all the details as lack of competence;
- Slow decision-making.
Signs of ‘compulsion to jump to action’:
- Jumping to conclusions during meetings;
- People getting easily annoyed by details;
- Interpreting analysis as risk avoidance;
- Continuously changing the plan based on new ideas.
2) Don’t confuse architecture and design with strategy
Business architects cannot take over the task of business leaders to define the corporate direction and the priorities that it requires! While technology is becoming more and more important for organizations, so are enterprise architecture and design. Many corporate departments have been set up for this, and rightfully so. But enterprise architecture is not the same as strategy development. There needs to be a healthy balance between the two. Architecture and design provides the analysis and the options to choose from. Executives and their management teams always should have the overall ownership over the direction of the organization and the priorities to follow.
3) Focus on learning, not on avoiding mistakes
All successful strategies are built on mistakes and temporary failures! Truly effective strategy development and execution requires an organizational culture in which experimenting, testing and making mistakes are allowed and even encouraged. In order to stay successful organizations need to involve everybody in the organization to embrace a mindset that is focused on learning: Board members, executives, managers, teams, everybody (read more here about how to create a learning culture).
This is the second article in a series about how you can increase the success of change programs in today’s business reality. In the previous article I focused on how to stimulate your people to think and communicate in terms of impact (read here).
Liked this article? Join us! Register at the top of this page to stay up to date with LeadershipWatch articles and news. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Photo: Shutterstock.com
Aad is a global business advisor, change leader, executive team facilitator, leadership coach, and frequently asked keynote speaker. He is founder and managing partner at HRS Business Transformation Services where he works with senior executives and their organizations globally in three key domains: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, and ‘post-merger integration’. Find out more about Aad, our services, and his keynotes. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization contact us.
Follow LeadershipWatch
Our Company
Expert Series
Our Team
Most Read
Recognition
LeadershipWatch is member of LeadChange Group
LeadershipWatch 