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Leadership

Leadership style vs type of followers

August 31, 2022
HR, Leadership
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According to Adam Grant, professor at Wharton, introverts make good leaders when the people they are leading

So if you have really passive employees — people wait for direction from higher ups, need being told what to do — extroverts provide a vision and a strategy and energize followers to step up and contribute. He found indeed that extroverts, “when they had passive employees, their stores were about 16% more profitable than introverts’ stores.”

But with proactive employees who take initiative to bring new ideas, to make suggestions, to come up with better ways of getting work done? Under those circumstances, introverts brought in 14 percent higher profits.” Figure that out. Read his book to find out why.

Source:
https://www.tracomcorp.com/blog/makes-better-leader-introvert-extrovert/

Analyzing Effective Leaders: Why Extraverts Are Not Always the Most Successful Bosses

Illusion of the broken system

February 19, 2021
Coaching, Leadership
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Truth will set you free.

I used to think that being authentic means being honest, about the way things are, the way I feel about an issue.

In “The practice of Adaptive Leadership”, Jeff Lawrence points out ” there is no such thing as a dysfunctional organisation, because every organisation is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently gets.”

Any social system is the way it is, because people (esp important people) in that system want it that way. “No one who tries to name or address the dysfunction will be popular.”

As a coach, if you take on the task of pointing out flawed thinking or any gaps thinking you are “authentic”, “truthful”, being ethical and doing someone a favour, dont be shocked when you do not receive an applause for identifying a gap between the professed value and current reality.

Adaptive change is a risk.

Authors advise that a change coach/consultant focus on “how to mobilise and sustain people through the period of risk.”

I found this statement so simple and profound.

Coaching question of the day

Is there a broken system you see? Whats better left unsaid? Are you prepared to speak only when your words are worthy of being heard? (The Daily Stoic)

Recruitment Humor

November 16, 2020
#humour#, HR, Humour, Joke, Leadership
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*CORPORATE JOKE*

Agency: ” Sir, we found 3 candidates as per your requirements. How do you want their placements, sir?”

MD: “Put about 100 bricks in a closed room. Then send the candidates into the room and close the door, leave them alone and come back after a few hours and analyse the situation:

1. If they are counting the bricks, put them in Accounts department.

2. If they are recounting the bricks, put them in Auditing.

3. If they messed up the whole room with the bricks, put them in Engineering.

4. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.

5. If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.

6. If they are sleeping, put them in Security.

7. If they broke the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.

8. If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.

9. If they say they have tried different combinations yet not a single brick has been moved, put them in Sales.

10. If they have already left for the day, Put them in Marketing.

11. If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.

And…

12. If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been touched, Congratulate them and put them in Top Management.

(NB: Jokes I received. If you wrote these jokse, let me know and I will happily attribute you as source.)

Note to self

How useself are selection tools or profiling instruments in recruitment?

Are you ready for a VUCA world

April 10, 2019
#motivation#, Career, Future of Work, Leadership, Personal Change
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From IQ to EQ to AQ

Adaptability Quotient

Anticipate needs and create opportunities
Drive positive energy
Accelerate constant innovation
Partner: exchange ideas and
Trust: mutual growth

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Photo credit: himself taken at the Singapore Bird Park.

According to a study by Kornferry only 15% of leaders have what it takes to self- disrupt and be ready for the future.

How are you equipping yourself for this change?

Introducing: A new breed of future-ready leaders – Korn Ferry Focus
https://focus.kornferry.com/leadership-and-talent/introducing-a-new-breed-of-future-ready-leaders/

Why executives derail

August 14, 2018
Career, HR, Leadership, Personal Change
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Research from Centre for Creative Leadership

Sometimes we focus a lot on working behind the scenes and achieving, doing. Interestingly, the Centre for Creative Leadership lists relationships as major make or break.

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Photo credit: Himself taken on streets of Bangkok

By comparing successful managers to those who derail, CCL identified 5 specific factors that increase a leader’s odds for derailment:

⚓problems with interpersonal relationships; cold, aloof and arrogant

⚓difficulty building and leading a team; cant manage subordinates

⚓difficulty changing or adapting during a transition (conflict with upper management or unable to adapt to boss with a different style)

⚓inability to think strategically, too narrow of a functional orientation.

⚓failure to meet business objectives (eg too ambitious, betrayal of trust, and poor performance)

8 enduring success themes
1. Ambitious with a Desire to succeed
2. Establish strong collaborative relationships
3. Good track record in performance
4. Can motivate and direct subordinates
5. Intelligent
6. Willing to take risks
7. Able to adapt to the environment
8. Problem solver and entrepreneurial

The Peter Principle- promoted to level of incompetence

October 22, 2017
Career, Happiness, Leadership, Personal Change
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The Peter Principle, Why things go wrong by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull

With foreword by Robert Sutton

Let me have men about me that are fat
Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous
– Julius Ceasar, Shakespeare

We hire people after our own image. The authors cite Napolean who felt that people with big noses make better leaders. The Retrospective Decision making model predicts that we make decisions intuitively and retrospectively give a reason (possibly logically) for our decision.

We make judgments about people’s competence. Sometimes from brief interactions. The more powerful you are, the more impact. Interviewers sometimes take as fast as 30 sec to form impressions.

The Peter Principle predicts that many people are promoted to their level of competence.

Several examples of signs of people who posses this malady.

Papyrohobia
Cannot tolerate papers or books on his desk. Probably such piece of paper is reminder that he hates his job. He makes a virtue of his phobia by keeping a clean desk, creating the impression of incredible fast decision making.

Structurophilia
Obsessive concern with buildings, planning, construction, maintenance and reconstruction. But unconcerned about the work going on, inside the buildings.

Such as those with a compulsion to build memorial statues.

When i read this tiny book of 161 pages or halved if you put in A4 size, it was amusingly refreshing. Most bizarre types actually exist in organisations especially because the skill sets required for different levels of organisation from technical in front-line supervisors to political skills needed at higher levels of management.

What then is the solution?
As someone interested in productivity, I am curious about how to improve our decision making on promotion and hiring.

Unfortunately, beyond naming the crime as incompetence, this book sheds little light on how to solve the problem.

Perhaps its beyond my competence to read between the lines. Or frankly, no one knows. Management is as much an art as a science.

Talent Triumps Tech

September 10, 2017
Global Business, HR, Leadership, Personal Change
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Photo: 999 glass fishes at the Oceans Financial Centre Singapore.The work holds a message about strength from community and collaboration.
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Technology alone likely won’t deliver the uplift in performance that organizations seek.

There are three reasons to value human capital:

– People are the creators of technology – it does not create itself.

– People are the stewards of technology – they cannot control it but they can shape it and are less effective without it.

– People are the champions of technology.

Companies such as Airbnb and Uber, optimise technology but also have huge teams of people to service their customers. Humans know best how to partner with technology.

“What gets in the way is that there is an insufficient understanding of disruption, there is pressure from stakeholders and the strategy for human capital is not aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation.

Smartphones, data-collecting industrial parts and other innovations of the Digital Age are amazing, but none of them pack the productivity-boosting power of the lightbulb or the telephone. Indeed, apart from a short burst between 1996 and 2004, the digital technology revolution actually hasn’t boosted overall productivity.

Airbnb offers a strong example of what can happen when people are enabled rather than replaced by technology. The firm might have fewer than 3,000 people on the payroll, but it depends on tens of thousands of creative, ambitious and talented human hosts to supply those 2 million rooms worldwide. Technology may connect hosts to potential guests, but Airbnb has no business without the hosts.

The “Talent Trumps Tech” idea applies to the executive suites, too. Yes, the boss likely will be able to use technology to instantly get real-time data about the firm’s pipeline of sales, cash flows, threats from competitors, even the value of individual customers …. At the same time, it will be easier for CEOs to get concrete business options from intel- ligent software. These AI-infused programs can use current data and past experiences to identify trouble spots or opportunities and make recommendations to improve the business.

Making the call
However, no app or robot is going to make the final decision on what business strategy to pursue, or whether to open a new office in Austin or Amsterdam, or whether to merge with a rival firm. “I’ll never say never, but I can’t imagine CEOs giving up those decisions,” says Nels Olson, vice chairman and co-leader of Korn Ferry’s Board & CEO Services practice. “Artificial intelligence will be there to provide input.”

Excerpts from 2030: The Very Human Future Of Work by Hazel Euan-Smith & Russell Pearlman & Karen Kane in the series on “The Future of Work is Human”
– KornFerry Institute

The future of work is Human

August 29, 2017
Connecting, HR, Leadership
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https://www.kornferry.com/institute/2030-the-very-human-future-of-work

It’s human talent, not capital or technology or anything else, that is the key factor linking innovation, competitiveness and growth in the 21st century, says Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. Work, he says, shouldn’t be a race between humans and machines, but a part of life that helps people recognize their full potential.

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An individual’s potential is not fixed—it can be influenced, enhanced and unleashed to the benefit of the organization.

As people grow in knowledge, experience and seniority over time, they bring even more value to the business.

In contrast, machines typically operate at a limited maximum output and depreciate over time.

Experts say human talent becomes only more valuable as technology grows. It will be humans, not robots or artificial intelligence software, who will brainstorm new ideas, inspire others and drive organizations to succeed.

Social skills—such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others—will be in higher demand across industries than narrow technical skills, according to a survey of chief human resources officers by the World Economic Forum in 2015.

Investing in skills, rather than just hiring more workers, is the key to successfully managing disruptions to the labor market for the long term. 

Excerpts from 2030: The Very Human Future Of Work by Hazel Euan-Smith & Russell Pearlman & Karen Kane in the series on “The Future of Work is Human”
– KornFerry Institute

What’s your take on whether robots will replace your job?

Hot Air

September 27, 2016
Joke, Leadership
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(Shared by my friend GK)
It’s Tuesday and I’m very tired. Thank God for this joke to get through another morning.  No offense intended.

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Corporate joke from a friend…

A woman in hot air balloon realized she was lost…

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Photos from my trip to Taitung during the Hot Air Balloon Festival.

She reduced altitude & shouted to a man  below “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend to meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am.”

Man below replied : You are in hot air balloon 30 feet above the ground. You are at 41 degree North latitude & 59 degree West longitude.

Lady : You must be an engineer.

Man : How do you know?

Lady : Everything you told me is technically correct but useless & the fact is I’m still lost.

Engineer : You must be in Top Management.

Lady : Ya. How do you know?

Engineer : You don’t know where you are or where you’re going, you have no technical knowledge.    You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep & you expect people beneath you to solve your problems..!!

😀😀😀😃😃😃😄😄😄