Rich

No not me! I was at a TransTasman lunch yesterday at Vodafone where Russell Stanners, local CEO and Juan-Jose Juan, Global Head of Innovation Enterprise both spoke. We heard of an integrated world where our various devices knew where to connect to and what we needed at that moment,  because they knew where we were going. In fact, they were telling us how to get there too. I wondered as we heard from Juan-Jose (who said best to call him JJ) what it was like to have a global role. Not that I haven’t encountered such a title before. But talking to him prior to the talk I got the sense of a truly global ambassador for the company who lived, worked and engaged where he happened to be.

We heard about a world where work happens where ever you happen to be, in a manner that suits your needs. No such thing as a desk, desktop or the other symbols of a traditional work environment. Hearing this was like hearing confirmation for how I often work and the tension between this and what some people feel is the real work environment. If I’m honest I think there’s a tension within myself between the flexibility of working wherever I am (like right now at a specialists rooms having some tests!) and only doing work in the allocated place.

There’s a richness for me in working in different and stimulating environments and the delineation between work and home is often blurred. I don’t really mind that and find my creativity enhanced by new places, new people and new contexts. On the Centre for Innovative Leadership’s Innovative Leaders GM Programme we’re off to Whakatane this week. We’ll learn some strategic accounting and finance, but our context will be the case-study. I am sure it will be easier to be present while present!

JJ spoke without notes or looking at the few powerpoint slides he displayed. It’s a given that a leader can talk to his or her topic from the heart. You don’t get heart sitting in your office with the pictures, certificates and files. It’s about being in amongst it. Whatever “it” might be. Makes you rich. Yes I decided I am rich. But there’ll be no capital gains tax on this wealth!

Stephen

The price of leadership

My interview on TVNZ Breakfast. I started the week on Sunday night saying I wanted to do more video. I didn’t realise TVNZ would be involved!

http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/thursday-july-7-4289762/video?vid=4289869

My previous blog covers this topic too.

Stephen

What will you do now?

We want leaders, we demand leadership and we expect a lot from leaders. But sometimes leadership fails. Unless you’re able to exercise coercive power, when followers lose confidence for whatever reason, then your leadership is probably over in that role. And that’s what happened to the CEO of the EMA this week.

Being a leader is like being a fish in a bowl – you’re magnified – everyone is watching, but very little information is getting into the fish. The fish doesn’t even know it’s wet I guess! My experience is that the bigger the role, the harder it is for leaders to get feedback from those in their organisation. As you gain more freedom, more profile and access to more people, you are told less by those that support you. If leadership is there to serve then isn’t that wrong? Don’t we all have a responsibility to our leaders to ensure that they are fully informed by what we notice?

The political price of leadership is the greater standard that gets applied. Authentic leaders don’t switch their leadership on and off – they are what they are 24/7. Which must mean at times being wrong, being vulnerable and stuffing up. The higher the standard the easier it is to make a hash of something and that’s what’s happened here. Which disenfranchised so many who need to be connected for that leadership to thrive. And so it ended.

Let’s learn something. What I’d like to ask of you is this: Do you have a leader where you notice things where you could help with feedback? Are you doing anything about it? Or are you sitting there waiting for failure? If you are, I say that’s wrong. Leadership is a relationship. A leader exists not for him or herself, but for a community, a team or a group and serves for that group. In every relationship there is a responsibility to empower and grow each other. Leaders don’t have all the answers and don’t always get it right. When leadership fails, so do the followers and the organisation.

I’m not saying this is the case with the EMA, but it strikes me that there’s a lot of people wanting blood. Wanting blood is a sign of failure for everyone. Those in a relationship don’t want blood. There’s a feeling of no winners in this leadership failure. Which is a shame, as leadership is so important.

Learn something from all of this and do your bit in Leadership Week by supporting your leader. We all have one somewhere. I’ll be on TVNZ Breakfast at 7.10am in the morning talking about this. Hope I make sense!

Stephen

Negative splits

You’ll find an article on stuff.co.nz that talks about the differences between men and women in marathon running. There’s discussion about negative splits which if you’re a runner you’ll know is when you complete the second half of a race quicker than the first. The other day I was updating my LinkedIn and, yes I should have known better, but I stuffed up some minor descriptions and before I knew it several people had asked me about my new job! I don’t have one, but what I noticed was that I have been at AUT Centre for Innovative Leadership for 2 years 3 months. Time flies!

I’ve been working on my running the last few weeks doing interval training early one morning a week. It’s hard, my speed training pace is what good marathoners do the whole thing at, but I feel I’ve turned the corner on consistency. Last week’s effort was more consistent and my last interval was faster than my first. You might say a negative split.

Aside from my running there’s been a couple of things I’ve been struggling at for a while, but today, they both turned the corner for different reasons. One was a step change where I brought in someone special to deliver a workshop to a group I had been working with. She made a great success of it. The other resolved itself thanks to outside forces. So for both of these, I feel I’m on my way onto the next stage in much better shape. It’ll be a negative split for sure!

Make sure your next move gives you a negative split. Whatever the leadership issue you’re dealing with today, a team cohesion issue, a difficult conversation or innovation challenge, make sure it’s a negative split, second time around. Doing the hard graft, like in running, build up the resilience, treat the challenging experiences as part of a build up and step out for the next go. And make it negative, a negative split for a positive outcome!

Stephen