Tag: postaday2011

Stories we didn’t hear

We never heard their last moments and we didn’t even find their bodies, but the families and friends of nine people who perished in the Christchurch earthquake had their day in the coroner’s court last week. The chief coroner decided that they all died from multiple traumatic injuries and I guess some closure was brought to the families and others close to those that perished.

I just liked this photo that I took today!

They didn’t do anything special – they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when the earth moved as it regularly does, especially in Christchurch at the moment.  Luck can be a good thing, but also a devastating thing and my thoughts are often with those that lost loved ones  in the 22 February earthquake.

Facilitating a day of storytelling workshops last week we heard some fantastic stories, from the heart. Disclosures of events long ago were made, as the group worked with each other and shared, and in the process grew. Storytelling has a practical application in developing and enhancing leadership. There is nothing more rewarding than hearing a story from years past, and the meaning that it now brings to the leader. Or so I thought. When I thought I’d uncovered all the depth that could be to discover from one participant, I asked (intending to work with how the same stories are told differently in different contexts) “So you’ve told this story before”. Answer “No, that was the first time”. Given the story, that was big and I reckon we had a very special session for all those present.

Luck can decide all sorts of things. Share your stories now. You’ll be giving a gift to everyone, including yourself. Luck put us on the planet. Don’t wait I say.

Stephen

Is that my hot water?

I’ve worked very late the last few days getting ready for a new programme we’re running next week. Working late when under pressure can test my resilience and with it, my sense of humour but I’ve kept it intact so far. Well that’s my own reflection anyhow and I’m the one doing the writing here!

I spent yesterday in Mt Maunganui with clients workshopping (is that really a word?) some concepts that will be used to roll out some performance management and training over the coming year. It was a pleasure to work with people who know how to have a laugh. We cracked jokes and had several Larry David moments including “was that hot water for my long black or are we sharing? I feel I need to claim it if it’s just mine you know”.

I reckon we achieved a lot yesterday. We worked pretty hard and the ability to have a laugh during the process was an important component of how we worked. We didn’t put a team charter together, we all took roles at leading and at times there were random jokes that on the face of it distracted, but actually kept the energy up, the connections alive and the thought processes going.

Do you know anyone who doesn’t enjoy a joke? Is there a relationship between humour and creativity? Humour and irony in particular is an important part of our culture and can have an important role in leadership.

Do you use humour in your leadership? Do you try to? Or does it just happen? Giving feedback truthfully and with empathy will require emotional intelligence, experience and a lot of self-awareness. Delivering difficult news about a restructure proposal will be a serious business. And you won’t want to make light of it.

Lot’s of leadership though, is about creating an energy that gets your team in a creative space, if you’re wanting to take your business to the next level. Taking that step-change you know you need to create to make a difference.

That’s where humour can come in. Not taking the mickey out of each other – that can easily be bullying – but sharing humour with each other. Irony that acts like a team brain gym, keeping the energy up and the creative juices flowing.

Think of it another way: does the permanently serious boss who frowns when you’re having a laugh really get the team going? Chances are it’s about something else – some fear of not being in the group which he or she won’t be if there’s no engagement. No casual Friday around this dude!

So are you a leader with humour? I’d say you can’t be one without the other. Humour is that special, connecting characteristic of being a human being that not only separates us from the animals – it can separate us from the mundane.

Back off, the hot water is mine! It’s actually quite a serious business. Maybe humour is actually the opposite of what we think it is. Seriously, you need it. Especially if you want to engage.

Stephen

What is the governor watching?

Someone started a LinkedIn discussion today with the proposition that the natural focus of Australian companies for their boards is statutory, financial and taxation compliance.  The question that followed was about the sort of director training and experience required. In the weekend I facilitated a workshop for an Auckland-based not-for-profit. Topic: Governance. Delivery by me: You need to know the law including your responsibilities and powers, you need to understand the money and you need to work out how you’re going to get the organisation to meet its vision through empowering yourselves and the organisation.

I can show you how to read the financial statements, I can tell you the law, I can suggest you the questions you might ask of each other and the management. And I did.  Where you’ll ensure that you become that special organisation you want to be  is to work out what you really stand for, what success will look like, how you will work together, and what you will do to make a difference in (this case) your community.

As I researched to make sure I had the latest material for the workshop I realised that most of the research about boards is about checking, monitoring, managing risk and compliance. Oh but you won’t go anywhere without that you will hear if you attend any training on governance in New Zealand (and by the sound of it Australia too). True, but I say that’s just the start. The men in suits are good at this, probably better than I’ll ever be – and it’s the context that makes it complex for sure – but if your board is focussed only on monitoring I reckon there are some key questions you should be asking:

  • What is in the board papers? Are they only full of reports that cover off the law and finances to cover your compliance requirements?
  • What is the order of the board agenda? Do we deal with monitoring first?
  • When you get to discussions about vision, strategy, culture or empowering the CEO is your head so full of compliance (and maybe you’ve had enough) that the energy is gone?
  • Will you really be creative at the end of a long session of ticking off stuff?

As a new board member you might feel very proud to be on a board.  You’ll be reminded to stay out of the operational matters. In doing so you might also be staying out of the very thing that you can truly add value, by encouraging an appropriate culture – sometimes paradoxically to your assumed role by encouraging risk taking – setting the scene by behaving in an open and inquiring manner, and bringing your focus on what management is doing to create leadership.

Even if you’re doing this your CEO – who will almost certainly have the tax, finances, legal requirements covered by functional experts – will recognise that not only is it his or her job to grow a team, but it’s what you’re watching too.

So if you spend your life as a director or trustee ensuring no-one including you gets sued, great, we need you. One or two per board will do. For the rest of the board, we want people who are going make the difference. The difference that started the organisation might be a place to start. Is the video clip below what you experience?

Stephen

Murderous leadership

There’s a big scrap and when the offender is handcuffed and dragged to the police car, there’s always that humourous moment when the police officer, in a moment of compassion, gently places his hand on the suspects head, to make sure he doesn’t hurt it when he enters the cop car. Like I’ll taser you, put you in a headlock, but my friend, don’t knock your head on the rubber seal of the car!

Wanted “dead or alive” said former President Bush after 9/11 when speaking of the terrorist Osama bin laden. You have to admit as unpalatable as it might appear, that he was a very clever man bin Laden. From dusty caves (we thought), he lead a large number of young men to kill themselves while murdering about 3000 others. Like a Texas ranger, the west lead by the US, went hunting for their man. In the years of the hunt an organisation like the world has not known (or has it?) grew and killed (and kills) it seems, at places it can get to, when it can. The objective is clear enough – drive forward a view of how the world should live (suppressed women, old testament rules other religions abolished), vaguely underpinned by fanatical religious beliefs, that I doubt many really believe. Though I guess those young men who drove the aeroplanes into the Trade Towers must have. Pity they will never know how deluded they were. Murderers.

When I heard that bin Laden was dead, or more particularly that he had been killed by US forces, I wondered immediately how it was done – was there a fight? did they execute him? was he bombed? We might never know, but somehow even if it did happen in a fight, it was okay to kill him. I don’t feel the slightest sympathy for the murderer, in fact I feel very strongly about any religious extremism or fundamentalism for the physical and emotional violence that always follows.  I do wonder about the “dead or alive” message that the west sends to the middle east though. The dancing in New York and Washington looked a bit like the celebration in Iran (for example) after 9/11. We might think we’re right, but can we honestly put our hands on our hearts and say that a large number of people in the middle east are dishonest in their beliefs about how the west has treated them? Even if they’ve got it wrong from their dictatorial propaganda machines at home, shouldn’t the west set an example? Or is it easy for me to say ‘cos I didn’t know anyone lost in say 9/11. Maybe, but I bet the pictures of dancing in New York are going down a treat in Libya right now.

Mature and forward thinking leadership will recognise that the signals the west sends to the middle east on killing this murderer, must not include gloating at an ‘eye for an eye’. But when the President of the United States gives a sober and thoughtful delivery about it, and ends with “God Bless America” I groan inside.

It’s the same invisible force that justified 9/11 for the terrorists, justifying America. It’s not needed or helpful. You did the right think America, don’t thank invisible forces, as it’s the same invisible force that’s been used to kill your citizens.

President Obama should take it for himself, for the west and for the middle east and proclaim that justice was delivered, not in an orthodox or civilised way, but in the way that only a mass murderer in hiding could be dealt with. Much of the world will be happy that bin Laden is gone – I am sure that most of the thoughtful citizens of Pakistan are happy about it too. They’ve been tarnished badly by this murderer and his organisation.

And he was buried in accordance with Islamic tradition, that was important the US military said. Really? Will it all be okay when he gets to heaven now!? Or am I totally lacking in understanding of what really matters here. I think the ‘eye for an eye’ dancing in the streets is far more significant for our peace.  Like mind your head as you’re dragged into the cop car.

Can we learn from this? Watch out who you’re fighting for or with. Bin Laden befriended the Taliban who the US helped in driving out the opposing forces. Wonder if that’s being done in Libya now. Hope not. Political leadership that learns and sees patterns (like we can all see happening in Libya now), is the leadership I want.

There we go: religion, politics, a reference to sex via the 72 virgins hoped for and a bloody story of a murdering leader that’s ended.

Stephen

ps the FBI don’t seem to know as he’s still on the top 10 wanted list as of this evening. There’s $25mil up for grabs if you want to tell them.