When Joseph Tawadros came on stage at his concert last week, he took a moment to wordlessly be with the audience. He then played a single perfect note on his Oud that reverberated around the Melbourne Recital Centre. He showed up ready to go, with the intention to give us, the audience, the value we wanted. He continued as he started, with a world class performance.
It is a good analogy for the job of a leader.… Read more
It’s all too easy to lose sight of the endgame when there are so many distractions. That is a key takeaway from a presentation by Dr Rick Watson, from the University of Georgia, at a leadership roundtable in Melbourne. In his book, Capital, Systems, and Objects, he argues that the endgame for organisations of all sizes and purposes is the enduring goal of capital creation. In Rick’s view we face a continuing barrage of distracting new ideas and technologies, such as agile organisations, digitisation, blockchain and many others.… Read more
Leadership is ultimately creative. If you are changing the game in some way, taking people somewhere new, then you are doing something that has not been done before. You may have a combination of past experience and your own leadership style that guides you, but you need to put together your unique behaviours, ideas and personal values to fulfil your new vision. An artist brings all their unique style and talent to a blank canvas, but they do not keep painting the same picture.… Read more
Greg did a great job aligning his team on a bold new future. Now they needed to step up their leadership to deliver on their promise. First Greg wanted to start doing things differently so that he could be a role model for his team as someone who was willing to step up his own leadership. Stephen R Covey asks a great question in his timeless book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life?” Greg’s response to Covey’s question was that he would devote more time to the people around him, his team, clients, peers, external stakeholders and less time on solving technical problems.… Read more
In sport and in life it pays to keep your eye on the ball. On the sports field, it is tempting to respond to the taunts of your opponents, but you risk being distracted from adding to the scoreboard. Likewise, in business if you are distracted by office politics you will not produce results. During a recent reorganisation, Dave and several of his colleagues were at risk of losing their jobs. The politics in the office was toxic.… Read more