I was going through my travel photographs and saw this picture of a poster at the Dubai Airport advertising the world’s tallest building, which was under construction at the time. The Burj Dubai is very impressive and I was inspired to write more about the towers of glass.
I love beautiful, expansive and extraordinary things and am a patron of the arts. Architecture is particularly captivating because of its ability to inspire and uplift. My title is only an analogy and not meant in any way to be critical of any building.
My personal observation about many banks, hotels, and companies that own these towers is that the public areas are grand, beautiful and spacious, whereas the back of the house where the employees work tend to be relatively ordinary and in many cases dingy and un attractive
Let’s continue the conversation about Towers Of Glass, Feet Of Clay — particularly our response to external circumstances, as the waves of impact wash over us.
Many people are being tested to the core and have a rare opportunity to re-evaluate what is real and what is illusion. We have to decide what is important to us and what we are willing to let go? Which relationships are there for the long haul and which ones are superficial?
It is time to reflect so that the inside can be as beautiful and tall, as the outside.
Nearly everyone will agree to this in concept, yet not everyone is willing to invest the time, energy and money that beautifying the inside requires. Don’t get me wrong… I am not referring to a religion or any particular philosophy, but rather a journey that all leaders take in the process of leading. Those who know, know… as we share a common experience.
We call this common experience the Quest:
The essence of the Quest is where you leave your comfort zone, known reality, sense of security, and attachments and step into the unknown to discover your true-nature, destiny, unique gifts, qualities and virtues. It is only when you leave your comfort zone that you run into your limits.
During your journey to discover your true-self, you encounter the limiting parts of yourself, weaknesses, limiting beliefs, blocks, self-suppression, unexpressed feelings, insecurities, jealousies and doubts. In other words you encounter your dark side. You also discover and encounter any opposition to your visions, goals and dreams.
In the process of your journey, you overcome and master your dark side and gain attributes, qualities, and virtues and develop your overall character as a meaningful, worthwhile, contributing, conscious, compassionate, humble and honorable human being.
This is perhaps the most difficult part of the journey and is the point where most people quit, give up and throw in the towel! It is easy to look at what is good, what is beautiful, the aspects of ourselves that are great. On the other hand, looking at the ugly, nasty and self-interested parts of ourselves is not easy. And yet honesty requires it. Why is this so hard? Because, our ego’s are as fragile as a house of cards.
Should you continue you become very clear who you are and what you stand for. Your vision, values, beliefs and most importantly — actions, are in total alignment with your spiritual-self.
Returning from your Quest, you then integrate all you have become and learned in order to be a contributing member of society.
The nature of your Quest is that it is a life-long journey with no specific destination. While there are milestones along the way, the real and meaningful result is WHO YOU BECOME IN THE PROCESS.
I originally wrote this article in 2003 for business owners, founders, CEOs and leaders who are committed to extraordinary results through business. As I reread this in 2009, I feel that it is as applicable today as it was in 2003. If you are not a business owner or executive, please read this with an open mind and ask yourself “how can I apply that?”
This article is perfect for Passionate Revolutionaries who are focused on leading and inspiring others to create innovative products, services and business models that add meaning and purpose to peoples everyday lives.
IT’S ALL ABOUT LEADERSHIP
It may sound strange but if you want a quantum leap in your results — the first place to begin is to take a good look in the mirror. The focus of this article is on YOU and your relationship to your business.
Many people start a business to make money; others want to make a contribution or to express themselves. Whatever your reason is, you will find that the basic, fundamental rules of business have not changed for thousands of years.
The pace of change has increased; new technologies have changed the way we do business, increased our potential markets as well as our competitors. How fast you learn is now a competitive advantage…
Here are some of the most important, immutable rules of business:
YOUR BUSINESS IS A REFLECTION OF YOU
Your thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, values, goals, strengths, weaknesses, management style and philosophy all show up in your business. If you have a belief that you have to work 16-hour days in order to be successful, then you will end up working 16-hour days. And you may or may not be successful.
If your leadership style is disrespectful of team members and customers then the energy of the business will reflect this. Only second-rate team members will be attracted as you will only attract people who are OK being disrespected and not appreciated. Your company will only achieve a fraction of what is possible. The leaders style will set the tone for the entire organization through the multiplier effect. Everything is reflected back to you multiplied, exaggerated and often dramatized.
FOR THINGS TO CHANGE, FIRST YOU MUST CHANGE
That means, if you want the business to change, if you want your team to change, if you want your results to change… It all starts with you and what do you have to change?
Many, many people work on the business, on business development, training their team, building their sales… And leave out the most important factor in the entire equation.
YOU
The leader of the company is the key person whose vision is the vital element, élan vital (French for Lifeforce) the driving force behind the company and everything it does.
ALIGN THE TEAM TO THE VISION
The vision sets the tone and the agenda. The vision provides the team with a focus, a purpose, a guiding star to follow.
The number one function of the leader is to catalyze a clear and shared vision for the company and to secure commitment of the team to the vigorous pursuit of the vision. A clear sense of purpose comes directly from a clear vision of what it is supposed to look like in the end.
When a leader is not clear on the vision, and this vision isn’t clearly communicated to the team members, associates, suppliers and customers then the company languishes and is mediocre. The company struggles and the team works harder and harder.
WORKING HARDER ISN’T THE ANSWER
If you are like most people, you grew up with the work hard ethic. From the time we were young children, we were told by people that we loved, trusted and respected; “If you want to get ahead in life, you have got to work hard.” or “If you want to make lots of money, you have got to work hard.” And this is simply not true.
The gardener works harder than the company executive, he toils all day in the hot sun, he gets his hands dirty… However the executive works no more hours, but makes many, many times more than the gardener.
According to the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Inc. Magazine, Markus Frind, the founder of the website Plenty of Fish, based in Vancouver, Canada works one hour a day and pays himself an annual income of $5 million. Clearly he is not working hard! The question I ask myself is; “if he is working 1 hour a day and making $5 million, how much could he make working 8 hours a day?”
I am sure you will agree that hard work alone is not going to solve anything (although it is a start). The key is to undo the training, programming and conditioning that tells us to work hard, and to replace it with a different philosophy of life and work that takes into account what you work hard at doing.
MY RESULTS ARE MY GURU (Teacher)
This means that we are responsible for our results. No one else is. If the economy is bad and your customers aren’t spending as much as they used to then you have got to do something different. Simply blaming your lower results on the economy wont do anything other than keep you stuck. Forget excuses, justifications or blaming anyone else.
Your results tell you how you are doing.
The key is to get more done in less time. To be ever more efficient and effective. To produce a better quality product for less cost to you, which you then pass on to your customers. What many companies do is lower their cost and instead of passing these savings onto their customers, keep it for themselves. This may work in the short term, however it increases the risk of your competition gaining an edge on you.
INNOVATION & ADDING VALUE
Because its purpose is to acquire and satisfy customers, your business has one and only one function. To add value through innovative products and services. If your product and service is the same as your competitor’s, how are you going to add value in a way that your customers will continue to buy from you?
To innovate, means to make changes, to bring in new methods, ideas and ways of doing things that benefit your customer — saving them time or money. This requires leadership and the constant pursuit of creative and imaginative solutions to both new and old problems.
MARKETING IS THE ENGINE OF EVERY BUSINESS
Marketing is all about attracting people to buy your product or service, getting them to come back again and again, and getting them to purchase more when they do come back.
It includes sales, advertising, product design, public relations, and many other ingredients that are less obvious. Without marketing you lose customers. Marketing can make the difference between the life and death of your business and yet it is one of the least understood and most under-utilized facets of business.
Most businesses have been reduced to a commodity. No one can buy their materials for that much less than anyone else. Advertising costs about the same. Even a second or third shift doesn’t give your business that much advantage.
However, if you make your salespeople out-produce your competitions salespeople by two or three times; if you can make every advertisement you run produce ten times more than your competitors’ do; if you can get a customer to buy 50% to 200% more “on average” from you than they do from your competitors…
…and if you can successfully figure out how to resell each customer numerous “additional” times a year and sell them multiple products or services with higher profit margins each time — your business will grow exponentially — even in a down economy.
YOU ARE NOT THE BUSINESS
A corporation is a legal entity that was incorporated to fulfill a specific purpose. As a legal entity, a corporation has the same rights as any other citizen of the country within which it is incorporated. A corporation can own property, buy and sell, manufacture products, and bring lawsuits as if its members were one person.
Ownership in the corporation is divided into a certain number of shares, and the corporation issues stockholders one or more stock certificates to show how many shares they hold. The stockholders own the company and elect a board of directors to manage it for them.
The board of directors determines basic company policies and appoints the executive officers. These officers include a chairman of the board, chief executive officer, a president, and a number of vice presidents. They are responsible for carrying out the decisions of the board of directors and the stockholders. The executive officers also select the managers of the various departments of the corporation.
Stockholders may sell their stock whenever they want to, unless the corporation has some special rule to prevent it. The price of the companies stock changes according to general business conditions and the earnings and future prospects of the company. If the business is doing well, stockholders may be able to sell their stock for a profit. If it is not, they may have to take a loss in order to exit.
When the corporation has made a profit, the directors may divide the profit among the stockholders as dividends, or they may decide to use it to expand the business. Dividends may be paid only out of the corporation’s profits. When profits are used to expand the business, the directors and stockholders may decide to issue more stock to show that there is more money invested in the business. This new stock will be divided among the stockholders as a stock dividend.
Stockholders in a corporation have limited liability. If the corporation fails, they can lose no more than their investment, because the corporation’s debts are not their debts.
The founder of a corporation may be a stockholder and a director — but this is not necessary. Any corporation may raise funds to establish the company or to increase the available capital for investment, growth or ongoing operations.
Funds may be raised by selling stock (these investors become stockholders,) acquiring debt or through revenue participation etc.
The challenge for most founders who are also stockholders and directors is that they can “over identify” with the corporation. They end up living vicariously through the success and failure of the corporation. In many cases the founder does not pay themselves a salary during the startup phase on the basis that they are the owner and are building an asset. This is a mistake as it undervalues the founder’s contribution and makes it more difficult to replace the founder by hiring an employee.
The key here is to understand that you are not the business and if you have an employee role within the corporation, that you pay yourself a fair market salary. To do this requires that you have enough capital to operate the business, cover all the expenses with some excess for unforeseeable circumstances — especially during start up or high-growth phases.
Nothing is more difficult to do than to grow a company on a limited capital base — using cash flow for a source of funds. And then if your personal success or failure is connected to how the company performs, you may be seduced into making personal guarantees, or to invest more of your personal money to keep the company going than you would like to.
While this may sound admirable, it is a recipe for a downward spiral, reduction in your personal wealth and an emotional roller coaster. You are not the business, so keep your personal finances separate from the business and respect it as an investment that MUST pay for itself.
PAY YOURSELF FIRST
This is a very controversial topic. Most founders operate from the opposite — pay yourself last. And this is exactly what happens, once all the expenses are covered there often isn’t anything left over. So you end up working for free and justifying it by saying that you are building a business.
Pay yourself first means to include yourself along with all the other salaries and to follow the advice of the “Richest Man in Babylon” — a part of all I earn is mine to keep. No matter how much money you are making, it is important to maintain regular investing habits. The amount isn’t important, but the habit is.
And when you make yourself important and commit to paying yourself no matter what, a mysterious thing happens — you end up creating enough cash flow to pay yourself.
If you are willing to work for free — you will end up working for free.
WHO IS ON YOUR TEAM?
The difference between the leader who struggles all the time, has no free time, is surrounded by drama solving crises after crises and the leader who appears to have lots of free time, makes more money each year and seems to have the golden touch… is the team that they are a part of.
You are only as good as your team!
And your team isn’t limited to your employees. Who is on your board of directors? Do you have a formal board of advisors? Do you have a personal mentor or coach? These are people who will tell you what you need to hear versus what you want to hear.
Unless you are willing to be surrounded by people who expect more of you than you do, you will have people telling you what you want to hear and confirming that you are right — when you may be wrong.
Your team can even include your suppliers and customers.
If you aren’t part of a winning team — then you are working too hard.
LABOR IS CAPITAL
Investing in the ongoing development and training of your team is one of the best investments you can make. If someone makes $50,000 a year and can generate $500,000 in value for you, why not take this person and increase their skill, ability, talent, attitude and education, so that they can add a million dollars in value?
A $50,000 investment that brings a $1 million return is a very, very valuable asset.
There is no better investment that companies can make than in the education and development of their own people.
I have been reflecting further about the “financial crisis”, and recalling a book I read in 1982 called Towers of Gold: Feet of Clay – the Canadian banks, by Walter Stewart.
In a conversation about this with my colleagues I happened to say towers of glass and perhaps 27 years later, Glass is more descriptive. In 1982 I was working in the oil and gas industry in Canada and this book was written about the Banking Industry, the mortgage crisis and the oil prices. These themes are again relevant in 2009.
In Towers of Gold the title was based on the Royal Bank in Canada with a gold colored glass tower in Toronto. Gold had more relevance then as some of the money (not much even then) was actually backed by gold bars. Many eons ago most of it was either made of gold/silver and later backed by it. Now most of our money is floating around electronically in bits and bytes, and the cash is made of plastic, paper and mostly cheaper metals. I have a special account (premier customer – which means more money deposited) with a major international bank and the interest on this was very low and now has dropped to 0%).
I used to have judgements about people who keep their money in or under the mattress and now I can laugh at myself because there is not much difference. Judgements are often like that, what goes around comes around. I wish I had some gold bars.
I feel this title reflects what is happening very accurately, now there are even more towers of glass. There is competition between top cities about who can build the tallest tower, one about half a mile into the sky. Now most of these projects are compromised and construction financing has been choked almost to death. Containers of steel and glass which were in such short supply (some orders 3 years ahead) were turned around from China and returned to their origin. Each one of these events has an impact on multiple people, industries, and countries. These really are the waves of impact. The waves move around the world faster than the earth spins.
These towers are built to be earthquake proof, tidal wave resistant, fire resistant and all these events are insured. This is where the foundations (the feet of clay) are being stretched beyond anything imaginable. And most will fall short in the test over time… I am refering to the financial foundations and also that of people, relationships, organizations, communities, and countries.
Like the banks, we all have glass towers that we build (what we show the world; the act, the ego, the stuff) and feet of clay (what we are at the core of our being; the real self, the essence, the ordinary humble person). Glass towers are fragile, and someone can always build a taller one.
I see all this as an opportunity to lead where it matters. When the waves of impact hit us, we cannot control the wave, only our response. By building personal foundations that are deep, strong, resilient and mostly invisable to everyone else, we can withstand the waves and even become better human beings. We can choose right action no matter what prevails.
Nearly everyone is feeling the financial crisis, not all at once, but rather in waves. These waves or fluctuations go in and out like the ocean. Each one bringing more insight, more truth, more change and with each contact ever greater connections that impact our reality. Eroding the illusions and ideas that we took for granted.
Ideas like banks are stable and real estate is a safe bet. Ideas about the hedge funds, insurance companies and finacial guru’s to name a few. Ideas about government and capitalism and private business. Ideas about retirement and security. All of these ideas are being challenged, exposed and the bottom line, once so clear is a hazy blur. No one seems to know exactly when and how the whole experience known as the financial crisis will end. As quickly as solutions appear, yet another wave appears and the impact keeps growing.
More than ever it is time to lead not follow. Calling this a financial crisis does not do justice what is really going on and how many areas of life this will impact. Relationships are being torn apart, stress related health issues are prevalent, mental illness, lives in transition and more things than I can write about. Money or lack of money is not the core cause, and neither is it by itself the long term solution.
People and organizations will have to go through transformations to win. Getting by is not enough. I believe this an extra-ordinary opportunity to step out of the trance of mediocrity and into the ideals we desire. Cooperation, harmony, compassion and truth will have a greater audience than competition, greed, self-interest and illusions of reality designed to serve a few. We can choose to evolve to our highest potential together and rise above the waves. Or we can choose to do nothing, step into fear and denial and eventually drown in them.
Now is the perfect time to re-define who we are. To internalize our self-worth as seperate from our net-worth. To find fulfillment in life and not just on paper (bank statements, share certificates etc). Time to play the game no matter how challenging…play to win!
With today’s workplaces becoming more and more about living than they are about money and finances alone and with the pressure to infuse our companies, organizations and professions with passion and aliveness we must become more passionate, alive and balanced ourselves.
The challenge is how do we do this? And what will it take to unblock our passion and creativity? What do I have to do to become more alive, alert, energetic and enthusiastic?
How do I inspire my team to change? How do I handle the stress caused by the fast pace of change? How do I inspire my team to take personal responsibility for their results, and their failures? How do I cope with failure? How do I create a work environment that is conducive to productivity? How do I bring more of the personal assets of my people into the workplace?
Passion, aliveness, enthusiasm and responsibility are all infused with energy and the source of this energy is LIFEFORCE.
Check out this chart! What I find interesting is that the one week view of the Dow Jones Industrial Average looks very similar to the six month view. The chart shows a slow decline, then a cliff, then a slow decline again. The down trend looks at first glance to be very similar.
Some conclusions:
All data must be read within a larger context
Patterns are clearly repeating
The trend appears to be downwards
Have we hit bottom yet? Tell me when you figure that one out!
Check out the below video about the credit crisis, what caused it, how it is escalating and what the connection is between house owners, brokers, bankers and wall street.
Even if you understand the dynamics of the crisis – this video can help you to explain it clearly to others.
With the pace of change accelerating at ever increasing rates, the world is becoming more and more stressful. How we cope with change and the resultant stress has a huge impact on our quality of life and our work performance.
Executive burnout is a direct result of an inability to cope and is a major cause of lost productivity, as is employee absenteeism and medical leave. Many high-performance people focus on one or two primary areas of life and neglect the other areas. This leads to imbalance, stress and unhappiness. Eventually, stress in one primary area of life will impact our performance in all areas.
Think about it… how can you be wired up in one area and not have this “creep” into other areas?
What would happen if our lives were optimized in all areas? fully integrated? What would happen to our quality of life and our performance?
The most common reason why most corporations only achieve a fraction of the possible potential available to them is the lack of a worthwhile meaningful, inspiring and compelling vision that magnetizes and motivates the entire organization. Many of the vision statements hanging in the boardrooms are old, out of date, not communicated and uninspiring.
This is especially true in times of economic recession.
Corporate Reinvention is about refocusing, reorganizing, reframing and redirecting your organization. And the most important component of any organization is the VISION and aligning the people, marketing, systems, policies and procedures behind the vision.
How do you do that if your organization is in a crisis that is threatening its survival? Do you really have a choice?
Reasons to consider engaging in a Corporate Reinvention process:
You are not achieving your goals
The industry has changed, margins are down, competition is fierce
Economic crisis, sales are down, financing is scarce
Acquisition/merger with another organization, requiring complete restructuring
Dramatic changes in your product or service due to technological developments
International expansion
Downsizing of the organization
Reorganization, sale or IPO
New CEO, board or senior management
An inspiring vision should infuse passion, engage the hearts, minds, bodies and souls of the people working within your organization, your clients, your suppliers and your shareholders. Every person should know what the vision is and how their daily activities contribute to the vision.
Dealing with unwanted feelings can be a very tricky thing, and it can often lead to upsets and a lot of unhappiness in relationships between people.
The purpose of this article is to provide some understanding of feelings, their purpose in our lives and to provide a guideline for expressing ones feelings in an appropriate manner.
We are all familiar with people who are supposedly calm, nothing bothers them, and then one day something goes wrong and they explode in a fit of rage. Or the relationship where everything was going along nicely and all of a sudden, out of the blue, one partner announces that they are leaving.
Our feelings impact every area of our lives, and are the often hidden drivers of our behaviors, attitudes and beliefs. When we feel things we would rather not, most people will attempt to suppress the feeling, rather than look for the original cause or source of the feeling. Some of the things people do to suppress feelings are:
Go shopping
Eat, even if not hungry
Drink alcohol
Smoke, cigarettes or cigars
Take illegal drugs
Take legal prescription drugs
Engage in extreme sports
Engage in sexual activity
Engage in gossip
Work harder
Engage in a fight, or abuse others
You will notice from the above list, that these activities, when taken to the extreme are detrimental to ones health and are often destructive to other people also.
So why is it that so little is known about feelings? Why aren’t emotions discussed in school? And why are so few people looking to the cause of their feelings rather than being at the effect of them?
The primary reason for this lack of awareness and education on this subject is because up until recent times, very little was really known about our emotional natures – and it is also a highly explosive and controversial subject.
The impact of modern life and industrialization has created a society of people who do not listen to nor value their emotional selves. This causes people to engage in destructive relationships, unfulfilling careers, and to live in places that are an affront to the senses.
So what would happen if people learned about feelings, and their impact on life? What would happen of people listened to their intuition and their emotional natures more and included this input into their decision-making? What would happen if people learned safe ways to express their feelings – rather than suppress them?
We would have a happier, more fulfilled, more balanced, more loving societies.
What are emotions anyway?
Emotion is the connecting energy between our mental planning and conceptualization and our physical action.
Consider the below model:
If we have one of the above elements missing or suppressed, we will not realize our full potential as a human being. If we are spiritually disconnected, or we have no belief in or experience of a higher power that is greater than ourselves, we are then only operating on the mental, emotional and physical planes.
If we are mentally slow, or underdeveloped, then we are not able to plan or to solve problems of life and living.
If we are spiritually connected, mentally developed and physically oriented, however have the emotional plane blocked or suppressed, we will not have the energy to create the results we want, nor will we be able to move others to action or to connect deeply with people in relationships.
There are many people who have no spiritual source, are very mentally developed (sometimes to the genius level) are totally suppressed emotionally, however they are physically oriented. These people are able to connect with us physically and mentally, however they are unable to feel real empathy or to connect on a spiritual level.
With one or more of the planes suppressed or underdeveloped we will not realize our full potential and we will not be fulfilled with our lives – regardless of the success or recognition that we achieve.
So you can see, that in order to be a fully realized, self actualized human being, one must be developed on all four spiritual, mental, emotional and physical planes
Emotions are misunderstood
In many societies around the world, under control, calm and expressionless under pressure are accepted and valued as “strong,” while expressive and alive with emotions is considered “weak.” This is often referred to as; “the person was emotional.”
This judgment comes from labeling emotions as good and bad. Good emotions are accepted and bad emotions are unacceptable. We learn from our parents and the people who care about us which emotions are bad and not to be expressed, and which emotions are good and should be expressed often.
The problem is that different families have different assessments of good and bad.
For example, in one family it may be considered good to express joy and bad to express anger. In another family it may be the exact opposite. What happens when two people from these families get together and form a relationship? This will cause constant fighting and unhappiness because what is considered good behavior by one person will be considered bad by the other.
In order to be a whole and complete person we must be able to experience and express all of the emotions available to mankind. This is a tall order for many people as they avoid some feelings and move towards others. Avoiding some and moving towards others causes us to be at the effect of our emotions. They have us, we don’t have them.
There are no good or bad emotions
Letting go of the labels of good and bad in terms of emotions will liberate us from being at effect of ours and other peoples emotions. Once we understand that every emotion is a necessary part of life and has its place, we can then free ourselves from avoidance and embrace the appropriate emotion for the appropriate situation.
For example, when a tiger is stalking us, it is appropriate to feel caution and fear. It is inappropriate for us to feel enthusiasm or serenity… this will have us being eaten! It is also not appropriate for us to feel and express anger when another person says, “I love you.”
There are hundreds of different emotions or feelings
There are literally hundreds of different emotions that are broken down into specific feelings, and then further categorized into seven primary zones. Each zone has a corresponding color that loosely matches the chakras and also the stages of childhood development.
You will notice from the above model, that our available energy is low at the bottom of the scale and increases as we go up the scale.
Each category or zone includes many other feelings on a scale of intensity. For example, in the fear zone (Orangezone) the top of fear is uncertainty, nervous and worry, and the bottom is blind terror. So you can see that mild fear is a little uncomfortable and extreme fear is very uncomfortable.
This is the same with all the zones. The anger zone begins with boredom at the top, rage at the bottom and many different flavors of anger in between.
What happens when an emotion is blocked
What happens to a person who comes from a family where anger is judged as a “bad” emotion and is not acceptable to feel let alone express. What this does, is limit the ability of the person to feel, experience and express emotions that are higher on the scale than anger. In other words, anger blocks the persons free flow of emotional energy.
This block causes a major limitation on the persons life and creates all kinds of problems at work and in relationships. Any time someone expresses anger around this person, they will want to either run away or will become angry themselves. In other words they either avoid or challenge.
In today’s competitive and fast paced world, our most precious assets are our people, our relationships and our time. Most executives and professionals are familiar with W. Edwards Deming’s concept of optimization and fine tuning a system to achieve the optimum output and results.
Few people apply the concept of optimization to their lives, people strategies, systems, policies, procedures, marketing and management practices.
Leading a team of people in today’s highly competitive, technologically sophisticated and connected world is very different from the command and control style prevalent in the preceding centuries.
Intangible assets such as people, know-how, systems and intellectual property are valued at many times more than tangible assets. Traditional management training and methods are severely lacking in people knowledge and understanding of a world that is more and more intangible.
A new style of leadership is required for the new paradigm economy of today and the future.
Futurists commonly predict that we are moving away from separate personal and professional lives towards a life where our personal and professional lives are fully integrated.
For many of us, our lives have developed as fragmented sections or compartments. We are one way at work, and altogether different in our personal life. This leads to a split personality: the work persona and the home persona and never the twain shall meet. Our feelings get left at home and the very fabric of what makes us human gets left out of the work place.
How do you integrate yourself as a whole person into your career, profession or business? Most success models are based on how much money you have, however this is a very limited view of life. True success includes money, health, relationship, career, self-expression and spirituality.
Traditionally, our personal lives are viewed as separate and distinct from our professional lives. And yet, the state of our personal life has a dramatic impact on our productivity, stress and performance. The basic rule applies: less fragmentation = less stress.
What can you do to integrate more of yourself in all areas – professional and personal?
Denial is a defense mechanism in which a person faced with a fact, feeling, situation or reality that is uncomfortable or painful to accept – rejects it often despite overwhelming evidence.
Three different types of Denial are as follows:
“Basic Denial” is where the person outright denies the reality of an unpleasant fact, feeling, situation or reality.
“Minimization” is where a person admits the fact but denies how serious it is.
“Transference” is where a person admits the facts and seriousness but denies any responsibility and transfers responsibility to someone else.
I noted an interesting statistic today. The most popular post on this BLOG relates to dealing with stress. This has got me thinking… since October 2008 what is on most peoples minds is the financial crisis and how this continuing crisis is going to impact our companies, our investments, our finances and our personal lives.
What does financial stress have to do with leadership? Everything! If you are feeling nervous, anxious or even outright terror at the thought of not making ends meet, the first person for you to lead is yourself. It is very difficult to be creative, resourceful and confident when you are dealing with the various mind numbing hormones we experience as fear.
So how do you lead yourself?
Often (but not always) our mind speculates as to what could happen and we conjure up images of the worst case scenario, which in most cases turns out to be worse than reality.
Leading yourself requires objectivity. If you consider the worst case scenario, versus the best case scenario and figure out ways you can live with the worst case, then from this place you can calmly consider possible courses of action that you could take to avert the worst case. And in most cases reality tends to be somewhere in between the worst and the best case.
On the other hand, if you avoid the worst case, pretend it wont happen (denial) and go on as if nothing is going to happen… you have a very good chance of going through the worst case scenario in reality!
So accepting the worst case allows you to let go of the fear and to think calmly of what can be done with the resources at hand. Once you have a number of items that you can action immediately a strange thing happens… fear turns to confidence… confusion is replaced with clarity.
Having a plan – any plan – is far better than no plan at all. At least with a plan you have certainty of what you can do. And if it does not work, you can at least be confident in the knowledge that you succeeded in finding out what does not work. Then you can try another approach, and another… until you succeed. Accepting the worst case, and then having a plan will reduce your stress – especially when you take action on your plan.
Another possibility is to look at the financial crisis as an opportunity. This will empower you to make changes that you would not otherwise make. Oftentimes when things don’t flow, we have an opportunity to examine why they are not flowing. Whereas when the money is easily flowing we would continue on unchanged and not question what we are doing.
So the financial crisis is an ideal opportunity to re-examine what is flowing and what isn’t - so we can make different choices.
Over the next few days and weeks we will write more about stress, the financial crisis and how to cope with it. Stay tuned.
“The key to a leader’s impact is sincerity. Before he can inspire with emotion he must be swayed by it himself. Before he can move their tears his own must flow. To convince them he must himself believe.”
There are a lot of things that can cause a leader to fail. None of them are as deadly as what they do to themselves! The following is a list of saboteurs that apply equally to leaders and followers:
fear, doubt & disbelief
criticism (and the inner-critic)
anger (under-expressed & over-expressed)
invalidating behavior & communication (most of us are so used to this we don’t even notice it)
triggers, reactions & moods (we all know people who react to small things and are moody)
greed & jealousy (yikes)
black holes, denial and the emotional roller coaster (no matter how much you give, it is never enough)
Who wants to follow a leader who is afraid, doubts the task at hand is possible and disbelieves the teams ability to get the job done? On the other hand, who wants to lead people like that? The truth is no one in their right mind would “want to”, however the reality is that as a leader we end up having to lead people exactly like that!
The key is to learn how to succeed as a leader regardless of the quality or state of the people we are leading.
In future posts we will discuss in more detail how to handle difficult people…
their belief that they are the best suited for the role
others belief that they are the best suited for the role
the desire to control and have power over others
ego, status, power and prestige
greed
not wanting to follow others
You can see from the above list that the best leader is a person who desires to make a difference and is the best suited for the role. Best suited for the role means they have the right combination of experience, skills, attitudes and ability. So what happens when a person is motivated by the desire to control, enhance their ego, status and power etc?
Their decisions, actions and thought processes will be based on their own ego and what’s in it for them – and not necessarily what is right for their stakeholders. Who wants to follow a leader who is motivated primarily by self-interest?
The best leaders know when to lead and when to follow. If the leader is motivated by not wanting to follow, then they will insist on leading – even when they are clearly not the best suited for the situation. The end result is an outcome that is less than what would be possible with the right person leading.
Next time you are choosing a leader, consider these eight motivations and don’t listen to what they say – consider their past actions as good indicators of future actions…
Many of today’s leaders are operating from an old leadership model that could be described as “leadership through domination.” This style stifles creativity and inhibits innovation.
It is impossible to think of new ideas that defy old ways of doing things if we are afraid of making mistakes and are constantly worried about the real or perceived threat from a leader whose style is based on autocracy, coercion and punishment.
Creative and innovative people require creative and innovative workplaces that are fluid, flexible, fun, nurturing, supportive and enjoyable.No longer is economic success dependent on natural resources, manufacturing excellence, and scientific or technological prowess.Today, the terms of success revolve around an organizations ability to mobilize, attract and retain creative human talent.Every competitive dimension depends on creativity and ingenuity of people that make up the organization.
Leading a team of creative talent is very different from leading a factory line of workers who do similar tasks repetitively.It simply does not work to command creativity!Can you imagine Mozart or Picasso being told to produce or “you are out!”Leadership in the creative economy requires vastly different skills.
Today’s new model of leadership involves partnership, cooperation and team.
One of the biggest blocks to most people stepping into personal leadership and responsibility is that they are so afraid of making mistakes, that they won’t take the risk of being responsible and accountable at the same time.Most people inaccurately see responsibility as another way of saying “blame” – or who is “at fault” when things go wrong.Combine this with the fear of losing face and you have people who won’t speak up – even though they know the solution!
Encouraging people to speak up requires building trust and safety.People need to know that they won’t be punished for expressing themselves and stating their opinions – before they will take the risk of speaking up.
Depression is one of the most common challenges facing individuals and businesses today. More than the blues, the overall feeling of doom can trigger some people to act irrationally. Recent studies indicate that low levels of serotonin (a brain chemical) can in part lead to an overall insensitivity to future consequences, setting off impulsive and aggressive behaviors…
Recent studies have indicated that as many as a third of heart disease patients are depressed. Upon visiting their primary care doctor or cardiologist, they receive treatment for their heart disease, however the depression often remains untreated. In fact, many doctors are beginning to suspect the drugs used to treat high blood pressure may worsen depression and trigger mood swings in patients.
Honesty is the best policy; platitude or truism? How many times are we faced with the decision to be honest – or to tell a “little white lie?” No one else may know – however, you know and how do you feel about yourself? There are many ways to tell the truth – without the discomfort that most people avoid. It just takes a little effort to escape the black/white way of thinking.
One of the best ways to stretch your mind is to travel to different countries to experience different cultures and ways of life. Most people travel to places that are familiar and in fact return to the same places for vacation after vacation. If you live in North America – visit Asia. If you live in Asia visit North America. Talk to the locals, visit local places and do local things.
Have you ever noticed that when the weather is warm, the air is clear and the sky is blue – you feel upbeat, optimistic and happy? On the other hand, when the weather is extremely hot or cold, the air is polluted and the sky is overcast – you feel depressed, pessimistic and unhappy?
Work is still the best way to achieve personal success and to better play our role within society: it helps in enhancing self-esteem, provides social prestige and generates income which facilitates civil and political participation. Work is, has been and will remain the key component of the social contract. It forms the basis for creating societies of free women and men, and it is the foundation for democratic governance.
Did you know that energy, thoughts, ideas and feelings can jump from one person to another? Sounds strange I know, but recent research indicates that this is a bigger problem than you can imagine… the question is, are you transfering your thoughts to them – or are they transfering theirs to you? This is an important distinction for all leaders…
Good health is like the weather, most people are so busy rushing here and there – that they don’t stop to notice how they are feeling until it is raining cats n dogs or freezing cold!
Don’t wait until you get sick to do something about your health…
“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is unwise to pay too little.
When you pay too much, you loose a little money; that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything.
Because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.
It cannot be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run and if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.
There is hardly anything in the world that someone can’t make a little worse and sell a little cheaper – and people who consider price alone are this man’s lawful prey”.
Most people want to know HOW to do something… eg. “how do I make more money? how do I speak up? how do I take more leadership?” The HOW is the easy part when you have a clear picture of WHY. eg. why do you want to speak up? what will that give you? Once you are clear on what it will give you, figuring out how to do it is easy…
Most people think that the fastest way to get between two points is a straight line… and yes, they are correct when in a one dimensional reality. This is similar to looking at the horizon and saying that the world is flat. We live in a multidimensional world and often the most creative solution shows that the fastest way to get from one point to the other is NOT always a straight line!
Most people have the attitude; “I will believe it, when I see it.” This is the opposite of the visionary attitude; “I will see it, when I believe it.” What is your attitude?
If we are indeed spiritual beings in a physical body, how much time do we spend focusing on our spirit versus time spent on the physical aspects of our lives?
To be fully-realized, self-actualized means that we have to have alignment between our SPIRITUAL, MENTAL, EMOTIONAL and PHYSICAL dimensions. Most people are well developed mentally and physically – and are underdeveloped spiritually and emotionally.
my travel photographs and saw this picture of a poster at the Dubai Airport advertising the world’s tallest building, which was under construction at the time. The Burj Dubai is very impressive and I was inspired to write more about the towers of glass.
Andrew John Harrison
Anjou MacPherson
Anjou & Harrison
