Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Responsibility in Business and Society

From awareness to systems change:

With the extreme weather events taking place all around the globe in recent years, few deny climate change any longer. 

The images of massive floods in Paris and London, shrinking ice fields on the poles, and the years of drought in sub-Saharan countries in Africa show us the impact of climate change.

The problem of climate change goes beyond the type of energy we are using. 

The shift from fossil fuel to renewable energies and clean technologies will certainly help to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, but it won't be enough. 

It will substitute part of the energy demand, but the demand for energy, materials, water, food, cars and computers will continue to increase as long as the logic of the economic system remains the same.

Strategic decision making based on data and dialogue via the Responsible Business Simulator

We developed the Responsible Business Simulator to over come the obstacles encountered by spreadsheet models for strategic decision making.  Just like a spreadsheet model is built within a spreadsheet software environment--typically Microsoft's Excel--the Responsible Business Simulator has been programmed in a mathematical modelling software environment call AIMMS.

Evaluating options by assessing strategic priorities:

Now that we have a validated simulation model that converted all inputs to outputs, we can study these outputs to compare the decision maker's various options and select the best out of these.

Source:  Annemieke Roobeek: Responsible Business: Making Strategic Decisions to Benefit People, the Planet and Profits

CONSCIOUS

We live in a world of accelerating change that we can either tune out and avoid, or evolve with, lead and transform by awakening and expanding our minds with heightened awareness.

In "CONSCIOUS: The Power of Awareness in Business and Life"  author and psychologist Bob Rosen, PhD and Emma-Kate Swann argue that the state of mind most needed today is not mindfulness,which recharges us, but an awareness that can empower us to adapt to and even lead change.  They call this state of mind "conscious."

Based on research drawn from psychology, biology, management, leadership, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, CONSCIOUS offers a groundbreaking new approach to adapting and thriving in our fast-changing world.

Why is having CONSCIOUS leaders so critical today?

For companies, having conscious leaders at every level is critical.  Beyond the need for leaders to be capable of fomenting and managing constant transformation, we also need leaders who fully grasp and appreciate the need for things like diversity and inclusion, talent management and ethics--all of which are fundamental to the conscious mindset.

Source:  Bob Rosen: Conscious: The Power of Awareness in Business and Life

Smart as You Think?

 People who complete more formal schooling tend to be more intelligent than those who don't.

IQ tests are designed so that the mean, median and mode are essentially the same, so there's no way that two-thirds of people can be above average.

Most people really do think they are pretty smart. 

Does this mean they are irrational about their own intelligence?

But expressing confidence also can bestow benefits, even if that confidence is sometimes undeserved.  Confident people are seen as being more competent and higher in social status than humble people.

The most reliable way to convince other people you are brilliant probably starts with sincerely believing it yourself.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, 7/21/18, by Patrick Heck and Christopher Chabris of Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania

Ways To Engage Employees

Employee engagement has been consistently cited as a top and growing priority by CEO's, managers, and human resources leaders across the country.  Yet, statistics over the past two decades continuously show that over two-thirds of all employees are "disengaged" at work.

"Industry has been obsessed with measuring employee engagement," asserts author Dr. Bob Nelson.  "It's time to now focus on the behaviors that truly impact employee engagement, and not just the scores that measure it."

In his book, "1,001 Ways to Engage Employees," Dr. Bob helps move any organization from just measuring the need to engage employees to actually changing manager practices and behaviors that will lead to greater engagement by their employees.

Whether you manage just one person or are responsible for thousands, this resource for action that can help zero in on the specific behaviors and actions what matter most in inspiring your employees to be their best each day.

Source:  Bob Nelson: 1,001 Ways to Engage Employees: Help People Do Better What They Do Best

Buzz Aldrin here and now

Buzz Aldrin has walked on the moon and received the Distinguished Flying Cross in Korean War and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

At 88, the former astronaut has visited the White House to discuss space exploration, and envisions humans living on Mars.  His legacy in space is secure.  On earth it's another matter.

Col. Aldrin is grounded in a legal fight with two of his adult children and a former business manager, who he says are trying to grab his legacy and money.  At issue are the operations of his private company, Buzz Aldrin Enterprises, and his nonprofit Share-Space Foundation, overseen by his son and daughter, Andrew and Janice Aldrin.

It isn't uncommon for family members to disagree over how aging parents spend their money or handle their affairs, or for some spats to escalate to all-out legal combat. 

Rarely do such disputes involve a moon-walking American icon.

Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, June 25, 2018

 

The Manager's Answer Book

  The Manager's Answer Book: Powerful Tools to Build Trust and Teams, Maximize Your Impact and Influence, and Respond to Challenges

Barbara Mitchell, Cornelia Gamlem

 

You studied economics, medicine, manufacturing, politics, sales, etc.  You worked your way up in your respective field.  And then you became a manager and on top of all the experience you have in your specific industry, there's now much more!

 

Whether you're a new or seasoned manager, your responsibilities can become overwhelming at times.  There are days and new situations that will leave you feeling vulnerable and alone.  You don't know where to start or even what or who to ask.

 

THE MANAGER'S ANSWER BOOK written in question and answer format is an easy to use guide providing information on many aspects of managing, broken down into the following categories: 

• Getting started: moving from peer to manager.
• Developing your management skills.
• Building and managing your team.

 

Get from Good to Great

In FIVE STARS, Carmine Gallo argues that mastering Aristotle's "ancient art of persuasion"--combining words and ideas to move people to action--is the competitive edge you need to stand out and get ahead in the age of artificial intelligence (AL). 

According to a recent survey, 94 percent of hiring managers say an employee with stronger communication skills has a better chance of being promoted to leadership position than an employee with more years of experience but weaker verbal skills. 

Communication is no longer a "soft skill"--it is the fundamental skill that will help individuals win dream jobs, sell products, build brands, and trigger movements, and it will grow more valuable--not less--as the nature of work changes.

In FIVE STARS, Gallo interviews scholars and scientists, CEOs and billionaires, Navy SEALs, NASA astronauts, and leaders at companies like Google, Nike, and Airbnb to show first-hand how they use words to captivate, convey, and get buy-in for their ideas.

Mastering the art of persuasion is more relevant today than any time in human history.  No machine, software or robot can replicate ideas.  And at a time when ideas matter more than ever, those who can persuade, inspire, and ignite the imagination of others will be irreplaceable. 

Source:  Carmine Gallo: Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great

What Happens Now?

Few leaders will admit it, but time and again the growth of their organizations outruns their skills.

The same approaches and capabilities that once helped them succeed in their careers no longer apply as organizational challenges get more sophisticated, requiring leaders to change the way they think and act.  With these changes come unfamiliar questions, and inevitably even the most seasoned leader can hit a wall.

In WHAT HAPPENS NOW? leadership experts John Hillen and Mark Nevins identify and assess seven common stalls that every leader will almost certainly face in their career--and offer pragmatic solutions to conquer the unfamiliar territory by radically changing their mindset, behaviors, and skills to reinvent themselves as "sophisticated leaders."

Hillen and Nevins identify seven common stalls most leaders will face in their career.  They highlight the warning signs to look out for, along with clear and tangible tips and tools for assessing and over coming these stalls with practical solutions that are realistic and easily executed.

Source:  John Hillen: What Happens Now?: Reinvent Yourself as a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You

Corporate Security

Whether a high-profile target for organized terrorist groups, cyber terrorists, and lone wolf terrorists, or the target for  non-politicized violence such as the recent shooting at YouTube headquarters, domestic and international corporations are at a security crossroads.

CORPORATE SECURITY CROSSROADS, by political science professor and author Richard J. Chasdi, PhD, explores the root causes of the different sectors of terrorism and how businesses can develop strategies to defend against these threats.

In creating a counter terrorism strategy, it's crucial to distinguish between threats based on advancing the political motives, such as industrial espionage, cyber-crime, and workplace sabotage.  Threat types can be categorized along a continuum that reflects different mixtures of nonpolitical and political factors.

Threats can be analyzed at three levels:

• The international political system level
• The nation-state level
• The individual/small group level

This three-level analysis provides a framework to assess basic threats.  All three levels need to be taken into account for a complete and accurate analysis of the likelihood that threats can occur.

Source:  Richard J. Chasdi: Corporate Security Crossroads: Responding to Terrorism, Cyberthreats, and Other Hazards in the Global Business Environment

Ethics

At a time when fraud, sexual harassment, and other forms of workplace misconduct are making daily headlines, ethics has become as indispensable a tool for the modern workplace as technology or finance.

In TAKING ETHICS SERIOUSLY, author John Hooker, provides an intellectual framework for deciding whether an action is ethical.  Hooker brings his extensive background in philosophy, logic, and management science to the rigorous analysis of ethical dilemmas.

The book defines the three conditions, based on ideas that have been discussed in ethical literature for decades, that an action must satisfy to be ethical:

• Generalizabilty
• Utility Maximization
• Respect for Autonomy

Source:  John Hooker: Taking Ethics Seriously: Why Ethics Is an Essential Tool for the Modern Workplace