Following a conversation with Nainoa Thompson ( a Wayfinder who navigates the Pacific Islands without the aid of instrumentation) I was left with an uneasy feeling concerning the contemporary norm when it comes to leadership formation.
But let me backtrack to the conversation with Nainoa.
He described in gripping detail the fear he experienced when navigating the Doldrums. It was the fear of getting lost. The Doldrums is a dangerous stretch of ocean and Nainoa described how he had to ‘close his eyes’ in order to navigate. Successful navigation required something beyond the traditional Western means. He went on to describe how he now welcomes ‘getting lost’ for the value of what gets learnt when lost. If fact there are things that can only get taught when one is lost - and that rich learning is what Nainoa has come to prize.
Continue reading ‘Flat Earth thinking when it comes to leadership’
For the past four years TmTd have been invited to participate in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) hosted by the East West Center and based in Honolulu. Recently Keith was asked to write something to the participants on how best to write ‘leadership reflections’ � something that is required of the participants throughout the programme. This article is an adaptation of the memo that Keith wrote to APLP.
Continue reading ‘The Other Side of Leadership’
He came, he saw, and he conquered…well almost. SA swimming sensation Ryk Neethling was the star of the Mr Price gala in Durban this past weekend. The world record holder swam 7 races and won 7 races. He was cheered, mobbed and (mainly by the females present) goggled at. But there was a problem.
Swimming like any sport has its own etiquette and as in any sport, respect for one’s competitors is paramount. His swimming credentials beyond question, Neethling let himself, the sport and those watching down in his total lack of respect for both the code of conduct and his competitors.
Continue reading ‘From Hero to Zero’
They recognise and cultivate healthy habits
Savvy leaders understand that character outweighs personality every time. Leadership, as so many presume, is not about personality, it is about character. And character is developed over the long-haul. Developing character is a series of intentional acts be those of success, failure, adversity or achievement. Developing character is to know your values � what you live for and what you would be prepared to die for � and to fashion continues acts from those values. Real character cannot be mimed, imitated or acted out � it is something that is consistent, recognisable and trusted. Consciously going about building those habits that lead to character is what savvy leaders devote themselves too. It isn’t something that happens all at once but rather builds over time and in such a manner that it is acknowledged by others before it is recognised by the carrier.
What those habits are will vary from person to person, the trick is to cultivate those habits that are true to you. To do those things that will make you a better person and not compiling a list of things to do because of their ‘show and tell’ value. A perusal of great leaders will reveal a backbone of personal habits that provided them with strength, relief, perspective, humility and courage. Developing habits that build character will necessitate a review of how you spend your time as you might need to find the discipline to change things around in order to do those things that are important, those things that really matter.
Continue reading ‘7 Things Savvy Leaders Do in order to Be Great Leaders’
During a conversation with the Wayfinder Nainoa Thompson in Hawaii last week the realization of the futility of using the classroom to teach leadership impacted me with new force.
As Nainoa described some of his voyages where he navigated without any modern navigation tools finding tiny islands dotted throughout the vast Pacific the thought occurred to me that trying to teach leadership in a sterile classroom environment is like trying to prepare a soccer team using only the changeroom. This is where our preoccupation with a content-driven approach to education has led us. I am not suggesting that the classroom has no place but rather simply asking whether it has assumed far too important a role resulting in ‘leaders’ well able to articulate leadership but who fail to live it.
Continue reading ‘What if leadership can’t be taught?’
After a long flight home I was waiting for my luggage at Jhb International airport when to my surprise an announcement was made informing me on the progress that was being made in getting my luggage from the plane to me. That’s nice I thought and then was even more taken as further reports followed. Didn’t shorten the waiting time but certainly made it easier… just keeping the customer informed seemed to create greater tolerance and patience. This has never happened to me before so well done Jhb International!
So here I am in Hawaii with my head having just arrived in Atlanta. It still has about a 9 hour trip to catch-up with the rest of me. Added trouble is that I picked-up a nasty flu type bug as I was leaving SA and which then decided to make my head its home - I guess it recognised the uncrowded environment and knew a good thing when it saw it. Now I know the logic you working on is: How can my head be in Atlanta when here I am in Hawaii with a bug which just so happens to be in my head? Yes it is perplexing but such is paradox and I will leave it there for your further exploration. Any answers would be appreciated.
But let me get to the point.
Continue reading ‘It’s a small world anyway’
Behaviourist B.F. Skinner maintained that, ‚education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten‛. Much has been written about the need to create learning organisations and more resources than fleas on a stray dog have been spent on leadership formation within organisations. The fact that leadership formation assumes such a high priority within most organisations is fully justified but in terms of how it is done, is it money well spent? In the face of this learning avalanche, a nagging question persists: Is the effort surrounding leadership formation producing learning or education (as per Skinner’s definition)? In other words, are organisations and the individuals within them, better off for all the attention on leadership development? Are our leadership programmes really making a significant impact on the way we think, do business, and live our lives?
Continue reading ‘Are you wasting your money on leadership development?’
“No I’m not. In fact I am NOT a motivational speaker” was my emphatic reply. My take on a motivational speaker is a singular talk accompanied by word perfect delivery with every detail carefully crafted and a message, when really looked at - is often a message with very little substance. Harsh? Perhaps…but given this view, I simply don’t like to be labeled as a ‘motivational speaker’. Why is it that corporate conferences are preoccupied with wanting motivational speakers who will pump up the audience and induce a feeding frenzy? Do they really think this leads to lasting or authentic change?
The , exploring the subject of women and leadership, carried an article titled, ‘Women can beat men at their own game’.
My question is, “why would they want to do that?�
Trying to ‘beat men at their own game’ is not only a foolhardy tactic but one that will simply ensure that women leaders who succeed in this will merely join the majority their male counterparts on the ‘irrelevant leadership scrapheap’. Not a pretty place to be.
Writing in the February 2004 edition of , Linda Tischler asks why it is that so few women are to be found in the ‘corner office’. South African statistics confirm this to be the case in that only 1.9% of CEOs and MDs in the Rainbow Nation are women. A far cry from the progress being made within Government circles! In fact the United States, Britain, Australia and Japan do not fare much better when it comes to the relevant statistics.
Continue reading ‘Smart Women Don’t Box: Leadership in the Connection economy’
In this past British Open played at St. Andrews - the home of golf, a sporting gesture of magnificent proportions took place. It was one that serves as an example for leaders everywhere especially those within the corporate and public sectors
Continue reading ‘What leaders can learn from David Toms’
Well that is how I am feeling as I participate in the IS (Internet Solutions) conference. “How some of my colleagues would value being here” I think to myself as I listen to IT speak that to be honest makes as much sense to me as Russian. I am learning though as I sit here and listen with the most IT intelligent expression I can muster. Here some thoughts that emerge…
Each Industry has its own language. To those on the inside it makes perfect sense but often simply doesn’t translate to the outsider. This is not necessarily a problem except when speaking to outsiders. Of course it is fully appropriate that IS speak their language as they speak to each other but we all need to take care that (whatever our industry) when we address our clients, customers etc…we speak a language they understand. And I am sure IS do this…in fact they must do it given their exciting growth.
We spoke about blogging (as scary as that might be…a Boomer offering insights as to blogging in such a context) and it will be interesting if anyone from IS picks up on this blog.
This is an exciting and energetic playground and IS will be one to watch. Hopefully, I will leave the gallery a bit wiser and literate!
A invitation to diner at Freda’s house is always a sure guarantee of good food and great conversation. I was not disappointed at the most recent diner party on Thursday. To cut a long story short we got onto body alignment and working with the energy fields in which we participate - unwitting or not. Freda, a psychologist and respected friend and mentor from whom I have learnt a great deal, has been exploring this subject for some time and invited me to share in the discovery
Continue reading ‘Self-awareness: Beneath the Surface’
Understanding and leading diversity is complex and demanding territory for leaders everywhere. It also is territory, which in a global economy, is simply unavoidable. In the face of relentless diversity care needs to be taken that leaders avoid the temptation of looking for an easy or simplistic formula. An ‘ABC’ to leveraging diversity where all you have to do is ‘add water’ and in an instant you have the solution!
Here is what I am learning about diversity and hopefully these ongoing lessons will provide you with some of the signposts that will assist you in your own unique yet shared journey.
Continue reading ‘Leading Diversity: An Invitation to Leaders Everywhere’
The more I deal with HR departments in various companies the more I have come to understand that if it is HR that is entrusted with leadership development (and it usually is) the more it is likely to fail. Let me explain what I mean by this.
Most leadership formation programmes I have encountered either are not working or will certainly fail to produce the kind of leaders needed in a connection economy. My concern is that even amongst the ‘professionals’ - the business schools - that several companies entrust with their leadership formation programmes, are also following down the same ‘dead-end’ path.
Continue reading ‘The problem with HR doing leadership development’
Today I enjoyed a thought provoking conversation concerning the overwhelming amount of information that one is required to engage with in our world today. I don’t think I need to make a case for what certainly is a reality experienced by most. Not being connected today is as rare as an anartic heatwave. But there is a distiction between information and connection; between information and conversation.
We in TomorrowTday.biz have championed blogging. Rightly so. The potential value of blogging is awesome but there are also some dangers, dangers that perhaps are not yet self-evident as the ‘blog at all costs’ sweeps into vogue. Let me mull over a few dangers that are becoming more obvious to me.
Information out of context is problematic, even dangerous. Often (but not always) super-highways of information (like blogs) don’t or can’t provide context.
Continue reading ‘Conversations vs Information’
Here is a quote from the June edition of Newsweek; “As power flows away from the corner office - driven too by technology like blogs that make organizations more transparent - the pressure on leaders to act appropriately will only grow.” Harvard professor Barbara Kellerman, author of ‘Bad Leadership:What It Is, Why It Happens, Why It Matters’ in the same article writes that this will “keep leaders more in line in the future - we’re simply watching them too closely now”. Certainly the advent of blogging is having a huge impact on companies in general and leadership in particular. For one thing it means that the company control on PR has receded even further in that anyone can blog on their relationship / experience with the company and as they do so, it immediately enters the public domain. Censorship will be almost impossible. Leaders are going to have to understand this further shift in power away from their corner office. Blogging has brought yet another wall of the corner office crumbling down.
Tom Peters who is known for his ’shouting in capitals’ in his varoius publications and who advocates being “mad at the world” shot himself in the foot during his recent seminar in South Africa.
Continue reading ‘OUCH…Tom Peters shoots himself in the foot’
How would new ways to describe ‘leadership’ broaden and deepen our understanding of what leadership is?
Continue reading ‘So what’s in a name?’
This week I have enjoyed several great conversations around leadership as I have accompanied Nick Barker to various meetings. Nick heads up the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) at the East West Center in Hawaii. Here is one memorable quote from Nick who was in turn quoting someone else. He said
Continue reading ‘What is real education?’
It is a great battle cry - shape the future - do whatever it takes. It was the rally call from a conference I have just attended where I was invited to present ‘Savvy Leadership: leadership for the 21st Century’. As I looked over the sea of faces I detected an interesting mix of emotions…
Continue reading ‘Shape the future - do whatever it takes’
In looking at the future of leadership in a Connection economy there is little doubt that it will be a woman’s world. Now of course that is not to say that men won’t or can’t lead but rather that for the first time, the ‘rules of the game’ won’t prejudice women leadership. It is a message I have experienced standing ovations for in predominantly women audiences and in men dominated audiences, have felt lucky to escape with my life! Anyway, should you have any doubts about the rising tide of ‘Girl Power’ then look no further than the May edition of Fast Company (issue #94).
Continue reading ‘Girl Power: Sisters are doing it for themselves.’
For leaders, the flow of information within their company ought to be a primary concern. The need for developing horizonal information flow is critical as is the avoidence of allowing islands of information to develop leading to fragmented knowledge. In virtual and decentralised structures gettos of information develop all to easily. Getting this information out to the wider network becomes critical especially when it comes to…
Continue reading ‘A Case for Blogging’
The amazing Liverpool win over AC Milan on Wednesday poses a dilemma for the sport’s powers that be. The current rules mean that the 2005 Champions are ineligible to defend their title. By finishing only 5th in their domestic league Liverpool remain outside of the positions eligible for the Champions League. If ever there was a time to break the rule it is now.
Continue reading ‘When Rules Shouldn’t Matter’
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