Tag Archives: Leadership
If you can’t answer these questions, your business is irrelevant
We recently met with representatives from one of the largest energy utility providers in Mexico to talk about their current issues and how we might help them transform themselves.
Before we met, I created a list of 20 questions to ask them. These questions, which went into detail about their their current strategy, could give us a inside look of this company’s thinking and what we might be up against.
Here are a few questions that went unanswered and thus got these executives to shake their heads: (more…)
People don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it
Yesterday I went to TEDex TijuanaSalon at Cety’s University in Tijuana. While three of the four speakers talked about entrepreneurship, it was the speaker in a video from a previous TED that got the most applause. The people who organized the event apparently wanted to add more content and so decided to play Simon Sinek’s video for the audience.
Simon Sinek wasn’t there in the flesh, but his talk about how great leaders inspire action was by far the best talk everyone got to see yesterday. Anyways, I thought it would be great to revisit the main message of his talk: People don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it.
Related articles
- Simon Sinek: If You Don’t Understand People, You Don’t Understand Business (jacksonspeeks.com)
- The Real Reason They Wept for Steve Jobs: A Marketing Revelation (customerthink.com)
How Leaders can set the tone for innovation
Remember last month I told you about a client who told his staff that they needed to start thinking about what they’ve never thought about? Well this past week I went back to check up on them and see exactly what had happened since our last conversation.
Absolutely nothing.
I wasn’t surprised. The predictable ‘I haven’t had time to think about it’ came up. Sure, they definitely have some ideas like focusing on not just businesses but also consumers and creating a brand for that. Though that’s just an idea and they know they have to do it but again nothing has happened.
The President of the company understands that they need to make time to ‘think about what they’ve never thought about’ but hasn’t really made the decision to do so. Well let me tell you something:
For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently. (more…)
Don’t look for examples, be the example
I have a client who has (so far) the only SaaS payroll management solution for small businesses in Mexico. This is both great and bad. Let me explain…
In our initial meeting I was told they used Workday as an example to follow. Their reasoning was that Workday has a very simple to use and intuitive interface, plus they are the ‘leaders’ in the field. The studied them rigorously and brought the same principles over to their solution.
This hasn’t worked as planned.
Workday has and used a distinct set of capabilities that my client doesn’t have (development experience in new technologies for one). Plus the customer is also different. And Workday’s cluster of capabilities go beyond simple copy and paste design, look and feel.
These cluster of capabilities have to solve the customers problem, make his life easier. Ultimately that’s what matters. (more…)
Innovation posts of the week: Combining scale with agility
- Ambidexterity – the innovation skill we need now by @ovoinnovation
- Business Winners: Combining Scale with Agility – Irving Wladawsky-Berger
- The Future of How We Consume Things – HBR
- Creativity can hinder the corporate climb via @ralph_ohr
- Managing to be surprised by @rantcliff
- How PepsiCo, Kraft & MWH Accelerate Innovation by @andreameyer
- A Bias against ‘Quirky’? Why Creative People Can Lose Out on Leadership Positions – Knowledge@Wharton
Are you more credible as an innovator?
I found this question at the bottom of an article that states that in order to get promoted you need to put your creativity to rest and embrace the status quo. See below:
The research clearly shows that “when people voice creative ideas, they are viewed by others as having less leadership potential,” says Jack Goncalo, who teaches organizational behavior at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
That may come as a surprise, since many companies claim to prize innovative thinking.
But Goncalo, who led the studies, points out that our deeply ingrained expectations of “creative people” and “effective leaders” are often at loggerheads: Creative types may be seen as mercurial and unpredictable, while leaders “are expected to reduce uncertainty and uphold the norms of the group,” he says.
That’s particularly true in times of economic uncertainty. The data suggest that, when the going gets tough, people crave the security that comes from having leaders who preserve the status quo.
This study further reinforces what we already know about instituting innovation within established organizations, that the forces of human nature are the biggest impediments to innovation.
Naturally, this is the way it’s always been. Human tendency is to prefer the familiar, so naturally people who maintain the status quo will be seen as ‘better’ than creatives. Again, this is a matter of perception. The problem is, as is often the case, in times of uncertainty there are gaps that can be exploited. Opportunities open up because there is a restructuring of the fundamental ideas of the past. Everyone is looking for a light to follow and that light is NOT ‘the same it’s always been’. This is all counter intuitive, but most things that are uncertain are.
But this doesn’t answer the question of this post: Are you more credible as an innovator?
Before answering let me point out that being creative doesn’t mean you’re innovative, although the probability of that happening is much higher than if you’re not creative. Again, this is a matter of definition. What is innovative can be different things to everybody.
So the first thing that needs to happen is the organization has to come to a collective understanding of what ‘innovation’ is to them. That can then help inform how problems are framed and ideas are presented, because if the ideas presented are not aiming at something then most likely they’re going to be shot down and you along with it. I think this is where the fundamental problem is.
Are you more credible as an innovator? If you’ve done it before and it improved/solved a problem then yes. If the ideas are just thrown out there to see what happens then you’re staying right where you are.
We all know we need to innovate continuously to stay relevant, key is making it happen and then all these issues will be kept at bay.
Thoughts?
Leadership vs Management: Tale of the tape
After seeing Scott Berkun’s post on innovation vs usability in numbers, I decided to do my own search on Google’s Ngram Viewer and compared four words: innovation, creativity, management and leadership. Graph below or click through to page:
As you can see, in the last decade ‘management’ (green) is becoming less relevant in books. Incredibly so is ‘leadership’ (blue). What’s more interesting still now with hindsight is how from 1960 – 2000, mentions of management went to the stratosphere while leadership stayed more or less the same.
Why such discrepancy?
My take is that part of our education system (as well as workplace) is focused on creating managers. The whole industrial revolution was the major cause in this shift. My parents drilled this into my head also and I know a lot of my former classmates desired to become managers and still do. Managers are ‘the boss’ they say. That’s a flawed logic (fixed mindset) in the context of innovation because managers are like the nuts that keep the tires from spinning off the car while it’s moving, they keep the wheels moving. Steady as she goes. Whereas in the creative pursuit the tires will change a lot more than planned for. Hell, the nuts, bolts and structures will change too.
This is what’s taught in most schools: strive to become a manager because you’ll be the one to tell others what to do. Get an MBA and be the boss.
I guess the economic reset put that notion into submission.
More leadership, less management
Have you ever counted how many leaders vs managers are in organizations? Lots. That needs to change to a healthy balance. My argument is not that management shouldn’t exist, it’s just how it’s perceived that is the problem. By creating more management (structure) we’re alienating others and our own freedom to create. We need more leaders not more managers.
Thoughts?
P.S. Just noticed that since I’ve been writing this blog I’ve never created a ‘management’ category for posts. Will keep it that way. That tells you something 
