Organisational success depends on leaders making smart decisions. And sometimes, that’s to delegate that decision to someone else. If you’ve worked with senior leaders who insist on being involved in (ahem, ‘making’) every decision in the organisation, you’ll know how frustrating, disempowering and unproductive it is. I’ve seen it at close hand, and it’s incredibly destructive. Perhaps like me, you’ve spent too long over some decisions that aren’t ultimately worth that amount of energy. As I’ve discovered, there are a… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Leadership
Anthropology and e-mobility – the unexpected connection!
August 26 2022Highlights: Young leader traits for 2022. Coming to grips with the new normal. Anthropology and e-mobility? Maybe the arts are a key to business leadership and innovation. The broader theme of this story is answering the question – what does it take to be a successful leader in the post-pandemic environment? You might remember a favourite acronym of mine – VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) – a term that well describes the apparent chaos and pace of change in… Read more »
Does Culture REALLY eat Strategy for breakfast?
August 24 2021I originally published this piece on LinkedIn back in May 2018, including some ideas sparked by the 2018 Australian Leadership Summit. That was back when we used to attend actual events! Am re-posting it today as it’s worth a quick read if you ever wonder about the answer to this time-honoured question. Have added a couple of 2021 edits or notes… Culture has been said to eat Strategy for breakfast (or lunch!). But does it really? When around 75-80% of… Read more »
MBWA – a highly effective management hack, or a dud?
July 2 2019What if there was ONE easy way to be a great manager? MBWA, or ‘Management-By-Walking-Around’, has been put forward as one such method. It involves managers being out on the floor, directly engaging with team members, while also observing frontline workers in action. Sounds great huh – get out there with the team, show that you’re one of them, be a part of it… In support of this idea, there are some studies do suggest that managers who are… Read more »
Can we lead from our comfort zone?
January 17 2019As a new year kicks off, thoughtful leaders are taking a moment or two to consider how they can lead better in 2019. It could be people skills, communication, strategy and tactics, achieving business outcomes more effectively, stakeholder partnerships – there’s always something (and if not, a review or check-in with your team will help you find a few). But, knowing what we would ideally improve, and doing it, are two different things. Sometimes, the culprit is the good old… Read more »
Does culture REALLY eat strategy for breakfast?
May 22 2018When around 70-80% of efforts around ‘change strategies’ fail to realise the gains they set out to achieve, it’s not just about poor implementation of a brilliant idea! Perhaps, culture is the real culprit… The famous ‘what eats what’ notion has been attributed to Peter Drucker, originating the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast” somewhere back in C20. Sometimes ‘lunch’ replaces ‘breakfast’, but the point remains the same. No matter how good your strategy is, your organisational culture is more… Read more »
Four “ok, bad and ugly” methods of leadership (and how to avoid them).
August 7 2014Reviewing leader performance – always astounding After posting recently on LinkedIn on the theme of transformational leadership, and finding a huge level of interest in the topic and some brilliant feedback on the post, I’m prompted to explore a little deeper, picking up just a couple of the themes that came through in the comments. I wanted to outline what might be happening when things go wrong for a leader, and how this can show up as an under-use… Read more »
An evil plan – not one of the 5 key characteristics of effective leadership!
July 29 2014Bad news does travel. At a recent breakfast meeting I chatted with a CEO who reflected, uncomfortably but critically, on another leader in his field. This other CEO is apparently losing the respect of peers through behaviours that clash significantly with the respected culture and values of their industry. My companion felt (quite correctly) that even a half-good recruitment process would have pointed out some of the potential dangers of this appointment in advance. To deepen the problem, the board… Read more »
Can you triple performance using organisational health?
April 17 2014We’ve always thought there must be a great success secret somewhere, and here it is in the form of a recipe! But how do you know you have the right formula? McKinsey’s latest research from more than 800 organisations globally might just reveal the answer. New research by Mckinsey suggests that the performance payoff from organisational health is unexpectedly large. Companies have four distinct “recipes” to achieve it. Performance-based organisational health is the capacity to deliver superior financial and operating performance –… Read more »
Research reveals credibility and positive returns for executive coaching.
February 10 2014A study of nearly 500 business and human capital leaders found the demand for executive coaching services is growing: Almost 80% viewed coaching as credible and impactful in enhancing an individual’s effectiveness in driving the performance of an organisation Organisations are benefiting from a high return on investment (ROI) for executive coaching. More than three-quarters of enterprise executives view executive coaching as credible and valuable. Investment in coaching is on the rise as organisations strive to build ready pipelines of talent…. Read more »
