Foundations of Leadership

1. Ensure everyone shares a vision for success
2. Ensure everyone knows the overall purpose and their individual purpose
3. Create the space for clear conversations amongst the team, giving everyone meaningful choices. The team will form itself
4. Allow the team to create their strategy, knowing the vision
5. Do what is important
6. Have fun, ensure the team has fun, giving the space for them to make choices that ensure this

A Summary of Democratic Organization Values

A summary of democratic organization values:

1. Continuous feedback

2. Continuous development

3. Learn from past

4. Improve for future

5. Clear about purpose

6. Clear about goals

7. Transparent and open with everyone about everything

8. Have conversations for connection and meaning

9. Everyone is treated fairly and with dignity

10. Individual accountabilities are clear

11. Individual contributions are valued

12. Individuals are valued for contributions to collective goals

13. Everyone has meaningful choices

14. Integrity

15. Power is shared and distributed

Quotes on Leadership vs Management

“A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under.”
Sam Ervin

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude;
be kind, but not weak;
be bold, but not bully;
be thoughtful, but not lazy;
be humble, but not timid;
be proud, but not arrogant;
have humor, but without folly.”
Jim Rohn

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
Kenneth Blanchard

“The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says “I”; The leader says “WE”. The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, “GO”; the leader says lets, “GO!”
H. Gordon Selfridge

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
Sam Walton

The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability.”
Fred A. Manske, Jr.

“Make no mistake, as you change your leadership style to one of a coach you will face challenges. There will be times when you question why am I doing this. However, you must at all times keep the long term benefits of being a coach at the forefront of your mind.”
Byron & Catherine Pulsifer, from Challenges in Adopting a Coaching Style

“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.”
Ara Parasheghian

“A good coach passes on information quickly. They do not hold back information that affects my job.”
Byron & Catherine Pulsifer, from People’s Expectations of a Coach

“The test of a good coach is that when they leave, others will carry on successfully.”
Author Unknown

“You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.”
Bob Nelson

“No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.”
W. A. Nance

“With all the information available today, the manager can no longer have all the answers. Whereas, in a coaching role, you are not expected to have all the answers. In a coaching role, you ask the questions and rely on your staff, who become the experts, to provide the information.”
Byron & Catherine Pulsifer, from Why All This Talk of Coaching Rather Than Managing?

“The highest of distinctions is service to others.”
King George VI

“You cannot manage men into battle.
You manage things; you lead people.”
Grace Murray Hopper

“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.”
Arnold Glasow

“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.”
Ara Parasheghian

“The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.”
Wayne Lukas

“The man who follows a crowd will never be followed by a crowd.”
R. S. Donnell

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”
Jim Valvano, Basketball Coach

People grow through…

“People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (US diplomat & reformer (1884 – 1962)

Drop the facade, cut to the chase…

My wife and I wandered into the new 360 mall here in Kuwait today, as you do in Kuwait – visit malls.  The 360 mall is a very beautiful place, pleasant surroundings with lots of water features and plants and pretty shops with pretty people.  It’s a pretty place to be.  We wandered into the cinema area and found that Michael Moore had released a new film: Capitalism, A Love Story.  So we went in to see it.

Yet again Michael has done an excellent job pushing, poking and assembling a whole host of stories circulating the recent collapse of the western finance system (yes it was a collapse: the government bailouts just reset the counters, pushing repayment of the collapse onto future generations for decades to come).

A strong secondary theme running through the movie is that of the democratic workplace.  The juxtaposition is very nice.

I totally recommend a veiwing or three.

BTW, “Dead Peasants Insurance” : want to feel like a real commodity with your employer? Dig around at your work and if you find such a thing exists then send details to Mike Myers.

Jeremiah Josey

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More on the New World Order

I’ve been following George Soro’s thoughts for a while and in the book I’m reading now, “The Ascent of Money”, Niall gives him a lot of air time.  So when George presented a week long lecture series at the Central European University I just couldn’t resist.  And in my usual explanative way: “brilliant“!

His theory of reflexivity is closely aligned with the great thinking that underpins a lot of the wonderful stuff that is going on now (Avatar is perhaps the best example I have experienced).  What the Bleep?  Heard of it.  Same stuff.

Here’s the blurb on the FT web site link below:

George Soros unveils his latest thinking on economics and politics during a lecture series hosted by the Central European University (CEU) from Oct 26-30, 2009. These lectures are the culmination of a lifetime of practical and philosophical reflection. Mr Soros discusses his general theory of reflexivity and its application to financial markets, providing insights into the recent financial crisis. The third and fourth lectures examine the concept of open society, which has guided Mr Soros’s global philanthropy, as well as the potential for conflict between capitalism and open society. The closing lecture focuses on the way ahead, closely examining the increasingly important economic and political role that China will play in the future.

George Soros Lectures 26 October 2009 to 30 October 2009

Excellent stuff.  Dry, but very good.  Imagine, almost 80 years of experience from one heck of a performer (he was born in 1930).  He’s worked out the rules of the game and plays it very well.

Jeremiah Josey

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The New World Order

Catchy title?  It’s sure to attract attention.

I’m just about finished a great book called the “Assent of Money” by Niall Ferguson.  An excellent read if you want to understand how the financial system works – including your credit card, your home mortgage and your pension – if you have one.

It’s a history of money, how it works, what it means and really what it is! He paints a very straight forward explanation for why the current shifting in economic power is from the west (in particular the USA) to the East (in particular China).

He also identifies key fractures in the current financial system (particularly credit default swaps – a notional USD 62 trillion worth presently in the market – that’s 78 times the size of the TARP bail out package released last year by the Obama government, and about the same as the entire World’s production, our GDP)

The origins of the financial system, in one place.  No such book exists previously to this book.

4,000 years of the What and Why and When and How and Where and Who on money.

Don’t miss it!

Watch the video (where did they get that music?!!  I remember that music from the games on the Commodore 64 from the early 80’s!!)

Here’s more of Niall speaking on the net: Niall Videos

Jeremiah Josey

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Tips from a Leader – Samir Brikho

Samir puts out a weekly email to staff working at Amec – around 20,000 people work for this company.

He has 6 good pointers for success:

We all learn quickly that we each have different talents and strengths and need to work hard to overcome our weaknesses. Leadership does not always come as a natural ability to all of us and we must seek out mentors to help us create opportunities to fine tune our skills. Throughout my career I have learnt those elements that make a good leader and create success. Like a chemical reaction – if you know what elements you should mix and when different combinations are needed – success is inevitable. Through my experience, I strongly believe that the foundations of leadership are as follows:

Have a vision of success – without this you will lose your way and your direction. Without aspiring to success, there is no point in having a vision – we all want to be successful at what we aim for.

Know your purpose – define why it is that you are putting the effort in. In my role I continually ask – how are we creating jobs? Creating value to our customers? Improving returns to stakeholders? And most importantly are we doing this in a sustainable and meaningful way?

Build the best teams – your team is a reflection of your leadership. It cannot be taken for granted – you need to develop them, trust them and empower them. The more we practise these leadership qualities; which sound easy but take a lot of commitment and determination; the more we will develop the most effective teams in the world.

Develop a clear strategy – you need a roadmap that paves the way for you to achieve your vision. It is crucial that this is clear, action driven and honest. You need to embed milestones and measurement throughout and align your team to the strategy.

Stay focused – do not get distracted with non -priority issues. Plan your short-term, mid-term and long- term objectives. Be honest with yourself and stay committed to what you need to achieve today; tomorrow; in the week; in the quarter; and the year to achieve your vision and strategy.

Have fun – you need to feel excited and inspired every day. This involves recognising when you and your teams are fatigued, when it is time to rest and rotate your people.

This is a “top down” approach, not truly encompassing of a participation management style, however I like the concepts because they can be implemented quite easily across an participative organisation.

Like I telling people working with me (and often looking to me for an answer!), 10 brains working on a problem is much better than 1!

Jeremiah Josey

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The New Frontier: Workplace Democracy

I often think about what is coming next, with instant world wide communication, and access to information from anyone, anytime, anyhow. Personal choice and satisfaction is now more than ever the key question for everyone in all countries, people are seeking – and obtaining – answers from all around the globe.

I think what is next is that marvelous final bastion of time consumption for the majority of us on this little blue planet: not sleeping… employment: trading our time for money.

This is being questioned more than ever – just talk to your parents about getting a “safe secure job”. Perhaps we feel that being gainfully employed means more than money, like “something to do with our time”, but recent studies show that employee disengagement is the epidemic of the 21st century: 6 out of 7 employees have switched off. We are running in neutral; idling; bored; tuned out; not interested; keen to move on.

That’s 86% of the work force not happy to be there / here / anywhere!!

H1N1 has nothing on the misery and suffering caused by that amount of disengagement.

That’s why I’m excited. With all this untapped human potential, just sitting in idle, what does it take to re-engage, re-motivate and obtain excellence from them? That’s exciting: that potential. I know the answer and it’s straight forward: once you get your ego under control.

A friend of mine is doing her MBA in Kuwait and I was helping her prepare for an exam and a group assignment on leadership and organisational management. Great stuff. I was enthralled by a case study about BMW I was reading. It clearly identified the democratic, participative management work environment that clearly explained why BMW is so successful right now, whilst other car manufactures are faltering. As an example BMW has engaged 12,000 new people since 2000, whilst GM and Ford have sacked similar numbers. BMW does not have workers and managers, they have associates and leaders, but there’s more to it, and what they are doing is not important. It’s why and how that counts. And it’s all about engagement. This web page is not the case study, but alludes to BMW’s practices a little.

I explain it to my colleagues and my teams like this: the traditional method of business is like a school class room. [It's really based on the military model, as is school, but relatively few of us have military experience, but "all" of us have been in school. I'll use the term "us" as the students here, because we know it so well ;o) ]

In a typical school there is a teacher and there are the students. The students are a bunch of individuals being told what to do by one person: classical management style theory. The teacher dictates the rules and the students work to our own limits – on our own – to reach our own level of achievement: our grades. That’s it. Students can’t wait to leave. The teacher can’t wait to leave. There’s very little group work, in fact working in a team can get you expelled (it has a special term: “cheating”).

Consider what happens when the teacher leaves the room? What do we do? We all know: we’ve all been there before. We bumff off, goof off, focus on anything and everything but the subject matter.

Something else very interesting is happening that is the essence of participative management: we group together into little collections to discuss stuff, all kinds of stuff. Do we talk about the subject matter of the class? Unlikely. We talk about what interests us at that time.

Imagine if those little groups could be harnessed to drive outcomes? Self driven, enthusiastic, motivated…

That’s exactly what companies like BMW and Google have done. They have worked it out. They work as dynamic, organic groups, openly and in plain sight.

It’s so much fun to do to as well! People come alive in my groups when I employ the strategies and tricks to engage and motivate a team: to form a participative group. Quiet people suddenly contribute. Bullies and those who can’t manage their egos become quiet, and they either get with it or leave the group. It’s magic to watch it working. Just watching the outcomes and achievements of a self motivated, self actualized group of people is wonderful.

Have a look at this very good web site: WorldBlu.com. Traci Fenton, the founder, has decided to recognize “democratic” work places and on her web site there are 40 companies that qualify for her 10 point checklist as a democratic company for 2009.

Here are her 10 points:

The WorldBlu 10 Principles of Organizational Democracy™

1. Reflection + Evaluation
Democratic organizations are committed to continuous feedback and development and are willing to learn from the past and apply lessons to improve the future.

2. Purpose and Vision
A democratic organization is clear about why it exists (its purpose) and where it is headed and what it hopes to achieve (its vision). These act as its true North, offering guidance and discipline to the organization’s direction.

3. Transparency
Say goodbye to the “secret society” mentality. Democratic organizations are transparent and open with employees about the financial health, strategy, and agenda of the organization.

4. Dialog + Listening
Instead of the top-down monologue or dysfunctional silence that characterizes most workplaces, democratic organizations are committed to having conversations that bring out new levels of meaning and connection.

5. Fairness + Dignity
Democratic organizations are committed to fairness and dignity, not treating some people like “somebodies” and other people like “nobodies.”

6. Accountability
Democratic organizations point fingers, not in a blaming way but in a liberating way. They are crystal clear about who is accountable to whom and for what.

7. Individual + Collective
In democratic organizations, the individual is just as important as the whole, meaning employees are valued for their individual contribution as well as for what they do to help achieve the collective goals of the organization.

8. Choice
Democratic organizations thrive on giving employees meaningful choices.

9. Integrity
Integrity is the name of the game, and democratic companies have a lot of it. They understand that freedom takes discipline and also doing what is morally and ethically right.

10. Decentralization
Democratic organizations make sure power is appropriately shared and distributed among people throughout the organization.

Apply these principles and just watch what happens to your organisation.

I believe that the essence of a successful democratic process, is captured by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point from 2000. That is: “Peer pressure is much more powerful than the concept of a Boss. Many, many times more powerful”. (You’ll find this little gem buried on page 186).

Think about the teacher/student concept. How much power does the teacher have? Very little really. It depends on their character, but it is a doomed, decaying system. The stronger and more controlling the teacher is with the class, the more the class will work against the teacher when the teacher is absent: it’s a system bound to fail. On the other hand, peer pressure does nothing but enhance the values and achievements of the group – the only thing to do is guide the group in the desired direction.

But this is not new is it??

Of course not.

Here are some very interesting events of world note that were affected to some degree by the amount of engagement of the participants:

• The Dutch East India Company founded in 1602 experienced stable consistent share price growth for nearly 200 years, paying an average annual dividend of 18%,
• British South Sea Bubble and crash of the early 1700’s,
• French Mississippi Company another early 1700’s crash,
• Erlanger Cotton-backed bonds of the US Civil war great in theory but doomed the entire war effort.

And to bring it back to the future: GE/Durham. One engine per day, total control by the employees: perfect balance of people and workplace harmony.

So what does all this mean? We’ll it means that a company can limp along on a net profit margin of 0% to 5% using traditional management processes (stressed out managers and tuned out employees) or a company can achieve 20 to 30% returns in an environment with very little turnover, where everyone wants to be there.

The new frontier is Workplace Democracy.

I’m going to end with two beautiful quotes from Sir Richard Branson he made on 13th October 2007 when being interviewed on TED. The video is called “Life at 30,000 Feet“. Richard left school when he was 15. He was told by his headmaster that he will either be a roaring success or he would go to prision: he’s done both.

“A company is all about finding the right people, inspiring those people and drawing out the best in people.” @ 1 minute, 45 seconds

“I don’t actually think that the stereotype of a business person treading all over people to get to the top generally speaking works. If you treat people well, people will come back and come back for more. All you have in life is your reputation. It’s a very small world. I actually think that best way of becoming a successful business leader is by dealing with people fairly and well, and I like to think that’s how we run Virgin.” @ 21 minutes, 20 seconds

Be well.

Jeremiah Josey

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Know your Army…

Know your army before declaring War – Jamal Al Ajmi, Kuwait, 2009