Leadership Caffeine at Information Management and New Newsletter Resource
Filed under: Career, Leadership Caffeine, Management Education
Leadership Caffeine Syndicated at Information Management
As of February 1, 2012, the good folks at Information Management are kindly syndicating selected posts from my blog at their resource rich website: info-mgmt.com under my name and the Leadership Caffeine label.
I am excited about this for a number of reasons:
- Jim Ericson and the team are top flight professionals, and I truly appreciate their interest in extending their already rich and deep coverage of information technology to the leadership and strategic topics so critical for success.
- I have a long history (and some great friends) in the technology space, and it is fantastic to have an opportunity to connect in this forum and continue the dialogue on growing great careers and great businesses.
- I work frequently with some remarkable technical professionals. They are driven, creative, strategic, and almost to a person, passionate about their work in advancing their organizations. I’ve also discovered that many are incredibly hungry for insights into developing as leaders, navigating the challenges and politics of the corporate world and increasing their contributions to their firms as strategists and senior contributors. The opportunity to support their efforts is truly an honor.
Please visit Information Management and checking out the remarkable resources and even more remarkable host of featured bloggers. I’m honored to be in their company.
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Leadership Caffeine e-Newsletter Launches
After drifting a bit from the newsletter, and thanks to the prodding from clients and other fans of the blog, The Leadership Caffeine Newsletter is now in full production. Issue #1 was launched last week, with features on: Strengthening the Leader’s Self-Esteem, Ideas to Stimulate the Leader’s Learning & Self-Development, my Suggested Reading Resources and some perspectives on what I term Critical-Path Career Development.
The content is laser focused on supporting professional development, and is geared for leaders of all experience levels and individual contributors seeking to grow as professionals. The latest content is available for newsletter registrants only. Expect a one to two times per month frequency. And please be assured that your e-mail information is private and never to be shared. You can register at my site (right column) or by following the link below. (Note: I will forward Issue #1 to new Registrants in a follow-on e-mail over the next few days.)
I look forward to serving you with this new and professional development focused resource!
No One Asked My Opinion…But $100 Billion for What?
Filed under: Management Education, Social Commentary, Strategy
As of this writing, the world is abuzz with the expected Facebook IPO. The number $100 billion is being floated and passed around (probably by those who stand to benefit from a big IPO), and whether real or wild speculation, that’s a number that gives one cause to pause.
This is beginning to feel like Déjà vu all over again (thanks, Yogi Berra), much like that fascinating period in the late ‘90’s when stratospheric valuations were applied to firms that had no products, no earnings and sometimes no revenues. That was a heady time, when the laws of nature, physics and finance were seemingly supplanted by the value of eyeballs and business models that had no substance or staying power.
Unlike many of the great dot-com flameouts, Facebook has a lot going for it, including near world-domination of the social media scene and reportedly, good and growing revenues for advertising. Throw in some alleged profits and it certainly sounds like the law of gravity has not been eliminated…just eased a bit.
I’m certain I will raise the ire of the many who now view Facebook as an important part of their lives (disclosure: I’m a Facebook misanthrope), however, I can’t quite comprehend the valuation for the value proposition.
The proliferation of this medium is fascinating and not to be ignored, but it doesn’t fundamentally change much of anything as it relates to how companies run their businesses. It does offer incremental opportunities for communication, connecting and monitoring, but I don’t think most firms in most industries are rethinking their business models and value chain activities based on Facebook.
While my crystal ball is notoriously cloudy when it comes to prognosticating on stocks, I know enough to steer clear of numbers where a reasonable person cannot connect the fundamentals to the price. Of course, many years ago, I met a guy named Howard and had a strong cup of coffee and failed to see that this would ever catch on. After all, good coffee at the time was weak and cheap.
For a more cogent view of why this doesn’t makes sense, be sure and check out the article on Forbes: Four Reasons Why Facebook’s IPO is Irrelevant.
And for those who have a strong defense of the game-changing, we should all rethink our business models impact of Facebook, I’m looking forward to your thoughts.
Thoughts on Your Personal and Professional Success in the New Year
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Leading the Generations, Management Education, Performance, Professional Growth
Hang out with really smart people and teams and some great lessons can’t help but rub off on you.
I was truly gifted in 2011 to gain access to and work with and support some remarkable professionals across a number of different market segments…from high tech to professional services to manufacturing, and I learned something with every engagement and encounter.
Here are Six Lessons Learned that Can Help Us All in the New Year:
1. It’s Critical to Think Deeply About Your Business: Strategy still counts. The strongest teams/firms I observed are the ones who took the time to step-back and evaluate their situation and rethink their futures. And then back all of that lofty thinking with action, learning and adaptation.
Call it what you want…I call it strategy work…and done right…asking and answering tough questions and then backing the ideas with key hypotheses and experiments is the corporate equivalent of a continuous fitness program.
2. Operational Myopia Guarantees Mediocrity (or worse): Conversely, the firms and teams mired in the muck struggled to get beyond the endless operational discussions and move towards the tough questions that help assess the current state and begin to identify options for the future. Yeah, everyone needs to make sales in the here and now. We all know that. Adding in the work of thinking about and adapting your business in pursuit of better serving customers, finding new customers, extending into larger growth areas or more attractive categories takes that extra level of discipline that separates the big winners from everyone else.
3. Leadership Counts. More than ever…and not just at the top. High performance firms have an unrelenting focus on developing people who can think critically, lead others to challenge convention and stimulate people to provide their best results. And given the past decade or so of leadership failures, people are quick to sniff out and mentally discard the disingenuous leaders. If you are leading others, you need to bring your “A” game, and the game isn’t about you…it’s about everyone else and what you can do for them!
4. Behold The Rise of the Integrator Leader: individual contributors who embrace the role of integrator…bringing together disparate groups and resources to solve problems are the future formal leaders in organizations. We are all well served to view our own roles through the filter of the new integrator leader. Build your network(s) internally and externally and learn to connect networks in pursuit of solving problems.
5. Diversity is a Strategic Asset to Build Competitive Advantage: While we predictably and annoyingly gravitate to those who act, think (and yes, look) like us, the true opportunity for greatness is in bringing together people of disparate backgrounds, ethnicities and ages and setting them loose to change something significant. The best leaders get this. The rest are still mired in the misguided thinking from another century.
6. If You’re Not Learning, You are Failing. Learning is more important than ever. The top performing professionals are learning everyday in the workplace (through experimentation), are pushing themselves personally to continue to grow in their respective fields, are filling classrooms and demanding more from an old and mostly broken educational system, and leveraging technology and unparalleled access to information to expand their thinking. There are no time-outs allowed when it comes to gaining and applying new knowledge.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
The short form:
Strategy isn’t a four letter word. We all need to find ways to break out of the day-to-day crunch to assess and learn and plan. Leadership skills are more critical than ever…and the best and most powerful leaders might not have people reporting to them. Diversity isn’t just an H.R. initiative, and if you aren’t learning every single day, you’re moving backwards at an accelerating pace.
May 2012 be a year of learning, growth and professional success.
3 Key Strategy Questions to Ask Your Teams Regularly
In my experience, the management teams that lead the best performing businesses are those that incorporate at least three key strategic questions into almost every operational and status discussion.
What are Your Teams Talking About?
The gross majority of the dialogue in an organization is about How, and Who and When and the important What and Why issues are left for strategy meetings and other “high-level” discussions. While understandable in the hectic pace of the workday, the shortage of these important What and Why discussions reinforces a dangerous form of operational myopia, where the underlying and unspoken assumption is: If we simply get this done, we’ll be better off as a firm.
No disrespect nor trivialization intended for operations and execution. Getting it done is critical. However, my premise is that you can strengthen (without paralyzing) the quality of these discussions (particularly management and project team discussions) and potentially uncover new ideas or cross-check long-standing assumptions, with the regular inclusion of a few key questions.
3 Key Strategy Teams to Ask Your Teams Regularly:
1. How does this initiative help us grow/create power? (Power: new customers, new revenue in current customers, new revenue in new/adjacent markets, market share). If it doesn’t directly tie to or enable the creation of power, why are you doing it?
2. How meaningfully different is this to our clients? So many ideas are good in isolation…promoted by people passionate about their offerings, but ultimately, they are not meaningful enough to clients to prompt action (investment, change, trade-out etc.). While not all clients can articulate what they want (as Steve Jobs taught us most recently), your team must be able to substantiate that the initiative is one that will prompt action.
3. How defensible is our approach versus our most dangerous competitors? Too many “me too” and easily replicated initiatives is a formula for stagnation or decline. If you cannot pass this critical acid-test question, something is wrong.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
These are just a few of the important questions that must be regularly asked and answered in the course of forming, assessing and adjusting strategy. However, instead of saving all of the good questions for the offsites, start immediately incorporate these three in your management and status meetings, and you’ll dramatically increase the quantity of meaningful dialogue (and action) taking place every day.
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Want More? Check out Art Petty’s latest book, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. Created for fast-moving and highly motivated professionals and leaders, Leadership Caffeine offers more than 80 short, idea-packed essays for the critical leadership and professional development situations in your life. (All royalties on purchases through 12/2 will see the royalties donated to a local food pantry. See original promo note for specifics.)
Join the many groups and management teams and meeting/conference organizers who have adopted Leadership Caffeine as a discussion and development tool. The collection makes a great gift for the newly promoted leader or for your team during the holidays.
- Single and Kindle copies on Amazon.
- Group and Volume orders, visit Marathon Books for the best service.
About Art Petty:
Art Petty is a Leadership & Career Coach and Strategy Consultant, helping motivated professionals of all levels achieve their potential. In addition to working with highly motivated professionals, Art frequently works with project teams in pursuit of high performance. Contact Art via e-mail to discuss a coaching, workshop or speaking engagement or to inquire about being a guest on The Leadership Caffeine podcast.
Ten Places Where Management Teams Misstep on Strategy
Filed under: Management Education, Strategy, Uncategorized
Strategy…the discussions…the decisions and of course, the execution, is hard work filled with ample opportunities to misstep. From revisiting and updating the underlying assumptions about your business, markets and competitors, to the vexing issues of deciding what to do and what not to do, it’s no surprise that many management teams avoid this work and focus more on incremental operations planning and improvement. However, for those who are courageous enough to go down this important path and do the heavy lifting, here are my top 10 pitfalls and speed bumps to avoid during your journey.
10 Places Where Management Teams Misstep on Strategy:
1. They Over-Admire the View from Their Window. The Inside-Out View that too many teams rely on is a giant decision-trap waiting to swallow the business. Always strive to cultivate the Outside-In perspective. It’s hard work and takes time and help. And yes, it is priceless.
2. They Equate Action with Progress. Action doesn’t equal vector. Strategy is all about choosing specific vectors and ignoring others. Many management teams cut through the front-end of the work in a rush to action, instead of asking and answering the tough questions about their business.
3. Strategy Vocabulary Babble Boggles and Bewilders. Ask 10 executives how to define strategy, vision and value proposition and watch the fun begin. Ask them what business they are truly in and how they differentiate from competitors and the discussions can go haywire. Work hard to establish common terms and definitions up-front.
4. Warning, Rapid Descent! Discussions Rapidly Descend to the Operational Level. Along with the Rush to Action, it is common for the discussions to dive deeply into operations long before the hard questions have been asked and answered.
5. Teams Experience a Power Shortage. Instead of focusing on how to create power…that is to create new revenue, capture new customers, grow faster than the market and grow profits, the discussions emphasize incrementing off of old power sources. Finding “new power” is critical to every firm and must be the focal point of every strategy process/discussion.
6. They Delegate the Deep Thinking to Consultants. I strongly advise using outside help to guide the process work…to ensure that the teams focus on creating power and fostering an outside-in approach. However, don’t fall into the trap of expecting the consultants to be able to tell you what might be your best next steps. Let them help you find the way forward…and don’t shirk your responsibilities to make the hard calls.
7. Too Many Teams Forget to Involve the Right People in the Process. While those at the top of the pecking order own the final calls, there are many, many people in your organization with insights to share and ideas to proffer. Find a way to engage and solicit input. And since these are the same people who will carry out your new directions, early involvement reduces some of the natural barriers to change. Strategy is a full-contact sport across the organization!
8. They Falsely Expect Sure-Fire Miracles to Emerge. Strategy is nothing more than a series of educated hypotheses backed by intelligent experiments. Instead of expecting the Ah-Ha moment (they happen sometimes, but don’t count on it), look at strategy as a series of experiments designed to build power. Of course, don’t forget to build in the feedback and learning loops or the experiments will go nowhere.
9. They Lack the Leadership to Make Asymetrical Bets. This is Geoffrey Moore’s terminology from Escape Velocity, and I strongly believe he is right. If management is struggling to find new sources of power, the right choices will often be those that are different, radical and perceived as highly risky. It takes true leadership to stare asymmetrical bets in the eye and move forward.
10. It’s Never Just an Event! Strategy is a process, not an event. The annual offsite is fine, as long as the issues and experiments and engagement on strategy and learning is happening all of the time.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
In my experience working with many management teams, it takes incredible fortitude and discipline to steer clear of the Top 10 and keep the process moving. Use the list above in good health. Reference it frequently as a reminder of the pitfalls and traps. And of course, feel free to add your own. Focus on this, and you’ll uncover a number of other traps along the way.
And yes, then there’s number 11…this little problem with Strategy Execution. That however, is a topic for another day.
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JUST RELEASED! Check Out Art’s New Book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development
Want More: Sign up for the new, Leadership Caffeine e-Newsletter. I’ll guard your e-mail address with ferocity, while sharing ideas to energize and inspire.
About Art Petty:
Art Petty is a Leadership & Career Coach and Strategy Consultant, helping motivated professionals of all levels achieve their potential. In addition to working with highly motivated professionals, Art frequently works with project teams in pursuit of high performance. Art’s second book (an edited, annotated collection of the most popular leadership essays), Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, was released at the end of September in 2011.
Contact Art via e-mail to discuss a coaching, workshop or speaking engagement.
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