Focus beats freedom. You need to focus on ideas that matter to the business.
Insights come from the outside. Connect to the outside world to find original ideas.
Be ready - in fact want to - tweak as first ideas are usually flawed.
Select - Remember your role is to select ideas, as not all ideas are created equal and you must discard the rest so you can focus on the best.
Stealthstorm past the internal politics so they work for you not against. Internal politics of innovation will always exist....your role is to pave the way for the innovation to succeed.
And then add that vital leadership behavior.....Persist - Not for ONE day but EVERY day to move from one successful product launch to a business culture that lives and breath innovation - helping your people bring great ideas to life.
Action, action, action - we all know that action is required and we focus our teams on action. However I do believe action needs to stem from a platform of thinking. Thought leadership is often a term that people use without really understanding on what area they truly have thought leadership.
Thought leadership comes from deep thinking and related business insights. These skills of leadership are often ignored - why? Well it is uncomfortable, hard work and so much easier to hide behind group think or compromise.
Social media is a wonderful tool to develop these skills in leadership. Social media expresses an array of different views, it allows you to read and think. By surfing the social media channel you can develop your thinking skills and create business insights from taking strands of ideas, of data analysis to then allow your thought leadership to evolve.
I use the word surf because ideas come in waves and it is about not riding a wave but understanding what creates waves, the underlying mechanics of waves etc I also think surfing is difficult to master...it needs technique, a desire to learn, a desire to fail in order to succeed. Sometimes your thinking will feel shaky but the more you surf the thinking wave, the more your technique strengthens and the more your ideas make it all the way to the market shore.
In last week's Engaging Brand podcast I talked to Jake Breeden about those work habits that creep into our daily business lives that prevent us from business growth. As with Reinventing Yourself and Playing to Win, I have put together a little Bob-o-graphic to help your personal growth.
In leadership and management you can read widely and then try to incorporate all this learning and development into your day to day work resulting in a desire to please people rather than achieving profitable growth. Employee engagement and profitable growth should be complimentary and hopefully this little Bob-o-graphic will help you to balance your management approach to achieve...'profitable engagement' !
We talked about strategy and how leadership and management can create a successful business plan that shows how they will make money through their business ideas using a robust business strategy that works.
We live in changing times - that's for sure! Whether it be constant economic uncertainty or new technology appearing everyday, change is there as a competitor.
As I often say evolving is so much better than change - change is so much more difficult but if for some reason you are forced into a change management situation, then the change process needs to handled in the right way.
Here is a little Bob-o-graphic to keep and underneath a little explanation which not just looks at the change project itself which often has a great deal of business management time invested but also after the change has started
C=Consultwith people - every day and in every way. People internally will see what is happening quicker than leadership and management....listening, really listening is key to risk management, emotional intelligence and potential pressure points.
H=Honesty. Business don’t trust their people enough; Be visible with risks, opportunities, results...and invite people to comment. If things are tough, honesty is the best policy! Engage people by saying we need your help, people can cope if they know why and how this change project will make their lives better.
A=Aspire. Keep stretching the targets...keep challenging your people...see their potential and that of the business.This way change becomes part of the culture and less scary to people. It becomes a good thing for their career rather than something to fear.
N=Notice. Don't become insular. Look at your diary - is it full of internal meetings and projects. How much time are you spending looking at trends- global and market talking to customers/suppliers, people within your business. Keep your antenna up, spot the future changes and then evolve instead of waiting to be surprised.
G=Grow people, develop their minds...get them to think about the wider world, get them to anticipate implications. How much do you spend coaching your people to evolve and cope with change? Keep the people focused on creating value to the market.
E=Evolution rather than revolution as a mindset. Big change has a low success rate...take the best course and have a kaizen approach to strategy and culture. How are you developing business processes that maintain the change into the future?
Networks of talent are the new working capital; working in the sense of actively creating business value.....and capital in the sense of needing investment, maintenance to see a return to the bottom line.
Human capital is a phrase that has developed over time to represent how your talent is an asset
that delivers future revenue streams...and therefore needs protecting, nurturing and growing as part of your human resource management.
Over the last decade, the rise of the knowledge economy combined with the ubiquity of the web, I have started to believe that talent has moved from a fixed asset to a fluid (or current) asset.
The mobility of talent, the access to information has created the need to see talent as more than just idea creators.....talent needs to be defined differently, seen differently, managed differently.
Talent is important however the power of the network is just as important.
Networking are at the heart of business. Yes literally when you think of the web...but also as communication and production channels for ideas.
Social networking is more than posting a picture of your cat from a business perspective. Social business networking is about
Generating the power of connection from your talent base.
Here are ways of generating that power
Networks are as strong as the connections....how much do you spend time on developing those connections?
Do you value networks...do you bring people together...do you provide value into the network?
Do you know what and who your networks are? Do you see people as a role or a valuable connection in the network?
Do you see talent as fluid and therefore spend time on developing talent to keep them within your network?
Do you think about the networks within your business, connected to your business and your personal brand? Have you a plan for each?
In a coaching seminar last week I was asked how you engage people - so I created this Bob-o-graphic to help explain
E = Energise through objectives. Ask does the personal objective give the person a sense of passion or motivation for what they are trying to achieve? Are you going through the business process of setting a goal or is it tailored to energising them as a key person in your team?
N= Numbers do make objectives measurable. But don't sell out and make the objective one that is easy to measure. Anything can be measured if you want to enough. Often people give such a subjective goal as improving a relationship with another function, if it is that important remember this can be measured and must be measured.
G= Goals. An objective can take a while to achieve - that's good it is stretching and should push the person mentally. But along the way you need regular sessions - fortnightly at the most monthly on how they are doing, set them little goals at these sessions to achieve by the next session, which will take them closer to their ultimate objective.
A= Accountability. The person must understand and subscribe to that they are accountable for delivering this objective. You are their to coach but it is their business objective. Ask the right questions for them to find the right answers to the how....
G=Growth. Often we like to be liked but people need to be engaged so make it stretching no matter what others managers do! You will earn their respect and as they develop and gain success for their achievements they will value the need for stretching objectives and include an element of personal growth and development so that they can see the benefit to them not just the busienss.
E=Explain. Critical! The objectives should explain how they can create value, how their role will help the company vision. They need to feel valuable and the need to belong needs to be addressed when making personal goals. Explain how the personal objective links to yours and links to the business growth.
To engage is to recognise the most human needs. To engage is to be as clear and as specific as possible. To engage is to speak to the person not the role. To engage is to see it as a continuous process not a one off event.....because to engage is to understand that your role is to foster their talent on a daily basis not to merely tick off an action on today's to do list.
What is fear? Fear is a strong emotion and one we need to understand well to inspire business growth. Fear is a natural human emotion, it protects us....it guides us BUT we should not allow it to control us.
Whether it be fear of success or fear of failure - both common in leadership and management - fear needs to be a check not a barrier to our personal growth.
Fear highlights risks but these can be dealt with through risk control management. Management of risk doesn't remove it, it shouldn't...after all in business if we are not taking risks then we are not pushing ourselves hard enough for the consumer!
Risk management is about being open to potential pitfalls. Fear should not blind us, fear should guide us and either
Avoiding them if critical to your business development
Planning how to mitigate them.
The problem is if you let fear move from acting as a check to acting as a control, yes you stop
yourself from failing BUT you always stop yourself from succeeeding!
There is a fine line between success and failure in the consumer world we live in, however failure doesn't have to be life threatening to your business success. (Remember risk management on avoiding those ones can help)
No failure is just one step towards career success, it is the learning you need to understand how far you can push yourself, your brand and your business.
Dad used to tell me
"Great leaders don't see failure, they see negative success! And with negative success you are in a better place to turn it to positive...you are already more knowledgeable about what doesn't work, which means the odds are in your favour!"
Insight is a skill which continues to be important. It always has been key, but now with the new
technology, insight is how you differentiate on the web. People can curate, people can create content...but adding the insight of your brand, that can differentiate your offer.
The definition of insight " a deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing". Deep understanding doesn't just come to you, insight and 'deep intuitive understanding' comes from hard work. It requires two key skills...the desire to be a constant learner and taking those insights from across the business spectrum to apply to your business marketplace.
The digital age means that information is readily available but the digital age needs more than pure information.....it is easy to provide information but what creates value is the provision of insights based on the information.
So the good news is that new technology brings all the information to you...it is easier than it has ever been.
The bad news is that because it is easy, you have to transfer the effort from finding to analysing the data and providing insights in your social marketing.
What are you doing on a daily basis to build your knowledege?
What are you doing on a daily basis to provide insights to your teams, your colleagues, your consumer?
What are you doing to grow your ability to provide insights?
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