The essential characteristic of values based leadership is the belief that the welfare of people is the end of leadership and not that people are the means to the leader’s goals.

Mother Theresa spelt out the ultimate secret of leadership when she was invited to speak at a leadership conference and captured the attention of participants with this ‘definition’, “If you want to lead your people, you first have to understand them. If you want to understand your people, you have to love them. Do you love your people? Ultimately, it is not the magnitude of our actions that matters but the amount of love that we put into them.”

Is it so simple? Yes and no. Yes at the level of your attitude where the answer is absolute; no at the level of ‘organising’ your business where it takes some work to set up a structure that will reflect values and the concern you have toward your business, your people and you world.

In concrete terms, value based leadership is the intention given to and the attention paid to aligning a community or an organization’s values, mission and vision with its strategy, performance management, rewards, processes and systems. It is essentially about cultivating a purposeful consistency in your organization, allowing a culture of genuine sincerity, trust and collaboration to flourish and endeavoring to do what you say at all times. Value based leadership is a system; it takes into consideration the whole organization that it organizes around well defined core values.

Core values are the “sacred” fundamental convictions that employees have about how they want – and therefore must – behave in the context of the organization’s mission.

Core values are timeless and changeless guiding principles which underlie and reflect an organization’s or an individual’s mission. Core values guide behavior – they guide the behavior and the decision-making of the entire workforce on a daily basis. They form the enduring character of a community, team or an organization – its identity in a sense. Vision, strategy, processes and systems can change in response to changes in the economy or in market trends but a company should not change its values. …[read more ...]

Leadership, like everything else in life, has two dimensions: the external and the internal. The external or interpersonal dimension of leadership relates to the actual business of making things happen, managing relationships and day to day activities. The internal or intrapersonal dimension is about personal attitude, beliefs, emotions and habits. Leader, like every other human beings, have to deal with their teams, with their people and with uncontrollable, ever changing, external conditions – and they have to deal with themselves.

In the external dimension, effective leadership consists in creating (i) alignment, (ii) engagement or commitment and (iii) accountability in people: a deeper personal sense of wanting to make things happen.

Alignment is the consistency between the interests, values and goals of an organization and of its people as well as the coherence between values and systems, words and actions, promises and their fulfillment.

Engagement or commitment occurs when there is alignment and when people feel a sense of personal involvement in what they are doing; when they feel that their work and what the organization is about really matters to them, that it serves a visible purpose, brings a contribution, and makes a difference to the world around them.

Accountability, beyond directly involving people in the benefits of the business, flows from alignment and engagement. When they know what they are doing and when the ‘why’ they are doing it is meaningful, people usually take personal responsibility for results and perform to their best capacity.

In the internal realm, the essence of effective leadership is the exercise of three key abilities which are the foundation of all the skills, qualities and talents required for successful enterprise as well as successful living.

Those three abilities are: Awareness, Focus and Execution.

Awareness is the choiceless perception of the facts of reality, of what ‘is’ – in opposition to what you want, wish, hope, dread, dream, believe or think reality is. It is objectivity. In order to make effective decisions, you need four levels of awareness or objectivity:

The first level is an awareness of yourself: how aware am I of what I am thinking, feeling, of what my attitude is? Can you sit in the middle of a meeting and look at yourself and ask, ‘why am I feeling like this?’ Are you aware of the quality of your attitude? If it is negative in any way, then it is the energy that you inject in relationships and that will be the quality of the energy you get back.

The second level is an awareness of the other: have I taken time to understand the other? Do I see them as a person? Do I see them as a human being or a human ‘resource’? Are human beings resources? No, human beings are human beings – they are people. If I see … [read more...]

Amidst the growing sense of angst and hopelessness we can feel everywhere today, there is an accelerating recognition of the need to find a better way and somehow become part of it. Almost every other day we hear stories about freak hurricanes and other natural disasters, and top scientists are now saying, yes, this is about global warming.

People are wondering who is going to turn the tide. Where are the new leaders?

People are appalled but feel hopeless and doubt their leader’s ability to do much about it. We are right to be appalled by acts of terrorism, but we shouldn’t be surprised when there are such colossal imbalances in our society—when 1.3 billion people have no access to fresh water, 3 billion have no access to sanitation, 2 billion people have no access to electricity, and 24,000 people die every day from starvation.

The social trends are alarming. A UK government report released last June shows that the number of people in their 30s suffering from depression has doubled since 1987, from 1 in 14 to 1 in 7 today. Worldwide suicide rates have risen 60 percent in the last 45 years. Here in the developed world we feel good that the economy appears to be growing, but what can you say about a world where the three wealthiest individuals on the planet—Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Theo Albrecht—together have personal wealth greater than the combined GDP of the poorest 48 nations, comprising 2.5 billion people?

Meanwhile, within our communities the role of work in a person’s life has never been more significant, and never less satisfying. It is significant because of the needs and expectations that have been built up through television, which is telling us that we can have whatever we want. “You’ll have a great education and everything’s going be great.” Our society tells us we can have everything, do anything. We’ve got so many choices. We can go anywhere, do anything we want, be everything we want to be. Technology makes everything possible. There are no limits anymore. In a world of massive choices, we’ve got endless opportunities for pleasure but very few opportunities for joy.

In 300 BC Epicurus talked about the three fundamentals of happiness: a sense of belonging in a community of friends, freedom and the feeling that the choices and decisions of one’s life are in one’s own hands, and time to reflect about the meaning and direction of one’s life.

Those fundamentals are just not accessible when we are working and living the way we are. As a consequence, there is a feeling of despair, hopelessness, and emptiness. People just have a dry existence. They seek meaning by going shopping, and they avoid having meaningful conversations by going to a movie or renting a video. We’re afraid that if we talk about things that are meaningful and moving, it might create conflict, so we don’t go there any longer. And we don’t have time to reflect and process our feelings and fears.

All of this is affecting our communities and our societies, and it’s particularly affecting our workplaces. We only have to look at the statistics.

According to a recentGalluppoll, 64 percent of employees say they are depressed, anxious, and wished they worked elsewhere. Seventy-four percent of workers are disengaged clock watchers who can’t wait to go home.

People are working harder, longer, and getting less out of it. Their bosses are struggling as well. The average length of tenure of a CEO is 4.6 years. Twenty-two European CEOs were fired in 2003. A recent EU study shows that 45 percent of top management are currently looking for a new position. Executives are getting burned out, pissed off, and fired.

I talk about this context because my interest is in the role a leader plays in shifting the currents. The currents, the trends of global societies, are moving, very disturbingly, in a direction that is leading us towards destruction. And those currents will only be turned around through the influence of leaders. It will happen when individuals wake up, see the direction we’re heading in, and realize, “The way that I’m living my life is unsatisfactory. Even though this is what society tells me I should be doing, I’m just not going to do it anymore. I’m going to do something different with my life; I’m going to do something more authentic.”…[Read more...]

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“Successful leaders do not compete, they create. Successful leaders do not control, they empower. Successful leaders do not force, they influence.” ~ Brian Bacon

The world in which we live today requires more from leaders than good management skills or cleverness at getting what they want.  With the increasing complexity of the work environment and with pressure building up at all levels of work and personal life, leaders have become critically dependent on their people. In a work environment where the majority of employees who shift to competitors do not leave the job but leave the manager, one of the fundamental abilities of a leader is his/her willingness to recognize and address the true needs of their people, to engage them in meaningful ways in order to allow them to secure their commitment and develop their potential.

What makes a good leader?

Leadership has nothing to do with position, name card: it is about getting people to ‘want’ to do what you ask them to do. It is about making them feel that the task is important. It is about good relationships and trust. People can be convinced by reason, motivated by personal interest; they can be forced, bribed or threatened to do things but the moment you remove the pressure, they forget about the quality of their job.

If you want your people to perform, you need to call upon a more emotional, a deeper personal dimensions and appeal to their values. The old method of the carrot and the stick doesn’t work in the long run. It does produce quick results but it promotes selfishness, irresponsibility and unhealthy competition. People just do what they are told to do, cannot take initiative and need constant supervision. They do the job because they have to do it, not because they want to. This is a fundamental difference.

People who want to do what they are asked to do usually excel and quality shoots up. But for this, people need to be moved, they need to be inspired. A leader needs to consider this emotional dimension of his job. Traditional management courses have over-emphasised numbers, analysis, brain work and learned, well rehearsed, ‘human’ skills. Most often, they only pay lip service to the human element – or human ‘resource’ as they respectfully call it. But you cannot treat people as you would treat a resource or a machine. People are something entirely different.

The people you are working with on a daily basis have a mind of their own, they have emotions, aspirations and apprehensions, they values which determine the direction of their life – those are the forces that ‘move’ them (the latin etymology of the word ‘emotion’ means ‘that which puts things in motion’ – what creates movement). So yes, leadership is the ability to set people in motion. It is the ability to engage, motivate, inspire and draw people around a common task and toward a common vision of the future. It is not just charisma but it has a lot to do with being capable to provide meaning as well as provide a sense of belonging, of affiliation, of trust.

What is leadership, really?

Leadership is like trust or love: it is not really something that can be taught. But yes, you can learn it, become better at it. Beyond the techniques, leadership is essentially an inner sense of what matters most, of what needs to be done, coupled to a strong commitment to make it happen. It has a lot to do with taking initiative. It is about envisioning the future, ‘seeing’ ‘what could be’, mapping the way to get there and involving people.

Good leadership happens when perceived needs are real, when there is a pragmatic strategy to meet them and when people come together around the task. People unify around a common sense of purpose, a compelling vision and shared values. People reveal their best when they feel they ‘belong’ in the team and their contributions are genuinely valued by the team and its leader. The most perfectly built team of ‘personalities’ will fail to deliver unless these factors are clearly communicated and demonstrated by the leader. On the other hand, I have often seen teams that everyone had dismissed as impossibly dysfunctional be completely transformed by an executive who can provide authentic and inspirational leadership.

How do you improve leadership capabilities?

Although some people are ‘born leaders’ whilst others reveal themselves at times of crisis, leadership can be learnt.

 But there is a simple secret that very few are aware of: the roots of leadership are not about how well you deal with others but rather how well you deal with yourself. This may sound like a paradox, but real leadership is not about others – it starts with yourself.

Authentic leadership starts with knowing who you are, what you are standing for, your values, and being confident and comfortable with that. Your thinking, your perception, your decision making abilities as well as your feelings, emotions and motives originate in your ‘self’. If you are well tuned into yourself, you will make the best use of your talents, manage disruptive influences and recognize the inner voice of reason, intuition and conscience which are behind sound decision making.

The confidence you need as an individual is a function of how well you know yourself. Self confidence is often nothing more than genuine, authentic, self awareness. When you know who you are, what you think and what are your priorities, you have little choice than ‘doing’ it.

Self awareness comprises two main areas: (i) knowing who you are, the constants in you, but also (ii) being aware of the way in which you get influenced by and react to external factors.

Self knowledge starts with knowing your strengths and specialities but also having a clear assessment of your weaknesses. Self awareness is a matter of remaining … we said it: aware.

The next essential element of great leadership is purpose. All great leaders have a stated sense of purpose, a mission if you like, a task they have set themselves to perform or achieve. Purpose is generally about making a positive difference to people’s life – it is most often related to a sense of service. Poor leadership motivates employees for money or incentives. Outstanding leadership works to express a passion and fulfill a heartfelt vision.

The last component of leadership is consistency. It is easy to have a passion, it is easy to dream the world but how much do we practically organize our life and work practices around those is what makes the difference. If an individual ask themselves the questions of identity, personal purpose and values and, if they are serious about it, they start radiating a different energy, they start to generate a sense of direction around which people tend to rally; they naturally start to become a leader. If they are already in position of leadership, they make an outstanding leader.

Can anyone do that?

Authentic leadership starts with self leadership. If you do not know what you want, you cannot inspire others. If you are not focused, you cannot focus others. If you cannot control your emotions and channel your energy in the right direction, you cannot expect others, those who you are meant to lead to do it. If there is no meaning into your life and work, you cannot expect people to find meaning in what you ask them to do.

We believe – and experience has taught us – that every human has, as part of their innate baggage, a specific purpose or mission in life: something they are meant to do. It is their talent, their speciality, their DNA if you want. It is unique for everyone.

What we have seen also is that, when encouraged to do so, people naturally care for values. It is when values are imposed form the outside by some authority that people resist values. When that authority themselves does not respect those values people become cynical about values. But when allowed to speak their heart, they reveal a heartfelt concern for values such as respect, trust, care and responsibility.

We have witnessed time and again how, when guided to identify their personal values at a deeper level than the surface likes and dislikes or cultural habits, people find, within themselves, the very values that society attempts – and often fails – to inculcate in them. When values are recognized within one’s own heart, there is no question of not implementing them simply because then people ‘want’ to behave ‘their’ values. So, yes, everyone can do it – if they want to.

What is Self Managing Leadership?

Self Managing Leadership is a step by step process of self exploration using the Strategic Focusing model of the Oxford Leadership Academy. The program was originally designed to help managers implement the changes they knew they had to do but could not do. They were highly qualified and successful professionals who had been through a change process and who knew what they were expected to do but they would not do it. The resistance was coming from habits of course but also from a lack of depth and personal meaning in recognizing why those new behaviours were needed. The understanding was there, but it was not owned. The great idea that made – and makes – SML was simple: applying to an individual the same process of change that you apply to an organization when you need to restructure it. When you look at it, an individual is as complex as an organization. You cannot shift its course by sending a few well formulated orders nor by merely working on the surface. To help an individual or an organization change, you need to help them understand the deeper forces at work, those undercurrents that gives them their direction – their habits, their identity, their culture. This is what Self Managing Leadership does. Self Managing leadership looks at the interpersonal dimension of leadership, the human component but it brings it to its core: consciousness. Everything we do in our life starts with consciousness. Everything starts with thoughts, imaginations, feelings, dreams. Everything starts with the way in which we perceive what is happening around us. In this context, effective leadership is essentially a process of consciousness: it is about right perception, right understanding, right decision followed by strong ethical commitment to finding the right way to implement those decisions. The program heavily emphasizes focus, values based decision making, proactivity and walking the talk – finding the resource and will to do what we know we have to do.

 Frederic Labarthe is SML facilitator and founder of the UNESCO Centre for International Education

]]> http://leadershipforlife.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/leadership-of-people/feed/ 1 uciepro http://leadershipforlife.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/sml-how-it-all-began/ http://leadershipforlife.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/sml-how-it-all-began/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 06:38:09 +0000 uciepro http://leadershipforlife.wordpress.com/?p=237 ]]> Brian Bacon reflects on organizational change and recalls the genesis of the Self Managing Leadership Program

“If you want to truly understand something – try to change it” ~ Kurt Lewis

Most senior management make a similar assumption when initiating major changes in their organizational strategy, structure and culture: the assumption that the attitudes and behaviours of their employees will automatically fall in line with the newly stated ‘core values’ and ‘guiding principles’ defined and printed in the freshly printed corporate plan. They assume that you can change mind sets and mentalities in the same way as you change the company logo.

Popular management literature says that to change your organization, you need to change its culture: define and clarify the vision and destiny of your organization, state your values, communicate them to your employees and with a little bit of training, they will become customer focused, quality conscious, empowered risk takers and open, two-way communicators.

Anyone who has been involved with implementing change in an organization knows that reality is somewhat different. Although the theory is simple and obvious, doing it is a bit more complicated than it sounds.

After reading his company’s new statement of “core values” one long term employee recently remarked, “So now we are all going to have open and two-way communication. We will be respected as individuals and we are all going to enjoy enduring, trusting relationships as partners in our business! This will be interesting to see. I don’t know anyone here that would be like that even within their own family,” he then tossed the laminated ‘corporate values’ card into the rubbish bin.

However clear and simple is the theory, changing the culture of an organization or even making adjustments to its values is an extremely complex and challenging task that defies those rusty tools of business leaders: logic, planning, control and reason.

The problem is that corporate change strategy is fundamentally a rational and logical process that has to be implemented by people who are rarely either rational or logical, especially when exposed to the turbulence, stress, and anxiety organizational transformation generates.

A few years ago, the partners in our firm addressed this problem, known as “implementation paralysis”, in ways that took us far from our traditional line of business (strategy consulting to large corporations) and introduced us to a subject that was far away from traditional organizational change management: I am referring to the subject known as “self management” – the management of your own thoughts, attitudes, and emotions. And this is what makes a decisive difference in organizational culture change. We wanted to find practical solutions to the process of dealing with change on this deeper human level. After extensive research, we started developing the training course known as “Self Managing Leadership – a course based on our own experiences in organizational change, management and the principles of the ancient Raja Yoga of India.

The basic principle of the training course is that in order to provide credible leadership to others in an environment of turbulence, challenges, competition, cynicism and negativity, it was essential to learn how to manage yourself – that is, your own thoughts, attitudes, emotions and behaviour.

Self Managing Leadership also grew from the frustration that we and our clients were experiencing with the superficiality and ineffectiveness of the conventional “skill training” for managers when it comes to changing values and behaviour.

This frustration was well expressed by the CEO of one of Australia’s largest electricity utilities, with whom we had been working for some years in corporate and strategic business planning. The organization had been through a major change management process which had resulted in a 24% cut in its workforce and a reduction of its levels of management from 12 to five. This had necessitated a radical change in management style and behaviour. The old ‘control and command’ method of management needed to be replaced by a “self managing teams” form of organization that gives work teams greater authority and responsibility for how they get things done.

The CEO’s problem was that his senior management team had been with the organization for an average of 15 years. They had grown with the organization and risen through the ranks, and they were very pleased to be now at or near the top. They achieved their position because of their technical competence and their tough, competitive managerial skills. They were comfortable about how they managed themselves, their people and their business. The only problem now was that those skills that had got them to the top were now belonging to a past era. Today was a new story, a new environment, new methods, and a new organization had to emerge from the old. They all knew that. Many of them were even among the most eloquent speakers in talking about the emergence of the “new paradigm”…[read more...]

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Management is a bottom-line focus: How can I best accomplish certain things? Leadership deals with the top line: What are the things I want to accomplish? In the words of both Peter Drucker and  Warren Bennis, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They’re the producers, the problem solvers. They’re cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out.

The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies, and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders.

The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, “Wrong jungle!” But how do the busy, efficient producers and managers often respond? “Shut up! We’re making progress.”

As individuals, groups, and businesses, we’re often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don’t even realize we’re in the wrong jungle. And the rapidly changing environment in which we live makes effective leadership more critical than it has ever been — in every aspect of independent and interdependent life.

We are more in need of a vision or designation and a compass (a set of principles or directions) and less in need of a road map. We often don’t know what the terrain ahead will be like or what we will need to go through; it much will depend on our judgment at the time. But an inner compass will always give us direction.

Effectiveness — often even survival — does not depend solely on how much effort we expend, but on whether or not the effort we expend is in the right jungle. And the metamorphosis taking place in most every industry and profession demands leadership first and management second.

In business, the market is changing so rapidly that many products and services that successfully met consumer tastes and needs a few years ago are obsolete today. Proactive powerful leadership must constantly monitor environmental change, particularly customer buying habits and motives, and provide the force necessary to organize resources in the right direction. (…)

Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual phrased it, “like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.” No management success can compensate for failure in leadership. But leadership is hard because we’re often caught in a management paradigm.

At the final session of a year-long executive development program in Seattle, the president of an oil company came up to me and said, “Stephen, when you pointed out the difference between leadership and management in the second month, I looked at my role as the president of this company and realized that I had never been into leadership. I was deep into management, buried by pressing challenges and the details of day-to-day logistics. So I decided to withdraw from management. I could get other people to do that. I wanted to really lead my organization.

“It was hard. I went through withdrawal pains because I stopped dealing with a lot of the pressing, urgent matters that were right in front of me and which gave me a sense of immediate accomplishment. I didn’t receive much satisfaction as I started wrestling with the direction issues, the culture-building issues, the deep analysis of problems, the seizing of new opportunities. Others also went through withdrawal pains from their working style comfort zones. They missed the easy accessibility I had given them before. They still wanted me to be available to them, to respond, to help solve their problems on a day-to-day basis.”

“But I persisted. I was absolutely convinced that I needed to provide leadership. And I did. Today our whole business is different. We’re more in line with our environment. We have doubled our revenues and quadrupled our profits. I’m into leadership.”

I’m convinced that too often parents are also trapped in the management paradigm, thinking of control, efficiency, and rules instead of direction, purpose, and family feeling.

And leadership is even more lacking in our personal lives. We’re into managing with efficiency, setting and achieving goals before we have even clarified our values.”

Extracts from the Seven Habits of Highly effective People

By Stephen R. Covey

For many people, the ‘take’ option is the most obvious and attractive one. It is the most publicized and appears to be the fast track to power, fame and financial success. But it does not necessarily lead to sustainable success or happiness. Why? Because if your aim is to exploit others, you will probably generate a fair amount of discontent or resentment around you. You will probably neglect to invest the energy required to build relationships and care for those who share your life; you will not be interested in maintaining resources, tools or caring for your environment; you will overlook some important aspects of your work, relationships and personal life which, later on, will cost you a heavy price. Relationships, health and even productivity will deteriorate just like a machine which is not well maintained wears out faster and looses efficiency. At times of need, people will be more likely to let you down because you will have failed to win their respect by doing something for them.

Now, if you go for the ‘contribute’ option, your journey to success may be slower but it will be surer and infinitely much more satisfying. You will enjoy what you do because you give some of your heart to it; you will build lasting relationships and a solid reputation; you will develop competencies rooted in your own experience of solving real problems and you will thrive. Because you will be perceived as someone who cares, you will win one of the most crucial ingredients for any successful enterprise: trust. At a personal level, you will have the satisfaction of making others happy and they will repay it to you by being inclined to support your ideas or co-operate to your projects. Your life will have meaning and direction and you will be … ‘happy’. Sorry, did you say … ‘happy’??? But since when has the purpose of business been to make people ‘happy’? Managers obsessed with profits will argue it has never been. Yet, one of the most blatant conclusions emerging from our analysis of the current global crisis is that our technology, our science, our capability to solve any imaginable problem and produce every desirable comfort has not made us more happy. Why? Precisely because the purpose of business has been defined as the pursuit of profit and wealth rather than of well being and happiness. Subtle nuance but enough to make a world of difference.

There is a short story told by Peter Drucker which captures the essence of this issue. It is the story of a man visiting a building site where stonecutters are doing their work. The man comes across the first one and asks him what he is doing. The stonecutter replies, “I am making a living because I have a family to feed.” When asked the same question, the second stonecutter replies without stopping hammering, “I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire county” and the third looks up with a gleam in his eye and smiles, answering, “I am building a cathedral sir!”

This story is quite self explanatory and it is obvious that both in terms of productivity, quality, engagement, personal responsibility, team work, career path as well as self satisfaction, the third stonecutter is the most likely to be ‘successful’. Why?

]]> http://leadershipforlife.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/the-spirit-of-service-2/feed/ 0 The Spirit of Service uciepro The Spirit of Service http://leadershipforlife.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/leading-with-purpose-values-vision/ http://leadershipforlife.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/leading-with-purpose-values-vision/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:24:31 +0000 uciepro http://ucieserve.wordpress.com/?p=75 ]]> A short history of Values and Leadership in the 20^th century

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Engaging people

Human beings are multi-dimensional. They have soul, spirit, head, heart, a will for self realisation, aspirations and physical needs. The way their potential develops depends on how much of those dimensions are called upon and how well they are put into synergy. When you motivate an individual with monetary incentives, ego gratification or promises of pleasure, you only engage a small fraction of their entire potential – and their involvement and performance is of that level only. How can you engage more of your people and, more importantly, how can you put more of yourself, more passionately, more intelligently, more effectively, to work for good? …[read more...]

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Value based leadership

In a world in which ruthless exploitation and competition, self serving behaviours and instability seem to be the norms, value based leadership holds a number of extraordinary promises that any sensible leader would dream of: self managing employees; lesser need for supervision and control; greater respect between people; increased enthusiasm and dedication to the task; service oriented mentalities; more genuine corporate culture; socially responsible and environmentally friendly work practices; reputation of reliability, fairness and honesty; team bonding; more humaneness in relationship; trust and loyalty; enhanced integrity and accountability; enhanced decision making which contributes to the vision whilst building on trust; greater commitment of team members, customers and shareholders; increased flexibility and ‘intelligence’; enhanced performance; better integration work / personal life; clarity of purpose, mission and vision; increased job and personal satisfaction through a deeper sense of meaning; increased self esteem; role modeling in society; potential legacy; etc. The list could be  longer …[read more...]

Moments of truth

Stan Slap – the best leaders inspire their teams by bringing their values to work.

The purpose of leadership isn’t to increase shareholder value or the productivity of work teams, though effective leadership does these things. Rather, the purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully and use them to make life better for others. The process of leadership is to turn your values into a compelling cause for others …[read more...]

Leadership of People

Max de Pree once compared leadership to being a bus driver whose job is to take people where they want to go – or they get off the bus. In what is now a much more fluid job market, where more and more people acknowledge that they do not leave the organization but they leave their manager, this view will resonate for the many managers who suffer from high staff turnover and loss of talents. Securing the commitment of staff is one of many reasons why modern managers need to understand their people at a deeper level and involve something more than money, incentives, pressure or threats to motivate them …[read more...]

Brian Bacon: what is leadership?

The common assumption that you become a leader because you have a name card is a myth: you become a leader because people chose to follow you. It requires trust, integrity and character. Character is essential because at time of failure, people will support someone who has character but they will kick out someone who doesn’t. Character is revealed at the time of obstacles.

Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation – TED talks

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.

RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink’s talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

Shifting the current

Extracts from an interview iwith Brian Bacon published n Fieldnotes, November 2004, Issue 7

Amidst the growing sense of angst and hopelessness we can feel everywhere today, there is an accelerating recognition of the need to find a better way and somehow become part of it. Almost every other day we hear stories about freak hurricanes and other natural disasters, and top scientists are now saying, yes, this is about global warming. People are wondering who is going to turn the tide. Where are the new leaders? People are appalled but feel hopeless and doubt their leader’s ability to do much about it. We are right to be appalled by acts of terrorism, but we shouldn’t be surprised when there are such colossal imbalances in our society …[read more...]

Simon Sinek – How great leaders inspire action

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers.

Benjamin Zander – Orchestrating Collaboration

Davos annual meeting on leadership

As a fitting close to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008, participants explore the power of collaborative innovation in a unique exercise with conductor Benjamin Zander. Inspire people to be at their best and make a difference to the world.

Swimming with the sharks

Brian Bacon, Founder and President of Oxford Leadership Academy, discusses values based leadership and the importance of developing an acute sense of ‘self’ in order to be able to hold on to values and integrity in a world dominated by greed and all out competition..

1 – Introduction

2 – The Dolphin and Shark within

3 – Focus and execution

4 – The Shark Attacks

5 – The shadow

6 – Can a shark be successful?

7 – Directing your energy

8 – From thought to personality

9 – Outstanding leaders

10 – Living the truth

11 – How to live my values

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Beyond its commercial success, Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People has become a classic of the new paradigm of thinking and management. The book dates a bit now – it was first published in 1989 – but the ideas are fresh as ever.

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People^®, has been a top-seller for the simple reason that it ignores trends and pop psychology for proven principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.” – Excerpts from www.stephencovey.com

Read the chapter on Effectiveness from the book

Get an overview of the Seven Habits or watch the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People on You Tube

Go through the Seven Habits Video Program 

Move from the search of effectiveness to that of Greatness by learning the principles of the Eighth Habit

Visit Dr Covey’s Blog