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Measure for Measure — How much info is too much info? Part 2

Posted by Constance Ward on September 5, 2012 | Comments Off

The first blog in this series looked at an article published in August in The Atlantic about a brainy computer scientist and astrophysicist, Larry Smarr, who was measuring all aspects of his body chemistry, his bodily functions, etc., in order to ensure his health.

Smarr began this quest partly as a result of finding success in weight loss by following the biochemist Barry Sears‘ Zone Diet, according to Mark Bowden, author of the article, ”The Measured Man.”

What are you doing to measure and then ensure your Thought Leader health? Are you ready to get rid of leadership and communication excess and go on a Thought Leader Zone Diet? Take the Thought Leader Zone self-assessment quiz and find out. Ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help.

Photo credit: HeavyWeightGeek on Flickr

Measure for Measure – How much info is too much info?

Posted by Constance Ward on September 1, 2012 | Comments Off

information overload how much information is too much

Is the challenge information overload…or the difficulty in evaluating it objectively?
Illustration by hikingartist.com

An article in the August edition of The Atlantic talked about a brainy computer scientist and astrophysicist, Larry Smarr, who was instrumental in the development of the internet. He’s now turning his research skills inward and is documenting minute details about his body and then monitoring and measuring any changes. No body part or organ or bodily function will be spared careful, objective analysis.

Mark Bowden, author of the article, ”The Measured Man,” commented that Smarr is ”in the vanguard of what some call the ‘quantified life,’ which envisions replacing the guesswork and supposition presently guiding individual health decisions with specific guidance tailored to the particular details of each person’s body.”

Smarr may be taking self awareness to an extreme. But how much information is too much information, when it comes to knowing yourself? Can you know too much about yourself as a leader?

The bigger risk, in my opinion, is to know too little. As a leader you need a clear picture of who you are and who others think you are, a picture based on actual data, not like Dorian Gray.

Once you’ve gathered sufficient data — whether qualitatively in performance feedback sessions, systematically with 360 degree reviews or more immediately with the Thought Leader Zone self-assessment tool — you need to evaluate the evidence objectively.

That analysis should be the basis for fully understanding any reputational opportunities you have so you can capitalize on them or any reputational risks you might have so that you can better manage or mitigate them.

Do you have all the information you need about yourself as a leader? Do you need specific guidance tailored to your specific details? Ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help.*

*Performance feedback sessions: We help executives and senior-level leaders assess and improve their communication strategy and technique. Sessions can be conducted face-to-face, via video conference or with consultative assessments of existing recorded or written communications. Contact us for more details.

Never-Ending Stories–Still Time for Summer Reading and Classic Business Books

Posted by Constance Ward on August 28, 2012 | Comments Off

Although the “Never-Ending Stories” headline here is similar to the one on my last blog posting, the focus of this piece is instead on the great classics of business books.

Defining “classics” in literature is always a challenge. To be a classic, a book shouldn’t just be good, but be timeless and have a universal appeal. That’s why the recent inclusion by Penguin Modern Classics of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch sparked such fevered debate, as described in The Independent article by Charlie Cooper, “Critics sneer as hit football novel becomes a ‘classic.'”

Classic business books also should include wisdom of the ages for the ages and translate well to other business cultures, not just Anglo-Saxon ones. They should be popular and widely read by well-read people.

The following business books, in my opinion, are some that can be considered modern classics. Why not pick one of these books off your shelf, dust it off and stick it in your briefcase or carry-on to re-read on your next flight:

Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind and Drive
Malcolm Gladwell, Blink
Jim Collins, Good to Great
Marcus Buckingham, First, Break All the Rules
Ken Blanchard, The One-Minute Manager
Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese
Patrick Lecionni, Silos, Politics and Turf Wars
Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (see my recent blog on his passing)

And finally, here’s a shout out for a few lesser-known but excellent niche books by authors I know and respect — books that should be considered modern classics:

You’ll find even more suggestions in this article from PRdaily.com: It’s not over yet: Books you can still read this summer

How many of these classics have you read? What business books were or still are on your summer reading list? Why do you consider them classics? Click here to submit your nomination, or share your suggestions in the comments.

Never-Ending Stories–The Green Screen, Walt Disney, and Your Own Organization’s Cultural Lore

Posted by Constance Ward on August 24, 2012 | 1 Comment

The beginnings of a legendary company: the “Storytellers” statue at Disney California Adventure Park tells millions of visitors the story of young Walt Disney’s humble arrival to California in 1923.
Photos by: Loren Javier on Flickr

Once upon a time, in the early 1990s, long before Harry Potter was even a twinkle in the mind’s eye of J.K. Rowling, there was a popular children’s fantasy film called “The Never-Ending Story.” My then pre-teen nieces were huge fans of the movie; so I took them and their mom to see the studio where the film had been made in Munich, my home at that time.

I vividly remember their bewilderment and disappointment when they found that the star of the film, a furry beast, couldn’t really fly; but that the illusion was created with special effects on a green screen. It was somewhat a “coming of age” moment when they learned that appearances are often deceiving and reality may actually be camouflaged by “smoke and mirrors.”

In my family, that chapter in my nieces’ youth is a “never-ending story,” one that is oft repeated and part of our family lore. It’s part of the rich tapestry of our shared family experiences. Now that they’ve grown up, the details of that trip have faded; but the lesson learned will be passed on to the next generation. Aunt Connie will make sure that happens.

In your ”business family,” are there stories that are often retold because they capture the so-called Zeitgeist of a particular time? As with The Walt Disney Company, do these stories demonstrate truths that your people have discovered or reflect clearly your company’s culture and spirit? Are you–or your communications teams or your company historian or archivist–recording these stories and legends for posterity? Ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help!

Strategic Leadership: 6 defined habits that lead to breakthough successes

Posted by Constance Ward on August 22, 2012 | Comments Off

Strategic leaders question prevailing assumptions and consider alternative approaches.
Illustration by hikingartist.com

A strategic mindset is the difference between leading decisively and “swimming in circles,” even when faced with constant change and increasing uncertainty.

Occasionally the leadership message boards I subscribe to online reveal a golden nugget that fits directly into the zone of thought leadership. Paul J.H. Schoemaker from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania recently published this piece on the “6 Habits of True Strategic Leaders.” Schoemaker defines these habits as:

Anticipate
Think Critically
Interpret
Decide
Align
Learn

What habits help you step back from the day-to-day demands of leadership and analyze the bigger picture? Fill in the list with additional habits of your own by sharing them with others in the comments section. And my own foundational habits? They are “Ask, assess, then act.”

Remembering Stephen Covey: The Right Time Left for Thinking

Posted by Constance Ward on August 16, 2012 | Comments Off

Stephen Covey: reflecting on his important (or urgent?) legacy

Tributes for noted business strategist Stephen Covey, who died in late July, could be found not just in business publications, but also in mass media. That indicates the broad popularity of this inspiring businessman, who authored a series of Seven Habits books and launched a multinational franchise of time management products and services.

I worked several years for a rival spin-off company, Franklin Quest Consulting Group, which eventually was folded back into Covey’s vast empire. We were fortunate to be exposed closeup to the strategic concepts, tools and applications of the Seven Habits model.

Our job title, ”productivity experts,” didn’t exactly nail down the broad range of lessons we hammered out with drug development teams around the world. Part of the small group of European consultants in Scientific Services, we worked globally to bring rigor and discipline to the writing process used by pharmaceutical companies that were submitting drug applications to regulators. We also helped them prototype the regulatory documents and find the most compelling messages to persuade the health authorities to approve the drugs.

As you can imagine, the techniques we used, although based on the Seven Habits concepts, had to be tailored for the specific situation of filing new drug applications. When handling such a large amount of data — some dossiers included a quarter of a million pages of background documentation — with rapidly approaching deadlines, it was critical to be able to distinguish between the urgent and the important.

Knowing how to identify and then manage ”the urgent” and ”the important” is an important skill for a good thought leader. This central tenet of the Seven Habits methodology promotes effective time management and always, always allows time for contemplation.

Do you practice Stephen Covey’s healthy business habits? Do you possess the right skill set to manage ”the urgent” and “the important” and still have time left for “the thinking” in your daily schedule? Ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help.

Four Colorful Leadership Lessons from the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

Posted by Constance Ward on August 11, 2012 | 1 Comment

For the last in this series of blogs on the Olympics, I wanted to share some thought leadership lessons I saw on display during the opening ceremony.

Leadership is the difference between teams working in chaos and those working in concert.
Photo by Shimelle Laine on Flickr

Lesson 1: Motivate individuals with impressive team goals

Picture Danny Boyle as the CEO of a small company with 7,500 volunteers. How did he inspire them to “work” an average of 150 hours each? We can only speculate, but perhaps having seen other Olympic opening ceremonies, the participants knew that their individual part would make an important contribution to the whole. Are you as a thought leader helping your teams see the bigger picture and understand how they are involved in a worthy cause?

Lesson 2: Recognize all the people who make successes possible

Those who helped to build the monumental Olympic Stadium were invited to take part in the opening ceremony, too, and donned hard hats to stand sentry at the entrance to the field. Are you as a thought leader aware of the contribution others have made to your success? Do you give credit where credit is due? Do you publicly praise and reward behind-the-scenes workers?

Lesson 3: Be prepared to give direction immediately, in real time

Comedian Rowan Atkinson, with his finger on one piano key and his mind apparently elsewhere, paid little attention to what the conductor or the rest of the orchestra did. The results were predictable but comic. Many of the other performers, even the children bouncing on beds, appeared to be wearing earpieces that allowed their leaders to give them real-time feedback and direction. Are you as a thought leader ”in people’s ears” and helping employees improve their performance just in time?

Lesson 4: Understand and use the power of humor

Arguably one of the most memorable moments of the show was the video of James Bond and Queen Elizabeth. She clearly demonstrated one lesson for all leaders: Don’t take yourself too seriously. In her acting debut, the Queen exuded a sense of fun and captured the spirit of the moment well. But she then entered the royal box with a grand sense of ceremony and great aplomb. Do you as a thought leader know when it’s an appropriate time for humor and when it isn’t?

Ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help.

Looking at the Olympics Through Rose-Colored Glasses

Posted by Constance Ward on August 7, 2012 | Comments Off

The spectacular extravaganza that was the Olympics Opening Ceremony lived up to all the hype, in my opinion. And that was no small feat, in part because the hype wasn’t being built on actual facts.

By keeping the overall vision of the ceremony a surprise to media and the public, all we knew was that it was going to be BIG and quintessentially British. Anticipation added to the eventual enjoyment of the event for many people.

Thames River Police Boarding Teams in Olympics Security Exercise, London

Metropolitan Thames River Police practice boarding techniques during an Olympic Games security exercise. From Defence Images on Flickr

Others, however, aren’t looking at the Olympics through rose-colored glasses. They view the event as an “unseemly binge,” in the words of The New York Times editorial writer Roger Cohen.

In his article “A Troubled Feel in London,” Cohen also discussed the extreme concern the Brits had about security at the Olympics — flames that were fanned by the media –and he used the psychological term “transference” to describe their angst:

“People are anxious about their lives in Britain and the West so they’ve decided to be anxious about the Olympics,” he wrote.

How are you as a thought leader handling the daily pressure of your own Olympic struggles in the business world? What are you doing when your teams seem to becoming more and more anxious in this challenging economy? Do you give them more facts and less hype so that they can see your company’s situation in a true light? Ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help.

Gold Matters – Do Silver and Bronze Matter, Too?

Posted by Constance Ward on August 4, 2012 | Comments Off

It would seem strange not to write about the Olympics during the summer of 2012; so although I’m not a fan of sports, the event seems to have some important business lessons embedded in it…oh, and it fits the color theme of the current blog series. (See Gray Matters Part 1 and Part 2 and the 3-part Pink Matter series, linked below.)

One way to avoid the strict usage requirements surrounding the Olympics; photo via thedrum.co.uk

In doing some research for the blog, I uncovered a few pieces of trivia. I discovered that I couldn’t depict the colored Olympic rings on my site without permission as there are so many restrictions on the use of that trademarked symbol in the guidelines about social media in the Olympics.

According to Wikipedia, the colors of those interlocking rings have a symbolism explained by their creator and the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, in 1912: blue stands for Europe, black for Africa, red for Americas, yellow for Asia and green for Oceania. He saw these as the five parts of the world that practiced healthy competition.

If that were true, however, why is it that a hundred years later, the Olympics have, for the very first time, women athletes participating from each country? In the XXXth Olympiad, pink definitely matters, as you can read in three other recent blogs in this series. See Pink Matters Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.)

But the colors that matter most in any Olympic games are gold, silver and bronze. Not everyone can be winners in sport — or in business for that matter. If all teammates do their personal best, the company should reward that performance appropriately even when the team doesn’t “take home the gold.”
Jacques Rogge, the Olympic Committee president, made that lesson clear during his speech at the opening ceremony:

…honor is determined not by whether you win, but by how you compete. Character counts far more than medals.”

Are you as a thought leader competing fairly and encouraging your teams to strive for faster, stronger, higher, better, more honorable performance? Ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help.

Pink Matters, Part 3: Female leaders “having it all:” Myth or achievable goal?

Posted by Constance Ward on August 1, 2012 | Comments Off

The last of these three blogs also focuses on the so-called ”pink ghetto” where women linger in staff jobs while their male counterparts continue to rise to the top. This blog will look at some of the views and statistics that appeared in Annie Marie Slaughter‘s article in the July-August edition of Atlantic called “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.”

With such a controversial title and data-driven content that sometimes challenges conventional wisdom, the article has stirred up a ”fe-maelstrom” of commentary from business men and women alike.

Slaughter blames the structure of organizational life for making it difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to have a high-powered full-time career and at the same time to be fully involved as a wife and mother.

It’s a proposition that has been around for at least two decades, according to the daughter of Felice Schwartz, who wrote an article titled “Management Women and the New Facts of Life,” published in the Harvard Business Review. Schwartz’s daughter explained in an HBR blog that what women needed most in the workplace in the 1990s was more flexibility from organizations in balancing family and work at different times during their careers. And they still need it today, the daughter explained:

“The key to making it possible for women (and men) to effectively combine work and family, both Slaughter and my mother agreed, is for employers to provide more options about how, when, and where to do their work.”

In the Atlantic cover article, Slaughter warns women not to believe those who say, ”You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.” She points out several half truths about women in the workplace, some of which resonate and some of which contradict, the opinions expressed in the video by Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg, as covered in my last blog.

It’s possible if you are just committed enough
It’s possible if you marry the right person
It’s possible if you sequence it right

Critics of these concepts cite various reasons that the workplace today is filled with women who suffer from the ”tiara syndrome,” which means that women feel entitled to the wear the corporate crown and lead the professional procession to the top. They also voice concern that the sense of entitlement that some women feel is a mask for not working hard enough to achieve that goal. ”I didn’t get the job because I’m a woman,” can be a convenient excuse to cover her low performance.

Is your organization actively dealing effectively with pink matters — as well as gray matters? If you as a thought leader are still uncertain, then it’s definitely time to ask, assess, then act. We’re here to help!

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