IS YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGICALLY HEALTHY?

What is the strategic health of a business? Well it is its ability to learn and adapt to its current circumstances whilst shaping itself and its environment to ensure that it has a sustained competitive advantage.  Strategic health is about comprehending risk and developing strategy  whilst managing talent.

Any organisation must be fit for purpose in terms of the present but it must also become fit for purpose in the future and that requires strategic sense and leadership. It must be flexible and able to adapt to the prevailing market conditions.

An organisation has to be able to grow and develop both intrinsically and extrinsically. For growth does not necessarily require real estate it may be just in influence. An organisation that does not learn does not grow and that requires courage for it is the inevitable failures that generate eventual success. Therefore a healthy organisation must be prepared to fail and learn from that failure. A blame culture restricts learning!

Willpower and the ability to keep going even in the most arduous of times is key to a healthy organisation, providing the will is informed and monitored and the lessons valuable and it is not obsessive.

A healthy organisation needs to have a stretch capability and redundancy that allows it to rest and regenerate when it can whilst being able to generate power and surge when it needs to. The margins must not be too large that they become unaffordable yet an over lean organisation is an inflexible, one paced organisation that has little time for learning and initiative.

A healthy organisation is one that looks ahead, one that takes the lessons from the past to inform the future whist recognising the changes in its market environment. Strategically it is not entrapped in the present yet it is garnering, processing relevant information and imagining the future in order to adapt to it and shape it where it can.

Is your organisation strategically healthy?

SUCCESS AND LEADERSHIP

How important is leadership in relation to success? One 0f the key ingredients to organisational success is leadership. We have all seen successful organisations driven by the philosophy and drive of one key individual fail as that individual is replaced by someone else. We have all seen organisations that seem to carry on in perpetuity as leaders come and go. So what makes the difference? Richard Branson,   Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Bill Gates  and last but not least Steve Jobs all run or have all run globally important successful organisations in recent times. However Barclays, McDonalds, Disney and BP are also all successful global companies that have broken the shackles of an individual's leadership style and competence and still preserved their status.  Tesco’s after Sir Terry Leahy and now under Phillip Clarke are still in leadership transition that will bring many challenges particularly with consolidation after such rapid Global growth. The way that Phillip Clarke takes the organisation forward will be fascinating as we enter challenging financial times throughout the world apart from Brazil of course.

Organisations are all different and all have leaders who serve them in differing ways but success and leadership are linked and here are a few leadership aspects that ensure the maintenance of success within an organisation.

Key to any successful organisation is the understanding of its current position. How many organisations truly know where there current position vis a vis competition, product life span and commercial risk. Without a leader focused on understanding the bigger picture in terms of risk, succession and positioning an organisation can only have a short lifespan.

All businesses have an ethos/culture and it is important that if relevant that culture is preserved after all it is what got you there in the first place. Organisations that have a successful and relevant culture need to preserve it through induction procedures for new employees, succession plans to ensure those who have grown up within the organisation who understand its doctrine are its future leaders as they preserve the continuous inspiration afforded by that ethos/culture.

Every organisation needs a vision and the vision must be owned by all within the organisation. Vision is not the sole province of senior executives they are the custodians but for vision to be effective it must be owned by the people within. If it is it will generate self sustaining pulling power to drive the organisation to the achievement of its vision.

Within the vision are objectives which whist being aligned to the overall vision they must also be challenging and rewarding to those who are responsible to achieve them. They must be timely and measurable and they must be clearly understood.

Goals within objectives are simply tasks to fulfil and as tasks they also need to be inspiring and achievable. They also need clear boundaries and controls to keep them on track and the desired end state of the task must be easily recognised.

Now risk and leadership are particularly closely linked particularly in the more frugal times. A leader needs to know what the true risks the organisation is taking are; what are the warning signs and what are the implications should the worst case come to fruition. There are plenty of  recent examples of when this did not happen Zavi, Woolworths, RBS and then lets look at the US banking collapse in 2010 with 20 banks closing in two months with well over 100 closing in the year. Risk has moved up the leadership agenda and needs to be considered and understood at the highest levels.

Leadership is about the art of the possible it is not the science that management is as it is far more futuristic in its doctrine. It is about the use of experiential learning to influence and motivate people for the future and the challenges that brings. Management is a science and therefore based in the present and based on sound evidence. Let’s take targets as an example managers set targets to motivate and control performance. Leaders understand where the organisation is and ensure continuous improvement through effective inspiration, motivation and judgement.  Both are required in an organisation but for me the manager is the policeman for the leader, the person who keeps people on the successful track set by the leader.

EFFECTIVE SME COLLABORATION

Small to medium size enterprises are beginning to collaborate more and more. Such collaborative enterprises are beginning to challenge some of the bigger commercial organisations as co-operative ventures NISA, Mole Valley Farmers, The Co-Op are all examples of successful mutual collaboration. Now with customers becoming more and more environmentally sensitive and more concerned with the local impact of the big five supermarkets there is a growing opportunity for local collaborative work to truly challenge organisations with a large environmental footprint.

So if SME's wish to collaborate, what are the key tenets of effective collaboration? After all collaboration is simply working in a leaderless team!

Vision as ever is vital and it must be common. A shared and well communicated vision will hold collaboration together and empower those within it to achieve.

Trust Collaborators must trust each other. If they don't collaboration won’t work. Trust is two way and trust is important when there is no leader to arbitrate.  Trust allows the collaboration to be honest and forthright in its internal challenges without fear of dissolution. Trust also breeds respect and respect ensures that listening to and comprehending each other's point of view is part of everyday life.

Communication is the essential life blood of collaboration and it has to be effective without a leader to interpret messages. Communication in the early stages makes for stronger collaboration. That early communication is important in establishing members’ expectations and boundaries. For collaboration will crash without all those involved understanding each others expectations and boundaries. The most important part of communication is honesty in terms of being honest in what you will do and not what you may do! It is also vital to communicate any change in your intentions- for to announce that you haven't done something on the day you promised to deliver it breaks trust!

Clear Responsibility and Ownership boundaries are enhanced by clear delineation of responsibilities; they make for effective work and control and ensure accountability within an organisation. Ownership of issues and tasks has to be clearly understood by all those involved. And all those involved have to be prepared to accept responsibility and accountability.

Results Without outcomes which match or exceed expectations no collaboration can survive for long as members look to others to satisfy their ambitions.  A collaboration and the individuals within it must focus on results.

Well it’s easy really when you know how. Then why is it so difficult for SME's to achieve successful long term collaborations? Follow these simple principles and suddenly many doors and avenues of opportunity are opened.

Leadership-Self Sabotage and Self Awareness

Sometimes leaders just don't understand what the true consequences of their decisions and actions are. Self sabotage by leaders comes about through ignorance, over confidence,  omnipotent self belief and delusion. One only has to look at the musings of dictators as they come to the end of their terms in power to draw examples I rest my case with the current furore around FIFA. The problem is that rarely is an autocratic leader told the truth by subordinates. The confidence required to reach power can quickly become the confidence that ensures the fall from power.
Leaders need to have a trusted sounding board somewhere in their team such as  Josh Bolten, George W Bush's chief of staff,  who always tried to encourage others to be frank in front of the president."I took it as my role as chief of staff where an issue was truly presidential to insist that the disagreement be aired in front of the president in full glory. So I found myself needling cabinet officers and senior advisers and prodding them into taking the extreme form of disagreement that I knew existed outside the room to give the president a real chance to make a decision, and for the boss that I served." The role of trusted adviser becomes essential when in a crisis.
However that  sounding board has to remain enlightened and cannot become like the leader dizzy and deluded on power.  True "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" and yet when one truly reflects on the great transformational leaders of our time they are some of the most humble: Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. All possessed self awareness  and all possessed a deep understanding of humanity. Humble, yet their legacy is far more powerful and omnipotent than many of the organisational leaders made in our modern capitalist society.
I believe that self awareness in a leader is a rare talent. As people reach the upper echelons of power they begin to believe in their omnipotence they are constantly worshipped by their teams of obsequious followers who in themselves are dependent upon the leader to preserve their own social status. A study done by Coopers and Lybrand a few years ago indicated that when asked CEO's indicated that only ll% of their employees believed they were taking risks to deliver any bad news up the chain. However, the middle managers felt differently. 33% said bad news in their company (Fortune 500) was a career limiting risk and 50% of lower level employees agreed with the middle managers
A leader who reflects on personal actions and decisions, one who rejoices in their teams achievements and not their own; a leader who empowers their people without pomp and ceremony;  one who recognises the fragility and weaknesses of being human in themselves and all those around them is the real thing. For it is to them and only them that the true trust  of followership is given.
Self awareness whether self-induced or externally initiated is key to keeping a leader straight and true for self-sabotage can easily slip into a leaders repertoire without it. And when it does there will inevitably be a fall as the leader arrogantly chooses the wrong path.

CAN YOU BE A LEADER IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ORGANISATION

A common fallacy is that leadership starts from the top. Leadership can start from anywhere and we have all been in organisations where one well led department succeeds far more than others. Great when you are part of that success but not so if you are without it.  The leaders at the top of the organisation will shape the culture of the organisation and inevitably those leaders that reflect the bosses behavioural traits will succeed. But results cannot be ignored. Great leaders get great results and get noticed. Great results in the middle can cause an organisation to improve as a whole by it replicating and adopting those leadership practices throughout the organisation.
You most certainly can be an excellent leader within a mediocre organisation and get on providing you don't become too much of a threat to the hierarchy. It is therefore a balancing act keeping the bosses sweet whilst maximising the effect of the team. Now really clever bosses will exploit good leadership to the benefit of the whole organisation and will endeavour to maintain the services of such leaders. Bosses who feel inadequate and threatened will sabotage such leaders. Walt Disney was a fine example of someone who truly valued good people and someone who enjoyed employing people who were better than him. Ronald Reagan built a fantastic team around him during his time as US President. Both shaped teams but both had great leaders below them.
Leadership doesn't have to start at the top and that tardy excuse that I can't be a leader in the middle of an organisation holds no truth. Leadership occurs wherever someone is responsible for inspiring and motivating others. The choice of that individual is how they do it? Well or badly; but the real ability of the successful leader is to balance the needs of superiors with those of the team whilst achieving outstanding results.

Can You Manage Change?

Change management is a term all too frequently used in the modern business world. Most humans are averse to change as they naturally fear the unknown and prefer to remain within their comfort blanket. So how do you manage something that requires leadership to inspire and motivate people to move from their current comfortable position.
Change is all about leadership it is about vision and it is about the unknown. Managers deal in the real world of today and not the inspired  and virtual one of tomorrow. Managers deal in targets and targets are difficult to set for an unknown in the future.  Change cannot be managed it has to be led!

THE DUTIES OF A LEADER

So you think you are a leader? Well how good a leader are you?

A good leader is dedicated, for to inspire and motivate a team you have to be. But how good are you at all the various sometimes unpleasant duties of leadership? For leadership is a duty and not a bauble to aspire to.

Moral courage is the primary characteristic for without it you walk by things that you really should own. And if you walk by, every single member of your team learns to walk by as well and n0 one owns the issue - so it festers . As a leader you must always have the moral courage to own an issue however unpleasant the consequences may be.

Honesty is critical to success as a leader and it is being honest with yourself and your team. Sugar coating only lasts so long and it is something that doesn't always work particularly if it is over used.

A leader sets the example and if they are respected that example becomes the norm for the team. A leader who demands punctuality and regularly arrives late destroys their own leadership potential.

A leader is watched all the time they continually communicate. Leadership is not something you can switch off and on.  A leader communicates even by ignoring someone or something and leaders have to be continually aware of how and what they are communicating.

Leaders must be the bearer of bad news. When it comes to delivering it to the team it is a task that cannot be delegated. If it is delivered honestly and compassionately the message is not distorted and the effects can be monitored and reactions controlled. If it is delegated a leader succumbs to the rumour mill and all its toxicity.

Leaders make judgements and decisions they don't avoid them. But leaders can't afford to make too many bad judgements otherwise they will erode their credibility.

Leaders need to deliver they cannot rest on their laurels leadership brings with it a duty to deliver regularly.

Leaders must show equality even when they don't like team members they must treat them equally. One famous coach stated that he didn't like his team all the same but he loved them all the same.

Being a great leader may bring rewards but it is far more about servitude and duty than ever it is about status and reward.