Enjoy the podcast of The KEY: The Leader’s Blind Spot and discover the 10 questions people ask themselves when they look to find a leader they are prepared to trust and follow.
Aviv Shahar :: Mar.29.2010 :: Leadership, Podcasts :: No Comments »
Carlos Ghosn CEO and President of Renault of France and Nissan of Japan, is credited with turning around Nissan. As an outsider in charge of one of Japan’s largest companies, Ghosn has been extremely successful. When asked recently by Charlie Rose, “what is the mindset of a global leader in the future?” he replied: “A person that is open-minded, capable of understanding different cultures, respects and loves different cultures, is able to understand and connect with people and is empathetic.”
Here are some questions to reflect on as you seek to cultivate the mindset of a global leader:
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Nov.30.2009 :: Leadership :: No Comments »
What can you learn from Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s former and first Prime Minister, about leading your organization?
Lee Kuan Yew is the person who inspired Deng Xiansheng to lead china to open its market and create large scale economical changes. His reflections about Singapore in his conversation with Charlie Rose carry a wise message to all leaders:
Lee Kuan Yew says about Singapore:
“It has to be a place that is useful for the world, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. We have made ourselves relevant to the world.”
Asked: “How do you maintain relevance?”
“You keep on changing. You cannot maintain relevance by just staying put. The world changes; watch it and ride the surf.”
When asked: “what’s the most important thing you’ve learned in the last 20 years?”
Lee Kuan Yew replies: “The impossible can happen.”
The message for leaders:
1. How is your world changing?
2. How must you and your organization change to stay relevant and be useful for the world?
3. What “impossibles” will you make happen?
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Oct.26.2009 :: Entrepreneur, Leadership :: No Comments »
Discover the Ten Faces of Leadership and reflect on your leadership strengths. Identify the most critical leadership capacities you must now focus on and exercise. Lead your teams to create the future.
Leadership is situational. The requirements of each situation are unique. Needs and opportunities change and are based on circumstance. Great leaders are adaptive and versatile – they instinctively assess the requirements of the situation, adapt and frame their style and modus operandi to best serve. Here are the Ten Faces of leadership, coupled with the five-color learning code.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Oct.06.2009 :: Leadership, The Key :: No Comments »
“Why Do Big Name leaders and CEOs Mess Up?” was the question I was asked at a recent leadership seminar. The seminar focused on the energy zones of leadership and the leader’s assets. “Why do so many known leaders and CEOs mess up their health or end up with ethical or relationship breakdowns?” the executive asked.
H.E.R breakdowns (breakdowns in Health, Ethics & Relationships) are often given the simplistic explanation that it happens because of the stresses of the job. The deeper answer is that the CEOs involved did not internalize the growth and development of their responsibility in a whole and balanced way.
The voltage analogy comes handy. When a CEO takes on a 500 volt responsibility but only grows and develops internally to contain 200 or 300 volts the capacity gap leads to a breakdown. Health, Ethical and Relationships (HER) collapse are symptoms of the incongruence. You must grow on the inside to make the outer development safe and stable. If done wisely, your development on the outside helps accelerate the inward journey.
In our recent KEY we explored the Four Ways to Grow. The best accelerated growth and development may have aspects of all four paths. You have to balance the external development with the internal growth. As you evolve in managing the organization’s strengths and weaknesses so must you gain a deeper insight about your own.
The fourth path (pilgrimage journey) begins on the inside and may lead you to a life of service into the world. The first (immersion), second (apprenticeship) and third (project, vision or crises) may begin the development on the outside but as you grow in your exterior capabilities, you must also work to find the internal growth to balance and match it.
The HER breakdown syndrome takes place because the increased responsibility on the outside is not supported by an inner growth. The inner structure cannot support the weight of the building and it gives in at the point of weakness.
What do you do to strengthen your inner journey? How do you internalize the development needed to support your growing responsibility?
Our executive coaching covers the 12 dynamics of growth and wellness. We help you identify what needs critical attention. We help you and challenge you to evolve in balanced way.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Jul.09.2009 :: Leadership, Personal Growth :: 1 Comment »
Wise leadership is more than being smart. We know what smart leaders do. They formulate and act on SMART goals. SMART Goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Aligned & Attainable
Relevant Results
Timely
In these times SMART Goals are not enough. They have to be coupled with WISE Aims. Aim is a direction you are pursuing. WISE Aims are: Worthy, Inspirational, Sustainable, Evolving
• Worthy – Creates significance, value, meaning and is precious
• Inspirational – Energizes with potential and possibility. Opens your imagination and invites creativity
• Sustainable – will carry you through ups and downs and remain relevant. Does no harm, is renewable and replenishing and generates more than it uses
• Evolving - updatable, growing and upgrading with new opportunities, capabilities and achievements
WISE leadership creates a Worthy and Inspirational vision coupled with a Sustainable and Evolving strategy.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: May.04.2009 :: Leadership, Personal Growth :: No Comments »
CEOs and GMs ask me: can you help us increase revenue and improve the top line? Can you help cut cost and improve the bottom line?
My answer is, “yes! We can help you grow your top line! And we can improve your bottom line too!”
“How?” they ask. “It’s simple. We will help you improve your top line and your bottom line by focusing on your point of leverage, your middle line.
In a challenging environment, leaders create breakthroughs or crash. For company leaders, the next worst thing to facing a tough business environment is creating their own lethal downward spiral. Unfortunately, that is exactly what some leaders are doing right now, destroying their business rapidly. No one wants to fly into the ground, but good pilots make terrible mistakes. How do I know? I have seen it. In this environment, leaders who are not aware of the impact of incongruent communication increase the damage by creating stress, fear and disengagement in their teams. In the desire or need to increase productivity they produce hyper-active or frozen environments, both leading to catastrophic productivity loss.
The carpenter’s rule is – “Take care of the edges and the middle will take care of itself.” The executive rule is opposite – “Take care of the core (the middle) and the bottom line will take care of itself.”
Your core is your middle line. The middle line hides your breakthrough potential to dramatically improve your top and bottom lines. In our rapid “mid-line workshop”, we ask: how are you in “the middle”? How are you in “the middle” with your people? How you are in “the middle” with your clients? How well are your people coping and managing in these challenging times? Do you bring out the best in people or are they more stressed and anxious around you? Do you help clients with their greatest source of pain? Do they know how to make the most of your products and services?
We are the experts of the mid-line. We help you focus on the great multipliers of your business – the key leverage points that generate results, grow your top line and improve your bottom line. Here are six mid-line factors that determine organizational and business results: great leaders and teams:
1. Cultivate relationships of trust
2. Develop creative solutions
3. Produce rapid alignment
4. Build leadership capabilities
5. Create effective execution
6. Generate energy and commitment
If you are absolutely serious about helping your teams raise the bar and turn challenges to opportunities – if you are committed to realize your goals call or write us to find out about a “mid-line inventory” and a rapid “mid-line workshop” for your team or entire organization. This innovative discovery workshop customized for your team will generate rapid results to help you improve your top and bottom line. We work with you to discover the best solution for your teams and business. The workshop can help you:
* Realign activities to capitalize on new opportunities.
* Free up and repurpose resources.
* Accelerate go-to-market strategy.
* Clarify decision rights, roles, responsibilities and objectives.
* Create rapid alignment and collaboration.
The “mid-line workshop” can be customized for large and small groups for half-day sessions or a series of shorter sessions. We’ll work with you to adapt the optimal format for your needs. And yes, we will improve your top and bottom line!
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Apr.28.2009 :: Leadership, Organizational Development :: No Comments »
The world is changing, are you changing with it?
I sense more worry, anxiety and stress from executives in recent coaching sessions. There are more challenges. Some speak of relational explosions and difficulty in staying clear and focused; some speak of reactionary response from managers, employees and clients. Most struggle to stay focused and productive. It’s as though the scenery is changing and with it the experience.
There is a paradox at play. High productivity is needed more than ever, but more people are distracted and lose productive focus. “I feel like I am running in water” says one executive. “Everything seems out of control” says another. “The pressure is relentless” says a third one.
You get the sense that everyone is in overdrive. Work habits that delivered results in the past are not sufficient. There is growing pressure for top line achievements and bottom line success, but it is the “middle line” – the inner working of teams that suffer most. There is a relentless, very stressful, non-productive intensity. It is more than psychological pressure and the 24/7 news cycle phenomenon. There is an energetic dimension to this shift. The whole system of work and life – the entire human system seems to be going through an octave leap – an epochal transition. It’s as if, en masse, we have all connected to a higher voltage power. Our previous wiring and insulation hadn’t totally prepared us for this time. You see coping difficulties all around and circuitries are being burned.
Every generation has its rendezvous with challenge. And this one is ours. The massive change and discontinuity underway is a generational shift. Welcome to the new epoch – the epoch of continual change.
Here are a few themes and capabilities needed in this time of change which are surfacing in recent coaching sessions with executives:
1. Staying focused, clear and intact.
2. Maintaining strategic clarity while executing effectively on the short term.
3. Developing deeper trust in key relationships.
4. Managing stress and anxiety.
5. Reframing problems to discover opportunities.
6. Taking care of basics. Attending to health and balance.
7. Managing ambiguity and uncertainty to improve resilience.
8. Tapping new innovative collaborations and alliances.
9. Replenishing oneself energetically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
10. Creating a narrative of meaningful and impactful communication.
What are your coaching needs? Who are you mentoring and coaching?
Call or write to us to find out about a coaching clubs for your team or entire organization. We’ll work with you to adapt the optimal format for your organization. And yes, we will improve your top and bottom line!
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Apr.23.2009 :: Coaching, Leadership :: No Comments »
Leaders not using this crisis to repurpose and reposition their organizations are wasting a good crisis. If you are preoccupied only on surviving these critical times, you are missing out on the opportunity to do something bigger, to play a bigger game.
Strategic leadership is not about “how will we come out of this in six or nine months?” It is about, “how are we using this crisis to strengthen our position?” It is about looking beyond the current obvious situation and asking “what vision if any, are we pursuing?”
Here are some questions leaders must ask themselves at this time:
1. What do you see your situation to actually be?
2. What are the “constants” and what are the “changeables”?
3. What new opportunities can emerge in this crisis?
4. How are you using this downturn to strengthen your position? Your people? Your focus? Your value proposition? Your alliances? Your execution?
5. What is your vision?
6. What are the crucial questions you must answer to realize your vision?
7. What do you want to be known for? Where do you want to be when the upturn begins?
8. What changes do you need to make? What competencies must you focus on?
9. What investments are critical?
10. How can you help bring about a recovery of confidence for your people? What specifically will you do?
Call us to find out about breakthrough coaching for you and your team.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Feb.23.2009 :: Entrepreneur, Leadership :: No Comments »
Gary Hamel framed on HBR a list of 25 challenges for 21st century management strategies. Here is the comment I posted with suggested additional challenges:
Thank you, Gary. This is a great list! The fulcrum of the 25 points is number 11. “Dramatically reduce the pull of the past.” May I suggest reframing the challenge to say – “Be ready to engage in a newly emerging future, free of the limitations of the past.” In that sense it becomes the pivot point and the context for the other 24 challenges.
Here are five elements to add to the list of 25 management challenges for the 21st century:
26. Help integrate the multi-generational society at work and in life. Facilitate the emergence of a new multi-generational partnership vitally needed to meet organizational, national and global challenges. We need each other’s help and contribution. This will help ease the engagement of the young (22-32) and redefine the participation of the elderly (70-95).
27. Facilitate the emergence of new role models and images of success. Cultivate and encourage new heroes and heroines—champions that integrate and embody these challenges in their own practice and innovation.
28. Reframe the imperatives and the relationships of the short, mid and long terms. Create a system that incentives long term sustainable results to help free up the organization from the dictatorship of the short term (quarterly earnings). (Expand the context of your 14th point.)
29. Redefine economic value, its expression and service. Facilitate practices that integrate the professional and the personal, passion and competence, where whole-person, whole-leader, whole-community, whole-society can be exercised and expressed with the support of market economy.
30. Facilitate the evolution of an innovative learning and development function. Discover and support new developmental frameworks and processes to help individuals and teams realize greatness and act on opportunities to fashion their collective future.
© Aviv Shahar
Aviv Shahar :: Feb.10.2009 :: Leadership, Organizational Development :: No Comments »
