Each seminar, each group, each strategy session brings forward lessons, insights and new articulation and power. This is the hallmark of transformational work. You are made anew in the process. You clarify your goals, connect with a sense of purpose and step into a more authentic place. If we are not blessed by this kind of energy it means we are failing to step into greater authenticity and are not transformational.

Summoning to authenticity the people you meet will give them permission to spread their wings to soar. It is then that they realize their power and ready themselves to join in and realize a greater universe of possibilities.

This week in Toronto I am with a group of insightful and energetic managers. On day two of this 4-day program we explored the power of Adaptive Leadership — adapting your management approach to the needs and the readiness you meet. Here are two essential values we focused on:

First, to be an Adaptive Leader you must be diagnostic about the people you work with, their needs and development path. You envision for them and with them their continued growth. You facilitate and enable their next realization and development. This means you care. You are genuinely interested. You work toward making a real difference for them, a sustainable difference. You champion their best. You create a legacy of breakthroughs.

Second, a classic “sin” of many managers is having a blind-spot about their top performers. Too often they forget that ‘Top Talents’ are a goldmine. It is too easy to take your top performers for granted. Yes, you want to empower them, to delegate to them. But assuming that their rare ability will always come through and deliver doesn’t give you permission to carelessly dump new pressures on them. Delegating is not dumping. Delegating is transferring responsibility and thereby entrusting another with power to enhance their capabilities and growth.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Apr.04.2008 :: Consultant Journal, Leadership :: No Comments »

The corpus callosum is the largest bundle of nerves in the human body. It connects the two halves of your brain. It helps the right and the left hemispheres of the brain to communicate and coordinate their activity.
As with your brain so is the case with your organization. Certain parts represent and are more inclined to “left brain” functions and other parts are by a greater degree “right brain” inclined. The question is, do they talk to each other? Do they communicate and coordinate well?
It was the surgeon, Joe Bogen and the psychologist, Michael Gazzaniga who discovered that the left and right brain hemispheres have distinct functions. Bogen was trying to help people with epileptic seizures by cutting the corpus callosum. Seizures tend to begin in one spot and spread by chain reaction to the surrounding areas. His idea was to prevent the seizure from spreading to the other side of the brain by severing the corpus callosum. Gazzaniga’s job was to discover the after-effects of a “split-brain”. As with many other great discoveries, the right and left brain localized functions were discovered by accident.
Organizations can suffer epileptic seizures too. It happens when communication breaks down, when finance and R&D, marketing and supply chain, sales and logistics don’t communicate well with other. If the organizational corpus callosum is severed or not functioning and the different functions are fighting each other instead of serving a joint purpose, the organizations can suffer an epileptic arrest.
Your task as a leader is to enable the collaboration and integration of these functions and groups. Here is the leadership challenge:

Are you the corpus callosum of your organization? Do you help and enable the left and right hemispheres to communicate and integrate with each other? Do you facilitate a whole brain organization, where the output is greater than the sum of the individual parts?

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Mar.13.2008 :: Leadership, Organizational Development :: No Comments »

Jordan is a young manager. From the start, he has been very effective in solving problems and was quickly promoted to a management position and responsibility. His approach to solving problems has always been aggressive. Show him a problem and he is all over it. Jordan takes great pride in fixing problems. When he walks into a room, Jordan enjoys hearing people say, “Mr. Fixer is back.”

For four months Jordan had nine account managers in his team and now six of them resent him. When I interviewed them they said they admire Jordan, and that he is phenomenal, but they are afraid of him and his temper. When inquiring further I discovered that there was some suppressed resentment against Jordan underneath the fear. “Jordan has a big huge blind spot” one manager on his team told me.”He micro-manages us and wants to know in detail about every deal in the works. He doesn’t trust us and it says more about his insecurity and paranoia than about his capability. He is so used to being the superstar that he reduces all of us on his team to be less than we can be. He takes the job and the pride of success away from us. My guess is, if we don’t see a change very soon half of his team is not going to be here in a couple of months.”

The art of leadership is as much about “what you don’t do” as it is about “what you do”. You’ve got to know when to resist the “fixing itch”; when to delegate and trust the other person to find the solution. It’s about learning to resist yourself. Great leaders are capable of resisting the “let me fix it” reflex. The surest and fastest way to cause resentment around you is to point out every detail of what is going wrong and then attempt to fix it for everybody. I see a relief in managers when they begin to discover the art of coaching. They realize they can use coaching strategies to help their people unleash their own talents.

Jordan experienced an epiphany in our MC class (The Manager Coach). He had always thought of himself as being firmly in control. As we practiced the coaching conversation and the tactic of stepping back from “fixing” to “open ended questions”, Jordan was surprised to discover he was not in control. His fixing habit, Mr. Fixer’s pride and self image were in charge of him. Once he realized these issues, he was ready to step back and then make a leap toward letting go of trying to control a multitude of details. He was ready to empower his team and their capabilities. There was a big smile on his face when he recognized the greater freedom and versatility that become available in asking open ended questions and in trusting the people around him to find answers. It was as if a great weight fell off his shoulders. When I visited with his team six weeks later, I was told, “Jordan is a different person. It’s as if a light was turned on.”

There is a profound change that takes place when you shift from “fixing” to “coaching”. You change your language, your focus and even your posture and energy. It’s a bit like discovering the second floor above the basement you have lived in for years. Jordan suddenly discovered the Manager Coach floor, where natural light comes through the window and there is a view that was never available in the basement.  Breaking through his own limitations, and seeing clearly the things that control him rather than what he chose and aspired for, opened his eyes to the greater light of shared experience and collaboration. It made him a stronger leader. His team was prepared to rally around his own transformation as they recognized the new opportunity. Their results quickly improved and exceeded everyone’s expectations.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Feb.10.2008 :: Coaching, Leadership, Organizational Development :: No Comments »

Neils Bohr coined the complementarity principle in his approach to quantum physics. Bohr explained the need to embrace two different and apparently contradictive views of reality. One is the view that light is made of particles and the other that it is a wave. Particle and Wave views of reality are mathematically contradictive yet both are needed to hold together Quantum Physics.

What is the complementarity principle of leadership?

First, there cannot be effective leading without effective following. The complimentarity of leadership is to embrace the “follower’s perspective” together with the “leader’s perspective”. Like waves and particles the leadership and followship views are mathematically different yet both are needed to create an integral organization that is ready to actualize a vision.

The second facet of the complimentarity principle in leading is “results-driven” and “process-driven” leadership. Here is how it works. The best way to get results is to focus on the process that creates and delivers optimal results. The best way to engineer a process is to hold in mind the results you hope to deliver while you design the process.

Think about a challenging conversation. You want the other person to understand your point of view. That is the result you hope to achieve. The process to get there is more than expressing your viewpoint. Before the other person can understand they must feel understood. To appreciate your viewpoint they need to feel you appreciate theirs. You’ve got to listen before you can be listened to. That is the process of connection that leads to resultant understanding. You as a leader hold the point of complimentarity and integration.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Feb.05.2008 :: Leadership, Organizational Development :: No Comments »

This Key is about a subtle blind spot that sabotaged Jim and many other high performers. Unlock this insight and set yourself free to discover your leadership path.

Jim has been successful at launching his career and it’s gone well. He quickly became known for his ability to get things done and for taking on one responsibility after another. Jim became one of his company’s youngest managers. He had good strategic grasp and was praised for his commitment. He was fast, efficient, decisive and ready to take risks.

Looking around, Jim thought: “To be a leader here I need to demonstrate excellence in what I do, master the business, communicate clearly, present effectively and deliver results. I need to be confident and quick to respond and do better than most.” Feeling good about himself he got to work early every day and focused on getting things done. He told himself: “That’s the way to get ahead here; I need to focus on what I do, on my actions and on getting results. Then, one day, I am going to be a ‘decider’ here.” Discover what happened to Jim and what you can learn from his story here.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Jan.12.2008 :: Leadership, The Key :: No Comments »

Jeff Bezos hopes to “outbook the book” with Kindle – Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device. If you are involved in the cutting edge of technology and business you would want to watch Bezos conversation with Charlie Rose (posted here below) for the following four reasons:
1. Bezos’ narrative about where we are in the Internet revolution says we are clearly only in its early days. He points out that like electricity in the early 20th century, the Internet is still talked about as “vertical phenomena” instead of realizing that it is, like electricity was, a “horizontal enabling technology.” It is a “word-of-mouth-accelerator that benefits all things.” I suggest that you take notes while watching this conversation and ask yourself: how will these ideas and trends impact the business I am in?
2. The second reason is Bezos 70-30 rule: “In the old world you might have put 30% of your energy, dollars and time into building a great product or service and then you would put 70% of your energy, dollars and time into shouting about that service. In the new world that inverts. You better put the bulk of your time, energy and dollars into building great a service.” In a transparent world quality shines through!
3. Third, watch Bezos energy and excitement and passion for what he does and for his customers’ experience. He clearly is having a lot of fun (I made this same observation about Jeffery Immelt).
4. Fourth, pay attention to Bezos work practices. Specifically, he takes quarterly retreats where he isolates himself and locks himself away from everything for two-three days to reflect on what’s on the cutting edge. This allows Bezos to be creative and come up with new strategic themes and directions, which he writes up as a memo for himself. These themes and ideas guide his next conversations with the executive team at Amazon. Some of the important developments at Amazon resulted from Bezos quarterly strategic retreats.

Bill Gates has a similar practice where he takes his now-famous twice yearly week-long retreats to think, read and reflect “and not do email.” During these times of reflection Gates has come to some of his most important realizations and revelations, including the need to focus Microsoft on the Internet (he almost missed the boat), making the shift to refocus on security and trustworthy computing, and then his decision to focus more on the Gates Foundation.

It is evident from these stories that time for reflection is an essential part of success. However, Most people are not disciplined enough to engage in reflection on their own; they don’t know how to design their retreat, frame the right questions or start a practice of reflection. Few executives could design for themselves an effective strategic retreat. This is why we are seeing the return of facilitated leadership retreats and strategy summits.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Nov.21.2007 :: Innovation, Leadership :: No Comments »

Jeff Immelt runs the third largest company in the world, a company that generates revenue of 175 billion dollars (55% of it outside the US). In his interview this week with Charlie Rose, Jeff Immelt responded to the question of how he divides his time in this way:

30% of his time is spent on people – coaching talent, choosing and nurturing the best people. Immelt says “People is where we create differentiation”.
30% is spent on financial operations – focusing on businesses that need attention, making financial decisions, where to build things, where to expand markets, what to sell.
30% is spent on growing the company – meeting customers, making deals, developing ideas and opportunities such as GE’s Eco-imagination strategy.
10% on governance – working with the board, investors…

Immelt’s other preoccupation is his promise to GE employees to be in the front seat of history. He keeps a great antenna open to constantly absorb the changes in the world, to grow breadth, to pick up trends, to appreciate context and to think about what’s next.

How would you translate this learning and mindset to yourself? Whether you are a one person business, leading a team or running an organization?
First, invest in people and develop talent – develop your own talent and strengths as well as coach and develop the people around you. When you provide development opportunity and growth value for people, you will never be out of work, you will never not be valuable, you will never be bored and you will never be isolated.
Second, understand your business, take an interest in it and take care of it. Know how it works, manage risk and take full responsibility for your finances
Third, engage with new growth, with new opportunities, develop what you do, don’t do the same thing this year as you did last year, push your envelope into new territories.
Fourth, keep your house in good order.
And then, stay open and continue to learn new things. Be alert to perceive the trends around you and the greater context of the times in which you live.

Finally, Immelt clearly enjoys what he does and is excited about it. You can too. You don’t have to be the CEO of GE to live an exciting and enjoyable life. Start getting excited about your own strengths and about being the CEO of your own life and enterprise. In the end it’s the only enterprise you really have. How about making it a great one?

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Nov.11.2007 :: Leadership :: No Comments »

Greatness appears in many forms. It’s attractive, it has presence and power. It sharpens your senses and makes you focus. It’s too precious to miss. I experienced such alertness when I interviewed a successful executive this week. Here is what he told me in response to the question: “how were you able to overcome and remediate the ‘blame culture’ you inherited along with many other organizational challenges and lead your organization through such rapid growth and breakthrough achievements?”

“We cultivated a simple management mindset: the business is first, our people are second and we, the managers, are last. We are here as managers to facilitate the business, to enable our teams do the job we ask them to do, and to respond to what the business demands. We are high on value and results and low on ego. The environment that I like to work in is one where if I say something stupid you should be prepared to tell me so. Don’t let the business suffer because I happen to have a title. You can influence and lead without a title. The need of the business is the leader.”

He added: “When I came in I had two options: to do it right or to do it right now. I have chosen to do it right. It has taken time. As managers, all we do is align action. We align that action through communication. Excellence is in how we communicate, how we make ourselves understood, how we provide feedback and reveal disconnects. We have chosen to put the business first, to be high on value, low on ego.”

Greatness is always nearby, it is inside you and in the person next to you, if you can identify it.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Nov.07.2007 :: Leadership, Organizational Development :: No Comments »

Rachel is a bright executive. She moved swiftly up the corporate ladder and was given responsibility for a large division in her company. She relocated and quickly adapted. Yet, for a few months Rachel continued to struggle. She hadn’t been able to communicate effectively with a key manager. He had been a talented manager and she tried a number of approaches but simply couldn’t get through to him.
When we spoke about her struggle it became clear to Rachel that it was not the manager she was struggling with. It was herself. “It’s my own internal sense of clarity and direction that I am having difficulty finding. My ineffectiveness with this manager is just a by-product. It’s not about him, it’s about me.”

The lights turned on for her when she realized this and proceeded to articulate that what she faced was not ‘doing’ things differently, rather it was finding a new, more powerful sense of ‘being’. It was not a technique to be found on the outside – it was a new knowledge of self, inside her, that she was looking for.

I challenged Rachel to clarify and reach for the things that were absolutely essential for – her core values and vision for herself. She came back with a tremendous sense of self-discovery, liberation and strength. Rachel then realized that she had released something powerful within. She had found a more authentic voice and the results were thrilling.

In the weeks following our coaching, Rachel was cruising at a different altitude. Her focus and enhanced effectiveness surprised even her. “It’s as though I have new amperage about me and there is a kind of grace and joy that accompanies all that I do. My communication is clearer and more confident. It is not an act. I have a compelling inner sense of what is important, of my values and of what I cannot compromise. People respond to me differently. I was able to find a powerful new clarity with the manager I had struggled with previously. I haven’t really changed a lot of what I say; it’s that I am now able to come out from a different place. The conviction and the energy come from the inside and other people can’t help but notice.”

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Oct.23.2007 :: Coaching, Leadership :: No Comments »

The Economist special report on innovation: “Something new under the sun” quotes John Dryden of the OECD: “We firmly believe that innovation, not love, makes the world go round.” Dryden makes an important point but misses the bigger point. The bigger point is that the driver of innovation is love and passion. What drives innovation is the love of new ideas and new solutions. It’s the passion to create new opportunities, experiences and services, and the disciplined love to drive and execute these to establish a new reality.

The Economist further elaborates on the polarity of GE execution-focused approach to innovation, which emphasizes “operational excellence”, versus Google’s approach to innovation that emphasize free-ranging play by granting its engineers permission to spend 20% of their time on pet projects. GE’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, brings the “What matters gets measured” mindset to innovation, while Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, declares that trying to measure his firm’s innovation process would choke it off all together. It’s the science versus art argument that again misses the point, as most polarity debates do. The greater power and opportunity is in integrating art and science. The integration point of science and art, and of the execution-based and the free-range approaches to innovation is a disciplined love. Great scientists and engineers get up in the morning like great artists and authors – they cannot wait to get into the process they love so much – the process that takes them to the next step of discovery and realization, the process that gets results.

In our program, The Three Propulsions of Great Companies – A Template for Greatness, managers focus on their best practices and on ways to unleash innovation. Amber Network offers practices and disciplines that cover the whole range from focused execution to innovation, where these are not mutually exclusive but integrated into the passionate art and science of getting results. It’s time to stop the polarity argument and create a whole-person, whole-organization integral approach to innovation that gets results.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Oct.20.2007 :: Innovation, Leadership :: No Comments »