Leadership

Building the Next Generation Company: Innovation, Talent, Excellence

While Obama is certainly the most important person people pay attention to at the moment and watch closely, there are so many others out there who do great things and remain strong, confident and full of leadership charisma in troubled times like these. Anyone who owns a business, anyone who needs to feed his children and care for his/her family, anyone who feels socially responsible for what’s happening around him, anyone of those people is on the move, is speaking up, is trying to improve things in little steps.

Here’s an example how companies that had been hit seriously several times, still believe in the “we can”:

While the ongoing world economic crisis has left many business leaders sweating (or worse), John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems, is rolling up his sleeves in anticipation of an eventual recovery. After every economic challenge, he says during his recent visit at MIT, Cisco has come out with dramatic gains in market share. This time won’t be different, if Chambers’ bets pay off.

Watch the video >>

Many people talk about the importance of setting goals for themselves and their businesses. And while just having a goal and an action plan on how to reach it is indisputably a good idea, let’s consider how high the chances of actually reaching those goals might really be. After setting a goal, most people/business begin great and follow their action plan with enthusiasm and elan. With time, however, many fall back into old habits, letting their goal slip further and further away, finally giving it up with a list of excuses such as lack of resources, time or opportunities.

Just having a goal and an action plan to reach it might not be enough to actually achieve that goal. It is impossible to consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent to the view we hold of ourselves. First we must be, then we can do and only then can we have.

We might need to change our basic belief systems first. We have to redefine who we are before we can overcome that which has hindered us from reaching our goals in the first place.

So I challenge you to evaluate the beliefs you hold about yourself and your company. If they are inconsistent with your goals, then you need to begin your work at the base and re-align your belief systems first.

Our horses can help…

Markieren Sie sich Ihren Kalender: Excellence Enhancement Infotag am 17. Jänner 2009 von 10:00 bis 12:00 Uhr

Wir bieten Ihnen die einmalige Gelegenheit, ein neues Fährungskräfte-Seminar im Rahmen einer “Schnupperlektion” kennenzulernen. Sie bekommen dabei einen ersten Einblick in Lernerfahrungen, die Sie aus dem Leadership und Kommunikation Workshop mitnehmen.

Führen Sie selbst charachterstarke Pferde. Sehen Sie Experten bei der Kummunikationsarbeit zwischen Tier und Mensch zu. Diskutieren Sie mit Experten.

Bei freiem Eintritt erwartet Sie ein vielseitiges Programm, warme Getränke, Glühwein und mehr.

Die Möglichkeit, ein aussergewöhnliches Werkzeug für die Führungsetage kennenzulernen, sollten Sie auf jedenfall nicht verabsäumen.

Auf Gut Drasing, Drasinger Str. 134, 9201 Krumpendorf am Wörthersee, gelangen Sie in wenigen Minuten von Villach und Klagenfurt aus. Klicken Sie hier für eine Google Wegbeschreibung.

Unser Excellence Enhancement Team freut sich auf Ihr Kommen.

“Many leaders think that only 10% of their employee population can contribute at a high level. That kind of thinking creates a culture of mediocrity and marginal achievement. It’s my viewpoint that beliefs impact behavior. What you achieve is a direct result of what you believe. If every leader and manager could embrace the fact that every employee, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or educational background, is capable of greatness and possesses personal genius, can you imagine how that might change employee attitudes and actions on the job?”  - BusinessWeek.com in interview with Stephanie Chick

This is an interesting comment that should cause many to pause and consider. In times of decreasing revenues and increasing uncertainty, wouldn’t it be great to be able to change the mindset of your employees and allow each to unleash his/her potential?

The best part - you can!

A positive, inspiring and motivating mindset will bring increased productivity, commitment, growth and - very obviously missing in many comanies - sustainability.

Aren’t those exactly the ingredients we’re looking for to increase resilience and go beyond surviving the global crisis, to thriving in it and emerging a market leader.

Think of the potential you have on your pay roll.

In my role as turnaround and M&A consultant, daily confrontation with critical situations is a constant factor: financial disasters, and companies going down the drain for quite some time, dealing with problems due to consolidation or spin-off. There isn’t really anything that would get one of us interim managers out of focus or off track – we are used to dealing with difficult times, used to managing a (large) group of people with different objectives in life, with people who are full of fear (about what’s coming up next), people who simply can’t handle change very well.
Now – do we define difficult times as a “crisis” or is it rather a matter of managers’ state of mind, lack of required leadership skills and a mix of poor market research and related corporate strategy?
I’d like to briefly refer to the description of crisis by the Institute of Crisis Management (http://www.crisisexperts.com/) in the US, which I think very accurately reflects my thoughts: 

“A significant business disruption that stimulates extensive news media coverage. The resulting public scrutiny will affect the organization’s normal operations and also could have a political, legal, financial and governmental impact on its business.”

The basic causes of a business crisis are four in number:

1. Acts of God (storms, earthquakes, volcanic action, etc)
2. Mechanical problems (ruptured pipes, metal fatigue, etc.)
3. Human errors (the wrong valve was opened, miscommunication about what to do, etc.)
4. Management decisions/indecision (the problem is not serious, nobody will find out)

Most of the crises ICM has studied fall in the last category and are the result of management not taking action when they were informed about a problem that eventually would grow into a crisis.

As far as I have noticed during many of my assignments, most of the critical situations are NOT caused by market-related issues, but much more driven by internal problems – the character and management style of the leading team, the lack of internal communication power, the way a vision is lived and moved forward in daily business.

At our open house on November 7, participants had the opportunity to feel what it’s like to communicate and be successful.

As conscious beings, horses have a great capacity for independent thinking; social relationships; individual personalities; physical, intellectual and emotional abilities and, of course, limitations (just like humans!). Because of these similarities to humans (and the profound differences) horses make wonderful partners for initiating powerful change. Horses have no investment in the outcome of an interaction; they always tell the truth, they have no egos and no agendas. They are simply who and what they are, without any need for right and wrong.

This makes the information we get from them very powerful.

Participants at our open house had the opportunity to feel for themselves the power of functioning communication and learn what it takes to make communication work. Intention, focus, energy, relationship, trust and respect were some of the issues we discussed and tried out first hand with the horses.

Working with horses simulates situations we face in our everyday professional and private lives.

We all have a continual string of tasks and desires we wish to complete and various persons we wish to do this with. Each person is different and each task requires a new approach.

Our success in any endeavor is largely dependent on our ability to interact successfully with others. If we are able to create positive, motivating and clear interactions then we are much more likely to reach our goals.

Many participants were surprised how the horses responded to them and how quickly they reacted to changes and adjustments. It really is fascinating how accurately horses respond to us. It gives us the chance to examine our own professional and personal interactions and gives us the key for future success.

Markieren Sie sich Ihren Kalender: Excellence Enhancement Infotag am 7. November 2008 von 13:00 bis 17:00 Uhr

Wir bieten Ihnen die einmalige Gelegenheit, ein neues Fährungskräfte-Seminar im Rahmen einer “Schnupperlektion” kennenzulernen. Sie bekommen dabei einen ersten Einblick in Lernerfahrungen, die Sie aus dem Leadership und Kommunikation Workshop mitnehmen.

Führen Sie selbst charachterstarke Pferde. Sehen Sie Experten bei der Kummunikationsarbeit zwischen Tier und Mensch zu. Diskutieren Sie mit Experten.

Bei freiem Eintritt erwartet Sie ein vielseitiges Programm, warme Getränke, Glühwein und mehr.

Die Möglichkeit, ein aussergewöhnliches Werkzeug für die Führungsetage kennenzulernen, sollten Sie auf jedenfall nicht verabsäumen.

Auf Gut Drasing, Drasinger Str. 134, 9201 Krumpendorf am Wörthersee, gelangen Sie in wenigen Minuten von Villach und Klagenfurt aus. Klicken Sie hier für eine Google Wegbeschreibung.

Unser Excellence Enhancement Team freut sich auf Ihr Kommen.