Lost in translation..
Observer March 26th, 2008
Most of Easter in the mountains, in the good company of German speakers. And as a minority of one, obliged to speak German as well as able. An interesting experience, and reminder of that less-remembered fact among native English speakers that so many colleagues working globally have to formulate a thought in a second language to bring of their ideas and contributions. That demands a lot of energy, in keeping up with the gist of a conversation, let alone the nuance and looking out for the break in the flow. In the cut and thrust of English dominated business life, one can wonder how many brilliant half-formulated thoughts are lost to the brisk pace of the assertive global firm. Add the confusion of slang, idioms and jargon and heads may well reel. While there’s a lot of cross-cultural content by now in the development programs of global leaders, does the resulting behavior accommodate those few moments of extra time to gather all available contributions? Trying to function effectively, let alone excel in a foreign language, is a humbling experience, in which pulling one’s punches can easily become the default norm.
Categories: Behavior , Communication | Comments Off on Lost in translation.. | Print this post | Email this Post
The Transformers
Observer February 24th, 2008
…a professional friend, reporting of a respected talent. “…she’s become Head of so and so and Transformational Change, whatever that may mean”. That transformation word has the distinction of raising not only expectations but also hackles of the sort promoted by business jargon of uncertain meaning. Often contrasted with incremental change, and, presumably more effective towards a sustainable business future. Scanning the horizon for some examples, certainly IBM would be a standout, as would privatized utilities, otherwise Britain under Thatcher, the former soviet block countries, as they adapt to free markets, or China and India as they accede to global economic power. More tangible with hindsight and usually changing the game, requiring big shifts in mindset both internally and externally. ‘Transformation’ is quite likely the new ‘reinvention’… To help with meaning, a recent piece from McKinsey on the challenge of radical, fundamental change. Instructive, but still a bit short on those headline examples of global companies that really pulled it off.
Categories: Behavior , Communication | Comments Off on The Transformers | Print this post | Email this Post
High Performance at Heathrow
Observer January 20th, 2008
Twenty five seconds is what the co-pilot had this last week in which to make his landing decision on behalf of 152 people on BA38 from Beijing. There can be fewer real time tests of performance than that of making a call in landing a non-responsive aircraft. In the event things went very well relative to what might have turned out. It has to be to the enormous credit of both pilots and the entire cabin crew that passengers generally did not perceive anything to be amiss until they were on the ground. And with an emergency evacuation instigated, were clear of the plane in 3 minutes. BA’s people served their customers brilliantly on this occassion, with remarkable presence of mind. No doubt a rigor of training is in place for eventualities like this, however improbable the possible occurrence. But that should not diminish the gratitude, commendation and admiration now expressed to the plane’s high performance team.
Categories: Behavior | Comments Off on High Performance at Heathrow | Print this post | Email this Post
It’s the humans…
Observer December 1st, 2007
The wonderful in-his-own-words memoir of Alan Greenspan (yes, Alan Greenspan), former Chairman of the Federal Reserve brings to mind a parody of the lament “It’s the economy, stupid”. Noting the influence of Russian born philosopher Ayn Rand on his life, Greenspan reports “I was intellectually limited until I met her. All of my work had been empirical and numbers-based, never values-oriented.” …Rand persuaded Greenspan “to look at human beings, their values, how they work, what they do and why they do it…”. The turbulence of his book’s title, owes much, aside from fundamentals, to factors of “it’s the humans, stupid” and moreover the full range of their feelings, from fear on the one hand to exuberance on the other. Feelings, that drive thoughts, that drive behaviors. The book’s right up there with Katherine Graham’s Personal History as a compelling first person account of US public life, spanning several presidencies and not a few crises.
Categories: Behavior , Good to read | Comments Off on It’s the humans… | Print this post | Email this Post
The charisma thing
Observer November 18th, 2007
The ‘charisma thing’ seems to characterize as much of the chattering around what makes for good leadership as does ‘the vision thing’. As Jim Collins shows in Good to Great, the level 5 leaders have done extremely well for their companies often in the absence of this ‘magic’. But we know nevertheless that when we see it we tend to respond to it. History shows us that charisma can work for tremendous good, but also evil. It’s a mesmerizing quality that can drive followers to sometimes bond emotionally to the exclusion of rationality. Joseph Badaracco in his excellent Questions of Character illuminates, with the help of F Scott Fitzgerald, the notion of reverse causality around charisma. That’s to say that it comes with success, the role, its power and span of influence as much as due to any personality traits. A sobering thought, and something former high profile leaders may wryly concur with.
Categories: Behavior , Good to read | Comments Off on The charisma thing | Print this post | Email this Post
Brand extensions
Observer September 30th, 2007
After Brand You (Tom Peters), the Employer Brand (Simon Barrow and Richard Mosley), now the Leadership Brand (Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood) offering insights on the value of a strong leadership brand. The attributes? Consistent and predictable quality of leaders across levels, and across generations of CEOs. The effective transitions from Reginald Jones to Jack Welch to Jeffrey Immelt is held up as evidence for GE’s capability at this over the years. Good for continuity, for corporate culture, and ultimately, for shareholders. The authors also argue that leadership development in the firms that do this well is of a higher order than the usual exhortations about the need for vision, direction and energy. And there’s a grain of something in this. Certainly GE, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, and McKinsey leaders have a distinctive and common identity once beyond their company of origination. All these firms export a lot of leadership talent arising no doubt from positive perceptions about the sustained strength of their corporate performance. And by association, the quality of management. For the quick version on these arguments see Harvard Business Review July 2007.
Categories: Behavior , Good to see | Comments Off on Brand extensions | Print this post | Email this Post
Change happenings
Observer September 16th, 2007
As a thirty-something I wished I’d been young in the sixties, but with the passage of time, I got to think that being twenty-something in the eighties was not a bad deal either. April 1989, the City of London’s Guildhall, history in the making as Mikhail Gorbachev’s Zil cavalcade sweeps by to lunch there with Margaret Thatcher and captains of British industry. The crowd, the flags, the village that the City is, and these heavy motor cars ploughing through. The memory gets more thrilling the further back it recedes. Glasnost, perestroika, and later the Berlin Wall. Who’d have thought.
Cycle on to this week for a view of what monumental change agents these two leaders proved to be and how much closer by now some previously unfathomable arguments of ideology. Gordon Brown receives political foe Baroness Thatcher for tea at Downing Street, and Gorbachev is to be found selling glossy fashion hold-alls on the inside cover of The Economist. To borrow the coinage of a global insurance company, change happens. Not always at the pace or in the specifics wanted – change being messy – but happen it does. And as with the history of these two leaders from twenty years ago, burning platforms certainly help.
Categories: Behavior , Communication | Comments Off on Change happenings | Print this post | Email this Post
Picking winners
Observer August 9th, 2007
Some food for thought for the business community in its ‘war for talent’ at an exhibition on gallerist Vollard presently at the Musee d’Orsay, Paris. Focusing on his promoted artists from the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries the exhibition includes many of the greatest painters of the early modern period, in a richly rewarding selection.
A champion of potential, actively encouraging and mentoring his charges, the bets Vollard placed on relative unknowns or shunned artists appear to have been made good with uncanny dependability. A lawyer by training he combined dealmaker skills with soft people skills to brilliant effect. And those soft skills as applied to artistic temperaments must be the hardest-to-master soft skills of all. For the corporate setting, think prima donna, high maintenance, diva, and so on.
Categories: Behavior , Good to see | Comments Off on Picking winners | Print this post | Email this Post
Centered on Centre Court
Observer July 12th, 2007
… this last weekend what a feast to watch Roger Federer take the Wimbledon trophy for a fifth time in a row, matching Bjorn Borg’s record in the seventies. The way of Federer in leading himself is worthy of study, not least for his unfazed attitude to celebrity, his understated unassuming Swiss way, and coolness of character, but his emotion as well. The unrelenting pressure of the occasion, of history, of all the other titans watching from the royal box, and a champion opponent who took it all the way to five sets including a tiebreak at the third, can but have been vice-like. To concede in the after story that at 5-2 in the final set he ‘nearly cried’, I guess from relief, rather than at that point a fear of losing, only accretes his humanity. Tennis is a classy game with fantastic grace and Federer’s is class act of leadership, also now proven, under real fire.
Categories: Behavior , Good to see | Comments Off on Centered on Centre Court | Print this post | Email this Post
The long goodbye
Observer May 31st, 2007
As the UK lays in waiting for Mr Brown to take over from Tony Blair, with the latter’s reputation dwindling further still as he dawdles his way out of office, one can’t but think that he’s failing a major test of leadership, that of taking his leave. The setting down of power, to put it in his own words. And with that he adds himself to a growing group of former crowd-pleasers that just hung on too long. Calling time on a powerful career must be a bit like calling the top of the market, pretty difficult by recent accounts. The longer the leaving the dodgier the judgement? May be. Even championship agents of change may well resist it for themselves. They are human after all. Lord Browne, Mrs Thatcher, Percy Barnevik and even Jack Welch. Their good names took plenty of damage late in the day after years of lionizing and enviable reputational equity.
Categories: Behavior , Communication | Comments Off on The long goodbye | Print this post | Email this Post
