May 2011 Strategic Innovation Newsletter

Welcome to the May 2011 edition of Strategic Innovation newsletter, a free monthly newsletter on leadership, strategy and innovation. Delivered on the first Tuesday of each month.

Back issues are archived for free downloading at www.daniellockconsulting.com/newsletter

Tips for improving

•Simplification: The fewer the steps and more consistent the process, the easier it is to control variation. Variation is the enemy of quality and reducing effort.
•Sequential versus parallel processing: Consider the former when quality is important. The latter when speed is important.
•Bottleneck management: the process as a whole can’t go quicker than the slowest step. Focus your attention here for quickest results.
•Bring forward decision making: this avoids working on unnecessary tasks.
•Standardise options: Depending on the amount of customisation you offer, consider standardising options and having dedicated processes to handle them.
•Single versus multiple contact points: Single can provide an improved relationship, but slower responses, multiple contacts can provide quicker service but lesser relationships. Depends on your goals.
 

Article of the month: Leadership is a contact sport

I remember my first real leadership job. I was a team leader in a call centre. A leadership survey was conducted for the whole department, and my results came in much lower than I expected. I was in disbelief. "Surely I am doing a better job than this?”

Well no, not according to my team.

I realised that I had not been actually been asking the team if my approach to leadership was helpful.

This is born out in an article by Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan, which analysed eight different leadership development programs, came up with an overarching conclusion about the behavioural traits of exceptional leaders: personal contact is the most important factor out of them all.

This was measured by the frequency and of discussions and follow up with co-workers, and laid against the increase in leadership effectiveness scores. These scores were subjectively measured in surveys (such 360 degree surveys).

There are many definitions of leadership, but I think this article puts it best:

"Leadership, it’s clear from this research, is a relationship. And the most important participants in this relationship are not the coach and not the "coachee.” They are the leader and the colleague.”

The key here is that the leaders considered great or, who were developed, were the ones who asked for input and feedback.

This implies a process, with feedback loops. Great leadership is not a specific point in time – event based – rather, a continuous process of acting, and the following up for feedback on how your actions went.
 

I sheepishly shared the results with the team and asked for their feedback. They simply wanted more communication. Once I got over my pride, and got the feedback I needed the team was happy.
 

Technique of the month: Which leadership area will you develop?

Marshall Goldsmith says he used to get the managers he coached to select 3 goals to work on, as that would provide focus. He was wrong. Three goals is too many.

As ambitious as his clients were they could only concentrate on one at a time.

So choose one area of development you have - just one. Then, with your boss or team, set out a plan to improve in this area.

Follow up regularly and gain feedback. Correct course accordingly.

In a few months with this single-minded focus and feedback you will have improved immensely.