Leadership, competitiveness and best practices on business management
Workplace Survey, Findings 1.Workers are struggling to work effectively. When focus is compromised in pursuit of Collaboration, neither works well. 2. Effective workplaces balance focus and collaboration. Workplaces designed to enable collaboration without sacrificing employees’ ability to focus are more successful. 3. Choice drives performance and innovation. Employers who provide a spectrum of choices for when and where to work are seen as more innovative and have higher-performing employees.
Innovation is no longer optional for organizations. In the face of constant pressures, growing demand, and a quickening pace of change, all organizations need to build innovation-ready cultures. However, what does it take to build innovation capacity, and how leaders set the right conditions for innovation to flourish? Polina Makievsky, an expert in change management and leadership, describes six ways to tackle old challenges in new ways and moving to action on innovation:
According to the Newton's third law of physic, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Can the same be said of thought patterns? Could thinking opposite solve some of the planet’s greatest challenges?
An opposite mindset is at the heart of Muhammad Yunus’ business, the Grameen Bank (GB), and his pioneering work in the field of microcredit. The economist won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for proving that lending money to the poor to run their own micro-businesses can transform lives. Yunus proposes a worldwide shakeup: solve problems by creating self-sustaining social responsible businesses.
System leaders differ widely in personality and style, but they have a remarkably similar impact. Over time, their profound commitment to the health of the whole radiates to nurture similar commitment in others. Their ability to see reality through the eyes of people very different from themselves encourages others to be more open as well.
They build relationships based on deep listening, and networks of trust and collaboration start to flourish. They are so convinced that something can be done that they do not wait for a fully developed plan, thereby freeing others to step ahead and learn by doing. Indeed, one of their greatest contributions can come from the strength of their ignorance, which gives them permission to ask obvious questions and to embody an openness and commitment to their own ongoing learning and growth that eventually infuse larger change efforts.
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According to a study of 4,000 companies, developed by The Boston Consulting Group, fifty-eight percent of the companies cited significant talent gaps for critical leadership roles. That means that despite corporate training programs, off-sites, assessments, coaching, these things, more than half the companies had failed to grow enough great leaders.
In a 21st-century world, which is more global, digitally enabled and transparent, with faster speeds of information flow and innovation, and where nothing big gets done without some kind of a complex matrix, relying on traditional development practices will stunt your growth as a leader. In fact, traditional assessments like narrow 360 degree surveys or outdated performance criteria will give you false positives, lulling you into thinking that you are more prepared than you really are.
Roselinde Torres, a senior consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, suggests that leadership in the 21st century is defined and evidenced by three fundamental questions:
Read more...Business leaders increasingly find themselves in unfamiliar territory marked by high levels of uncertainty and instability, a slowing global economy, and shifting political realities. Therefore, leaders need to master the art of shaping systems, rather than just operating within them. This means not merely extending their current game, which typically focuses on the company, the resources it controls, and its immediate competitors, suppliers, and customers. Instead, it requires a completely new set of priorities and capabilities.
According to Martin Reeves, Simon Levin, Johann D. Harnoss, and Daichi Ueda, from the Boston Consulting Group, leaders can take these five steps to effectively shape the extended system in which they participate.
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