Question

What resistance is causing us to stall or slow? How can we use this resistance to our advantage or turn it around on itself?

The Age of the Unthinkable by Joshua Cooper Ramo

Josh Ramo, the youngest Senior Editor and Foreign Editor ever at TIME Magazine, is both a great writer and a global citizen. A friend of mine for the past eight years, he now works as Managing Director at Kissinger Associates, Inc., which is owned and managed by Henry Kissinger. I’m not surprised that Josh chose to work for the former Secretary of State, since Josh speaks Mandarin and frequently seeks connection between the U.S. and the world at large. In his latest book, The Age of the Unthinkable, Josh examines recent disruptions to well-established institutions and mental models, and finds solutions to problems from unlikely and far-flung sources.
Some of these unlikely and far-flung sources include the chief information officer of the Hezbollah (Who would even think a terrorist organization has such a position?), the Silicon Valley venture folks who founded Google, President Gorbachev, ground breaking physicists, and others. Tying them together under the common banner of revolutionaries, Josh argues that they are more successful than organized bureaucracies like the State Department, White House, and Pentagon. Josh asks, "Why are these revolutionary models so successful?" and "How might we adapt some of this thinking into our organizations?"
Josh's key findings surface as he investigates the notion of resilience. When the unthinkable and unimaginable happen, and our traditional models aren't equipped to handle the aftermath, we need new and better methods to cope and rebound. In The Age of the Unthinkable, you'll learn some of these methods.
Since he advocates a new manner of thinking (no small topic or feat), this book provides only a taste of the advantages we might enjoy and challenges we might face. Josh makes the complex easy to understand, though, so it is a highly worthwhile read.

Understanding Leadership

In building a training program for leaders, I've given a lot of thought to definitions of leadership. Here are a few that I have come across:

"A leader is simply one who has followers." To have followers isn't much of a threshold. Cults have followers, and so do NFL teams and pop stars. Leaders should aspire to greater heights.

"A leader gets others to do what one cannot do alone." This definition feels too utilitarian. The task is paramount, at the expense perhaps of learning and development.

"A leader gets people to do what he or she wants them to do, but having them want to do it." This definition comes closer to what exceptional leaders do than the previous two, but the word "gets" implies manipulation. The rewards and opportunities are likely greater for coworkers in this context, but there's no indication that inspiration or vision will be properly valued.

Leaders ought to strive to build a legion of thinkers, not automatons. John Searle's Chinese Room experiment helps to illustrate why:

"Searle requests that his reader imagine that, many years from now, people have constructed a computer that behaves as if it understands Chinese. It takes Chinese characters as input and, using a computer program, produces other Chinese characters, which it presents as output. Suppose, says Searle, that this computer performs its task so convincingly that it comfortably passes the 'Turing Test': it convinces a human Chinese speaker that the program is itself a human Chinese speaker. All of the questions that the human asks it receive appropriate responses, such that the Chinese speaker is convinced that he or she is talking to another Chinese-speaking human being. Most proponents of artificial intelligence would draw the conclusion that the computer understands Chinese, just as the Chinese-speaking human does.

Searle then asks the reader to suppose that he is in a room in which he receives Chinese characters, consults a book containing an English version of the aforementioned computer program and processes the Chinese characters according to its instructions. He does not understand a word of Chinese; he simply manipulates what, to him, are meaningless symbols, using the book and whatever other equipment, like paper, pencils, erasers and filing cabinets, is available to him. After manipulating the symbols, he responds to a given Chinese question in the same language. As the computer passed the Turing test this way, it is fair, says Searle, to deduce that he has done so, too, simply by running the program manually.

This lack of understanding, according to Searle, proves that computers do not understand Chinese either, because they are in the same position as he--nothing but mindless manipulators of symbols: they do not have conscious mental states like an 'understanding' of what they are saying, so they cannot fairly and properly be said to have minds." (Searle 1980, p. 2-3)

As a leader, do you want "mindless manipulators of symbols" for coworkers? If you script your coworkers' behavior, that's what you are likely to get. They won't be inspired or feel authorized to employ their own vision or creativity. They may not even understand what it is they are trying to achieve, or how they fit into your vision.

Members of Generation Y want to understand and contribute to the direction of the organization. Sure, material success is important to them, but not at the expense of the environment and the health and safety of their (and future) generations. That's why exceptional leaders embrace a new definition of leadership:

"A leader inspires people to achieve a shared goal and vision, by allowing and encouraging independent thought, and by meeting the unique needs of his or her coworkers."

As a leader, are you offering something greater than financial rewards to attract, align, and engage your followers? Let them understand and contribute meaningfully to the direction of the organization.

Quotes

"It's amazing how many cares disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone." -Coco Chanel

"There are no bad troops, only bad leaders."- John Harvey-Jones

"The most important thing in communication is to hear the thing that isn’t being said." -Peter Drucker

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

Marshall Goldsmith

--author, coach, and savvy marketer--spells out the twenty most common bad habits of executives in this book, but you don't need to be an executive to benefit from his advice. Everyone could stand to take responsibility for their actions, keep a positive and generous attitude, and work on (not celebrate) their faults--which is, essentially, the message of the book.

Here, in Goldsmith's own words, are the twenty habits to avoid:

1. Winning too much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations--when it matters, when it doesn't, and when it's totally beside the point

2. Adding too much value: The overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion

3. Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them

4. Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasms and cutting remarks that we think make us sound sharp and witty

5. Starting with "No," "But," or "However": The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone, "I'm right. You're wrong."

6. Telling the world how smart we are: The need to show people we're smarter than they think we are

7. Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool

8. Negativity, or "Let me explain why that won't work": The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren't asked

9. Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others

10. Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to praise and reward

11. Claiming credit that we don't deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success

12. Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it

13. Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else

14. Playing favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly

15. Refusing to express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit when we're wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others

16. Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues

17. Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners

18. Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually trying to help us

19. Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves

20. An excessive need to be "me": Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they're who we are

As a coach, I have seen executives exhibit these habits. It's not that surprising really. Many of these habits develop because executives are accustomed to success and, therefore, reluctant to accept failure. These executives don't always get to work with people who are as smart or talented as they are, which can be frustrating and spark anger.

While the habits Goldsmith addresses are understandable, they aren't defensible. Leaders often come to this realization themselves. They reach a point in their careers where they want to be respected more than feared. They want to change the way they show up.

Goldsmith gives wonderful illustrations of these twenty habits and some suggestions on how to move away from them. So do yourself a favor and get this book, which is available in paperback, audio, and kindle.

Reviewed by Gary Cohen

Repurposing Your Business

Last month, I described how Charles McCabe expanded his business based upon a simple question: "Why don't you sell your tax school to other independent tax firms?" In the process, he helped insulate himself and his business against ever-changing economic conditions and the competition.

This month, I'd like to continue in the flexible business vein. "Repurposing" has become a popular term and practice, especially for the Green Movement and those interested in reducing waste. Old New York subway cars, for instance, are now serving as breakwaters off the coast of Delaware--and have helped marine life flourish to boot.

As Managing Director of Wave Dispersion Technologies, Jonathan Smith's primary source of business was Floating Breakwaters, designed to stop beach erosion (much like the repurposed subway cars). Then the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC) asked, "Can your barrier be repurposed as a floating security barrier (FSB)/line of demarcation (LOD)?"

Questions are often opportunities to grow (both personally and professionally), provided you're not too entrenched in your ideas, habits, and processes. Smith seized this opportunity for growth. Within twenty-four hours, Wave Technologies developed a prototype, photographed and video-ed it in the water, and delivered the details to NFESC, who dubbed it the "definitive, survivable line of demarcation."

Since that interaction with NFESC, 80% of Wave Dispersion Technologies' sales have been in the area of FSB's and LOD's!

Don't wait for NFESC (or its equivalent) to come to you. Ask your organization: How might we repurpose the products and services we offer?