Organisational Wisdom

Why do we ask interview questions that push for evidence of personal accomplishment? If the candidate answers in terms of "we", "us" and "our", we are inclined to dismiss them as weak and unassertive and not leadership material. And we wonder why we end up in a corporate hall of mirrors reflecting only the most self-serving and narcissistic of leadership behaviours. Work in the Fourth Industrial Revolution doesn't work like that, not anymore. In complex, dynamic environments identifying how you single-handedly powered the project or won the day or brought the innovation to market is impossible. The best you can say is "here is how I contributed. Sometimes I inspired and encouraged those around me, and sometimes less so". Jack Ma, founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba famously failed his way to success. Interviewers were not impressed with his individual accomplishments. He could not demonstrate any of the behavioural evidence ...

By  now you should know how to manage well, given that around US$140 billion is spent each year on management education. But how do you manage wisely , and what does that even mean?  To manage wisely is to know what is the right thing to do at the right time for the greatest common good (and we could sure use more of that!). Here are 6 steps to help you manage wisely: 1. Ask a Wise Mentor When you don't know what to do, go to someone you regard as wise in your industry or profession - a wise mentor - and ask them what choice they would make. 2. Practice Emotional Regulation Gaining control over the intensity and volatility of your own emotions is a key to wellbeing, and ultimately wisdom. Don't let your emotional hot buttons get pushed by anyone. Practice stable emotions under all circumstances, and cultivate positive emotions over negative ones. 3. Practice Compassion Compassion is the conscious awareness of others' distress and the motivation ...

Wham! Bam! Thank you Mam! Here comes a new kind of executive coach - the leadership ENERGY coach! Just in time for the new leaders of the Fourth Industrial Revolution . Based on a new model of how to generate, mobilize and recharge energy for leaders and how to achieve breakthrough results at the team and enterprise level, leadership energy coaching is primed to be the next generation step in the evolution of executive coaching. The essence of leadership is energy: the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy of the leader to persist with his/her mission, vision, and purpose over time. It can be seen in leaders who are driven to achieve something meaningful beyond their own personal goals, often at great cost. Leaders such as Steve Jobs , Jack Ma , Muhammad Yunis , Howard Schultz , and Malala Yousafzai are exemplars of leadership energy. What ignited their energy? Their individual stories reveal a common patter. Something in their early experience so compromised their...

How to improve your odds of making the right decisions for the right people at the right time! Think about your thinking Making decisions is a bit like driving a car. You think you’re pretty good at it until you experience an accident or a near-miss. In that moment, you realise you’re not so skilled after all. In the same way, we make hundreds of decisions every day, big and small, and we seem to manage without too much trouble. Yet, it turns out that most of our decision making is unconscious, as David Eagleman wrote in ‘Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain.’ We think we’re in control but actually, we’re on autopilot. Our brains are very good at learning patterns and following routines to conserve energy, which means we’re more likely to make the same decisions over and over even if the circumstances are different. The reason why we find it hard to change our minds is that it’s easier to accept whatever we hear. To reject what we hear requires an extra step of thinking, ...

Are you grateful for your job? Really? Don't "jobs" mean working for an organization that breeds egocentrism and selfishness! Most of us would probably move out of our jobs and into the Gig Economy if we could. So, what's gratitude got to do with your job? Quite a lot, according to Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. , the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude. In fact, gratitude is actually proving profitable for companies. How? Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation in response to an experience that is beneficial to us, but that is not directly caused by us. Unlike many other emotions, gratitude is highly social and oriented towards others. In the workplace for example, you might experience gratitude when a coworker sacrifices her free time to help you meet a deadline, or when your manager spends an afternoon helping you develop a new skill. Over the past decade, hundreds of studies have documented the social, physical, and psychological benefits...

We live in interesting times. From Brexit to Trump we see the democratization of anger, frustration, and bigotry, while at the same time we are witnessing the democratization of technology, ideas, and capital. Change is inevitably paradoxical, and we are living  through a history of bright, shiny possibilities and dark, dystopian currents in equal measure. How should we prepare future leaders? There might have been a time when we relied on our political, business, and community leaders to interpret the world for us and give us reliable institutions of civic and commercial order. But now we live in the open source era where information is ubiquitous, ideas represent currency and where entrepreneurship is the dominant platform for business success. Airbnb, Tesla, Apple, Alibaba, Google, Zappos, Uber, are  good examples of "exponential organizations", where output is disproportionally large because of new organizational techniques that leverage accelerat...

Why do we get our most creative ideas in the shower? OK, it might depend on when and how you have your shower (and who with). But that's beside the point. Our minds never stop working, chattering away incessantly. Which is why the shower works. It's a relaxing, solitary, and non-judgmental environment that allows your mind to wander freely, connecting with your inner stream of consciousness and daydreams. But how do you get creative in the first place? Here are 5 ways to boost your creativity: A recent study of musical improvisation in rap artists showed a marked shift in brain  activity while subjects were creating lyrics. Brain patterns associated with motor activity arose in the absence of conscious monitoring and volitional control. In other words, to get creative you need to relax the 'executive functions' of the brain, allowing more natural de-focused attention and uncensored processing. Here are 5 ways to do it: 1. Go for a walk Our best 'div...