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Social Media Revolution by Socialnomics.
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The April issue of Fast Company features a terrific article on the importance of recognizing good followers. After all, it's the followers who execute the leaders' strategies. As the author, Nancy Lublin, says, "I thjink we've got it wrong. We've overdone this whole leadership/founder/entrepreneur thing.And we're not spending nearly enough time crediting the folks who turn all that visionary stuff into tangible reality: the chief operating officers, the midlevel managers, the staffers." I agree wholeheartedly!
Businesses need people who can take those visionary ideas and generate results. Without those people, all you have are dreamers who don't know how to implement. Both are necessary. And both the leaders and the followers deserve to be recognized. In fact, some of these followers have no desire to become the visionary leaders.....and that's ok.
It's more important to have the right people in the right seats on the bus, as Jim Collins says, than it is to try to groom people for jobs they really don't want and won't do well. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur or the leader of a business. There's nothing wrong with being the person who supports those leaders and makes sure the bills are paid or the marketing is executed flawlessly or the computers run as they should.
As Nancy Lublin says, "Honoring good followers isn't just a nice thinkg - it's necessary. It's the sanest, smartest way to run your company, for-profit or not."
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You may be wondering how the book The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, ties into strategic thinking. While it's the story of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who had a dream about finding his treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids, there are lessons to be learned as you read about his journey. It's about staying true to your vision of what you're trying to accomplish.
Each of us has a Personal Legend to follow - a personal dream, desired state, raison d'etre to fulfill. If we don't pursue that dream, we find ourselves unhappy with our lives and in some cases,we can become physically ill as we strive to accomplish what others want us to do rather than pursue our Personal desired outcomes.
This is the story of the transforming power of listening to your heart and following your dreams, of having a vision for your future. Business leaders and entrepreneurs need to apply this same thinking to their businesses. Thinking strategically about the future you are trying to create is called "systems thinking" - a powerful tool that generates long-term sustainability.
There are some religious overtones to the book. However, it is more spiritual and thought-provoking than promoting any particular religion. Ultimately, there is a great deal of strategic thinking throughout the book as the main protagonist, follows his Personal Legend, reads the omens of the desert, and achieves his desired outcome.
It's an easy, thought-provoking read. Not your typical management book. What's your Personal Legend? Where are you going in life?
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Have you ever wondered why some companies are having extraordinary success and others aren’t? Look beneath the surface. Are the employees engaged in their work? In other words, are they passionate about what they’re doing? Or do they just show up to earn a paycheck and go home? According to Matthew Kelly in his book The Dream Manager, “the great majority of people in the workplace today are actively disengaged. People don’t feel connected to their work, the organizations they work in, or the people they work with.”
A recent study of 550 Human Resource managers by Monster (Summer 2007) states that “the next 20 years will witness a dramatic change in the U.S. workforce. The Baby Boomer generation, 72 million strong, will reach retirement age and have the opportunity to leave the workforce. Successive generations of workers are proportionally smaller, leaving a potential gap in the number of workers versus the number of workers needed to maintain the expansion of the U.S. economy. The ability to effectively manage worker knowledge is becoming a critical core competency in an era when knowledge is the primary resource for delivering organizational value. The chasm that exists between a firms’ most valuable asset, knowledge, and the lack of formal management of this asset represents key opportunities for organizations to gain a competitive edge.”
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For the first time in the history of the United States, we have four distinct generations working side by side in organizations:
- Silents (Born between 1925 and 1946)
- Baby Boomers (Born between 1946 and 1964)
- Generation Xers (Born between 1965 and 1980)
- Generation Ys or Millennials (born after 1980)
Each group has its own distinct characteristics, values, and attitudes toward work, based on its generation’s life experiences. To successfully integrate these diverse generations into the workplace, companies will need to embrace radical changes in recruitment, benefits, and creating a corporate culture that actively demonstrates respect and inclusion for its multigenerational work force. *
Add to these challenges, the swift pace of change in the world around us, and it's no wonder leaders are having a hard time just treading water to stay afloat. Taking a holistic approach to managing change will help. One place to start is by scanning the external world to identify current threats and opportunities. Then evaluate your strengths and weaknesses across seven categories to assess your organizational capacity to manage change and identify areas for improvement. Challenges in areas, such as communicating across the generations, will show up as you conduct this exercise.
Then you can begin to put an operational plan in place to address the changes that are needed to ensure the entire organization is swimming in the same direction, focused on the same future goal.
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I attend a lot of networking events. For each one, I need to plan ahead what I want to accomplish at each event. What's the purpose of attending the event? Do I have a goal of how many people I want to meet? What will I say when they ask me what I do? What will I ask them and why? And where is the event anyway? I need to plan the most direct route there from wherever I might be.
That's thinking strategically....looking ahead at some future date or time, identifying the outcomes or expectations that I want to accomplish, setting some metrics so I know how well I did (or didn't do), and planning my arrival so I can minimize my travel time and accomplish my objectives. I also need to have some key strategies and actions in mind that will help me accomplish my desired outcomes. Who I want to meet, what I intend to say, how I will follow up after the event.
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I’ve been reading Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Mastery to see how his recommendations dovetail with systems thinking. He is, after all, a systems thinker, and an intentional dreamer, looking at business as a whole system made up of many systems or parts. Frequently, the parts don’t work fluidly together because we get so mired in the day-to-day activities, we lose sight of the end goal….the reason we started the business in the first place.
E-Myth Mastery goes beyond his first book, The E-Myth, which is all about systems and planning, to help the entrepreneur get back in touch with the passion, the vision, the dream....the reason for being an entrepreneur. Then he applies what he calls “The Seven Essential Disciplines” to the entrepreneurial planning and management process, which become a road map for building a world class organization.
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One of the things we talk about in our practice is the importance of accepting, and in fact, seeking out feedback, both positive and negative. Without feedback, you have no idea of how your project, idea, or behavior is impacting others. Feedback is also an important part of your strategic plan, for without it, you don’t know if you’re progressing down the right paths to achieve your future desired outcomes.
Marshall Goldsmith, in his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, talks about looking for feedback moments as a method for improving your personal behavior. Here are some of the ways he suggests to get feedback by paying close attention to how others react to you both verbally and physically.
Make a list of people’s casual remarks about you. For one day, write down all the comments you hear people make about you, both positive and negative. At the day, review the list to see if there are areas you need to address. Do this for a week, both at work and at home and see if there is a pattern that you need to change.
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It's lonely at the top. While running your own company has its merits...you get to call the shots...it also has its drawbacks. One is that as the leader of the organization you need to do the work of leadership. Your job is to set the direction, motivate the troops, and define the vision for the organization. It doesn't mean you can't include your team in helping to set that vision, but you are the ultimate decision-maker. After all is said and done, you need to make the tough choices.
In his book, E-Myth Mastery, Michael Gerber identifies the essential skills of leadership as:
1) Concentration - focusing your attention on the work of leadership, especially when you are confronted with the choice of doing the technical work of the business or focusing on the longterm direction of the organization.Remind yourself that you are the "Leader" and you need to do the work of a Leader. This is the skill of how to work on your organization.
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