Adaptive Moves: Small Changes, Big Results

Make a decision based on your understanding of yourself, your organization, the stakeholders, and the situation. Evaluate the effects of your actions and any new information. Repeat.

Last week, we wrote an in-depth guide to leading during a crisis—how they affect an organization and strategies to get through them. The advice also applies to any business situation involving a major change as, at their core, that’s what crises are: situations of significant change.

One of the keys to navigating a crisis—or a big change—is what organizational psychologist Edgar Schein calls adaptive moves. In Schein’s words:

By calling them “adaptive,” I am emphasizing that they are not solutions to “the problem” but actions intended to improve the situation and elicit more diagnostic data for the planning of the next move. By calling them “moves,” I am again emphasizing that they are small efforts to improve the situation, not grand plans or huge intervention.1

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April 27, 2020 by

5 Ways to Enable Your Team

When times get difficult, leaders tend to take on burdens greater than they can carry alone. But, this is an impossible situation. In order to achieve anything great in an organization, you need a team to help you get there.

Here are five ways to enable your team to help you achieve your organization’s goals.

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April 6, 2020 by

8 Principles For Humanistic Leadership

The quintessential leader lives in the moment and leads from the heart. —Lance secretan

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.1 Corinthians 13:13

Real leadership is value-driven, based on principles such as humility, accountability, positivity, and love. Here are eight principles for a more humanistic approach to leadership:

Embody Values: Values determine what types of behaviors are in line with your company’s purpose that will help you achieve your vision. Values can never be given up. They guide you in good times and in tough times. They determine what you are and what you are not. Living up to your values protects you from cynics.

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March 29, 2020 by and

Lead With Purpose

One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment.
Viktor Frankl

One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment.Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning

With the world battling against a pandemic, we’re also fighting against fear and uncertainty. Under these circumstances, it can be hard to find inspiration and have clarity about how to act. And, that’s understandable.

As bleak as the situation may currently seem, a crisis creates the opportunity fo become a better leader. And, that makes me optimistic for the future of business.

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March 23, 2020 by

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Company Vision

a vision isn’t just about building a productive organization. A vision is the first step in building brands with diehard loyalty.

A vision gives you clarity on what you should and shouldn’t do. It forces you to stand for something instead of being for everyone. And, it gives you the confidence to make those decisions: when you have a vision you believe in, you’ll have the emotional wherewithal to fight for what’s best for the organization over the long-term, not just today. 

Having a vision isn’t just about trying to achieve the vision. It’s about turning your company into the type of organization that has the potential to achieve the vision. 

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March 16, 2020 by

Why You Need A Long-Term Vision

What you do today determines the type of organization you can become tomorrow.

Every move a company makes sends a message to its customers and employees. A decision you make today may benefit your company right now. But, you also have to ask: is it the right move for the long-term goals of the company?

What you do today determines the type of organization you can become tomorrow.

Without a vision, it’s impossible to determine how today’s decisions will contribute to the future. The vision allows you to ask: Does this decision push the organization further towards that ultimate goal? Does it change nothing over the long-term? Does it only benefit the organization today, making it harder to get back on track to achieve the long-term goals?

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March 6, 2020 by

Happy Employees, Happy Profits

Enabling employees to find meaning in their work isn’t the same as creating a utopian organization: there will still be complaints and frustrations. The goal is maximizing potential, not perfection.

I have often blamed you in my mind for treating this or that person differently and reacting to this or that situation differently from how I would have; and yet the outcome usually showed you were right. “If we just take people as they are,” you once said, “we make them worse; but if we treat them not as they are but as they should be, we help them to become what they can become.”Therese in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship

The most recent edition of Gallup’s “State of the American Workplace” report. Put simply, there’s need for drastic improvement: Only 33% of U.S. Employees feel engaged at work.1

What’s more worrying than this lack of engagement is that it’s only improved by three percentage points in the five years since the previous edition. This minuscule increase should be surprising considering the prevalence of companies proclaiming to invest in and value their employees over the same time period.

Valuing employees has been more chest-thumping than action.

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February 14, 2020 by

Leaders Are Made, Not Born

To be an effective leader, you have to be a really good listener. And, not to what’s being said, but to what’s not being said. You have to be really observant. That was a big transition for me: I went from being a scorer and a floor general to being a leader. And, that meant putting others first. That means not worrying about: Are you in rhythm? Are you playing well in this game? Are you ready to go? [It means going] to being: Are they ready? What can I do to help them be ready? That’s the big transition to make. You’ve gotta observe them, because they all have things they want to accomplish as individuals. And, as. Leader you’re like, “Okay, what are those things?” And, how can I help them accomplish that within the system, the structure that we are trying to do collectively. —Kobe Bryant

The passing of Kobe Bryant this week had us reflecting on the man he was and the time we spent working with him. When we worked with Kobe, he was undergoing the transition from being number 8 to number 24. This transition was much more than just a number change for him; it had personal significance. 24 meant dedicating himself every hour of the day to being a better person that others could look up to; it meant going from focusing just on himself and his stardom to focusing on being a leader and helping his teammates achieve their goals. Kobe realized that leadership is a choice and that it takes dedication, practice, awareness, constant learning, and skill. Leaders are made, not born. And, great leaders never stop trying to be better not just for themselves, but for those they have the honor of leading. Rest in peace Kobe.

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February 1, 2020 by , and

How to Become Great by Giving Up

Being Great Requires Giving Up Being Great At Something Else

Piglet: If everybody were like everybody else, how boring it would be. The things that make me different are the things that make me, me!
Eeyore: Stand tall.
Piglet: You’re in a class by yourself.
Eeyore: Be proud.
Piglet: You’re not like anyone else. No doubt about it, you’re second to none ‘cause you’re the one and only one. Piglet and Eeyore, “You’re the One and Only One,” Winne the Pooh: Sing a Song with Pooh Bear

It often seems like companies are doing everything to try and get customers to do more. 

But, when a company tries to do everything, it excels at nothing. 

Since companies only have a limited number of resources, this usually involves trying to improve their category weaknesses, which inevitably draws focus away from their strengths. And, by improving their weaknesses to match the competition and focusing on winning share of mind for their improvements—and ignoring their strengths—they just end up looking a lot like the competition. 

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January 24, 2020 by