ManagersDiary : The proof is not in the speech, ... Creating a Leadership Culture. Almost 10 years ago, I had the privilege to co-author The Secret with Ken Blanchard, a book about Chick-fil-A’s point of view on leadership. It was a lot of fun doing the book with Ken and even more fun talking to groups all over the world about leadership. What I didn’t expect was the question that I received over and over again… “We’ve read The Secret, what’s next?” In the beginning, I wasn’t really sure what people wanted to know.
Were they asking about my next book? Did they want to know my career plans or what time my flight was going to leave? Most often, it was none of the above. Leaders around the world appreciated the lessons we tried to convey in the book, but they had an intuitive sense, informed by their experience, that the book was not the end of the conversation. What organizations desperately need is not just a point-of-view on leadership, they need a leadership culture. Here are five keys to creating a leadership culture. How deep is your leadership bench? Conquering a Culture of Indecision. The Idea in Brief Some companies just can’t make up their minds. Plagued by indecisiveness, they never take action. Result? Chronic corporate underperformance.
For instance, a manager proposes a promising new idea during a meeting. Why? The meeting leader should have encouraged decisive dialogue—a powerful form of interaction characterized by incisiveness and creativity, diverse viewpoints, cohesiveness of seemingly unrelated ideas, and the search for truth. The Idea in Practice Steps to Decisiveness Use these steps to infuse decisive dialogue and action throughout your firm: 1.
Example: When a unit head of a U.S. multinational confidently proposed a strategy for trumping a formidable competitor, the CEO commended him for the inspiring presentation—then initiated decisive dialogue to test the strategy. 2. Open—their outcomes not predetermined. 3. The job of the CEO, everyone knows, is to make decisions. Does this sound familiar? Finally, the CEO breaks the loud silence. For the Chief of Saks, It’s Culture That Drives Results. Building a Resilient Organizational Culture - George S. Everly, Jr. By George S. Everly, Jr. | 8:43 AM June 24, 2011 Current events teach us that crisis and even disaster occur far more frequently than previously anticipated.
Japan’s post-tsunami crisis and repeated tornadoes of the Southern and Midwestern US demonstrate the vulnerability of modern infrastructures to the forces of nature. Wall Street’s meltdown, the subsequent recession, and the consequent demise of discretionary spending remind us that human-made disasters can be devastating in other ways. The key to not only surviving such events, but to prospering during such upheavals, we argue, is human resilience. While human resilience may be thought of as a personality trait, in the aggregate, groups, organizations, and even communities can learn to develop a “culture of resilience” which manifests itself as a form of “psychological immunity” to, or the ability to rebound from, the untoward effects of adversity.
All of these can be learned. First, understand that people prosper from success. How Language Shapes Your Organization - Kevin Allen.