Crispin (Page 13)

McKinsey Purpose

In: Career, Purpose, Resilience

“Creating strong links to an individual purpose benefits individuals and companies alike—and could be vital in managing the postpandemic uncertainties that lie ahead.” Igniting individual purpose in times of crisis, McKinsey Quarterly, 18th August 2020 It is widely recognised that companies around the world are extremely challenged facing the current crisis, so how important is it to be clear on purpose, of your company and of the individuals within the organisation. The authors explain that it may be a very important to have clarity of purpose. During times of crisis individual purpose can provide clarity of direction to individuals helping them address the challenges and potentially mitigate the risks and damaging effects of long term stress. “What is your company’s core reason for being, and where can you have a unique, positive impact on society? Now more than ever, you need good answers to these questions.” Purpose Shifting From WhyContinue Reading

Career Insurance

In: Career, Career Development, Networking

What is ‘Career Insurance’ and how do you develop it in uncertain times? It has been a long time since we have seen so much uncertainty across every industry. No role is truely safe in the current environment and without psychological safety its nearly impossible to be effective in your role (see previous articles on Feeling Safe in an Unsafe World in sidebar). There are ways we can take back some control and in this article the author Doris Clark refers to her personal experience of being laid off the day before 9/11, learnings she put into practice and included in her book titled Reinventing You. It starts with recognising all the things we do not have control over, the pandemic and the broader economy and being well prepared. Clark suggests a four point plan. Hope for the best and plan for the worst.… Jack Reacher (fictional character written byContinue Reading

In: Leadership, Teams, Virtual Teams

Managing your team in these difficult and confusing times requires leaders to communicate effectively in ways that measures, motivates and inspires. Your team is looking to you for guidance here are seven ways to rally the troops (and they all start with R) Realistic – Be open and honest about the current complexities. It may be uncomfortable especially communicating when next steps are unclear or not decided, but honesty demonstrates respect. Real – Be your self, be vulnerable, we are all in this together. Rapid – you know we all need to be kept in the loop and that rumours fill a vacuum. So communicate with clarity about what you know now, and what you don’t it will stop people making up the rest. Responsive – Don’t wait to get back to people, don’t wait to communicate, be proactive and responsive. Repetitive – Just because you said it once doesn’tContinue Reading

In: Culture, Leadership

Google is one of the most sought after and popular employers in the world, so it is no surprise that there are a lot of article written about how they have built their culture. This article pulls together content from a number of sources to look at the management principles that Google has applied and why. According to the New York Times, people leave a company for one of three reasons or a combination of the three. The reasons are firstly that the individuals do not feel a deep connection with the company mission or feel that their work matters. Secondly a dislike for or lack of respect for their co-workers. Third, they have a terrible boss, which is the most common reason by a long way. “Managers also had a much greater impact on employees’ performance and how they felt about their job than any other factor“ Google fromContinue Reading

Maximus

In: Leadership, Virtual Teams

Leadership organisation Maximus produce an excellent magazine with numerous articles on lessons of leadership, this article really jumped out at me. With everyone working from home, organisations have made significant changes in how they work. Not just changing the technology (video) and the location (home) but also a change in trust relationships, as leaders now have to trust their team to progress work under intense pressure and widely distributed where they are not easily monitored for support and direction. Governance Accountability and the New Era of Democratic Leadership Its not about devolving all accountability, however as Maximus Founder Vanessa Gavan says “You want to open up the boundaries of control to offer more freedom, provide employees with more context than you have ever before, engender higher levels of trust and transparency and ask for their best contribution. This is how you will fulfil their needs and capitalise on their contribution in theContinue Reading

In: Career, Career Development

This article starts by explaining the importance of understanding and having clarity of purpose, psychologists describe purpose as a pathway to greater well-being and business experts state that purpose is the key to exceptional performance. An organisation’s Purpose links together with its Vision (where it is going) and Mission (how it will get there) into a concrete statement of why the organisation exists. While most leaders can clearly articulate an organisation’s purpose, they are often unable to clearly define their own reason for being which results in them not having a clear plan to translate purpose into action, limiting their aspirations and potentially failing professional and personal goals. “we believe that the process of articulating your purpose and finding the courage to live it—what we call purpose to impact—is the single most important developmental task you can undertake as a leader.” Nick Craig and Scott A. Snook The thinking shared in theContinue Reading

In: Career Development, Human Capital, Strategic Mindset

Having a strategic mindset is the basis of successful leadership, it supplements your hard work with careful attention to strategy. Reflecting on what is working and identifying flaws to optimise along the way – much like an agile process. “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration” Thomas Edison In his article Robson refers to Metacognition as our awareness and understanding of our own thought processes or ‘thinking about thinking’. He provides analysis of a recent paper published by the National Academy of Sciences and explains how having a strategic mindset might be the difference between success and failure. To assess your strategic mindset Chen and the authors of the paper put together a short questionnaire, simply rate the questions below on a scale of 1 for never and 5 for all the time. The higher your score the more likely you have a strategic mindset. When youContinue Reading

In: Innovation

Immigrants innovate at a higher rate than US citizens, as a study in 2016 identified that more than half the successful start ups in the US (worth more than $1 billion) were founded by immigrants. Another study in 2019 from George Mason University said that firms owned by immigrants had uniformly higher rates of innovation. “It appears that immigrant entrepreneurs are not replacing Americans, instead, they are creating something new.” Professor John S. Earle, George Mason University 2019 Many immigrants flock to the US and Silicon Valley because of the size of market opportunities and the access to venture capital funding, but the journey to founding US based start ups is not without difficulty. Om Malik (writer and venture capitalist) said he agreed that immigrants do innovate at a higher rate and that he saw “Silicon Valley as a microcosm for the impact immigrants had throughout the U.S., bringing newContinue Reading

In: Lead

Of course everyone knows that ‘leadership talent does not grow on trees’. So how do you go about building a team with significant potential to lead and fill the needs of the organisation. The planning for growing your talent is not just for what your organisation needs today but importantly for what the organisation is going to need in the next 3 to 5 years. In this long read Crispin Blackall has researched what a range of thought leaders, subject matter experts, consultants, business journalists and human resources professionals have to say on how an organisation should build a sustainable talent pipeline. You have heard about the war for talent, but on the other hand you know that there is a pandemic going on, which has led to a global recession and this has meant that lots of great talent is currently looking for work. So as a savvy andContinue Reading

In: Effective Communication, Leadership

According to a recent US survey 36% of adults believe conspiracy theories, so how do you talk to these conspiracy theorists and still be kind? I know from personal experience that it can be a frustrating experience dealing with conspiracy theories especially on social media. This week a former colleague posted on Facebook that she had decided to unfollow an old school friend as they were posting conspiracy theories online. Her post resonated immediately as I had also found myself in an online debate with a former school mate whose views I couldn’t just let pass. So what is the best way to engage? Tanya Basu from MIT Technology Review has some advice: Always, always speak respectfully. Speak with respect, compassion, and empathy and people are more likely to listen to you. Go private. When you reach out in a personal message or DM you are not publicly shaming the individual – it impliesContinue Reading