Archives For Vision

Why Leaders Should Spend Time In The Trenches With Technical Teams

12/04/2013 — 2 Comments

Leaders pool resources and people to make vision happen. They need to have a bird’s-eye view of their enterprise to make sure that the big picture does not morph into something that is not meant to be.

In bringing everything together and making it happen, leaders easily get frustrated when teams do not deliver at a pace consistent with their expectations. This is often the result of leaders not fully understanding or appreciating the processes that their teams go through from meetings to implementation.

Every leader must spend time in the trenches with their teams. This is truer for their technical and creative teams.

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leaders cannot lead effectively without spending time in the trenches

|| image by U.S. Army Alaska | cc

Here’s why every leader needs to spend time in the trenches with their technical teams:

Insight

 

Spending time with your teams allows you to get a better understanding of what is behind the results of each of your teams.

You cannot appreciate what you do not understand.

Being behind the scenes can help you appreciate your teams’ hustle. Teams that feel unappreciated are often led by leaders who do not take time to understand what their work is like.

Language

 

Being in the trenches can help leaders pick up language relevant to each team or discipline. This will be helpful for innovation and productivity, as it will equip you to speak straight into the heart of execution when you meet or communicate with them.

Disconnect between what teams deliver and what leaders require is often a result of them speaking different languages. Understanding some of the technical languages enables leader to understand things with reduced interjections.

When a leader can speak the language of his technical team it fosters unity and endears respect of the team.

Real

 

When leaders spend time in the trenches, it allows their teams to see that they are real people. People relate to others when they find common things with other people.

They only way this can happen is when time is spent with others. Your team needs to know you’re human. They need to know you face challenges just like they do.

Spending time with your teams gives you more credibility. Does your team know how you take your coffee? Do you know how your team members take their coffee?

Innovation

 

Innovation is sparked when people from across disciplines and different perspectives chase the same goal. Proximity of the people from different perspectives and disciplines is the basis of innovation. If people with different perspectives and from different disciplines are afar off, so will innovation.

When leaders step into the trenches they do so with fresh eyes. Thus you are able to identify new opportunities and ways for greater efficiency.

Big Brother

 

Anything that goes wrong under your watch is your failure. Leaders are as responsible for success as much as failure. Don’t micromanage but don’t be so removed that you have no idea what is happening with teams in your enterprise. That is weak leadership.

Give responsibility and do check in with teams.

When you make a habit of checking in with your teams in their environment and not just meetings, people will be more relaxed, natural and open.

They will share more than they would in general meetings.

If you technical, what do you appreciate about your leader spending time in your world? If you’re a leader what stops you from spending time with your techies?

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In Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork, Vision , , , , , ,
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Sweat The Small Stuff

05/04/2013 — Leave a comment

Small hinges swing big doors ~ Mike Murdoch

People care about the small things. Not all big problems have big causes or need big solutions. We miss out a lot in terms of delivery when we only think the solution has to be big.

In all your planning and thinking through how you serve the people your organization serves how often do you ask the question, “What is the small stuff we may be missing”.

Strike a balance between thinking big and small. Remember, it is the small foxes that spoil the vine…

For people and organizations that have served you, what are some of the small things that made a big experience for you?

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Leaders and Blue-sky Days

02/04/2013 — 1 Comment

There is no leadership without vision. Vision is what gives purpose to all effort and activities. A leader without vision is a captain who takes people on a road trip without a destination and map to it.

Clear vision inspires action. Not keeping vision in clear sight creates a toxic team and organizational environment. Keeping vision in front is necessary for keeping the main thing the main thing.

Leaders are dreamers. They are dreamers for the organization and subsequent change the organizations’ activities bring to the world at large.

Leaders have to bridge dreams for their organizations and the world with the action that makes them happen. They cannot and must not stay in dream mode but also move into action mode.

They must also be careful not to get stuck in action mode but remember that they constantly need to dream.

In order to dream, they need to create space for what Bill Hybels calls “Blue-sky days”. They are days where they just dream. Where they just imagine and dream for their organization and the value their organization adds to the lives of those they serve.

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every leader must make sure they never let the pragmatic leader in them cloud their blue-sky days

 

Blue-sky days are moments of dreaming without any limitations. Imagining possibilities without getting hung up on how to make them happen.

In dreaming leaders must fight the temptation to cross over to their action mode. When you switch to action mode, that is, already try to figure out what it would take to make some dreams happen while you drew, you cripple your capacity for dreaming.

Already trying to figure out how you’re going to make something happen while you’re dreaming smothers possibility of what could be.

Do not kill your dreams before they’ve even had a chance to live by trying to figure out everything in the dreaming stage. Consider the dreaming stage as the womb of dreams. See it as the cradle of vision.

Plans and goals and how you are going to make vision happen is only secondary. Starting a new enterprise? Do you need to bring about new life into your organization?

Call your team together and have blue-sky day. Imagine the possibilities. Dream about what you could make happen. Do not entertain the pragmatic leader in you.

Give space for your dreams to come out. When dreams for your organization and those you are save are powerful enough, you will find a way to make it happen.

Make provision for blue-sky days. Let them be, so that you better serve your organization and its stakeholders. Blue-sky days are also incubators of innovation. Let the blue skies be.

In Ideas, Leadership, Passion, Productivity, Vision , , , , , , ,
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More Than Logo; Understanding And Translating Your Brand

25/03/2013 — Leave a comment

Don’t mistake logo for brand. Your logo is not your brand. It is only a part of your brand. It is a representation of who you are. More like the hairstyle you wear that sets you apart from other people.

It is your dress style and your walk that your friends use to spot you from a distance. Because your logo represents you, you must give a great deal of attention to it.

But the attention you give to that representation must not overtake the action that is supposed to reinforce.

You can have a great logo with a bad brand and a bad logo with a great brand.

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your brand is more than just one thing; it is a collection of everything you are and do

|| image by Cordey | cc

 

A great logo will not save your reputation from bad service. A great logo can become a symbol of all things bad no matter how good it is, if the service that backs it fails to meet the needs and expectations of those you serve.

Your brand is the totality of who you are. It is the heart with which you do what you do. It is (what should be) the unique flair with which you make the world a better place.

It is how you live out who you are and who you say you are. Your brand is the experience you create for those you serve as you make your products or services available to them.

Your brand is integrity or the lack of it. It is giving value in a memorable and client considerate service. Or not.

Your brand is an integration of all the systems in your organization. It is how your team serves each other as they work toward delivering to those you serve.

It is not just how you treat your clients; it is also how you treat each other. It is how you interact with your suppliers.

Your brand is reflected in how your team feels in delivering to your target market.

Your team and suppliers must have the same experience you aim to deliver to your clients. That is the essence of brand integrity.

When you think about your brand, do not just thing about how you are perceived by the clients loyal to you. Do not think about how the world sees you but consider the totalities of the experience you give all round.

Who is your “brand self”?

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Brand Integrity; A Secret To Brand Loyalty

20/03/2013 — Leave a comment

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"In the event of an emergency get your oxygen mask on first before assisting children… and passengers acting like them. 

Welcome to Lanseria Airport, if this is not where you want to be, you've got some serious issues…"

You will hear something like this on a typical Kulula flight.

Kulula, a South African domestic airline, is the perfect case study of brand integrity. They are consistent. Kulula makes it on my list of favorite airlines. Not only from airline experience but also from a brand perspective because of how obvious they are about who they are.

Besides lessons of being a brand, Kulula is a great resource for leadership lessons. In case you haven’t already, you have to read this post, which shares another secret for brand loyalty.

 

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being consistent with the brand experience to those you serve is key in keeping them loyal to your brand

 

If your eyes were closed and you heard a Kulula ad that didn’t mention their name you would know it is Kulula. That’s because they are obvious. They are not some stuck up, uptight, prim and proper airline. This brand is a person.

It is that friend with a great sense of humor. The guy you’d go to a party not for the sake of the party but to hang with. The staff seems to take on the character of the same person. Either they have some intensive humor training so humor flows through their service teams or they only hire funny people.

(Hey Kulula, if you are reading this, I’d like to know how you keep it funny. PS: can you throw in an interview? I mean, can I interview you?)

Did I mention it is also just the right amount of funny? Not too much it’s corny and boring and not too little you ask for more. Just the right amount of funny.

This airline embodies the efficient P.A. everybody wants. I’ve received reminders about flights. It may not be a big deal for you, but it matters to me. Especially when you had the wrong day and or time for your flights.

Simple, small things make a big difference in brand experience. What do you love about some of your favorite brands?

In Ideas, Leadership, Productivity, Social Media, Vision , , , , , , , ,
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