Tag: Inspiring

Wanted! Leaders who can manage more than one marshmallow

I listened with fascination to Vanessa Feltz’s daytime radio programme on BBC London Radio. The subject being discussed was the marshmallow test. Whilst teaching at Stanford University in the 1960s, Walter Mischel carried out this now well known squidgy pink and white experiment.

A group of four-year-olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children could wait and others could not. The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (determined via surveys of their parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

People were phoning the show getting excited about how little Timmy, who was off school sick that day, had just passed the test. Someone’s little Timmy had managed to go forty minutes on the promise of three marshmallows, praise be! I couldn’t help but wonder how easy I would find it to pass on the marshmallow if I was off sick. Forty minute Timmy must’ve been at death’s door.

I had to leave Vanessa and Timmy at this point, but I couldn’t get this pink and white dilemma out of my mind. In particular, I couldn’t stop wondering why, when so many children choose to pass this test, many business leaders don’t, or won’t, or can’t. I realise that a lot of short term thinking and acting is likely to be a result of the pressure for more profit, lower cost, and greater dividend yield.

Clearly whilst these things are necessary for businesses to sustain themselves in the long term, they aren’t all essential for the day to day leading of an organisation. If leaders were recruited for their leadership skills, and were trusted to lead, and in turn trusted those closer to the customer to manage, think, act and do, then maybe the profit, efficiencies and other benefits would flow more naturally.

What do you think? And have you got any examples of true leaders? Leaders who can rise above the noise and pressure to create a culture through which trust and autonomy can permeate. Leaders who can deploy real employee engagement to build sustainable, great experiences for their colleagues and customers?

Only those who can manage at least two marshmallows need apply.

Wow!

Delighted customers make the Wow Awards happen. Delighted customers and Derek Williams working with his great team too. Short and simple. The Wow! awards ceremony took place yesterdayand I hope you will take a few minutes to look at the Wow Awards web site. Enjoy the pics, and the videos, some of which are inspiring and humbling.

Fear – The Chronic Curse

Candour – or the lack of it.

How many people walk away from meetings and have actually bought into the agreed actions? How much candour is there in most meetings? I find that the people with the least candour in a meeting are often the ones that complain most after the meeting and never really agreed on the actions. This behaviour causes dysfunctional teams, and dysfunctional businesses.

I think that lack of candour is usually caused by fear. For too many people, fear is a chronic curse on their lives. When you see someone rushing, it is because they fear they will be late or miss something. When you see someone interrupting, it is often fear that they may miss their chance to make their point or forget what they were going to say that causes the interruption.

Fear shuts down people’s receptors.

  • When you see people not objecting to bad behaviour, it is fear that constrains them
  • When you see people saying yes when they want to say no, it is usually fear that is driving them
  • When you see people staying silent when they should be speaking out, it is fear holding their tongues
  • When leaders ask, “Is that agreed?”, they often take as agreement the silence that is most people’s greatest protest.
  • When you see senior management not sharing their concerns with junior staff because it might harm morale, it is fear that is causing them to keep their secret. That fear denies them access to the creative minds that may help them solve the problems causing their fear.

And when I say fear, I also mean dread. It goes under other guises too: anxiety, worry, doubt, nervousness, concern, sometimes even sensitivity.

Occasional fear in small quantities is handy. The adrenalin helps you run, fight or hide until the danger is past. But chronic fear cripples and shrivels you. It reduces your mental capacity and your creativity. It isolates you. It disintegrates organisations, teams and people. That is why Roosevelt said, “You have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” We can learn to diminish our fears and focus our energies more positively and engagingly. We can learn, and good leaders do, and help their people to generate the confidence and openness that brings the connectedness and resilience that enables teams and organisations to succeed in the most difficult times.

A practical thing that one can do at any meeting is to ask, “What have we agreed to do?” and in turn, “What are you personally going to do to help us achieve what we have all agreed to do?” Then listen for a SMART objective. Anyone is more likely to deliver what he or she hears themselves commit to aloud in front of their peers than to fulfill someone else’s draft of the minutes of a meeting long after the discussion. That commitment and delivery builds positive trust very quickly. Lead the way!

I think this is the first time I’ve gone back and updated a previous post. I want to add a link to a powerful talk I’ve just watched on TEDx. It’s by Jonathan Fields and it’s called, Turning Fear Into Fuel. I encourage you to grab a cup of coffee and invest less than 20 minutes enjoying this liberating and interesting talk.