Leadership – Page 6 – The Consulting Artist

But…

Picture the scene: You’ve had an idea. It feels good. You take the idea to your boss and he says, ‘This is good, but….’ And proceeds to tell you a bunch of reasons why your idea is in fact, not good at all. We’ve all been there, and experienced that sinking feeling. The word but, and the consequences of but are disengaging.

Why is this on my mind?

Last week I spent an invigorating Friday afternoon coming up with a storm of creative ideas with Liam Barrington-Bush, aka @hackofalltrades. It was a little like being in a two piece band – one idea riffed to another. In these early stages everything goes into the pot and we’ll spend a few days tweaking notes here, adding a rest there. Refining and finessing the tune. Liam and I are alike enough that we can resonate, and unlike enough that we can still find room for dissonance and the occasional bum note in our thinking. It’s great fun.

At one point Liam stopped me. ‘Doug, you just swapped a but for an and, and you’ve done that several times today.’ We chatted about the more expansive, invitational nature of the and versus the but and concluded that tough though it is, and beats but.

The next time someone comes to you for guidance, don’t close them down with a but, open the possibilities with an and. It’s much more engaging, much more fun, much more useful.

Tesco Terry

This morning at the CIPD 2011 conference I listened to the speech given by Sir Terry Leahy, former CEO of Tesco. Tesco’s dominance concerns me, and when he showed us the 2010 market capitalisation comparison between Tesco, Sainsbury and M&S I winced a little (so much so I blurred the photos!).

Terry spoke sincerely and straightforwardly and afterwards I figured, if he really believes this stuff he’s telling us – then maybe I can see how Tesco has pulled so far ahead of the chasing pack. Here’s what I heard him say:

Find the truth: There’s tons of research, reports, reviews, and the more you read, the less you know. Human nature is to filter out stuff. We just need the plain simple truth, and the front line is where the knowledge is. Too often the managers in between create a culture where it’s not OK to speak the truth.

Customers are the best place for information: If you listen fine if you don’t listen that’s fine too and the customer will find a better place and buy there instead. Terry used to spend 40% of his time in stores, listening. He also mentioned listening to employees, but almost as an after thought.

Audacious goals: We spend a lot of time in work, people want to be inspired, and we want to stretch them. Work needs to be worthwhile, a big adventure.

Tesco values: We asked the staff two questions. What does Tesco stand for? What would you like Tesco to stand for? The answers: No one tries harder for customers, and respect, treat people how we like to be treated. These values came from the shop floor.

Competition is good: It keeps you honest and forces you to do better for your customers. And permanent dissent gets nothing done. So once a decision is made, we come to work and make it a reality.

Leadership: It’s not important what you do, but what you cause others to do. We have and need thousands of leaders, stepping forward, taking responsibility.

Four things that make work worthwhile: do interesting work, be treated with respect, have a chance to get on, even if people don’t want to take it, and have a boss who is a help not your biggest problem.

Creativity matters: it’s not often spoken about, and it can’t work with fear otherwise folks won’t take risks. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin.

Culture: We have a culture that rewards generosity, not self.

Heroes – Gandhi

Today’s Heroes post is by Claire Boyles. Claire has added a delightful twist to this series by kindly contributing her own original artwork as well as a great story and some great questions. I’m getting loads of feedback from people who are really enjoying this series, I am too.

Be The Change

So simple, so profound a statement, and probably the cause, inspiration and motivation of countless individuals across the planet that HAVE become the change that they wanted to see. For me, Gandhi was the embodiment of that phrase. I admire him so much, to stand against what he knew to be unjust, in the face of real physical danger, not only to himself but also his family and friends. That takes great courage; “Be The Change” is something that is at the very core of my own life values.

“It was during his first year back in India that Gandhi was given the honorary title of Mahatma (“Great Soul”). Many credit Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature, for both awarding Gandhi of this name and of publicizing it. The title represented the feelings of the millions of Indian peasants who viewed Gandhi as a holy man. However, Gandhi never liked the title because it seemed to mean he was special while he viewed himself as ordinary.” Extract from Biography of Gandhi by Jenifer Rosenburg.

It is this view of himself, as an ordinary man, just one of the population that made him so powerful, because he led by example, by the choices he made he WAS the change, and he showed others that it was possible, that they too could BE the change that they wished to see. The things Gandhi did were acts of non violent protest against what he saw to be injustice, and led, against all odds to India gaining independence from British rule. He inspired others to take simple (not easy) actions.

What does “Be the Change” mean to you though? For me, it’s a reminder to take personal responsibility, if I experience something I don’t like, I have the power to change it- either create something better, or move away from it; non participation.

My childhood wasn’t idyllic, far from it. As a result, I wasn’t particularly impressed with what the world had to offer me. I saw much pain and suffering, in people around me, in our own “western” society, but also the starving and oppressed millions and billions around the planet. As a young adult, I felt I didn’t want to be part of that. One day in my early twenties I had an epiphany; if I wanted to change the world, which I most definitely did then one way of changing the world was by changing ME, because I am part of the world. I’m only a small part, but every single human is a part of what makes our society; it is our individual choices that affect it as a whole.

The changes I made were focused on making myself happy, healthy and wealthy, on becoming a responsible member of society, so that I could be part of changing it to the positive. I went from being homeless, unemployed and unemployable to creating a career in HR, working for some of the biggest companies in the world, buying my own home, and 3 years ago setting up my own business.

I haven’t quite had the same level of impact on the world that Gandhi has had, not yet at least but it’s not over yet…

How can you “Be The Change” in your own life? It doesn’t have to be huge grand actions; it’s the small lasting changes that create the most effect in our lives. Remember, the way to move a mountain is one shovel at a time. What shovels can you move today?

What changes do you want?

What one positive action could you take that contributes towards creating that change?