enNovo Radio
By David Phillips
enNovo RadioJan 13, 2021
Leading those who lead you
How do you get your bosses to make the decisions you need to accomplish your work? Using the story of Daniel from the Old Testament, we look at proposing options that help you lead those who lead you.
Building Trust through Communication
Communication is the most important skill you have have in leadership. In today's enNovo Radio, I talk about the trust and relationship built with the teams I work with because of the communication I have with them.
Communication must be consistent, open, relational and transparent. If you will follow these tips, people can learn who you and, as you consistently product and execute, move from positions of worry to positions of complete trust in you and your teams.
Liquid Teams in a CUVA World
Adapting Allard de Jong's article from LinkedIn, and explaining it's value to Leadership 4.0, I take a look at the CUVA (collaboration, uncertainty, virtualness, and adaptability) Context that has created the possibility of liquid teams. These are teams that have a fluid shape, fluid membership, and fluid leadership.
Rethinking Your Leadership Selection Process
Gallup research shows that at the managerial level, organizations fail to pick high-talent candidates 82% of the time.
Today, I look at an article from Gallup Research entitled, "Create a Leadership Selection Strategy Based on Potential" (Link: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/323570/create-leadership-selection-strategy-based-potential.aspx)
In many organizations, there's a mindset that permeates traditional leadership selection: "The way I got here is how you should get here." Conventional methods of succession planning require someone to recognize a potential candidate based on reputation or nominate them based on tenure. But Gallup research shows over the last 100 years that there are better ways to do that.
We talk about that in today's episode of enNovo Radio!
What are you willing to tolerate?
Today I want to talk for a minute about the kinds of behavior you will tolerate.
This week Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States. During a swearing-in ceremony for White House staff, President Joe Biden told employees he'd fire them "on the spot" if he heard they treated others with disrespect. In doing this, Biden was attempting to set up a culture of respect. And telling people that he would fire them on the spot if they heard those staffers were treating others in a disrespectful was an attempt to get people's attention.
This runs parallel to a quote I read earlier this week by Todd Whitaker. It said, "The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior a leader is willing to tolerate."
So the question we need to ask ourselves is, What a I willing to tolerate?
Designing a System
As the new year starts, it's a great time to consider changes in your organization and even in your life. Looking at, and designing systems to make changes or start something new should take priority over setting a goal. Today, we talk about designing systems.
enNovo Radio: Leadership 4.0-Leadership Profile
As I said in a previous podcast, Industry 4.0 is about agility, and leadership 4.0 will require that same mindset. In this podcast, I want to look at the Leadership 4.0 profile in both an organizational and individual framework.
Organizational
1. Workforce’s, especially the technical, digital and engineering teams, must be able to analyze data, present good information and respond fast with their predictions and decisions across the business.
2. Teams won’t be fixed but instead they will be fluid, formed from the skills required for cross-functional projects. This will require exceptional organizational and delegation skills from digital leaders who understand where those talents are and how to distribute tasks according to competence and need.
3. Leadership 4.0 will require digital leaders who can take responsibility of the people-side of this massive, ongoing change, with clear direction and management in an open, employee-centric environment.1
4. Employees must be primary within the organization. If your employees are not well cared for, then the organization’s ability to take care of its other stakeholders will be limited.
5. Employee-driven. Solutions to issues will come from the employees, not the leaders. It is bottom-up leadership. If the information is share fully within the organization, the power of ideas and creativity within the organization come together to form the solutions. The problem too often is that leaders do not provide all the necessary data and information to the employees, thus limiting the power of the talents and skills within the organization to come up with solutions. This is an attempt at control, which I will mention below.
6. Organizations will need to be focused on creating an infinite mindset. For more information on having an infinite mindset and playing the infinite game, see Simon Sinek’s interview here and his talk here.
Individual
4.0 leaders must foster “a transparent, creative culture that can bend and move as change and situations dictate. This new work environment will be a big and possibly uncomfortable move for many who are used to closed and rigid project management within traditional manufacturing environments.” They will need to be a new breed, “leading in a way that organisations haven’t seen before, prepared to embrace a very different way of working – just as their employees will be encouraged to develop their skills to become cross-functional in the way they work for their own personal needs and the common goal of the organisation.” Leadership will need to mirror the technology of Industry 4.0 and IoT in that connectivity is at its core. Some call this Connected Leadership for that very reason.2
So here some qualities of a 4.0 Leader:
1. Highly relational. The leader needs to know those whom they lead, their motivations, their desires, and the skill sets they hold. This allows them to fashion highly effective teams with varying skillsets.
2. They are highly adaptable. Processes cannot be set in stone. Some processes must be tossed and others maintained but rigidity in practice and process must be eliminated. The landscape of work and function is changing rapidly and the leader must be able to adapt his/her thinking and processes, even if it is just a tweak. And the leader needs to be transparent about the strategies and processes they adopt, and why they adopt it, so all members of the team can be on the same page.
3. Trusting. 4.0 Leaders have to trust the people they lead. You cannot allow fo
enNovo Radio: Leadership 4.0 – Agility
Industry 4.0 is about agility. Leadership 4.0 will require that same mindset.
I have come to the conclusion that Industry 4.0 is a reflection of the Agile model of software development. I can’t prove it. But so much of industry 4.0 is built on the Agile methodology that my gut tells me it permeates the organizations. In addition, over and over again in the literature of Industry 4.0, the term Agile pops up. As a side note, I also believe it to be a reflection of Chaos Theory and Complex Adaptive Systems, but that’s a whole other set of podcasts!
So let’s begin our look at Leadership 4.0 with a another primer. A primer on the methodology called Agile!
enNovo Radio – Staying motivated when you don’t feel like it
The author looks at 4 strategies to help motivate you when you just don’t feel like doing anything.
Also, don’t forget our first giveaway – a copy of James Clear’s new book Atomic Habits. To enter, go to wdavidphillips.com/giveaway to register.
enNovo Radio: Efficiency or Resilience
I highlight the Pareto Distribution as well as the normal distribution pattern, and talk about how the efficiency of Deming, et. al. in business, has potentially created the top 1%.
I think his research is real and applicable. However, I’m not sure I agree with his conclusions.
Here’s the article: hbr.org/2019/01/rethinking-efficiency#the-high-price-of-efficiencyh
evNovo Radio: SurveyMonkey and Curiosity
In this edition of enNovo Radio, we look at the article, and I talk about the behaviors of curiosity and the actions the company took to help create a culture of curiosity.
Contextual Leadership-enNovo Radio
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Consistency Is Key for Leaders
insiders.fortune.com/for-better-or-worse-a-consistent-leadership-style-is-key-to-success-25e71fcea78d
5 Practices that will make you a better leader
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