All Blog Posts - Library Page 16

Introducing a new management approach

A weekly roundup of the most interesting, useful and thought-provoking articles to help you be a better leader. This week we’re focusing on employee empowerment.Freedom and guardrails. This article introduces the concept of employee empowerment and how it can benefit your organization, while also covering its pitfalls.Our take: Employee empowerment is a management approach that balances giving your team enough freedom to take ownership of their jobs, while providing them with clear expectations, adequate training, and productive feedback.For example, it emphasizes a self-employed mentality. When you let your team know that they can affect business outcomes – that their role can influence the bottom line – they’ll be more invested in the business’s success. When you ask for input, they’ll be more likely to offer their expertise and best ideas, as they are motivated to contribute and know that their opinions count. Key takeaway: The employee empowerment approach can drive team members to do outstanding work, initiate new projects, and be a leader to their teammates, affecting the business’s bottom line in a positive way.______________Does it work? The authors of this article analyzed 105 studies on empowering employees to find out if it is helpful.Our take: There are some clear benefits to the employee empowerment approach. It produces creativity in team members and encourages “citizenship behavior” (e.g. voluntarily helping their colleagues, beyond what is expected of them).It also gives employees trust in their leaders: they’re more willing to put in extra effort without feeling like they’re being exploited. Conversely, if trust hasn’t been built, employees can perceive this approach as just a new way for management to give them extra work.Interestingly, how long an employee had been with their company affected how successful this approach was. There was a more positive influence on less experienced or newer employees than those who had been with the company for longer.Key takeaway: Employee empowerment can be beneficial if it's perceived positively by employees. You’re most likely to see results if it’s implemented after building good relationships with your team, based on trust. ______________What it looks like. This article lays out 10 examples of ways to empower your employees.Our take: Allowing individuals to have more autonomy in decision making can be highly effective. Although it seems risky, giving employees the authority to make decisions without consulting a manager gives them a valuable role – one they will less likely want to leave.Sometimes simply recognizing when an employee goes above and beyond can have a huge impact, especially when communicated to the whole team. This builds a culture of appreciation, which often leads to increased productivity.    In order to ensure employee empowerment is implemented effectively, provide training courses to managers. Teaching them how to empower their team will make any new initiatives better thought out and executed.Key takeaway: Unsurprisingly, what employee empowerment looks like should be different in each company. Having conversations about your specific workplace needs is essential, whether through formal management training or leadership meetings.  

Steve Jobs' leadership trick

A weekly roundup of the most interesting, useful and thought-provoking articles to help you be a better leader. This week we’re focusing on fostering creativity.A culture of creativity. Apple CEO Tim Cook talks about Steve Jobs’ leadership “trick.” Our take: Tim Cook admires the leadership tone Steve Jobs set for Apple, calling him a “a once-in-a-hundred-years kind of individual, an original by any stretch of the imagination.”One of the “tricks” Cook learned was Jobs’ expectation that all employees were held to the same high standard of creativity. It didn’t matter whether they worked in engineering, marketing or any other department, the expectation was the same.Jobs’ insistence on this created a culture of creativity that served him well during his reign and continues today. By continuing this leadership approach, Cook was able to “win over naysayers after he became CEO” – maintaining a creative culture allowed him to lean on innovation rather than the product expertise he didn’t have.    Key takeaway: When a leader is able to foster a culture of creativity, they can adapt through changing situations, even if they don’t have the exact expertise to draw on. ______________Churn Baby, Churn. Guy Kawasaki talks about his top 10 tips on how to cultivate innovation in business.Our take: Number eight in Kawasaki’s top 10 is called Churn Baby, Churn. This is a state of creativity where creators take their idea and churn it out into version one, then 1.1, 1.2, 2.0. There’s a kind of denial that’s helpful when others say that something (your product, idea, service or entire business) can’t be done, but you continue pushing anyway. Each new version requires new ideas to keep evolving, a bubble of imagination that propels your vision forward. Key takeaway: Creativity is one of the best ways to get past blocks, obstacles and win over those who don’t believe in you. Prioritizing it and protecting space for it allows you to keep churning out ideas. ______________Don’t fly solo. Hal Gregersen interviewed over a hundred innovators for Forbes and found patterns to how they behaved.  Our take: Gregersen found that these innovators were all doing four things: constantly asking provocative questions to challenge the status quo, observing the world like anthropologists, talking to people who are not like them, and being willing to try anything (and experiment, if needed).When CEOs have this approach, they can’t fly solo. Usually when an individual has this creative mindset, they’re not good at executing their vision. They need to build a team around them who can take their ideas and make them into reality.   Key takeaway: If you’re a highly creative leader, the above four strategies can be helpful to develop. But don’t forget to have people on your team who can translate your ideas into something tangible.  

Leaders' Library

Every week, we share an interesting long-form piece of content to contemplate.Today, we’re reading the book Agility.X: How Organizations Thrive in Unpredictable Times by Christiane Prange and Loizos Heracleous.There are helpful examples of companies that have implemented successful agility programs (e.g., NASA, Ford Motor Company, Siemens, Daimler, and J.W. Thompson), which will evoke ideas for your own company. The top takeaway, though, was what lies behind the strategies. The authors lead readers through a sort of sociological history of agile thinking in business, allowing for great reflection on how this type of thinking could be relevant to you. Learning how to incorporate agile thinking for both yourself and in the way you lead your company can be a transformative journey.  

Words of Wisdom

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”– Eric Hoffer

For Leaders: Teradata CEO Steve McMillan

Steve McMillan has been interested in computer programming since he was 10 years old. Adding degrees in management and computer science led him to his role as CEO of Teradata.His leadership philosophy aligns his company’s strategic goals with his focus on people and culture. In this episode, Steve shares key insights on:🎧 Listen to the whole interview here.

Speed over perfection

A weekly roundup of the most interesting, useful and thought-provoking articles to help you be a better leader. This week we’re focusing on agility.Corporate transformations: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff shook up his leadership team after his co-CEO left late last year.  Our take: What to do after your co-CEO steps down unexpectedly, after only a year? For Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, major personnel changes in his management team was the answer (as well as laying off 10% of his global workforce).After only 6 months, he had new hires in place for his chief positions, while changing the responsibilities of his COO. The new hires were mostly employees who had previously worked for Salesforce, signaling his willingness to make improvements, while not completely disrupting the team dynamic.    Key takeaway: Benioff’s strategic agility in response to his co-CEO stepping down indicated his ability to make organizational changes quickly and efficiently, softening the blow (somewhat) of the simultaneous layoffs.    ______________Get out of the middle. This Fast Company article advises CEOs to stop putting yourselves in the middle of all decisions – instead, set up strong strategic priorities and let your team find the best ways to execute them.Our take: Building a company that can pivot on a dime during uncertain times is essential. The key to this is an agile leadership team.If employees are provided with a solid plan and clear direction, management can create a team environment where members collaborate, adjust quickly, and always know the strategic priorities they’re aiming to achieve. This kind of team functioning means that the CEO doesn’t need to step in to play umpire – you can focus on your own leadership style that ensures those who report to you know what your vision is and how you want it achieved. Key takeaway: Agile teams require agile leadership. Ask yourself: Is my team clear about our strategic priorities? If the answer is no, be willing to change your approach so that your team can adjust theirs.______________How to survive uncertain times. This Harvard Business Review article highlights the concept and importance of strategic agility.Our take: Why do some companies flounder in difficult times, while others thrive after adversity? These authors believe it’s because of strategic agility. When disaster hits, the companies that succeed are the ones that are able to “deviate from their strategic plan and adapt to the changing environment.” This requires a nimbleness to avoid the worst impacts, the ability to absorb the damage being inflicted, and resilience to accelerate past the problems faster than your competitors. Key takeaway: Being agile is about seeing the problem clearly and quickly, and then adapting your strategic plan to the immediate issues. The key is speed over perfection during uncertainty or sudden difficulties.