New Era Leadership December 07

Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced.

 

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

 

We’ve come to the end of 2007 (in a few weeks’ time) and I’m wondering what this year was like for you? What were the highs and the lows and of which did you have more? I’ve heard many people saying that things (life) with time only become tougher/worse, just as the pace only becomes faster. The challenges are becoming more, and more daunting. Is it our imagination? Is life indeed more difficult today than what it was in any other time of our history – or is it only different? Were people happier in the past? Do we have more bad news in our lifetime than previous generations? Is it possible that the answer to these questions is more determined by a person’s outlook on life, either positive or negative, than by any set of conditions? And that the split between positively minded and negatively minded people, across religious and cultural differences, is constant?

 

Many questions … no clear-cut answers. What is more clear-cut is the recent findings (141 respondents) of our 3ddiagnostic stress audit (read about this diagnostic at www.3ddiagnostic.co.za).  Close to 35% found themselves in the moderate distress, burnout (22%) and breakdown zones of the Moch Stress Curve. On average, people feel exhausted 64% of the time! These certainly are serious warning signs about our disability to counter the challenges of modern life.  

 

In leadership we need positively minded and mentally strong people. A rugby team going half time to their change rooms exhausted, could have all the skills and potential in the world but will struggle to stay positively minded about winning the game. Leaders have to be mentally and spiritually fit. They are in the position to either add to the stress that people experience at work or to buffer the stress and create an environment that will reduce stress. One critical area is the communication of expectations. 68% indicated that they experience the absence of communication about management’s expectations as a stressor. It is obvious that we need to be sure ourselves of what we want from our team before we will be able to communicate expectations with any clarity and conviction. Often the truth is not that we don’t have the time to communicate, but the fact that we are not clear ourselves on what exactly we want to communicate. With things drifting in the absence of direction, it also adds to people’s stress.

 

Which brings me to the wisdom of our quote: Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced. How convinced are you of what you are doing or trying to do? It is the strength of our belief in what we want to achieve and where we are heading that fuels our own and others’ positive energies. How can you fill your own tank of positive energy in preparation for 2008?

 

I can think of at least four commitments you need to make. 1) Allocate the time you need for deep reflective thinking/meditation – and double it 2) Use the time to seek solace, peace and quiet, spiritually 3) Read something inspirational or educational 4) Share your thoughts, doubts and hopes with someone you feel comfortable with 5) Write down your commitments to those top 3 actions you are going to take in 2008 that you truly believe will make 2008 qualitatively better than 2007 – at work, family and personal levels .

 

 In addition I share with you the following helpful ideas:       

 

Wise people recognise that they are where they are today because of the thoughts that have brought them there, and they know that the outcome of tomorrow will be determined by where they allow their thoughts to take them. There are 9 basic similarities in the way achievers choose to think:

1.      They are less sensitive to disapproval and rejection than the rest of us. This doesn’t mean they don’t care, it just means that they don’t carry the baggage of what others think, around with them.

2.      They think ‘bottom line’ – first they want to know the result, and then they ask for the highlights.

3.      They focus on the task at hand – you simply can’t sidetrack them – they are consumed with what they are thinking about.

4.      They are not superstitious. They believe that nothing happens because of some omen. Developing a mental routine can be helpful, but attributing performance to superstitious habits is not only detrimental, but a waste of energy.

5.      They refuse to equate failure with self-worth – when they do make mistakes they rebound easily and put their mistakes behind them. They adopt the attitude that a failed project is not a failed person, and have therefore learned not to personalise failure.

6.      They don’t restrict their thinking to established rigid patterns. In fact, they don’t think traditionally at all, being highly optional in all their approaches. They also realise that winning comes down to doing the little things well.

7.      They see the big picture. They ‘play’ for today but ready themselves physically and mentally to stay in the game for the long haul.

8.      They welcome challenges with optimism. As a result, they find challenges where most of us can’t even imagine them hiding, and then unearth the opportunities buried under them. They live by the principle that having an optimistic attitude is totally within their control.

9.      They don’t waste their time with unproductive thinking, recognising that unproductive thoughts only divert attention away from the ultimate objectives.

 

Mental toughness is all about deciding what we are going to think about! (Seasoned Campaigner)

 

I trust you will enjoy a rejuvenating December, Christmas and Festive Season.

 

Warm regards

 

Gerhard

New Era Leadership November 07

Out of clutter, find simplicity.

From discord, find harmony.

In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.

 

Albert Einstein

 

What do you think is expected from you in your work, what is expected from you as a member of your family, a member of your church community, a citizen of this country, as a human being? Seriously, think about it and try and answer the question. It can be overwhelming and paralyzing. Right?

 

Now let me ask you a different question. What do you believe you have to offer to other people? What of yourself, would you like to give to others?

Do you sense the difference in emotional energy that you experience when answering this question? There is that lifting feeling of potential. Even if it is with some trepidation that one ponders the answer. When I ask this question in my coaching sessions I invariably get the feeling that people want to reply: do you really think I have something special to offer over and above the demands of my job? It reminds me of Marianne Williamson’s insight: ‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful … We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you NOT to be? . . .’

         

Where the first question evokes thoughts and feelings of clutter and discord, the second question simplifies and harmonize. Most of us were brought up with a lot of instructions and demands to conform to others’ expectations. And of course, for society to be functional there has to be a significant degree of conformity. However, abiding to the country’s laws is one thing, but conforming to imagined ideas about what is acceptable, what is in, hip, cool or right, is another. Richard Tarnas in his book The Passion of the Western Mind describes this aspect of modern life well: ‘The great overriding impulse defining Western man since the Renaissance - the quest for independence, self-determination, and individualism - had in­deed brought those ideals to reality in many lives; yet it had also eventuated in a world where individual spontaneity and freedom were increasingly smothered, not just in theory by a reductionist scientism, but in practice by the ubiquitous collectivity and conformism of mass societies. The great revolutionary political projects of the modern era, heralding personal and social liberation, had gradually led to conditions in which the modem individual's fate was ever more dominated by bureaucratic commercial and political superstructures. Just as man had become a meaningless speck in the modern universe, so had individual persons become insignificant ciphers in modern states, to be manipulated or coerced by the millions.’

 

My first questions about others’ expectations has an ‘outside – in’ direction. What demands does the world put on us? The question is not meaningless or without value. It makes us aware of many things. However, to quote Tarnas again on the kind of world we live in today: ‘An unprecedented broadening of horizons and exposure to the experience of others coincided with a private alienation of no less extreme proportions. A stupendous quantity of information had become available about all aspects of life ...  yet there was also less ordering vision, less coherence and comprehension, less certainty.’ We only sense ordering of vision, coherence, comprehension and certainty once we can comfortably answer the second question which is an ‘inside – out’ question. What sprouts forth from my spirit towards the world around me?

 

To be able to answer the second question positively, I think belief in the following as fundamental truths is required:

 

You are unique. Not only genetically but more so as a result of life situations (good and bad) you found yourself in, how you responded to them, what you have learned from them, the discoveries you made about your own abilities, things you enjoy doing and do with ease, and memories of your life journey. Even if a lot of the above could be very similar to another person, there is a unique quality, a unique X factor that makes you you.

You are created to relate. As much as you are a unique individual, you can only appreciate that uniqueness and love yourself in relation to others. You are created to relate to God, to others and to the world as a whole. To grow these relationships is to grow yourself and through that simplicity, harmony and opportunity. It means that we constantly have to open the door of our being to the outside, to God to others and to nature.

Whilst life is difficult, your life has meaning. That life is difficult, is a truth based in our experience. That your life has meaning, is a belief. If we believe our lives have meaing we will find opportunity in the middle of difficulty.

 

I wish you all the best in overcoming your difficulties and trust that by answering the ‘inside-out’ question you will find simplicity and harmony in all areas of your life.   

 

See my published article (Beeld, October 23rd) below about the kind of leader we need with the forthcoming ANC leadership election in mind.  

 

Warm regards

 

Gerhard

 

Beeld, Dinsdag 23 Oktober 2007

 

Gesoek: Dienende leier met morele, menslike integriteit

 

Met die oog op die ANC se vyfjaarlikse nasionale konfersie in Desember in Polok­wane waar onder meer ‘n partyleierskorps verkies gaan word, bied Gerhard van Rensburg 'n perspektief op leierskap.

 

 

Daar is klaarblyklik deesdae meer belangstelling in leierskap, belangstelling wat verder strek as die verkiesing van 'n nuwe president.

Ek hoop my waarneming is korrek, want om te fokus op lei­erskap, is om te fokus op die dinge wat die goeie en die beste in mense na vore bring. Dit is om te fokus op onontginde po­tensiaal.

 

Miskien het die groeiende be­langstelling in leierskap onder meer daarmee te doen dat vorige persepsies en teorieë dat leier­skap by geboorte aan sekere mense toegedeel word en dat dit herkenbaar is in groot, sterk en dapper manlike helde se cha­risma, nie die toets van die tyd deurstaan het nie.

Ook die beperkende leierskap­teorie waarvolgens leierskap op­gesluit is in die konsep van be­stuur, met die klem op posisio­nele gesag (wat verwerf kan word deur funksionele be­kwaamheid) en die sluit van oor­eenkomste of transaksies met be­loning of straf as gevolg, het uit­gedien geraak.

Die insig dat leierskap sy be­ginsel in interpersoonlike in­vloed het, lei tot groter identifi­kasie met die idee van leierskap as vermoe en vaardigheid wat enige mens kan hê.

Ons kan en wil almal ons in­vloed laat geld.

Die vraag is hoe 'n mens dit beter en doeltreffender kan doen.

 

<<< 

 

As die beginsel van leierskap in interpersoonlike invloed lê, dan hang die invloed se uitbou­ing in 'n groot mate saam met die gehalte van insig in die kom­pleksiteit van die uitdagings wat voor die leier lê en die moed om die uitdagings met visie te pak.

Verder is volhoubare goeie lei­erskap nie 'n gegewe nie en word die leier se karakter en

morele integriteit al meer ge­toets in die mate wat hy/sy gro­ter mag en geleenthede tot die misbruik daarvan kry.

Ons uitdagings lê in die kon­teks van Suid-Afrika, daarna Afrika en die res van die wêreld.

Vir die vorming van ons ge­dagtes oor leierskap en vooruit­gang het wit mense vir die eer­ste sowat 300 jaar 'n kulturele kortpad na Europese en later Amerikaanse idees en kennis ge­vat.

Wat betref politieke leierskap het ook Afrika-leiers na kolonia­lisasie die Westerse outokratiese leierskapstyle gevolg eerder as tradisionele Afrika-leierskap­style met inheemse strukture.

Die klem wat pres. Thabo Mbeki sedert sy verkiesing op 'n Afrika-Renaissance geplaas het, het die kollig laat val op die soort leierskap en leierskapidees wat nodig sal wees om so 'n Re­naissance werklikheid te maak en die potensiaal in Afrika te ontsluit. Suid-Afrika kan beskou word as die enjinkamer en dryf­veer vir 'n Afrika-Renaissance.

Sy leierskap is daarom vir ver­skeie redes onder die vergrootglas:

• Sal dit daarin kan slaag om eenheid en die beginsels van demokrasie in Afrika gevestig en deurgevoer te kry?

• Sal dit terselfdertyd daarin kan slaag om 'n Afrika-identiteit en -trots te versterk?

• Sal dit daarin kan slaag om ubuntu en tipiese Afrika-gemeenskapswaardes te balanseer met individualistiese waardes wat persoonlike aanspreeklikheid, dryfkrag en resultate beklemtoon?

• Sal dit daarin kan slaag om vir veral die tegniese vaardighede wat groeiende 21ste eeuse ekonomieë vereis, teen 'n vinnige tempo te ontwikkel?

 

Die literatuur oor 'n Afrika-Renaissance en oor Afrika-leierskap laat blyk die tyd het aangebreek waar Afrika-leiers nie langer wil bakhand staan by die Weste nie. Afrika was immers nie altyd die armsaligste en patetieste van vastelande nie. Vorige Afrika-beskawings se prestasies en hoë standaarde word vandag opgediep en gee die nodige selfrespek en trots aan die vasteland.

Wat leierskapmodelle betref, het daar vanuit die VSA in die laaste paar dekades, met Robert Greenleaf as die grondlegger, diensleierskap na vore getree.

Studies van sekere tradisio­nele Afrika-gemeenskappe toon die diensmotief by hul leiers is deurslaggewend en diensleier­skap is in werklikheid eie aan die tradisionele Afrika-kultuur.

Die klem val dan op kenmerke soos medemenslikheid, respek vir andere, geduld, nederigheid, morele verantwoordelikheid en gerigtheid, rentmeesterskap en plig teenoor die gemeenskap.

In sy eie woorde was dit juis sy wil en passie om diens aan sy mense te lewer wat oudpres. Nel­son Mandela gedryf en motiveer het. Dit was die krag agter sy lei­erskap. In 'n nuwe Suid-Afrika kon hy sy dienswilligheid verder verruim deur uit te reik na groepe en gemeenskappe wat voorheen sy vyande was.

 

<<< 

 

Die tragiese voorbeelde van Afrika-diktators van die laaste klomp dekades het 'n skewe beeld gegee van egte Afrika-leierskap.

So belangrik soos wat bekwaamheid ook al is, bly grootste toets vir leierskap versoekinge wat aan die “eie ego” gestel word.

Daarom sal karakter en spirituele diepgang altyd deurslaggewend wees.

As daar dan charisma by ‘n leier moet wees, laat dit dié wees wat spruit uit menslikheid en morele integriteit.

As materialisme en statusbeheptheid in Suid Afrika in toom gehou kan word, het ons ‘n groot geleentheid om vanuit die divesiteit van ons samelewing (met die beste deel van Afrika- en Westerse waardes) leiers te kweek wat in Mandela se voetspoor sal volg om só ons en Afrika se kollektiewe potensiaal te ontsluit.

< Dr. Gerhard van Rensburg is 'n private konsultant en skrywer van die boek The leadership challenge in Africa.

 

Living your priorities in a complex world

The world is not to be put in order - the world is in order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.

Henry Miller

 

I suspect that most people feel that they are not living their own priorities ... and that the biggest excuse in our modern day is the busy-ness of our lives. An analysis of the answers we give to the commonest of all questions we ask each other, ‘How are you doing?’, I believe will reveal that we feel out of control of our own lives. Life is too busy. The pace is too fast. The demands we experience simply don’t allow us to live according to what we believe is right and best. It explains what we hear so often: ‘I know I am supposed to …, but …’

 

However, at least in the way it appears, our busy-ness does not necessarily equate being active and productive. How many hours do we for instance spend traveling? If you had a ‘devil’s advocate’ who knows your every action and thought and challenges the usefulness and effectiveness of it for a week long, how will it change the picture? Again, I suspect, that the ‘busy’ feeling sometimes has more to do with what is going on in our minds than the reality of our commitments or actions. I wonder if it is not another way of saying that we feel confused and overwhelmed. But then that would be too close to sounding like being incompetent or a failure – the worst thing that can happen to us!

 

What we cannot dispute is the fact that we are more exposed to knowledge stress today than ever before. Knowledge stress can lead to a sense of confusion and being overwhelmed and restless. Knowledge stress as it typically manifests in the business world and impacts on leaders, has two main drivers: ‘The incessant drive to acquire and use knowledge before one’s competitors and the increasingly sophisticated workforce who have distinctive views and attitudes about the role of the leader, their work, and themselves.’ (The Leadership Triad – Dale Zand). Leaders and their staffs face turbulent, complex global situations each day. Forces around the globe interact, affecting product, market, and investment decisions. Ever had the following experience as you are driving to work: As you are trying to figure out what your next step should be you get the feeling that it is like searching for a black cat in a dark room when you're not sure that the cat is still in the room? The fact that you are not sure how much real effect your efforts have, adds to your confusion. While some outcomes can be linked to things you initiate, others happen despite what you do. Clearly, the complexity of our lives and the exposure to endless information and views about anything one can think of, impacts negatively on the clarity of our thinking and orientations in life – if we can’t find a way to process and distill the information to a point where our minds and hearts can find rest and peace. We crave for simplicity as we believe that we simply don’t have the time to organise our minds and determine our priorities.   

 

The way I see it, things will only change for us once we admit that we indeed do live our priorities. We live the way we do, because we have prioritised in that way. Perhaps not consciously, yet with detail analysis we have to admit, we ultimately choose the things we do above other options. Moreover, our priorities become evident in our actions of the past, not in our ideals or future plans. It’s too easy to come up with a list of ideals and resolutions year in year out and then tell ourselves we have prioritized. The test of our priorities is our actions of today, yesterday, last week, last month or year.     

 

Can there be anything more serious and important than to take time out and to empty your mind from all the external stimuli? Since, in our modern lives, we are not used to doing so we naturally fear the consequences. What if I discover that I don’t like myself the way I am? Will I have the courage to make the necessary changes? What if I discover that I am a coward? Again it’s a choice to face the truth and trust the fact that you can only be better off by discovering the truth than continue living a lie. Furthermore, taking out time to empty your mind and determining the essence of who you are, who you want to be and who you can trust to sustain you and put your faith in, needs to be a habit rather than a once off exercise. Only then can peace, serenity and clarity of thoughts and priorities triumph over busy-ness, confusion and flurry.    

      

Remember – life will only settle down if you choose to settle it down.  We don’t see things the way they are, we see them the way we are.

 

Best wishes

 

Gerhard

 

Perhaps you or someone you know would like to make use of my 2 bedroom apartment at Keurbooms (The Dunes)- situated between Plettenberg Bay and the Tsitsikamma National Park (±1 hour’s drive from George airport, ± 2 hours’ drive from Port Elizabeth). The Dunes offers you 8km of pristine beach, peace and tranquility surrounded by unspoilt indigenous coastal forest. Mountain bike riding, horse riding and golf nearby.  For more information and pictures visit  http://www.dunepark.co.za/ and for special tariffs and bookings contact me personally.

 

 

Leadership, the good and the evil

It is not our part to master al the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

R.R. Tolkien

 

Typical of leaders is the will to make improvements. After all, we are not enjoying the gift of life to see how quickly and effectively we can destroy it. We know, even though we don’t like to think and talk about it, that we are all going to die some day. That knowledge however does not persuade us to commit suicide as human species. We not only try to survive as long as possible but to also enjoy doing so. Perhaps precisely for the reason that we know life is temporary, we live life with the hope to live it to its fullest. And to live it to its fullest includes the idea that something of what we do with our lives will live on after our death.   

 

Not many people will disagree with the statements above. But to stay in such a positive frame of mind, is a different matter. We often disappoint ourselves. We have good intentions about managing our own lives. We want to live more healthy, more caring, more disciplined, more spiritual, more productive, to name a few. But we often fail. Whilst we have good intentions, we find that we have a fight on our hands when we try to make it happen. If it is such a battle to do the good things on our personal agenda, how can we hope to do anything that will make a positive and lasting difference? If we look at the world, we see too much evil. At times, it really is overwhelming. Since we at least have good intentions and see ourselves as basically good rather than basically bad or evil, we expect to see signs of goodness rather than of evil in the world. We therefore often wonder, ‘why is there evil in the world?’. But, as Scott Peck suggests, perhaps we should wonder why there is good in the world. In terms of what we know of science, it is easier to explain evil. ‘That things decay is quite explainable in accord with the natural law of physics. That life should evolve into more and more complex forms is not so easily understandable…If we seriously think about it, it probably makes more sense to assume this is a naturally evil world that has somehow been mysteriously “contaminated” by goodness, rather than the other way round.’      

 

In fighting the wrongs of the world, in trying to ‘uproot the evil in the fields’,  we need help. To avoid evil is not as easy as we might feel it is. It depends a lot on our making the right choices over long periods of time. Choices that takes courage. My parents might have taught me that it is wrong to cheat in exams, but when I see my friend cheating, it takes more than the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, it takes a lot of courage to go and report him/her. Then it is a matter of consistently acting in accordance with our moral conscience. From a psychological perspective Erich Fromm explains: ‘The longer we continue to make the wrong decisions, the more our heart hardens; the more often we make the right decision, the more our heart softens-or better perhaps, comes alive.... Each step in life which increases my self-confidence, my integrity, my courage, my conviction also increases my capacity to choose the desirable alternative, until eventually it becomes more difficult for me to choose the undesirable rather than the desirable action. On the other hand, each act of surrender and cowardice weakens me, opens the path for more acts of surrender, and eventually freedom is lost ... Most people fail in the art of living not because they are inherently bad or so without will that they cannot lead a better life; they fail because they do not wake up and see when they stand at a fork in the road and have to decide. They are not aware when life asks them a question, and when they still have alternative answers. Then with each step along the wrong road it becomes increasingly difficult for them to admit that they are on the wrong road, often only because they have to admit that they must go back to the first wrong turn, and must accept the fact that they have wasted energy and time.'

 

In principal we do have free choices but then the unavoidable question is, in who’s interest do we make our choices. A question that can only be answered by oneself – since other people cannot know one’s deepest motives. In this regard, Scott Peck in his attempt to advance a psychology of evil concludes there are only two states of being: submission to God and goodness or the refusal to submit to anything beyond one's own will -which refusal automatic­ally enslaves one to the forces of evil (from his book: People of the Lie). He defines evil as ‘the exercise of political power – that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion – in order to avoid spiritual growth’.

 

Indeed, to ‘uproot the evil in the fields that we know’ requires more than will power and focus on personal success. It requires spiritual depth and resilience. The fact that our history is full of atrocities committed in the name of God and religion, is proof that the lie does not limit itself to the secular world. What people say is one thing, what stands the test of time in terms of improving our world, is another. The challenge of the quote that I’ve given as the heading, is ultimately one for every person to answer to him or herself. In the role of leaders we might sometimes fall in the trap of thinking that we can ‘master al the tides of the world’ – at least as far as they can effect us. With such a mindset, disullusion is our foreland. Fighting the evil we know – the lies, the injustices, the immoralities, the hyporicies - in submission to and dependence upon God, surely makes life meaningful in all respects.    

 

I wish you a wonderful spring and happy September.

 

Best regards

 

Gerhard

Leadership and stress : Your performance and your levels of stress are linked

 

Since the leader is the one in front who sets the example and the pace, his or her performance will always be vital to his/her leadership. Your performance include aspects such as your levels of focus, concentration, resilience, energy,  perseverance, emotional control etc., and it becomes visible in the results you are getting. What has a direct influence on the level to which you are able to perform to your potential, is your stress level. Academics at Harvard Medical School, professors Yerkes and Dodson in the early nineteen hundreds were the first to describe the inverted u shape curve between performance and stress levels.    

 

It is clear that too little or too much stress is equally detrimental to performance. There is an ideal place to be for optimum and sustained performance. We therefore as leaders need to be able to monitor and manage our stress levels – which is easier said than done.

 

Secondly, we need to be aware of the stress levels of those who we place demands on for performance and productivity. This will help us to take pro-active steps as needed for a particular environment. People can broadly be categorised, according to the performance/stress model, into categories of boredom, understressed, ideal, distress, burnout and breakdown (developed by a South African psychiatrist Jonathan Moch). In the past number of months I was involved in the development of the 3ddiagnostic instrument which is based on this theory and can be used in organisations as a ‘blood pressure’ and leading indicator to performance.

 

Visit www.3ddiagnostic.co.za for more information and let me know if you are interested in this great product.

 

Gary Cooper wrote in the Journal of Public Mental Health ‘the enterprise culture of the 1980s and the “flexible workforce” of the 1990s and early 2000s have helped to transform the UK economy and other countries in Europe. But, as we were to discover, by the end of these decades there was a substantial personal cost for many employees. This cost was captured in a single word – stress.’ No doubt, the levels of stress in many if not most South African workplaces, is dangerously high. Primary health care practitioners experience the effect this has on people’s health. Studies prove that a minimum of 60% of visits to primary health care practitioners concern symptoms directly due to heightened stress levels.

 

There are many reasons for unhealthy levels of stress and many ways to counter the causes for it. As we know too well as leaders, we need to take responsibility for it. It is a responsibility you have to yourself and your loved ones. At a personal level we need to look in the following areas for causes: time management; attitude; relationships; toxins, lotions and potions (vitamins), rest, meditation, diet, exercise and financial management (the ten commandments of stress management – J Moch). That is a mouthful and thorough assessment and proactive planning is clearly required to make the necessary changes. Strategies to reduce stress in the workplace, according to Cooper, include

 

·         Redesigning the task

·         Redesigning the working environment

·         Establishing flexible work schedules

·         Encouraging participative management

·         Including the employee in career development

·         Analysing work roles and establishing goals

·         Providing social support and response

·         Building cohesive teams

·         Establishing fair employment policies

·         Sharing awards

 

Let us remind ourselves: ‘Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor, in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying’ – Studs Terkel.

 

On a different but related note, the opportunities I thusfar had to present my book, The leadership challenge in Africa – a framework for African Renaissance leaders, is a source of inspiration to me personally and judged by the responses I got, clearly relevant. Related to the topic of stress? The challenges we face can either paralyse us – it cannot excite or enthuse us (insufficient stress for performance) or it can make us anxious, overly emotional with no clear focus, and fill us with rage about things we perceive as unexceptable (too much stress for performance). I hope, with the book, to point to a responsible and healthy way of responding to the challenges.    

 

With happy expectations of spring and summer and a rugby World Cup crown. Till next month.

 

Best regards

 

Gerhard

The leadership challenge in Africa

I am using this month’s communication to advertise my book The leadership challenge in Africa. If you haven’t done so yet, you are welcome to order the book from me directly – just send me an email. The book is also now avaliable at Exclusive Books, Van Schaik and other bookshops. Any bookshop will order it from ‘On the Dot’ if they don’t have it on their shelves.  Since my idea behind the book is to stimulate the debate about how we as South Africans are going to respond to the challenges we experience at the different levels of society, it is my sincere hope that many people would read it and that leaders would use the information, insights and questions for discussion to develop the leadership thinking in their organisations. Will you consider buying books for your people in leadership positions as a development initiative? I can come and do an hour’s introductory talk for any group of people.

 

To give you a taste of the book, the following is a quotation from it:              

 

“…Working in small groups, I began to understand the differences between European and African cultures. I discovered that a broader and more differentiated view of human intelligence than traditional Western thought was more appropriate and valid. I also experienced the opportunity of bringing the worlds of Western and African thinking and culture together in the broader context of globalisation.

 

At the same time, I experienced the frustration of white people who, in the new South African society, struggled to come to terms with the changes. There were the fears of the early nineties of nationalised mines, a socialist economy and revenge in some or other form by blacks against whites. These fears later made way for growing concerns about job security in the light of affirmative action policies, and rising crime statistics. Most white people would admit, however, that in terms of their daily lives, not much had changed. They still enjoyed privileged lives, indeed good lives, compared to the majority of black South Africans However, it was left to the individual to work through or ignore the psychological effects of weakened belief systems and threatened ideological convictions. A substantial part of Afrikaner identity was previously dominated by the vision of a white South Africa overcoming a hostile world and black revolution. That vision suddenly evaporated  which explained the frustration and confusion amongst many white South Africans. It  was now left to the individual to determine how he or she wanted to find new meaning and a new orientation for the future. For many, it became a purely materialistic matter: the accumulation and protection of material possessions, and the escapism that international travel provided.

 

However, without a vision that gives meaning to the past and inspiration for the future, negativity easily sets in – particularly in times of turbulence. It feeds upon itself as more and more people accept and propagate the negative aspects of change and in doing so undermine the psyche of society. The little islands of materialistic fortune that some have created for themselves are not sustainable and, in any event,  provide no refuge from the mood of general negativity. People brought up with a deeply concealed but real fear of losing what is precious when they open themselves to others, require great courage to break those patterns of thinking and behaviour. One does not easily adapt to seeing the world differently. 

 

These experiences of South Africa’s transformation, which coincided with my own search for personal identity, inspired much of my research journey in preparation for this book. South Africa’s transformation to a full democracy and the rise of a new nation, awakened my need to know more about Africa’s history, her culture, and the leadership that is needed for Africa to fulfil its enormous potential on the world stage. Many South African leaders are predominantly influenced by a Western worldview, education and cultural orientation. I am convinced they need to realign themselves with the realities of Africa’s history and culture. Furthermore, I asked myself, what is the nature of the vision that would inspire all the people of Africa to build a continent everyone can be proud of and that will command the respect of the rest of the world?

 

As I explore these issues in the book, it is my hope to reveal perspectives and deepen the insights of those who want to be empowered and who want to contribute to a better Africa. I hope this book will be a valuable resource in developing leadership potential and vibrant organisational rebirth to effectively take Africa from where it is to where it has the potential to be. My aim with this book is to provide a framework that can assist any leader or future leader to exercise influence in Africa in a meaningful and effective way.”

 

The chapters of the book are the following:

 

Preface

1. The Essence of Leadership 

2. Leadership and Vision – A Dream for Africa 

3. Leadership and Context - Africa’s Current Reality 

4. Leadership and Culture - Building on African Culture in a Global Context

5. Leadership and Transformation – Developing Leaders in Africa 

6. Perspectives on South Africa’s Transformation 

Epilogue 

Key Questions for Reflection and Discussion 

 

Lastly I give you an example of a discussion question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how cynical are the majority of people in your organisation about South African society? How does it influence the climate in the organisation and what is the role of leaders in this respect? How would you describe the top three needs of South African society where anyone can make a difference? What are practical ways to involve people in social responsibility and how will that influence the work environment?”  

 

I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to warmer and longer days -  global warming doesn’t seem to have reached South Africa yet.

 

I wish you all the best for July. Continue with the good things you are doing, influencing others in a positive way!  

 

Best regard

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated - William James

It was true when we were children, when we were teenagers, in our twenties, thirties and forties … and it is still true today: Whatever our age, we want to feel appreciated – it will be so until the day we die. There is nothing that can give us back that spark and energy to face the rest of the day or week, like a sincere word of appreciation. There is nothing that can change our attitude in an instant, like a surprising word of appreciation. There is nothing that can calm us down when we are on the attack, like a word of appreciation. There is nothing that can help us to appreciate other people, like when we receive a word of appreciation ourselves. Appreciation comes in all kinds: ‘Thank you for helping me out when I was in trouble’; ‘Thank you for being there for me’; ‘Thank you for understanding’; ‘Thank you for letting me feel valued’; ‘Thank you for your cooperation’; ‘Thank you for being the person you are’; ‘You made a difference to my life’; ‘You’ve done a great job here’.

The fact that we all have this ‘craving to be appreciated’, leads to potentially two different outcomes in the workplace. If the general feeling is that we are not appreciated at work, we tend to become more and more self centered. Whether you are the boss or a subordinate, if you don’t feel appreciated for your efforts, contributions, hard work and commitment, your thoughts begin to centre around yourself rather than the vision or purpose of the organisation, the role you can play, and other people’s needs. Your thoughts probably go in the direction of ‘what is it that keeps me here’. In the false hope that financial compensation will make up for the lack of people’s appreciation you try to motivate yourself with the security argument or thoughts of financial reward that still might come your way. In the meantime, you will simply go through the motions and try to keep your expectations of work enjoyment and sense of significance as low as possible.

The other possibility is that the work environment is one where in general people do feel appreciated - for their work as well as for the value of the relationships that they have with each other. People in such an environment snowball in a different direction - away from self centeredness to other centeredness: ‘What can I do to make the new member of our organisation feel more welcome?’; ‘What can I do to assist an overstressed colleague?’; ‘What can I do to improve our work processes?’; What can I do to let those who feel marginalised feel valued and appreciated?

We all know which of the two environments we would like to work in. What is the key to a positive work environment of appreciation? Leadership behaviour and leadership attitude. In simple terms it is to take the lead in showing appreciation rather than waiting for it. Our biggest obstacle in doing so is when we find it hard to appreciate ourselves. Hand in hand with appreciating ourselves is the ability to forgive ourselves and to get rid of the false belief that successful people never fail.

The following words of guidance (taken from The Seasoned Campaigner) can help you develop the right perspective on your own disappointments and sense of failure and put you in the positive frame of mind that will make you appreciate other people:

‘The vast majority of highly successful people didn’t just fail once; they failed countless times before they achieved success. Where they differ from everyone else is that after every failure they sit back and asked themselves what they needed to adjust/tweak/change with the next attempt – they know that, in order to develop, grow, and become successful, they have to experience failure.
No matter how many mistakes they make, high achievers never let their mistakes devalue their worth as a person because they recognise the fact that God uses people who fail – there just isn’t any other kind of person around! In their walk through the difficulties they encountered on their road to success every high achiever cultivated seven abilities that were responsible for giving them the ability to stand up, dust themselves off, and keep on running. These are the seven:
1. Reject Rejection: They never berate themselves for failure. They keep their self-worth intact because they don’t base their self-worth on any one performance in isolation. Their internal system never allows them to say “I’m a failure” – it only permits them to say “I missed that one” or “I made a mistake”. If you blame yourself when you fail you condition yourself into believing that you are worthless or talentless. Yes, you have to take responsibility for your actions and failures but you don’t have to take failure personally.
2. See Adversity as a Valuable Teacher: Successful people see any predicament as merely a temporary condition and not as a hole in which they are stuck forever. They have the confidence in themselves and in their abilities to know that setbacks happen and that their response to any setback is far more important than the setback itself. They are on the constant lookout for knowledge and know that this is often buried in adversity, so they are not afraid to confront adversity because they discard the baggage adversity brings and carry the diamonds they found buried under it in their pockets – and just keep on walking.
3. See Failures as Isolated Incidents: When high achievers fail they see the failure as a momentary event, not as a lifelong epidemic – it’s not personal – just the wrong move at the wrong time. They never let any single incident colour the view they hold of themselves.
4. Keep Expectations Realistic: The greater the objective you want to achieve, the greater the mental preparation required for overcoming the obstacles that you will encounter. You have to develop a dogged determination to “stay the course until the race is finished”. It takes time, effort, and ability to overcome setbacks, so why set yourself up for a painful experience with unrealistic expectations. High achievers approach each day with reasonable expectations in the knowledge that they can only take one step at a time. In this way they prevent their feelings getting hurt when things don’t turn out perfectly, and they are also able to take corrective action with the next small step they are about to take.
5. Focus on Strengths: High achievers always focus on their strengths. There are just a few things they do extraordinary well, so well in fact that they would never dream of hiring anyone to do them. There are many things that they do better than most – so they keep on doing them. Everything else – things they are not good at doing, or even hopeless at doing – they get other people to do for them. Winners concentrate at all times on what they can do, not on what they can’t do. If a weakness is a matter of character you need to devote a lot of attention to fixing it but if not, there are many people who have as strengths precisely those aspects you are weak in – find those people and team up with them!
6. Vary Approaches to Achievement: High achievers keep trying and changing until they find something that works for them. They are not afraid to push themselves to the limit because they have conditioned themselves into being highly adaptable to any set of circumstance. They vary their approaches to problems merely to find out what works best. They treat every setback as an opportunity to discover something new about themselves and about the environment in which they operate.
7. Bounce Back: All successful people have one thing in common – the ability to bounce back after an error, mistake, or failure. They view life as a series of outcomes. When the outcome was what they wanted, they figured out what they did right. When the outcome was not what they wanted, they figured out what they did so that they could avoid making the same move into the future. The ability to bounce back lives in your attitude towards the outcome.
High achievers are able to keep moving forward no matter what happens because they know that failure does not make them a failure. They know that the only time they fail as a person is when they give up and walk away.
Each of the above techniques is embodied in the attitudes of highly effective people – people who are simultaneously high achievers. This was not some special gift they were born with because no amount of talent will equip you with the ability to just shrug off abject disappointment, frustration and loss. Every one of these people learned how to fail forward and formed habits of effectiveness in the process.’

I wish you warm feelings of appreciation and warm feelings of showing others your appreciation for the cold month of June.

Best regards

We don’t see things the way they are, we see them the way we are – Anais Nin It is never too late to give up your prejudices - Henry David Thoreau

This is such a profound truth! The power of transformation, a better society and a better life is not external to us, but is in our minds. It is also in a way disturbing because if our thoughts about people, work and life in general are mostly negative, it is because we are mostly negative. We live with a negative attitude and outlook. Once we accept the statement by Anais Nin as true, and we keep it in mind, it suddenly becomes a lot more difficult to join the ‘they’ choir. Those who are used to singing the ‘they’ song fill their thoughts with all the reasons why other people are responsible for what is bad in society. They get used to judge people and they constantly feed their negative views with more and more examples. Let’s be honest, we all fall into this trap from time to time. It is a trap because we unknowingly impede our own development and growth. Instead of focusing on things we can do we focus on things others should do.

While disappointment is human and an acceptable emotion, the thought of judgment we tend to couple with the emotion obscures our view of what a constructive response could be: for example to encourage or offer support.

So, I offer you and those you can influence with it, the following as food for positive thought:

• Our happiness has nothing to do with what we have achieved, what we have acquired, where we are, or where we are going. It has everything to do with the thoughts we feed our mind. Can we be happy and suffer at the same time? I believe so. Not by trying to be superficial or super human. But if we choose to see our blessings and put our trust in God for what we cannot control, we can find contentment and happiness (at a deeper level) even in times of distress or pain. Point is, our thoughts can remain positive.

• Remember that you are what you think! If you radically change your thoughts for the better, you will radically change your life for the better. The situations and material conditions you attract in life are a result of the thoughts you harbour. Choose to think only positive thoughts and in so doing promote a positive state of mind. Choose also to banish negative thoughts and states of fear, depression and worry, which can only limit your life.

• Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the power of thoughts can transform and enrich all lives. Just think about the change you experience when a positive person is in your presence. In the same way you can change other people’s emotions by bringing your positive thoughts, attitude and body language to their presence.

• You must believe that there are no limits to your potential other than those you set for yourself. Believe in yourself and you will astound yourself with your capabilities. If you believe you can, you are correct. If you believe you can’t, you are correct. It is a fact that you become like the person you think and believe you are. Remember, “Sooner or later the man that wins is the man that thinks he can.”

• Rediscover the child within you. That child who knows no fear, no worries, no limitations, and has a healthy appetite for life and the challenges it has to offer.

• You must realise that there is only one way to make the best of the future, and that is to put the past behind you – make the best of today. Don’t wait for age, a stage in your life, or a dream to come true to really live – live now and enjoy this moment, this hour, and every day of your life. ‘Today’ will never dawn again. ‘Today’ is a precious gift that can slip away with alarming speed. Wasted, it will eat a chunk out of your life, but lived well, it will fulfill your life and make it whole.

• Know what you want from life. Know what you want to put back into life. Develop your vision for your life and set the goals to achieve that vision. Successful goal setting will help you to design a life of which you have always dreamed. Goal setting programmes can only show you how – the rest is up to you!

A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seed will fall therein and will continue to produce its kind - James Lane Allen.

‘They’ – that’s the good use of ‘they’ – say that internal misjudgements are six times more likely to cause business failure than external factors. Focusing on and investing in the development of our minds seems therefore the obvious thing to do. Yet, sadly we tend to value only what we see as tangible and pay the price for poor attitudes and negative or low quality thoughts.

I wish you a month full of positive thoughts and developments. If you think it’s time for us to meet again, please let me know.

Best wishes

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: The ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve - Albert Schweitzer

Do you agree with Albert Schweitzer? To what extent is this true for you? If you think about it, it is hard to imagine an unhappy person saying he is so unhappy because he can’t serve anyone. When we are unhappy we tend to feel we are deprived in some way or another and deserve more and better. We then feel that we are not served well by life in general, by our family, by our work, our society, our country or even by God. To follow Schweitzer’s advice will be to reverse our thinking about what is needed for happiness: Not how well we are served, but how well we serve. So let’s see what this would mean.

Firstly, I believe Schweitzer is not suggesting that we choose to serve others in order to find happiness. Rather, it is a case of what we see as our destiny. Does our life have a purpose? If so, what is it? Is it fundamentally about what we can do to advance ourselves or is it something else and is service part of it? As you know, the rare experiences we have of another person that truly served us, are marked by the fact that it was authentic. It is hard, if possible at all, to fake service. I think we can sense if people do something in the name of service while they actually feel they don’t have much of an option – it’s their duty or it’s in their own interest. The ‘will’ factor, the main concern, always comes through - even in the business world where we get used to the fact that any form of service usually has a price. The idea that life can be reduced to a series of transactions is a false one. We are intensely aware of the underlying motives in the way we interact and we are intensely aware of it’s meaning or lack of meaning. So, the first point is that serving others implies authenticity and therefore is an outcome of a belief about the purpose of life. It is not about performance and reward.

Secondly, the kind of service that Schweitzer believes brings happiness to the servant, is something unique to the individual. It is like our thumbprint. We do not have the same talents, the same opportunities in life or the same set of life experiences. The combination of these things gives us an ability to serve in a unique way and with a unique quality. The closer we get to our thumbprint service the higher the quality and the satisfaction we get from it. This again means that only I can take responsibility for it and only I can design the nature and way I live as a servant. As I grow in life experience, knowledge and wisdom, the design will change as well. It evolves as my personal vision. But then we also have to add: Schweitzer’s words ‘sought and found how to serve’ include sacrifice, commitment and hard work.

Where does our profession or career fit in to the design of our lives as servants? For many people, the lack of alignment they experience is a huge source of their unhappiness. It can relate to their choice of career or it can get confused with what they experience in a particular environment. There’s no easy answer to what we should do when we cannot see how we can offer our thumbprint service at our work. At least we need to ask ourselves:

• Is what I want to do and see as my best service offering incompatible with my current work?
• Are the obstacles that I see really obstacles or perhaps only my perception and untested views of it?
• How much of my thumbprint service offering can still be realised outside of my formal work - and is therefore not blocked by it?
• Am I overlooking a need at work that I can meet with my capabilities?
• In absence of recognition or reward, do I tend to underestimate the value of my service?

One last aspect of living as a servant – I cannot see that it can lead to hurting those closest to you. Rather, we foster and grow the attitude and behaviour of a servant within our inner circle. As it works with successful relationships, there will be times when we sacrifice some part of our own will for the time being and in the interest of our loved ones. What we can offer the world as servants is not only the making of our own visions, efforts and hard work but includes the roles others, particularly our loved ones, play in our lives. Happiness, after all, is not happiness if we cannot share it with others.

As I’m sure you know already, I firmly believe that good leadership is also servant leadership. I therefore would like to encourage you to find your own answers to the aspects of servanthood that I rose.

Sharing these thoughts with you, is my own attempt to serve you.

Enjoy the month of April. How nice will it be if we can celebrate a World Cup victory!

Best wishes

We lead by being human. We do not lead by being corporate, by being professional or by being institutional - Paul Hawken

Organisations, much like human beings, typically grow from courtship and infancy stages to bureaucracy and later death:

Courtship: Emphasis is on ideas and the possibilities the future offers. The would-be founder is working hardest on trying to convince himself that his idea will be a successful one. He works on building commitment.

Infancy: The focus shifts from ideas and possibilities to the production of results. The company is product orientated and needs to sell, sell, sell. There are few systems, rules or policies.

Child (wild years): the company is not only surviving, it is flourishing. The sales orientation is addictive and more means better. Arrogance and lack of focus is a real possibility.

Adolescence: Conflict and inconsistency become characteristic. Authority has to be delegated. The change is from entrepreneurship to professional management. The challenge is to work smarter.

Prime: The organisation is led by a message – a vision of its reason for being. The people believe that what they are doing is important. They know the what, why and how. Decision-making is not dominated by an individual or a small group. There are institutionalised processes of governance. The danger is complacency, risk avoidance and order for the sake of order.

Aristocracy: People want less conflict and less change. An ‘old buddy’ network emerges. There is a steadily increase in distance between the organisation and its clients. There are reduced expectations of growth. The focus is on past achievements rather than future visions. Formal dress, address and tradition are valued.

Bureaucracy and death: Problems get personalised. Paranoia freezes the organisation. Internal turf wars absorb everyone. Nobody has time to deal with the needs of customers. Many systems serve little functional purpose. Eventually lack of resources to reward members for working means death of the organisation.
(See Managing Corporate Lifecycles by Ichak Adizes)

The different stages in the cycle present leaders with different challenges. As much as we, as leaders, try to influence others, we are also influenced by them and collectively by the organisations we work for. The demands and dynamics of the organisation in various stages can however influence us to adapt a style of behaviour that is inconsistent with who we really are. For instance an aggressive, arrogant and authoritarian person in the adolescent stage of the organisation. Or a formal and withdrawn person in the aristocratic or bureaucratic stages. It is easy to build perceptions about what is required in a corporate culture or what it means to be professional. We form ideas about what the political correct way in those environments is. The question is when do we become inauthentic? When are we led more by our perceptions of the kind of persons we ought to be at work, rather than what we really believe in. At what point do we start behaving in ways that our family members, for instance, would find disconcerting and inconsistent with our character? How much damage do we do to ourselves and others before we reach the point when we might ask ourselves with shock: Was that really me who said that or entertained that thought? How did I become such a person?

It is in this context that I believe that Paul Hawken reminds us of a wonderful truth: We lead by being human. We do not lead by being corporate, by being professional or by being institutional. Being human means that we are imperfect. It means that we often wonder about life … and about death. We often doubt. We get hurt by what others say or do, or didn’t say or do. We need to feel loved and appreciated. We feel alone. We do feel pressure and we can feel lack of meaning or significance. We cannot always explain our feelings. We have personal dreams and desires.

If we try to hide our human side to our fellow workers or those we lead, it is to the detriment of our leadership effectiveness. By trying to hide it from others we simultaneously send out the message that we expect others to do the same. The implicit message is we do not care about and are not interested in our fellow workers. Our only concern is the work they have or haven’t done. Am I saying that leaders should have a daily session where they inform everyone about their emotions and personal struggles or joys? No. I do say however that to lead and to be human is not a contradiction. Leaders should be comfortable with their own vulnerability and willing to share those feelings in the right context. They also should have and demonstrate a real interest in the fundamental human concerns of other people at work.

African Renaissance

Did you know that …?

In traditional African culture the chief is not untouchable but accountable to his followers? There is an African proverb saying: ‘The boat shows respect for the water, just as the water shows respect for the boat’ This demands that superiors and inferiors display mutual respect. Another proverb says: ‘When the river roars, rocks and stones are hidden in it.’ This means that the chief can be angry only because he has inferiors - without these, he would have no kind of rank and dignity. He in turn must show respect in his dealings with the inferiors who are entrusted to his care; and in fact he can be deposed by them.

Best wishes for the month of March.

Regards

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands. Robert M. Pirsig

As we progress into the second month of 2007, the terrible crime situation in our wonderful country is on everybody’s mind. The news about more and more killings and violence we hear and read about daily is overwhelming and discouraging, to say the least. How do you process the wave of information and negative experiences when people share stories and views about crime in SA? To what extent does this current situation impact the vision and goals you have for your organisation? And your family?

Our reactions probably vary from feeling aggressive and angry, ready to take matters in our own hands, to feeling disempowered and defeated. What is clear is that the problem we face as a nation is a big one. A problem that exists at various levels of our society and won’t be solved simply by jailing as many criminals as possible in the shortest time possible. I am not going to try and analyse the problem (I do believe there are many signs that point to widespread moral degeneration), but I would like to suggest that if we can only point fingers and join the bandwagon of negativity, things will only get worse. Nothing happens without personal transformation. In this regard I’d like to share with you the ideas of the Seasoned Campaigner about successful people (people who refuse to be intimidated by negative environments):

• Successful People are a little Crazy: The ‘craziness’ doesn’t manifest itself in the form of mental illness, but commonly takes the form of unconventional thinking - a rejection of traditional beliefs, a lack of concern for what others might think, and the confidence to take on ambitious projects from which more ‘sane’ people would shy away. These high achievers are poised between average people and true psychotics, possessing just the right amount of ‘weirdness’. They are strange enough to come up with odd ideas, and then to pursue those ideas no matter what the rest of the world says, yet they are not that outlandish that they lose all contact with reality. Mavericity, the property of making unusual associations in ideas, of doing the unexpected is a hallmark trait of successful people!
Think differently from the crowd!

• Successful People are Overly Optimistic (as seen by others): Highly successful people tend to be less accurate in their perceptions of themselves and the world around them. They tend to disseminate positive information about themselves while suppressing negative information, constantly casting themselves in a positive light.
Have at least twice as many positive thoughts as negative ones!

• Successful People are Flexible Thinkers: Research confirms that flexible thinking is a prerequisite for creative thinking - something our ancestors knew instinctively. In situations requiring group decision-making, flexibility is often induced by assigning one individual to the role of ‘devil’s advocate’, repeatedly questioning the assumptions of the group, and constructively pointing out possibilities contrary to those being considered - the objective is to make more effective decisions. Successful people are on the continual alert to ensure that their self-talk is geared toward constructive settlement of the debates that continuously rage in their heads. They consider various options, always examining both the downside and the upside of every option, whilst never allowing themselves to become ensnared by procrastination. They will always devise three or four strategies to achieve a given objective, with tactics aligned to each, so as to give themselves situational as well as mental flexibility. They never allow themselves to become bored and will always find the opportunity buried within every problem.

Always examine both sides of the coin and don’t restrict yourself to just one option.

• Successful People look to Mentors and Role Models: Trial and error is an extremely inefficient way to learn life lessons simply because the learning always precedes the lesson. Successful people prefer to learn from others such as mentors and role models. Successful people are adept at combining unusual ideas in unique ways, and combining several role models can be an effective strategy for ensuring that you become an innovator, not an imitator – creative combinations can lead to new insights. Running with this learning technique, it is important to understand that by having a sophisticated, multi-dimensional self-concept enables people to deal with negative or potentially stressful events more easily.
Identify people (both current and historical) you admire and make it your business to ‘mine’ for their ‘secrets’.

• Successful people Take Risks: Uncommon accomplishment requires uncommon ambition – only those who are prepared to pay the price of failure can expect to enjoy the sweet taste of success. No highly successful person was ever risk averse! In fact, great leaders typically earn greatness by making bold decisions in difficult times – times of great risk. This is not a “throw-caution-to-the-wing” type of risk, which is essentially just foolhardiness, but rather recognition that life often involves a risk-reward tradeoff and a willingness to take high risk for the potential of high rewards. There is a strong correlation between your willingness to take financial risk and your level of wealth – it is less about investing in the stock market and much more about investing in yourself, your career, your professional practice, your business … investments in improving your personal product! In order to accumulate you have to be prepared to speculate!
No risk … no gain! Identify the price you are going to have to pay to achieve what you want to achieve, and if you are prepared to pay that price, commit yourself without compromise!

• Successful People Ask Questions: Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, taught his students not by giving answers, but by asking questions. Rather than categorising their answers as right or wrong, he asked even more questions, continually pushing them to think more deeply and question their own assumptions. This method of teaching is to this day used extensively in law schools, and the most effective salespeople have mastered the technique of asking the right questions in order to uncover the needs and desires of their prospects. The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the right answer, and successful people habitually ask questions. These questions are not in any way threatening or directive (“Don’t you agree?”), they are the types of questions that facilitate communication (“What issues do we have to focus on?” or “Can you help me understand?”). Obviously you have to know when to stop asking questions and start taking action!
People always feel compelled to answer questions – always ask questions that will force people to think deeply. Your reward is greater clarity as to your direction, your strategy for getting there, the tactics you need to deploy and, most important of all, your supporters.


African Renaissance

Dr William F. Kumuyi from Lagos, Nigeria wrote an article about leadership in Africa that I agree with wholeheartedly. I only quote his introductory paragraphs:

Just any leader won’t solve Africa’s problems. The leaders that the continent needs are people who understand its problems and will sincerely employ leadership to solve them. The leader and his turf must match. Thus, who is good for Europe may not be so good for Africa.

In my last column, I stressed the dearth of leaders in Africa and argued that the acute shortage is responsible for the continent’s unmitigated misery. I stated that if Africa were furnished with competent leaders, the continent would leap from the depth of despair to the apex of affluence.

Now, granted Africa’s need for leaders, we should characterise the type of leaders that the continent needs. Just any leader won’t solve Africa’s problems. The leaders that the continent needs are people who understand its problems and will sincerely employ leadership to solve them. For leadership is contextual activity; its rules and principles are context-sensitive such that a leader moved from one place to another may not find his bearing on arrival unless he can adjust and fit in.
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So what type of leaders does Africa need? ANSWER: LEADERS WHO UNDERSTAND AFRICA’S PROBLEMS AND CAN APPLY THEIR PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS TO SOLVE THEM. THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE BLACK, HOME-GROWN, ANTI-WESTERN RADICALS. HUMAN PROBLEMS DON’T RESPOND TO SHEER ETHNIC AND COLOUR BARS. AFRICA’S LEADERS ARE PEOPLE WHO CAN MAKE LEADERSHIP LOCK ON TO THE CONTINENT’S ACHES AND CURE THEM ALL.

Let us apply ourselves to the unlocking of our individual and collective potential as Africans. I would like to be your partner in doing so.

Best wishes for the month of February.

Regards