performance

/Tag:performance

Leadership in Action? No – just Leadership Inaction

The recollections from my last post created another thought about a story I shared at the power of place session at the International Leadership Association global conference. It highlighted the difficulties the Australian aboriginal peoples encountered with the arrival of the English settlers. My early childhood in “the outback” was a time when aboriginals were treated as second class citizens (and unfortunately still are by some). As a naïve child I could not understand why my dark skinned friends with...

Place, experience, identity and belonging

Connections are strange things - they seem to come out of nowhere, but have importance to us and how we lead others.  A few weeks ago three unrelated things happened a few days apart that triggered me to recall two unrelated memories from my childhood. These stimulated some useful reflections on our behaviour as professionals and in which boat we should be. I attended a session on the use of multiple senses and poetry to influence perception at the ILA...

From Lead Gunners to Gun Leaders

In Australia the slang term “Gunner” is a derogatory term for someone who is always shooting off ideas but rarely does anything about them. It comes from their constant verbal shots of “I am gunner do this and they are gunner do that…”. The lead gunner wants to look good by spruiking ideas, but knows that attempting delivery of their “great idea” is a risk. It requires action and capability they are not confident about, so they have handy a...

Boundary riders for creative innovation

Boundary Spanning Leadership, a book by Chris Ernst and Donna Chrobot-Mason from the Center for Creative Leadership was released last week has been an immediate success. It is in fact, a good example of its own philosophies in that it draws on a wide range of ideas from many contexts to support the research on which it is based. It also leverages the impressive networks into which the CCL authors have within their circles of influence to promote the ideas...

The intersection of thoughts: Attendee or Participant?

This week represented a unique intersection of experiences for me. I am on a speaking tour of east coast USA for three weeks and it is 5 AM on Sunday morning in Boston. No, not jetlag - my mind is wide awake and bursting with ideas. For the last four days I have been attending the International Leadership Association (ILA) conference and heard a wide range of ideas about what leadership should be and how leaders how leaders need to...

Reflective Metaphor Model for Performance

I have been developing a new model to enhance performance through an action research program. It combines reflective practice, conversations that matter, behavioural metaphor and assessments of impacts on (largely intangible) performance outcomes. Application of the new model (illustrated) is highlighting the power of combining these concepts into an ongoing capability development cycle. By adapting the behaviours required at each stage of the cycle, the individual or team can align thinking to desired outcomes (such as impact on stakeholders and...

Wiki Conversation Visualised

A group of my students studying knowledge based performance are each asked to research a separate topic and then write about it in a wiki. They insert links in the context of their own topic to the topics researched by other students to demonstrate the interdependence of each field. After this has been done they are asked to engage in a "Conversation that Matters" (see Jan 4 post) about the relationships between each of the topics. Whilst they have this...

Behavioural Based Leadership

Leadership is behavioural - not a position! The person at the top of an organisation may be a poor leader.  They may occupy the top job and command decisions, but this does not mean they are a GOOD leader.  A real leader is a person who has WILLING followers.  People want to help them because they are inspired by them and respect them as a person. To become a leader of great standing requires a history of proven performance where your stewardship and demonstrated...

Conversations that Matter

Constructive conversations are the single most powerful way to engage people and make a difference for those you interact with. It is a pity that many people underestimate the power of the conversation. Everyone engages in conversations, but only a small percentage know how to create the right environment for "Conversations that Matter". Effective conversations that matter follow a simple structure defined around understanding what you are trying to achieve and four fundamental focus areas: Outputs, Outcomes, Benefits and Beneficiaries. For example, brainstorming, making a decision and authorising actions are all...

Where did 2 years disappear to? Free profiler

I ambitiously started this blog two years ago and had not revisited it again until now? How does that happen? When I was young I had an anonymous quote on my wall "There must be something to reincarnation - it is hard to believe I could get this far behind in only one lifetime". Time is a resource that is difficult to manage. We all get the same amount of it each day and yet for some it is not...