Loud Thinking

Archive for July, 2013

AN ADVICE IN THE INTEREST OF THE GOVERNMENT

In view of the recent government report that over 40% electricity bills are not paid/recovered and also the known huge gas thefts of billions of Rupees, an across the board crack down with iron hand on stealers of electricity and gas, without any discrimination, must be unleashed, so that there was NO NEED FOR INCREASE OF POWER AND GAS RATES TO PUNISH THE HONEST PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY PAYING EACH AND EVERY PENNY OF THE BILLS HONESTLY. REPEAT DON’T PUNISH THE HONEST AND DON’T REWARD THE THIEVES BY EASY METHOD OF GENERATING REVENUE THROUGH HIKE IN TARIFFS. PEOPLE ARE ALREADY FED UP WITH THE PRICE INCREASE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TAKING OVER OF NEW PMLN GOVERNMENT. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SIGN AND YOU MUST NOT ALLOW THE SUGGESTIONS WHICH WILL FORCE MASSES TO GO AGAINST YOUR GOVERNMENT. YOU MUST NOT REPEAT MUST NOT ALLOW YOUR ADVISORS TO MAKE NAWAZ SHARIF OF MURSI IN LESS THAN A YEARS TIME.

New research by RHR international shows which executives incoming CEOs are likely to replace, and highlights some differences between first-time CEOs and more seasoned chief executives. I interviewed Dr. David Astorino, Global Practice Leader for Senior Team Effectiveness, about the findings. Below is an edited version of our conversation.

Your survey showed that as much as CEOs had shaken up their senior team, looking back on it they wished they’d moved even faster. Why?

When they look back, and you ask them what you would have done differently, they almost always say, “I knew in my gut that was not going to work with that individual, and I wish I had trusted that gut feeling and made that decision faster.” By delaying the transformation of a particular function or business unit, they’re now six months behind. That’s often were that comment comes from. There are some other factors, but that’s the main one.

What are some of those other factors?

A lot of it relates to organizational knowledge. They hesitate because they don’t feel like they know enough about what’s going on. You’ll also see a real difference between first-time CEOs and people who’ve been a CEO before, especially if that first-time CEOs is coming from outside the company. They don’t trust themselves as much, and they tend to not be as suspicious, frankly, as CEOs who have been there, done that before. They tend to wait too long. CEOs who’ve been around the block a bit more say, “I’d rather risk losing institutional knowledge and get someone in there I trust.”

HBR has published research suggesting that insider CEOs are more effective than outsiders. Could part of the reason be that outsiders replace so much of their staff with other outsiders, lacking that institutional knowledge?

It could be. But why do you hire an outsider? Either you couldn’t develop an insider, or the external environment has shifted enough that you need someone who can come in and really drive transformational change. So either way, outsiders are often coming in to a tougher job. They’re going to be driving change, and so they’re going to need new people with new skillsets to drive the business forward.

So to that point about skills, how much of this is really about bringing in new skills, and how much of it is about what you mentioned earlier — just looking for people they can trust, people they’re comfortable with?

It’s really both. Every good seasoned executive will do two assessments of people. One is, they’ll look at you and evaluate, “Do you have the right values and motivations for what I need on my team and what we need moving forward?” Can they trust you? The other big piece of it is, “Are you going to put the enterprise before your self-interest?” And that one is big. They need their senior team to make big decisions about where resources go, and sometimes that may disadvantage you. You may have to be selfless, give up some of your budget. So after they’ve looked at those two things, then they might go down that more methodical path of, “Do you have the capabilities to do what I need in your function?”

Speaking of functions, it wasn’t terribly surprising to me that the CHRO and the CMO are two that are likely to leave. But why the General Counsel?

That was an odd one, and I don’t have a great answer for that. Certainly we know that heads of finance and HR tend to move around a lot more because the skills are very transferrable, and in fact it looks better for an HR executive or CFO to show a breadth of industry. You actually get a bit disadvantaged if you’ve been in the same company or the same industry your whole career, as an HR person. But general counsel is a little different, because legal issues are often more specific to the industry. So I don’t really understand that one.

What about the difference between insider and outsider CEOs — they really seem to replace different functional heads. Insiders are much more likely to replace the COO, for instance, while outsiders are more likely to replace the CFO. Why the discrepancy?

When a new CEO gets that [internal promotion], they want to be closer to the business than not, and boards usually want them to have their thumb on the pulse of the organization, rather than someone else. But CEOs do need to be less in the day to day operations, and become more externally focused. So they need to have the right person in that COO role.

When you’re coming from the outside, the CFO role and the head of HR are the right and left wing of a CEO, they’re the people CEOs come to trust most for obvious reasons. The CFO in particular is one where outside CEOs really need to get the person they trust.

If a CEO has been around the block before, they seem more likely to bring in the people they know can get the job done and they have a bigger and better network at the c-level they can bring in and rely on.

New CEOs don’t have a good a sense of what good looks like. They don’t necessarily know what a great CFO really looks like. They rely more on search firms.

What are some of the other differences between first-time CEOs and more experienced CEOs?

There are such differences. The leap is so great, especially if you’re going into a very tough situation. You learn so much, so fast that when you get that next CEO job, you are so much faster in making decisions. You almost have a template.

That has pros and cons. The pros are that certain types of people really want to follow that kind of leader with confidence and declarativeness. Boards like that, too. The downside is — well, take your first-time CEO, who doesn’t have the templates. The pros are that they often form really strong teams to go on a journey with them; you’re going to help define the path. So those CEOs really get people to follow them who want to have impact, who want to shape the future, and who want to create those templates together.

Both can be very successful, but at different times you really want different types of leaders.

More blog posts by Sarah Green
More on: Leadership transitions, Leading teams

OUR EDITORS
A regular dispatch from the front lines of management by the editorial team at the Harvard Business Review.

Purpose is the quality of being determined to do or achieve something.

“If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose.”

T.D. Jakes (born 1957);
Bishop, author

Train Your Tired Brain

If you’re stressed out and tired, it’s hard to learn new things. Exercise, sleep, and a good diet are all essential for keeping your brain in peak condition, but you can also do the following to perform at your cognitive and creative best:

Change perspectives. Improve mental flexibility by rapidly trying on new points of view. This exercises your mind. For example, what would a potential customer think about this idea? Your boss? Your competitors?

Reboot. Take a break from work every hour, or more often if you’re already frazzled. Get out of your chair, water a plant, or just let your mind wander. These breaks recharge your brain.

Summon a positive thought. Negative emotions impair thinking, memory, creativity, and strategic thinking. Try to crowd out unconstructive thoughts with positive ones, which improve these capabilities.

Adapted by HBR from “Prepare Your Brain for Change” by Margaret Moore.

“If you want to stay young-looking, pick your parents very
carefully.”

Cricket – A Winning Recipe

1. Positive Attitude.

Defensive minds are neither creative nor cooperative. Until and unless we only focus on nothing short of winning (and consider a DRAW as a DEFEAT) no planning and preparation, will give us the desired results.

2. Planning.

The team management in particular and players in general must be told that PLANS never fail, rather we fail to PLAN. And for planning, the first and foremost thing is the mind set, totally focused on goal achievement. In order to achieve the impossible, it is precisely imperative, to think the unthinkable.

3. Video Analysis.

All concerned must sit and watch strengths and weaknesses of South African as well as, Pakistani players. This will not only help in overcoming our weaknesses, but will also help in field settings, determining bowling line and length, knowing weakness of opponent players, against fast and spin bowling etc.

4. Infusion of Motivation.

Since, cricket is a mind game, a motivation specialist (NOT psychiatrist) must be attached with the team, and given the task to convert our players, from being simply dynamic persons to a DYNAMITE personality, so that every player must perform, to his peak ability. In my opinion, the best person in the country, for this job is Ms Andleeb Abbas.

5. Team Selection.

(a) The success of any project depends on the right selection of it’s team members. The enemy of the BEST is often the GOOD. In fact, now it is said that the only difference between winning and losing organizations is the quality of it’s people, which includes their character, belief, habits, personal motivation and abilities.

(b) We should not only select players on merit or past performances but, one or two batsmen and bowlers from domestic circuit should also be selected by just anticipating, that given a chance, they can be stars overnight with their sheer fearlessness and big game temperament. Just like as a shrewd jeweler, we should pick a diamond from the rubbles.

(c) Similarly, our wicket keepers on show till now have been just average players. We must find some really outstanding wicket keeper, for which the legend Mr. Wasim Bari should be assigned the task, to find out the person who can be categorized as find of the tour.

6.Team Management.

The team management must be told that business as usual, will not deliver in this most tough series. They should know that management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things. Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; Leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

Dr. Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998);
professor, author

Avoid Unfriendly Office Competition

There’s one in every office: a hypercompetitive colleague who stops at nothing to get every advantage over his peers. It’s tempting to try to one-up him and put him in his place, but that’s only likely to fuel his ambition further. Instead, don’t participate in the rivalry. Continue to do your best work and expect to be recognized for it. React coolly to any criticism he hurls your way. If he says your report was subpar, for example, don’t take the bait. Ask dispassionately, “What makes you say so?” Invite others to offer their opinion, especially if you know they’ll back you up. If you don’t engage with the competition, it will soon become clear to others that he has some kind of agenda.

Adapted from the HBR Guide to Office Politics.