Posted by Peter Samardak on Wed, Dec 16, 2009 @ 08:52 PM
Sports figures are often forced into a leadership role they do not want, nor can fulfill. I have heard some basketball players even make the statement, "I am not a role model. People shouldn't follow me." I can't remember who exactly made that statement, but I often think of business leaders, managers and current golfers who neither fit the role nor know how to maintain their leadership.
Recently, Bob Moffat, a former executive in IBM was arrested for insider trading and, having personally met him, I found him to be approachable, to have seemingly high values and to be driven. I guess the real question is, what does someone with high values look like? Is it a visual? Not hardly. Maybe that's it, he was so driven there was a fear of falling short of expectations. Maybe with the pressures of success, or the pressures of not failing were too much. Maybe it was simply greed and ego. Ego, its a funny dynamic which enters into everyone's life from time to time.
Once you start comparing yourself to others, you are either behind or ahead. I'm not sure at what time or age you reach a point where you are happy with you. I am sure Maslow identified it as self-actualization. However, it seems that today's mediocre leaders find excuses to blame everyone but themselves. Its always been somebody in their lives who caused them to do whatever it was. I remember a series on TV where "the devil made me do it." Guess what, its no excuse.
There is no excuse for harming others. There is no excuse for poor leadership. There is no excuse for not taking responsibility and not motivating others to excel. There is no excuse for letting people go because you could not identify the unique skills they had and capitalizing on that strength.
Leaders need to be able to synthesize the differences, turn it into an innovative driving force and then getting out of the way enabling those who are empowered to excel.
True global leadership is unique because it recognizes even some of the deep seated cultural differences which have existed and then turns it into a knowledge base driving excellence. Leadership is not easy. Nobody said it would be.
Posted by Hilka Klinkenberg on Sat, Aug 08, 2009 @ 10:39 PM
Lois Wyse once wrote that meetings are the show business of business. Two words that seem almost contradictory, but such an apt description of meetings in the USA. Show...well, you show up and on time. And, you have something to "show" or present that contributes to the business at hand. Business...that's what meetings are about, not socializing nor relationship building. So, only the people relevant to the business should attend, and the focus is on moving the business forward. If only meetings did run that smoothly and simply all the time! Compared to other countries, they do though.
So, it was interesting to read Andrew Jack's column "Expenses culture has high cost for world's poorest nations" (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/832f89ea-7c4f-11de-a7bf-00144feabdc0.html) describing meetings in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania a
s "a form of institutionalised, legal time-wasting that is endemic in the region...at its root is the culture of the "per diem" the daily payment made to officials attending meetings and conferences". Consequently, officials are seldom available and business grinds to a standstill because they are off collecting a "per diem" to subsidize their income. And, this problem is not specific to Tanzania, as Mr. Jack points out. It is wide-spread in Africa.
It's hard enough for expats living in another country; with time and cultural coaching, they eventually get the lay of the land and learn what they have to do to get where they need to go. Woe, though, to the poor hi-po sent on business meetings to far-flung corners of the world. Without adequate cultural briefings, how can he or she be expected to understand the protocols of meetings in other countries, whether it is the ‘schmoozing' and socializing that is necessary before getting down to business, dealing with the hierarchy of the foreign counterparts, constant interruptions and lack of privacy when meeting, varying presentation styles, the nuances of negotiating and signing contracts, or even something as simple as where to sit?
Every culture has different protocols and values regarding business meetings. Not knowing what to do is no excuse, especially when that hi-po, or even the expat, returns with a wad of expenses without the business and no understanding of what went wrong. If a company expects to succeed globally and get valuable business, it must provide the necessary training and coaching resources for its representatives to represent the company effectively.
Posted by Sue Perlmutter on Fri, Aug 07, 2009 @ 09:40 PM
The expansive topic of cultural differences --- whether
national or organizational, religious or disciplinary -- is, as global coaches
and consultants, always on our minds. In the case of national culture, regional
differences and distinctions are of particular interest, since they manifest
themselves in such a variety of ways. On one end lies India, home to so many ethnic groups and religions. With 25-plus languages, each as
distinctive from one another as Korean is from Italian, it is easy to imagine the sheer breadth
of cultural differences by region that arise through linguistics alone. In
China, too, we find an extraordinary number of regional divides, highlighted by the
recent clash between Uighur and Han cultures. In smaller nations
as Japan and the UK, and in larger ones such as Germany and Mexico, such differences
can relate to the North/South or urban/rural dimension rather than, say
language, but are every bit as potent in their own ways. Come to think of it,
there is no nation without regional differences of some sort which in turn correlate to its subcultures.
This all came to mind as I thought of the apparent regional distinctions
right here in the U.S. while reading a recent Financial Times article*
on the economic success of North Dakota. Now crowned our country’s ‘chickpea
capital,’ curiously, the area has been blessed with a timely confluence of
factors. A favorable tax structure,
wealth of natural resources, array of infrastructure improvements and, perhaps most
significantly, its “frugality and plains state work ethic” in this “more
conservative” pocket of the nation have rendered it an economic oasis with a unique
subculture in our country’s heartland. The
additional mention of North Dakota’s multi-dimensional energy profile, combined
with its homogeneous work mentality, immediately made me wonder: Is North
Dakota the new Norway??? Not really, even if it does sound catchy, but the two
areas certainly do share common characteristics, climate and all. With many economists questioning the
sustainability of Norway’s model (see full discussion in blog below), it will
be interesting in the near future to see whether North Dakota, with its own economic
and ethical culture but also with its own fiscal challenges, will continue its moment
in the sun during these trying times.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f7b9bc92-821f-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0.html