Twenty Steps to Successful Time Management
1. Clarify your objectives. Put them in writing. Then set your priorities. Make
sure you’re getting what you really want out of life.
2. Focus on objectives, not on activities. Your most important activities are those
that help you accomplish your objectives.
3. Set at least one major objective each day and achieve it.
4. Record a time log periodically to analyze how you use your time, and keep bad
time habits out of your life.
5. Analyze everything you do in terms of your objectives. Find out what you do,
when you do it, why you do it. Ask yourself what would happen if you didn’t do it.
If the answer is nothing, then stop doing it.
6. Eliminate at least one time-waster from your life each week.
7. Plan your time. Write out a plan for each week. Ask yourself what you hope to
accomplish by the end of the week and what you will need to do to achieve those
results.
8. Make a to-do list every day. Be sure it includes your daily objectives, priorities,
and time estimates, not just random activities.
9. Schedule your time every day to make sure you accomplish the most important
things first. Be sure to leave room for the unexpected and for interruptions. But
remember that things that are scheduled have a better chance of working out than
things that are unscheduled.
10. Make sure that the first hour of your workday is productive.
11. Set time limits for every task you undertake.
12. Take the time to do it right the first time. You won’t have to waste time doing
it over.
13. Eliminate recurring crises from your life. Find out why things keep going
wrong. Learn to proact instead of react.
14. Institute a quiet hour in your day – a block of uninterrupted time for your most
important tasks.
15. Develop the habit of finishing what you start. Don’t jump from one thing to
another, leaving a string of unfinished tasks behind you.
16. Conquer procrastination. Learn to do it now.
17. Make better time management a daily habit. Set your objectives, clarify your
priorities, plan and schedule your time. Do first things first. Resist your impulses
to do unscheduled tasks. Review your activities.
18. Never spend time on less important things when you could be spending it on
more important things.
19. Take time for yourself—time to dream, time to relax, time to live.
20. Develop a personal philosophy of time – what time means to you and how time
relates to your life.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
The Worst Leaders
HBR.org > June 2009 > Ten Fatal Flaws That Derail Leaders
The Worst Leaders:
Lack energy and enthusiasm. They see new initiatives as a burden, rarely volunteer, and fear being overwhelmed. One such leader was described as having the ability to “suck all the energy out of any room.”
Accept their own mediocre performance. They overstate the difficulty of reaching targets so that they look good when they achieve them. They live by the mantra “Underpromise and overdeliver.”
Lack clear vision and direction. They believe their only job is to execute. Like a hiker who sticks close to the trail, they’re fine until they come to a fork.
Have poor judgment. They make decisions that colleagues and subordinates consider to be not in the organization’s best interests.
Don’t collaborate. They avoid peers, act independently, and view other leaders as competitors. As a result, they are set adrift by the very people whose insights and support they need.
Don’t walk the talk. They set standards of behavior or expectations of performance and then violate them. They’re perceived as lacking integrity.
Resist new ideas. They reject suggestions from subordinates and peers. Good ideas aren’t implemented, and the organization gets stuck.
Don’t learn from mistakes. They may make no more mistakes than their peers, but they fail to use setbacks as opportunities for improvement, hiding their errors and brooding about them instead.
New Measures of Success for Health Care Leaders
By Stephen Blattner MD MBA (exagoMD,LLC) on June 22, 2009 2:00 AM | 0 Comments
digg it? | del.icio.us
I was reading two issues of the Harvard Business Review simultaneously (a hazard of being overly busy), so I rapidly became aware of complementary articles that appeared in successive months addressing the related issues of candor (What's Needed Next: A Culture of Candor by James O'Toole and Warren Bennis a full article in the June HBR) and transparency (Heed the Calls for Transparency by Sam Wilkin in the Forethought section of the July-August issue). The latter was just received by subscribers so the online link is not yet available so if you don't subscribe watch the HBR web site in the coming week for it. Both are essential business reading for health care leaders.
Surprise: New Leadership Measures
O'Toole (a Professor at the Daniels College of Business in Denver) and Bennis (also a Professor, at USC) begin by suggesting that in the future, corporate leaders will be evaluated not solely on their ability to produce business results but by:
"...[a]new metric of corporate leadership...the extent to which executives create organizations that are economically, ethically, and socially sustainable...whatever their strategies and tactics, we believe prudent leaders will see that increased transparency is a fundamental first step."
The case is made on the basis of a new definition of "increasing shareholder value" which encompasses newly important shareholder non-financial values including organizational behavior in the ecologic, employee relations, and social consciousness domains. So while it will be necessary to deliver "business results," strategies that achieve a great bottom line will not be sufficient to earn corporate leaders the recognition they seek from (Boards or shareholders) if this is accomplished through tactics that don't also demonstrate taking the high road in corporate culture and behavior.
Candor, Performance, and Public Expectations
So Medical Directors and CEOs of hospital, managed care organization, medical group, and health related businesses should pay close attention! Those corporate leaders are probably ourselves as well.
O'Toole and Bennis make the case for the inextricable relationship between internal candor and public positioning:
"...no organization can be honest with the public if it's not honest with itself, we define transparency broadly, as the degree to which information flows freely within an organization, among managers and employees, and outward to stakeholders."
This is particularly important for us to appreciate in this time of increasing public scrutiny of everything from finances to clinical outcomes to the safety or care, devices, and pharmaceuticals. O'Toole and Bennis further make the case that without internal candor and transparency, effective and durable innovation is impossible due to internal communication feedback barriers that make it impossible to frankly share information about new product, technique, and process performance.
In the past, perhaps, it was routine to launch new products, services, or care programs letting let the marketplace later reveal safety and efficacy flaws - but no more. And we've observed more than once that organizational leaders are increasingly held accountable for those failures - first by the public and the courts and next by Boards and shareholders.
And Wilkin, in his short piece on the repairing international financial crisis, makes the strong case that the need for candor is global and that it won't go away:
"Rather than hoping that public pressure will go away, banks and asset management firms should embrace transparency. Doing so will help them rebuild their reputations more quickly."
Pilots, Cockpit Crews, and Health Care Teams
So how are organizational leaders to behave? Well for starters, here's how NOT to behave - learned from studies of errors made in cockpits:
"The stereotypical take-charge "flyboy" pilots, who acted immediately on their gut instincts, made the wrong decisions far more often than the more open, inclusive pilots who said to their crews, in effect, "We've got a problem. How do you read it?" before choosing a course of action.
This has everything to do with the culture of transparency (or not) in the work setting:
Leaders are far likelier to make mistakes when they act on too little information than when they wait to learn more...pilots who'd made the right choices routinely had open exchanges with their crew members....crew members who had regularly worked with the "decisive" pilots were unwilling to intervene--even when they had information that might save the plane.... "
Health care leaders, and "persons in charge" in general, are frequently welcomed as problem solvers. However, resisting the temptation to default to being an action oriented, "decisive" leader long enough to get the right information from a range of informants can actually be a significant part of many solutions.
8 Steps to a Culture of Transparency
O'Toole and Bennis provide the leadership recipe for candor and transparency in sufficient detail to help you think about your personal leadership style as well as how to retool a health care organization to make your leadership role consistent with how you are likely to be measured in the future. The headlines from their HBR article are below. I thought about commenting on each one based on what I see in health care organizations but the commentary would stretch another page or more.
I'll just say that steps 2,3,4,5, and 7 are the ones most needed in the health care organizations I consult to.
While most of the steps below are intuitive from their titles it's well worth reading the full article for details and nuance:
1. Tell the truth 2. Encourage people to speak truth to power 3. Reward contrarians 4. Practice having unpleasant conversations 5. Diversify your sources of information 6. Admit your mistakes 7. Build an organizational architecture that supports candor 8. Set information free
The Worst Leaders:
Lack energy and enthusiasm. They see new initiatives as a burden, rarely volunteer, and fear being overwhelmed. One such leader was described as having the ability to “suck all the energy out of any room.”
Accept their own mediocre performance. They overstate the difficulty of reaching targets so that they look good when they achieve them. They live by the mantra “Underpromise and overdeliver.”
Lack clear vision and direction. They believe their only job is to execute. Like a hiker who sticks close to the trail, they’re fine until they come to a fork.
Have poor judgment. They make decisions that colleagues and subordinates consider to be not in the organization’s best interests.
Don’t collaborate. They avoid peers, act independently, and view other leaders as competitors. As a result, they are set adrift by the very people whose insights and support they need.
Don’t walk the talk. They set standards of behavior or expectations of performance and then violate them. They’re perceived as lacking integrity.
Resist new ideas. They reject suggestions from subordinates and peers. Good ideas aren’t implemented, and the organization gets stuck.
Don’t learn from mistakes. They may make no more mistakes than their peers, but they fail to use setbacks as opportunities for improvement, hiding their errors and brooding about them instead.
New Measures of Success for Health Care Leaders
By Stephen Blattner MD MBA (exagoMD,LLC) on June 22, 2009 2:00 AM | 0 Comments
digg it? | del.icio.us
I was reading two issues of the Harvard Business Review simultaneously (a hazard of being overly busy), so I rapidly became aware of complementary articles that appeared in successive months addressing the related issues of candor (What's Needed Next: A Culture of Candor by James O'Toole and Warren Bennis a full article in the June HBR) and transparency (Heed the Calls for Transparency by Sam Wilkin in the Forethought section of the July-August issue). The latter was just received by subscribers so the online link is not yet available so if you don't subscribe watch the HBR web site in the coming week for it. Both are essential business reading for health care leaders.
Surprise: New Leadership Measures
O'Toole (a Professor at the Daniels College of Business in Denver) and Bennis (also a Professor, at USC) begin by suggesting that in the future, corporate leaders will be evaluated not solely on their ability to produce business results but by:
"...[a]new metric of corporate leadership...the extent to which executives create organizations that are economically, ethically, and socially sustainable...whatever their strategies and tactics, we believe prudent leaders will see that increased transparency is a fundamental first step."
The case is made on the basis of a new definition of "increasing shareholder value" which encompasses newly important shareholder non-financial values including organizational behavior in the ecologic, employee relations, and social consciousness domains. So while it will be necessary to deliver "business results," strategies that achieve a great bottom line will not be sufficient to earn corporate leaders the recognition they seek from (Boards or shareholders) if this is accomplished through tactics that don't also demonstrate taking the high road in corporate culture and behavior.
Candor, Performance, and Public Expectations
So Medical Directors and CEOs of hospital, managed care organization, medical group, and health related businesses should pay close attention! Those corporate leaders are probably ourselves as well.
O'Toole and Bennis make the case for the inextricable relationship between internal candor and public positioning:
"...no organization can be honest with the public if it's not honest with itself, we define transparency broadly, as the degree to which information flows freely within an organization, among managers and employees, and outward to stakeholders."
This is particularly important for us to appreciate in this time of increasing public scrutiny of everything from finances to clinical outcomes to the safety or care, devices, and pharmaceuticals. O'Toole and Bennis further make the case that without internal candor and transparency, effective and durable innovation is impossible due to internal communication feedback barriers that make it impossible to frankly share information about new product, technique, and process performance.
In the past, perhaps, it was routine to launch new products, services, or care programs letting let the marketplace later reveal safety and efficacy flaws - but no more. And we've observed more than once that organizational leaders are increasingly held accountable for those failures - first by the public and the courts and next by Boards and shareholders.
And Wilkin, in his short piece on the repairing international financial crisis, makes the strong case that the need for candor is global and that it won't go away:
"Rather than hoping that public pressure will go away, banks and asset management firms should embrace transparency. Doing so will help them rebuild their reputations more quickly."
Pilots, Cockpit Crews, and Health Care Teams
So how are organizational leaders to behave? Well for starters, here's how NOT to behave - learned from studies of errors made in cockpits:
"The stereotypical take-charge "flyboy" pilots, who acted immediately on their gut instincts, made the wrong decisions far more often than the more open, inclusive pilots who said to their crews, in effect, "We've got a problem. How do you read it?" before choosing a course of action.
This has everything to do with the culture of transparency (or not) in the work setting:
Leaders are far likelier to make mistakes when they act on too little information than when they wait to learn more...pilots who'd made the right choices routinely had open exchanges with their crew members....crew members who had regularly worked with the "decisive" pilots were unwilling to intervene--even when they had information that might save the plane.... "
Health care leaders, and "persons in charge" in general, are frequently welcomed as problem solvers. However, resisting the temptation to default to being an action oriented, "decisive" leader long enough to get the right information from a range of informants can actually be a significant part of many solutions.
8 Steps to a Culture of Transparency
O'Toole and Bennis provide the leadership recipe for candor and transparency in sufficient detail to help you think about your personal leadership style as well as how to retool a health care organization to make your leadership role consistent with how you are likely to be measured in the future. The headlines from their HBR article are below. I thought about commenting on each one based on what I see in health care organizations but the commentary would stretch another page or more.
I'll just say that steps 2,3,4,5, and 7 are the ones most needed in the health care organizations I consult to.
While most of the steps below are intuitive from their titles it's well worth reading the full article for details and nuance:
1. Tell the truth 2. Encourage people to speak truth to power 3. Reward contrarians 4. Practice having unpleasant conversations 5. Diversify your sources of information 6. Admit your mistakes 7. Build an organizational architecture that supports candor 8. Set information free
Friday, December 4, 2009
Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis
Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis .ArticleComments (3)more in
. Text .By BILL GEORGE
Virtually every American institution is facing major crises these days, from declining businesses to evaporating financial portfolios. To get out of these crises, authentic leaders must step forward and lead their organizations through them.
About the Author
Bill George, author of "True North," is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He is also the former CEO of Medtronic and serves on the boards of directors of ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs and Novartis.
.The current crisis was not caused by subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, or failed economic policies. The root cause is failed leadership. New laws, regulations, and economic bailouts won't heal wounds created by leadership failures. They can only be solved by new leaders with the wisdom and skill to put their organizations on the right long-term course.
Here are seven lessons for leaders charged with leading their organizations through a crisis:
Lesson #1: "Leaders must face reality." Reality starts with the person in charge. Leaders need to look themselves in the mirror and recognize their role in creating the problems. Then they should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes. Widespread recognition of reality is the crucial step before problems can be solved. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis only ensures the organization will wind up back in the same predicament.
In order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership team must be willing to tell the whole truth. As J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said at a panel I chaired at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January, "It's not sufficient to have one person on your team who is a truth teller. Everyone on the team must be candid in sharing the entire truth, no matter how painful it is." How can we solve problems if we don't acknowledge their existence?
Getty Images.Lesson #2: "No matter how bad things are, they will get worse." Faced with bad news, many leaders cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, they try to convince the bearers of bad news that things aren't so bad, and swift action can make problems go away.
This causes leaders to undershoot the mark in terms of corrective actions. As a consequence, they wind up taking a series of steps, none of which is powerful enough to correct the downward spiral. It is far better for leaders to anticipate the worst and get out in front of it. If they restructure their cost base for the worst case, they can get their organization healthy for the turnaround when it comes and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.
Lesson #3: "Build a mountain of cash, and get to the highest hill." In good times leaders worry more about earnings per share and revenue growth than they do about their balance sheets. In a crisis, cash is king. Forget about EPS and all those stock market measures. The question is, "Does your organization have sufficient cash to survive the most dire circumstances?"
Goldman Sachs, where I serve on the board of directors, anticipated the difficult times and built up its cash reserves. When the markets got really bad, Goldman had adequate cash reserves to weather the storm.
Lesson #4: "Get the world off your shoulders." In a crisis, many leaders act like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They go into isolation, and think they can solve the problem themselves. In reality, leaders must have the help of all their people to devise solutions and to implement them. This means bringing people into their confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their commitment to painful corrective actions.
Lesson #5: "Before asking others to sacrifice, first volunteer yourself." If there are sacrifices to be made – and there will be – then the leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves. Crises are the real tests of leaders' True North. Everyone is watching to see what the leaders do. Will they stay true to their values? Will they bow to external pressures, or confront the crisis in a straight-forward manner? Will they be seduced by short-term rewards, or will they make near-term sacrifices in order to fix the long-term situation?
Lesson #6: "Never waste a good crisis." This piece of advice comes from Benjamin Netanyahu, the next prime minister of Israel, at the panel I chaired in Davos.
When things are going well, people resist major changes or try to get by with minor adaptations. A crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate their implementation.
Lesson #7: "Be aggressive in the marketplace." This may sound counter-intuitive, but a crisis offers the best opportunity to change the game in your favor, with new products or services to gain market share. Many people look at a crisis as something to get through, until they can go back to business as usual. But "business as usual" never returns because markets are irrevocably changed. Why not create the changes that move the market in your favor, instead of waiting and reacting to the changes as they take place?
The Bottom Line: In a crisis we learn who the real leaders are, and whether they have the wherewithal to stay on course of their True North.
. Text .By BILL GEORGE
Virtually every American institution is facing major crises these days, from declining businesses to evaporating financial portfolios. To get out of these crises, authentic leaders must step forward and lead their organizations through them.
About the Author
Bill George, author of "True North," is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He is also the former CEO of Medtronic and serves on the boards of directors of ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs and Novartis.
.The current crisis was not caused by subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, or failed economic policies. The root cause is failed leadership. New laws, regulations, and economic bailouts won't heal wounds created by leadership failures. They can only be solved by new leaders with the wisdom and skill to put their organizations on the right long-term course.
Here are seven lessons for leaders charged with leading their organizations through a crisis:
Lesson #1: "Leaders must face reality." Reality starts with the person in charge. Leaders need to look themselves in the mirror and recognize their role in creating the problems. Then they should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes. Widespread recognition of reality is the crucial step before problems can be solved. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis only ensures the organization will wind up back in the same predicament.
In order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership team must be willing to tell the whole truth. As J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said at a panel I chaired at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January, "It's not sufficient to have one person on your team who is a truth teller. Everyone on the team must be candid in sharing the entire truth, no matter how painful it is." How can we solve problems if we don't acknowledge their existence?
Getty Images.Lesson #2: "No matter how bad things are, they will get worse." Faced with bad news, many leaders cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, they try to convince the bearers of bad news that things aren't so bad, and swift action can make problems go away.
This causes leaders to undershoot the mark in terms of corrective actions. As a consequence, they wind up taking a series of steps, none of which is powerful enough to correct the downward spiral. It is far better for leaders to anticipate the worst and get out in front of it. If they restructure their cost base for the worst case, they can get their organization healthy for the turnaround when it comes and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.
Lesson #3: "Build a mountain of cash, and get to the highest hill." In good times leaders worry more about earnings per share and revenue growth than they do about their balance sheets. In a crisis, cash is king. Forget about EPS and all those stock market measures. The question is, "Does your organization have sufficient cash to survive the most dire circumstances?"
Goldman Sachs, where I serve on the board of directors, anticipated the difficult times and built up its cash reserves. When the markets got really bad, Goldman had adequate cash reserves to weather the storm.
Lesson #4: "Get the world off your shoulders." In a crisis, many leaders act like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They go into isolation, and think they can solve the problem themselves. In reality, leaders must have the help of all their people to devise solutions and to implement them. This means bringing people into their confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their commitment to painful corrective actions.
Lesson #5: "Before asking others to sacrifice, first volunteer yourself." If there are sacrifices to be made – and there will be – then the leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves. Crises are the real tests of leaders' True North. Everyone is watching to see what the leaders do. Will they stay true to their values? Will they bow to external pressures, or confront the crisis in a straight-forward manner? Will they be seduced by short-term rewards, or will they make near-term sacrifices in order to fix the long-term situation?
Lesson #6: "Never waste a good crisis." This piece of advice comes from Benjamin Netanyahu, the next prime minister of Israel, at the panel I chaired in Davos.
When things are going well, people resist major changes or try to get by with minor adaptations. A crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate their implementation.
Lesson #7: "Be aggressive in the marketplace." This may sound counter-intuitive, but a crisis offers the best opportunity to change the game in your favor, with new products or services to gain market share. Many people look at a crisis as something to get through, until they can go back to business as usual. But "business as usual" never returns because markets are irrevocably changed. Why not create the changes that move the market in your favor, instead of waiting and reacting to the changes as they take place?
The Bottom Line: In a crisis we learn who the real leaders are, and whether they have the wherewithal to stay on course of their True North.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis
MARCH 5, 2009.Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis .ArticleComments (3)more in Management ».EmailPrinter
FriendlyShare:
facebook ↓ More.
.StumbleUponDiggTwitterYahoo! BuzzFarkRedditLinkedIndel.icio.usMySpaceSave This ↓ More.
. Text .By BILL GEORGE
Virtually every American institution is facing major crises these days, from declining businesses to evaporating financial portfolios. To get out of these crises, authentic leaders must step forward and lead their organizations through them.
About the Author
Bill George, author of "True North," is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He is also the former CEO of Medtronic and serves on the boards of directors of ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs and Novartis.
.The current crisis was not caused by subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, or failed economic policies. The root cause is failed leadership. New laws, regulations, and economic bailouts won't heal wounds created by leadership failures. They can only be solved by new leaders with the wisdom and skill to put their organizations on the right long-term course.
Here are seven lessons for leaders charged with leading their organizations through a crisis:
Lesson #1: "Leaders must face reality." Reality starts with the person in charge. Leaders need to look themselves in the mirror and recognize their role in creating the problems. Then they should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes. Widespread recognition of reality is the crucial step before problems can be solved. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis only ensures the organization will wind up back in the same predicament.
In order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership team must be willing to tell the whole truth. As J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said at a panel I chaired at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January, "It's not sufficient to have one person on your team who is a truth teller. Everyone on the team must be candid in sharing the entire truth, no matter how painful it is." How can we solve problems if we don't acknowledge their existence?
Getty Images.Lesson #2: "No matter how bad things are, they will get worse." Faced with bad news, many leaders cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, they try to convince the bearers of bad news that things aren't so bad, and swift action can make problems go away.
This causes leaders to undershoot the mark in terms of corrective actions. As a consequence, they wind up taking a series of steps, none of which is powerful enough to correct the downward spiral. It is far better for leaders to anticipate the worst and get out in front of it. If they restructure their cost base for the worst case, they can get their organization healthy for the turnaround when it comes and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.
Lesson #3: "Build a mountain of cash, and get to the highest hill." In good times leaders worry more about earnings per share and revenue growth than they do about their balance sheets. In a crisis, cash is king. Forget about EPS and all those stock market measures. The question is, "Does your organization have sufficient cash to survive the most dire circumstances?"
Goldman Sachs, where I serve on the board of directors, anticipated the difficult times and built up its cash reserves. When the markets got really bad, Goldman had adequate cash reserves to weather the storm.
Lesson #4: "Get the world off your shoulders." In a crisis, many leaders act like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They go into isolation, and think they can solve the problem themselves. In reality, leaders must have the help of all their people to devise solutions and to implement them. This means bringing people into their confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their commitment to painful corrective actions.
Lesson #5: "Before asking others to sacrifice, first volunteer yourself." If there are sacrifices to be made – and there will be – then the leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves. Crises are the real tests of leaders' True North. Everyone is watching to see what the leaders do. Will they stay true to their values? Will they bow to external pressures, or confront the crisis in a straight-forward manner? Will they be seduced by short-term rewards, or will they make near-term sacrifices in order to fix the long-term situation?
Lesson #6: "Never waste a good crisis." This piece of advice comes from Benjamin Netanyahu, the next prime minister of Israel, at the panel I chaired in Davos.
When things are going well, people resist major changes or try to get by with minor adaptations. A crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate their implementation.
Lesson #7: "Be aggressive in the marketplace." This may sound counter-intuitive, but a crisis offers the best opportunity to change the game in your favor, with new products or services to gain market share. Many people look at a crisis as something to get through, until they can go back to business as usual. But "business as usual" never returns because markets are irrevocably changed. Why not create the changes that move the market in your favor, instead of waiting and reacting to the changes as they take place?
The Bottom Line: In a crisis we learn who the real leaders are, and whether they have the wherewithal to stay on course of their True North.
FriendlyShare:
facebook ↓ More.
.StumbleUponDiggTwitterYahoo! BuzzFarkRedditLinkedIndel.icio.usMySpaceSave This ↓ More.
. Text .By BILL GEORGE
Virtually every American institution is facing major crises these days, from declining businesses to evaporating financial portfolios. To get out of these crises, authentic leaders must step forward and lead their organizations through them.
About the Author
Bill George, author of "True North," is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He is also the former CEO of Medtronic and serves on the boards of directors of ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs and Novartis.
.The current crisis was not caused by subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, or failed economic policies. The root cause is failed leadership. New laws, regulations, and economic bailouts won't heal wounds created by leadership failures. They can only be solved by new leaders with the wisdom and skill to put their organizations on the right long-term course.
Here are seven lessons for leaders charged with leading their organizations through a crisis:
Lesson #1: "Leaders must face reality." Reality starts with the person in charge. Leaders need to look themselves in the mirror and recognize their role in creating the problems. Then they should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes. Widespread recognition of reality is the crucial step before problems can be solved. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis only ensures the organization will wind up back in the same predicament.
In order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership team must be willing to tell the whole truth. As J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said at a panel I chaired at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January, "It's not sufficient to have one person on your team who is a truth teller. Everyone on the team must be candid in sharing the entire truth, no matter how painful it is." How can we solve problems if we don't acknowledge their existence?
Getty Images.Lesson #2: "No matter how bad things are, they will get worse." Faced with bad news, many leaders cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, they try to convince the bearers of bad news that things aren't so bad, and swift action can make problems go away.
This causes leaders to undershoot the mark in terms of corrective actions. As a consequence, they wind up taking a series of steps, none of which is powerful enough to correct the downward spiral. It is far better for leaders to anticipate the worst and get out in front of it. If they restructure their cost base for the worst case, they can get their organization healthy for the turnaround when it comes and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.
Lesson #3: "Build a mountain of cash, and get to the highest hill." In good times leaders worry more about earnings per share and revenue growth than they do about their balance sheets. In a crisis, cash is king. Forget about EPS and all those stock market measures. The question is, "Does your organization have sufficient cash to survive the most dire circumstances?"
Goldman Sachs, where I serve on the board of directors, anticipated the difficult times and built up its cash reserves. When the markets got really bad, Goldman had adequate cash reserves to weather the storm.
Lesson #4: "Get the world off your shoulders." In a crisis, many leaders act like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They go into isolation, and think they can solve the problem themselves. In reality, leaders must have the help of all their people to devise solutions and to implement them. This means bringing people into their confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their commitment to painful corrective actions.
Lesson #5: "Before asking others to sacrifice, first volunteer yourself." If there are sacrifices to be made – and there will be – then the leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves. Crises are the real tests of leaders' True North. Everyone is watching to see what the leaders do. Will they stay true to their values? Will they bow to external pressures, or confront the crisis in a straight-forward manner? Will they be seduced by short-term rewards, or will they make near-term sacrifices in order to fix the long-term situation?
Lesson #6: "Never waste a good crisis." This piece of advice comes from Benjamin Netanyahu, the next prime minister of Israel, at the panel I chaired in Davos.
When things are going well, people resist major changes or try to get by with minor adaptations. A crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate their implementation.
Lesson #7: "Be aggressive in the marketplace." This may sound counter-intuitive, but a crisis offers the best opportunity to change the game in your favor, with new products or services to gain market share. Many people look at a crisis as something to get through, until they can go back to business as usual. But "business as usual" never returns because markets are irrevocably changed. Why not create the changes that move the market in your favor, instead of waiting and reacting to the changes as they take place?
The Bottom Line: In a crisis we learn who the real leaders are, and whether they have the wherewithal to stay on course of their True North.
“What, Me Worry?” Ten Practices for Eliminating Fear and Worry
•
Articles / Nature of Reality & Consciousness
“What, Me Worry?” Ten Practices for Eliminating Fear and Worry
October 2008
________________________________________
Long-time followers of my teaching, as well as readers of this website, know that our thoughts and emotions are vibrations of energy, and as such have a direct impact on our lives. What we think and how we feel are the two most important parts of who we are. The third is our actions. Incredibly, we have the ability to monitor and direct what we think, act and feel by the thoughts we choose.
When our thoughts and emotions are directed in a positive way, they not only make us feel better, they also attract to us the conditions we are focusing on. This is sometimes referred to as the Law of Attraction. However, the exact same law is in play when we have negative thoughts or feelings about our life’s circumstances or ourselves. We must be diligent in monitoring how we think, so that negative thoughts and emotions do not find a resting place in our consciousness, then make themselves at home. Fear and worry are the two most destructive of the negative emotions, and it is these I will speak of this month.
Fear is the intense focusing of your thoughts on something you do not want to happen. By focusing on this ‘yet to happen’ event with strong emotion and intensity, you give power to these images and help to attract them. These images, charged with emotion, are powerful forces, and so imprint on the invisible matrix web of the universe, which then works to create the exact thing we fear. This is precisely what we don’t want to happen.
This is the tragedy of fear and worry, and yet often we feel we have no power over these thoughts. Here is where Mind Power comes to our assistance. Mind Power not only gives us the tools to create and manifest any situation we desire; it also gives us the tools to eliminate fear and worry with equal effectiveness. Mind Power is simply the most powerful set of tools we will ever have in our lives.
Eliminating Fear and Worry:
Rule number one: If you know what it is that you don’t want to happen to you, then don’t think those fearful thoughts. If you can remember this rule and say it to yourself as a mantra, so that it imprints into your subconscious, you will be halfway towards eliminating fear and worry from your life forever. The other half will come from following these ten techniques:
1. Next time you find yourself fearful, take a few good long breaths, relax and realize that the only thing making you fearful this very moment is the thoughts you are thinking. It is not your present circumstances, nor something that may or may not happen to you in the future; it is the thoughts you are thinking now. You are the cause of your fear. Resolve to change this.
One of the ways you can do this is by spending several minutes focusing on the exact opposite of what you have been fearing. Whatever the fear has you focusing on, change the focus to the exact opposite. You don’t need to fight fear. Observe it carefully to see what it is suggesting to you, then simply focus on the opposite. For example, if you are fearing losing your job, focus on being competent, doing a good job and being respected and rewarded accordingly. If you are fearing losing your money, focus on being successful financially, making smart decisions and living an abundant life. Fear is fed by your thoughts, and taking your thoughts away from fear eliminates it. Fear does not usually appear overnight. It often has its root in regular worrying, which then progresses to the point where it becomes fear. So to eliminate this happening we eliminate worrying. Easier said then done? Not at all, once you understand and practice the principles.
2. Practice the five techniques for eliminating negatives (see the Mind Power practices section of this website.)
3. Recognize that the essential component of worry is always “future orientation.” In other words, when you worry, you invariably focus on something that might happen but hasn’t happened yet. You might argue that you worry about the things that are happening right now, not in the future. A closer look, however, will reveal the truth that worry is like a ghost tormenting you with a terrifying view of the future. It is always about the future. Knowing this takes away the power of this view.
4. Track your worries by keeping a journal of them. You can’t change worrying until you know what you’re worrying about. What are the common themes of your worrying? Health? Finances? Relationships? Family? Know where you are most vulnerable. Knowing this will help you recognize worrying when it slips into your mind.
5. Learn the difference between concern and worry. Concern about the different aspects of our life and what may or may not happen is valid and beneficial. It allows us to view our life and to be proactive in making positive choices. This is a very constructive process. Worry, on the other hand, is simply focusing on what could go wrong. It has no positive aspect to it. Not only are we focusing on this negative outcome but also we are giving it energy. Why would you do that?
6. Recognize the cost of worrying. Yes, there is a cost. Firstly, it causes stress, which in turn affects our health and our decision-making process. You don’t make good decisions when you’re worried. Secondly it actually attracts to us the circumstances we are worrying about, especially if we start to fear it. Understanding this, we choose to not worry. It is not worth the time or effort, and it is always counterproductive.
7. Challenge catastrophic thinking: Most of us exaggerate our situations during fearful times, projecting ourselves into the most dire circumstances. We let worry carry us away. Resolve to not let this happen. There are solutions to every problem, and undoubtedly it will not become as bad as the fear is projecting. Don’t let worst-case scenarios dominate your thinking. There is every possibility that the situation won’t be a bad as you think, and it could be a whole lot better. There may well be hidden benefits and blessings that you haven’t even thought of.
8. Trust that the Universe will unfold as it should. Have faith that what is meant to happen will happen and that it will be for the best. If you have a spiritual belief, then let this nourish and guide you. Let go of the worry and realize neither God nor the universe wants you to worry. Worry is showing lack of trust. It means you have no faith. Trust and act in a proactive way. What you can change, change. What you cannot, leave it alone. There are always forces at work beyond what we can understand. Trust in them and assist them by expecting the best.
9. Practice Mind Power. The daily practice of Mind Power will keep worry from overpowering you. Fear and worry will find no fertile place to take root in a mind that is aware and conscious of itself. Mind Power is your best friend and most powerful tool. Use it.
10. Have some fun. Fun is one of the most honest and reassuring feelings. It always acts as healing balm, restoring our sense of balance. Our situations always seem different and less stressful after a time of fun. And you don’t have to spend money to have fun. Fun is possible in almost any situation. Play with your kids and do something outrageous. Go to the park and roll around on the grass. Spend an afternoon reading in the sun. The ways of having fun are endless, limited only by your imagination and willingness to do it. Reward yourself with some fun every day.
John Kehoe
Articles / Nature of Reality & Consciousness
“What, Me Worry?” Ten Practices for Eliminating Fear and Worry
October 2008
________________________________________
Long-time followers of my teaching, as well as readers of this website, know that our thoughts and emotions are vibrations of energy, and as such have a direct impact on our lives. What we think and how we feel are the two most important parts of who we are. The third is our actions. Incredibly, we have the ability to monitor and direct what we think, act and feel by the thoughts we choose.
When our thoughts and emotions are directed in a positive way, they not only make us feel better, they also attract to us the conditions we are focusing on. This is sometimes referred to as the Law of Attraction. However, the exact same law is in play when we have negative thoughts or feelings about our life’s circumstances or ourselves. We must be diligent in monitoring how we think, so that negative thoughts and emotions do not find a resting place in our consciousness, then make themselves at home. Fear and worry are the two most destructive of the negative emotions, and it is these I will speak of this month.
Fear is the intense focusing of your thoughts on something you do not want to happen. By focusing on this ‘yet to happen’ event with strong emotion and intensity, you give power to these images and help to attract them. These images, charged with emotion, are powerful forces, and so imprint on the invisible matrix web of the universe, which then works to create the exact thing we fear. This is precisely what we don’t want to happen.
This is the tragedy of fear and worry, and yet often we feel we have no power over these thoughts. Here is where Mind Power comes to our assistance. Mind Power not only gives us the tools to create and manifest any situation we desire; it also gives us the tools to eliminate fear and worry with equal effectiveness. Mind Power is simply the most powerful set of tools we will ever have in our lives.
Eliminating Fear and Worry:
Rule number one: If you know what it is that you don’t want to happen to you, then don’t think those fearful thoughts. If you can remember this rule and say it to yourself as a mantra, so that it imprints into your subconscious, you will be halfway towards eliminating fear and worry from your life forever. The other half will come from following these ten techniques:
1. Next time you find yourself fearful, take a few good long breaths, relax and realize that the only thing making you fearful this very moment is the thoughts you are thinking. It is not your present circumstances, nor something that may or may not happen to you in the future; it is the thoughts you are thinking now. You are the cause of your fear. Resolve to change this.
One of the ways you can do this is by spending several minutes focusing on the exact opposite of what you have been fearing. Whatever the fear has you focusing on, change the focus to the exact opposite. You don’t need to fight fear. Observe it carefully to see what it is suggesting to you, then simply focus on the opposite. For example, if you are fearing losing your job, focus on being competent, doing a good job and being respected and rewarded accordingly. If you are fearing losing your money, focus on being successful financially, making smart decisions and living an abundant life. Fear is fed by your thoughts, and taking your thoughts away from fear eliminates it. Fear does not usually appear overnight. It often has its root in regular worrying, which then progresses to the point where it becomes fear. So to eliminate this happening we eliminate worrying. Easier said then done? Not at all, once you understand and practice the principles.
2. Practice the five techniques for eliminating negatives (see the Mind Power practices section of this website.)
3. Recognize that the essential component of worry is always “future orientation.” In other words, when you worry, you invariably focus on something that might happen but hasn’t happened yet. You might argue that you worry about the things that are happening right now, not in the future. A closer look, however, will reveal the truth that worry is like a ghost tormenting you with a terrifying view of the future. It is always about the future. Knowing this takes away the power of this view.
4. Track your worries by keeping a journal of them. You can’t change worrying until you know what you’re worrying about. What are the common themes of your worrying? Health? Finances? Relationships? Family? Know where you are most vulnerable. Knowing this will help you recognize worrying when it slips into your mind.
5. Learn the difference between concern and worry. Concern about the different aspects of our life and what may or may not happen is valid and beneficial. It allows us to view our life and to be proactive in making positive choices. This is a very constructive process. Worry, on the other hand, is simply focusing on what could go wrong. It has no positive aspect to it. Not only are we focusing on this negative outcome but also we are giving it energy. Why would you do that?
6. Recognize the cost of worrying. Yes, there is a cost. Firstly, it causes stress, which in turn affects our health and our decision-making process. You don’t make good decisions when you’re worried. Secondly it actually attracts to us the circumstances we are worrying about, especially if we start to fear it. Understanding this, we choose to not worry. It is not worth the time or effort, and it is always counterproductive.
7. Challenge catastrophic thinking: Most of us exaggerate our situations during fearful times, projecting ourselves into the most dire circumstances. We let worry carry us away. Resolve to not let this happen. There are solutions to every problem, and undoubtedly it will not become as bad as the fear is projecting. Don’t let worst-case scenarios dominate your thinking. There is every possibility that the situation won’t be a bad as you think, and it could be a whole lot better. There may well be hidden benefits and blessings that you haven’t even thought of.
8. Trust that the Universe will unfold as it should. Have faith that what is meant to happen will happen and that it will be for the best. If you have a spiritual belief, then let this nourish and guide you. Let go of the worry and realize neither God nor the universe wants you to worry. Worry is showing lack of trust. It means you have no faith. Trust and act in a proactive way. What you can change, change. What you cannot, leave it alone. There are always forces at work beyond what we can understand. Trust in them and assist them by expecting the best.
9. Practice Mind Power. The daily practice of Mind Power will keep worry from overpowering you. Fear and worry will find no fertile place to take root in a mind that is aware and conscious of itself. Mind Power is your best friend and most powerful tool. Use it.
10. Have some fun. Fun is one of the most honest and reassuring feelings. It always acts as healing balm, restoring our sense of balance. Our situations always seem different and less stressful after a time of fun. And you don’t have to spend money to have fun. Fun is possible in almost any situation. Play with your kids and do something outrageous. Go to the park and roll around on the grass. Spend an afternoon reading in the sun. The ways of having fun are endless, limited only by your imagination and willingness to do it. Reward yourself with some fun every day.
John Kehoe
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