Be Different or be dead

November 30, 2020

What is the best way to decide among so many options?

Source: Pexels

What is the best way to decide among so many options?

▪️You’re being inundated with information.
▪️You’ve got opinions from literally hundreds of people; there are too many ‘experts’ out there.
▪️You‘ve got too many choices; it’s like a restaurant menu with 15 pages.
▪️Theory seems to lead thought leadership; academics abound with their lofty advice.
▪️Those with the most lofty academic pedigrees seem to command credibility.
▪️Everyone seems to know what you should do.

All you want to do is make a decision that is right for you, but you can’t. There is just too much help; advice is ‘raining down’ on you — you have too many choices that you can make.

And as a result you’re stressed out, you’re stuck in the evaluation and consideration mode. You can’t move.

So what do you do when you are inundated with good intentions?

Here are a few suggestions based on what worked for me over too many years of sitting in the dark ‘under the mushroom’ while bits and bytes lay siege.

1. Get your priorities straight

You can’t evaluate the worth of someone else’s advice if you don’t know precisely (ok ‘sorta know’) what you want to do.
So sit down and define what you need; the specific objectives you want to achieve, and assess the advice out there with your needs as the context.

And try to define what you need in the short term rather than over a longer time horizon. The thing is, the long term never shows up if you can’t manoeuvre yourself through the short term. Long term results are achieved generally through sequential successes; there are simply no silver bullets you can rely on.
Do the hard work everyday. Get a nano-inch of progress everyday and the future will take care of itself.

2. Look for people who have similar backgrounds

You need to be able to relate to the person spewing advice at you, so take some time and research the advisors. Pick one who is the closest to you in terms of life experience, education goals and career aspirations.

Find someone who is relevant to you in the cloud of those who may have great credentials but are not on your wavelength.

3. Focus. Focus. Focus

Pick the top three things you need to sort out, not the total basket of goodies you face.
We all get sucked into ‘boiling the ocean’; believing that unless we solve each and every challenge we face, we are incomplete and will fall short of the perfect solution for ourselves.

The truth is that 80% of our problems come from 20% of the issues staring us in the eyes.

Roy’s Rule of 3: find 3 things that matter and conquer them; forget about the many other things that really don’t make a significant difference to your life.

So filter the volumes of information ‘raining down’ on you and pick 3 sources and study them; do your own due diligence on your discoveries to decide what is worthy of your attention and following.

The reality is that you simply don’t have enough time to chase every information source or piece of guidance anyways, so it’s critical to bear down on those few things that have a good chance of helping you achieve your goals.

4. Don’t rush

You didn’t reach your current state overnight so it’s ok to take whatever time you need to move forward.
I’m an advocate of ‘getting it just about right’ and then moving quickly to execution mode, and this applies to sifting through the barrage of data hitting us.

The thing is, though, try and be as thorough as you can in the briefest time available to you. If you need an extra week to assess the most appropriate course of action for you to take, then take it.

5. Track what you do

It’s important to understand what works for you and what doesn’t because your actual experience should inform subsequent actions you decide to take.
Your Plan A will not likely succeed; they rarely do. So it’s exceedingly important that you have data on your attempts to learn from and refine your next steps.

It’s great that there is a plethora of information at our disposal to help us make decisions, but there is a dark side that needs to be avoided.

The actions presented here when you have too many choices will help you navigate the information avalanche and find a nugget or two that will make the difference.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.30.20 at 05:45 am by Roy Osing
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November 23, 2020

5 simple reasons why people can’t follow the rules during the pandemic

Source: Pexels

5 simple reasons why people can’t follow the rules during the pandemic.

I’m a fan of Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s top doctor. I admire her leadership skills, her amazing empathy and her unrelenting belief that if people are given the right information and it is adequately explained to them, they will do the right thing.

She delivers a regular message on the status of COVID-19 in the province, and I am struck by the types of media questions that are being asked of her and the human ‘frailties’ the questions reveal in terms of how people respond to a virus we knew nothing about when the pandemic was announced in March, and that we are forced to learn about ‘on the run’.

COVID-19 is an extreme example of a shocking unpredicted body blow that every element of our society is absorbing in various ways with various outcomes.

Some organizations are morphing how they do business to conform to the new physical distancing rules, school systems are reinventing themselves to employ both in-class and virtual teaching and individuals are having to adjust their personal lives to keep themselves and everyone around them safe in the ‘new normal’.

While organizations are pivoting to conduct themselves differently in the COVID world, individuals seem to be having a more difficult time adjusting; they are struggling to adapt with the pandemic reality and the personal changes that it demands.

They are exposing some fundamental human frailties that in normal times pose a challenge for change leaders in organizations wanting to change their strategic direction and pursue a different course. But in COVID times, these frailties, by my observation, are accentuated, thus imposing an even greater challenge.

I’ve observed 5 COVID-induced frailties that must be addressed by individuals and leaders now more than ever.

1. People need to be told what to do

In every private, public or political organization, there is a role for a directive style of leadership. For example, effective leaders, albeit with employee input, decide on the business plan of the organization; it’s not created by consensus. And when it’s hit with a competitive assault, the leader makes the call on what response best serves all stakeholders.

Ironically, in uncertain and stressful COVID times, people want more direction in their lives not less. Dr Bonnie doesn’t provide public orders for every sector, nor does she provide specific rules for every personal and family situation.

Dr. B provides general guidelines which she expects every person to apply to their own circumstance. She does not tell people what specifically to do.

People are having trouble with this approach. They want to be told what to do. They are willing to have less say in the practices and rules that are required to stem the transmission of the virus and demand more command-type direction from leadership even though leadership is in a similar position of not completely understanding the correct action to take. They are ok with giving up their rights to control their own personal outcome.

The frailty revealed — people don’t want to think for themselves in trying times; rather they are willing to put their trust in someone who, by virtue of the leadership position they hold, is perceived to have the all right answers.
This ‘delegation up’ mentality in times of uncertainty and stress is troublesome as it’s essentially an abdication of one’s responsibility to take as much ownership of issues affecting them as they can.

Leaders need to engage people now more than ever on the issues and encourage them to take control of their lives. Yes, provide the direction needed but encourage individuals to be more active in and expressive of their own needs in the decision making process.

2. People have difficulty dealing with vagueness

My observation is that most people struggle with translating concepts and principles into personal action; they’re not totally comfortable with thinking holistically and deriving what they specifically should do to support the general thought and direction given.

For example, people have trouble grasping what physical distancing means in a variety of settings where the number of people allowed is a function of the size of the space available.

For example, when Dr Bonnie says you can have a maximum of 50 people at a gathering except in a 500 square foot condo it has to be a fewer number, I can see people throw up their hands and say “Is it 50 or not? Make up your mind!” And they’re surprised when they get hit with a $2,000 fine for having a party with an elbow-to-elbow crowd.

“Viruses don’t pay attention to our wishes” — The Honorable Adrian Dix, BC Health Minister

The world is not precise and this virus certainly doesn’t follow any formula. We MUST get used to living and making decisions based on a general understanding of the issues and trying many things to see what works and what doesn’t.

The frailty revealed — people expect solid lines when there are none. They expect clear focus when it’s impossible. All of us must get used to living with moments of discomfort and determining the appropriate way forward with just a minimal amount of concrete facts.
In this type of environment, planning on the run is the only practical way of dealing with the imprecision that uncertainty brings.

3. People don’t like leaders changing their minds

Leaders declare a course of action based on the best information they have at the time; experience yields things that work well and things that don’t. And based on the results and learnings achieved, leaders pivot on their original plan and advocate a change in direction.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Dr Bonnie suggested that people should keep a minimum physical distance of 3 meters (6 feet) between themselves in order to minimize the risk of transmitting the virus; this was the medical opinion at the time.

As time marched on and more was learned about how COVID was transmitted in various environments, Dr Bonnie described circumstances where a 1 meter physical separation was ‘probably safe’. Of course the other factor considered in the physical distancing issue was the need to get our kids back to school with a hybrid learning model and new school room topologies.

People are frustrated over this apparent change of position. They see this as a lack of leadership competence and shout out “Why couldn’t you get it right the first time?”.

The frailty revealed — people expect leaders to declare a plan and stick to it. It takes most of us time to understand and support why we are going in a certain direction, and when that direction is changed we lose our anchor and have to go through the process of understanding and taking action on a new direction all over again.
The challenge is for people to accept that we live in a world of relentless and unpredictable change and that if we don’t move with it, we’re done.

4. People like ‘the stick’ more than ‘the carrot’

It’s not unusual in a Dr Bonnie update to hear some media person ask the question “Do you think we need to take tougher measures with people who are violating the rules rather than continuing with the current gentle approach of encouraging them to change?”

Dr Bonnie believes that people want to do the right thing and that what is needed is to provide the right information to the public and encourage the behaviour needed to reduce the transmission of the virus.
‘Be kind, be gentle and be safe’ is her mantra and it drives her decision-making in public health matters.

The frailty revealed — people believe that noncompliance should be dealt with by imposing punitive measures rather than trying to achieve the desired outcome by changing behaviour. For the leader in chaotic times this frailty demands a balance of behaviour-changing and enforcement actions.

5. People like to manipulate to justify their own behaviour

Most of us don’t like change. Period. It’s unsettling, risky and downright uncomfortable. And when we find ourselves thrust in a new environment our first impulse is to hold on to our old ways rather than willingly move to a different paradigm.

Dr Bonnie’s direction, when the number of infections is on the rise, is that we adopt a ‘same six’ approach to govern our social interactions. It’s pretty straightforward: try and engage only with the same six people in your bubble; the risk for transmitting the virus increases as you interact with different people.

The actual behaviour exhibited by people, however, tends to be mixed with some believing they need only keep their circle to six friends and relatives while others understand they need to pull back and only engage with the same six people.

Those in the non-change group (incorrectly) interpret the rule to mean that it’s ok to engage with six different people everyday because it serves their past social norm which they steadfastly want to hold on to.

The frailty revealed — people tend to be selective in what they hear in the rules they are asked to follow. They pick and choose those parts that fit their past behaviour pattern and practise them; they ignore the personal change implications that the new rule requires.

For the leader, this is a major issue if real change is required. They must anticipate that this frailty will be revealed and have a plan to deal with it. This often requires communicating in excruciating detail exactly what the new rule means and what it doesn’t mean; painting a picture for people to reduce the amount of ‘wiggle room’ they have to avoid making the changes necessary.

Human idiosyncrasies have always existed; they have always challenged any change movement whether it involves an organization changing its strategic direction or an individual making a new career choice.

COVID has magnified the whole adaptive process for us all, however, and we must find a way within ourselves to move to our new world if we are ever to see the light at the end…

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 11.23.20 at 06:22 am by Roy Osing
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November 11, 2020

12 powerful ways to tell if you’re a great leader

12 powerful ways to tell if you’re a great leader.

There are no qualms that leaders shape nations, communities, and businesses.

You cannot be a great leader merely with theory and tactics. Great leaders believe in leadership development and find the balance between business foresight and performance.

They have vision, courage and integrity, which enable them to plan strategically and catalyze teamwork. The main intent of leadership development is to upgrade the capacity for individuals to be effective in leadership roles and processes.

Leadership descends from social influence and not from rigid hierarchy or seniority. Anyone with the right skills, regardless of their position in a company or organization, can be a leader.

Identifying yourself as a different leader merely is understanding common leadership styles and aligning them to your strengths and weaknesses.

Here are a few of the qualities that set you apart and make you a great leader…

Understand your leadership style — Understanding your leadership style is crucial in manifesting your path as a leader.
Identifying leadership style helps supplement overall effectiveness and satisfaction. It reflects on how a leader can achieve full potential through calculated intention.

Never wander from the vision — Great leaders always have a vision. They have a unique, exciting idea of where they are going and what they are trying to accomplish and are sublime at strategic planning.

Show confidence when others cannot — Confidence is the fundamental principle of leadership. Staying confident and making your team member’s confidence is crucial for a leader.
To increase your team’s confidence, you have to help them improve, upgrade and learn skills, so they contribute fiercely to the project.

Effective time management is imperative — Effective time management influences effective Leadership. The best leaders are proactive, ambitious and motivated about their day.
It enables them to use their caliber to the best, thus ensuring interactions with the team are positive and productive.

Showcase your strengths and everyone else’s — Successful leaders spend most of their time developing and capitalizing their strengths and applying them in the workplace.

Leaders are also able to use this skill to identify strengths in others.

Optimism and communication go a long way — Good leaders possess the quality of openly and smartly interacting with people in a way that feels genuine.
They demonstrate empathy, engage in active listening, and enhance meaningful working relationships, whether they are peers or direct reports.

Always hold employees in high esteem — Good leaders are always unbiased to the employees and the organization’s processes. They acknowledge good work and always make room for everyone to blossom together.

They understand the importance of recognizing and rewarding employees, thus creating mutual respect and proficiency within the organization. They work towards giving them an environment where everyone can flourish.

Lead by example, always — Leaders don’t simply lead by being authoritative and dominating. They lead by guiding others on what to do and by setting a good example themselves.

If you demand a lot of your team, you should also be mindful of offsetting high standards for yourself. Aligning your words and actions guarantee win trust of the team

Encourage creativity> — Creativity drives excitement, and excitement drives efficiency. By encouraging creative problem solving, leaders challenge their teams in new and exciting ways.
This enthusiasm catalyses idea generation or the creative stages of projects into those repetitively daily tasks that they can’t help be tired of.

Serve as a role model — Successful role models work hard and pitch in when their team needs assistance or orchestration and are always demonstrating responsibility to company goals. Role models take accountability for their actions and inspire others to do the same.

Encourage people to make contributions — A great leader allows and welcomes the inflow of ideas from the members of their teams. They let team members share recommendations and thus contribute significantly with confidence.

Offer rewards and recognition — Frequently and consistently recognizing achievement is one of the most powerful habits that differentiate leaders. This motivates team members to stretch themselves and contribute their best efforts knowing that their work will be valued and appreciated.

Leadership is an attitude built over time. These habits can help you create and strengthen your own brand of leadership.

What can you do to embrace these valued leadership qualities and become a ‘different’ leader?

— Liliana Chitnis is a former HR professional who now works as a content marketing executive at Naman HR, an organization that offers end-to-end HR solutions to help companies build a strong human capital base. She writes about various topics related to human resources and shares trends, techniques, and tips with her readers. She loves to read and practice yoga regularly, and occasionally binge on Netflix.

• Posted 11.11.20 at 06:44 am by Roy Osing
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November 9, 2020

How to be a standout leader in a COVID world

I have written a great deal on what it takes to be a standout leader; to rise above the leader crowd and practice their craft in a way that no one else does.

In brief, standout leaders:
— ‘serve around’ their work environment looking for ways to help people do their jobs more effectively;
— cleanse their internal world of rules, procedures and policies that don’t make any sense to customers;
— believe in speed over perfection;
— spend most of their time (80%) executing rather than building their strategy;
— communicate in person with their teams; they use email and other forms of one-way electronic engagement to a lesser degree;
— use ‘tries’ as a key metric of innovation activity.

So what do standouts do when a pandemic strikes and organizations have to pivot to survive?

Standout leaders don’t change their philosophy just because of COVID. They stick to their game plan of doing the things that separate them from the average ones because being a standout works in any environment.
They hold their leadership values even closer to their heart and recognize if anything, they must be practiced with more energy, passion and tenacity.

Here are some specific actions standout leaders take during these pandemic times.

Employee connection — They make a priority to personally connect regularly with each of their employees on a one-on-one basis. They make this a priority notwithstanding the other demands made of their leadership role.

Since most people will not be returning to the workplace in large numbers any time soon, it’s critical that the leader finds a virtual way to connect with each of their team members regularly.

The imperative to lead by ‘serving around’ has never been as critical as it is when people are out of the office and are working remotely. They are isolated and for the most part cut off from the organization so the leader must reach out to them and keep them close.

You don’t have to be face-to-face to ask ‘How can I help?’, the signature of the standout leader.
They schedule regular ZOOM (or whatever your favourite conferencing flavour is) calls with each member of their team to find out what they need to make their job easier.

Team meetings — They schedule regular meetings with their entire team.

It’s vital to maintain team dynamics, so they schedule regular virtual meetings as they would in non-pandemic times. It’s critical to carry on business ‘as usual’ as much as possible.

Team members need to be kept updated on what’s happening in the company: sales results, customer service issues and other operations matters need to be the focus.

In these times, filling in the communications void that is created by people working remotely is vital to keep workforce spirits (and performance) up as much as possible.

Technology — They make sure everyone has the best technology available to do their job.

Every remote employee must be equipped with the latest, most productive technology in the market. You don’t want people to ‘fight the technology’ from their home in order to do their job.
You can’t cheap out on this; invest in the best technology and you’ll reap the greatest rewards; don’t make the needed investment and watch your survival challenged.

Operations pivot — They bear down on their operations role; other responsibilities take second place.

Flawlessly executing current plans and programs is the priority.

Survival isn’t contingent on the efficacy of the plan, rather it’s dependent on how well sales are earned each and every day COVID has its ugly claws in your sides.
So issues like speed of delivery and streamlined processes to increase the rate of transactions and order fulfillment every day are emphasized.

‘Follow the customer’ is the mantra; fighting for and winning business everyday is the COVID culture and behaviour the standout wants to encourage.

Customer service problems are solved with immediacy; serving customers in an exemplary way (e.g. not making them wait for 1 hour in a call center queue to get a rep) demands more attention.

If you don’t know what your customer service choke points are, you’re not prepared to take on COVID.

Short term thinking — They look to the next 24 hours for opportunities.

The focus on execution renders longer planning an unnecessary use of scarce resources; it is all but ignored during COVID chaos.

Survival requires cash flow which comes from short term performance, so any opportunity evaluations are concentrated on the extremely short term.
Leveraging existing skills, competencies and underused assets are the new drivers of potential opportunities.

Bonus pay — They change the bonus plan to reward performance more frequently.

The bonus plan is re-examined with a view to making more frequent payouts to make it easier on employees during these difficult times.
Most plans pay annually; standouts make quarterly (or more frequent) payments based on performance results.
It’s important when people are ‘in pain’ to recognize their contributions more frequently.

Performance — They measure results more frequently.

As mentioned previously, the new ‘planning period’ is literally a month or shorter due to the chaotic impacts COVID is having on organizations.

“How’d we do today?” is the operative question in this new normal if survival is the end game. Standouts revector their systems to give them real time feedback on their performance.

Line of sight — They keep reminding people what their role is.

It’s even more important in a pandemic for people to know exactly what they have to do to deliver results than it is in normal times.

Inasmuch as the strategy gets downplayed in a ‘follow-the-customer-to-survive’ environment, it’s important that roles be aligned with a common purpose.

So the leader articulates precisely what each remote worker must do to multiply the number of successfully consummated customer transactions achieved so they collectively can survive.

The team must be ‘joined at the hip’ for a new purpose; the standout must translate the short term goal and provide the guidance necessary for people to execute.

Standout leaders flex to the changes in the environment around them; they turn from dreaming to hanging on in whatever form that takes.

Myopia plays a positive and useful role and COVID is sponsoring it.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.9.20 at 03:38 am by Roy Osing
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