LEADERSHIP_2 More captivating quotations from INDIAN AUTHOR VIKAS SWARUP in “THE ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE”

I have chosen to start this post with the following quotation attributed to Vikas Swarup’s co-principle character CEO, Vinay Mohan Acharya.

“A leader doesn't have to be the smartest, the strongest of the prettiest. I’d rather have a less-than-brilliant leader as my CEO than a genius but gutless plodder, because leadership is the most important factor for a business to succeed.” 

Such considerations, phrased in more academic terms, could also be attributed, for example, to HBR author Daniel Goleman in his article; 

“What makes a leader" HBR. Jan 2004.

To quote Goleman;

“Every business person knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the job. And they also know a story about someone with solid—but not extraordinary—intellectual abilities and technical skills who was promoted into a similar position and then soared."

THE LEADER MUST “WALK THE TALK” i.e.  PRACTISE WHAT YOU PREACH,

Or in the more vulgar response to bragging used in my youth;

“Put your money where your mouth is!”

Swarup’s CEO illustrates this by some well chosen analogies in the following quotations:

“Just as machines need maintenance, and products need marketing, employees need direction. It is the leader who provides that direction, who encourages and inspires ordinary people to do extra-ordinary tasks. For this the leader has to walk the talk.”

“In matters of style, a leader swims with the current; but, in matters of principle he stands like a rock.”  Swarup again, through his CEO, paraphrases Thomas Jefferson.

  

Well phrased communication could also be termed “Talking the walk” used mostly in USA. This underscores two points 

-A. that things are being done 

and 

B. that they must be seen to have been done. 

Again this is well illustrated in HBR article by Bill Taylor.

COMMUNICATION: The Best Leaders “Talk the Walk” HBR AUGUST 7, 2014.

NB. Taylor a writer, a speaker, and entrepreneur both “Walks the Talk” and “Talks the Walk”.

He introduces his HBR article as follows:

“One of the most ubiquitous aphorisms in business is that the best leaders understand the need to “walk the talk” — that is, their behaviour and day-to-day actions have to match the aspirations they have for their colleagues and organisation. But the more time I spend with game-changing innovators and high-performing companies, the more I appreciate the need for leaders to “talk the walk” — that is, to be able to explain, in language that is unique to their field and compelling to their colleagues and customers, why what they do matters and how they expect to win. The only sustainable form of business leadership is thought leadership. And leaders that think differently about their business invariably talk about it differently as well.”

The reader may find some historical notes on quotations below. Here the link is directly related to the subject of "Walking the Talk", of course.

REFERENCES

1.  Daniel Goleman in his article:

“What makesa leader” FROM THE JANUARY 2004 ISSUE OF HBR.

2. Bill Taylor

COMMUNICATION: The Best Leaders “Talk the Walk” HBRAUGUST 7, 2014.

(Bill Taylor is a writer, a speaker, and entrepreneur who has shaped the global conversation about the best ways to compete, innovate, and succeed. As a co-founder and founding editor of Fast Company,)

3. Historical Sources of the notion  “WALK THE TALK”

1.      Origines: Shakespeare's Richard III, 1594 in the words of his character “The 1^st Murderer

                                    Fear not, my lord, we will not stand to prate;
                                    Talkers are no good doers: be assured
                                    We come to use our hands and not our tongues.

2.      Or again; 

         In Man and Superman, 1903, George Bernard Shaw suggested that:

                                  "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."

NB. No offence is  intended either  to Teachers and Professors in general or to HBR contributors!

3.      Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have coined the proverbial saying:

                                   "Well done is better than well said".   

                                                             Ref : The Phrase Finder 

Jack Welch gives us "The Biggest Dirty Little Secret in Business_In one word, it is Candor

"If you’re thinking this secret is “outsized bonuses,” “bureaucracy” or “poor strategy,” guess again. While these issues may have merit in their own right, we believe that the absence of candor is the single largest roadblock keeping companies from being effective."

Perhaps this may also, or even more so, apply to politicians?

[Jack Welch is the ex-CEO of GE (General Electric Corp.) and a mythical figure in corporate life.

MORE...? Check the link to Linkedin below.

The Biggest Dirty Little Secret in Business | LinkedIn

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1st Basic Rule of Good Management, Leadership must have credibility.

1st Basic Rule of Good_Management: GOOD LEADERSHIP NEEDS CREDIBILITY: "Walk the Talk, Time Gentlemen Please!*

If the talk is all about austerity and the in thing is budget restrictions, it is not to say that our ministers happily apply the famous principle: "Do as I say, not what I do.
"Despite the crisis, therefore, the executive members have some difficulty in giving the facilities offered to them by the Republic. Spending it is difficult to know, as if he was still indecent to demand accountability on the use of public money.

Journalists break their teeth on these issues. But politicians, (as peers) and as part of their function (Job Specification) have proceedures which allows them  to seek clarification. Of the thousands of French parliamentarians, there is one, Rene Dosière, who decided to use the powers that are given by its function. This member of parliament (related to the Socialist Party) for the Deprtment of Aisne has been for some years now the expert on these sensitive issues which anger the executive.

The two appartments of Mr. Estrosi, Minister for Industry.

An executive who is obliged to provide answers to the "honorable" member. Even if these responses are sometimes slow to come (a few weeks to a few years ...!) And sometimes intentionally inaccurate or incomplete. Even inaccurate.

Take for example the question asked in late May on staff accommodation attributed to the ministers and state secretaries. The answer appears to be exhaustive, however  the response concerning Mr Christian Estrosi (Industry) appears only one mention to his apartment in the rue de Lille, while he himself admitted to benefitting from two staff houses, one where he lives, rue de Lille, the other at Bercy, he "used the latter when he ended his days work." Paris is a big city ...

Answers to take with some relative distance, but which nevertheless give a reasonable idea of the volume and use of public subsidies for those who are responsible.

Un-necessary work programmed on Residence formally attached to Matignon  annexed  by President Sarkozy and the work envisaged billed to Matignon (Prime Minister Fillon's allocated budget)

We learn for example that French President M. Nicolas Sarkozy, not content to attach the residence of the Lantern (an annex of the Palace of Versailles with gilding, paintings by masters and park but also with a pool and tennis), vested up Prime Minister in 2007, did a cost of "adjustments." Work that has not really started yet the budget of the Elysee (110 million) since they were essentially supported the President's request, by Matignon, for the modest sum of 390,000 euros over three years. A sum which, unlike the work done at the Elysee Palace may not have intended to "improve working conditions" of staff, since it is only a secondary residence.
80 000 euros of private aircraft for the Ministry of Culture

We also learn that our President is not alone in having a taste for travel. Take for example the Ministry of Culture, whose too Parisian side is often a source of criticism from  some ill intentioned spirits.[sarcasm] He, instead, spent lavishly to disseminate knowledge in the provinces and abroad.

In 2009, according to official figures he has just given the "air travel in France, overseas or outside the office of Minister of Culture and Communication" amounted to 403 000 "Taxes".
A sum which includes travel by commercial airliner and those operated with aircraft from the former Glam (now Etec, depending on the Air Force). A fleet that does not seem sufficient to the needs of Culture admits that about 80 000 trips in 'private plane. " Rigor? You said rigour?

*Glossary: Time Gentlemen Please! is the barman's call warning UK Pubs closing The preceding  call is " Last drinks, gentlemen".

Read also on Rue89 and Eco89 ref below
► "The Budget Ministry is the department that are the best paid '
► stampede of journalists in apartments Estrosi

REFERENCE and Supporive links for the above claims below (in french)
http://www.rue89.com/argent-elus/2010/10/22/de-la-difficulte-de-savoir-combien-nos-chers-elus-depensent-172447

Talent makes capital-money dance: Lessons, Secrets and Hype in the Book on Management, Funky Business, by Ridderstrale, Nordstrom, Interview

From the Book Funky Business Forever: How to Enjoy Capitalism by Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom, review and interview by Idea Connection.

Part I.

Soliloquay:
This post is in many ways, more of a soliloquay – “A talking to oneself”, than a criticism, I hope.,
because:

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain-and most fools do.
But it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving” from
Dale Carnegie_Wikipedia translating quotes from Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Carlyle, and Dr. Samuel Johnson.

I will have to struggle to respect this excellent advice from a golden oldie.

'Being funky is ultimately about “being true to yourself”. Authenticity is key.' This quote by Ridderstrale caught my attention

Being “true to one’s self,” now with such a quote, how can I avoid making a few comments in my “This-Above-All” pages? How’s that for foresight-Insight and Hindsight? Shakespeare in the late 16th century had this down to a tee. (I bite my lip!)

Hype:
I don’t like the word Funky, it screams of Hype. (fortunately there is another book review-interview from Idea Connection entitled Mastering the Hype Cycle.

Between you and me, I do not think of myself as Funky and even after reading the interview, I still don’t.

Personally, I believe there is more Insight, Foresight and most especially A Brighter Future in the expression “Cool”, in being cool, in planet cooling…
(He or she’s a cool person. A cool attitude. It has been totally adopted in spoken French
“pas cool”= disapproval or even a bad luck event. Porcine flue is certainly “pas cool”).


'At the end of the day you can only be the best person in the world or the best company in the world if you're a first rate version of yourself. Not a second rate copy of someone else.' [As a Scot weaned on “Scotland the Brave described as “the land of high endeavour”…
and again living in the well-known very elitist France. This attitude is a source of self-motivation, what Senge would call the power or pull of vision, a perception. ]

'I can I wipe the floor with all my competitors in the business world [for amateurs otherwise inclined to warfare, but not exactly my definition of being "cool"] as long as I remain true to myself.”'


Things to think about - Useful Lessons? (In fact in this rather lengthy review-interview their are a great many issues raised)

I chose to debate the following issue raised:
Talent vs Knowledge Economy and Intellectual Capital
'Talent is the only thing the western world – U.S., Canada, and Western Europe – is left to compete with. I've changed my mind, and now use the term talent instead of knowledge because talent is a much wider concept. ' Flattering but Highly questionable, ex-Eastern Block approach to human as opposed to motorised sport, Communist Russia and Chinese performance in gymnastics… Russian… Mathematicians and Engineers. But we have seen that “being true to one’s self” underlines the motivation to develop one’s own (almost) unique talents. We also know that this is not new and that professional -great educators-teachers, (trainers, coaches) know how to balance the liberating factors of creativity and the discipline and even abnegation often required to develop a particular in born ability or talent…

[Later in the interview, Ridderstrale also recognises this value of my independent critical comment(s) by quoting; 'If I recall correctly, in his latest book Outliers: The Story of Success, based on studies of highly successful people and groups like the Beatles, Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become great at something; to become exceptionally world-class fantastic.'

And the lesson or secret is:
'You better love what you do if you aspire to be great!' – [One 100% ]

'We all know that you can't compete on cost with 1.2 billion Chinese and 900 million Indians, many [many] of whom are [very] well educated. But these days, it is also increasingly difficult to beat them on the basis of having a superior intellectual capital. Talent is a little bit more complex as a concept than knowledge, because talent includes more than the intellectual capital that used to make and still makes some organizations competitive. At the end of the day if you have an MBA or an engineering degree you will have access to the same knowledge whether you study in Beijing, Boston, Bangalore, or Birmingham. [with more or less difficulty depending on your relationship with maths and science] This knowledge from university studies is not as much of a differentiator as it was 10 years ago, for example, because it's available to everyone. [Indeed all the basics and more, are freely available via The Internet where the notion of democracy and in-built common good sense and good will of large free-thinking numbers is the bet placed by the founding generations. (one very good example is Wikipedia)] You still need it, but this know-how will not provide you with a competitive edge. '

'Talent also captures the psychological elements – the importance of having a can-do attitude; and the social capital – the know-who factor – that is increasingly important.' [ie. “Not what you know but who you know”, a common folk culture expression from the old school boys network approach, today emulated by Alumni associations, in particular but not exclusively in business circles and other groups or lobbies, Lions, Rotary, Masonics to mention the most well known in Western Society]
[Suggestion: Arguably, talent to develop requires an advanced state of development with accompanying means. It also requires the experience accumulated in developed societies, and if possible Déja Vu, to put talent to good use – eg. Highly developed planetary observation systems and provisional models eg. such as anthropodic-human induced climate change (CC)]

On the upside,
I admire anyone who can write a book in their a language, other than their mother tongue.

The book is a welcomed attempt from the "European School'.

I recognise the provocative approach firstly because it lead me to read the interview, secondly it the interview and probably the book lends it’s-self to critical “class room” study and thirdly and perhaps most importantly it describes capitalism in an easily understandable form as a machine [easier to understand than system] that can break down and more importantly can be mended. [NB. all human systems have an aim, a purpose, a function. Care not to be overly reductionist summing up the greed for money of efficiency (no human being can be compared to a machine and must remain This-Above-All in his own interest; health, wealth, and happiness "True to oneself", I believe?]

Part II.
As stated above a great many issues are raised in this rather lengthy review-interview.
I have listed a few in what follows.

Motivation from Looking at the most difficult critics:

“Musicians, artists, actors, and painters who were convinced that business was boring” [Today the whole public is critical following the salary divide whereby Keynes considered a differential of 1:40 supportable compared to today’s 1:400.]

Gurus:
'Most business gurus become well known for
-a particular idea,
-a particular concept, which is almost vertical in nature, a core idea, then they dig deeper and deeper into that idea. '

Cross-Disciplinary vs Interdisciplinary: 'The Horizontal approaches'

Consulting Approaches
'Instead of telling people what to do, we invite them to think. Most people regardless of age, gender, occupation, or educational background are interested in being invited to think.'
[People appreciate being considered intelligent or as listed by Dale Carnegie in his last but not least of eight most important human needs and desires “The feeling of importance, self-esteem, consideration. Maslow. ]

'Make money in a well functioning market economy (Only one way) '

Talent vs Knowledge (Economy)

Innovation
'Behind every monopoly there is always an innovation of some kind. The argument we are making in Funky Business is that historically most of those innovations were of a technological kind. '

Innovations new insights
'In general, I don't think the greatest innovation challenges have a lot to do with technology. '

'I think the big challenges are organizational, managerial, leadership-oriented, perhaps even cultural and psychological. Some are even biological because it boils down to the nature of man – we are uncertainty-reducing creatures. We have been designed to avoid uncertainty and risk, because that's how to stay alive. It's probably a good set of design principles from the point of view of staying alive in an uncivilized society, but in business we're talking about how to move beyond the status quo, to create a good life. In a number of ways human nature prevents us from taking enough risks, being creative, and spending enough time and resources on creation of new ideas. Instead, exploitation of existing innovations tends to crowd out creation and experimentation in most organizations.' [Thoughtful, a worth-while debate?]

A simple model of a market economy:
'At the end of the day you have to realize that a market economy is not an ideology. A market economy is a machine. And it is a machine with only one task. As I said, it's a machine that sorts things, people, companies, and countries, on one principle – is it efficient or inefficient. That's what a market does. It's a sorting mechanism, efficient, inefficient, efficient, inefficient.'

A Short History of Competitive Strategy:
'Once upon a time competition was all about access to physical capital, cheap raw material, and cheap labour. Then competition was related to access to financial capital.
-Later, the competitive edge was based on intellectual capital, and
-now it's also a question of psychological and social capital.
Access to the old stuff has now become necessary, but no longer sufficient, in the race for business leadership. That's the way the market economy works.'

[Could this be it’s evolution be it’s down-fall?
“ Human economies are built on the use of energy to transform natural resources into useful products and services.” That should create a bit of e-motion! ] ref. Jancovici and Grandjean in their book in french entitled "C'est Maintenant"

To be fair Jonas Ridderstrale says much more
'Some recent research indicates that competitive intellectual capital still explains a lot of the variation in performance of individuals.

In some of these studies education was found to explain about 28% of the variation in work-related performance. If you consider just one psychological factor, confidence and self-sufficiency explain 38% of the variation in individual performance.

If you add the positive impact of hope, optimism, and resilience to bounce back when difficulties have been encountered, the psychological factors today are critically important. '

The mega challenge
'is to restore faith in the entire system. Trust in the financial system. Trust that capitalism and the marketplace still works.' [Indeed]
Ridderstråle’s recommended reading

Dr. Jonas Ridderstråle's impressive Biography

Full Interview by Vern Burkhardt for Ideaconnection

More...
All Innovation Book Author Interviews

Ideaconnection

Recession and The Environment I – Climate Change-Root Causes and Solutions

I propose to develop the hypothesis that lack of vigour to combate climate change, especially by world leading US administration, is one root cause, if not the main root cause for the current economic-financial recession. I base this on the stabilising wedge methodology proposed by Pacala & Socolow and specifically in the excellent interview given by Pacala to IOP – Environmental Research.

It has just been posted to my blog "Conversations-on-Innovations" -[LINK]

My proposed conclusion
But US did not sign Kyoto, and push it forward - as in the famous SALT treaties on nuclear arms control, of which I am no expert-, and this has sent all the wrong messages. It could plausibly be argued that this is the root cause of the current financial crash and recession-JA.

I urge you to read me, my original source and comment -naturally praise is preferable, abuse tolerated, but Above-All all information will be shared unless otherwise requested. Feel free - Tighter emissions rationing is on the agenda and economic resession will not be tollerated - work that one out.