Dedicated to the Chief Executive:
Recently I heard a Business Leader exclaim to his senior staff, somewhat rhetorically, "In the last 2 months, what are the new things you have attempted? Do you innovate enough?"
That made me reflect on "How do I inspire people to innovate?" Forget innovation, how do I inspire those around me to do anything.
Some answers, made famous by self-help books, are walk-the-talk, lead-from-front, paternalistic approach etc. Agreed they might work.
But there is a pitfall of your people following you blindly instead of working towards a shared vision.
Here is a very interesting story (food for thought): You have a vision to build a small community that is self sufficient.You call for a town hall meeting and you present your vision of how fulfilling it will be to become self sufficient/self-reliant. Your people nod and agree enthusiastically. You then tell your people,
"See, I will embark on an initiative to establish trade and relations with neighboring communities. Now follow my lead and start your new innovative initiatives".
All of your people start talking to your neighbors without doing anything else. You see this and you are confused.
If all of them are building relations, who will produce the stuff we need to be self-sufficient, who will barter, who will clean, who will keep the books and prepare budgets, who will contribute to infrastructure building, transport, housing etc.
You assign tasks and establish teams and say, "Do not forget that we are trying to build a self-sufficient community. Now take care of your responsibilities and your team." They do it. They get so used to this that the functions become mechanical. The vision becomes - blurred. Silos are created and individual fiefdoms emerge with ambitious team leaders batting for themselves and their interests.
You wonder - What is going wrong? Is not the vision communicated clearly and as often as practicable?
The problem is - When you set the vision, you intended 'self-sufficient community' to be a by-product and not a vision. The vision should have been 'coordinated excellence in every sphere of work' that will result in 'self sufficiency' and many other things besides.
Excellence as a culture can never be over emphasized and never to be forgotten. Excellence, finesse and style/panache inspires people to intrinsically replicate. And it makes everything infinitely more interesting - for everybody in the team.
Recently I heard a Business Leader exclaim to his senior staff, somewhat rhetorically, "In the last 2 months, what are the new things you have attempted? Do you innovate enough?"
That made me reflect on "How do I inspire people to innovate?" Forget innovation, how do I inspire those around me to do anything.
Some answers, made famous by self-help books, are walk-the-talk, lead-from-front, paternalistic approach etc. Agreed they might work.
But there is a pitfall of your people following you blindly instead of working towards a shared vision.
Here is a very interesting story (food for thought): You have a vision to build a small community that is self sufficient.You call for a town hall meeting and you present your vision of how fulfilling it will be to become self sufficient/self-reliant. Your people nod and agree enthusiastically. You then tell your people,
"See, I will embark on an initiative to establish trade and relations with neighboring communities. Now follow my lead and start your new innovative initiatives".
All of your people start talking to your neighbors without doing anything else. You see this and you are confused.
If all of them are building relations, who will produce the stuff we need to be self-sufficient, who will barter, who will clean, who will keep the books and prepare budgets, who will contribute to infrastructure building, transport, housing etc.
You assign tasks and establish teams and say, "Do not forget that we are trying to build a self-sufficient community. Now take care of your responsibilities and your team." They do it. They get so used to this that the functions become mechanical. The vision becomes - blurred. Silos are created and individual fiefdoms emerge with ambitious team leaders batting for themselves and their interests.
You wonder - What is going wrong? Is not the vision communicated clearly and as often as practicable?
The problem is - When you set the vision, you intended 'self-sufficient community' to be a by-product and not a vision. The vision should have been 'coordinated excellence in every sphere of work' that will result in 'self sufficiency' and many other things besides.
Excellence as a culture can never be over emphasized and never to be forgotten. Excellence, finesse and style/panache inspires people to intrinsically replicate. And it makes everything infinitely more interesting - for everybody in the team.
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