leadership Archives - Page 6 of 6

22nd July 2013

Do You Leap?

Many years ago we used to hike to a place called Chrystal pools. It was a beautiful winding path up a valley near the coast not too far from where I grew up. At the pool there was a spot where, those who dared would climb up and then leap of the 10 meter high rocky platform into the icy mountain pool. A few times I would reach the top, quickly get a footing and then leap… Heart in mouth and wind in my hair I would then plunge into the icy depths feeling invigorated and invincible.

Many times I also saw other people get to the top and start to hesitate – 10 minutes, 15, half an hour, an hour… Some people would eventually turn back and perhaps others would eventually take the leap feeling somewhat diminished as they did not do it as quickly or with as much flair as others. I believe life is much the same. Do you leap?

I challenge myself everyday (as far as possible) to keep on leaping. I now also understand that leaping means discomfort – the discomfort is where the growth lies. I challenge myself to keep asking if this is the best I can be? I try and do the difficult things first and get it out of the way so that I can focus more energy on creating. It is the boldness that shapes the next move; it is the game that becomes important; not winning as much. It is about doing a quick check to see if it is OK and then jump into the great unknown.

Take the painting above (by Jackson Pollock) – when I look at it I see a history of leaping. How can I use colour differently? – leap. What is real? – leap. Perhaps what I can do is as good, or better, than what is out there – leap. What if what is acceptable is limiting? – Leap

As you perhaps know much of my time (when I am not listening to a good tune and typing this blog) is taken up by lecturing undergraduate students in the field of business. As I sit here tonight I am reflecting on a day that I think will be the start of a significant next chapter in my life: The greatest tragedy that I am currently encountering working with students is the realisation of how they have been robbed of the opportunity to think and learn for themselves. For at least 12 years they have been told when to wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, take a break and go home. In this also lies the greatest opportunity. The opportunity to work with students to help them reshape their future based on a deeper understanding of what learning actually is. Learning is not in books (although they help) but in the world filled with opportunities to make mistakes. In other words, opportunities to gain experience.

For about 12 years of schooling they have been programmed to wait to be told what to do, what is important, what to learn and what the correct answer is. I understand that to get on in this world you need to be able to understand and apply 1+1=2, but much of our knowledge has to be questioned. The ‘correct’ answer is as helpful in a changed and continuously changing world as a inflatable submarine.

There are an immense number of quotes by many renowned authors, which I won’t quote here, that help us understand that ultimately we learn by experimentation. Go and have a look at these talks by Daniel Pink and Tom Wujec to understand the value of risking, exploration, fun… LEAPING! Ultimately we are in a new world and new economy

We live in a society that tells us that we need insurance for our house, car, health, life, cat, dog… We are not taught that you need to get into life, take leaps, experience the thrill of the cold water and even if you leap and it is not graceful, leap again. I need to confront my fears because that is where true learning lies. It is not in working harder and working the system with more intent. This is not acceptable any more. If I want to to truly live I need to step up, step out, and LEAP! I ask again, do you leap?

20th May 2013

4 Months as the Crow Flies

And when I blinked the year was 4 months old (and counting). It has been a while since my last post… I have been thinking; restoring; reflecting and reviewing. I have been thinking of fears and desires, passion and purpose, complexity and transcendence. If there is one lesson that I have learned over the last year it has been patience. I now see my haste and propensity to haste much clearer in the light of the tension between desire and fear. In other words, in the past I used to attack the present in order to get to the future because I was afraid of missing the opportunity to prove that I am competent and useful. The reality is that I am competent and useful; here; today.

I know that repetitive work frustrates me… A lot! I know that I can’t hide in the corner world of ideas. Music, ideas and dancing energise me. Too much of my day does not incorporate creativity – I need more; I think we all do. I believe this is the key to being more and being more to others.
It seems like it has been a mad dash in the last four months to where I am now. A good dash however because it has been at home. Our life is richer because of family, friends and nature. The improvement in quality of life is invaluable.

After years in Johannesburg we have been living in Stellenbosch for the last 9 months and working as a lecturer for the last 4. It has been an awesome time so far and I know that it has been a time of restoration. It will probably continue on the same path for a while but I am tilling the soil. I am removing the old thinking that was embedded during the past 7 years. I am throwing off all the old labels and returning my competent roots. I am removing what is not important an focusing on who I am (yip, that old theme again).

It is literally easier said than done, but I am doing it. It is a constant journey going from survive to alive. I fight negativity, look for meaning, acknowledge that I am part of a great tapestry and that I have a part to play. My part is the one that helps people, and specifically people in business, realise why business is important, why they are doing business, how this adds value an finally how they run their business, or do business, because of this. I translate my competence into their competence.

20th May 2013

4 Months as the Crow Flies

9th November 2012

Change Is Not Really Happening That Fast

The buzz in the business world is all about how complex things are and, specifically, how fast everything is changing. If you are a leader in business you need to be so smart and adapt so quickly… That is such a load of bull. Yes, things are changing quickly, or at least there are greater possibilities, choices and options available right now.

What I find in businesses is that in general business leaders aren’t really changing. Right now I can think of at least six leaders and business models that are based on old thinking. I understand that actual change really takes time. Media and the status-quo would lead us to believe that everything is changing so fast. In reality I see these powers that be as the ones changing the slowest. It is in their best interest to keep things as it is. Take the latest Robin Hood film starring Russell Crowe: Just when it looks like true change will come after generations of hierarchical, unjustified, autocratic exploitation by a leader over the people things simply remain the same – the leader has seen how beneficial a system of dominance is in his favour. “Why change it, it works for me?”

The same thing is happening in organisations globally. Truly transformational models of business have emerged in the early 1980’s in South America (here I refer to Semco) as well as earlier than that on other continents (the Tata group of companies come to mind) but it has been isolated. My question is why hasn’t it happened more? Why hasn’t this truly transformational business models been occurring much more. It is a model where the business is about people first and how they come together to create a better world through what they do – real meaning!

Instead of the direction of the organisation being set by a bunch of people that only want to see a financial return; how about the direction set by the people on the ground and who have a daily relationship with the business – they are the business.

So here is my current thesis on why this does not happen more: Leaders with big egos. Of the greatest leader when he is gone they will say we did it ourselves. The greatest leader is one that is not a leader. There is no such thing as leadership. I am convinced there is only love, dedication, vision and action. A person that can use love, dedication, vision and action to enable others to do the same is needed. It is not about them – they know that. It is about using their abilities to help others do whatever is needed to get the job done and do it in excellence!

As soon as we start talking about leadership people clamor for position, title and money. Ask people to help others achieve their wildly important goals and help the organisation succeed while these people get all the recognition and reward and I don’t think you will have many people left that can do the job. It is a job that requires people to see them selves as enablers, facilitators and connectors so that things can start unfolding on their own. You have to be secure in your identity so that you don’t have to fight for it publicly and embrace complexity so that things can unfold organically.

My aim is to spread the message and work with people to unleash potential and release creativity and let it go where it needs to go. What are you up to?

20th April 2012

Moment of Truth

I just had a moment of truth …A grand realisation that perhaps I really am that different and special. Perhaps I truly should be challenging the status quo, not by creating my own status quo but by tearing down captivity and building foundations of freedom. I continue to have conversations with people that seem truly open minded but with some more investigation I realise that they might have adopted language that ‘keeps them on the edge’ but that their approach and expectation of life still very much resembles the industrial revolution – top down, hierarchical, unilateral, etc. It will work for a little longer but the world is a different place today…

What I have come to realise is that the tool of control has served us (modern society in general) rather well over the last century or so. The challenge now is that control is no longer as useful as it once was. The scientific approach to business management was all about that. The leader was the one who controlled, knew everything and was infallible. That kind of leadership will pass soon and only businesses and leaders that embrace connection, trust and complexity will last.

This is the next step. Leaders must become facilitators in order to trust the organisation’s future to everyone involved. Yet few people are willing to push for this kind of change. What is much more likely is that people stick to their old ways, ways that are not so threatening, in order to keep their position of power. I have seen this very often in the business environment. Due to different influences people don’t want to change and most of the time right at the centre of it all sits some kind of fear.

I don’t think that my mind or abilities are that special or different but I do believe that they are geared towards a specific purpose to which I need to pay more attention. I know that through my efforts on this blog, academic talents and abilities to write, facilitate and teach I can devote my life to a great passion for change. It is a gift-set, passion and awareness that few other people share and because of that I am excited. Within that lies my unique contribution and realising it has really been a moment of truth for me; a little like when the winemaker gets to taste the grapes of the season for the first time. In that instance everything that has led up to that moment, every element comes together to reveal the special character of that season. It helps me to go from survive to alive.

6th June 201115th April 2019

Letter to the CEO

Dear Mr/Ms CEO

I have been thinking a lot about the company that you are the leader of. I have been wondering if you know what a leader should do. Do you know how important your role is in our modern 21st century economy?

I would like to share my experience and belief with you in this letter:
Your main priority as CEO of your company is not to make money. If this was true you would be able to run your company with only robots. But as Henry Ford lamented, you have to work with a whole person and not just a pair of hands. So I suggest you reconsider your main purpose based on the fact that you have been blessed with an opportunity to work with whole human beings (colleagues that think, love, dream and have a desire to grow) in order to serve the needs of a society made up of whole human beings.

Your business is your opportunity to better society and it starts with your colleagues (please note that I do not use the word employee, human resources or human capital – people cannot be reduced to a part of a machine that are rated on their performance. We are not things). We work together and serve a greater purpose; we do not serve to maximise the profit of the business. Yes, you either started the business as an entrepreneur or you are managing the business for the shareholders but if this is what governs your heart, people will have a difficult time to connect with you. For it is firstly about heart – heart for your colleagues and heart for society. I am sorry to say that if you do not lead from a heart for people you are serving yourself and your desires after money, recognition or power. These desires you have to sort out with your Creator.

Being colleagues means that we are partners in the office and we work with each other. The minute you forget this and try and make all the decisions by yourself you have started the journey towards the loss of yourself. For you see I have worked with many CEO’s and many of them have told themselves that through their actions they are really contributing to society – they have justified the neglect of themselves and their fellow man. You might be aware of this justification: ‘It’s not personal, it’s business’. It is all personal. It is persons you are working with and your big goal is not more important than the people you work with.

Know that your actions have an impact on the formation of society’s hopes, dreams and desires. Will you help shape it according to your hopes, dreams and desires? Do you desire to see our people and planet prosper or do you desire to see only profit maximised?

Sincerely

Jan-Derick Nel