Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1339
May 10, 2016
Three Gaps Digital IT Can Bridge
Although the forward-looking businesses nowadays intend to catch up with the digital speed in order to adapt to the pace of changes. Still, the majority of organizations get stuck in the lower level of maturity due to static mentality, silo processes, culture inertia, undifferentiated capabilities, and ineffective Change Management. Digital IT plays an omnipresent role in catalyzing business digital transformation via leveraging internal and external resources, enabling, innovating, and optimizing the consumer-driven technology that’s going viral in the enterprise. More specifically, which gaps digital IT can help to bridge, and become a strategic business partner to improve business effectiveness and agility?
From raw data to business insight: Today, most of the organizations are still data rich, but insight poor. Yes, the business has abundant information, IT as the steward of business information is to ensure that the information has the right quality, that the information is used properly, that the right information is provided to the right people to make the right decision. IT and business should have an in-depth understanding of managing information (the information provisioning) as a strategic imperative, to bridge business’s hindsight (operational performance) and organizational foresight (growth opportunity). Information Management is to manage the full life cycle of knowledge pyramid Data-Information- Knowledge-Insight-Wisdom. The information allows you to build an actionable insight as how to move from one level to the other. It applies to the context and environment in which decisions are made. The enabling value of information can be captured in this way and an information lifecycle developed from it, so different information is required at different points in the decision and operational delivery chain. Information only has a value when it has been used. The information management gaps can be bridged when information has been used to abstract the insight for making an informed management decision to develop the right product, enter a new market, exploit a new channel or having the information to be able to conduct day to day operations, which have an output value as well. The digital business's full potential depends on how it unleashes its information potential via break down data silos and bridge information management gaps.
From silo process to cohesive capability: IT is the only functional domain which is at the unique position to oversight business processes and build digital capabilities. Hence, it plays a significant role in identifying the gaps between strategy and implementation. Organizational processes underpin business capabilities. A "business process" evokes the notion of inputs, manage known from flowing; a business capability is the ability of the business to consistently deliver an expected result to the marketplace. The business capability is, therefore, at a higher level than a business process and is in the conceptual layer. IT is often the “superglue” to close the process and capability gaps via the alignment of crucial business elements such as people, process, technology, and assets. A "business capability" describes what is a business entity in the organization, what is their purpose and output to the enterprise. That output is generated by applying their internal business processes, and can also be combined both at the macro level to construct the wider, cross-entity business processes. Business processes are enabled by technology and people within the framework of a capability. Capabilities can be an enormous help in understanding and prioritizing the changing business/IT are attempting to create. Capabilities may evolve and move from the fundamental level to differentiated level between categories based on the technology evolution, business driver, business model evolution etc. move. This happens when an organization can close the process gaps, and decides to differentiate by taking an existing capability to the next level. The business process/capability management provides a foundation that brings visibility, enablement, compliance, reduces errors and avoids cost, all important elements to the survival of an enterprise.
From “culture eats strategy for lunch” to culture as competency: Most of the hierarchical organizations are process and control driven. Emphasis is on compliance with the result people forget to think freely, overly rigid processes stifle innovation, and outdated talent management and performance management systems discourage talented employees grow, but encourage silo thinking and reward mediocre, therefore, further create many gaps in strategy management, change management, and overall organizational management, and cause the fatal “culture eats strategy for lunch” phenomenon. IT is in the unique position to well align people, process and the latest technology to reinvent and bring visibility of the soft business elements such as culture. Creating and maintaining the right corporate culture is in itself a competency. Culture can powerfully reinforce the competitive advantage a generic strategy seeks to achieve if the culture is an appropriate one, such as the culture of learning and innovation. So digital organizations must realize that the very process and controls instituted emanated from the thought process of people and to be robust and helpful must allow people to think and contribute to the design and restructure the process. Be open to learning and sharing new knowledge to bridge talent gap and innovation gap., etc.
Digital transformation is a long journey, there are many gaps on the way, such as leadership gap, strategy gap, talent gap, innovation gap, information management gap, the gap between business and IT, etc. Running IT to bridge the gaps means IT becoming an integral part of business, leveraging IT as a business driver to both create change and adapt to change, and innovating IT as a game changer and business growth catalyzer.
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May 9, 2016
Talent Management Monthly Brief: See Through Talent from Different Angles VIII May. 2016
People are always the most invaluable asset in businesses. “Hiring the right person to the right position at the right time,” is the mantra of many forward-thinking organizations. The question is how would you define the right people? How do you define wrong, average, mediocre, good, great or extraordinary person? Or put simply, for what should they be right? Traditional Performance Management focusing on measuring what an employee does (mainly being told to do) in a quantitative way is not sufficient to identify high performance or high potential, should we see through talent from different angles?
See Through Talent from Different Angles Three Question to assess a Person’s “Inquisitiveness” The world is transforming from personal computing into digital computing, from globalization into globality, from knowledge limitation to information abundance, the answer about yesterday is not as critical as the questions about the future. How to ask the right questions is not only just the raw intelligence to reflect human’s intellectual curiosity, it becomes the new skills need to be sharpened and focused on, to frame and co-solve the common problems and co-create the better world. So how to assess a person’s inquisitiveness and the wisdom of questioning?
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Insight The business and the world today are hyperconnected and over-complex, digital leaders and professionals need to not only make observation more carefully, but should always capture the insight, which is the deep intuitive understanding of things, and it often breaks through the conventional wisdom, in order to gain the true wisdom. Insight is in demand -which questions should you ask to assess a person’s insight, besides "vision"? Three Questions to Assess a Person’s “Blind Spot” The business and the world are moving into deep, deep digital dynamic with velocity, complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity and rapid changes. It is increasingly difficult to either steer the individual toward a progressive career path or navigate the business to the right direction with the right strategy. It also becomes more challenging to make effective decisions or sound judgment on the daily basis for both digital leaders and professionals. So how to assess a person’s “blind spot” in order to predict his/her ability to think thoroughly and decide wisely?
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Self-Discipline Skill: The era of top-down, hierarchical management and command and control style of leadership is beginning to change. We live in the hyperconnected, always-on hybrid world with well mixed physical business building and remote working environment, the job is no longer just the place you go in fixed hours on weekdays, but the task you accomplish at always on and always connected surroundings. The team needs to be self-organizing in being disciplined enough to do the work. There are more opportunities and temptations due to today’s digital convenience, only the wise minds can make the right choices. And, self-motivation, self-discipline and time management skill become more important qualities to define the “right people” in digital organizations. Which questions shall you ask to assess a person’s self-discipline skill?Three Questions to Assess a Person's Personality People are different, we all have different character, personality, favorite activities, strength, and weakness. Think of the five fingers of the human hand. Without their differences in size, shape, and location, a grip wouldn’t have been perfect as destined by nature. Introvert, Extrovert, or ambivert, what are the set of questions to assess a person’s personality?The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3+million page views with about #2500+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom, to inspire critical thinking and spur healthy debates. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
See through talent from different angles Feb. 2016See through talent from different angles Jan. 2016See through talent from different angles Dec. 2015See through talent from different angles Nov. 2015Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
CIO Master Tuning XXVIII Three Perspectives to Differentiate a Transformational IT from a Transactional IT
Generally speaking, transactional" refers to operational transactions, taking an input at one end and churning it out at the other with processes in between. "Transformational" means redesigning existing transactions to something new, being innovative and creative and also introducing completely new transactions hopefully with a strategy that serves the organization well. The pace of changes in IT would force more CIOs into transformation-oriented roles, creating business value is what is expected from CIOs. And, transactional running the systems is going to shrink with cloud and digital technology, once IT is seen as strategic rather than tactical, IT can be transformational when the opportunity arises and it is appropriate to seize it.
A transformation often needs to break down the outdated rules, and a transaction is following the rules: A transaction is inside a box; a transformation might need work cross box. A transformation focuses on goals of innovation, it would have to break down some old rules, and ‘best practice,” but follow the set of well-defined principles and develop a series of next practice to run a high performance digital IT. After breaking the outdated rules, you are "outside the box." Thinking outside the box is all about "rule breaking"; the more "unruly" you are, the more creative you are. However, being "unruly" incurs risk, you need to set the updated rules for managing the innovation and mitigating the risks, just like shaping the new box to stay focus and achieve the value of creativity.Transformation is the more ambitious sounding term, in addition to the set point changing, transformation requires first shifting mindsets, and then, building new skills and reinforcing and embedding new practices/reflexes. We tend to need interpersonal transformation, then intra-personal transformation to achieve organizational transformation.
A transformation is a strategy, and a transaction is tactic: IT can be just a service organization, provide commodity services, or they can identify where they can add extreme value to an organization, to the business, and to overall business leadership. A transaction is about how; a transformation is what and why. So IT's DNA may well transform to IV--Information Value. A transaction has a short-range view; a transformation has a long-range perspective, developing a shared vision, communicating valid and compelling reasons for cooperation, recognizing sacrifice and incremental success, measuring outcomes in a shared and mutually understood and agreed upon fashion, being able to declare an end-point and successful conclusion -- at least of a major phase -- without being disingenuous, examining what went well and what could be done better next time, etc.
A transaction focuses on “keeping the lights on,” while the transformation is quantum leapfrogging: Information is lifeblood and foundation of any business today. If transactional IT may limit its imagination to focus on bottom line, then the transformation is a mission for IT to improve business/customer intimacy and embrace digitalization. IT customers (the business units) are looking for strategic business partners that have a bird-eye view of all the business processes due to the system and landscape knowledge IT have maintained over the years; or with good operational knowledge of the entire business combined with advanced systems and architectural knowledge. The more intimate IT can be with the business needs, the faster IT can move up the ladder to a business partner, then business peer, and maybe even a business leader.
IT needs to both reboot mindset and retool management discipline, more proactively anticipate business value delivery through knowledge of information technology, also become business’s strategic partner. Further, the CIO role needs to shift from a transactional manager to a transformational leader, it takes thought leadership, transcendent wisdom, and trans-disciplinary skill. Until then, the rest of the business will feel that if the transactional CIO is talking it's because there are problems, not opportunities, and won't want to listen. A transformational CIO is innovative, Influential, and intellectual.
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May 8, 2016
Which Path do you Take for Change Management?
Organizational Change is always difficult, and many organizations have the symptom of “change fatigue,” change is inevitable and needed in every business. The successful businesses are the ones that have learned HOW to implement change time after time after time, and build it as a solid business capability. Change Management requires a plan and strategy as well, what are the further aspect to improve the success rate of change management?
Building+maintaining trusting relationships: It would be helpful to know that any change within an organization is a process always involving trust and relationships; not a one-and-done chore. However, building trust often gets overlooked and therefore minimized as insignificant; without trust, there is no respect; and without trust and respect in an organization, change efforts become like a rocking chair stays in motion but gets nowhere. The staff becomes like nails and the leadership like the hammer forcing staff into submission of change. Start by building trust with yourself, because if you don't trust anyone, including yourself, then bringing about change in an organizational system will be daunting. We must develop, maintain and grow trusting relationships with the people who represent leadership within the organization. Trust is fundamental but in an organizational system if you want to change something. Advantages of the change should be clear in everyone's head - well interpreted. Thus, a communication strategy for the implementation of such a project should be well fleshed out.
All organizational changes should start from a good example of the top management: If the organization is going to buy into changes it is crucial that those who lead the change efforts are showing their efforts on a daily basis. Large surveys show that organizational changes often go wrong, even up to 50% of them, as a result I believe firmly that education should be a part of any organizational changes. People need knowledge and support when organizational changes are made. Successful change evolves. It requires clear vision and direction with communication and action--on all levels. Is through the efforts of people who care and are willing to leap into a new dimension of possibilities. Today many companies are moving toward open structure and more freedom to those who are linked with the front line jobs. Perhaps one key to the question is allow for leadership to communicate at many different levels throughout the organization. If people don´t feel that they are valued, it is often difficult to bring around changes. This means that employees are a part of the decision-making process and how the company is operating. Leadership and decisions making at many different levels are often likely to drive out the best in the people, organizational innovation and culture.
A holistic approach is an optimal path for change:: One of the items that affect changes upon organizational structure is how it is done. Planned vs. radical way. Studies have shown that leaders that have offered democratic participation have reached far better outcome than those who have been autocratic in their approach. Planned change and participative management are central to success. Thus, to change an organizational system, you must first understand the concept of the true meaning of organizational system & learning the art & practice of the Learning Organization. Once you comprehend these elements, then, you must rewire the brain through a new set of lens. Major organization change occurs due to environmental changes. To change an organization's culture, there must be buy-in from the executives on down. Then a change agent must be brought in to work with every tier, establishing a common language for the organization and dealing with the most challenging issue - what is NOT spoken. There are change agents making cultures conscious to transform the entire organization. Further, while leadership and culture development made some differences, the traditional hierarchical structure with command and control policies limited employees willingness to be involved and the company's profitability. When a process-centered organizational structure is implemented simultaneously with culture and leadership development for all employees (with patience and perseverance) it dramatically improves both.
Change is unavoidable. There is often no shortcut for change. It should be made incrementally. It could be stirred up by the executive management, but needs to be embraced by all stakeholders. It should also be purposeful and needed. All departments have to have the stake in it. Their buy-ins should be gained upfront to mitigate resistance. " An organizational system may not need a total facelift or re-model. A few areas may need improvement while others need new processes. Once the "why" is know, the "what" can be the focus and the "how" will follow as it will be easier to answer the question with all the variables and goals identified and defined, change becomes an ongoing business capability to go hand in hand with strategy management.
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"CIO Master Book Tuning XXVII: "Five Capability Blocks to Build Digital Competency
Today’s digital professionals are innovative workers, hard workers, knowledge workers and intelligent workers.
People are always the most invaluable asset in any organizations. The forward-thinking digital organizations these days look for such hybrid talent, who has the digital fit mindset, the right balance of learning style, character and energy within the team; and who has well set of capabilities needed with digital speed. Due to the changing nature of technology and accelerating speed of business changes, among the most pervasive and persistent concerns from IT leaders are skills gaps, the complaints include that people do not have the right competencies, they can’t find the right skills to fill the positions, etc. Is IT skills gap fact or fiction? What are the most important capabilities for digital professionals to survive and thrive in today’s fast-changing business dynamic?
Thinking ability: The business environment become over-complex than ever, today's digital professionals need to work both smart and hard at the same time, not just keep the hands full, but also keep the mind open. "Thinking Performance" (What's the thought process for an individual to approach the problem) is an important aspect of assessing professional traits on which competencies are built. The integrity and suitability of the competency are tested through traits such as critical thinking, creative thinking, attitude, passion, entrepreneurship, leadership, maturity, and wisdom. etc. Creativity is the most wanted skill in the digital era. It means you are capable of thinking "out of the box," looking at it from the advanced level of technology, always challenge yourself to free your mind on what and where to change, when and at what cost/benefit. Starting with your current as-is situation will often limit (restraint) you in thinking far enough out of the box. Take the time to look at every situation from multiple points of view (customer POV, supplier POV, management POV, etc.). The mindset with multidimensional thinking abilities differentiates high talent from mediocrity because the talent with growth mind keeps thinking and learning for expanding the horizon and build the right set of capabilities to adapt to changes.
Problem-Solving Capability: Due to the complexity of today’s business, especially IT, the most needed talent are those who have well-blended hard and soft skills, and master on solving complex business problems, or know how to simplify and optimize solutions. Problem solvers who can leverage critical thinking and systems thinking are always chasing root cause, be creative and critical; analytical and holistic at the same time. Let them do things and problems solving in their own way to meet good results. assume that every problem has multiple solutions and individual needs to recognize not only what role they played in the problem, but what role they can now play to positively move forward.
Change Capability: The talented digital professionals need to have "changeability," due to the increasing speed of changes, and they are change agents for better self and better organization. Especially for IT talent, The person with change inertia is adverse to any change and want to continue with same old routine, but the overwhelming majority of people love and continue to love the change, if they capture the “big why” behind the change and today’s digital professionals shouldn't stop growing and strengthen skills. Creating positive change is a joint effort, a joint responsibility, that goes beyond the inspirational change leaders and the relentless change agent. It needs to involve your entire team at all levels. That comes from having the right culture, not a one-time change, but exhibiting positive thinking and proper behaviors at all times, every day, to commit to the values and expectations you have for the organization.Innovativeness: Today’s digital professionals are innovative workers, hard workers, knowledge workers and intelligent workers, who are exploring, innovating and evolving to new digital paradigms. To create the new requires not just one skill, but many, not just old experience, but the new perspective. Innovators are explorers and synthesizers of new world-views, or of future views to the world. The innovative professionals are those who can use explicit knowledge and generate the tacit knowledge embedded in explicit knowledge; who process information and data and add high value to the information and create new knowledge upon it, and who can think and communicate creatively and find alternative solutions to old problems or a new way to delight customers.
Learning ability: Learning agility means to learn, de-learn and re-learn all the times; and then apply those lessons to succeed in new situations. Digital learning is also multidimensional, dynamic, interactive, informal and integrated. Learning agility is not only the very quality of digital leaders but also the fundamental requirement for all digital professionals, in order to keep the mind open; make the skills updated and continue to build the dynamic digital capabilities to compete for the future. A collective learning capability is strategic for a company’s long-term success. Learning is not just about the formal education one receives in his/her earlier year anymore, but a lifetime habit. Limitations on learning are barriers set by human themselves, as learning is a continuous process and everyone has an enormous capacity to learn, and never stop learning.
Both attitude and aptitude count. Organizations today need to define the updated competency model, assess the talent's overall capability to solve problems, strike the right balance of learning capability, character, skills, communication and energy within the teams. Getting the balance right is a must as the consequences can be difficult and expensive. Building high-performance teams is at the heart of what talent manager should do and choose the right balance of team members is, as we all know, critical. It is important to create an environment where everyone feels as being part of a whole system and individual contribution can be achieved to create a win-win situation for both talented employees and businesses.
CIO Master Order Link on Amazon CIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & Noble CIO Master Order Link On IBooks “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection III “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection II “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection I, Slideshare Presentation “CIO Master” Book Preview Conclusion Running IT as Digital Transformer “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 9 IT Agility “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 8 Three "P"s in Running Digital IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 7 IT Innovation Management “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 6 Digital Strategy-Execution Continuum "CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 5 Thirteen Digital Flavored IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 4 CIO as Talent Master Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 3 “CIOs as Change Agent” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 2 “CIOs as Digital Visionary” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 1 “Twelve Digital CIO Personas” Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Book Preview
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
People are always the most invaluable asset in any organizations. The forward-thinking digital organizations these days look for such hybrid talent, who has the digital fit mindset, the right balance of learning style, character and energy within the team; and who has well set of capabilities needed with digital speed. Due to the changing nature of technology and accelerating speed of business changes, among the most pervasive and persistent concerns from IT leaders are skills gaps, the complaints include that people do not have the right competencies, they can’t find the right skills to fill the positions, etc. Is IT skills gap fact or fiction? What are the most important capabilities for digital professionals to survive and thrive in today’s fast-changing business dynamic?Thinking ability: The business environment become over-complex than ever, today's digital professionals need to work both smart and hard at the same time, not just keep the hands full, but also keep the mind open. "Thinking Performance" (What's the thought process for an individual to approach the problem) is an important aspect of assessing professional traits on which competencies are built. The integrity and suitability of the competency are tested through traits such as critical thinking, creative thinking, attitude, passion, entrepreneurship, leadership, maturity, and wisdom. etc. Creativity is the most wanted skill in the digital era. It means you are capable of thinking "out of the box," looking at it from the advanced level of technology, always challenge yourself to free your mind on what and where to change, when and at what cost/benefit. Starting with your current as-is situation will often limit (restraint) you in thinking far enough out of the box. Take the time to look at every situation from multiple points of view (customer POV, supplier POV, management POV, etc.). The mindset with multidimensional thinking abilities differentiates high talent from mediocrity because the talent with growth mind keeps thinking and learning for expanding the horizon and build the right set of capabilities to adapt to changes.
Problem-Solving Capability: Due to the complexity of today’s business, especially IT, the most needed talent are those who have well-blended hard and soft skills, and master on solving complex business problems, or know how to simplify and optimize solutions. Problem solvers who can leverage critical thinking and systems thinking are always chasing root cause, be creative and critical; analytical and holistic at the same time. Let them do things and problems solving in their own way to meet good results. assume that every problem has multiple solutions and individual needs to recognize not only what role they played in the problem, but what role they can now play to positively move forward.
Change Capability: The talented digital professionals need to have "changeability," due to the increasing speed of changes, and they are change agents for better self and better organization. Especially for IT talent, The person with change inertia is adverse to any change and want to continue with same old routine, but the overwhelming majority of people love and continue to love the change, if they capture the “big why” behind the change and today’s digital professionals shouldn't stop growing and strengthen skills. Creating positive change is a joint effort, a joint responsibility, that goes beyond the inspirational change leaders and the relentless change agent. It needs to involve your entire team at all levels. That comes from having the right culture, not a one-time change, but exhibiting positive thinking and proper behaviors at all times, every day, to commit to the values and expectations you have for the organization.Innovativeness: Today’s digital professionals are innovative workers, hard workers, knowledge workers and intelligent workers, who are exploring, innovating and evolving to new digital paradigms. To create the new requires not just one skill, but many, not just old experience, but the new perspective. Innovators are explorers and synthesizers of new world-views, or of future views to the world. The innovative professionals are those who can use explicit knowledge and generate the tacit knowledge embedded in explicit knowledge; who process information and data and add high value to the information and create new knowledge upon it, and who can think and communicate creatively and find alternative solutions to old problems or a new way to delight customers.
Learning ability: Learning agility means to learn, de-learn and re-learn all the times; and then apply those lessons to succeed in new situations. Digital learning is also multidimensional, dynamic, interactive, informal and integrated. Learning agility is not only the very quality of digital leaders but also the fundamental requirement for all digital professionals, in order to keep the mind open; make the skills updated and continue to build the dynamic digital capabilities to compete for the future. A collective learning capability is strategic for a company’s long-term success. Learning is not just about the formal education one receives in his/her earlier year anymore, but a lifetime habit. Limitations on learning are barriers set by human themselves, as learning is a continuous process and everyone has an enormous capacity to learn, and never stop learning.Both attitude and aptitude count. Organizations today need to define the updated competency model, assess the talent's overall capability to solve problems, strike the right balance of learning capability, character, skills, communication and energy within the teams. Getting the balance right is a must as the consequences can be difficult and expensive. Building high-performance teams is at the heart of what talent manager should do and choose the right balance of team members is, as we all know, critical. It is important to create an environment where everyone feels as being part of a whole system and individual contribution can be achieved to create a win-win situation for both talented employees and businesses.
CIO Master Order Link on Amazon CIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & Noble CIO Master Order Link On IBooks “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection III “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection II “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection I, Slideshare Presentation “CIO Master” Book Preview Conclusion Running IT as Digital Transformer “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 9 IT Agility “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 8 Three "P"s in Running Digital IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 7 IT Innovation Management “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 6 Digital Strategy-Execution Continuum "CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 5 Thirteen Digital Flavored IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 4 CIO as Talent Master Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 3 “CIOs as Change Agent” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 2 “CIOs as Digital Visionary” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 1 “Twelve Digital CIO Personas” Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Book Preview
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
CIOs as Talent Master: Five Capability Blocks to Build Digital Competency
Today’s digital professionals are innovative workers, hard workers, knowledge workers and intelligent workers.
People are always the most invaluable asset in any organizations. The forward-thinking digital organizations these days look for such hybrid talent, who has the digital fit mindset, the right balance of learning style, character and energy within the team; and who has well set of capabilities needed with digital speed. Due to the changing nature of technology and accelerating speed of business changes, among the most pervasive and persistent concerns from IT leaders are skills gaps, the complaints include that people do not have the right competencies, they can’t find the right skills to fill the positions, etc. Is IT skills gap fact or fiction? What are the most important capabilities for digital professionals to survive and thrive in today’s fast-changing business dynamic?
Thinking ability: The business environment become over-complex than ever, today's digital professionals need to work both smart and hard at the same time, not just keep the hands full, but also keep the mind open. "Thinking Performance" (What's the thought process for an individual to approach the problem) is an important aspect of assessing professional traits on which competencies are built. The integrity and suitability of the competency are tested through traits such as critical thinking, creative thinking, attitude, passion, entrepreneurship, leadership, maturity, and wisdom. etc. Creativity is the most wanted skill in the digital era. It means you are capable of thinking "out of the box," looking at it from the advanced level of technology, always challenge yourself to free your mind on what and where to change, when and at what cost/benefit. Starting with your current as-is situation will often limit (restraint) you in thinking far enough out of the box. Take the time to look at every situation from multiple points of view (customer POV, supplier POV, management POV, etc.). The mindset with multidimensional thinking abilities differentiates high talent from mediocrity because the talent with growth mind keeps thinking and learning for expanding the horizon and build the right set of capabilities to adapt to changes.
Problem-Solving Capability: Due to the complexity of today’s business, especially IT, the most needed talent are those who have well-blended hard and soft skills, and master on solving complex business problems, or know how to simplify and optimize solutions. Problem solvers who can leverage critical thinking and systems thinking are always chasing root cause, be creative and critical; analytical and holistic at the same time. Let them do things and problems solving in their own way to meet good results. assume that every problem has multiple solutions and individual needs to recognize not only what role they played in the problem, but what role they can now play to positively move forward.
Change Capability: The talented digital professionals need to have "changeability," due to the increasing speed of changes, and they are change agents for better self and better organization. Especially for IT talent, The person with change inertia is adverse to any change and want to continue with same old routine, but the overwhelming majority of people love and continue to love the change, if they capture the “big why” behind the change and today’s digital professionals shouldn't stop growing and strengthen skills. Creating positive change is a joint effort, a joint responsibility, that goes beyond the inspirational change leaders and the relentless change agent. It needs to involve your entire team at all levels. That comes from having the right culture, not a one-time change, but exhibiting positive thinking and proper behaviors at all times, every day, to commit to the values and expectations you have for the organization.
Innovativeness: Today’s digital professionals are innovative workers, hard workers, knowledge workers and intelligent workers, who are exploring, innovating and evolving to new digital paradigms. To create the new requires not just one skill, but many, not just old experience, but the new perspective. Innovators are explorers and synthesizers of new world-views, or of future views to the world. The innovative professionals are those who can use explicit knowledge and generate the tacit knowledge embedded in explicit knowledge; who process information and data and add high value to the information and create new knowledge upon it, and who can think and communicate creatively and find alternative solutions to old problems or a new way to delight customers.
Learning ability: Learning agility means to learn, de-learn and re-learn all the times; and then apply those lessons to succeed in new situations. Digital learning is also multidimensional, dynamic, interactive, informal and integrated. Learning agility is not only the very quality of digital leaders but also the fundamental requirement for all digital professionals, in order to keep the mind open; make the skills updated and continue to build the dynamic digital capabilities to compete for the future. A collective learning capability is strategic for a company’s long-term success. Learning is not just about the formal education one receives in his/her earlier year anymore, but a lifetime habit. Limitations on learning are barriers set by human themselves, as learning is a continuous process and everyone has an enormous capacity to learn, and never stop learning.
Both attitude and aptitude count. Organizations today need to define the updated competency model, assess the talent's overall capability to solve problems, strike the right balance of learning capability, character, skills, communication and energy within the teams. Getting the balance right is a must as the consequences can be difficult and expensive. Building high-performance teams is at the heart of what talent manager should do and choose the right balance of team members is, as we all know, critical. It is important to create an environment where everyone feels as being part of a whole system and individual contribution can be achieved to create a win-win situation for both talented employees and businesses.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
People are always the most invaluable asset in any organizations. The forward-thinking digital organizations these days look for such hybrid talent, who has the digital fit mindset, the right balance of learning style, character and energy within the team; and who has well set of capabilities needed with digital speed. Due to the changing nature of technology and accelerating speed of business changes, among the most pervasive and persistent concerns from IT leaders are skills gaps, the complaints include that people do not have the right competencies, they can’t find the right skills to fill the positions, etc. Is IT skills gap fact or fiction? What are the most important capabilities for digital professionals to survive and thrive in today’s fast-changing business dynamic?Thinking ability: The business environment become over-complex than ever, today's digital professionals need to work both smart and hard at the same time, not just keep the hands full, but also keep the mind open. "Thinking Performance" (What's the thought process for an individual to approach the problem) is an important aspect of assessing professional traits on which competencies are built. The integrity and suitability of the competency are tested through traits such as critical thinking, creative thinking, attitude, passion, entrepreneurship, leadership, maturity, and wisdom. etc. Creativity is the most wanted skill in the digital era. It means you are capable of thinking "out of the box," looking at it from the advanced level of technology, always challenge yourself to free your mind on what and where to change, when and at what cost/benefit. Starting with your current as-is situation will often limit (restraint) you in thinking far enough out of the box. Take the time to look at every situation from multiple points of view (customer POV, supplier POV, management POV, etc.). The mindset with multidimensional thinking abilities differentiates high talent from mediocrity because the talent with growth mind keeps thinking and learning for expanding the horizon and build the right set of capabilities to adapt to changes.
Problem-Solving Capability: Due to the complexity of today’s business, especially IT, the most needed talent are those who have well-blended hard and soft skills, and master on solving complex business problems, or know how to simplify and optimize solutions. Problem solvers who can leverage critical thinking and systems thinking are always chasing root cause, be creative and critical; analytical and holistic at the same time. Let them do things and problems solving in their own way to meet good results. assume that every problem has multiple solutions and individual needs to recognize not only what role they played in the problem, but what role they can now play to positively move forward.
Change Capability: The talented digital professionals need to have "changeability," due to the increasing speed of changes, and they are change agents for better self and better organization. Especially for IT talent, The person with change inertia is adverse to any change and want to continue with same old routine, but the overwhelming majority of people love and continue to love the change, if they capture the “big why” behind the change and today’s digital professionals shouldn't stop growing and strengthen skills. Creating positive change is a joint effort, a joint responsibility, that goes beyond the inspirational change leaders and the relentless change agent. It needs to involve your entire team at all levels. That comes from having the right culture, not a one-time change, but exhibiting positive thinking and proper behaviors at all times, every day, to commit to the values and expectations you have for the organization.
Innovativeness: Today’s digital professionals are innovative workers, hard workers, knowledge workers and intelligent workers, who are exploring, innovating and evolving to new digital paradigms. To create the new requires not just one skill, but many, not just old experience, but the new perspective. Innovators are explorers and synthesizers of new world-views, or of future views to the world. The innovative professionals are those who can use explicit knowledge and generate the tacit knowledge embedded in explicit knowledge; who process information and data and add high value to the information and create new knowledge upon it, and who can think and communicate creatively and find alternative solutions to old problems or a new way to delight customers.
Learning ability: Learning agility means to learn, de-learn and re-learn all the times; and then apply those lessons to succeed in new situations. Digital learning is also multidimensional, dynamic, interactive, informal and integrated. Learning agility is not only the very quality of digital leaders but also the fundamental requirement for all digital professionals, in order to keep the mind open; make the skills updated and continue to build the dynamic digital capabilities to compete for the future. A collective learning capability is strategic for a company’s long-term success. Learning is not just about the formal education one receives in his/her earlier year anymore, but a lifetime habit. Limitations on learning are barriers set by human themselves, as learning is a continuous process and everyone has an enormous capacity to learn, and never stop learning.Both attitude and aptitude count. Organizations today need to define the updated competency model, assess the talent's overall capability to solve problems, strike the right balance of learning capability, character, skills, communication and energy within the teams. Getting the balance right is a must as the consequences can be difficult and expensive. Building high-performance teams is at the heart of what talent manager should do and choose the right balance of team members is, as we all know, critical. It is important to create an environment where everyone feels as being part of a whole system and individual contribution can be achieved to create a win-win situation for both talented employees and businesses.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
May 7, 2016
The Monthly Digital Leadership Brief: Change Leadership May. 2016
The substance of leadership is not trendy, but envisioning leadership trends help to discover the future of leaders.
From one generation to the next, the substance of leadership does not change, it’s about future, change and influence. However, the leadership trends will continue to emerge. Here is a set of featured blogs to ponder the CHANGE nature of digital leadership to celebrate the “Mother’s Day.”
Three Qualities of Change Leaders? Fundamentally leadership is about change and influencing people to change. Leadership is moving you and others, and evolving to what is needed next. The speed of change is accelerating, Change Leadership becomes a more critical capacity to influence others through inspiration, motivated by a passion, birthed by a conviction of a sense of purpose of why you were created. Leadership is all about the ability to take initiative and the ability to influence with or without authority. It is the power of example that frees people to do willingly and well that needs to be done. What are important qualities in change leadership?
What Drives you to be a Change Leader or an Agent? Change - big or small is inevitable. You can’t step into the same river twice, meaning that everything is always in a state of flow. However, as human beings, we mostly want familiarity and stability. As a Change Manager or Change Agent: What’s your inspiration and motivation to lead changes? And how to manage it more effectively?
Change Leadership & Change Management Go Hand-in-Hand? Change Management is about mentoring the human side of the business through profound, unsettling change. Change Management has a very wide scope and is a relatively new area of expertise. From a management perspective, First, distinguish between change management and change leadership: the former is being about guiding strategy, systems, and process while the latter is about influencing people and culture. To be successful leaders, you must face and handle both, they are both important to make a change not a one-time project, but an ongoing business capability.
Is Leadership about Change? The world has changed significantly, and the speed of change is accelerating. Not only has it gotten flatter (globalization), but also it’s gotten hyper-connected (digitalization). This is where leadership must invoke great vision, good tactics and innovation comes into play. Leadership is about future, future is full of changes, is leadership all about change as well?
What does a Change Leaders/Managers actually Deliver? People change for a reason; they must have a reason to want to adopt the change. The question to be asked is why are you wanting the change? What do you expect to gain from adopting the change? That is where the change originator defines their deliverables and benefits, in real measurable, quantifiable terms. But what is “Change Management” and how can you define its value? What does a change leaders/managers actually deliver?
The blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thought; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making influence through touching the hearts and connecting the minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with about #2700 blog posting. Among 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
From one generation to the next, the substance of leadership does not change, it’s about future, change and influence. However, the leadership trends will continue to emerge. Here is a set of featured blogs to ponder the CHANGE nature of digital leadership to celebrate the “Mother’s Day.”
Three Qualities of Change Leaders? Fundamentally leadership is about change and influencing people to change. Leadership is moving you and others, and evolving to what is needed next. The speed of change is accelerating, Change Leadership becomes a more critical capacity to influence others through inspiration, motivated by a passion, birthed by a conviction of a sense of purpose of why you were created. Leadership is all about the ability to take initiative and the ability to influence with or without authority. It is the power of example that frees people to do willingly and well that needs to be done. What are important qualities in change leadership?
What Drives you to be a Change Leader or an Agent? Change - big or small is inevitable. You can’t step into the same river twice, meaning that everything is always in a state of flow. However, as human beings, we mostly want familiarity and stability. As a Change Manager or Change Agent: What’s your inspiration and motivation to lead changes? And how to manage it more effectively?
Change Leadership & Change Management Go Hand-in-Hand? Change Management is about mentoring the human side of the business through profound, unsettling change. Change Management has a very wide scope and is a relatively new area of expertise. From a management perspective, First, distinguish between change management and change leadership: the former is being about guiding strategy, systems, and process while the latter is about influencing people and culture. To be successful leaders, you must face and handle both, they are both important to make a change not a one-time project, but an ongoing business capability.
Is Leadership about Change? The world has changed significantly, and the speed of change is accelerating. Not only has it gotten flatter (globalization), but also it’s gotten hyper-connected (digitalization). This is where leadership must invoke great vision, good tactics and innovation comes into play. Leadership is about future, future is full of changes, is leadership all about change as well?
What does a Change Leaders/Managers actually Deliver? People change for a reason; they must have a reason to want to adopt the change. The question to be asked is why are you wanting the change? What do you expect to gain from adopting the change? That is where the change originator defines their deliverables and benefits, in real measurable, quantifiable terms. But what is “Change Management” and how can you define its value? What does a change leaders/managers actually deliver?
The blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thought; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making influence through touching the hearts and connecting the minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with about #2700 blog posting. Among 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The Monthly Digital Leadership Brief :Change Leadership May. 2016
Leadership is about CHANGE!
From one generation to the next, the substance of leadership does not change, it’s about future, change and influence. However, the leadership trends will continue to emerge. Here is a set of featured blogs to ponder the CHANGE nature of digital leadership to celebrate the “Mother’s Day.”
Three Qualities of Change Leaders? Fundamentally leadership is about change and influencing people to change. Leadership is moving you and others, and evolving to what is needed next. The speed of change is accelerating, Change Leadership becomes a more critical capacity to influence others through inspiration, motivated by a passion, birthed by a conviction of a sense of purpose of why you were created. Leadership is all about the ability to take initiative and the ability to influence with or without authority. It is the power of example that frees people to do willingly and well that needs to be done. What are important qualities in change leadership?
What Drives you to be a Change Leader or an Agent? Change - big or small is inevitable. You can’t step into the same river twice, meaning that everything is always in a state of flow. However, as human beings, we mostly want familiarity and stability. As a Change Manager or Change Agent: What’s your inspiration and motivation to lead changes? And how to manage it more effectively?
Change Leadership & Change Management Go Hand-in-Hand? Change Management is about mentoring the human side of the business through profound, unsettling change. Change Management has a very wide scope and is a relatively new area of expertise. From a management perspective, First, distinguish between change management and change leadership: the former is being about guiding strategy, systems, and process while the latter is about influencing people and culture. To be successful leaders, you must face and handle both. they are both important to make a change not a one-time project, but an ongoing business capability.
Is Leadership about Change? The world has changed significantly, and the speed of change is accelerating. Not only has it gotten flatter (globalization), but also it’s gotten hyper-connected (digitalization). This is where leadership must invoke great vision, good tactics and innovation comes into play. Leadership is about future, future is full of changes, is leadership all about change as well?
What does a Change Leaders/Managers actually Deliver? People change for a reason; they must have a reason to want to adopt the change. The question to be asked is why are you wanting the change? What do you expect to gain from adopting the change? That is where the change originator defines their deliverables and benefits, in real measurable, quantifiable terms. But what is “Change Management” and how can you define its value? What does a change leaders/managers actually deliver?
The blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thought; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making influence through touching the hearts and connecting the minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with about #2700 blog posting. Among 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
From one generation to the next, the substance of leadership does not change, it’s about future, change and influence. However, the leadership trends will continue to emerge. Here is a set of featured blogs to ponder the CHANGE nature of digital leadership to celebrate the “Mother’s Day.”
Three Qualities of Change Leaders? Fundamentally leadership is about change and influencing people to change. Leadership is moving you and others, and evolving to what is needed next. The speed of change is accelerating, Change Leadership becomes a more critical capacity to influence others through inspiration, motivated by a passion, birthed by a conviction of a sense of purpose of why you were created. Leadership is all about the ability to take initiative and the ability to influence with or without authority. It is the power of example that frees people to do willingly and well that needs to be done. What are important qualities in change leadership?
What Drives you to be a Change Leader or an Agent? Change - big or small is inevitable. You can’t step into the same river twice, meaning that everything is always in a state of flow. However, as human beings, we mostly want familiarity and stability. As a Change Manager or Change Agent: What’s your inspiration and motivation to lead changes? And how to manage it more effectively?
Change Leadership & Change Management Go Hand-in-Hand? Change Management is about mentoring the human side of the business through profound, unsettling change. Change Management has a very wide scope and is a relatively new area of expertise. From a management perspective, First, distinguish between change management and change leadership: the former is being about guiding strategy, systems, and process while the latter is about influencing people and culture. To be successful leaders, you must face and handle both. they are both important to make a change not a one-time project, but an ongoing business capability.
Is Leadership about Change? The world has changed significantly, and the speed of change is accelerating. Not only has it gotten flatter (globalization), but also it’s gotten hyper-connected (digitalization). This is where leadership must invoke great vision, good tactics and innovation comes into play. Leadership is about future, future is full of changes, is leadership all about change as well?
What does a Change Leaders/Managers actually Deliver? People change for a reason; they must have a reason to want to adopt the change. The question to be asked is why are you wanting the change? What do you expect to gain from adopting the change? That is where the change originator defines their deliverables and benefits, in real measurable, quantifiable terms. But what is “Change Management” and how can you define its value? What does a change leaders/managers actually deliver?
The blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thought; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making influence through touching the hearts and connecting the minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with about #2700 blog posting. Among 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Strengthen your Leadership Strength to Celebrate "Mother's Day"
The strength of leadership is to deepen leadership influence and improve leadership maturity.
Leadership is about future and change. Digital leaders are passionate people with high-potential, who can dream, and own that much strength and courage to fulfill their dreams, to be a leader. Though there are certain leadership traits can be developed, authentic leaders are not taught, they are self-made. Because it needs a strong will and cause to be a leader which can not be implanted in any body. It is self-generated. They themselves identify their ideal. They follow and adopt their traits of leadership, What makes the difference between "good" and "great" is how well an individual marches the leadership strength and unique style with the goals, and pairs the goals with the organization and our society. Leadership strength is different from leadership style. The strength is based on your innate capabilities to lead more profoundly, effectively, and specifically, not just the manner or fashion to increase your leadership charisma. Should leadership also follow 80/20 principle, 80% strength for enhancing leadership profundity + 20% style to make leadership more engaging and interesting? There are so many kinds of leadership, and we need them all. So which flavor is your leadership?
Visionary leadership: Leadership is forward-looking, to make influence and progress. The fundamental requirements of leadership are : design a compelling vision of future, determine the WHY of the journey you will take, be clear on the value that will keep you on the road, and have the courage and determination to go until reaching the destination. Leadership starts with having a vision, then develop a plan to achieve it. Top leaders are visionary roles, they set the direction for the enterprise (internal and/or external) to step into the uncharted water and move across the blurred digital boundaries, and they orchestrate the digital transformation of an organization, its people, from the organization's current position to a position that best serves the interests of its customers, shareholders, and people.
Thought leadership: Though nowadays, the business and world are running with digital speed, there are still many analog mindsets, silo processes, and bureaucratic systems around. At today’s “digital dynamic with increasing speed of changes and hyper-competition, being a thoughtful, mindful and multi-dimensional thinker is more crucial to improve leadership effectiveness and maturity. Authenticity is the foundation to be a Thought Leader. Digital leadership is less about "HOW," more about "WHY," and “WHAT.” Leadership brand is less about what you look - the stereotypical leadership, and more about what you think - Thought Leadership.
Change leadership: Leadership is all about changes. With the increasing speed of change, to be successful leaders, you must face and handle both Change leadership and Change Management. What’s your inspiration and motivation to lead changes? And how to manage it more effectively? Change leadership is about influencing people and culture, inspiring changes, and innovating the new way to do things, and change management is about guiding strategy, systems, and process. Change Management has a very wide scope and is a relatively new area of expertise. Change leaders are both change agent and change manager.
Creative leadership: Creativity is the #1 skill in demand in the Digital Era. Hence, creative leaders have also emerged to lead digital transformation effortlessly. Creative leadership is the capacity to think and act beyond the boundaries that limit human potential. Open-mindedness is a significant characteristic of creative leadership. The leader views the whole picture and applies creativity in areas not explored yet. Creative leaders have multidimensional competencies to formulate creative, unconventional alternatives or solutions to resolve problems, to show versatility and flexibility in response to unpredictable or unanticipated circumstances.
Inquisitive Leadership: The future of leaders leads by questions. (Drucker) What keeps leaders successful is the intellectual curiosity and ability to continuously be inquisitive, open to learning and applying these learnings as they move forward. Their inquisitiveness makes them more open to asking the right questions, embrace the other point of view, be empathetic to understand others, practice leadership via wisdom, not just status quo.
The leader's role is in fostering a culture of open-mindedness, to unleash human potential. Leadership is like the guiding light, the more colors it manifests, the more significant its influence becomes. The strength of leadership can further strengthen leadership effectiveness and improve leadership maturity. The high-effective and high-mature leadership makes the human world move forward with faster speed.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Leadership is about future and change. Digital leaders are passionate people with high-potential, who can dream, and own that much strength and courage to fulfill their dreams, to be a leader. Though there are certain leadership traits can be developed, authentic leaders are not taught, they are self-made. Because it needs a strong will and cause to be a leader which can not be implanted in any body. It is self-generated. They themselves identify their ideal. They follow and adopt their traits of leadership, What makes the difference between "good" and "great" is how well an individual marches the leadership strength and unique style with the goals, and pairs the goals with the organization and our society. Leadership strength is different from leadership style. The strength is based on your innate capabilities to lead more profoundly, effectively, and specifically, not just the manner or fashion to increase your leadership charisma. Should leadership also follow 80/20 principle, 80% strength for enhancing leadership profundity + 20% style to make leadership more engaging and interesting? There are so many kinds of leadership, and we need them all. So which flavor is your leadership?
Visionary leadership: Leadership is forward-looking, to make influence and progress. The fundamental requirements of leadership are : design a compelling vision of future, determine the WHY of the journey you will take, be clear on the value that will keep you on the road, and have the courage and determination to go until reaching the destination. Leadership starts with having a vision, then develop a plan to achieve it. Top leaders are visionary roles, they set the direction for the enterprise (internal and/or external) to step into the uncharted water and move across the blurred digital boundaries, and they orchestrate the digital transformation of an organization, its people, from the organization's current position to a position that best serves the interests of its customers, shareholders, and people.
Thought leadership: Though nowadays, the business and world are running with digital speed, there are still many analog mindsets, silo processes, and bureaucratic systems around. At today’s “digital dynamic with increasing speed of changes and hyper-competition, being a thoughtful, mindful and multi-dimensional thinker is more crucial to improve leadership effectiveness and maturity. Authenticity is the foundation to be a Thought Leader. Digital leadership is less about "HOW," more about "WHY," and “WHAT.” Leadership brand is less about what you look - the stereotypical leadership, and more about what you think - Thought Leadership.
Change leadership: Leadership is all about changes. With the increasing speed of change, to be successful leaders, you must face and handle both Change leadership and Change Management. What’s your inspiration and motivation to lead changes? And how to manage it more effectively? Change leadership is about influencing people and culture, inspiring changes, and innovating the new way to do things, and change management is about guiding strategy, systems, and process. Change Management has a very wide scope and is a relatively new area of expertise. Change leaders are both change agent and change manager.
Creative leadership: Creativity is the #1 skill in demand in the Digital Era. Hence, creative leaders have also emerged to lead digital transformation effortlessly. Creative leadership is the capacity to think and act beyond the boundaries that limit human potential. Open-mindedness is a significant characteristic of creative leadership. The leader views the whole picture and applies creativity in areas not explored yet. Creative leaders have multidimensional competencies to formulate creative, unconventional alternatives or solutions to resolve problems, to show versatility and flexibility in response to unpredictable or unanticipated circumstances.
Inquisitive Leadership: The future of leaders leads by questions. (Drucker) What keeps leaders successful is the intellectual curiosity and ability to continuously be inquisitive, open to learning and applying these learnings as they move forward. Their inquisitiveness makes them more open to asking the right questions, embrace the other point of view, be empathetic to understand others, practice leadership via wisdom, not just status quo.The leader's role is in fostering a culture of open-mindedness, to unleash human potential. Leadership is like the guiding light, the more colors it manifests, the more significant its influence becomes. The strength of leadership can further strengthen leadership effectiveness and improve leadership maturity. The high-effective and high-mature leadership makes the human world move forward with faster speed.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
“Digital Valley” Book Tuning: Three Aspects in Making Effective Decisions
At today’s digital new normal -uncertainty, complexity, velocity, and ambiguity, the capability to make effective decisions becomes a more crucial leadership competency. There is fuzziness in the decision because there is fuzziness in conflicting criteria. An effective decision can be defined as an action you take that is logically consistent with the alternative you perceive, the information you get and the preference you have. A decision is a plan to change something in your current situation. A"decision" has lots of connotations of finality. What seems to mark those good problems solvers out from others is their ability to frame issues, problems, and decision options and turn them into potential opportunities, tangible outcomes, and inspirational change & transformation. What are the logical steps in making effective decisions, though?
Information –Insight – Decision-making scenario: The distinction between the decision quality and the outcome is important. If the decision-making scenario is well designed and executed, you have the highest probability of getting the best outcome in the state of knowledge accessible at the time of decision. Information and decision-making are intimately connected and interdependent. The information allows you to build an actionable insight as how to move from one level to the other. Information as input to the decision-making does not absolutely determine the decision but allows the decision-maker to exercise their judgment. It applies to the context and environment in which decisions are made. Information, inclusive of data, as input is the primary driver of decisions when it applies to automated systems, not human beings. In the human context, information drives awareness, which can include all of these characteristics such as, uncertainty, surprise, difficulty, and entropy, although it can also trigger a sense of confidence, confirmation, validation, verification. For decision-making to be effective, the decision-maker must have enough knowledge to make their decisions rich in information and significantly different from the available data. Because how effective the decision is depends on how capable the decision maker can climb the knowledge pyramid from data to information to insight and wisdom.
Brainstorm possible options and alternative solutions: There is too often a tendency to take a one-size-fits-all approach to decision making, which includes a linear and static decision which commits to a singular path. Decision-making today needs to take a systematic approach, but via nonlinear, collective thinking, the mix of analytics and intuition, and group contribution. Consider and compare the advantages and disadvantages of all options. Select the best option - avoid vagueness or indecisiveness. The thing, however, that the human brain cannot do, is to do a comparative assessment of many decision criteria - both quantitative and subjective, concurrently across many options, initiatives or programs etc, but the advanced decision intelligence tools can help. When leveraging the tool weighing tradeoffs, it's important that the team has determined the relative importance of each factor. Teams. Especially with the heterogeneous team setting, work because they bring different perspectives and knowledge to the table. They help to balance out the biases that from which the poor decisions are made. A decision is arguably a choice between two or more options. The greater majority of these options are circumstantially provided. One alternative may have a lot more strengths than another, but all those strengths together may not be nearly as important as the one or two strengths that another alternative has. So effective decision making needs to well blend both information and intuition; think fast and slow accordingly.
Any decision made needs to be applicable in a timely manner: Decisions are necessary as a result of limited resources in time, knowledge, capital, and people. There is no such thing as a perfect decision, but it is always crucial to make the timely decision in order to take the best action you could. People with different personalities approach decision making in different ways. And some have difficulty making any decision at all, which is in and of itself a passive decision “not to decide.” Making the decision in a timely manner requires resource awareness. Resource limitations are significant and decision makers who are not cognoscente of what they can or cannot do will always make a bad decision. Effective resource allocation and utilization is an important factor for a timely decision making. Sometimes internal factors which may influence on the decision process include, such as the goals of the decision maker, decision situation, decision context, relevant knowledge, as well as the organizational capabilities and resources. On the other hand, external factors can influence strategic decision-making as well, including technology factors, political and legal conditions, and competition and consumer demands.
Even with the best systems and processes, there are no guarantees that you will take good decisions, indeed the fact that something requires a decision will mean that there will be a bunch of associated risks to manage. Thus, the digital decision-making style is hybrid, you need to leverage sufficient information,and multiple perspectives, analyze and synthesize for making the right decisions at the right time by the right people.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
