Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1346
April 20, 2016
CIO Master Tuning XII: The Art of Paradox Management
The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right.
In the current business environment with “VUCA” characteristics, uncertainty and ambiguity are a key challenge for business leaders today. In the past, many business leaders believed their organizations’ long-term goals are static, could wait until they had dealt with the current crisis, their strategy-execution are linear steps, and business innovation is a luxury, not a necessity for the majority of companies. But this is no longer the case. The rate of change has accelerated, indicating that business leaders must learn how to deal with the management paradox in varying circumstances, to manage strategy and execution as an iterative continuum, strike the right balance to keep the business flow and accelerate the digital transformation. Many thought the modern management is the art of paradox management.
The Paradox of Strategy Management: The paradox is “a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.” Strategy manifests the ‘AS IS” & “TO BE’ state of the organization. The paradox of Strategy Management is that there is on one side pressure to strategy to be holistic and comprehensive. On the other side, there are requirements to strategy to be simple and easy as the world becomes more dynamic because Digital means flow: the energy flow, the information flow, the idea flow and the mind flow, so the view of the business ecosystem needs to become more dynamic and more adjustable. To balance such paradox, it is resulting in the necessity to use many reference models and other accelerators. It also leads to splitting of digital strategy into layers with different level of information granularity, where upper layers are holistic (covering all concepts, such as enterprise ontology and vocabulary) and lower layers are comprehensive - covering all attributes needed but for selected concepts only. The blurring line of business border and the uncharted frontier of an organization provides both unprecedented opportunities and emergent risks, so in order to craft a living strategy, the management has to have the ability to ask the hard questions and engage in meaningful dialogue even if you do not agree with one another you can indeed agree to disagree yet, stay engaged with one another. Traditional strategy making is often top-down and single dimensional push. However, digital strategy is agiler, outside-in and bottom-up feedback and inclusiveness becomes crucial for handling the paradox of digital strategy management, prioritizing strategic goals, and enforcing effectiveness of strategy-making and implementation continuum.
Innovation Paradox: The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. Business innovation often has the characteristic of paradox, and often creativity is sparked by conflict. For example, from the business perspective, on one side, overly focus on efficiency could limit the creativity potential of the business due to the limited resources invested in innovation, but improving business efficiency is always one of the important aspects to improve business maturity. If an organization is inefficient, it will be inefficient with new ideas as well. Hence, efficiency and innovation just have to learn to live and function together. Efficiency will extract the maximum benefit from a new idea. The greater the efficiency of an organization, the greater the need is for creativity to maintain high performance in the long run. Same as the standardization vs creativity, standardization is inside-the-box, and innovation is outside-the-box. Hence, organizations indeed need both, and in fact, cannot realistically exist without a healthy leverage of both. Innovation is no longer just "nice to have" luxury, but "must have" business quality to improve agility and maturity.
Talent Management Paradox: There are many dilemmas to manage today’s digital workforce. People are the center of any business. However, people are often the weakest link in both strategy management and change management. One of the classic debates reflects such a talent management paradox: “Shall you train your people?” with the speed of change and volatility of the economy, businesses become more dynamic, and talent also flows around more frequently. What happens if you invest in developing the people and then they leave? What happens if you don’t invest and they stay? Should you train your people and how to do it just right? If your company aspires to the top tier of success then professionalism comes with it. Building and retaining a professional workforce in such an environment means following the set of principle and playing by the updated rules. Though it is a tricky subject, and the answer also sounds paradoxical, you should develop your employees so that they can leave, but you should also treat them in a way that they wouldn't want to. So there is the paradigm shift. Develop your teams and their abilities so that they can do more for your organization. If you invest in you people, create a positive environment, and make a commitment to them, they are more likely to stay. Over the short term, there may be savings from lack of employee training, but eventually, it will hit the top as well as the bottom line: employees not at their best performance levels will impact not only winning new and repeat business, but also meeting or exceeding customer expectations. It’s not enough to just invest in dollars on an employee, and not just training for the sake of training, but training that will help employees and company. Take advantage of the latest digital technology and online training, develop the tailored training solution in the most effective and efficient way to match the needs and demand.
The best practice to deal with management paradox is to strike the right balance, no silo thinking, no binary or extreme thinking, but leverage Systems Thinking and Holistic Thinking to manage digital continuum with the nature of paradox in an elegant and innovative way.
CIO Master Order Link on AmazonCIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & NobleCIO 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
In the current business environment with “VUCA” characteristics, uncertainty and ambiguity are a key challenge for business leaders today. In the past, many business leaders believed their organizations’ long-term goals are static, could wait until they had dealt with the current crisis, their strategy-execution are linear steps, and business innovation is a luxury, not a necessity for the majority of companies. But this is no longer the case. The rate of change has accelerated, indicating that business leaders must learn how to deal with the management paradox in varying circumstances, to manage strategy and execution as an iterative continuum, strike the right balance to keep the business flow and accelerate the digital transformation. Many thought the modern management is the art of paradox management.
The Paradox of Strategy Management: The paradox is “a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.” Strategy manifests the ‘AS IS” & “TO BE’ state of the organization. The paradox of Strategy Management is that there is on one side pressure to strategy to be holistic and comprehensive. On the other side, there are requirements to strategy to be simple and easy as the world becomes more dynamic because Digital means flow: the energy flow, the information flow, the idea flow and the mind flow, so the view of the business ecosystem needs to become more dynamic and more adjustable. To balance such paradox, it is resulting in the necessity to use many reference models and other accelerators. It also leads to splitting of digital strategy into layers with different level of information granularity, where upper layers are holistic (covering all concepts, such as enterprise ontology and vocabulary) and lower layers are comprehensive - covering all attributes needed but for selected concepts only. The blurring line of business border and the uncharted frontier of an organization provides both unprecedented opportunities and emergent risks, so in order to craft a living strategy, the management has to have the ability to ask the hard questions and engage in meaningful dialogue even if you do not agree with one another you can indeed agree to disagree yet, stay engaged with one another. Traditional strategy making is often top-down and single dimensional push. However, digital strategy is agiler, outside-in and bottom-up feedback and inclusiveness becomes crucial for handling the paradox of digital strategy management, prioritizing strategic goals, and enforcing effectiveness of strategy-making and implementation continuum.
Innovation Paradox: The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. Business innovation often has the characteristic of paradox, and often creativity is sparked by conflict. For example, from the business perspective, on one side, overly focus on efficiency could limit the creativity potential of the business due to the limited resources invested in innovation, but improving business efficiency is always one of the important aspects to improve business maturity. If an organization is inefficient, it will be inefficient with new ideas as well. Hence, efficiency and innovation just have to learn to live and function together. Efficiency will extract the maximum benefit from a new idea. The greater the efficiency of an organization, the greater the need is for creativity to maintain high performance in the long run. Same as the standardization vs creativity, standardization is inside-the-box, and innovation is outside-the-box. Hence, organizations indeed need both, and in fact, cannot realistically exist without a healthy leverage of both. Innovation is no longer just "nice to have" luxury, but "must have" business quality to improve agility and maturity.
Talent Management Paradox: There are many dilemmas to manage today’s digital workforce. People are the center of any business. However, people are often the weakest link in both strategy management and change management. One of the classic debates reflects such a talent management paradox: “Shall you train your people?” with the speed of change and volatility of the economy, businesses become more dynamic, and talent also flows around more frequently. What happens if you invest in developing the people and then they leave? What happens if you don’t invest and they stay? Should you train your people and how to do it just right? If your company aspires to the top tier of success then professionalism comes with it. Building and retaining a professional workforce in such an environment means following the set of principle and playing by the updated rules. Though it is a tricky subject, and the answer also sounds paradoxical, you should develop your employees so that they can leave, but you should also treat them in a way that they wouldn't want to. So there is the paradigm shift. Develop your teams and their abilities so that they can do more for your organization. If you invest in you people, create a positive environment, and make a commitment to them, they are more likely to stay. Over the short term, there may be savings from lack of employee training, but eventually, it will hit the top as well as the bottom line: employees not at their best performance levels will impact not only winning new and repeat business, but also meeting or exceeding customer expectations. It’s not enough to just invest in dollars on an employee, and not just training for the sake of training, but training that will help employees and company. Take advantage of the latest digital technology and online training, develop the tailored training solution in the most effective and efficient way to match the needs and demand.The best practice to deal with management paradox is to strike the right balance, no silo thinking, no binary or extreme thinking, but leverage Systems Thinking and Holistic Thinking to manage digital continuum with the nature of paradox in an elegant and innovative way.
CIO Master Order Link on AmazonCIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & NobleCIO 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
CIO Master Tuning XI: The Management Paradox
The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right.
In the current business environment with “VUCA” characteristics, uncertainty and ambiguity are a key challenge for business leaders today. In the past, many business leaders believed their organizations’ long-term goals could wait until they had dealt with the current crisis, this is no longer the case. The rate of change has accelerated, indicating that business leaders must learn how to deal with the management paradox in varying circumstances, and strike the right balance to keep the business flow and accelerate the digital transformation:
The Paradox of Strategy Management: The paradox is “a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.” Strategy manifests the ‘AS IS” & “TO BE’ state of the organization. There is on one side pressure to strategy to be holistic and comprehensive. On the other side, there are requirements to strategy to be simple and easy as the world becomes more dynamic because Digital means flow: the energy flow, the information flow, the idea flow and the mind flow, so the view of the business ecosystem needs to become more dynamic and more adjustable. To balance such paradox, it is resulting in necessity to use many reference models and other accelerators. It also leads to splitting of digital strategy into layers with different level of information granularity, where upper layers are holistic (covering all concepts, such as enterprise ontology and vocabulary) and lower layers are comprehensive - covering all attributes needed but for selected concepts only. The blurring line of business border and the uncharted frontier of an organization provides both unprecedented opportunities and emergent risks, so in order to craft a living strategy, the management has to have the ability to ask the hard questions and engage in meaningful dialogue even if you do not agree with one another you can indeed agree to disagree yet, stay engaged with one another. Traditional strategy making is often top-down and single dimensional push. However, digital strategy is agiler, outside-in and bottom-up feedback and inclusiveness becomes crucial for handling the paradox of digital strategy management, prioritizing strategic goals, and enforcing effectiveness of strategy-making and implementation continuum.
Innovation Paradox: The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. Business innovation often has the characteristic of paradox. For example, from the business perspective, on one side, overly focus on efficiency could limit the creativity potential of the business due to the limited resources invested in innovation, but improving business efficiency is always one of the important aspects to improve business maturity. If an organization is inefficient, it will be inefficient with new ideas as well. Hence, efficiency and innovation just have to learn to live and function together. Efficiency will extract the maximum benefit from a new idea. The greater the efficiency of an organization, the greater the need is for creativity to maintain high performance in the long run. Same as the standardization vs creativity, standardization is inside-the-box, and innovation is outside-the-box. Hence, organizations indeed need both, and in fact, cannot realistically exist without a healthy leverage of both.
Talent Management Paradox: There are many dilemmas to manage today’s digital workforce. People are the center of any business. However, people are often the weakest link in both strategy management and change management. One of the classic debates reflects such a talent management paradox: “Shall you train your people?” with the speed of change and volatility of the economy, businesses become more dynamic, and talent also flow around more frequently, What happens if you invest in developing the people and then they leave? What happens if you don’t invest and they stay? Should you train your people and how to do it just right? If your company aspires to the top tier of success then professionalism comes with it. Building and retaining a professional workforce in such an environment means following the set of principle and playing by the updated rules. Though it is a tricky subject, and the answer also sounds paradoxical, you should develop your employees so that they can leave, but you should also treat them in a way that they wouldn't want to. So there is the paradigm shift. Develop your teams and their abilities so that they can do more for your organization. If you invest in you people, create a positive environment, and make a commitment to them, they are more likely to stay. Over the short term, there may be savings from lack of employee training, but eventually, it will hit the top as well as the bottom line: employees not at their best performance levels will impact not only winning new and repeat business, but also meeting or exceeding customer expectations. It’s not enough to just invest in dollars on an employee, and not just training for the sake of training, but training that will help company and employee. Take advantage of the latest digital technology and online training, develop the tailored training solution in the most effective and efficient way to match the needs and demand.
The best practice to deal with management paradox is to strike the right balance, no silo thinking, no binary or extreme thinking, but leverage Systems Thinking and Holistic Thinking to handle business paradox in an elegant and innovative way. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
In the current business environment with “VUCA” characteristics, uncertainty and ambiguity are a key challenge for business leaders today. In the past, many business leaders believed their organizations’ long-term goals could wait until they had dealt with the current crisis, this is no longer the case. The rate of change has accelerated, indicating that business leaders must learn how to deal with the management paradox in varying circumstances, and strike the right balance to keep the business flow and accelerate the digital transformation:
The Paradox of Strategy Management: The paradox is “a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.” Strategy manifests the ‘AS IS” & “TO BE’ state of the organization. There is on one side pressure to strategy to be holistic and comprehensive. On the other side, there are requirements to strategy to be simple and easy as the world becomes more dynamic because Digital means flow: the energy flow, the information flow, the idea flow and the mind flow, so the view of the business ecosystem needs to become more dynamic and more adjustable. To balance such paradox, it is resulting in necessity to use many reference models and other accelerators. It also leads to splitting of digital strategy into layers with different level of information granularity, where upper layers are holistic (covering all concepts, such as enterprise ontology and vocabulary) and lower layers are comprehensive - covering all attributes needed but for selected concepts only. The blurring line of business border and the uncharted frontier of an organization provides both unprecedented opportunities and emergent risks, so in order to craft a living strategy, the management has to have the ability to ask the hard questions and engage in meaningful dialogue even if you do not agree with one another you can indeed agree to disagree yet, stay engaged with one another. Traditional strategy making is often top-down and single dimensional push. However, digital strategy is agiler, outside-in and bottom-up feedback and inclusiveness becomes crucial for handling the paradox of digital strategy management, prioritizing strategic goals, and enforcing effectiveness of strategy-making and implementation continuum.
Innovation Paradox: The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. Business innovation often has the characteristic of paradox. For example, from the business perspective, on one side, overly focus on efficiency could limit the creativity potential of the business due to the limited resources invested in innovation, but improving business efficiency is always one of the important aspects to improve business maturity. If an organization is inefficient, it will be inefficient with new ideas as well. Hence, efficiency and innovation just have to learn to live and function together. Efficiency will extract the maximum benefit from a new idea. The greater the efficiency of an organization, the greater the need is for creativity to maintain high performance in the long run. Same as the standardization vs creativity, standardization is inside-the-box, and innovation is outside-the-box. Hence, organizations indeed need both, and in fact, cannot realistically exist without a healthy leverage of both.
Talent Management Paradox: There are many dilemmas to manage today’s digital workforce. People are the center of any business. However, people are often the weakest link in both strategy management and change management. One of the classic debates reflects such a talent management paradox: “Shall you train your people?” with the speed of change and volatility of the economy, businesses become more dynamic, and talent also flow around more frequently, What happens if you invest in developing the people and then they leave? What happens if you don’t invest and they stay? Should you train your people and how to do it just right? If your company aspires to the top tier of success then professionalism comes with it. Building and retaining a professional workforce in such an environment means following the set of principle and playing by the updated rules. Though it is a tricky subject, and the answer also sounds paradoxical, you should develop your employees so that they can leave, but you should also treat them in a way that they wouldn't want to. So there is the paradigm shift. Develop your teams and their abilities so that they can do more for your organization. If you invest in you people, create a positive environment, and make a commitment to them, they are more likely to stay. Over the short term, there may be savings from lack of employee training, but eventually, it will hit the top as well as the bottom line: employees not at their best performance levels will impact not only winning new and repeat business, but also meeting or exceeding customer expectations. It’s not enough to just invest in dollars on an employee, and not just training for the sake of training, but training that will help company and employee. Take advantage of the latest digital technology and online training, develop the tailored training solution in the most effective and efficient way to match the needs and demand.The best practice to deal with management paradox is to strike the right balance, no silo thinking, no binary or extreme thinking, but leverage Systems Thinking and Holistic Thinking to handle business paradox in an elegant and innovative way. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
April 19, 2016
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?
Are you an extrovert more driven to experience the world outwardly, or an introvert more focused on understanding the world intellectually? We all have a different way to interact with the environment. For extroverts, the pathway is much shorter. It runs through an area where taste, touch, visual and auditory sensory processing takes place. For an introvert, stimuli run through a long, complicated pathway in areas of the brain associated with remembering, planning and solving problems. Introversion is turning inward toward the interior world of ideas, feelings, fantasies, intuitions, sensations, and other facets of subjective experience. Extroverts, on the other hand, live almost exclusively in and for the exterior world, deriving fulfillment from regular interaction with outer reality.
Is extrovert more action oriented, and introvert more thought-led? Some think extroverts need to experience the world to understand it. Introverts need to understand the world before they experience it. It's not that introverts can't display an extroverted behavior or vice versa, it's how they feel at the end of the day. As "Application" is seen by the world, learning of skills has always been more important. Just learn and apply. But we tend to forget that understanding is equally important. It requires “hard thinking” and non-linear thought processes. An extrovert may express more but introverts often have great perspectives on every topic. Introverts, in some way, express more effectively than proclaimed extroverts in many real life situations and achieve results. The expression is not always a verbal expression. It is a matter of effective conveying of what one has in mind.
Are you an ambivert with the personality in between? As many concepts introduced at industrial age, the focus is too much on the two polar sides of personality, with ignorance of the middle ground - Ambiverts, the emergent concept to describe the personality in between, which has both introverted and extroverted traits, but neither trait is dominant, as a result, they have more balanced or adaptive personalities to fit in different circumstances. Do ambiverts have a blended personality to become a digital leader with agility and balance? Introvert" and "extrovert" are too simple groups to divide people into. Another misconception is that extraversion and introversion are general personality traits. One can be an extrovert, or more correctly, display extrovert behavior in certain situations while being introvert in other ones. All decent measures of personality traits are not black and white but allow for varying levels of traits to come forward. That’s why the concept ambiverts are emerging: Ambiverts move between being social or being solitary, speaking up or listening carefully with a thoughtful mind and passionate heart, with emotions to adjust to changes accordingly. So, every person, with all his/her peculiarities, is essential to achieve nature's mystery scheme for life and fulfillment of individual destinies. From the leadership perspective, who makes the better leader and why? What do introverts need to learn to advance? What problems do extroverts have? The introvert must develop the extrovert nature. It the mixing of yin and yang, the action and transcendence, The right mix is appreciatedFollow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Why is Creativity an Important Leadership Quality
Leadership is a mindset.
Leadership is about future, direction and change. What makes the difference between "good" and "great" leadership? Besides vision, intelligence (IQ & EQ), integrity, adaptability, etc., why is creativity becoming a more important leadership quality in the Digital Era?
The way a person lives with the authentic leadership style is ultimately a form of creative expression: Everyone is a leader in their own life, regardless of title; and life force itself is an expression of creation. Authentic leaders are creative people; creative people are leaders. Leadership effectiveness is how well an individual pairs their unique style with their goals, and pairs their goals with the organization. What creative people strive for is a means for true expression in form, that essence is true for leaders too. Leaders strive to be true to their intentions in much the same way as an artist tries to stay true to their subject. Each of us are not separate elite boxes; in other words, we are all creative leaders with numerous possibilities, because being a leader and being creative are not job titles, rather they are being human, the creature who can not only adapt to the change but also make advancement proactively.
Creative leadership is essentially anchored on the leader's overall multifaceted resourcefulness: That is, the multidimensional (including introspection) competencies to formulate creative, the unconventional alternatives or solutions to resolve problems, to show versatility and flexibility in response to unpredictable or unanticipated circumstances. Great leaders are pioneers, innovators, and creators of a better context. Creativity becomes significantly important in the age with the advanced technologies because the leaders of the future will not be mere automatons, but continue to discover, explore, and improve the surroundings. Creative leadership is the unique combination of leadership behaviors that develops and achieves high-quality results over a sustained period of time and risk tolerance.
Creative leaders are critical thinkers looking at creative ideas and the possible application of those ideas: Critical thinking embedded with creativity is the connection between creative people and leaders. From a leadership perspective, cross-cultural and intercultural integration is about diversity and bringing new thoughts and ways of doing things into an organization. However, many organizations themselves are restricting the diversity by simply selecting those people that reflect their current culture and norms. Where the focus needs to be is in how do they incorporate true diversity into the businesses in order to spark creativity, to foster a culture of open-mindedness, to the best of ability, and that may take time and effort. A leader leads by example, get your mind, your heart and hands involved. LEADERSHIP + CREATIVITY equals MANIFESTATION.
The authentic leaders have personal and the unique styles that give people the sense of ownership towards the life in general and their relationships in different areas in life. When a leader can activate his/her leadership, creativity comes; creativity is a need to create a new solution towards something that appears as a challenge towards the vision or goal, this unique leader will be creative to overcome obstacles and reach the vision effortlessly.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Leadership is about future, direction and change. What makes the difference between "good" and "great" leadership? Besides vision, intelligence (IQ & EQ), integrity, adaptability, etc., why is creativity becoming a more important leadership quality in the Digital Era?
The way a person lives with the authentic leadership style is ultimately a form of creative expression: Everyone is a leader in their own life, regardless of title; and life force itself is an expression of creation. Authentic leaders are creative people; creative people are leaders. Leadership effectiveness is how well an individual pairs their unique style with their goals, and pairs their goals with the organization. What creative people strive for is a means for true expression in form, that essence is true for leaders too. Leaders strive to be true to their intentions in much the same way as an artist tries to stay true to their subject. Each of us are not separate elite boxes; in other words, we are all creative leaders with numerous possibilities, because being a leader and being creative are not job titles, rather they are being human, the creature who can not only adapt to the change but also make advancement proactively.
Creative leadership is essentially anchored on the leader's overall multifaceted resourcefulness: That is, the multidimensional (including introspection) competencies to formulate creative, the unconventional alternatives or solutions to resolve problems, to show versatility and flexibility in response to unpredictable or unanticipated circumstances. Great leaders are pioneers, innovators, and creators of a better context. Creativity becomes significantly important in the age with the advanced technologies because the leaders of the future will not be mere automatons, but continue to discover, explore, and improve the surroundings. Creative leadership is the unique combination of leadership behaviors that develops and achieves high-quality results over a sustained period of time and risk tolerance.
Creative leaders are critical thinkers looking at creative ideas and the possible application of those ideas: Critical thinking embedded with creativity is the connection between creative people and leaders. From a leadership perspective, cross-cultural and intercultural integration is about diversity and bringing new thoughts and ways of doing things into an organization. However, many organizations themselves are restricting the diversity by simply selecting those people that reflect their current culture and norms. Where the focus needs to be is in how do they incorporate true diversity into the businesses in order to spark creativity, to foster a culture of open-mindedness, to the best of ability, and that may take time and effort. A leader leads by example, get your mind, your heart and hands involved. LEADERSHIP + CREATIVITY equals MANIFESTATION.
The authentic leaders have personal and the unique styles that give people the sense of ownership towards the life in general and their relationships in different areas in life. When a leader can activate his/her leadership, creativity comes; creativity is a need to create a new solution towards something that appears as a challenge towards the vision or goal, this unique leader will be creative to overcome obstacles and reach the vision effortlessly.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Why is creativity an important Leadership Quality
Leadership is a mindset, leadership is about future, direction and change. What makes the difference between "good" and "great" leadership? Besides vision, intelligence (IQ & EQ), integrity, adaptability, etc., why is creativity becoming a more important leadership quality in the Digital Era?
The way a person lives with the authentic leadership style is ultimately a form of creative expression: Everyone is a leader in their own life, regardless of title; and life force itself is an expression of creation. Authentic leaders are creative people; creative people ARE leaders. Leadership effectiveness is how well an individual pairs their unique style with their goals, and pairs their goals with the organization. What creative people strive for is a means for true expression in form, that essence is true for leaders too. Leaders strive to be true to their intentions in much the same way as an artist tries to stay true to their subject. Each of us are not separate elite boxes; in other words, we are all creative leaders with numerous possibilities, because being a leader and being creative are not job titles, rather they are being human.
Creative leadership is essentially anchored on the leader's overall multifaceted resourcefulness: That is, the multidimensional (including introspection) competencies to formulate creative, the unconventional alternatives or solutions to resolve problems, to show versatility and flexibility in response to unpredictable or unanticipated circumstances. Great leaders are pioneers, innovators, and creators of a better context. Creativity becomes significantly important in the age with the advanced technologies because the leaders of the future will not be mere automatons. Creative leadership is the unique combination of leadership behaviors that develops and achieves high-quality results over a sustained period of time and risk tolerance.
Creative leaders are critical thinkers looking at creative ideas and the possible application of those ideas: Critical thinking embedded with creativity is the connection between creative people and leaders. From a leadership perspective, cross-cultural and intercultural integration is about diversity and bringing new thoughts and ways of doing things into an organization. However, many organizations themselves are restricting the diversity by simply selecting those people that reflect their current culture and norms. Where the focus needs to be is in how do they incorporate true diversity into our businesses in order to spark creativity, to foster a culture of open-mindedness, to the best of ability, and that may take time and effort. A leader leads by example, get your mind, your heart and hands involved. LEADER + CREATIVE equals MANIFESTATION.
The authentic leaders have personal and the unique styles that give people the sense of ownership towards the life in general and their relationships in different areas in life. When a leader can activate his/her leadership, creativity comes; creativity is a need to create a new solution towards something that appears as a challenge towards personal vision or goal, this unique leader will be creative.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
“CIO Master” Tuning XI: Does Superior Execution Require the Leaders’ Inquisitiveness?
Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today.
The characteristic of Digital Era is increasing rate of change and continuous disruption, and this isn’t going to change. Preparing a strategic plan is important because it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. But the more challenging part is strategy execution, statistically more than two-thirds of strategy implementation fail to achieve the expected result. How to diagnose the root causes of problems? Does superior execution require the leader's inquisitiveness? And what are the best scenario to manage strategy execution continuum?
Why does Strategy Execution unravel: Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today. So it’s important to outline the strategic intent and frame the strategy to be understandable and implementable. Strategy execution is difficult. two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel and how to improve strategy execution success rate? Successful strategy execution is directly related to leadership capability from the top down. Leaders and managers should guide, direct, own the strategy they hold themselves accountable, they should listen, communicate, and rally the team for the cause. It's not just about strategic ideas, but making the strategy a living thing. Strategy execution unravels because of poor leadership. In other words lack of accountabilities, lack of decision rights and inter & intra-divisional tensions. The strategy when executed has a breath, and it can breathe life into people and the culture. The process of moving something from outlier to acceptance usually takes a long time and involves risk. It seems logical the more ambitious the strategy businesses undertakes, they should expect high levels of friction to capture (inside and outside the company) those high rewards. However, most managers spend very little time addressing crumbling paradigms or basically would not know where to start to addressing crumbling paradigms. The superior execution requires the leaders’ inquisitiveness to dig through the root cause, and it is far easier to proactively structure and manage execution than to deal reactively with the ravages of execution dysfunction. Productivity can triple via authentic communication and organizational focus.
What’s the weakest link in Strategy Execution? Complexity, uncertainty, disruptive changes, and interdependence are the new normal facing business today, most companies are lacking a holistic strategy for how they use technology to drive their business, and it's the information management strategy that most often goes unmanaged. A good strategy is beyond the well-designed template filled out with goal and vision, it should be more subject to challenges the business faces and provides a practical approach to overcoming them, it’s executable. PEOPLE are always one of the weakest links in strategy execution. The business strategy execution gaps exist at the people’s mindsets, the organizational culture. A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. Lack of risk tolerance culture is a barrier to implementing strategy more aggressively. A strategy is very important, but will only be successful if it is embedded into a company’s culture and if the culture is designed to implement the strategy successfully.
How to improve the effectiveness of Strategy Execution? Strategy and execution are not as different processes but as an integral part of strategy management. Change Management and Strategy Management need to go hand-in-hand. It is broadly contextual. There are circumstances where you do not have the time to "plan" or rescue the firm because of external shocks that are difficult to envisage, or because the strategic decisions made in the past are irreversible. What is missing is the internal capacity to understand strategy to the extent that the management and executive teams can participate actively in strategy development and honestly drive implementation. Sometimes strategy makers spend more time designing the content of strategies than thinking how to implement them successfully. They have to drive implementation, otherwise, the emergent strategies will continue to be ignored, the business gets stuck with the routine task of the day and nobody is adequately prepared to function well in this reactive mode. Hence, planning the strategy execution during the design stage in detail is very critical, it is also important to manage strategy in a more dynamic and proactive mode. It is clear that in many cases, often the strategy that is eventually realized, in many cases, differs from the original plan. Implementation of a strategy is 90% about initiating and managing necessary changes from the current state to both the strategic positions and designated action capability at the positions. Uncertainty simply requires more planning and flexibility in implementing strategies.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way. However, it can be managed well. From effective leadership to execution culture; from proactive planning to rigorous processes; from measures to balanced scorecards; the super execution is led toward the right direction via leadership's inquisitiveness, the result of synchronization of all key business factors; the organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
CIO Master Order Link on AmazonCIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & NobleCIO 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
The characteristic of Digital Era is increasing rate of change and continuous disruption, and this isn’t going to change. Preparing a strategic plan is important because it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. But the more challenging part is strategy execution, statistically more than two-thirds of strategy implementation fail to achieve the expected result. How to diagnose the root causes of problems? Does superior execution require the leader's inquisitiveness? And what are the best scenario to manage strategy execution continuum?
Why does Strategy Execution unravel: Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today. So it’s important to outline the strategic intent and frame the strategy to be understandable and implementable. Strategy execution is difficult. two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel and how to improve strategy execution success rate? Successful strategy execution is directly related to leadership capability from the top down. Leaders and managers should guide, direct, own the strategy they hold themselves accountable, they should listen, communicate, and rally the team for the cause. It's not just about strategic ideas, but making the strategy a living thing. Strategy execution unravels because of poor leadership. In other words lack of accountabilities, lack of decision rights and inter & intra-divisional tensions. The strategy when executed has a breath, and it can breathe life into people and the culture. The process of moving something from outlier to acceptance usually takes a long time and involves risk. It seems logical the more ambitious the strategy businesses undertakes, they should expect high levels of friction to capture (inside and outside the company) those high rewards. However, most managers spend very little time addressing crumbling paradigms or basically would not know where to start to addressing crumbling paradigms. The superior execution requires the leaders’ inquisitiveness to dig through the root cause, and it is far easier to proactively structure and manage execution than to deal reactively with the ravages of execution dysfunction. Productivity can triple via authentic communication and organizational focus.
What’s the weakest link in Strategy Execution? Complexity, uncertainty, disruptive changes, and interdependence are the new normal facing business today, most companies are lacking a holistic strategy for how they use technology to drive their business, and it's the information management strategy that most often goes unmanaged. A good strategy is beyond the well-designed template filled out with goal and vision, it should be more subject to challenges the business faces and provides a practical approach to overcoming them, it’s executable. PEOPLE are always one of the weakest links in strategy execution. The business strategy execution gaps exist at the people’s mindsets, the organizational culture. A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. Lack of risk tolerance culture is a barrier to implementing strategy more aggressively. A strategy is very important, but will only be successful if it is embedded into a company’s culture and if the culture is designed to implement the strategy successfully.
How to improve the effectiveness of Strategy Execution? Strategy and execution are not as different processes but as an integral part of strategy management. Change Management and Strategy Management need to go hand-in-hand. It is broadly contextual. There are circumstances where you do not have the time to "plan" or rescue the firm because of external shocks that are difficult to envisage, or because the strategic decisions made in the past are irreversible. What is missing is the internal capacity to understand strategy to the extent that the management and executive teams can participate actively in strategy development and honestly drive implementation. Sometimes strategy makers spend more time designing the content of strategies than thinking how to implement them successfully. They have to drive implementation, otherwise, the emergent strategies will continue to be ignored, the business gets stuck with the routine task of the day and nobody is adequately prepared to function well in this reactive mode. Hence, planning the strategy execution during the design stage in detail is very critical, it is also important to manage strategy in a more dynamic and proactive mode. It is clear that in many cases, often the strategy that is eventually realized, in many cases, differs from the original plan. Implementation of a strategy is 90% about initiating and managing necessary changes from the current state to both the strategic positions and designated action capability at the positions. Uncertainty simply requires more planning and flexibility in implementing strategies.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way. However, it can be managed well. From effective leadership to execution culture; from proactive planning to rigorous processes; from measures to balanced scorecards; the super execution is led toward the right direction via leadership's inquisitiveness, the result of synchronization of all key business factors; the organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
CIO Master Order Link on AmazonCIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & NobleCIO 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
“CIO Master” Tuning: Does Superior Execution Require the Leaders’ Inquisitiveness?
Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today.
The characteristic of Digital Era is increasing rate of change and continuous disruption, and this isn’t going to change. Preparing a strategic plan is important because it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. But the more challenging part is strategy execution, statistically more than two-thirds of strategy implementation fail to achieve the expected result. How to diagnose the root causes of problems? Does superior execution require the leader's inquisitiveness? And what are the best scenario to manage strategy execution continuum?
Why Strategy Execution unravels: Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today. So it’s important to outline the strategic intent and frame the strategy to be understandable and implementable. Strategy execution is difficult. two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel and how to improve strategy execution success rate? Successful strategy execution is directly related to leadership capability from the top down. Leaders and managers should guide, direct, own the strategy they hold themselves accountable, they should listen, communicate, and rally the team for the cause. It's not just about strategic ideas, but making the strategy a living thing. Strategy execution unravels because of poor leadership. In other words lack of accountabilities, lack of decision rights and inter & intra-divisional tensions. The strategy when executed has a breath, and it can breathe life into people and the culture. The process of moving something from outlier to acceptance usually takes a long time and involves risk. It seems logical the more ambitious the strategy businesses undertakes, they should expect high levels of friction to capture (inside and outside the company) those high rewards. However, most managers spend very little time addressing crumbling paradigms or basically would not know where to start to addressing crumbling paradigms. The superior execution requires the leaders’ inquisitiveness to dig through the root cause, and it is far easier to proactively structure and manage execution than to deal reactively with the ravages of execution dysfunction. Productivity can triple via authentic communication and organizational focus.
What’s the weakest link in Strategy Execution? Complexity, uncertainty, disruptive changes, and interdependence are the new normal facing business today, most companies are lacking a holistic strategy for how they use technology to drive their business, and it's the information management strategy that most often goes unmanaged. A good strategy is beyond the well-designed template filled out with goal and vision, it should be more subject to challenges the business faces and provides a practical approach to overcoming them, it’s executable. PEOPLE are always one of the weakest links in strategy execution. The business strategy execution gaps exist at the people’s mindsets, the organizational culture. A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. Lack of risk tolerance culture is a barrier to implementing strategy more aggressively. A strategy is very important, but will only be successful if it is embedded into a company’s culture and if the culture is designed to implement the strategy successfully.
How to improve the effectiveness of Strategy Execution? Strategy and execution are not as different processes but as an integral part of strategy management. Change Management and Strategy Management need to go hand-in-hand. It is broadly contextual. There are circumstances where you do not have the time to "plan" or rescue the firm because of external shocks that are difficult to envisage, or because the strategic decisions made in the past are irreversible. What is missing is the internal capacity to understand strategy to the extent that the management and executive teams can participate actively in strategy development and honestly drive implementation. Sometimes strategy makers spend more time designing the content of strategies than thinking how to implement them successfully. They have to drive implementation, otherwise, the emergent strategies will continue to be ignored, the business gets stuck with the routine task of the day and nobody is adequately prepared to function well in this reactive mode. Hence, planning the strategy execution during the design stage in detail is very critical, it is also important to manage strategy in a more dynamic and proactive mode. It is clear that in many cases, often the strategy that is eventually realized, in many cases, differs from the original plan. Implementation of a strategy is 90% about initiating and managing necessary changes from the current state to both the strategic positions and designated action capability at the positions. Uncertainty simply requires more planning and flexibility in implementing strategies.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way. However, it can be managed well. From effective leadership to execution culture; from proactive planning to rigorous processes; from measures to balanced scorecards; the super execution is led toward the right direction via leadership's inquisitiveness, the result of synchronization of all key business factors; the organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
CIO Master Order Link on AmazonCIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & NobleCIO 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
The characteristic of Digital Era is increasing rate of change and continuous disruption, and this isn’t going to change. Preparing a strategic plan is important because it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. But the more challenging part is strategy execution, statistically more than two-thirds of strategy implementation fail to achieve the expected result. How to diagnose the root causes of problems? Does superior execution require the leader's inquisitiveness? And what are the best scenario to manage strategy execution continuum?
Why Strategy Execution unravels: Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today. So it’s important to outline the strategic intent and frame the strategy to be understandable and implementable. Strategy execution is difficult. two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel and how to improve strategy execution success rate? Successful strategy execution is directly related to leadership capability from the top down. Leaders and managers should guide, direct, own the strategy they hold themselves accountable, they should listen, communicate, and rally the team for the cause. It's not just about strategic ideas, but making the strategy a living thing. Strategy execution unravels because of poor leadership. In other words lack of accountabilities, lack of decision rights and inter & intra-divisional tensions. The strategy when executed has a breath, and it can breathe life into people and the culture. The process of moving something from outlier to acceptance usually takes a long time and involves risk. It seems logical the more ambitious the strategy businesses undertakes, they should expect high levels of friction to capture (inside and outside the company) those high rewards. However, most managers spend very little time addressing crumbling paradigms or basically would not know where to start to addressing crumbling paradigms. The superior execution requires the leaders’ inquisitiveness to dig through the root cause, and it is far easier to proactively structure and manage execution than to deal reactively with the ravages of execution dysfunction. Productivity can triple via authentic communication and organizational focus.
What’s the weakest link in Strategy Execution? Complexity, uncertainty, disruptive changes, and interdependence are the new normal facing business today, most companies are lacking a holistic strategy for how they use technology to drive their business, and it's the information management strategy that most often goes unmanaged. A good strategy is beyond the well-designed template filled out with goal and vision, it should be more subject to challenges the business faces and provides a practical approach to overcoming them, it’s executable. PEOPLE are always one of the weakest links in strategy execution. The business strategy execution gaps exist at the people’s mindsets, the organizational culture. A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. Lack of risk tolerance culture is a barrier to implementing strategy more aggressively. A strategy is very important, but will only be successful if it is embedded into a company’s culture and if the culture is designed to implement the strategy successfully.
How to improve the effectiveness of Strategy Execution? Strategy and execution are not as different processes but as an integral part of strategy management. Change Management and Strategy Management need to go hand-in-hand. It is broadly contextual. There are circumstances where you do not have the time to "plan" or rescue the firm because of external shocks that are difficult to envisage, or because the strategic decisions made in the past are irreversible. What is missing is the internal capacity to understand strategy to the extent that the management and executive teams can participate actively in strategy development and honestly drive implementation. Sometimes strategy makers spend more time designing the content of strategies than thinking how to implement them successfully. They have to drive implementation, otherwise, the emergent strategies will continue to be ignored, the business gets stuck with the routine task of the day and nobody is adequately prepared to function well in this reactive mode. Hence, planning the strategy execution during the design stage in detail is very critical, it is also important to manage strategy in a more dynamic and proactive mode. It is clear that in many cases, often the strategy that is eventually realized, in many cases, differs from the original plan. Implementation of a strategy is 90% about initiating and managing necessary changes from the current state to both the strategic positions and designated action capability at the positions. Uncertainty simply requires more planning and flexibility in implementing strategies.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way. However, it can be managed well. From effective leadership to execution culture; from proactive planning to rigorous processes; from measures to balanced scorecards; the super execution is led toward the right direction via leadership's inquisitiveness, the result of synchronization of all key business factors; the organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
CIO Master Order Link on AmazonCIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & NobleCIO 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
“CIO Master” Tuning: Does superior execution require the leaders’ inquisitiveness?
The characteristic of Digital Era is increasing rate of change, and this isn’t going to change. Preparing a strategic plan is important because it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. But the more challenging part is strategy execution, statistically more than two-thirds of strategy implementation fail to achieve the expected result. How to diagnose the root causes of problems via inquiries, and what are the best scenario to manage strategy execution continuum?
Why Strategy Execution unravels: Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today. So it’s important to outline the strategic intent and frame the strategy to be understandable and implementable. Strategy execution is difficult. two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies.Why does strategy execution unravel and how to improve strategy execution success rate? Successful strategy execution is directly related to leadership capability from top down. Leaders and managers should guide, direct, own the strategy, they hold themselves accountable, they should listen, communicate, and rally the team for the cause. It's not just about strategic ideas, but making the strategy a living thing. Strategy execution unravels because of poor leadership. In other words lack of accountabilities, lack of decision rights and inter & intra-divisional tensions. The strategy when executed has a breath, and it can breathe life into people and the culture. The process of moving something from outlier to acceptance usually takes a long time and involves risk. It seems logical the more ambitious the strategy businesses undertakes, they should expect high levels of friction to capture (inside and outside the company) those high rewards. However, most managers spend very little time addressing crumbling paradigms or basically would not know where to start to addressing crumbling paradigms. The superior execution requires the leaders’ inquisitiveness to dig through the root cause, and it is far easier to proactively structure and manage execution than to deal reactively with the ravages of execution dysfunction. Productivity can triple via authentic communication and organizational focus.
What’s the weakest link in Strategy Execution? Complexity, uncertainty, disruptive changes, and interdependence are the new normal facing business today, most companies are lacking a holistic strategy for how they use technology to drive their business, and it's the information management strategy that most often goes unmanaged. A good strategy is beyond the well-designed template filled out with goal and vision, it should be more subject to challenges we face and provides a practical approach to overcoming them, it’s executable. PEOPLE are always one of the weakest links in strategy execution.The business strategy execution gaps exist at the people’s mindsets, the organizational culture, A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. Lack of risk tolerance culture is also a barrier to implementing strategy more aggressively. A strategy is very important, but will only be successful if it is embedded into a company’s culture and if the culture is designed to implement the strategy successfully.
How to improve the effectiveness of Strategy Execution? Strategy and execution are not as different processes but as an integral part of strategy management. It is broadly contextual. There are circumstances where you do not have the time to "plan" or rescue the firm because of external shocks that are difficult to envisage, or because the strategic decisions made in the past are irreversible. What is missing is the internal capacity to understand strategy to the extent that the management and executive teams can participate actively in strategy development and honestly drive implementation. Sometimes strategy makers spend more time designing the content of strategies than thinking how to implement them successfully. They have to drive implementation, otherwise, the emergent strategies will continue to be ignored, the business gets stuck with the routine task of the day and nobody is adequately prepared to function well in this reactive mode. Hence, planning the strategy execution during the design stage in detail is very critical, it is also important to manage strategy in a more dynamic and proactive mode. It is clear that in many cases, often the strategy that is eventually realized, in many cases, differs from the original plan. Implementation" of a strategy is 90% about initiating and managing necessary changes from the current state to both the strategic positions and designated action capability at the positions. Uncertainty simply requires more planning and flexibility in implementing strategies.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way, however, it can be managed well. From effective leadership to execution culture; from proactive planning to rigorous processes; from measures to balanced scorecards; the super execution is the result of synchronization of all key business factors; organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
April 18, 2016
Talent Management Monthly Brief: See Through Talent from Different Angles VII Apr. 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 Questions to Assess a Person’s Motivation or “Self-Motivation” Skill To "motivate" is the act of giving somebody a reason or incentive to do something, to get other people to move into action, to act on whatever view you have influenced to take. And self-motivation is to get yourself doing things with discipline, practice and achieve the ultimate goals. A self-motivated person is more driven and adapts to changes, a motivated leader with the right approach can drive the team to achieve better results. So what are the great questions to assess a person's motivation skills?
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Trustworthiness” The business world and our society have become over-complex due to the abundance of information, hyperconnectivity, fierce competition, urbanization, and globalization. Hence, trust is one of the key ingredients of future corporate leadership and overall business relationship building. It takes breadth and depth of collective cognizance & effort to build up a working environment with the culture of trust. So how to assess a leader or a digital professional’s trustworthiness?
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Self-Awareness: Self-awareness has generally been viewed as an individual attribute, it’s the introspect and ability to understand your own personality, emotion, thought processes, habit., etc. Knowing who you are and how you react and respond in different situations can help you understand and improve the cognitive, relational and assertive actions you take on a day to day basis. It could also help you to make either career or life as an adventurous journey to discover the path you take and unleash the talent potential. Which questions should ask to assess a person’s self-awareness ability?
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Professional Maturity: Nowadays businesses become over complex and hyper-competitive, and the digital workforces today are multigenerational, multicultural and multi-geographical, the work is no longer just the place where you go, but the tasks you accomplish and the vision you fulfill. Therefore, professional maturity is the required quality for digital leaders and professionals to show emotional maturity, intellectual maturity and bring wisdom to the workplace for building a high mature digital organization. What are a set of good questions to assess a person’s professional maturity, though?
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Strength? Every person is unique and we all have our own strength and weakness. Knowing who you are or being self-awareness, allows you to become a better person or a higher quality professional. Knowing who you are and how you react and respond in different situations can help you understand and improve the cognitive, relational and assertive actions you take on a day to day basis, understand your strength also helps you to unleash your full potential and better manage your career path and professional life in the long run. What are insightful questions to assess your (or others) strength, not for making a pure self-judgment, but to understand yourself (or others) in profundity?The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3+million page views with about #2700+ 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 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.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
The Empathetic Leadership
“The opposite of anger is not calmness, its empathy.” -Mehmet Oz
Many think Digital is the age of empathy, and empathy is one of the necessary ingredients for contemporary leadership. Empathy is the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings; or the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. From leadership perception, if you can understand how people behave, what they desire and what their fears are, you are better armed to manage them in order to gain their support. Therefore, the heterogeneous leadership with cognitive difference with empathy is needed in today’s dynamic working environment and diversified workforces
First step first, can you learn how to listen with empathy? Being empathetic means: "that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter another's world without prejudice.” It is the ability to think as if you were in the other person’s position. The biggest challenge with empathy is reminding yourself that stepping in someone's shoes is something different from assuming you can step into their skin. But you can always listen and build understanding by imagining what it could feel like, and acknowledging that experience, especially when it is much different than your own. It maybe about keeping a certain distance (sounds paradoxical) and being very aware of which of your thoughts and behaviors are "yours," so they don't confound those of the person you are empathizing with. The loss of listening with empathy may be a side effect of training. The lack of empathy is caused by the homogeneity of leadership setting. Today, many leaders have sympathy, but the lack of empathy, they intend to help and manage well, however, sometimes, it goes to the opposite direction. Both of these are major challenges to start with listening with empathy.
Empathy means using the right language with the right people: "Nothing in the world, in business or in life, is black and white. It could be hinting at another important skill for great leaders, which is respecting other people as if you were in their position. What you say to one person in a culture that stresses independence and individual performance, for instance, may not be as effective when speaking to a person whose culture stresses collaboration and group consensus; judging the right language to use in different situations only comes from wisdom and experience. It's not born to a leader. Empathy is a very important soft skill that is frequently undervalued. Too many business leaders have a "my way or the highway" mentality and don't value the opinions of their employees enough.
Empathy conveys the RESPECT which is crucial to binding peer-to-peer relationship and connect the mind and touch the heart: Without empathy, there cannot be a rapport and thus no sustainable business relationships. Empathy is one of the most crucial elements in leadership effectiveness, due to the complexity, ambiguity, and the paradox of the world we live in, it is the ability to think as if you were in the other party’s position, to gain in-depth understanding of the thought processes behind each action and to win the hearts via mind connection based on the golden rules and profound insight. Empathy is a very important soft skill that is frequently undervalued. It's not born to a leader, but it can be learned if you have an open mind and humble attitude.
Digital is the age of empathy, On one side, the world has become so hyperconnected and interdependent, the physical barriers such as the oceans and the mountains can no longer divide us; on the other side, due to the cognitive difference, culture diversity, information overloading and wisdom scarcity, there are still the walls in people’s hearts and the gaps on their minds, empathy is the single defining quality that will distinguish great leaders from the rest.
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Many think Digital is the age of empathy, and empathy is one of the necessary ingredients for contemporary leadership. Empathy is the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings; or the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. From leadership perception, if you can understand how people behave, what they desire and what their fears are, you are better armed to manage them in order to gain their support. Therefore, the heterogeneous leadership with cognitive difference with empathy is needed in today’s dynamic working environment and diversified workforces
First step first, can you learn how to listen with empathy? Being empathetic means: "that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter another's world without prejudice.” It is the ability to think as if you were in the other person’s position. The biggest challenge with empathy is reminding yourself that stepping in someone's shoes is something different from assuming you can step into their skin. But you can always listen and build understanding by imagining what it could feel like, and acknowledging that experience, especially when it is much different than your own. It maybe about keeping a certain distance (sounds paradoxical) and being very aware of which of your thoughts and behaviors are "yours," so they don't confound those of the person you are empathizing with. The loss of listening with empathy may be a side effect of training. The lack of empathy is caused by the homogeneity of leadership setting. Today, many leaders have sympathy, but the lack of empathy, they intend to help and manage well, however, sometimes, it goes to the opposite direction. Both of these are major challenges to start with listening with empathy.
Empathy means using the right language with the right people: "Nothing in the world, in business or in life, is black and white. It could be hinting at another important skill for great leaders, which is respecting other people as if you were in their position. What you say to one person in a culture that stresses independence and individual performance, for instance, may not be as effective when speaking to a person whose culture stresses collaboration and group consensus; judging the right language to use in different situations only comes from wisdom and experience. It's not born to a leader. Empathy is a very important soft skill that is frequently undervalued. Too many business leaders have a "my way or the highway" mentality and don't value the opinions of their employees enough.
Empathy conveys the RESPECT which is crucial to binding peer-to-peer relationship and connect the mind and touch the heart: Without empathy, there cannot be a rapport and thus no sustainable business relationships. Empathy is one of the most crucial elements in leadership effectiveness, due to the complexity, ambiguity, and the paradox of the world we live in, it is the ability to think as if you were in the other party’s position, to gain in-depth understanding of the thought processes behind each action and to win the hearts via mind connection based on the golden rules and profound insight. Empathy is a very important soft skill that is frequently undervalued. It's not born to a leader, but it can be learned if you have an open mind and humble attitude.
Digital is the age of empathy, On one side, the world has become so hyperconnected and interdependent, the physical barriers such as the oceans and the mountains can no longer divide us; on the other side, due to the cognitive difference, culture diversity, information overloading and wisdom scarcity, there are still the walls in people’s hearts and the gaps on their minds, empathy is the single defining quality that will distinguish great leaders from the rest.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
