Leadership and The Boiling Frog Experiment - Organization culture

There is a fascinating 19th century science experiment.  As the story goes, researchers found that when they put a frog in a pan of boiling water, the frog just quickly jumped out.  On the other hand, when they put a frog in cold water and put the water to boil over time, the frog just boiled to death.  The hypothesis is that the change in temperature is so gradual, the frog does not realize it’s boiling to death. While the results of the experiment are in question it is a good metaphor for organization cultures.

Indeed, many organisations/companies are unable to see the changes they are affecting them around, specially by competitors and when they do it is usually too late. The business has being highly impacted.

Sources:
Wikipedia: The Boiling Frog
Youtube Video Experiment (used image for this article is a capture from the YouTube Video)

The Entrepreneurial Anecdote from Mr. Bata...

This week in September 2014, I was following one of the modules from the Master Business Administration (MBA) when the lecturer provided the audience a very interesting anecdote about Thomas Bata, founder of Bata shoes. By the way, this summer I had the chance to be in front of the dedicated museum in Toronto.

The mentioned story speaks itself about the entrepreneurial nose for opportunity.
Mr. Bata was considering to expand its market segment possibly to Africa.
In order to get a better feeling of the potential market share, Mr. Bata traveled with one of his senior executive to Africa.
Both agreed to take different routes by observing the use of shoes, trends during their journey and then to meet and share their observations, compare notes and take a decision once they will be back in Canada.

Once they were back in Canada, they met.
The senior executive reported that the market was not worth. As he stated "There is no way we are not going to sell shoes down there. It is hopeless. Over ninety-percent of the people do not even wear shoes. The remaining ten-percent wear sandals".

Mr. Bata, the entrepreneur, listened carefully and then provided his observations as follows:
"This is one of the greatest opportunities in the history of our company. The possibilities are endless…think about it, no one even wears shoes down there".

The moral of this story is that opportunities can be sized. But you have to look at the environment around you with different eyes and with a different "mind set".

About the Author
Jose Ferreiro is an entrepreneur and a performer with a passion for working to make this world a better place!

Nails in the fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.

His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had  driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there.” A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

So remember that friends are very rare jewels indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us. In other words, think before you speak and be king to one another.

Author Unknown

Le garçon et les clous

C’est l’histoire d’un petit garçon qui avait mauvais caractère.

Son père lui donna un sac de clous et lui dit qu’à chaque fois qu’il perdrait patience, il devrait planter un clou derrière la clôture.

Le premier jour, le jeune garçon planta 37 clous derrière la clôture.

Les semaines qui suivirent, à mesure qu’il apprenait à contrôler son humeur, il plantait de moins en moins de clous derrière la clôture... Il découvrit qu’il était plus facile de contrôler son humeur que d’aller planter des clous derrière la clôture...

Le jour vint où il contrôla son humeur toute la journée. Après en avoir informé son père, ce dernier lui suggéra de retirer un clou à chaque jour où il contrôlerait son humeur.

Les jours passèrent et le jeune homme pût finalement annoncer à son père qu’il ne restait plus aucun clou à retirer de la clôture. Son père le prit par la main et l’amena à la clôture.

Il lui dit : "Tu as travaillé fort, mon fils, mais regarde tous ces trous dans la clôture. Elle ne sera plus jamais la même. À chaque fois que tu perds patience, cela laisse des cicatrices exactement comme celles-ci."

Tu peux enfoncer un couteau dans un homme et le retirer, peu importe combien de fois tu lui diras être désolé, la cicatrice demeurera pour toujours.

Une offense verbale est aussi néfaste qu’une offense physique.

Les amis sont des joyaux précieux. Ils nous font rire et nous encouragent à réussir. Ils nous prêtent une oreille attentive, nous louangent et sont toujours prêts à nous ouvrir leur Coeur.

Ecrivain inconnu

Challenges needing emotional intelligence (EQ)

Only the most emotionally intelligent leaders can manage the many challenges in business today.
Restructuring organizations and reducing staff to make them more productive means that there is a strong need to identify,
retain and motivate truly exceptional employees who can work effectively in teams.
EQ enhances teamwork.

Rapid technological and business changes require people to be able and willing to accept and implement change.
EQ enhances flexibility.

Globalization creates political and cultural challenges for leaders and employees.
EQ enhances problem solving!

In the mid-1990's Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author did a lot of influential and pioneering work on EQ. Goleman believes that outstanding leadership requires a combination of self-mastery and social intelligence, which have two competency areas: perception and skills.

Leaders with high emotional intelligence can enhance the motivation and optimism in a workplace. It is also important because often because how often results are obtained can be as important as the results themselves.

What is a Divide and Conquer Strategy?

Today I wanted to learn more about what is exactly a Divide and Conquer Strategy.
The maxims "divide et impera" and "divide ut regnes" were utilised by the Roman ruler Caesar and the French emperor Napoleon.

Article 

A divide and conquer strategy, also known as “divide and rule strategy” is often applied in the arenas of politics and sociology. In this strategy, one power breaks another power into smaller, more manageable pieces, and then takes control of those pieces one by one. It generally takes a very strong power to implement such a strategy. In order to successfully break up another power or government, the conqueror must have access to strong political, military, and economic machines.

Furthermore, in order to maintain power and influence, large governments will often work to keep smaller powers and governments from uniting. In fact, this use of the principles within the divide and conquer strategy is most common. It is much easier to prevent small powers from linking forces than to break them apart once they have aligned.

Leaders who use a divide and conquer strategy may encourage or foster feuds between smaller powers. This kind of political maneuvering requires a great understanding of the people who are being manipulated. In order to foster feuds, for example, one must understand the political and social histories of the parties intended to take part in the feuds.

The strategy also includes methods with which to control the funds and resources of the small conquered parties. For example, a powerful leader may encourage a less powerful leader to make unwise financial decisions in order to drain the smaller power’s resources. This is often successful if the leaders of the smaller powers have inflated egos and delusions of grandeur. It is important to note that this form is only effective if the smaller power allows itself to be influenced by the larger power.

The divide and conquer strategy has been widely used throughout history. Both the Roman empire and the British empire played small tribes and groups against one another in order to control their lands and territories. It was used by the Romans when they took Britain, when the British Empire took India, and when the Anglo-Normans took Ireland. A staple political strategy, divide and conquer is still used by many countries today.

Management the Development of a Project Team

Successful project teams do not happen on their own. They exist because project leaders possess the skills to guide their teams to be effective, and because those leaders
know how to manage a team to produce results.

With supportive leadership, motivation, and commitment, a project team will move efficiently through the project stages to a successful conclusion.

Business Effectiveness

"Hire the best. Pay them fairly. Communicate frequently. Provide challenges and rewards. Believe in them. Get out of their way and the will knock your socks off".
- Mary Ann Allison

Is there a difference between managers and leaders?

Yes:
- Managers are tasks focus
- Leadership is about encouraging people following a vision

The higher you are in your hierarchy the less technical skills (finance IFRS, software development...) you need and the more soft skills you need to learn. Soft skills are conceptual (design, overview...) and human.
Human skills are:
- Personal honesty and integrity
- Building commitment and confidence
- Keen interest in a long term development of others (human capital)
- Work of CEO: Make every other jobs possible
- Capacity to manage their emotions
- Ability to communicate a compelling vision to others

The whole idea of leadership is to have a sustainable success.