Leadership

What does it mean to move from 'command and control' to leadership?

The role of leaders does change in a lean organization.

In the traditional organization, leaders are successful and rewarded for getting results, directing, and delegating to people and often “fire fighting” with quick solutions to problems.

In a lean organization, the focus shifts from the results to the process needed to get the results and from directing people to coaching and facilitating. This coaching and facilitating is toward building both personal and organizational capability around PDCA and problem solving.

Read the entire letter by Michael Hoseus, Lean Enterprise Institute.

Leverage LinkedIn for the job searcher

After creating a profile:

o make it a point to add all of your daily contacts
o list your accomplishments
o Consider a Professional resume writing service; $100 is a small price to pay for several thousand in salary
o Deal with recruiters who deal in the right areas; some are in manufacturing; some are in IT; project management; etc - if you're going to deal with a recruiter *once you do, ANY company they deal with is obligated to pay them if they hire you, even if the recruiter didn't get involved with the process* navigate carefully
o Keep in touch with people & companies you previously interviewed with – they may hire you in the future
o Learning more about your interviewer before the interview. If I see they went to school somewhere, I ask them what it was like to break the ice in opening conversations.

Follow Company
- to find out who’s hiring & firing (openings)
- Has a replacement been hired for the position? find out (call if needed) “What company did he come from?”
o Chances are that company had to back fill the position and their may be a position there. Contact them.

Join groups
- (not so much social groups) – alumni groups, associations., company groups
- This lets you message other people in the group free

Advanced search
- For people who have your skills & background to find companies that employ people like you.
- Get to know a company. Advanced search on a company and uncheck “current companies only” to see what kind of talent has left the company, and how fast. Contact them to see what they have to say about their former employer & add them to your network

When you get partial info.
- if the person is “Out of your network” you may only have restricted access to their details, and receive only their First Name and Initial of last name
- To find the last name, open a separate window run a google search on their name and position/company. Google usually locates their LinkedIn public profile which displays their full last name and details.

Advanced search by:
o title
o current employment
o company
o postal code

- to get name of employees
- CALL and ask to speak with them
- leave msg if needed “Hi this is ______ I’m a _______ and wanted to talk with you.”

Your goal is to establish contact
o Once they call you, there may only be a 1-2 minute window
o “I’ve been _____________________ for (x) yrs. at ____________, and have also helped other companies with parts of their ___________________.” (this is what I’ve done).
o “I’m interested in _______ and have been doing ________. I was on LinkedIn and noticed you ________.”
o Ask them “Where in (co. name) can you use _______ (my skills)?”

**Do Not mention the position, there may be others they will bring up you don’t know about.

He may try to pass you off to HR
- If you need to speak with him more “I understand HR has an important role but they don’t understand ________ as well as you do”; or “I will definitely take the name of the person you recommend in HR, but I’ve found those who are currently involved with doing the work have a much better understanding of that area and what’s involved; who I really need to speak is your manager, what’s his name?”

o If you end up speaking with HR, say “(name of the person who passed you off) the (their position) asked me to contact you regarding ____________.” HR is more likely to listen if it sounds like an internal recommendation.

Jobs
- when doing a job search, the job will often display who it was posted by, usually the person hiring. Contact them directly as well as add them to your network for future opportunities.

Even better than LinkedIn is to find events you can attend to meet/network with people face to face.

Microfinance

Microfinance

Giving people access to credit & training that can help them move into self employment, freeing them to generate an income that will eventually let them save, send someone to school or build better shelter. Repayment rates tend to be better than for rich borrowers, though interest rates are typically higher because the loans cost more to administer.

Microcredit has evolved into microfinance: services for the poor ranging from health insurance to savings programs. The sector had 107 million poorest of the poor borrows globally at the end of 2007, a 14x increase in a decade.
It has reached the developed world. Grameen Bank branches opened in 2008. The US now has 362 outfits, and loan applications doubled this year.
In Canada, NFLC, Desjardins & Vancity are offering microloans, particularly to immigrants who lack a credit history in this country. Vancity has dispersed almost 400 microloans in the past 4 years, growing about 10%/year, and says need is outstripping its ability to supply the loans.

Other ancillary services – training, business development, health. Financial services with financial education.

- Tavia Grant

Globe & Mail
Nov. 13, 2010

Humanitarian Aid, Being Gifted, SILVER over gold - Globe & Mail

Is Humanitarian Aid bad for Africa?

Most of us believe that humanitarian aid is a morally pure way to respond to suffering in the world.

The colonial mindset of ‘we know best’ has surely persisted; the trouble is that we haven’t learned the difference between doing good and feeling good. Until we do, many of our aid efforts will be worse than useless.
- Margaret Wente

The Curse of giftedness

Their intellectual gifts mean they are even more aware of the flaws in their clay, of how short they fall from self-imposed goals. “People are forever telling me the achievements of my life and yet I feel I’ve accomplished nothing – nothing compared to what I might achieve

Success in school does not predict success outside of it.

Empathy, like creativity and imagination, is not something that intelligence tests are good at identifying.

…was an overweight couch potato, depressed at his failure to live up to his parents’ expectations, but once he escaped, he blossomed as an adult to become happy…

Love all the child’s gifts and faults. The concept of ‘gifted child’ is a man made phrase, an arbitrary line.
- Elizabeth Renzetti

Do we want to be remembered as people who categorized and labelled children (to their detriment), or as people who helped all children fulfill their potential?
- Tralee Pearce

An Industrial Strength Argument for Silver over Gold

Silver is essentially an industrial metal, and should trade on supply/demand fundamentals.

It typically outperforms gold in times of economic recovery; it responds to the increased demand that an economic expansion implies. Financial demand for precious metals can be fickle. Gold has much greater exposure to ‘financial demand – purchases made by investors – leaving it more exposed to the changing moods of the market. [Bulsing] feels most comfortable with the metal that has the strongest fundamental demand.
- David Parkinson

“To me it comes down to choice. I am not interested in imposing my views on anyone any more than I’m interested in having their views imposed on me.” – Danielle Smith

Globe & Mail
Nov. 13, 2010

Training within Industry - TWI

Original TWI Manuals are available here:
http://www.trainingwithinindustry.net/JI.html

and can all be downloaded as PDF files for you.

"Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways -- operating on the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes -- makes you smarter."

"Before we make product, we make people."
What capabilities must we ensure are embedded in our people, in ourselves?

The Lean Start Up

The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen

The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen

* The best people to ask about how to improve how work gets done are the people who do the work not the people they report to.
* If you can create an environment that allows people to feel that offering ways they can improve their own method of working without fear of being seen as a critic, heretic or fool you will get a lot of creative input.
* Impose the constraint the the change must be something that the person can do themselves, to improve their own way of working.
* Make it clear that it's okay if the change does not work as expected.
* Make it clear that we learn more from analyzing why something did not work than we do from analyzing why something did work.
* Encourage people to try something else if the first suggestion does not work.
* Encourage people to write down their suggestions.
* Implement a system that reviews and says yes/no to the suggestion within one working day of it being written and submitted.
* Keep all the suggestions and their effects in a location where everyone can see them and learn from both the items that worked and did not work.

"Nearly all companies do not work like this. Most companies pay lip service to the intellectual capital of their staff.

- Every Pair of Hands comes with a Free Brain -

Treat your people with empathy and respect and you will nearly always be surprised at how well people respond - it's amazing but they might even start treating you with empathy and respect as a result"

- review notes summarized from Digby Christian

Career Scarevertising

"Life’s too short for the wrong job" the message of this brilliant ambient campaign by Jobsintown.de, a German job search portal.

Think about the interaction in this guerrilla marketing campaign. What's the impact for those looking at themselves in the mirror in the cape.

The campaign, by Scholz and Friends, won Gold at the ADCE Awards 2008.

More marketing stuff at
http://www.trendhunter.com/

Jim Fannin Radio Show with Jim Murphy

Follow this link

http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/2010/07/12/the-success-zone-%e2%80%93-exploring-inner-excellence-with-jim-murphy

- performance coach to collegiate, professional, and Olympic athletes in multiple sports, as well as a business turn-around specialist and motivational speaker

 

90 Second Rule

I would think this also applies to interactions with everyone, including staff & employees. Thanks to Jim Fanninn:

If you’ve been away from someone you care about at least 2 hours, the next 90 seconds have a bigger impact on them than spending hours and hours on them later. Walk in the door and be fully engaged in the moment. Regardless of your day prepare to focus your energy toward the people that matter most. See their every facial and hand gesture. Hear every voice tone or inflection.

give them my full attention for at least a few minutes.