Dispatches

Thoughts on ... Integrity

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Numerous characteristics of leaders have been selected as central to the role of leadership. We choose to work with leaders who have embraced two, in particular; personal integrity and courage. As change agents we are, first of all, servants of our clients. Our impact can only be through them and we are only as good, in terms of results, as our clients. Since we are deeply committed to finding and engaging what we call “truth”, we seek out clients who are, in the final analysis, more interested in their personal integrity than they are in their commercial or reputational success. Often our clients find success in the terms that many would recognize but it derives not from their intentional manipulation or exploitation of others but from their restless pursuit of being real and authentic as leaders. Such seemingly naïve optimism comes not from a failure to recognize that commercial success is often fraught with moral challenge but from a choice that if we choose what is higher, loftier, more noble, then perhaps more of that will emerge.

Thoughts on ... Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:52:00 +0000

We have often observed and validated that “as go the leaders, so goes the change… or not”. We start from a conviction that leaders are not heroes but real ordinary people, often with extra-ordinary gifts, who must first live out in themselves the changes and growth that they seek for their organization. Certainly, how they engage their strengths is important, but of even greater significance is how they engage their weakness, their sense of inadequacy, their fraility. It is as leaders confront and engage their own disadvantages that they develop a capacity to elicit in others the courage, confidence and capacity to overcome their own barriers to greater performance. Inspiration matters, to be sure, but the ‘perspiration’ of personal growth in leaders is fundamental to their capacity to exert positive influence on their organizations. We challenge leaders to grow first, if they would lead others.

Thoughts on ... Organizational Performance

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:21:00 +0000

We think of organizations as systems that take some inputs, do something with them and produce outputs. Their performance is measured by how well they do that: taking resources, transforming them and, in the case of a business organization, selling products and services to customers for more than they cost. We believe organizations perform best when they interpret the external environment accurately, set mission and strategy clearly, possess an organizational culture that serves them well and where the leaders live out personally the strategy and culture of the organization. But high performance organizations need effective leaders and good governance.

(Note: this excerpt forms part of our philosophy at The Change Alliance. More can be read on our website)

Thoughts on ... Effective Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:20:00 +0000

We believe that leaders are not the heroes of our imagination, but real people who find an inner capacity to envision a future and live it with such integrity themselves that others are drawn to follow. Without followers, leaders are merely people with titles. The best leaders, in our experience, so live out, in their own unique way, both the mission and strategy or the organization and the values of its culture such that others are inspired to find within themselves the capacity to contribute their own best performance. Leaders go where their organizations need to go, first, and in so doing, win both the credibility and conferred authority of those who will follow.

(Note: this excerpt forms part of our philosophy at The Change Alliance. More can be read on our website)

Thoughts on ... Governance

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:16:00 +0000

All around us, our client organizations are experiencing surprises. Not all of them good, unfortunately. In many places, stakeholders and their representatives, boards of directors are asking themselves about the quality of their governance. Much training and even certification of directors has ensued, but Boards need to stay current and effective. Periodically they need to ask “how good is our governance?” and, of individual directors, “how effective is their contribution as an individual director”? Good governance helps effective leaders sustain high performance organizations.

(Note: this excerpt forms part of our philosophy at The Change Alliance. More can be read at our website)