August 2011 Archives

I like to use current news items as "coaching moments". The big news item this week: Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple Computer. The new CEO is Tim Cook, formerly the Chief Operating Officer at Apple.

Jobs's resignation press release mentions a "succession plan" involving Tim Cook. This is very interesting, because we haven't seen much of Tim Cook in any leadership role in the last several years. Steve Jobs was (arguably) the driving force behind the company. Part of successful leadership is identifying and developing the next generation of leaders. Except for this press release, there hasn't been demonstrable transition planning at Apple, no visible development of a future leader who could take Jobs's place when he eventually left the company.

But now, as Tim Cook steps into his new role, what advice would you give him? He faces a daunting task: Apple is losing a visionary iCEO, so Cook needs to demonstrate that he can play on that field too, and has a vision for his new role.

My recommendation to Cook: communicating through change. In successfully managing a change, steps 1 through 3 are usually "communication, communication, communication." The key is to provide a vision for what the change will deliver, and set an expectation for the general steps required to reach that vision. Even if your change isn't really a "change" per se, just a transition, it's still important to communicate openly about goals, so that everyone has an opportunity to participate and knows what will be expected of them.

Fortunately, Cook seems to be doing just that. Yesterday, he sent his first company-wide email as CEO. The message: Apple is not going to change. That's a great first step! Next, I expect Cook will sketch out his priorities for the next 6-12 months. We may also see an infusion of new talent. During this very public transition, I'd recommend Cook remain transparent.

What would you recommend?

My guess is Cook will have his "honeymoon" period as CEO until Apple announces the next iDevice. If Tim Cook can keep the spotlight on his transition, and not on the departing Steve Jobs, he should do well.

You may have seen this video before: Dan Pink speaking about "Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us". As suggested by the title, the results may not be what you expect.

Typical "management" practices holds that rewarding the behavior that you want, and punishing the behavior you don't, results in better performance. As a result, many believe that if you reward your top performers (bonuses) you'll get better performance overall.

The Federal Reserve Bank funded research to examine this, to see if it holds true today. The summary: as long as the tasks were strictly "mechanical", bonuses worked as expected, and boosted performance. But as soon as the tasks required even rudimentary thinking, the "reward" system resulted in poorer performance. I'll let you watch the rest of the video for more.

Pink gives this key about motivating people: Non-reward is a non-motivator - if you don't pay people enough for the job, they aren't motivated. But if you settle that, there are 3 factors for better performance, and personal satisfaction:

1. Automony - self direction, it's better to get out of their way.
2. Mastery - people want to get better at what they do, it's in our nature.
3. Purpose - making a contribution.

On a personal note, I found his example of free / open source software in talking about "Mastery" & "Purpose" to be right on.

We visited the Stevens County fair this weekend. It was a lot of fun (the sheriff K-9 unit demonstration was particularly impressive) and I enjoyed the opportunity to meet so many people from around the area.

In the 4H building, we got to see crafts and projects that area students have been working on this year. One that stopped me was a posterboard about Leadership. I snapped a photo so I could reference it later, but unfortunately as I look at it now, it's too blurry to make out the name of the author (who won 1st place and the Grand Champion ribbon, by the way.) However, I'd like to share the themes of the poster, breaking down Leadership into themes, by first letter in the word "Leadership":

• L: Learning
• E: Exciting
• A: Adventure
• D: Decision-making
• E: Encouraging
• R: Responsibility
• S: Supporting
• H: Having-fun
• I: Independence
• P: Prepared

This poster presentation succinctly captures the qualities of a successful leader. How do you rate yourself against each of these qualities?

Bill Clebsch (Associate Vice President IT Services, Stanford University) shared this link with me, and I'd like to share it with you. The concept is the "first follower". Being a leader takes a willingness to stand apart, to take risks - but so does the "first follower", aka the "early adopter".

Early adopters, or first followers, set themselves apart from the crows, to do something different. Watch this video of a dancing guy, who eventually gets an entire crowd to dance with him, as one example of a leader, the first follower, and what it takes to get people to join in.

Some key points:

1. To be a leader, nurture your followers as equals.
2. Make it about the followers, not you.
3. Be public.
4. Be easy to follow.
5. Leadership is over-glorified; there is no "movement" without the first follower.

In his essay "The Leaderful Community," Joseph A. Raelin argues that in order to succeed in the 21st century, organizations should look beyond conventional leadership models. Instead, he argues that organizations can become more leaderful by distributing leadership across all members of the community. Realin describes leaderful communities as possessing the following four qualities:

1. Concurrent: More than one leader can operate at the same time, so leaders willingly and naturally share power with others.

2. Collective: Decisions are made by whoever has the relevant responsibility. Leadership may thus emerge from multiple members, especially when important needs arise.

3. Collaborative: All members of the community, not just the position leader, are in control of and may speak for the entire community.

4. Compassionate: Each member of the community is valued regardless of his or her background or social standing, and all viewpoints are considered regardless of whether they conform to current thought processes.

As we get ready for the start of Fall classes, I just wanted to say "Welcome back!" to all the returning students and faculty.

The BBC asked Oliver Bussman, SAP's Chief Information Officer (CIO) three questions, starting with "What's your biggest technology problem right now?" It's a question that every IT leader should ask, in planning for the future. Bussman provides a concise answer:

In my opinion it is the consumerisation of IT.

By this I mean that technology trends are driving technology adoption, I tend to say "lifestyle is becoming work style", end-user demands are shaping the IT strategy.

As CIO it is my job to make sure our employees can take advantage of new technology quickly. I have to stay ahead of the trends. We were one of the first larger companies to adopt the iPad, which had made us a major player in the mobile industry.

This thought was echoed by InfoWorld Magazine, in How the App Store reshapes IT's priorities.

The InfoWorld article is primarily about managing risk. Their advice:

For IT, deny-by-default is standard operating procedure. Aimed at minimizing risk, this policy has IT's hand up to prevent end-users from installing any and all nonstandard software. From an IT security perspective, deny-by-default is sound practice. For fostering innovation? Not so much.

To succeed going forward, IT must become a successful steward, rather than owner, of technology. It must encourage innovation at every level, right down to the end-user. It must support "single-actor practices" rather than simply enacting global policies. And to do so, you're going to need IT/business integration, not alignment. Becoming an integral part of the enterprise, and not just a service provider to it, is essential, because nothing IT does from now on stands on its own. Everything -- people, processes, tools, and technology -- will be wired together to reinforce each other in service of the business mission.

The article goes on to talk about Apple's App Store, and the iPad, as a way to drive IT change, turning traditional "deny-by-default" on its end.

But the statement "IT must become a successful steward, rather than owner, of technology" rings with me. It is a concise statement to where IT is headed today.

How is your IT organization a "steward" of technology? Does your organization look to how your users are consuming technology, and finding innovative ways to deliver that technology to your users?