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1. ©2011 LeadersReview.co.nz

Team enthusiasm needs more than things ticking nicely.

TUESDAY 13TH DECEMBER

As Leaders Review began in April 2010, business confidence was still being buffeted by the GFC. As we head to the end of our second year, this time its Europe’s troubles whipping up the ‘new normal’ head-winds. All such turbulence challenges the personal confidence of many in business, and therefore their ability to self-motivate and motivate their troops.

As is our purpose, it has been hugely satisfying to highlight outstanding peer and industry-nominated leadership, particularly their examples of focus, courage and duty. We remain impressed with their duty to ideals, staff, clients, suppliers, and to their local or national communities. Its important to call out such qualities within the business culture as and when we see them.

Psychology texts will tell you to literally look for that 3 to 7% whom, regardless of an idea’s popularity, will consult their staff or front-line for service and operational ideas, or easily work with outsiders’ innovations. But 3 to 7% won't cut it. A true entrepreneurial, even intrapreneural, culture needs to have us hitting at least the 30% mark amongst management and that represents a required shift in our understanding of true leadership ideals.

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES IN NEW ZEALAND.

A lessor observation from the year - ‘Chicken Little’ leadership: managers who vehemently look the other way when required to throw a small oar out of the boat to their struggling client communities. (After the melee, they simply turn back to see who has survived so they can pitch to whomever is left.) The Canterbury series in particular represented an uneasy juxtaposition between a clearly distressed business community and those who continued to bill that community by the millions, yet wouldn’t lift a finger to help them out (genuinely struggling locals excepted). 

Given the context, a big thank you then to Canterbury TV who will screen the Canterbury Manufacturing episodes from January, and Business NZ’s ExportNZ.org.nz site, whom showcased the series on their homepage through November. And of course, sponsors Plumbing World, Singapore Airlines and Peppers Resort who all stepped forward (regardless) to make this all possible for Canterbury Business and wider NZ Manufacturing.

RESHAPING BUSINESS CULTURE

With all our in-built biases, I think the key thing in terms of advancing leadership is to educate not merely business but so too the public as to true leadership traits they might look out for themselves as they go about their lives and work. If the spotlight is focused 'high-beam' for long enough, this will encourage (sometimes ‘goad’) managers to act in more productive, leader-like ways for their companies, clients and community. In that regard (and for our two cents worth) we have some rather exciting media projects in store for next year.

We have many brave business owners and leaders out there. They need to be (at least) morally supported. We, their public, clients, suppliers, and government, owe them some return loyalty for the jobs they create, the visions they set , and for the risks they take. If they give it their best shot, so should we.

MUST-READS

Three of the best set-the-scene articles from this year (all NZ Herald):

* Owen Glenn’s, “Wakey, Wakey NZ - Rise and Shine.” Glenn identifies the fashion and chic of high-level analysis from folks who then disappear at heavy-lifting time.

* The IceHouse’s, Andrew Hamilton, “Large Companies and Entrepreneurs can work together”. Here, the IceHouse CEO identifies a much required cultural shift.

* Sir Paul Callaghan, “Our strength lies in the weird stuff.” How real-world R&D works.

THANK-YOUS

Hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s “Leaders Review” series. 

To all our viewers, whether you simply enjoy the daily TV vignettes we do most months, or industry-specific video series, here, online - thanks for supporting us. 

For all our companies, brands and others who have stepped forward to support their own client communities and NZ business community, thanks for your own courage, leadership and support. (The ones you see here folks, really, really do give a damn ;-)

To our on-camera leaders, thank you for giving of your time, travel, putting your heads above the parapet - and making this series encouraging and rewarding for many others.

Have a great Christmas & New Year break everyone and we’ll kick off again in February.

Best,

Peter Anich

Producer

ptanich@leadersreview.co.nz

Don’t aim to survive in 2012. Aim to succeed.

MONDAY 5TH DECEMBER
If anything this ongoing series aims to reflect ‘attitude’, and attitude is something that needs to be controlled within the leader and for their staff and stakeholders. While you can aim to hold the line (match your sales, productivity targets et al) we have observed from many industry voices in many industries, how changing the mix, innovating and even re-inventing the sales process has, time and time again, resulted in ground-breaking targets rather than survival demarcations.

Setting lofty goals in an uncertain environment can be a very pragmatic, growth-oriented and non-Polyanna process no matter the state of the economy. Similarly, witness our voices from Electrical Contractors talking tactical earlier this year as they expanded on “Success versus Survival tactics.” (3:27)

Next week an end of year wrap up of observations around leadership culture from this year generally.

Use the next few weeks to get stuck in so as to set up 2012 well.

You can’t dominate your thinking by more thinking.

MONDAY 28TH NOVEMBER

Firstly, regardless of your hue, a well-deserved “Congrats” to the Nats. As others have commented, its a funny system though where record levels of support only just scrapes as a cobbled, workable majority.

Anyway, Elections, Europe, Rena and our ongoing Canterbury efforts aside, probably the most important thing we need to be doing to hold fast amongst our communities, is to keep talking to each other as leaders and business owners, reminding each other of our own daily efforts and forward focus. No different to a sports team on the field - as soon as you look toward the crowd for direction, the team drifts.

If the NZ business pysche is susceptible to anything, it can be the rapidly atrophic effect of navel-gazing or pausing, while absorbing too many headlines or bad rumours. Meanwhile the ship stops, or even begins to list.

The best way to dominate your own and your team’s confidence is not by more thinking but small, pragmatic, daily actions, particularly as seen by staff in their leaders.

With that in mind please enjoy this recap of “What is the Buzz.” (3:02) from our Electrical Contractors series, where our voices from the industry were asked what kept them in the game given all the challenges they faced.

Let’s try and allow regular, take-charge actions to dominate our thinking this week. And communicate regular action to those around you.

Personal Vision Trumps Elections.

MONDAY 21ST NOVEMBER - “Personal Forward Focus.” (3:16)

In a twist from our regular ‘business forward focus’ question, we asked the Telco leaders early this year as to how their personal forward focus was setting for 2011. With all that has happened per telecommunications, big ambitions, there is perhaps then some reward in looking back as we do now in late November.

Certainly amongst organization leaders, a strong focus following up a strong vision seems to count the most - regardless of the many tacks required.

Have a great week - and whatever the result this Saturday - how we react in terms of our planning and actions is always 100% up to ourselves. Sure, you hope for the best in terms of our political leadership but in the end we have our own jobs to stay on track with and communicate to others.

MONDAY 14TH NOVEMBER - “Profitability.” (2:58)

In pre-production for the upcoming Plastics Manufacturing series, one supplier to the local industry said, “If they are argue a few cents in terms of raw materials (i.e. sometimes under 10% of the cost of goods sold) they’ve missed the point entirely and you know it won’t last.”

The field is high in bespoke innovation - a key requirement at this end of the world. And that innovation needs to translate into clear-cut profitability in order to counter the vagaries of exchange ratesalong with the threat of copy-cats. There will be a plethora of interesting comment around th e topic from our upcoming industry nominees but in the meantime did remind me of Myles Fothergill’s masterful commentary on profitability within the (completely different) field of marine and marine export. The MD of Wanganui-based, Q-West Boatbuilders, was adamant of the direct connection between ‘responsible’ margins and safe-guarding manufacturer, suppliers and clients alike.

Have a focused week everyone,

Inflection point in our approach to Kiwi entrepreneurism?

MONDAY 7TH NOVEMBER - “Kiwi Entrepreneurism.” (5:19)

As we build up to our next Leaders Review series release, a chance to feature this week, one of my favourite chapters from last year, regarding the nature or ‘Kiwi sense’ of what entrepreneursim is. The commentary was provided by Imarda (and Endace) serial-entrepreneur, Selwyn Pellet and joining him, Jade CEO, Craig Richardson. I would say Craig himself has certainly walked-his-talk with a new intrapreneural approach to corporate operations, furthered since appearing in the first Software series. (There has been a Software Update series this year, which Craig also appeared in.)

Both gentlemen suggest we have now reached a bit of a required inflexion point - around how society sees entrepreneurism, and more importantly how entrepreneurs themselves now need to see such pursuits. Longer than usual but worth it.

Have a focused week this week everyone

- its your own campaign that will easily count for the most.

How far leadership goes to innovate, collaborate & assist.

THURSDAY 27TH OCTOBER - “Canterbury Collaboration.” (3:34)

This week in the Herald, Fran O’Sullivan highlighted the irony of Sir Richard Branson’s key messages regarding ‘giving things a go’, compared to the modis operandi of what would have been a fair few (though not all) in the audience at his recent Auckland event.

Maybe then our Cantab’s can give us a few clues as to what’s possible in the realm of simple innovation, idea swaps, or simply assisting fellow businesses, in today’s chapter release.

In all the years I have been in business, profiled leadership, and studied small to large entities, the greatest force of local atrophy has never been the (sensible) aversion to various Hail Mary passes on offer but rather a singular and unusual fear of change itself. This often includes larger companies spurning the many innovative low-cost/low or no-risk/high return options many of their smaller local peers offer everyday. (Though no one ever got fired hiring IBM, as they say.)

Leadership and simple innovation is trained out of folk, to the point where the new itself appears to automatically represent personal or social risk, or simply the possibility of needless travail. We have a true crisis of leadership when the staff of key organizations are no longer connected to their core missions; where managers and employees are no longer concerned with the long-term preservation of the business that employs them (assuming the payroll lasts that little bit longer.)

Managers need commit to accepting one low-risk, low-cost innovation from staff regularly. Failure means little is lost though there is much to gain if a team are further given the chance to improve and repair their own ideas. And managers become leaders. 

Start small so innovation becomes a regular habit of action, observation, and improvement. Such an innovative (and motivational) tsunami is relatively simple, informal and quick to effect - have seen it in action dozens of times - and while managers often need an outside source to point to, that’s okay - as long as the ball gets rolling.

Previously this week:

TUESDAY 25TH OCTOBER- “Early Days”. How it all started for our nominated voices.

WEDNESDAY 26TH OCTOBER - “Attitude, Guts & Go.” Steely determination sets in.

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