Would this apply to change?  Maybe it’s an idea that is worth discussing.  This idea of Generation X and Generation Y suggests each generation are looking for something different.  The poor Y’s may have also wanted what we believe is important to Generation X, but they just didn’t have the choice.  The boundaries were firmly fixed and no-one could think of life beyond those boundaries.  It wasn’t up for negotiation.  To think outside the box was not an option.  However, those days have changed.  The directing ‘tell and do’ cultures of organisations have not always proved to be successful.  You might think of Alan Sugar as a contradiction to that, but I imagine he is a great advocate in seeking the best ideas from those around him in order to maintain the success of his multi million pound empire. 

We now articulate what we have all thought all along.  If people feel empowered, recognised, their ideas valued, their voice heard, things could be different.  Even Stephen Covey has added an 8^th habit ‘find your voice and inspire others to find theirs’.

Of course there is a balance to be had.  We cannot empower people indefinitely, without limits.  Can we?  The Senior Executives of an organisation will use their expertise, their strategic approach, their knowledge of the market forces, their long term view to decide what the strategy of an organisation needs to be.  The ‘Mission’ of an organisation, its reason for being will provide the right direction, the guiding light of where the organisation should be going.  Once the strategy has been decided, it’s at that point we could potentially miss a trick.

Once the strategy has been decided, very often organisations tell everyone how to achieve it.  Really?  Could we not be more transformational and empowering at this stage?  If we tell everyone how to achieve the strategy, are we not applying a broad brush approach to the whole of the business.  As we know there are many unique, different and incomparable aspects to an organisation.  Is every bank the same on a high street?  Is every department the same in a building?  Is each ship the same in a cruise line company?  Is every shop the same in a retail organisation?  They may look the same.  Even be the same square footage.  But as we know as soon as we walk in, they can feel very different.  The history, legacy, culture, manager and people are all very different.  How can someone remotely tell these people how to achieve the strategy?  Those closest to the opportunity, know how to achieve it.  Of course guidance and support must and need to be offered.  But as Stephen Covey identifies the people’s voice must be heard.  Perhaps in this difficult climate, when organisations feel their most nervous, they could take their bravest step, and truly trust people.  By asking people the question ‘How can we achieve our goals?  Please tell us’, they might achieve it easier than they thought.  People might just ‘buy in’ to change, when they have the freedom to choose it, when they own it.  Ideally we want every person to take full responsibility.  Only then will people feel part of the strategy or vision, rather than something that is done to them.  Maybe it you will hear less of what ‘they’ are doing, but what ‘we’ are doing.

Admittedly by asking the question above, we may hear too many answers.  This is where the different levels of management come into play, to be empowered to rise to the challenge, to listen, encourage discussion and take the best ideas forward through constructive consensus.  The Manager needs to be encouraged to be the best they can be, encouraged to feel confident.  Although they maybe be more aware of budgetary restrictions and timelines, maybe this information can also be disclosed to their teams, so they truly understand the nature of the challenges ahead.

Earlier I asked the question, can we empower people indefinitely without limits?  Maybe we can.  This is already being done by the more forward thinking companies.  One organisation even allows their people to choose how much they work and how many holidays they can take.  Really.  There are some zero tolerance behaviours and full accountability is expected.  However, by truly giving the freedom to choose, also means that the people choose their outcome.  Guess which outcome they choose?

With apologies to Martin Johnson: Very few ‘great players’ go on to make ‘great managers’. Just as most of the successful managers were not outstanding players. Supporters of Martin Johnson said that the Rugby Union should have recognised when appointing Martin to be England Manager, that he would need support as he had no previous management experience.

And yet in the business world the reason for selecting a manager is very often based upon length of service, possessing important technical skills or even just being a “good” team member.

In times when there is an increasing need for teams to deliver more, more effectively, more efficiently and more profitably the manager needs the skills to engage & lead the team to success.

Often in today’s economic climate and fast changing world, teams are subject to sudden and significant change – both in actual team members and in what the organisation asks of them.

Pressures are greater than ever for a team to work together decisively and effectively and to respond to changing needs and goals.

So you were not a great player but you want to be a great “Manager” – team building is in fact a great skill and relies upon developing strong management and leadership capabilities.  – there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to build your team, but here are some pointers to help you in the right direction.

• Everyone must share a common vision and be focused on a common goal.
• When building teams, every member must have clarity about his or her role and responsibilities in order to pull their weight.
• Ensure all team members want to participate in the team – recruit the right people

See our top ten tips for ‘Building a Top Team’

As organisations need to do more with less, strong leadership and team member engagement may be the only difference between surviving and thriving. Organisations need employees who can deliver as individuals and as members of a team, supporting customer service and in turn the profitability or efficiency of an organisation. The Jigsaw discovery Tool and and workshops can help to achieve this by improving:

• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Communication and relationships
• The management of change
• Corporate culture
• And enhancing the customer experience

Find out more about the Jigsaw Discovery Tool and our Jigsaw Development Programmes.

Commented Michelle “We like many other small companies are approached on a regular basis to sponsor various projects. In these austere times when we are time rich, cash poor, to give a few hours to help a cause is relatively easy.”

STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH

► When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

► Design is not just what it looks like. DESIGN IS HOW IT WORKS.

► If you haven’t found it yet, KEEP LOOKING! Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationships, it just gets beter and better as the years roll on.

► YOU CAN’T JUST ASK CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT AND THEN TRY TO GIVE THAT TO THEM. BY THE TIME YOU GET IT BUILT, THEY’LL WANT SOMETHING NEW.

► You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -
your gut, destiny, life, karm, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

►MY MODEL FOR BUSINESS IS THE BEATLES. They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of parts.

► I’M CONVINCED THAT ABOUT HALF OF WHAT SEPARATES THE SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS FROM THE NON-SUCCESSFUL ONES IS PURE PERSERVERANCE.

► YOUR TIME IS LIMITED, SO DON’T WASTE IT LIVING SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

► Being the richest man IN THE CEMETERY doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, THAT’S WHAT MATTERS TO ME.

I recently blogged Bill Gates 10 rules  – two men in the same industry, but what a difference.

But what is it that makes them different?… love to hear your thoughts.

So he recruited a cockroach who had extensive experience as  a supervisor and who was famous for writing excellent reports. The cockroach’s first decision was to set up a clocking in attendance system. He also needed a secretary to help him write and type his reports and he recruited a spider, who managed the archives and monitored all phone calls.

The lion was delighted with the cockroach’s reports and asked him to produce graphs to describe production rates and to analyse trends, so that he could use them for presentations at Board meetings. So the cockroach had to buy a new computer and a laser printer and recruit a fly to manage the IT department.

The ant, who had once been so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of her time…!

The lion came to the conclusion that it was high time to nominate a person in charge of the department where the ant worked. The position was given to the cicada, whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office. The new person in charge, the cicada, also needed a computer and a personal assistant who he brought from his previous department, to help him prepare a Work and Budget Control Strategic Optimisation Plan…

The Department where the ant works is now a sad place, where nobody laughs anymore and everybody has become upset… It was at that time that the cicada convinced the boss, the lion, of the absolute necessity to start a climatic study of the environment. Having reviewed the charges for running the ant’s department, the lion found that the production was much less than before. So he recruited the owl, a prestigious and renowned consultant to carry out an audit and suggest solutions. The owl spent three months in the department and came up with an enormous report, in several volumes, that concluded: “The department is overstaffed …”

Guess who the lion fires first?

The ant, of course, because she “showed lack of motivation and had a negative attitude”.

I recently spoke to a young man who was cleaning hotel rooms he had an MBA and whilst he was not content to be a cleaner he felt that it gave him the opportunity of getting his foot on the next rung on the employment ladder.

Our conversation drew me to thinking about the following – particularly rule 5.

The following is an urban myth that has been circulating for some time and has recently resurfaced. It has been attributed to Bill Gates as some advice he dished out when speaking at a high school. It is also attributed to educator Charles Sykes in his book “Dumbing Down our Kids”.

Whatever or whoever it is still pretty cool …….  politically correct teaching has created a full generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept sets them up for failure in the real world.

RULE 1
Life is not fair – get used to it.

RULE 2
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity.

RULE 6
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9
Life is not divided into terms. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Add to this that nearly 50% of parents who were asked called for the return of corporal punishment in schools and two-thirds of pupils want strong leadership in the classroom is it maybe time that we returned to ‘the old standards’ in education?

I only mention it because one of my favourite drives is up the A1 to Scotland, one passes through some magnificent countryside and if time is on one’s side there are some fantastic views. As one draws into the ‘Inspiring Capital’ the view changes, on the right Princess Street on the left towering over the City is the famous Castle – in this instance being dwarfed by the grandstands specially erected for the tattoo.

On this particular night the last week in August the City buzzing more than normal – its Festival time! Amongst the crowds walking along one can recognise performers if not from their dress, from instruments being carried. In the writers case its ‘Fringe’ time,  2751 performances in a four week period. The book giving details of all going on itself runs to 360 pages and looks more like a telephone directory than a performance brochure.

And so our week begins training courses by day, performances by night – but who, where and when – the timetable begins about 11am and runs till 2 or 3 in the morning. The average performance lasting about an hour but sometimes a little longer. The venues range from luxuriant Gothic buildings to what in the cold light of day is nothing more than a big shed. The seating ranges from just plain uncomfortable to bum numbing- sometimes one is grateful that the performance is only an hour.

Does one go straight for the big names – ‘er off the telly; ‘im off the radio or does one look for something different? Our first taste was ‘The Pink Sinatra’ real name Scott Free – a great singer in the Sinatra style – but with a slight twist, our man wore a pink leather suit, pink trilby and walked with a wiggle. Worth every penny. It was then a quick taxi ride along Princess Street and up the Mount to see headliner Andy Parsons (the bald one off Mock the Week). He is a bit like Marmite – an hour was enough – then out into the night air to try and find a restaurant open, if all else fails look for an Indian! And then to bed.

8.00am the next morning bright as a button (not!) back in the training room. The hotel is busy so spotting my people as they arrive in the hotel lobby is not easy, but eventually we round them all up and we are off!

A 4:45 finish and it’s a quick wash & brush up down into the hotel restaurant and dinner before going back on the fringe trail. Tonight is exciting – its them magicians off the telly. Barry & Stuart – two young guys who are very good with tonight’s performance having a twist. The theatre is packed and we are each handed a pair of 3D type glasses. The magic starts before our stars appear (I’m not telling!). Their act is very audience participatory and has does not stop for breath, the hour passes quickly and we finally spill out into the bar area to kill some time before queuing for the second performance – The Tell!  Yep it’s just as it says on the can. They take the now smaller audience step by step through their routine, but with a difference – they show how the tricks are done. If I told you, you would not believe me, so I am not going to. All I can say is ‘its magic – really’.

Our third day was a little easier, no delivery so on the morning catch up on Emails etc. With lunchtime treat – lunch with The Hamiltons – that’s Christine & Neil. She is a living Ray O’Sunshine, never stops talking, interrupts and calls everyone ‘dahling’ I think Neil deserves a medal living with her!

Whilst we qued to get in we were joined by Julian Fellowes (the writer of Downton Abbey) and his very glamorous wife. In order to fill the hour the Hamiltons had various guests from the ‘Fringe’ world each punting their own show. Apparently they are really popular and have been coming for some years but stopped in 2009 only to be dragged back for 2011.

Lunch was outdoors in a large quadrangle area of the University which itself serves as a campus for fringe performances. With an hour or so to kill before our next performance, we took a walk down the Royal Mile to have a look at the buskers, street performers and generally take in the atmosphere. You name it and they were there ‘glee’ groups from the USA, musicals from Australia, performers from all corners of the globe.

Our next port of call was a ’Night Out with Tommy Cooper’ well an hour and half actually. All the old tricks with gags that are even older. A brilliant night out – laugh, if not at the act then at the audience – isn’t laughter infectious?

A quick meal and then to the highlight of the trip, not the fringe but the tattoo.  We’ve all seen it on the telly, but one has to see it once in reality. Lots of soldiers, lots of marching (some dancing) and lots of bands. An audience from around the world – hanging on every action and movement. As I say one has to see it just once in the flesh – now I have.

Regrets, we were not there long enough, we didn’t see ‘er of the radio or ‘im of the telly, but there is always next year!

Similarly, Adventurers who try to ‘grow up’ and become serious, responsible father-figures can become excessively authoritarian as they over-compensate for the fact that they are operating outside of their Home Base. Knowing that people often look for more guidance than they want themselves, they can end up smothering people.

Sages, responding to feedback that they fail to fight for what is right, can become quixotic, taking on battles that they ought to avoid. The ‘fighting’ Sage, unaccustomed to the implicit ‘Queensbury Rules’ of the organisation can astonish and dismay people with their flailing around. They can be very bad tacticians, having had little experience of how to win in open conflict.

Guardians who feel they ought to give people more rope can become untrustworthy and rash. Many of their subordinates begin to feel betrayed and abandoned by the very person who, hitherto, had been their rock.

Much of what is taught and has been written about leadership, especially in recent years are ‘proven’ leadership methods, promoted as ‘the answer’, without recognition that any approach to leadership, for it to be an effective tool, has to be harmonious with a leader’s character.

What makes you a good leader is learning how to lead in the way you were born to lead. In this sense, leaders are born, not made. Character comes first, leadership strategy second. Before you take on any leadership technique, ask yourself how well it fits with your character.

One of the most dangerous mistakes a leader can make is to try to be all things to all people. This may be based on the good intention to be a rounded individual. But in a leadership position, this can so easily come across as inconsistency. Successful leaders know themselves and develop strategies that are both consistent and in tune with their core characters, and appropriate to their context.

However, leadership depends upon others’ willingness to follow, and is not about being good at what you do, but being good at who you are.

In leadership, it is not what you do or say that is important, but whether those who would follow believe in you. If leader X, a person I trust, value and fundamentally believe in, asks me to do something, the chances are that I will do it willingly. But if leader Y, a person whom I believe to be untrustworthy, self-centred and lacking in integrity asks me to do exactly the same thing, I’ll find every way I can to avoid doing it.

Leaders need to be adaptable and well rounded. But they also need to have a core strategy, a firm and consistent framework upon which to build their unique leadership styles.

Of course, for all leaders, there will be times when it feels right to fight for what they believe in; they have people around them they can involve in decision-making; a sense of organizational community needs to be created and maintained; while everyone should have a degree of freedom to express their individuality to some degree.

Each of these is an issue of judgement. At what point is it appropriate to fight for what you believe in? How far should people be allowed to go in influencing a leader’s decisions? How involved in the community should people be? How much freedom should individuals be given?

There are no right answers to these questions. Leadership is demonstrated in the exercise of discretion – making consistent, coherent and credible judgements on issues of significance to others, but issues which have to be resolved according to what you, as a leader, believe to be right.  As a leader, you are expected to make decisions and stick to your beliefs on matters like these.

Not everyone will agree with your decisions and judgements, but trying to satisfy everybody, and to be all things to all people can end up with adopting a leadership style that has no substance, no consistency, and therefore, no credibility. Effective leaders know that you don’t have always to be right to succeed. But you do have to be believed in.