The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership

How many of today’s problems are the result of leadership?

What’s lacking, the author of The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership argues, is the lack of real leadership.

Here the problem may lie with a lack of deeper, broader insights, the kind of insights that technical skill alone does not confer— the ability to see the big picture, to connect with members of the organization, to foster a meaningful and productive work environment, and to steer the corporate ship through the challenges of highly competitive markets and new technologies.

What is leadership?

The authors define the term “leadership” in a way that differentiates their “interpretation from the offhanded views that too often distort the word’s meaning.”

It is the assumption of the authors that leadership is an uncommon composite of skill, experience, and ripened personal perspectives. It is, of course, the last of those elements that sets the real leader apart from those who simply “run” organizations. Ripened personal perspectives are an essential ingredient in a leader’s efforts to develop and articulate a sound corporate vision. Real leaders, people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, see things more rapidly than does the typical executive. At least in part, their insights are a reflection of an “inner” clarity that allows for fuller concentration on the challenges at hand. This is why leadership cannot be “done by the numbers,” why those who have failed to comprehend the motivating subtleties in their own lives are unlikely to achieve the status of “leader.” Simply put, only those men and women who have cultivated a care fully conceived philosophy of life are ready and able to exhibit the kind of workplace mastery suggested by the term “leader.” Now for some, invoking the term “philosophy” in this context may seem strangely out of place. To one degree or another, we all have been conditioned to believe that philosophy is at best a kind of noble laziness, a speculative exercise devoid of concrete benefit. Yet it may be that many of the inefficiencies and failures that plague our managerial environments are ultimately related to an inadequate consideration of what philosophy has to offer.

The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership

1. Know thyself. Understand your inner world, your bright and dark sides, your personal strengths and weakness. Self-comprehension is a fundamental precondition necessary for real leadership. 2. Office shows the person. The assumption of authority brings out the leader’s inner world. It reveals whether the leader has undergone a process of honest self-discovery that allows for the productive application of power. 3. Nurture community in the workplace. Community development and positive sentiment are virtues leaders must nurture by providing the right support, guidance, and incentives. 4. Do not waste energy on things you cannot change. Do not waste resources and energies on things you cannot control, and therefore, cannot change. 5. Always embrace the truth. Effective leaders should always embrace the truth, always encourage candid criticism throughout the organization, be skeptical of flattering appraisals, and never let authority place a wedge between them and the truth. 6. Let competition reveal talent. Nurture an environment that can use the forces of competition constructively, create a platform that releases the ingenuity and creativity of your employees in pursuing corporate goals and objectives, identify subordinates who use competition as a constructive force, steer away from subordinates who use competition as a destructive force. 7. Live life by a higher code. Dedicate yourself to a higher standard of personal conduct; don’t harbor ill-will toward those who offend; be ready to assist those who are in need without asking something in return; remain calm in the face of crisis; dedicate yourself to principle without compromise; earn the trust, respect, and admiration of your subordinates through your character, not the authority conferred upon you by the corporate chart; turn authority into power. 8. Always evaluate information with a critical eye. Don’t rely upon old premises, assertions, and theories. Develop a critical mindset that accepts nothing at face value, certify the credibility and usefulness of critical information, analyze the con text that produces critical information and the messengers who convey it, and never rush to judgments. 9. Never underestimate the power of personal integrity. Personal integrity is a critical asset for real leadership. Always set an honorable agenda, adhere to a code of professional conduct, never try to justify dishonesty and deceit, rather “fail with honor than win by cheating.” 10. Character is destiny. True leadership is ultimately traceable to factors of character and personal integrity; much of what is called “destiny” lies in our hands, not in mysterious forces beyond our control.

The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership: Classical Wisdom for Modern Leaders is a worthy read for anyone looking to embark on a journey of critical self-examination. You’ll learn from the revered ancient thinkers like Aristotle, Hesiod, Sophocles, Heraclitus, and Antisthenes.

10 Rules for Managing Global Innovation

In this article, Insead’s Wilson and Doz draw on research into global strategy and innovation to present a set of guidelines for setting up and managing global innovation. They explore in detail the challenges that make global projects inherently different and show how these can be overcome by applying superior project management skills across teams, fostering a strong collaborative culture, and using a robust array of communications tools.

Single-location projects draw on a large reservoir of tacit knowledge, shared context, and trust that global projects lack. The management challenge, therefore, is to replicate the positive aspects of colocation while harnessing the opportunities of dispersion.

More and more companies recognize that their dispersed, global operations are a treasure trove of ideas and capabilities for innovation. But it’s proving harder than expected to unearth those ideas or exploit those capabilities. Part of the problem is that companies manage global innovation the same way they manage traditional, single-location projects.

Companies are well aware that hidden in their dispersed, global operations is a treasure trove of ideas and capabilities for innovation. But it’s proving harder than expected to unearth those ideas or exploit those capabilities in global innovation projects. Some of the challenges of global projects are familiar: figuring out the right role for top executives, for example, or finding a good balance between formal and informal project management processes.

But although the challenges may be familiar, the solutions are not; what works for an innovation project conducted in a single location doesn’t necessarily work for one dispersed across many sites around the world. That’s partly because many important enablers of innovation happen naturally in colocation. Single location projects draw on large reservoirs of shared tacit knowledge and trust, and when issues arise, senior management is on hand to make decisions and provide direction and support. Team members share the same language, culture, and norms, enabling flexibility and iterative learning as the project unfolds.

When a project spans multiple locations, many of those natural benefits—often taken for granted—are lost. Part of the challenge of dispersed innovation thus becomes how to replicate the positive aspects of colocation while harnessing the unique benefits of a global initiative. To explore this challenge, we spent more than a decade doing field research at 47 companies around the world, including Citibank, HP, Hitachi, Infosys, Intel, LG Electronics, Novartis, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, Vodafone, and Xerox. In 2004 we teamed up with Booz & Company to conduct a global survey that was completed by 186 companies from 19 countries and 17 sectors, with a combined innovation spend of more than US$78 billion. We draw on that work to present a set of guidelines for successfully managing global innovation projects.

1. Start Small

One of the chief enablers of dispersed innovation is the experience of the participating sites in working on global projects. No matter how strong technical capabilities or customer knowledge may be at a particular site, employees will struggle to make a contribution to a global project commensurate with their skills if they have had experience only in colocated development. That’s because on single location projects, team members benefit from collective tacit knowledge and a shared context, both of which support rich communication and help build trust and confidence among coworkers. Projects that span multiple sites and time zones are often hobbled by differences in workplace practices, communication patterns, and cultural norms. In the absence of everyday interactions and encounters, people struggle to signal trustworthiness and demonstrate competencies. Making matters worse, many teams are used to competing for resources with teams at other sites, and this creates yet another barrier to trust and collaboration between sites.

To be effective, dispersed teams have to develop a new set of collaboration competencies and establish a collaborative mind-set. This can be done by running small, dispersed projects involving just two or three sites before a project launch. Schneider Electric and Toshiba, two global electronics manufacturers, took this approach when they formed a joint venture, STI, to develop electrical drives and inverters. Although management was enthusiastic about the new partnership, engineers at the two companies were not. To build trust between sites, STI organized a series of small, noncritical joint projects under the close scrutiny of senior managers. By the end of the first project, the teams had already begun to feel comfortable collaborating with colleagues at other sites. They quickly established consensus on working practices and protocols, reinforcing trust and providing a good foundation for the more complex global initiatives to come.

Managers must anticipate the possible toxic side effects of organizational change and shelter their global teams as much as possible.

2. Provide a Stable Organizational Context

During periods of major organizational change, such as restructurings or acquisitions integration, the complexity of dispersed innovation escalates. Top managers are likely to be focused elsewhere within the organization, leaving their global projects orphaned. Critical decisions are frequently left hanging, and problems often go unaddressed. In a climate of organizational uncertainty, turf battles can flare up, and project team members may become concerned about job security and lose focus.

Consider a global electronics firm we’ll call Elecompt. It launched a global innovation project at a time when new acquisitions were being integrated and a major reorganization of R&D was under way. Although the project was of strategic importance, management focus was understandably elsewhere. Problems came to a head when, prompted by fear of job losses, large numbers of highly skilled engineers at one site left the company, causing significant delays.

Of course, it’s not possible to undertake global innovation projects only in times of sustained stability, so managers need to anticipate the possible toxic side effects of reorganization on global innovation and shelter teams as much as possible from disruptions. They should focus on creating an atmosphere of stability and bolster employees’ sense of self-worth and loyalty to the firm. This will be particularly important for firms that are expanding R&D in China, where competition for talent is so intense that loyalty to employers rarely has time to develop.

3. Assign Oversight and Support Responsibility to a Senior Manager

When the knowledge base underlying a project is fragmented and project teams are scattered over multiple locations, miscommunication, conflict, and stalemates over crucial decision making are much more likely. Project teams often struggle to handle these problems constructively over a distance, especially when disagreements become personal, and so senior managers have to take on a formal role as arbiter, risk manager, support provider, and ultimate decision maker.

Contrast this with the more familiar world of single location projects, where senior managers can give the go-ahead to an innovation project and then step back and let the team get on with it. This hands-off approach works because on-site executives can rely on informal communication and feedback mechanisms to maintain oversight. Being on the spot, they’re more likely to become aware of difficulties early on and can intervene when necessary to resolve them.

Companies that are smart about global innovation create an explicit role for senior executives in their projects. For example, at Essilor, a global corrective lens manufacturer, an executive team member is assigned to head up every international project. He or she monitors project progress and is responsible for making key decisions and ensuring that the project meets the firm’s strategic objectives.

Essilor undertook a project to develop photochromic lenses with partners PPG and Transitions Optical. The project involved more than 20 sites around the world. To ensure first mover advantage, the schedule was extremely aggressive. Once the project was under way, it became clear that to hit the launch date, the production ramp-up phase would have to be reduced. This could be achieved only by taking shortcuts in the production validation and evaluation processes. None of the managers of the 18 production facilities were comfortable with that kind of risk.

With loose executive oversight and unclear decision rights, the project might have stalled or derailed before the issue came to the attention of senior management. But the executive responsible for the project saw the dilemma immediately and took it to the executive committee. Because time to market was critical, the committee agreed to the shortcuts and made it clear that the risk belonged to the project, not to the production sites. The problem was resolved without any disruption to the work flow, and the product was launched on schedule.

4. Use Rigorous Project Management and Seasoned Project Leaders

In addition to a fully engaged senior manager, a global innovation project requires a strong project management team to drive the project on a day-to-day basis and strong team leaders supported by robust tools and processes. These are necessary to impose discipline, structure, and a shared sense of purpose across the locations.

Firms can approach these challenges in a number of ways. Some adopt rigorous quality programs to provide formal project management for global projects. Siemens uses Design for Six Sigma to define common analytical tools, provide coaching, and set targets and timetables for feedback meetings. Those processes are then adopted across all sites.

Alternatively, firms can build a corporate project-management capability. Essilor, the lens manufacturer, has a corporate unit that runs global projects. The unit includes staff members from all functions and geographies—many of whom spend several years as project managers of global innovation efforts before returning to their area of specialty. These positions are desirable ones: Project managers value the opportunity to work closely with the senior executives assigned to their projects. And because the roles involve extensive travel and exposure to different parts of the firm, project managers leave the unit having built strong cross-cultural skills and robust relationships and networks all over the world.

It’s important to note that global innovation projects are so complex that standard tools and processes don’t always work well. At the joint venture STI, a project manager realized that misunderstandings resulting from e-mail communication between teams were causing the schedule to slip. With senior management support, he successfully introduced a protocol requiring that all initial communication on a topic be voice-to-voice. At the software firm Synopsys, the global development of a new product ran in parallel to the incremental development of an existing product, a traditional approach at many firms. Concerned that this would lead to an “us versus them” culture, the project manager organized work spaces to mix up the two teams.

5. Appoint a Lead Site

Each site involved in global innovation will see the project through the prism of its own contribution and context, rather than putting the bigger picture first. That’s why all sites can’t carry equal weight, even if their experience and expertise are equivalent; one has to be designated the lead. That site takes responsibility for delivering the project on time and on budget.

Let’s compare the approaches taken by Elecompt on its global project and by Schneider on its STI joint venture with Toshiba. Each site involved in the STI project was a global leader in its field. However, the French site, which had been heavily involved in defining the new product requirements, was given responsibility for the project: coordinating the project management team, integrating the work of the other sites, and making final decisions. Having a clear lead site ensured prompt decision making and a project successfully delivered on time and on budget.

At Elecompt, each site had equal weight in making decisions and managing the project. That meant that every decision and aspect of cooperation had to be negotiated among multiple sites, at best a slow and cumbersome process. With each site defending its own corner, stalemates were common. One engineer noted that “there was an escalation of problems without corresponding solutions.” Two years into the project and with renewed senior management focus, the necessary management structures were finally put in place to enable the project to progress.

6. Invest Time Defining the Innovation

Anyone who has worked on a single location project knows that the product or service delivered isn’t always what was anticipated at the outset. This is actually one of the great benefits of colocation innovation. Because everyone involved is under the same roof and in frequent communication, continuous learning and adaptation can take place, allowing the design of the product or service to improve over the course of the project.

When a project is split over time zones, cultures, and languages, there is very little latitude for iterative learning. Instead, everything must be defined up front: the product or service architecture, the functionality of individual modules, and the interdependencies and interfaces between modules. In addition, process flows, timelines, and knowledge requirements need to be thoroughly understood so that everyone working on the project has the same understanding of the goals and their individual contributions to them.

Although there is a natural temptation to dive into development as soon as possible, studies show a positive correlation between investment in defining goals and technical specifications and the successful outcome of projects. In the case of Essilor’s photochromic lens, despite having less than two years to deliver the new product, the project team invested nine months in defining the modules and multiple interfaces that would be handled by specialist teams from around the world, thereby building a solid foundation for success.

During the definition process, representatives from each project team were colocated for short periods of time. In addition, the constantly globetrotting project managers held frequent on-site meetings and spent time conferring face-to-face with team members. We believe that a global project can’t be effectively defined without some degree of colocation between the different functions and sites involved. Colocation builds relationships and trust up front and supports the sharing of complex ideas and concepts.

If teams are selected merely because they are available rather than for their distinct capabilities, the project will take on a lot of risk for little benefit.

7. Allocate Resources on the Basis of Capability, Not Availability

The question of how best to staff a project rarely arises when only one location is involved: That location has presumably been chosen because the teams there have the requisite skills and experience. The effective staffing of a global project, however, requires a great deal of attention in order to select and integrate the best possible knowledge and capabilities.

But all too often, firms see global projects as an opportunity to make the most efficient use of human resources. Teams are selected not because they are the best qualified but because they are available at the time. The consequences of this approach can be seen in the Elecompt project. One of the sites, a U.S. team, was asked to develop a critical piece of software because it had the most staff availability, even though it lacked the required experience, and it struggled as a result. Eventually, when resources became available elsewhere, this module was moved to a team that had the necessary capabilities—but by then, morale had been dented, time wasted, and costs increased.

This availability approach to staffing projects completely undermines the basic rationale for global innovation—to bring together distinctive and differentiated knowledge and capabilities from around the world to create unique innovations. If teams are selected merely because they aren’t doing anything else at the time rather than for their distinct capabilities, the project will take on a lot of risk for little benefit.

8. Build Enough Knowledge Overlap for Collaboration

Although sites involved in a project should be selected on the basis of the unique capabilities and knowledge they can bring, there also has to be a small degree of knowledge overlap between sites. Without this, critical interdependencies between modules may not be apparent until the integration phase, when problems are costly to rectify. This doesn’t mean replicating the other sites’ knowledge, but understanding enough of what they do to anticipate potential interdependencies and interfaces in the development process.

At Siemens, virtual cross-functional teams provide knowledge overlaps to help avoid such problems. Each module is developed by a specialist team and overseen by a virtual team comprising representatives from each of the other modules. This allows potential problems to be flagged and resolved as they arise.

9. Limit the Number of Subcontractors and Partners

In most innovation projects today, part of the work is outsourced or undertaken by development partners in order to access specific competencies, reduce development time, or cut costs. The final consideration in staffing global projects is selecting these external collaborators.

Managing relationships with external parties takes time and energy. So it makes sense in global projects to limit the additional complexity and management burden by keeping the number of subcontractors or partners to a minimum. And just as it’s essential to use internal sites that have experience working together, it’s easier and less risky to turn to external firms that are trusted and familiar. Choosing partners or subcontractors located close to one of the internal project sites will likewise reduce the potential for cross-cultural misunderstandings and will support face-to-face communication.

Projects should include generous travel budgets for face-to-face site visits, team meetings, and temporary transfers for key team members.

An example of the problems that can be caused by involving too many distant external partners in an innovation project can be clearly seen in Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner project. This ambitious effort aimed to develop a new plane with significantly reduced operating costs by using innovative composite materials. The project involved over 50 main partners across the U.S., Europe, and East Asia, each charged with developing different subsections.

Coordinating that many partners was difficult, and Boeing had little insight into what was happening at each site. Integration proved extremely complex and constant modifications were required—for example, the new materials initially made it impossible to attach the wings to the fuselage. To get the project back on track, Boeing resorted to colocating its partners for six months. Although the final product was a success, it was delivered almost three years late, during which time Boeing lost orders to the Airbus A350.

10. Don’t Rely Solely on Technology for Communication

In the end, the successful execution of a global project remains dependent upon communication channels that go as far as possible to replicate the richness of colocated communication. In single locations, a shared context—cultural, organizational, functional, and technological—makes it easier to discuss complex ideas and resolve problems informally. Because communication in this environment is second nature, managers tend to underestimate the challenge of scaling communication globally.

Information and communications technologies, or ICTs, including e-mail, web meetings, social media platforms, online forums, and video conferencing certainly have a role to play, but those tools shouldn’t be overrelied on, because they tend to mask differences between locations, leading to misunderstandings and tension. In addition to ICTs, the communication armory for a global innovation project should include a generous travel budget for face-to-face site visits, project team meetings, and temporary transfers for key people. Also, to encourage team members to feel an allegiance and sense of belonging to a global project rather than their local site, a web of cross-site reporting lines can be put in place. This has the added advantage of forcing communication and knowledge sharing.

Successful globally integrated firms understand the importance of an extensive communications approach. Tata Communications, for example, has a highly dispersed structure that enables it to access the best competencies and market knowledge around the world. Even its top management team is dispersed across the globe. The company has invested in a raft of ICTs to support everyday collaboration, but this is in addition to hefty travel budgets for vital, regular face-to-face communication to drive projects forward, share knowledge, and reinforce trust.Together, the 10 steps we have outlined represent the foundation for successful global innovation projects. Adopting only one or two may result in fleeting success in some projects but will not produce a stream of positive outcomes. These best practices all need to be put in place and honed over time. It’s not easy to build a global innovation capability, but for companies that don’t have the skills and processes in place to manage global innovation projects, the future offers a stark choice: Continue with only colocated projects, in the hope that they will fill the innovation pipeline for a few more years until global competition intensifies and makes local innovation a niche activity. Or begin building a capability in global innovation now to take advantage of lower development costs, faster time to market, and, most important, the ability to leverage dispersed knowledge to gain competitive advantage.

Staff Manager: 10 Golden Rules of Establishing an Effective Management

Top 10 Golden Rules of Establishing an Effective Management in Your Business

The word “Manager” gives a headache more than anything else in this world. Never seen a person who becomes happy when we talk about managers and their management style.

But why is it so? Why is it a common problem across different industries? Why do companies not prioritize to improve their management to receive better employee efficiency?

It all depends on the factors that are looked at while hiring managers for their business operations. Most of the time, companies hire managers based on their experience, members they have managed in the past. Sometimes, they are judged by some situation-based questions to identify team management skills.

But their interview processes mostly exclude essential aspects of a manager that could help to achieve organizational goals.

Related: ONPASSIVE: The Best Productivity Tools For Your Business!

What are the ten golden rules that could help your business to have effective management?

1. Consistency:

Managers should have consistency in their management style. That means, as a manager, one should always promote ethical practices and discourage behaviors that go against company policy. In case any inconsistency is observed by the employees or the leaders above them, then it could create a trust issue, which is a piece of bad news.

2. Completeness and Correctness in Communication:

When instructing team members, summarizing meetings, or conveying company updates, managers should prioritize clarity, accuracy, and thoroughness of communication. If complete and accurate information is not shared with team members, then it could lead to missing deadlines, incorrect processing of data in hand, or violation of company policies.

3. Goal Setting for Working as a Team:

Of course, teams are supposed to align with organization goals, but managers need to create and share goals that bring together individual roles under one shed as a team. Effective management can be achieved only if individual team members work to inspire each other. Working in isolation should be discouraged, and a collaborative working style should be promoted.

4. Vocal Recognition and Reward for Hard Work:

It is a common management rule to reward the best performers. But it would be great if managers vocally announce their name in front of the entire team so that it motivates them to keep performing and raising bars.

At the same time, reward them with goodies or anything that your company can afford to present to the performers each time. This way, other members would like to be in that place to receive the same or better rewards next time.

5. Lead by Examples:

There is a fine line between a manager and a leader. However, managers should always strive for being a leader who can guide and inspire others. Don’t just ask your team members to follow the rules. When you follow them and show better results at your position, your team members start following your path to success.

6. Recognize Who Fits Where:

Not everyone is the same. Every individual team member has a different set of strengths and weaknesses. Hence, a manager’s role should be to identify who can handle what responsibilities. While you assign each member a task, keep them informed about their weaknesses so that they work on those aspects to improve and grow.

7. Transparency is The Key:

Don’t keep anything hidden from your team members. Most importantly, do not play a biased game in the team because your teammates are smart, and they can sense any discrimination.

So try to assign high visibility tasks or reward team members based on their performance and not based on how good is your relationship with them. Inform your team members why a particular person has been picked for any specific project and on what basis so that your team members could understand what they lack to be in that role.

8. Encourage Submission of Ideas:

Have you heard of the saying “Nothing is a bad idea”? Always encourage your team members to shoot ideas, irrespective of how good or bad are they. Every idea gets used in the business. Then identify which idea works best for your process and how big the impact is. Recognize people who submitted those ideas and display what change their small idea is bringing to your big dreams.

9. Introduce Fun at Work:

Make your workplace enjoyable by introducing fun at work. Take your team for lunch outside. Have a casual conversation with them so that they feel you are human too. Organize team bonding activities that bring laughter, teach team-building lessons, and gain a new perspective for your team members. Such workplaces encourage team members to come to the office and give in their best to deliver more.

10. Open to Share and Receive Feedback:

Giving feedback has always been a key role of managers at work. But when an organization asks its employees to share their feedback for their manager, then it builds a level of trust that even their issues would be heard.

The 360-degree feedback mechanism allows managers, employees, and peers to share and receive feedback for each other that encourages a transparent, trustworthy, and improvement-oriented work culture in the team.

These are the top 10 golden rules that a manager should have as skills for establishing transparent and effective management in a company. Unless these qualities reflect in the management style, a team would not be able to perform and deliver as expected. Many individuals become part of a larger community to learn and develop such skills so that they can bring in a change in their business too. Sometimes, they use a few employee management tools to have transparency in the workplace.

For example, members of the GoFounders community encourage sharing and receiving real-time feedback on the platform. They keep sharing their progress and achievements to inspire others. The members are soon expected to receive access to ONPASSIVE’s Staff Manager tool to organize, assign, and track projects with the help of an AI-driven dashboard that displays how individual team members are performing. Join GoFounders today to introduce an effective management style in your company.

Related: ONPASSIVE AI: Taking on Business Solutions A Step At a Time