Benefits of Reverse Mentoring

In the year 1999, the concept of reverse mentoring was popularized by Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric. He did a pilot study where he paired 500 senior and junior employees with the hope that junior will teach the senior employees about technology advancements.

This process worked and now young and bright can teach the old. The success of the pilot study helped other companies to adopt this model of reverse mentoring. Companies like Cisco, United Healthcare, Fidelity, etc developed their own reverse mentoring programs.

Reverse mentoring is a shared learning between colleagues of varied background to create a unified corporate learning. Main advantage is that it facilitates organisations to achieve strategic goals like increasing millennial retention, fostering inclusivity, and maintaining competitive advantage through technological advancements

Benefits of reverse mentoring

1- Increasing Millennial Retention

According to data, 43% of millennials plan to leave their current job in two years. Companies are struggling with this and coming up with new employee engagement strategies. But the younger generation demands continuous learning and transferable skill development, career advancements, better opportunities. All these things can be done through reverse mentoring.

Inverting the hierarchy helps millennials to act as mentors, they understand the situation, become more accountable and help the seniors to improve. Millennials feel valued for the contributions and they gain confidence also. Reverse mentoring also help millennials to network with senior leaders which will help them in their future career.

Pershing is a financial services company which implemented reverse mentoring program in their company and saw immense changes. The retention rate was 96% for the millennials who were involved in reverse mentoring.

2- Improving Diversity and Inclusion

Reverse mentoring is a good way to foster diversity and inclusion at the workplace. Pairing senior leaders with employees with disability or employees from different background will help to develop empathic perspective. This will also reduce the unconscious bias.

One of the examples can be, at P&G, senior leaders were paired with disabled employees and found out that the internal videos of the company are of no use for the people who have hearing disabilities. Then the company added captions to all videos which helped the disable people to understand the video.

This can also be an organizational development strategy which can incubate a diverse pipeline of talent.

3- Staying Abreast of Technological Advancements

A lot of senior leaders find it difficult to pace up with the rapid changes in the technological and digital advances. This hinders their productivity. Getting mentored by younger employees on technology will help senior leaders to learn about technology and they can also cope with it. It also helps in getting traditional IT workers out of their waterfall silos.

According to Deloitte, “organizations must put humans in the loop-reconstructing work, retaining people, and rearranging the organization.” Reverse mentoring has its own benefits and is vital for the company but each company should have a reason to implement this program. Reverse mentoring program will only be effective if it is tied to a strong business need.

Filed under: Mentoring

History of Transactional Leadership Theory

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership is a kind of leadership which focuses on results, conforms to the existing structure and measures success according to the organisation’s system of rewards.

Transactional leader maintains routine by managing individual performance and facilitate group performance. He/she has the formal authority and responsibility in an organisation. Transactional leaders set criteria for workers according to the already defined requirements. They work best with the employees who are aware of their jobs and are motivated by the reward-punishment system.

History of transactional leadership theory

A 20th-century German sociologist Max Weber did an extensive study on different leadership styles and divided into three main categories: traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal. Max Weber then described rational-legal – the style that is now known as transactional leadership- as “the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge.”

Transactional leadership theory is based on the concept that managers give employees something if they want something in return. It focuses on the point that workers are not self-motivated and require instruction, structure, and monitoring to complete tasks on time with accuracy.

This leadership style was widely used after World War II in the United States of America. This happened because there was a need to build a high level of structure and to maintain national stability.

According to Burns model, transactional leaders espouse fairness, responsibility, honesty, and honoring commitments.

Dimensions of transactional leadership are:

  1. Contingent reward – It a process of setting expectations from workers and rewarding for meeting them.
  2. Active management by exception – It is a process where managers anticipate the problems, monitors the progress and take corrective measures whenever required.
  3. Passive management by exception – It is a process where manager does not interfere with the ongoing work until and unless an issue arises.

Characteristics of transactional leadership style:

  1. Thrive on following rules and doing things correctly.
  2. Opposed and reluctant to change.
  3. Tend to be inflexible.
  4. Focuses on short-term goals.
  5. Favours structured policies and procedures.

Advantages of transactional leadership style:

  1. It provides an unambiguous structure for large organisations.
  2. It helps in achieving short term goals quickly and efficiently.
  3. Rewards and punishments are clearly defined.
  4. It provides rewards who are motivated by self-interest to follow instructions.

Disadvantages of transactional leadership style:

  1. It does not promote creativity as goals and objectives are already set.
  2. It does not reward personal initiative.
  3. Only provide financial rewards.

Multinational corporations is the place where transactional leadership can be of best use because not all the workers speak the same language. Once the structure is in place and requirements are learned, it is easy for workers to complete the tasks. Transactional leadership doesn’t require extensive training. It brings consistency across the organisation. This will work best during the time of crisissituation when it is important for everyone to know exactly what it is required and how the tasks need to be done under pressure.

Those people for ehich money and perks act as powerful motivator eill adjust well in the transactional leadership.

Some of the famous transactional leaders areHoward Schultz, Bill Gates,Vince Lombardi, Norman Schwarzkopf, etc.

Filed under: Leadership

Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching and mentoring are usually used interchangeably in the business context. That is why in a lot of organisations, a mentor is expected to undertake coaching responsibilities which hinder the process of coaching as well as mentoring. There is a significant difference between coaching and mentoring and both the process have their own value and significance.

Coaching

Coaching is a relationship that generally has a short duration. In coaching, the coachee needs to be comfortable with the coach and should be open and honest about his/her situations.

Coaching is basically a process in which coach helps the coachee to achieve the goals. Coach helps in removing the barriers like prejudices, lack of motivation, lack of direction and enable coachee to fulfil his/her aspirations.

Coaching is a process which helps the individual to develop their skills like leadership, self-awareness, resilience, self-management, and learning. It also helps the coachee to develop empathy with others, to see the bigger picture clearly, and consider the issue that they may have ignored or failed to identify as important or crucial.

Coaching can be for a longer or a shorter-term depending upon the goals or needs of the individual. It is particularly powerful when used to solve problems regarding behavioral or line management. It is more structured in nature and usually, the meetings between coach and coachee are scheduled on a regular basis. In coaching, coachee sets the agenda and create immediate and realistic goal which will take him/her towards the ultimate target. These goals majorly revolves around specific personal developmental areas i.e. related to behaviour, attitudes, or self-awareness.

A coach is likely to give feedback on observed performance periodically as the learner develops new skills.

Mentoring

“A mentor is a more experienced individual willing to share knowledge with someone less experienced in a relationship of trust.”- David Clutterbuck

It is an ongoing process which usually lasts for a longer time. Mentoring process will only be successful when there is a constructive relationship between the mentor and mentee. It is a relationship where an experienced person uses his/her knowledge to help the less experienced person to improve or help to solve problems. Many organisations use mentoring while helping new people who have just joined the leadership for the first time, moved from one project to another, in a need to quickly learn new skills, need to learn different working styles in order to work effectively.

It can be either formal or informal in nature depending upon the situation or goals of the mentee. In mentoring the agenda is usually set by the mentee with the mentor providing some support or guidance. Goals usually revolve around developing mentees personally and professionally i.e. improving skills and their application at the workplace.

A mentor will build the capability of the mentee by helping him/her to discover wisdom by encouraging to work towards achieving the goals. Usually, the mentor doesn’t have the authority over mentee and the relationship is mutually beneficial. A mentor also helps mentees to develop greater confidence.

Filed under: Coaching

Coaching for Change Management

Dealing with change is a constant part of job whether it’s a small business, multinational corporation, non-profit organisation, etc. Changes like navigating a new CEO transition, company-wide technology shift, aligning internal practices to new industry regulations, launching new products, etc. are some of the changes to which the workforce needs to adapt and be proactive. Coaching is one of the most effective to deal with change and align the workforce with the change of any magnitude.

Most of the leader’s report that they were unsuccessful in their change management though change is very prevalent in modern organisations. Resistance from sceptical and fearful employees, insufficient training, poor communication is some of the reasons for unsuccessful change management.

How can coaching help in change management?

Coaching should be integrated at every stage of change management which includes planning, executing, and sustaining. This will help the employees to be ready and resilient towards the change.

Coaching means partnering with an expert in a thought-provoking process which helps the individual to maximise his/her personal and professional potential. This partnership puts the coachee at the driver’s seat because the solution to the problem should come from them as they are the expert in their field. Coaching is one of the powerful and helpful learning activities which ease out the challenge of navigating change.

One-on-one coaching, group coaching was rated as the most crucial for the change management for the company. Senior leaders should adopt coaching techniques to guide the employees during the transition period. Leaders should help the employees to identify and address the potential roadblocks and help them to deal with uncertainty in an effective manner.

Leaders should not tell or micro-manage the employees during the time of transition rather find the solution with them in order to ensure a smooth change process. Companies which adopt strong coaching culture were leaders work with employees, make them find the solution and be confident about it, are more than twice as likely to be high performing organisations. When leaders become coaches or adopt coaching techniques have more confidence in their employees to plan, execute, and sustain the change.

Coaching should be used at all stages so that employees’ issues can be taken care and they can become more confident during the change process. It also helps employees to be more agile. A strong coaching culture is correlated with better and higher performance of the organisation which includes success at larger scale for strategic change.

One-on-one coaching with a professional coach, workgroup coaching with professional coach practitioner, team coaching with professional coach, formal mentoring program, etc are some of the things which help in the smooth change management/ These processes are also better than other L&D activities like classroom learning, e-learning etc.

Coaching during organisational change helps the employees to have emotional, social, and process support. It is important to ensure that communication and transparency between the leaders and employees are constant. Employees should always receive proper change management coaching as this will help in their journey at workplace.

Filed under: Change Management

What is life coaching?

“Life coaching is a form of counselling…to help people solve their problems and achieve ambitions.”

It helps people to meet their personal and business goals by guiding them in the right direction. It is much like a sports coach who helps the sportsperson to achieve the goal by directing him/her in the right direction. Life coaches use different method to coach people but one thing that remains the same is their guidance towards achieving life’s goals in an appropriate manner.

People might shy away to go to life coaches but if we think about it, we’ll realise that people often turn up to their friends and family for life advice and guidance, life coaching is a professional side of the help. Through life coaching, people get direction and they can solve their problems in order to achieve goal. Through life coaching, a different perspective is provided which help people to understand the situation in a better way which ultimately help them to overcome the roadblocks of their lives. It’s a way to gain confidence and to move forward.

Life coaching is a form of counselling which uses a series of individual sessions. It can be done over telephone, mails, face-to-face sessions, etc. These sessions help people to solve their problems and achieve goals or ambitions. Life coaching has been drawn from a number of disciplines like sociology, psychology, management, and various forms of counselling.

Life coaching helps people break their negative belief patterns, acts in a more decisive manner and set clear goals and develop action plan to achieve them. Most of the life coaches are trained in the areas like stress, personal growth, business, careers, family, motivation, etc.

Does life coaching work?

The number of people turning to life coaches is increasing which is a sign that it is serving a purpose. A coach helps the person to organize priorities and decide what direction they have to move forward. Moreover the coachee can agree to the strategies that coach present to solve the problems and implement them. Life coach can effectively act as a sounding for ideas-rather like a brainstorming partner.

According to an article published in Public Management Journal, when training is combined with life coaching the productivity of the employee increases by 88%.

Any person who wants a coach should be willing to open oneself and accept the new ideas provided by the life coach. And life coaching is not a solution to the deep-rooted problems such as depression. Anyone can get a benefit from working with a coach. People who are stuck can get new perspective and can solve the problem.

Things we can work on with a life coach.

  1. Create a balance between personal and professional life.
  2. Create strategies which help in making key decisions for success in professional and personal life.
  3. Adapt to new situations and break the glass ceiling.
  4. Communicate in an effective and powerful manner.
  5. Organise and live a satisfactory life.
  6. Design a more organised life.
Filed under: Coaching

What is Behavioral Coaching?

Behavior is the action, response, and reaction of an individual towards any stimulus. Behavioral coaching is the way to facilitate learning, performance, and development of an employee or the team which ultimately leads to the growth of the organization.

It is a third wave psychological approach, which means it focuses on looking forward rather than backward to achieve sustainable behavioral change in a relatively shorter frame of time.

Behavioral coaching is an integration of various disciplines of psychology like clinical, developmental, social, and industrial-organizational psychology. Apart from psychology discipline, behavioral coaching also integrates management and philosophy.

Main aim here is to increase the effectiveness and happiness of employees in the workplace so that they can work better. It includes helping employees on a varied range of levels like social, intellectual, motivational, emotional, etc.

Main Objectives of Behavioral Coaching

Behavioral Coaching looks to improve action and behaviors to achieve the desired goals. It generally involves empathy path, leadership path, and helping change path. All these pathways help to change one’s and other’s behavior for the better.

Levels in Behavioral Coaching

  • Level 1: Behavioral performance/outcome – To identify ‘what’ should be done to achieve the desired outcome or behavioral change.
  • Level 2: Environmental Factors – To identify ‘where’ and ‘when’ behavioral techniques should be taught. It is determined by the organizational culture.
  • Level 3: Capabilities – To identify the ‘how’ the actions or behaviors are selected, monitored, and analyzed for behavioral coaching.

Why Behavioral Coaching is Important

Behavioral techniques allow gathering data from specific and targeted behaviors which are related to the professional skills of an employee. Changes in the targeted behavior can be easily measured and evaluated through behavioral change instruments.

Through behavioral coaching, employees can improve the behavior which helps in developing professional skill and this lasts for a longer time. Employees are trained to be more comfortable and alert and take control of the unforeseen circumstances. This helps employees to manage themselves in every organizational situation and improve their confidence level.

What does Behavioral Coaching Incorporate?

  • Defining behavior and emphasizing the positive or negative consequences of each behavior
  • It defines the employee’s current status in terms of behavior and not in terms of personality styles
  • Selecting a target behavior that needs to be changed in order to improve professional skill. Targeted behavior should be associated with professional skill
  • Understanding the targeted behavior and providing techniques to change it
  • Exploring the changes that have occurred after implementing the provided behavioral techniques
  • Changes can be seen in motivation, beliefs, and emotions which can result in improving the behavior of the employee
  • Assessing the environmental events which can create an impact on behavior of the employee
  • Providing techniques which can improve the interaction between environmental events and behavior, in order to improve the behavior
  • Conclude it by sufficient follow-ups through a coachee self-coaching strategies and monitoring from coaching’s side

Arenas for Behavior-based Coaching

Behavior-based coaching can be applied to executive coaching, leadership coaching, business development coaching, career coaching etc.

Behavioral coaching is the need of the hour because it helps to understand our behavior and how can we change it for better.

Filed under: Coaching

Team Building Games for Energized Fun Learning

According to Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”, simple words but with a lot of weight. Team building is the process of bringing together every team member and turning them in a cohesive group. This would help them to work cooperatively and collaboratively to meet self, team and organization’s goals.

Teamwork has always been the center attention as far as employee-focused initiatives are concerned and its ability to bring in workplace happiness has been non-debatable. Various benefits can be derived from corporate team building activities as it involves games and tasks designed to build behavioral competency.

Corporate Team Building events are more fun, as compared to instructor led sessions. In any team building session the facilitator poses a challenge to the team to achieve a goal, without explaining how to do that. Participants must work together and communicate effectively as a team to reach out to a solution.

The learning happens with experience succeeded by reflection, discussion, analysis and evaluation of experience. Team building activities help the participants to discover their inner strengths and how to relate that to their workplace. It also allows them to learn soft skills required and in turn brings out their natural leadership style.

Team-building benefits including the following:

  • Enables motivated and collaborative team members, as this is a move towards bringing individuals together
  • Helps in quick problem solving and decision-making process as large number of heads contribute in it
  • Assists in creativity and unconventional thinking as employees are moved away from their usual workplace, which refreshes them
  • Enhances productivity by discovering and eliminating hindrances and improving current ways of working
  • Boosts morale of employee, as they feel organization and co-workers are interested in knowing and developing them.

After completing team-building activities together, employees better understand each other’s strengths, weaknesses and interests.

Below are some interesting team-building activities for energized learning:

  1. Team building kits. This is an enticing game where you mix an escape room, a movie and team building together to bond fun with teamwork productivity. In a group of 3-5 members, teammates try to solve a case with the help of clues and documents. They need to work together and develop theories to solve the mystery. It eases coworker bonding while focusing on communication and trust.
  2. Scavenger hunt. This team-building activity never fall and motivates teams to connect creatively. Divide the group in two or three teams depending upon the number of participants. Make and provide them a list of items to find or do within a deadline. The first team which finishes it, wins. This activity can be made more fun by including riddles, twists, etc. to lead their way to final rounds. This activity is popular to promote teamwork and creativity.
  3. Who am I? Teamwork is often hindered by stereotypes. This activity will help to break groups’ preconceptions. Make name tags for different kinds of people like, “Go-Getter”, “Sincere”, “Cooperative”, etc. Place these tags on the back of the person so that they can’t see it, but others can. For a time, let the group mingle and ask each person to guess what their label is by the way other persons are behaving with them. As each team member figures out what they are, they can exit and let the rest continue with the game.
  4. Photo-shoot. This is a great activity to promote teamwork and task distribution, thereby mixing learning and fun together. Split the group into teams of 4-5 members, ensuring all the members have camera phones with them. Make up a list of objects/situations/ things/people that they need to capture as a team. Depending on the difficulty level, assign them different points for different things. Ask them to meet back after a specific time limit.

Try testing and find out the best activity that works out for you. The activity that you choose depends upon the number of participants, your purpose and preparation time. Combine fun-activity with learning to derive the best results.

Filed under: Team Building

Situational Mentoring: Right Help at Right Time

Situational mentoring is a short-term discussion between executives on issues which are highly impactful in nature. The main objective is to enhance the individual and organization performance. It is a quick-hitting, short-term collaborative learning relationship which leads to creating solutions which are creative in nature.

Situational mentoring involves mentors and experts for information, advice, and feedback. In situational mentoring, mentees look for collaborators who can guide them or give them specific advice on a single, targeted issue which needs to be solved quickly. These kinds of compact microlearning engagements are fast to set up and fast to shut down.

Situational mentors are considered as the right help at right time. They inspire, motivate, encourage, and share valuable lessons to the mentees. They provide support to a specific situation and guidance and help in overcoming it.

Things that will help in situational mentoring:

Create a clear context

To get actionable results, it’s important for both mentor and mentee to have a clear understanding of the issue or situation. This will help in judging the situation well and making better decisions to solve the problem. A clear context will also work as a good starting point for the initial meeting between mentor and mentee. This will also help in setting the timeline and make the action plan. The action plan should include understanding the situation, gather additional information and select and test solution

Focusing on people

To transfer tacit knowledge, it requires interaction. Tacit knowledge is the judgement and wisdom which is acquired through experience i.e. it can’t be gained through by looking at the database. Tacit knowledge has a relational context which creates an atmosphere for dialogue, good and analytical understanding of the situation. This leads to building commitment from both the parties involved to find a solution to the issue.

Attributes of a situational mentor

  • Commitment oriented – Situational mentors are committed to solve the specific problem in an efficient manner. The focus is not how much time will be offered from mentor to the mentee but how efficiently the problem is solved.
  • Situational mentor encourages others – Mentors believe that everyone comes with a unique skill set and they should use that to solve problems personally and professionally.
  • Situational mentors believe that each person has a unique potential and it is exciting– They believe each individual can stretch the limits to achieve the goals. Mentors are usually positive in their approach and promote mentee’s potential in every way possible. This will help the mentees to achieve the next level of their aspirations.
  • Situational mentors can be of any age – Situational mentors don’t necessarily have to be in the management position. They can be of any age. A lot of times junior professional have a lot to offer and can help mentees to achieve their aspirations. Young mentors can provide technical guidance or can give their generation’s perspective on various issues. Young mentors know their niche area and they can offer good advice in that.
Filed under: Mentoring

What is Stress Coaching?

Being stressed is something that we experience in our day to day life. For some it’s a recurring problem and can affect their health and well-being. Stress can affect people in different ways and the cause of stress can widely vary. Change in job, going to a new place, arguments with friends and families, etc can cause stress. A circumstance can be stressful for one but not for others. It all depends on the individual and his/her coping mechanism.

Symptoms of stress

  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Change in appetite
  • Feeling anxious
  • Sense of overwhelm
  • Shallow breathing
  • Snapping at people
  • Feeling dizzy
  • Muscle tension
  • Headache

There are a lot of ways to deal with stress. It can include changing lifestyle, using self-help techniques, seeking help from mental health professional, life coaching etc.

How can coaching help with stress?

The aim of the coach is to offer clarity about the circumstance in order to help the individual to understand it properly. This helps the individual to understand the root cause of the situation. Coach engages the individual in a series of conversation to make him/her understand the situation properly. Coach helps in gaining insights or reflection that the individual might not have considered earlier.

Stress coaching helps the individual to come up with strategies and techniques to reduce the stress and to cope in an effective manner whenever any stressful situation arises. There are a lot of stress relaxation techniques, journaling techniques, meditation, etc which help the individual during stressful conditions.

Understanding the root cause may lead to a change in habits of the individual which ultimately help in dealing with stress in an effective manner. Coach will help the individual to adopt the new habits in an effective manner. For example, setting some boundaries, saying “no” to some things, etc will help the individual to cope better.

During coaching, individual can set goals for himself/herself and can decide on the areas to focus upon during each session. Each session will help in uncovering the root cause of the situation and help the individual to feel better and manage it in an effective manner.

After all the sessions are done, individual should create an action plan for oneself regarding the way he/she will move forward and deal in a stressful condition.

Some self-help tips to deal with stress

  1. Ask for help whenever required, delegate the tasks. This will help in lifting off the pressure. It can be done at work or in personal life.
  2. Use relaxation techniques like deep breathing exercises, meditation, etc.
  3. Avoid too much caffeine or sugar as this lead to physical symptoms which are similar to anxiety-like feeling dizzy, heart palpitations and may lead to stress.
  4. Be active as physical activity helps to reduce stress and improve the overall well-being of the individual.
  5. Build a support network and turn up to them when you need them. Talking to other people helps in relieving stress and help to cope better.

Stress coaching and self-help techniques help the individual to understand the situation better and come up with strategies to cope in an effective manner.

Filed under: Coaching

Leadership Development – Role of a Leader in Crafting a Shared Vision

Julie Straw and team in their book The Work of Leaders discussed three steps of leadership – Crafting a Vision, Building Alignment and Championing Execution. In this article, we discuss the importance of not just crafting a shared vision but also the role of a leader in crafting a shared vision.

To begin with, people like their leaders to have two distinct characteristics – being forward-looking and futuristic and being credible or trustworthy. To get extraordinary things, people must work in the present and focus on the future into the whole realm of possibilities. All things are created twice – once in the mind and then in reality. A leader’s job is to continuously envision new products and services and new business ecosystems that can take the organization towards success.

Leaders must focus on creating long term value for the organization and its customers while focussing on the present for delivering results. By focussing on the future, leaders can provide a sense of meaning and purpose to the organization that binds its people together and inspire them to work hard. By continuously seeking clarity of vision and then enlisting others, leaders create a sense of shared vision.

Motivation theories provide a business case for creating a shared vision. As we know, motivation is essentially of two types – extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation stems from the external environment, for getting rewarded or when we must achieve certain goals set by others. External motivation creates compliance and in some cases defiance. Externally controlled people could stop making efforts once rewards disappear.

Extrinsic motivation is difficult to sustain. However, the second type of motivation – intrinsic motivation is about what one wants to achieve internally. Not set or controlled by others, internal motivation is about our own interests, passion and desires. It gives us tenacity to see through rough times and work with tangible rewards. By enlisting people in the process of shared vision, leaders play on intrinsic motivation of people. By offering a shared vision that everyone feels intrinsically inspired by, leaders create a rich environment where employee engagement and performance are enhanced. The role of a leader in creating a shared vision is in enticing the intrinsic motivating of the people and in building consensus.

Role of a Leader in Crafting a Shared Vision

Self-Reflection

One of the first steps in crafting a vision is to do some self-reflection and articulate as much as possible one’s likes, passions, interests and inspirations. Because the process of envisioning is more art than science, more emotional than a sequence of activities, it is important to start by articulating what drives and inspires the leader. The role of a leader is in not just self-reflecting but also encouraging the leadership team in an exercise of self-reflection.

Direction

Second, by engaging with the larger team, where everyone shares in their values, inspirations, perspectives, questions, hopes and dreams, you could arrive at certain themes or directions that define the overall shared vision. Role of a leader is in engaging the leadership team in a structured process of deriving these idea directions.

Hindsight

Past provides a great way to start looking into the future. It is filled with experiences, data, perspectives, reality and most importantly learning. It gives a picture of what is possible and how long does it take for you as a company to do something new. It provides a good view of what can go wrong as well. While the past does not always portray the future possibilities of an organization, it provides a good way to extrapolate the success and assess what an organization may achieve. The role of a leader is in engaging the leadership team in a systematic process of sharing the highs and lows about the past and arriving at the key learnings form the past.

Present

By assessing the current business ecosystem, leaders can enable the creation of a shared vision. Recent research and surveys involve understanding how the organization creates value for its customers, what the current capability and shortcomings are and how people feel working in the organization. The juice of assessing, reflecting and articulating the current state of the organization is in knowing what must change and what must be preserved in the future.

Imagining the future

The final step of creating a shared vision, which the leader must drive is in imagining a bold future. A future that considers the unfolding market situation, trends and patterns in the buying behavior of the customers, technological advancements and disruptive trends. The role of a leader is in providing a psychologically safe environment for the team to share their version of the vision without the fear of loosing credibility.

Filed under: Leadership