Mike Bell's Leadership Wisdom

The Intelligence Trap

According to Edward de Bono, many people with a high intelligence actually turn out to be poor thinkers. They get caught in the ‘intelligence trap’, of which there are many aspects. For example, a highly intelligent person may take up a view on a subject and then defend that view (through choice of premises and perception) very ably. The better someone is able to defend a view, the less inclined is that person actually to explore the subject. So the highly intelligent person can get trapped by intelligence, together with our usual sense of logic that you cannot be more right than right, into one point of view. The less intelligent person is less sure of his or her rightness and therefore more free to explore the subject and other points of view.

Why Decisions Fail

After 25 years of research on nearly 400 companies, Paul C. Nutt, Professor of Management Sciences, Ohio State University found that tough decisions by organisational leaders failed half the time.

This is amazing. They might well have flipped a coin.

He identified 10 blunders and traps that decision makers fall prey to:

The Blunders
• Premature commitments.
• Misused resources.
• Failure-prone decision-making practices.

Balance is Bunk!

Does trying to balance your work and life drive you crazy. For me, part of the solution is to see balance not as a static achievement but as a dynamic process.

This from Fast Company magazine
"It may be that you recently had a week that defied sanity. You faced an impossible deadline at work. You were expected at your daughter's dance recital, at a soccer game, and at a meeting with the kitchen contractor. Then another big project landed in your lap (thanks, boss!). You were exhausted, and your spouse was miffed. And your job? Well, at 11 one night, you finally bailed on that deadline.

"And you wondered, What's wrong here? Whatever happened to balance?
The truth is, balance is bunk. It is an unattainable pipe dream, a vain artifice that offers mostly rhetorical solutions to problems of logistics and economics. The quest for balance between work and life, as we've come to think of it, isn't just a losing proposition; it's a hurtful, destructive one."

Read more at Fast Company

Creating an Exciting and Interesting Workplace

Much of what we currently regard as our work environment developed over the last three centuries. Before that a major proportion of the population worked on the land. The industrial revolution started a tide of change in working environments that continued into the technological revolution.

Take a look at illustrations of the early factories or the mines and you will observe that creating an interesting and exciting work place did not feature large in management thinking. Through to the beginning of the twentieth century manufacturing plants were highly unpleasant places in which to work. This was partly influenced by the fact that labour was cheap and there were always many people waiting to take over another persons job. People could be hired and fired with little regard to the effect upon workers.

The attitude towards workers could be summed up in terms of what McGregor called a ‘Theory X’ orientation. This philosophy assumes that people are basically lazy, dislike work, need direction, and work hard only when pushed and goaded into performing.

Young managers long for more meaning at work

http://www.hrgateway.co.uk/viewnewsdetail.asp?uniquenumber=4147

Many managers, particularly younger ones, feel that their organisation only pays lip service to its espoused values, leaving managers longing for more meaning from their work, suggests new research.

As managers face longer hours and greater work-life balance issues, they appear to long for more meaning from their working lives, particularly women in their 20s, suggests new research.

The latest Roffey Park Management Agenda report suggests that a huge 70% of managers are looking for more meaning from their working lives while only 37% feel they need more meaning in their lives generally – a 10% fall on last year.

For employees in their 20s the number looking for more workplace meaning jumps to 82%. Those aged between 41-50 (76%) and 60+ (70%) are all above or at the average. It was slightly less of a concern for those 31-40 (59%) and 51-60 (33%).

Solving the real productivity crisis

"We need a new definition of wimp," says Robinson. "The real wimps are the people who believe you find self-esteem through productivity, who work 14-hour days. The people with real courage are the ones who set boundaries."

What can we do about it? Start by working smarter, not longer. That's what Ernst & Young, the professional services firm, is trying to do. "People used to wear overtime on their sleeve like a badge of honor," says audit partner John Beatrice. "But we realized that was no way to live." Employees, women in particular, were leaving the firm.

Read the full article at Fast Company Solving the real productivity crisis

Values Drive Value

In reviewing various studies into what drives organisational success, it is clear that there are many ways to succeed. The fad of the day may grab headlines and create bestsellers with recipes for business success, but ongoing and constructive debate continues about the relevance and value of today’s fashionable practices when compared to long-established commercial principles and approaches.

What appears to shine through this debate are two fundamental concepts. Firstly, that companies which are most successful over the long term are those which incorporate their cultural values at the core of their everyday business operations, ie. they implement values-based management practices. Secondly, it is the basics that matter – comprised of both the business values that underpin a company’s culture and the business value proposition offered to customers and stakeholders.

Read more at Values Drive Value

Corporate Culture and Organizational Health

This reports on a a critical analysis of why investing in people is a wise investment developed by the Centre for Corporate Culture and Organizational Health


Overview: Drawing insights from over 350 sources and studies, this report examines the substantial and rapidly expanding body of research that confirms the vital links between corporate culture and people management, employee health, productivity, and retention/loyalty; customer loyalty; and bottom-line business results.

Our findings support the assertion that healthier organizational cultures are more likely to: reduce workforce turnover and stress; improve employee health, productivity, performance, and retention; and lead to significant improvements in business results. The investigation of research evidence revealed a range of positive effects associated with the wisdom of investing in the health and well being of people in the workplace. This proved a sound strategy for improving and sustaining business results in today's fast changing and fiercely competitive economy.

To find out more read the Executive Summary