SPARKING INNOVATION IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

Campbell Lumbila February 15th, 2010

One of the challenges that a leader has is to kick start the pursuit of new ideas and ways of doing things in an organization, especially if its one that has been in existence for a long time. The natural tendency in such organizations is to resist change and maintain the status quo. As a new leader, how do you spark innovation and breathe life back into a dying species?
Here are a few things you can do.

LEARN
People are appointed to leadership positions because their bosses see something in them. They see potential as well as knowledge but the quickest way to failure is to be a know-it-all. You have to humble yourself and learn from those you’ve been appointed to lead. Don’t change anything yet. Understand why the company does things the way it does before you change its way of doing things.

FACILITATE DIALOGUE
Ask a lot of questions. Why? What? Where? When? Encourage employees to be candid about their responsibilities. Allow them to freely express their opinions as it pertains to the organization’s processes and products. What do they see wrong? Where can you improve? What new products should we consider?
Doing this will help employees feel like they have a voice and that their opinions are valued.

SCRAP THE ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
Wait a minute. I am the boss here. How will people respect me if they don’t recognize hierarchy? Good question. Organizational charts are great on paper but unfortunately, they dictate how people lead and behave. Because someone is the first in the food chain, they expect everyone else to work FOR them. The ones that lose out are the ones at the bottom who feel they have nothing to offer and that they are just workhorses doing the master’s bidding. I can go into great detail as to why top-down leadership is counter productive but I’ll leave that for another discussion.

What you need is a horizontal approach that values communication and interdependency in your organization. Having a fluid structure that allows people from different departments to freely collaborate on projects will make your organization more effective.
In addition, have an open door policy. Let employees and other colleagues know that you’re approachable and that they can come to you anytime. Also make sure that they see you in their work area every now and then or even offer to work with them. This will solidify your bond and build trust. Be a servant leader and people will follow your leadership.


LISTEN TO OUTSIDERS
What are your customers saying about your organization and its products? Do they have better ideas? Very few companies never listen to their customers. They are either very successful or are dismal failures. As for you, you will do well to get some feed back. Also be on the lookout for great ideas from outsiders. Most innovations come from the most unlikely sources.

These are just a few of the many things you can do to spark innovation in your organization. Next we’ll look at facilitating change because innovation thrives on change. If you do not innovate your organization will die but you cannot innovate without changing some things.

Now go and change the world.

WATCH : HAVE YOUR BEST YEAR EVER!

Campbell Lumbila February 8th, 2010

Start Where you Are!

Campbell Lumbila December 10th, 2009

Many of us want to achieve big things but we easily get discouraged when we think of all the energy, time and resources it will take to reach our goals. There is a Chinese proverb that says that ” a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” That might cliche but its the absolute truth. Everything you want to achieve in life, regardless of how big it might be, begins with a simple step or action.

Forming a company that makes a difference in people’s live begins when you put down your ideas on paper, begin saving money to fund your enterprise and eventually stepping out to put feet to your faith. Many people think they need a lot of money to start a business but that is not always true. Start where you are. If all you can afford to save is a few dollars, find a way of being involved in some sort of trade. Trade begins when you find a need and fill it.

 I remember growing up in Zambia, Africa and being sent by my mother to buy vegitables from a group of old women by the street corner. What theydid may have looked degrading but they started where they were. The street boys in my city who came to the bus I was riding and sold bubble gum started where they were. The most important thing is not how you begin your journey but rather how you end it.

This principle applies to leadership as well. Many of us might feel and know that we are leaders at heart. We enjoy leading people and helping them achieve great things. However, we might find ourselves in positions at work, school, church or social spheres where we are the ones being led. My encouragement to you is; start where you are. We must learn to say to people, “FOLLOW ME, AM RIGHT BEHIND YOU (John C Maxwell).”  In other words we must learn to lead while we follow. One way to do that is to develop a servant leadership philosophy for our lives. We must learn to lead while serving because this is the most effective way to lead anyway. Let us find ways to serve the people around us and not just those above us. Servant leadership builds influence and influence is Leadership. Therefore, start where you are!

Lastly, as we draw to the close of this year, I know many have already vowed to do things differently in 2010. However, I want to encourage you to start where you are. Don’t wait for january 2010 to start thinking about your goals and objectives. Don’t wait to start the excercise of self evaluation. Create some time now for self evaluation and planning so that you can hit the ground running in January 2010.

The art of starting where you are is the art of self Leadership and self awareness. Its the secret of great achievers so Start where you Are!

Are you Winning?

Campbell Lumbila October 15th, 2009

I’ve been reading a lot in the last months and one of the books I was reading asked the simple question: How do you know that you winning in business and life? That is an interesting and thought provoking question.

Well, when you watch a soccer match and your team scores first you get excited because your team is on the wining path. How do you know? The goal of the game is score points and when that happens you know you’re ahead. The score or ‘win’ is clearly defined. You win if you’re ahead in points at the end of the game.

Its the same principle in life. We must have clearly defined goals so that we can celebrate when we win. Each one of us must complete this sentence everyday of our lives: I won or scored today because…..seriously fill in the blanks. Clarifying your goals simply means knowing what you want to achieve and doing it. When you complete that goal that means you’ve won. It’s that simple.

In a business setting the goal can be as simple as treating our customers well in order to create a great customer base or as Ken Blanchard calls them; “Raving Fans”. So whenever you have a regular walk-in customer converted to a die-hard raving fan, then you just won.

Winning in business and life takes time, dedication and perseverance but in a paradoxical way; winning is simple.

CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO

Campbell Lumbila August 14th, 2009

Catherine Booth, co-founder of The Salvation Army once said, “There is no improving the future without disturbing the present.” That statement rings true in life today but if you are like me, you probably have a rhythm of doing things and it becomes hard to depart from routine. 

While is it easy to become accustomed to the existing state of affairs around you, realize that you cannot do anything extraordinary in your personal or professional life until you learn to challenge the status quo.

The status quo, while mostly comfortable, can be the cause stagnation in business and life. Many companies have missed great opportunities because they’ve held on to the “normal” way of doing things. Perhaps the most devastating effect of maintaining the status quo is ineffectiveness. People and organizations become ineffective because they’ve not recognized the ever changing landscape of the business environment or the culture around them. Therefore, holding on to the norm becomes a death sentence.

Challenging the status quo is about doing something out of the ordinary; something that has never been done before. It’s about reaching for the stars and tapping into the creativity in us and in others in order to find innovative solutions to challenging problems. Challenging the status quo is about pushing the boundaries of human ingenuity so that “we can boldly go where no man has ever gone before.” Challenging the status quo is about embracing real and radical change and the process which makes the change possible.

So how do you begin challenging the status quo in both your personal and professional life? Here are a few tips with the help from Kouzes & Posner and their book “The Leadership Challenge.” I have paraphrased a few things in order to fit my audience.

1. Ask questions

Challenging and changing the status quo in your personal and professional life begins with a few obvious questions I.E. why have we always done this thing this way? How useful is this in helping us become the best we can be? How useful is this for stimulating creativity and innovation? If your answer is “absolutely essential” then keep it. If not, change it.

Encourage those around you and in your company to ask the same questions and make a firm commitment to changing whatever doesn’t work.

2. Gather Ideas

Someone out there might be doing it better and there is no shame in learning their ways as long as they work for you. The biggest mistake we make is that we do not listen to outsiders and Kouzes & Posner also point to this fact. We can be so busy listening to insiders who, in most cases have a bias view, instead of listening to outsiders who can offer us with insight into what is working and what is not. In fact Kouzes & Posner advise that we spend 25% of every weekly staff meeting or personal meeting, listening to outside ideas for improving processes and technologies and developing new products and services.

3. Clarify your Mission

What exactly do you exist to do as an individual or business? We can easily fall into the trap of activity that we forget to remind ourselves just why we are working so hard. It is also important to ask ourselves if we are indeed fulfilling the mission for which we exist. The status quo begins when we fail to fulfill our mission or become complacent and seize to challenge ourselves.

These are just a few things that I think will help you challenge the status quo and of course there are many more.


Character- A Key to your Success

Campbell Lumbila April 27th, 2009

There is one thing that you should never sacrifice in your pursuit of success-your Character. Character is comprised of one’s moral qualities, ethical standards and principles. More  CEOs have lost their jobs to compromise in the area of character than to any other vice you can think of. Character is an asset that helps you build relationships of trust and mutual respect.  There are several ways to develop character:

1. Be guided by your principles.

A principle is a fundamental law from which others are derived.  In life, principles are your specific basis of conduct. In other words, you act or conduct yourself and your business in a certain way for a very specific reason. Your reasons must be morally and ethically sound. For example, one of my principles is never to use people for the advancement of my own agenda but rather partner with them so that both our agendas are fulfilled. My principles are informed by my religious beliefs and upbringing and yours might be influenced by other factors but morality and ethics are at the center of principle.

2. Learn from your Battles and those of Others

There is nothing that quickly and more effectively develops character like a good and hard fought battle.  Trials and tests have a way of bringing the best out of us as well as teaching us many lessons about life and the journey of success. Honesty, courage and integrity are all qualities of a person of character and they are developed most often than usual in the heat of self and externally imposed trials.

Now trials are different for each one of us. Take for example a young entrepreneur who is full of energy and vision and wants to succeed at all costs that he gets orders to supply a product he knows he can’t manage to produce to satisfy the demand. He gets down-payments but fails to deliver because his resources are over stretched. Now you might say that this is plan old ambition but when we look at it in the scope of character development, the young man just sacrificed his integrity and might have just ruined his business relationships forever. I will tell you that he will not make the same mistake twice and will learn from this experience that integrity and honesty are essentials for longevity in business.

As much as we all want to avoid battles, we must learn to embrace them so that we can be made into better people. I often say that the most dangerous person in the world is a successful man or woman without character because success itself will destroy them. If you are going to do the impossible things you were created to do, you must come to the understanding  that  Character is forged in the furnace of affliction, and as such embracing battles is in your best interest.

3. Regulate your Environment

As a leader I am mindful of the environment I create around me. Since I value character I want to work with people that have character. When I first began working with people I realized that most of them had never been in an environment that nurtures and develops their lives. In fact, most of us work in environments that empahsize production and quantity over character and quality. When we talk about quality in this case we are talking about the quality of the people making the product as well as the quality of the product itself. People of quality produce products of quality.

Therefore, you must create a character nourshing enviroment around you by politely and confidently confronting the vices that eat away at its fabric such as dishonesty, theft, exagerations and so on. This is also important for your personal relationships as well. Your associations often speak volumes about the direction in which your life is headed.

Character is an important key to your success, therefore, take your time to develop it.

Tracking your Progress

Campbell Lumbila March 17th, 2009

Hello

Hope all is well. My last post dealt with partnerships and networking and you can find some helpful hints by Tom Krattenmaker in an article he wrote for the Harvardbusiness.org blog titled “Improve in the delicate Art of Self-Promotion.” 

Today, I want to check on how you are doing so far this year as it relates to your vision and goals as well as your leadership. I know 2009 has gotten off to a rough start and the temptation to throw in the towel and give up is so real. However, remember that great leaders are made in the heat of crisis and this is the perfect storm most of us have been waiting for. I want you and I to focus in the next few weeks on reviewing our progress. In fact, I was just reading an article by Gill Corkindale titled ” A New year’s resoultuion: Schedule Regular Meetings with Yourself.”  In it she highlights the fact that you and I need to have meetings that are solely focused on us. She says the one thing missing in most leaders is “the ability to reflect: to stand back and consider issues deeply – and to look honestly at themselves as leaders.

She Goes on to give some guidelines for these meetings and here they are:

  • Schedule the meeting during working hours: not on weekends, on the train or late on Friday afternoon just before you leave work. Your meeting with yourself is important enough to merit a regular slot, like any other business meeting.
  • Invest in a good quality notebook or open a file on your computer. During the week, make brief notes of ‘critical incidents’ (such as discussions, opportunities you had to contribute, clashes or conflict, feedback from others, observations of others’ behaviour) and then go back and reflect on them: what happened, how did you act/react, what did you do well/not so well, what might you have done differently? Learn from these incidents and think of new ways to act in future. Jot these points down and refer to them regularly.
  • Consider longer-term issues: your career, developing your skills or those of your team, the direction of your business, your challenges ahead and how you might tackle them. These are critical aspects of your role.
  • Reflect on your own successes and achievements. Savour them. This will build your confidence and give you the strength and resilience to carry on and perhaps even inspire others during tough times.
  • Never, never shift or cancel your meeting with yourself. It is one of the most important hours in your working week. Consider how many pointless meetings you have to attend and cancel one of those before you cancel your own. Put yourself first.

Your first excuse as you read Gill’s article might have been; “I don’t just have the time.” Well, this meeting is so important that you cannot afford not to make the time. You know that I’ve been a big advocate for tracking your progress through regular reflection and I think that Gill here gives us some very important pointers that we must take to heart. So schedule some time with yourself and remember that you are your best asset, therefore, time spent on improving yourself is a worthwhile investment.

To Your Success!

Campbell

ABOUT GILL CORKINDALE

Gill Corkindale is an executive coach and writer based in London. She works with managers and leaders from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East to develop strategies for business effectiveness and personal change. Formerly management editor of the Financial Times, she uses her journalistic skills and business insights to bring a new perspective on global management and leadership.

PARTNERSHIP and NETWORKING

Campbell Lumbila February 19th, 2009

You probably have heard a lot about partnership and networking. These are essential concepts and must be learnt by everyone if big things are to be achieved. As a leader you must have a team that you work with. Note: I did not say a team that works for you. Many leaders think people on teams exist to achieve the leader’s goals. However, for a team to work effectively, all members must own the vision and have a common sense of purpose. Therefore, as a leader you must think of team members as partners in a common cause.
For partnership to work, everyone involved must bring something to the table in terms of talent resource. As a team leader you then become a manager of Other People’s Talent (O.P.T). Never assemble a team of people who will do your bidding without question but rather a group of people that will challenge you, bring the best out of each other and in the end respect you as a leader and their peers.
Effective partnership makes use of people’s strengths and compensates for weaknesses. Realize that bringing a team together is just the beginning. Getting them to work together as partners and maximize their potential is the greatest task a leader can ever pursue but in the end the dividends are awesome.

Networking is a buzz word that many people use without really understanding the gist of the concept. Networking is not about hooking up with people that can help you achieve your goals but rather people that will partner with you. If you want to network you have to promote your self. Self-promotion gets a bad wrap in many circles but there is a way of doing it without coming across as a boastful individual. Effective self-promotion should focus on what you can do for the person you want to partner with and not your achievements or portfolio. How can the other person know that I am able to do the the things I say I can do if I do not point to specific work that I have done? That’s simple. Wait for them to ask the question. Do not be the one to bring up your achievements.

Your self-promotion introduction can be as simple as: Hi, my name is Campbell Lumbila and I am leadership development consultant. My line of work is help people discover and develop their leadership potential in their personal and professional lives. What do you do and how can be of help to you and your business?

At the end of your conversation you can exchange business cards and move on to another person. This simple strategy is especially effective when you are participating in a networking event with a lot of people. You want to make as many contacts as possible but you also want your interaction to be both thoughtful and fruitful.
In your simple introduction, you would have given the other person a synopsis of what your life is all about and at the same time opened a door for possible partnership. That’s how networking works. It’s never about what the other person do for you but rather, what you can do for the other person.

Partnership in teams and in networks is crucial for your success in a global economy. These two concepts can now be implemented across seas thanks to technological advancements.

This week’s Nugget
Make an effort to develop and work in teams through partnerships.

WELCOME

Campbell Lumbila February 2nd, 2009

Welcome to The Secrets of Leadership Success.
Our vision is to help you achieve your dream by using very simple but profound techniques which can be learnt by anyone. We want to help you understand your unique design by re-discovering who you are, formulate a vision that allows you to express your passions and in the process bring you great success and satisfaction. We also want to help you to develop your leadership potential and learn some basic life management skills. We bring all these aspects to work in a synegistic fashion so that your life is effective, successful, meaningful and has a positive impact in the world.

TAKE CHARGE

Campbell Lumbila January 16th, 2009

With all the turmoil going on in the world, its very easy to shrink back from our big dreams and actually find ways of justifying our timidity. However, life does not give its best to the people it pities, rather life rewards those who pursue its treasures.

I have a simple message for you today; TAKE CHARGE. Times may be difficult but titans rise in the most difficult of circumstances and you have the potential to be one of them. My quote of the month is from Sir Winston Churchill who once said, “history will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” That sounds arrogant but true. You write the story of your life. You might say, “I am not in charge of unforeseen circumstances” but I would argue that the most important thing is not what happens to you buy rather what you do with what happens. You might not be able to control what happens to you but you certainly can control your response to it. Note I say RESPONSE and not REACTION. These are two very important concepts to understand if you are going to take charge. Response is a thoughtful, measured and objective set of actions that one takes to tackle a problem. Reaction on the other hand is quick, thoughtless and usually an emotional set of actions that one takes to tackle a problem. You might be saying, Campbell I don’t feel in control of my life? How do I take charge? Before I answer that question, know that I believe that you cannot achieve anything without God. For me that is the starting point. I must find my strength in him otherwise all I do will be useless. Now I will give you a few tips on how you can learn to take charge.

1. CONTROL YOUR INTERNAL WORLD

Most people lose control of their lives because they do not know how to control their internal world. The center of your internal world is the mind. If you can learn how to control your thoughts you can control your emotions, reactions and responses. Emotions do do not act independent of your mind; they are a product of your thoughts. The feeling of fear is as a result of meditating on negative thoughts as is anxiety. Optimism on the other hand is a product of positive thoughts as is confidence.
Therefore, control what you think by regulating your mental diet. Feed your mind with positive things and your thoughts, life and emotions will be follow suit.

I know that most of you reading this are entrepreneurs and this simple principle also applies to you in business. Don’t dwell on the negative news of the so called “global economic crisis.” You do not know crisis and your mind should not go into crisis mode otherwise you will fail. You MUST think of opportunity and success amid what the world calls crisis. You are not like any other person; you are a success.

2. STEP BACK

This is the best technique that you can ever learn in life. No matter what is thrown at you life, you must learn to step back, think and conduct a situational analysis and take appropriate action. This stepping back process can take seconds, minutes, hours, days or even months in some cases but its a skill that will save your life. Stepping back allows you to take an objective look at the situation, ask some tough questions before you step back in to take appropriate actions. If you own a business and you are feeling the pinch right now, take a few moments to step back and ask some very tough questions and then make some decisions that will propel you to the next level. In my last post I talked about making adjustments but these adjustments should only come after one has taken the time to step back and analyze the situation.

3. MAKE BIGGER, BETTER AND BOLDER DECISIONS

Now is not the time to think small. Now is the time to raise the stakes. Now is the time to think bigger, better and bolder. The decisions you make today will determine the direction of your life or business for the next 5 to 10 years. Don’t just think of surviving today, think of living tomorrow. Be bold about the direction you want to take in life. Have a bigger vision and become a better decision maker. People like to follow leaders who are not afraid to try something big and new. People want to reach for the stars but they need someone to lead them. I know that you want to see your dreams fulfilled so don’t shrink back. Just go for it and make some big and bolder decisions.

These are just a few things I think will help you take charge of your life. Now go and make a world of a difference.