Morph4Sys

12/07/2022

Every business faces tough issues that pop up and become a drag on ex*****on. Most companies don’t have a consistent approach to surface, examine and permanently resolve these tough issues. The companies that do have such a system enjoy a powerful competitive edge in the marketplace.

This is a real challenge because individuals have their own unique ways to deal with complex issues. If your team isn’t tightly aligned on problem-solving, issues will resist resolution.

My client, Bill, explains how his team uses an issue resolution discipline called SER and talks about how it empowered his team to boost their performance.

A leader describes the process he learned to help his people uncover issues that were sabotaging performance and resolve them as a team.

05/17/2022

Are leadership and management different? Can you quickly answer that question in the context of your organization?
I can say for certain that you need both to build and grow a sustainable, profitable venture that delivers something the world needs.
Below are three questions that every leader should have clear and crisp answers to. Answers they can communicate clearly and effectively to others inside and outside their business.
1. What separates leadership and management in your organization? Why should you or your colleagues care about that difference?
2. How does that difference manifest in your organization’s core values and behaviors? (leadership is seldom about domain knowledge, functional depth, or subject-matter-expertise)
3. Why must everyone in your organization understand that difference very clearly? How will that translate into outcomes that, over time, will give you both performance lift and competitive advantage?
This article can give you a jump start in answering the questions: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/leadership-management.htm.
I would not treat everything in it as gospel by any means, but it is an useful catalyst to accelerate your own thinking.
For example, it speaks about leadership driving vision and innovation, and management stewarding the maintenance of excellent standards. Brings to mind that old adage about management keeping the “trains running on time”, while leadership building a “better railroad system”. While that has a nugget of truth, it is overly simplistic.
Here’s a parting quote from the article, “Leadership accompanied by management sets a new direction and makes efficient use of resources to achieve it.”

05/10/2022

The language is 1960s vintage. A bit archaic. A bit odd. Yet WCH Prentice’s classic article Understanding Leadership finds areas of strong resonance with how I define leadership in 2022. Here’s the link to the article: https://hbr.org/2004/01/understanding-leadership
The part that resonates most is Prentice’s assertion that leaders influence, inspire and help others become their best selves. Along the way, they seek to understand their own selves, and from that awareness, develop the knowledge, skills and abilities required to develop others into their best selves.
However, Prentice does not speak directly to leaders dedicating themselves to the development of other leaders. While there are sections in the article that suggest Prentice may have been persuaded to consider this facet of Understanding Leadership favorably, he refrains from unlocking that door.
While I am not even remotely close to Prentice’s league, I consider developing other leaders to be the cornerstone for inclusion in the community of effective leaders. What do you consider to be the seminal aspect of Understanding Leadership?

04/18/2022

When it comes down to it, a leader is someone who has developed a leader who has developed a leader. Let that sink in for a few second. Gino Wickman introduced me to that nugget. It’s an absolutely essential characteristic of a leader made. And while it makes so much sense – at least to me – it doesn’t really speak to what goes into the making of that leader.

I came across this article in Entrepreneur magazine that offers four pillars of leadership that I found to be quite compelling: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/378975

The four pillars are 1) Accountable, 2) Empowering, 3) Purpose driven, and 4) Empathetic. #2 is key to my earlier point about leader-making being a core element of effective leadership.

The article is primarily a starting point for your own inquiries and journey into the why-what-how you can make each pillar your own, reflecting your unique talents, values, vision, and priorities.

03/25/2022

“Successful ex*****on is accelerated through building your team’s strategic thinking, business acumen, and resilience to change.” Bill Hall in the article ://tinyurl.com/59rw8j44.
Author Bill Hall is right. These are both strategic skills AND ex*****on skills.
Business strategy and ex*****on strategy require strategic thinking. Even issue resolution sometimes requires strategic insight rather than the deft ability to slap on band-aids.
Similarly, if your team does not have a sharp understanding of how all the parts of your business fit together to make money effectively, your ex*****on gap will grow. Independent of how good your strategy is.
Finally, we need to look no further than the pandemic to recognize that resilience to change is both a strategic and an ex*****on imperative.

03/12/2022

Effective ex*****on requires effective collaboration. That’s easier said than done. Especially the effective part. There is a lot that goes into collaborative success.
There is of course the value of having clear goals, the discipline of following a systematic approach, and the tools for tracking and measuring business results. Then there are what I like to call collaboration skills. Most people like to call it “soft skills”, or in the case of the Forbes article this post is linked to “soft elements”.
There is nothing soft about these skills. They are actually very hard skills to master 😊.
The vast majority of ex*****on centers around people-to-people interactions. In other words collaboration in all its many forms. Almost every facet of ex*****on is either influenced by or involves people other than you. Therefore, to get the best out of people, you must first build and master the skills that will enable you to get the best out of people.
The Forbes article points to six vital collaboration skills that business leaders must possess: Clarity, character, competence, connection, critical thinking, and consideration.
Read on to learn more about these six building blocks of effective collaboration. This list is neither comprehensive or a one-size-fits-all prescription. It is merely a starting point to reflect on what you believe will work best for you in the ex*****on context you must thrive in.
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Learn more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/02/17/six-key-soft-elements-for-effective-business-leadership/?sh=9a812d071cae

Effective leadership is possible at home, at the office and in society, and these six elements are key.

03/05/2022

Optimize four key people levers to complement your business objectives and performance culture and enable each person in your organization to function more effectively and with greater accountability.
The four levers are…
1. The Right Roles for your business to thrive
2. The Right People to fill those roles
3. The Right Values to guide those people
4. The Right Behaviors that express those values
Step 1: Bring your leadership team together and ask if you are all deeply clear and tightly aligned about these four key people levers. That will give you insight into where your team and you need to direct your attention.
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🌐 http://www.morph4sys.com

02/26/2022

The seventh habit in the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is “Sharpen the Saw”. Covey may have drawn inspiration from Abraham Lincoln’s famous saying “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” The best way to take your business to the next level is by turning yourself and your leaders into Ex*****on Ninjas. Ninjas don’t just execute to “get the job done.”
Ninjas execute to “make a huge impact.” That means consistently nailing the difficult initiatives, solving the complex problems, meeting the challenging goals, strengthening focus and discipline where it is weak. All, seamlessly and effectively, and across the business. Not just within their narrow roles, as just Job Ninjas.
Leaders have tirelessly honed their Job Saws through their careers. There’s the Marketing Saw, the Finance Saw, the IT Saw, and so on. The Job Saw is their Superpower. It’s what’s propelled them to where they are now. However, a Marketing Ninja is not an Ex*****on Ninja. Neither is a Ninja in any of the many other functional disciplines.
Ex*****on Ninjas need sharp Ex*****on Saws. Not just sharp Job Saws. Work with your team to surface the top five challenges that prevent you from executing like Ninjas, and create a program to build the skills your leaders need to overcome those challenges. That’s how you get your leaders Ex*****on Saws sharp enough for them to be Ex*****on Ninjas.
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🌐 http://www.morph4sys.com

02/20/2022

Trust is the foundation on which effective performance culture is built. No exceptions. THAT is the “why” that underpins investment in this amorphous and hard-to-measure capability.
Many leaders are afraid to make that investment. So much easier to invest in tangibles like cost cutting, marketing, strategic hires, etc. Investments like these are easier to measure than investing in creating a high-trust performance culture.
The trust-building strategies above are just illustrations. What is most effective in one business, may not work in another. This is another factor that scares leaders away from making this essential investment.
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🌐 http://www.morph4sys.com

02/17/2022

Executive teams play two key roles in an organization.
The first is obvious: They provide strategic and operational leadership to the company. Metaphorically, they figure out where the “ship” is headed. They set the course for the journey. And they steer the ship from start to finish.
The second is less obvious but equally important. The executive team distills, amplifies, and champions the “performance culture” of their company. Performance culture is the unique DNA for high-performance that is distinct for every business. How the executive team embodies the performance culture is often the model that teams throughout the organization follow.
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🌐 http://www.morph4sys.com