The 4 things successful leaders never do at 7:30 in the morning

Well, sorry to have tricked you with the title. I don't have a clue what successful leaders do, or not do, at 7:30 in the morning. Or at any time during the day for that matter. Yet I see about a dozen blogs or postings left and right every day that seem to promise instant gratification if only we mere mortals could copy this or that habit that successful leaders apparently have. And guess who writes these blogs and postings ... Do you think it is the successful leaders who sit down and share their secrets to success ? Hmm ... most often it is not.

I have studied the history of leadership extensively for an executive leadership program. Over the years, a lot of interesting models and views about leadership have been developed. Yet none of these leadership models have been universally validated as holding the secrets to sustained and successful leadership.

For those who are interested in developing their leadership and who are in search of the holy grail, the following reality check is the best advice I can share:

"The search for the universally correct leadership style is doomed to failure because of cultural variation by country, by industry, by occupation, by the particular history of a given organization, and, most importantly, by the actual task to be performed." from Edgar Schein in Organizational Culture and Leadership (4th edition), page 166.

So rather than try and find out what you are supposed to do or not to do at 7:30 in the morning, work with what you have: yourself and the people surrounding you. Try and improve something you do every day. Ask for feedback and reflect honestly on how you are doing. That is probably going to take you further than digging for secret leadership formulas will !

Meetings that work !

I was lucky to be able to deliver the first public workshop on Action Learning in Vietnam last week. At the end of the session, all participants confirmed they really saw the value of the approach and they would apply it in their organizations. As a facilitator, it feels good to get this kind of feedback but I am also aware that very often, reality (with deadlines, emails, presentations to do ...) sucks us up very quickly.

So I was really excited to receive an email from one of the participants of the Vietnam branch of a global FMCG company sharing his very first - and innovative - application of the principles of Action Learning !

His sales team had scheduled the annual Joint Business Meeting with a key customer the day after the workshop. In the past, this Business Meeting was a full day of Powerpoints where each team shared their views, their objectives, results and challenges. And the hours were spent in discussing, explaining, debating, resulting in some agreements and some disagreements. Pretty much a long day for everybody involved, with hours of time spent up front to create the Powerpoint slides.

So my participant, in charge of the sales team for the global FMCG in Vietnam, decided to try and apply the principles of Action Learning in this annual Joint Business Meeting. Out with the laptops, and out with the Powerpoints. The sales manager adapted the standard WIAL Action Learning script to fit his need for this meeting, maintaining the core ground rule of "Statements are only made in response to questions". Participants asked questions to one another to dive into the challenges their respective businesses were facing. Quite a difference from stating your point and trying to convince the other side yours is the right view. Both teams followed the Action Learning approach and achieved a high level of consensus on the key challenges they faced. At the end of the meeting, next steps were jointly identified to work towards and solve the challenges. Participants rated the session 8.5 out of 10 !

Next step: do the same with 2 other major customer teams.

Now that's what I call Action Learning ... in action !