Leadership – don’t believe the liars

The moment you are a senior executive, ‘liars’ surround you. Many of the people report you are ‘lying’ to one degree or another or another-whether unconsciously (as a transferential reaction) or consciously (for political reasons). In hierarchical situations, people have a tendency to tell those above them what they think the superiors want to hear. People who don’t acknowledge this are fooling themselves. Eventually, because candour flees authority, senior executives who aren’t careful will find themselves surrounded by sycophants. And in senior positions of organisations, hubris can become a contagious disease. Leaders become easily intoxicated by its sirens call.

Intoxication and intimidation will go hand-in-hand. At its core is an unholy alliance between disposition and position. Subordinates become intimidated by the power and symbols of the office, and leaders become the vessel of their projected fantasies. Large, impressive office suites, chauffeur driven cars, private jets, dynamic assistants, and secretaries, who fawn and cater for all, contribute to that awe that surrounds many leaders. Power leads to dependency reactions and even physical illness in others.

Many top executives don’t , however, the extent to which people project their fantasies on them; how much subordinates are inclined to tell them what they want to hear as a way of dealing with their own feelings of insecurity and helplessness; how willing subordinates are to attribute special qualities to others simply because the office they hold.

Even those who recognise these tendencies don’t necessarily do anything to counter them. They start to like it, however their failure to recognise what is happening to them can lead a company astray and destroy it. Guarding against hubris means creating an organisational culture where Frank feedback is encouraged; where leaders are prepared to ask themselves whether their own need for recognition is encouraging dishonesty in the ranks.

(Extract from conference papers – Cambridge Judge Business School (University of Cambridge) –  Author – Professor Manfred F R Kets de Vries)

Ego – The great leadership disability

Primark, Dhaka (Bangladesh) disaster and leadership

At the time of writing, the tragic events in Dhaka Bangladesh following the collapse of factory buildings, have caused the deaths of 920 people. It is reported that bodies continue to be found and that the final death toll may be significantly higher. These are events of a monumental scale.

Clothing retailers such as Primark and many companies who use these factories as part of their supply chain have been severely criticised about their involvement in perpetuating the appalling standards of working conditions by taking advantage of the cheap production facilities. We have seen demonstrations outside their flagship stores and claims are being  made that if proper measures had been put in place by Primark, the disaster could have been avoided.

The knee-jerk reaction to apportion blame is a compelling one, however, we need to be very careful in apportioning total blame to them in this situation.

Primark have  already taken the lead out of all the Western clothing manufacturers to recognise that their activities may have contributed and have committed substantial assistance. Immediately after the disaster, they partnered with a local NGO to address the immediate needs of victims including the provision of food aid to families. They are also committing to pay compensation to the victims of the disaster and have made open-ended commitments to continue to do so. They seem to be leading the way in accepting their liability and as such should be commended in doing so, unlike other companies who are in the same situation.

However, this does not get away from the facts. Primark were using cheap labour, working in appalling conditions. It should not be a surprise that the building should also be an appalling state of repair. They have a liability, but their leadership have recognised and acted on this.

What is more important is that we reflect on the main cause of this disaster – ourselves.

The constant demand for cheap fashion items seems to be insatiable. However, we seem to be able to turn a blind eye to how their produced, as long as they’re cheap. On a global basis, there are very few people at the moment the who can honestly say that they don’t own the garment made in the sweatshops. And worse, we all know the conditions under which they are produced.  This also includes the demonstrators outside Primark offices, which is quite ironic.

We are all to blame!

Leadership dysfunction and your organisation

By Mike Myers published in Forbes……very good article        full article

Have you ever wondered why organizations tolerate dysfunctional leaders?  The answer is dysfunction is so prevalent it’s often not even recognized as problematic. Many corporations just desire leaders to go along and get along more than they desire them to lead. It saddens me to articulate this next thought – corporate leadership is rapidly becoming an oxymoron.

Think of those you know in a position of leadership, and if you know what you’re looking for, you’ll find they are likely not a leader, but a risk manager. When leaders become conformists who desire to control instead of surrender, they not only fail to inspire and challenge, they fail to lead. Leadership has become synonymous with babysitting in many organizations, which does nothing more than signal a lack of trust in the workforce. I can think of no time in modern history where employees feel less valued and trusted. Remember, a leaders job is not to place people in a box, but to free them from boxes………………More

KPI’s and targets-be careful what you wish for!

Yet again in the news today we have examples of KPI’s and targets driving perverse behaviour.

A special police unit in London has been accused of persuading women to withdraw charges of rape. The motivation for this was alleged to be to improve performance in relation to a KPI target that they had been set, for crime clear up ratios. The KPI’s and targets here were directly driving this behaviour.

While this sort of  behaviour is totally unacceptable, it is completely understandable and is a prime example of a complete misunderstanding of KPI’s and targeting by those who set up these management processes.

Another example is the recent horsemeat contamination scandel. Again KPI driven by the big retail chains with KPIs designed to target the rachetting down of cost to the point where some suppliers were only able to complete an retain business by cheating.

A key performance indicator is exactly that, an indicator. Targeting KPI improvements will drive and change behaviour, but if the KPI is not selected very carefully, it will not achieve the performance improvements that it is engineered to achieve.

There are some fundamental principles to be borne in mind when deciding upon KPIs

1. Does the KPI measure actually measure what it is thought to measure. i.e. is there a direct linkage to performance. If so, how robust is the correlation. In the police scenario above. the KPI showed improvement, but actual outcome performance showed deterioration.

2. What possible negative behaviour could be generated as a result of trying to improve the KPI.

3. What steps can be taken to eliminate the prospect of negative behaviour, on the basis that it must be assumed that if negative behaviour is possible, it will happen.

What we need to realise is that KPI’s are only  indicative of performance outcomes, they are not the outcomes themselves. Perhaps we should start differentiating between KPIs and KPOs (Key performance outcomes), then perhaps we may get a better grip on reality and start targeting the outcomes and not the indicators which are in themselves are often quite false measures.

Blaming Somebody – The Tale of Four

The Tale of Four 
This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody‘s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Whats for dinner?

In the UK, the scandal of contaminated horse meat being fraudulently introduced into beef burgers seems to grow by the day. Right now, extensive testing of processed meat products is being carried out on a full range of other processed meat products. Europe is currently braced for further very bad news next week!

However, this is not just isolated to Europe. There is now some certainty that food fraud is occurring on a global basis and what we are being sold to consume is not necessarily what we think.

Following the banking scandals, and other almost daily exposures in other sectors, business culture maybe heading towards a situation which is totally out of control, unless somebody gets a grip.

Now that a great deal of the truth is out in the open, the blame game appears to be starting. Organised crime in Eastern Europe is being cited as one of the main reasons, but this may be just a distraction. This week, further raids on meat processing plants here in the UK have revealed alleged purposeful contamination of meat products. The evidence, once it is known, may reveal food contamination as a mainstream practice within the global food supply industry. So who is accountable?

The answer to this question is complex, and no doubt will come out during what will be a prolonged enquiry. However, what is certain is that the leadership of regulators, major retail organisations, suppliers, and weak practices in supply chain management will be called into question. Also, potential criminal proceedings may result across the whole supply chain and third parties.

The public is now calling into question the degree of trust that they can have in large retail outlets and  whether these often soulless organisations can ever be truly ethical in the way which they conduct their affairs.

It may be that the days of the small independent retailer as trusted and preferred option are back!

Do you really know what you had for dinner last night?

Guns in the US – Can the problems be solved?

The gun debate in the US is now really reaching a hiatus with legislation being accelerated following the tragic situation at Newtown where so many were killed This followed the other tragedies which seem to now occur with increasing frequency. New York state have today enacted severe gun control laws – the first state to do so since the incident.

The debates are passionately argued on both sides. The recent altercation between Piers Morgan and Alex Jones (chairman of the American gun owners Association – 300,000 members) on CNN recently demonstrated the strength of feeling of the gun lobby.

It would appear that there was  an implied ‘call to arms ‘by Mr Jones should any anti-gun legislation be implemented and action. -a sort of gun owners Jihad – a war of independence waged by them as a result. In practice, quite what he meant by this is uncertain , however what is certain is that there is a strong belief almost akin to a religious dogma that the ownership of guns is a fundamental human right. This will inevitably cause conflict as the restrictions are imposed, especially when gun confiscation becomes a reality.

Whether it is a human right or not is questionable, however what is unquestionable is that it is a constitutional right defined by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution – the right to bear arms – and there lies the problem.

Most of the rest of the world look on quizzically at this belief system and the sort of responses that emanate when gun ownership is challenged are at best perceived as  some sort of psychotic madness. However, until the constitution of the US is changed in this regard, there will always be difficulties in changing cultural perceptions within the country.

In most democratic countries, a constitutional change can only take place as a result of some sort of referendum and this may certainly be the only way forward if controls are to be implemented in a democratic and effective way. However, as gun culture is such a fundamental part of the US psyche, will this really be possible in practice? Certainly the correct interpretation of the constitution is needed as a minimum. Do the words ‘well armed militia’ in the existing constitution mean an ‘unregulated armed populace’, which seems now to be the case.

It will be interesting to see how reality develops over the short term, however, what is certain is that maintaining a constitution which enshrines the right to bear arms has a cost,- in blood.

But maybe the people of the US believe that this is a price worth paying? If this is the case, so be it. The world outside does not have a right to get involved, but they do have a right to be dismayed and disappointed should it take another civil massacre to bring the issue to the table again.

Views on Israel in 1938 by Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), political and spiritual leader of India. Location unknown. Français : Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), Guide politique et spirituel de l’Inde. Lieu inconnu. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Jews In Palestine

By Mahatma Gandhi

Published in the Harijan   26-11-1938.

Several letters have been received by me, asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany. It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.

My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became lifelong companions. Through these friends I  came to learn much of their age long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close.

Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews. But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice.

The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine.

Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongsto the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French.

If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a colorable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews. But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For, he is propounding a new           religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter.

The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is,therefore, outside my horizon or province.

But if there can be no war against Germany, even for such a crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can be no alliance with Germany. How can there be alliance between a nation, which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one, which is the declared enemy of both? Or is England drifting towards armed dictatorship and all it means?

Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism.It is also showing how hideous, terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.Can the Jews resist this organized and shameless persecution? Is there a way to preserve their self-respect, and not to feel helpless, neglected and forlorn? I submit there is. No person who has faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal than the God of the Christians, the Mussalmans or the Hindus, though as a matter of fact, in essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews           attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel helpless.

If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this I should not wait for! the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest were bound to follow my example…. …

And now a word to the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about it in the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart.

The same God rules the Arab heart who rules the Jewish heart… They will find the world opinion in their favor in their religious aspiration.There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.

Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home, including Palestine, not by aggression but by loving service. A Jewish friend has sent me a book called The Jewish Contribution to Civilization by Cecil Roth. It gives a record of what the Jews have done to enrich the world’s literature, art, music, drama, science, medicine, agriculture, etc. Given the will, the Jew can refuse to be treated as the outcast of the West, to be despised or patronized. He can command the attention and respect of the world by being the chosen creation of God, instead of sinking to the brute who is forsaken by God. They can add  to their many contributions the surpassing contribution of non-violent action.

International Corruption Perceptions Index 2011

source : Transparency International