Strategy. Innovation. Brand.
Wisdom and Leadership
I just re-read a terrific 1998 Harvard Business Review article by Daniel Goleman titled, “What Makes a Leader?” Goleman argues that, while experience and IQ are important, it’s emotional intelligence that makes the crucial difference. Managers without emotional intelligence tend to maximize only their own performance. Managers with EI tend to maximize their performance and their followers’ performance.
What struck me about the article was that the five components of EI are very similar to the five components of wisdom that we discussed back in April. Here’s how Goleman defines the components of EI:
- Self-awareness — knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses and their impact on others.
- Self-regulation – controlling or redirecting disruptive emotions
- Motivation – being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement, a passion for work and challenges
- Empathy – considering others’ feelings, especially when making decisions
- Social skill – managing relationships to move people in desired directions, persuasiveness, expertise in building teams
And here’s what we said about wisdom:
- Willingness to resolve conflicts;
- Willingness to compromise;
- Recognition of the limits of personal knowledge;
- Awareness that a given problem may legitimately be seen from different perspectives;
- Understanding that things may get worse before they get better.
There’s not a complete overlap but the two lists are very similar. My conclusion: it takes a lot of wisdom to be a good leader. Now, the question I’d really like to understand is, how do we teach wisdom?
How much is a brand worth?
Quick — what’s the most valuable brand in the world? Interbrand says it’s Coca-Cola, valued at $71.8 billion. Eurobrands say it’s Apple, valued at $96.6 billion. And Brand Finance says it’s Google, valued at $44.3 billion. Interbrand, Eurobrands, and Brand Finance are the three most prominent brand evaluation companies in the world. They all use the same ISO standard for calculating the value of a brand. Yet, they wind up with wildly divergent views on brand value. Why is that? It’s because brand value is in the eye of the beholder and that is completely subjective.
Building Brands Consistently
Who’s Grover White? If you don’t know him, you really should meet him. He’s a great guy. But because we’ve changed his name — ever so slightly — we may have confused you. Grover is better known under a different brand name … but you would never know that if we haven’t used the brand name consistently.
Great brands deploy their names and symbols consistently. You know who they are because they never change what they call themselves. They minimize confusion and, by doing so, they maximize trust. And a brand is simply a name that you trust.
To find out who Grover White is, just watch the video.
The Art of the Wrong View
I
n one of my classes at the University of Denver, I try to teach my students how to manage technologies that constantly morph and change. They’re unpredictable, they’re slippery, and managing them effectively can make the difference between success and failure.
The students, of course, want to predict the future so they can prepare for it. I try to convince them that predicting the future is impossible. But they’re young. They can explain the past, so why can’t they predict the future?
To help them prepare for the future — though not predict it — I often teach the techniques of scenario planning. You tell structured stories about the future and then work through them logically to understand which way the world might tilt. The technique has common building blocks, often referred to as PESTLE. Your stories need to incorporate political, economic, societal, technical, legal, and environmental frameworks. This helps ensure that you don’t overlook anything.
I’ve used scenario planning a number of times and it has always helped me think through situations in creative ways – so it seems reasonable to teach it. To prepare for a recent class, I re-read The Art of the Long View by Peter Schwartz. I found it on one of my dustier bookshelves and discovered it was the 1991 edition. While I remembered many of the main points, I was surprised to find a long chapter titled, “The World in 2005: Three Scenarios”. Here was a chance to see how well the inventor of scenario planning could prepare us for the future.
In sum, I was quite disappointed. The main error was that each scenario vastly overestimated the importance of Japan on the world stage in 2005. In a way, it all makes sense. The author was writing in 1991, when we all believed that Japan might just surpass every other economy on earth. Of course, he would assume that Japan would still dominate in 2005. Of course, he was wrong.
So what can we learn from this? Two things, I think:
- Always remember to ask the reverse question. If it’s “obvious” that a trend will continue (e.g. Japan will dominate) always remember to ask the non-obvious question: what if it doesn’t? Today, it seems obvious that health care costs will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. But what if we make a medical breakthrough and costs plummet?
- Remember that resilience is better than prediction. We’ll never be able to predict the future — partially because we can’t really explain the past. But we can be prepared by building flexible systems that can respond to unexpected jolts. The human immune is probably a good model. This means building systems and organizations where information flows easily, creativity is valued, and leaders can emerge from anywhere.
I’ll continue to teach scenario planning in the future. After all, it’s a good template for thinking and planning. I’ll also be able to provide a very good example of how it can all go wrong.
Developing a Habit of Innovation
Last week, we learned that there are least ten ways to build a corporate culture that stimulates innovation. But what about you personally? Are there habits you can develop that will help you develop innovative products and services? According to Clayton Christensen et. al. in The Innovator’s DNA, you can become more innovative by cultivating five specific habits and modes of thinking. Learn the basics in the video and then read the book – it’s worth it.
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