Authentic leadership?

Each time has it's leadership style. We have seen the Action oriented and the Charismatic managers leading us the right way when the world was easy to understand and predict. Since came the visionary leaders and committed us and let us handle all the details. As we got more and more influence and responsibility we saw the coaching and motivating leaders. The focused more on us than the job oat hand.

Today where the world is super complex, under quick change and impossible to predict it's difficult to find the right leadership style.

Maybe it's to be Authentic -  something like - tranparent - predictable - honest and have great integrity?

It is perhaps the correct leader to execute the only agenda that works today:
• What do we know?
• What can we do?
• What do we do?
• How do we do it?

 Have a pleasant week-end - maybe with this one:

What are you going to do this week-end? - "Nothing!"

You said that last week as well! - "Yaa, but I didn't quite finish it last week-end"

Last Free and cool tool for now

Very quick to learn and can be shared across the web!

More Cool and free tools

 I must have slept for hours because here is one more. I really love this cozy little diagram.

It is created with this little 'code' that can intuitively be learned in minutes.

title Smart and fast
Project-> Steering Committee: Progress Report
Steering-> Project: Approval

"MS Project" free from Google!

 Aren't we just lucky?

Gantter.com I just discovered, is exactly the part of the expencive MS Projects, as most would like to use - the drawing function. Everything else like sophisticated resource and financial management, etc. is not there.

You can import from MS Project and you can jolly well export to it - so you can work well with people who have the expensive products. See my little test here:

You lose 7% of salary while you are snoozing

 But just keep on sleeping because 10 years ago you lost the entire 13% and in 10 years time you will propably be at the same level as A-human. These are some of the shocking numbers of Rockwool Foundation publication Sleep - marriage, income and health - which you can read here as a summary and here in full length.

39% are A-people and only 18% B. C people are up early and to bed late - it's 29%. Late up and early to bed is the pattern for the 14% D people.

Are you man and A-human, you have most likely a long-term relationship. Are you a woman and 22 years old, you sleep around. one hour over a 22-year-old man - as 40-year-old sleeping in same period of time.

Are you Danish, you get less sleep compared to all other countries in Europe. As a general rule in Europe the less people sleep, the richer (measured by GDP) is the country!

So you can think about that tonight!

Are you driven by emotions or intellect?

I know that many will become sick by the question and argue that they indeed are at the high intellectual level and certainly not are guided by emotions. I probably should let them live in the faith, but I will not today because there is so much to get in just a little bit of insight.

Every time we make a choice, it is emotion that determines the outcome! "Hey," says many "It's my calculations that govern the decision". Yes, I believe you; matter is simply that even the most extensive calculations are not 100% optimal - in fact far from - maybe 75% optimal at best - often much lower. Indeed, we have from the beginning had a sense = feeling of how much we'd put into the calculations. Are we afraid (= feeling) we work hard - otherwise we sloppy little or a lot. Emotions has already done their useful work before you even grab your calculator!

Emotions means that we can overcome the 1,000 mini-, midi- and major decisions we make continuous from clock rings and eyes slide in again.

Were you guided by your intellect, you would probably not even manage to get out of bed.

Finally, there is the interesting part of the emotion called sensations - that we have a sense that in well over 50% of all cases prove to be correct. Believe in them, you will win more often than you lose.

Be visible and prominent - and get promoted

Already in one of my first jobs I got advices from an American colleague, whom I shared an office with:

1.  Always having a pencil in your hand so people think you're just out to get somebody information to finish a report
2.  Always wear your jacket - it makes you look a bit more imortant than most of the guys around andre
3.  Always walk fast - at least as your own boss
4.  Hold your head up and smile to every body - They all like it and it makes you look optimist, positive and full of energy

- And you can laugh at that ...

Later I made it a habit to walk down the hall in the morning on one of the other floors - simply to be seen. Later, as a decentralized placed at least once a week to walk around the headquarters.

- And that can you also laugh at ...

The fact is however that how frivolous it may be, you get plus points just by being seen. This study from M.I.T. shows how important it is to be there.

The most successful (in the traditional value scale sense) people admit also that "it was all a bit of a coincidence" - "being in the right place at the right time." It will very rarely be home, I think!

I have complete respect for anyone who says they would rather be without promotion, if it happens on so frivolous basis, but it is important to remember that leadership and leadership skills is a subjective thing.

News from the RISK Doctor

David Hillson writes about Risk Leadership - skills we seem to have overlook while we focused on Risk Management. Read more here.

Act so I can see what you say!

After you've seen the weather forecast on DR or TV2, have you wondered why you still can not quite remember how the weather will be tomorrow? That's because you are exposed to poor communication - body language that rarely match the message - a smile often emphasize the prospect of several days of rain.

I have just landed after three weeks in England with friends and acquaintances and in Cornwall, which I have driven thin. BBC is worse at communicating than the Danish channels. Here you are really sickly anxious for in any way to disrupt morning cosiness and confront viewers with reality.

The not always good weather over the Olympic city were each day presented with a huge smile: "Sun and showers!" could get the BBC's morning editorial in a good mood.

The rule in communication is that:

Body language gives most effect  - your posture, facial expressions, your gestures, hand gestures ...

The emphasis of the words is the second strongest - your voice, low and slow, monotonous, varied, high, excited ...

The words are the weakest provider - your choice of words ...

(without demonstrable evidence, it is often said that the distribution is 55%, 38% and 7%).

Concider  how the quality of communication constantly decreases when more and more concerns are about 'looking good' and 'feel good' whenever people communicate.

As a Project Manager at least 99% of your job is about communication. Every one hour spendt at being better in communication will pay back at least 10 times.