I am often asked if there is a difference between “narrative” and “story” when it comes to strategy and organization. While these words are used interchangable they aren’t the same. Story conveys insight. Narrative creates a world. Read more.
About the Author:
Dave Ancel, Ed.D., is co-founder at Emergent Solutions, Inc. (ESODL) and a Strategic Partner with Mariposa Leadership, Inc. For more articles by Dave, visit the ESODL Blog.
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Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future
By: Dorie Clark
Head: (4.5 out of 5)
Heart: (3.5 out of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (5 out of 5)
Professional branding is not just for the job seeker. At some point, executives at all stages of their careers face the need to reinvent themselves to keep up with the pace of corporate change. In Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, author and marketing expert Dorie Clark offers a strategic road map and do-it-yourself exercises for professional branding.
Both insightful and practical, this step-by-step guide is rich with advice anchored by case studies and anecdotal tips. The exercises and reflection points help readers define their unique value and ultimately cultivate and communicate that value to others. Readers will learn how to:
As the author notes, professional branding is taking control of life and living strategically, by defining career goals and taking steps to reach them. The applicability of professional branding goes beyond simply landing a new job. It can aid in breaking through misconceptions about capabilities which are preventing a promotion, transitioning to a different area of a company and building a compelling case for an unusual background as an asset in a career change.
In an age in which competition for jobs is fierce and one cannot simply rely on being noticed because of hard work, staying relevant and competitive through reinvention is important to fit into the new context of work. Buy the book.
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Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
By A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin
Head: (4 out of 5)
Heart: (3.5 out of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (4.5 out of 5)
In Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, authors A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin draw from their years of experience working at Proctor & Gamble and the Rotman School of Management to explain the strategy behind one of the most successful corporate turnarounds of the century. They address how leaders of companies, big and small, can use simple techniques in their own organizations. The authors set out to right the wrong thinking about strategy.
Strategy is not about having a vision, and it’s not about having a plan. For the authors it is about winning. Winning requires a strategy that is managed and joined by a set of five questions. Playing to Win provides a provocative definition of strategy as the answer to these five questions – the same five questions no matter what your industry, size or situation:
Strategy is boiled down to two key factors: 1) Where to play? and 2) How to win? “These two choices,” write Martin and Lafley, “are tightly bound up with one another, form the very heart of strategy and are the two most critical questions in strategy formulation.” Playing To Win answers these questions in a winning way through a simple framework that’s both easy to understand, use, and makes it accessible to all.
Strategy begins with making choices and tough decisions. If this does not happen, you will never have a genuine strategy. But as the book points out, developing a strategy is not difficult, provided that those involved are prepared to address key questions and welcome a diversity of views to identify the best direction for the business. Buy it
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Good business practice involves appreciating and recognizing your employees. Although appreciation should be a natural activity for anyone, the truth is we all have different ways of giving and receiving gifts and appreciation. Some like verbal appreciation, while others like having an extra vacation day. Either way, employes want personal recognition, instead of a standard gift for all. So if you’re not careful, a thoughtless gift may actually backfire on you.
OC Tanner recently commissioned a study conducted by The Cicero Group entitled Optimizing Employee Recognition Programs. This study aimed to discover if awards are a viable form of employee recognition, and if so, whether cash works better than award items.
If your organization is looking to implement an effective employee reward system, I highly recommend reading this entire study as the six pages highlight some interesting findings. The statistics can come in handy when rationalizing employee reward programs to upper management.
The key takeaways for employee recognition programs are:
About the author:
Anne Loehr is the President of Anne Loehr and Associates, co-founder of Safaris for the Soul, and an Executive Leadership Coach for Mariposa Leadership, Inc. For more good reads, visit Anne Loehr’s personal blog at: www.anneloehr.com/blog/.
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Last week’s Wise Talk with Cynthia Montgomery launched our 2013 leadership theme of Strategy. She talked with Mariposa CEO Sue Bethanis on the different aspects of strategy and how they directly relate to business management.
Cynthia is a Harvard Business Strategy professor and author of the book The Strategist. Check out these snippets of their conversation to gain a deeper understanding of the topic.
In this first snippet, Cynthia talks about the most necessary element behind strategy – purpose:
In this next snippet, she talks about the strategy behind capturing value:
In this final snippet, Sue asks Cynthia what she sees as the most common mistake executive make when it comes to strategy. Listen to her response here:
Click here to access Mariposa Leadership’s Wise Talk archives, and click on “Are you a strategist?” for the full audio of this session.
We welcome your thoughts in the comments section below.
Click here to listen to and download the full audio recording of yesterday’s Wise Talk on being the strategist your business needs with Harvard Business School Strategy Professor Cynthia Montgomery (@leadstrategy) and Mariposa CEO @suebethanis!
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There are several key factors that go into a winning business – a great idea, a great team, great passion, and great leadership. All are important, but great passion can be the fire that helps fuel the success. Consequently, it can also destroy the business when it is misguided.
Like all fires, passion can spark other flames and become contagious, igniting the passion of investors, business partners, and customers, as well as employees. If left uncontrolled, passion can consume, destroy, and leave a business with an empty dream. However, when controlled, directed, and focused, it can boost a business’ chance for success.
Here at Mariposa, we’re fired up about strategy! It being our leadership theme for 2013, we’re excited to start off this year by peeking into one of the more popular classes at Harvard Business School, a strategy course taught by professor Cynthia Montgomery. This class is also the basis of Montgomery’s book, The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs. In it, Montgomery identifies that an effective purpose and the passion behind it are what initiate value creation and capture.
Join us Thursday, January 24th at 1pm PT, on Wise Talk as Mariposa Leadership, Inc. CEO Sue Bethanis talks with HBS professor Cynthia Montgomery on how to transform sparks into strategic fire!
Topics for the interactive discussion will include:
• What’s your definition of a strategist?
• How do strategists keep a competitive edge?
• What is a common mistake you have seen executives make when it comes to strategy?
We welcome you to join Wise Talk, our free monthly teleconference and submit your own questions for discussion. Sign up and be entered to win a copy of this month’s leadership resource, The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs.
One winning listener will be announced at the end of the talk!
Anne-Lise asked:
I’ve received feedback that I need to be more strategic but I’m not sure how to even begin working on this. Help?
Tawny Lees, COO responded:
Hi Anne-Lise,
First off, please know that you are not alone in getting this feedback and feeling a bit lost! This is a common growth edge for many leaders, especially those who have had more execution-focused roles and are now becoming more senior in their organizations.
Being “more strategic” is a combination of developing a new mindset as well as behaviors. Strategic thinkers take a broad, longer-range approach to problem solving and anticipating the future. They think systemically – identifying the implications of their decisions on other parts of the organization, customers, partners, etc. Strategic leaders also embed strategic behaviors into their routine – taking regular time alone and with team members to think ahead, ask tough questions, review the competitive environment, ponder the future, and plan.
I’d suggest looking at articles and/or books on both strategic thinking and the process of strategic planning to see what resonates with you. From those resources, pick a couple of things to try, and enlist the help of your boss or a colleague to support you with feedback and accountability. Our Mariposa Leadership theme this year is strategy, so you can also sign up to listen in on the free monthly Wise Talk teleconferences for added insight. You could also identify someone in your org whom you feel is very strategic and pay close attention to how they think and operate. Perhaps ask for some mentoring from them.
Developing in this area is a journey – glad you are embarking, it is critical to great leadership!
Share your thoughts on this response in the comments section below, and ask us anything here: http://blog.mariposaleadership.com/ask-mariposa/
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The Strategist:
Be The Leader Your Business Needs
By: Cynthia Montgomery
Head: (4.5 of 5)
Heart: (3.5 of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (4.5 of 5)
The Strategist is more like attending a month long Harvard Business Strategy course than a book. Cynthia Montgomery really takes you inside one of her legendary courses (complete with slides), giving insights into several different company’s success’ and failures, igniting in her readers the passion and purpose behind what it takes to be a strategic business leader.
Strategy begins with purpose and The Strategist reminds us that an effective purpose is one that stems from a desire to create meaning, to be unique, and to inspire. But above all, an effective purpose initiates value creation and capture. Your purpose must be so powerful that it not only generates positive economic outcome, but it does so because your customers feel like they are part of something bigger just by using your products or services. Montgomery goes into ways you can make a difference in your company, how you can create and capture lasting value, and how to do so while strengthening your bottom line.
Like a business course, The Strategist offers a variety of tools and practices throughout the text, using graphs and other visual stimuli to illustrate the objectives. You are challenged to define and then redefine your purpose, develop your system of value creation, create your own strategy wheel, and then pull it all into perspective to set you on a forward path. Then, when you least expect it, Montgomery turns the tables, disrupts your thinking, and lights a fire under you in order to push your edges and inspire you to come up with even more ideas.
In addition to all of the applicable tools, one of the great values of this book is the extensive frequently asked questions section in the back. It’s like you’re sitting in class and questions come up that were not covered in the material or you’re missing applicability to your personal situation and as if you raise your hand to ask a question, Professor Montgomery is there to answer.
So, are you ready to become a strategist? Are you ready to step into a strategic leadership role with confidence and purpose? If you are ready to energize your leadership skills, this Harvard Business Strategy course in a book is for you.
Click here to learn more or join our January Wise Talk with author Cynthia Montgomery and submit your questions.
After sign up, you will receive the call in information and be entered to win a copy of this month’s leadership resource, The Strategist. One lucky listener will be announced at the end of the talk!
We welcome your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Every year Mariposa Leadership aims to engage you in a new leadership theme. Last year it was Design Thinking and we feel very fortunate to have shared the wisdom and resources of several well known innovators via our free monthly teleconference Wise Talk. Our 2012 guests included Roger Martin, Bill Burnett, Teresa Amabile, Saul Kaplan, and Jeanne Liedtka, just to name a few…
In 2013, our Mariposa Leadership theme is Strategy, and we look forward to sharing Wise Talk discussions with you and some of the finest strategic leaders and authors in the business!
This month we focus on introducing you to yourself as a strategist. Whether you run a global enterprise or a small business, we wish to present to you the strategic tools to not only outwit your competitors but offer you, as a leader, the means to shape your organization decisively.
Combining the best of ideas about strategy and leadership and giving you the tools and confidence to step into the role, our January Wise Talk guest and author of The Strategist, Cynthia Montgomery, will not only help you reinvent yourself but also your business and the world around you.
In her July 2012 McKinsey Quarterly article, Montgomery explains how strategists lead. Central to her case is a simple observation: it is the strategist who must make the necessary choices that determine a company’s identity. It is the strategic leader who says, “This is our purpose, not that. This is who we will be. This is why our customers and clients will prefer a world with us rather than one without us.” She defines the strategist as meaning maker, as voice of reason, as operator, and expands on these giving examples of each, concluding that maintaining strategic momentum is a never ending task, however profoundly rewarding.
We are very excited to welcome Cynthia Montgomery on this month’s Wise Talk. Join her and Mariposa Leadership’s CEO Sue Bethanis on Thursday, January 24th from 1-2pm PT as they discuss how to be the strategist your company needs.
To sign up for our free monthly teleconference Wise Talk and submit your questions for discussion, please visit:
https://mariposaleadership.com/resources/teleconference_wise-talk
After sign up, you will receive the call in information and be entered to win a copy of this month’s leadership resource, The Strategist. One lucky listener will be announced at the end of the talk!
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