That People Thing

The customer, employee, supplier and shareholder are the same!

One of the most disappointing aspects of working for the BBC in the 90s was the contrast between the image of the organisation externally and the realities of working there day to day.

This is a corporation with an admired global brand that had very little regard for its people. We were cattle - easily replaced by the queue of equally well-trained, desperate journalists who would give their right arm to take my job at Today or Woman's Hour.

Over the last week there have been a number of stories about how large corporations treat their suppliers, their staff and their customers. Tesco, HSBC and Waitrose have all been in the headlines and today David Cameron is talking about "a pay rise for the nation". The next elections seems to be about business, work and the economy. 

But it seems to me that in every story, companies are trying to decide who to punish and who to reward. Tesco says it wants good prices for its customers so it squeezes the supplier. Of course, the truth is that it wants to show ever growing profits to its shareholders in a market where it is increasingly difficult to do so.

Waitrose sees its profits dwindle and blames customers for taking advantage of the free coffee they offer to loyalty card holders. (Don't forget a coffee, while it retails for £2-£3 is really just a cup of flavoured water).

HSBC is accused of helping customers dodge tax, something the public are very sensitive about seeing as most of us aren't able to dodge it ourselves.

But deciding who to favour and who to squeeze isn’t a sustainable long-term business strategy. When you treat your staff badly (by paying them too little, working them to the bone or creating an unpleasant working environment) you end up paying more because of the cost of staff turnover. It was Henry Ford’s rationale when he raised the wages of his workers 101 years ago. Also, when you treat your employees badly you can’t expect them to treat the customer well.

When you treat the customer badly you lose business. This includes disillusioning the customer by taking away their free coffee, helping richer customers dodge tax or treating suppliers badly. We don’t like that.

When you do all this for the shareholder, shareholders don’t like it. They don’t like companies that treat their staff badly because it hits the headlines and then the shareprice goes down. They don’t like it when you treat your suppliers badly because it hits the headlines and then the shareprice goes down. And they don’t like tax dodging because they are your customer and your suppliers. Typically shareholders are the companies that run our pension schemes and fund our bank loans.

The point is – we are all the customer, the employee, the supplier and the shareholder. You can’t cheat one of us without cheating us all.

Big business is under pressure. It’s very competitive out there. I know – I work with big company boards every week. But it’s a quick fix to favour one of your stakeholders over the others. It isn’t a sustainable business model. Politicians might be able to wade in to the debate about business, work and the economy every 3 or 4 years to win votes. But those of us who run businesses need to take a much longer-term look at how to create value not just this quarter or next quarter but this generation and next generation. And if that isn’t possible, we need to re-think the fundamentals of our business model.

So, where to start? I say, get your own house in order. Treat your staff right. Listen to them, give them a stake in the success of your business, help them to see the critical part they play. When they care about your business, they’ll care about your customer. When they care about your customers they will treat them right. Happy customers buy more and they don’t steal your coffee. Shareprices go up. And our pensions, savings and bank loans are secured. We need to break the link between quarterly results and a healthy business. There isn’t one. Measuring the success of your business by quarterly sales is like measuring whether your diet is working by getting on the scales every day. It doesn’t work like that. It’s time to get fit for life and not just fit for voting day.

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Do you need a change consultancy?

Let's hope not.

Last week I heard the wonderful PY Gerbeau speak at a conference (I was also on the bill).  PY is the man behind the turnaround of the Disneyland Paris and the Millenium Dome (amongst others). Specialising in the leisure industry his team will come in and make a success of your business even when it seems like the company is doomed.

Sounds great, right?

Yes, in that they are fantastically successful at what they do. They will save the business and keep people in work if at all possible. Gerbeau sounds like a fantastic boss too - a big character with strong opinions for sure, but also someone who really cares about the company and the people who work there, plus the customers they serve.

But here's why you don't want him to come in to your business - Because by the time PY is there, you know that you and your leadership team have failed.

The job of leadership, according to my all time hero, Sir John Harvey-Jones, is to maintain the highest pace of change that the organisation and the people within it can stand. So if you want to call yourself a leader, that's your job. You need to play your part in driving the kinds of changes that make your business a success.

If you see PY walking up the front steps you will know that you and your colleagues did not do your job. Now it requires him and his team to do it.

If you need a change consultancy to change your business, your leaders have failed. You can't outsource leadership to consultants unless you have lost belief in your ability to lead your company.

Before you get to that stage, invest in your own people...and that includes your leaders. Give them the time, the space, the confidence and the tools to lead. It isn't a luxury. In fact, it's one of the first things PY will probably do when he arrives. But, by then, you're gone. Do it now, before it's too late.

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Too healthy for our help?

That People Thing is about to start working with a company that is doing really well.

Now, most of our clients are doing well - they are big companies with good reputations and usually well-known household names.

But this is different. Normally companies seek to change their culture and revamp their leadership when they are experiencing difficulties. Leadership is really being tested.

After all, leading during times of "peace" is relatively easy. But leading during times of change and disruption is a real challenge. Companies don't always recognise that they need to soup up their leadership ability until they are put to such a test.

But this client is leading during times of relative peace. They've already done their big culture change. They are making money. They've invested in leadership development (with us!) for the last 3 years. And now we have the opportunity to work with the pretty healthy board.

This creates a challenge for us. While leading during times of peace may be relatively easy, coaching during times of peace is much, much harder than coaching during times of change and disruption. Helping to clean up a mess delivers results fast. Any improvement is easy to see. But in a situation where all is relatively clean already, how do we add value?

It turns out that companies who chose to do something new when they are at their peak get more from the new activity than companies who only do something new when things are starting to go bad. According to Charles Handy the best time to start a new 'curve' is before you reach the peak of your existing one! That way you will be starting something new when you still have the resources, and the spirit, to take it to new heights. In contrast, most people think of doing something new only when they have reached the bottom of what they are presently involved in.

This is good news for us and reassuring too. We don't have to find problems in this company to fix. We can focus on how to take them to new heights. And it is good news for them too. The wise decision to invest now in developing themselves will deliver far greater return than waiting until things start to go wrong.

So it turns out you are never too healthy for help.

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Holidays, heroes and happy birthdays

Holidays

I've just come back from a two week holiday. Yes, two weeks. Extravagant. I haven't been away for two weeks since I was a kid.

Now I realise it's tough to take two weeks off - the world doesn't stop turning just because you decide to step off it for a while. I have come back to millions of emails and a backlog of "to dos". And I'm not suggesting you follow my lead. Some of my friends prefer more short breaks throughout the year. Some take off all of August. I even know of one colleague who told me he couldn't do with less that 6 weeks off over the summer. It's personal preference and practicality of course. But not only are our lives incredibly hectic, we carry with us a huge amount of responsibility all the time. Even when we are at home watching TV, we're still in work-mode, thinking about the next day or about some hairy problem or just what we will wear to a meeting. The day to day logistics take their toll. Everything can feel very important.

Holidays can be a way to re-set the brain. The feeling may not last long once you get back but the benefit to your body and soul isn't immediately undone.

This is what I realised after 2 weeks away -

1. You really get to know the person/people you are holidaying with (in my case my 6 year old daughter). It's intense. You will drive each other crazy once or twice...at least.

2. You get used to not wearing a watch or knowing exactly what time it is. Consequently you eat a lot of ice cream in the morning and go to bed after midnight. 

3. You will have to focus on holidaying. Inevitably bits of information from back home will leak in to your holiday world - an email, a phone call, a news headline. Your brain will attach itself to that and you will feel the usual adrenaline rush. You actually need to work hard to block it back out and return to holiday mode (which is really all about very short time-frames and being in the moment).

4. You'll be tempted to want to change everything about your life as a result of your holiday (I'm going to read more, I'm going to stare at the stars more, I'm going to eat more watermelon etc. etc). Of course, you may realise you need to overhaul your life. But, for most of us, distilling our holiday insights down to one or two sustainable but meaningful changes is enough to be getting on with. My plan is to walk my daughter to school more frequently and pop home at lunchtime to take my dog to the park.

Heroes

I know you are all on the edge of your seat wanting to know how I got on with my 30 Superheroes in 30 Days challenge. Well, I completed it. My list of films was -

• Superman
• X-Men
• Hancock
• Unbreakable
• X-Man 2
• X-Men 3 - the last stand
• Spiderman
• X-Men - First Class
• X-Men Origins - Wolverine
• Spiderman 2
• Spiderman 3
• Man of Steel
• Superman 2
• Superman 3
• The Wolverine
• Iron Man
• Iron Man 2
• Superman Returns
• Batman
• Batman and Robin (which I couldn't actually get through as it was so awful)
• Batman Returns
• Batman Begins
• The Incredibles
• Kick Ass
• The Dark Knight
• Ironman 3
• Kiss Ass 2
• Avengers Ensemble
• Green Lantern
• Captain America

Fundamentally this was a massive but enjoyable waste of time that taught me absolutely nothing about leadership. However, I did pick up some great inspirational quotes and some wonderful language so, perhaps, something was gained.

Happy Birthdays

Tomorrow happens to be my birthday. Like New Year, birthdays are a chance to reflect on where your life is and what you want to be different over the next year. Last year I made a personal commitment (which I haven't shared until now) to ban myself from feelings of professional jealousy. This has worked really well and over the last year I have quickly caught myself when I notice myself envious or threatened by someone else's success or luck. It's made a massive difference to my sense of well-being. 

This coming year I think I will focus on anger. Anger is a much under-rated emotion, and one which we are often told is "bad". Personally I feel it is healthy to be outraged and even angry about certain issues both inside and outside of work. However, when anger becomes the default approach to anything difficult, unfair or hurtful it is rather limiting. I wouldn't say that anger is my default! But quite a lot of throwing up of arms goes on, shall we say. My intention is to introduce a little more range to my reactions including humour, acceptance and seeking understanding.

If your birthday isn't for a while but you fancy the idea of focusing on the management of a particular emotion, September always feels like a good time for a new project what with the start of the new school year. I'd love to know what you decide to focus on.

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Superheroes 1, 2, 3

I have begun my 30 day challenge. 

I'm watching 30 superhero films in 30 days. I started on June 5th and I currently have 3 films under my belt. 

Why am I doing this? Well, because I really believe that the job of leading people requires superpowers. If you aren't a leader yourself and are wondering what these guys are doing all day that's so hard (after all, most of the time they seem to be in meetings eating too many pastries and drinking far too much coffee) this is just some of the stuff on the to do list -

• Create and uphold a vision for the business

• Get people to care about that vision

• Make sure the vision predicts the unpredictable changes that lie ahead

• Make sure the vision is different enough from the competition that it is differentiating without being wildly random and fantastical

• Answer emails politely so that people know you care

• Care about people and the stuff they care about

• Know when to stop caring so much because you've got a business to run

• Walk the floor

• Have lunch with people

• Create time to think

• Know your own leadership style

• Remember to communicate your leadership style to people so they know what to expect

• Be sure not to change your leadership style in case you confuse people

• Be flexible and able to change

• Make decisions

• Delegate decision-making

• Empower people to know what decisions they can make without abdicating responsibility for decision-making

• Have ideas

• Let other people have ideas

• Appreciate ideas (even the bad ones)

• Take risks

• Don't break the business

• Be willing to break the business

• Write hand-written notes to people to show appreciation

• Focus on what's important

• Remember to have fun!

I could go on. 

It's not really human, is it? Give that man a cape!

And yet thing we appreciate most about a leader today is their humanity. We don't want glossy, cookie-cutter leaders. We want real people we can relate to. When we get a sense that a leader is putting on a mask we lose respect for them. It's a big ask, isn't it? 

So far I've seen the 1978 Superman, Hancock and the first X-Men film. And this is what I've realised so far. We want the same thing from our superheroes as we want from our leaders. It's their flaws that make them appealing. We care because, behind the mask, is a real person.  

Just think about Superman's anger when Lois Lane is killed by the earthquake. Or Hancock's drinking problem and his loneliness. Or the fact that most of the X-Men had pretty rubbish childhoods (and actually pretty rubbish superpowers) until they got together as a gang.

I think it's time we started appreciating what leadership requires, what a big and difficult job it is and what bravery it takes to accept the responsibility. Despite the fact that there are more than 60,000 books on the subject of leadership, there is no "how to" guide. Leaders are doing the best they can, the best they know how, at any time. 

At the same time, if you've undertaken this responsibility yourself, you need to recognise what you've committed to. It's not really a human job. And you're unlikely to be thanked. You'll need to combine huge strength with huge vulnerability just like the best of the superheroes. Don't expect it to be easy and, frankly, don't expect much sympathy when you complain about it. 

After all, with great power comes great responsibility. You knew that when you put on the suit. 

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Superheroes, take off your masks!

I know people who put themselves to the test by climbing Kilimanjaro or training for an Ironman event or going on a silent retreat for 10 days. I'm not doing that.

Instead I'm setting myself a different kind of challenge. Over the next 2 months I am going to watch at least 30 Superhero films. Maybe 50. Maybe more.

"Why?" you may ask.

"Because they are there" might be my initial reply. But that would be in jest (and, of course, reminiscent of the, I'm sure apocryphal, comment by George Mallory when asked why he was going to climb Everest).

The real reason is that I have a new speech. If you aren't aware, I spend much of my time speaking at conferences on the subject of 21st century leadership. In one speech I bust the myths of leadership, in another I name the 4 biggest passion killers in business and in another I expose the obstacles to collaboration that I see in companies all over the world.

Now I'm adding to that list of subjects with a new speech called "The Superhero Unmasked".

Leaders need Superpowers. Frankly, just coping with the workload requires super-strength. Beyond that they need to have the power to mind-read, they need x-ray vision to see around bends in the road ahead and they need magnetism to draw people to them as they go through tough times, unpredictability and change (which is, basically, all the time).

Yet, unlike most fictional Superheroes, they must do it without the benefit of a mask and a suit with built-in muscle definition. In fact, these days, any hint of a mask and their superpowers will be destroyed, a bit like what happens to Superman when he is exposed to Kryptonite.

A leader's superpowers only work when he or she is vulnerable, honest, able to look people in the eye and listen with humility and an open-mind.

There's more of course. It's much cleverer and more helpful than that little preview. In the speech I will share what fundamental Superpowers today's leaders need (and it won't be what you expect) and the impact of refusing to take off the mask...plus the prize if you are brave enough to reveal your true identity.  

Which brings me to the 30 Superhero films. Why am I doing it?

Firstly, I'm on the look out for analogy. Stories (as all great leaders know) are full of powerful messages that help simplify seemingly complex concepts. I'm looking for a shorthand to help leaders understand what is different about leading today versus leading 5 years ago and I'm hoping to find something like that in these films.

Secondly, I'm looking for humour. Leading people and driving a business forward can feel pretty bloody serious at times. Connecting it with something cheesy, fantastic or downright funny could help. After all, no one will want to be led by you if the process is relentlessly depressing. And most Superheroes manage to get in a few laughs while simultaneously saving the planet so if they can do it...

Thirdly, I'm looking for themes. Every story has the same basic elements - the hero who goes on an adventure and is changed by his experiences and the people he meets along the way. Are there additional themes I notice when I watch these movies intensively over a short period of time and compare them with what I'm seeing in my intensive work with companies?

And finally, I'm on a lot of flights over the next 2 months and I need a project. The hours in airport lounges, on planes and in lonely hotel rooms (a bit of sympathy please) could be used learning a foreign language, catching upon my correspondence or, frankly, doing real work. But that just makes the whole thing feel a lot less appealing. So downloading 2 or 3 Superhero films per trip with the slightly spurious justification that it is for the benefit of the leadership community at large makes sense.

What do I need from you? Well, I will be testing out a few Superhero one-liners on you so your patience and best pretend laughing would be appreciated. But, more importantly, your recommendations please.

I will be watching some of the old classics (the Christopher Reeve Supermans) and big blockbusters (Iron Man, The Dark Knight) but what else? Any lesser-known must-sees? I've looked at the top 30 and top 50 lists online so I've got some ideas already but I'd love to hear your pick of the superhero pops. I hope you can help.

Work can be a meaningful, life-enhancing, enjoyable tale of adventure. After all, we spend 7, 10, 14 hours a day for most of our lives doing it. But it's hard for people to love their job and give the best of themselves every day if they don't trust or respect those who lead the business. I hope (being quite sincere here) that drawing inspiration from these funny, clever, uplifting films will help leaders understand what their people and their business needs of them today - "There's no room for punks in suits. Just heroes who can really  kick arse!"  - Kick-Ass, 2010.

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Too challenging? Or not challenging enough? Well, it depends what you mean!

When I started coaching about 15 years ago there were two choices, image-wise. I could go for the hippy-type approach – all beads and scarves and hair (as illustrated below so beautifully by Barbara Streisand in Meet the Fockers).

Or I could go for the tough, greying temples suited-and-booted approach (a la Nick from The Apprentice).

I realize I have something of the Streisand about me, but on the inside I’m more of a Nick-type – straight talking, business-orientated, a bit alpha.

So when clients ask if I’m going to be challenging, I answer without hesitation – yes.

Sometimes though clients aren’t sure whether I have been.

This, despite the fact that delegates felt incredibly uncomfortable during the session, spoke about feelings and opinions they would never normally share, made headway on topics that they’ve been stuck on for years and took brave actions that had previously been unthinkable before we started our work together.

Having spoken to other colleagues it appears that this is very common. Clients ask us to be challenging. They then move forward more in a day or two with us than they have been able to for years without us. But they still wonder whether they were challenged.

It got me wondering whether we have the same idea about what the term “challenge” actually means. What does “challenge” usually look like and sound like in the business environment and how different is that to what I mean by “challenge"?

I was speaking at a conference last week and one of the other speakers (Dr Barry Hymer) gave us a few definitions. According to wiktionary, a challenge can be “A difficult task, especially one that the person making the attempt finds more enjoyable because of that difficulty”.

However, it can also be “a confrontation or dare”.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives us other options.

A challenge can be  “A task or situation that tests someone’s abilities”.

Alternatively, it can be “A call to prove or justify something”.

As a verb, to challenge can mean “to dispute the truth or validity of…” or “ to invite (someone) to engage in a contest”.

And there are more, of course. Clearly, it depends what you mean by challenge as to whether you think you’ve experienced it.

Disputing the truth or validity of something someone has said will feel very different to inviting someone to do a task that is enjoyable in part because of its difficulty.

Here's what concerns me - Perhaps clients think challenge needs to be a dispute or a dare? When they ask if I'm going to challenge and I say yes, they are expecting me to dispute, to dare, to confront, to contradict, to compete, to fight with them. And, of course, I don't typically do this. It might be what challenge looks like in their organisation. But it's not what I think of when I think "challenge". 

Most of the companies we work with need to achieve something that is difficult to achieve and they need to do it at pace, together. 

That in itself is “challenging” in that it “invites (someone) to do or say something that they think will be difficult or impossible” (one of the Google definitions).

Look at that definition again. The thing that needs to be done or said may or may not be difficult or impossible. But certainly the person who needs to do or say it THINKS it is difficult or impossible.

The only way to work out if it is actually difficult or impossible is to look at the way the person is THINKING about it. Thinking about it differently will show whether it is actually difficult or impossible. And even if it turns out to be difficult, thinking about it differently may show the person how it can be done or said despite the fact that it is difficult.

When I “challenge” I am asking you to THINK in a different way – to look at yourself, at others, at the situation differently. This is a challenge because you think that it will be difficult or impossible to do. And sometimes it is difficult. But it isn’t impossible.

The use of the word “challenge” has never been so popular (here's a graph!). But maybe it has never meant so many different things to so many different people.

My “challenge” to you (ha ha) is this – Answer honestly which definition suits your ultimate purpose. Are your people more productive, creative or enthusiastic when they are confronted or called on to prove themselves? Or are they more productive, creative and enthusiastic when they are invited to think differently and to do or say things that they think might be difficult or even impossible? 

If you re-think that you might notice far more healthy, robust challenge going on in your organisation than you had noticed before. 

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Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review is my porn, my guilty pleasure. So imagine how delighted I was today to open up the magazine and find myself in it!

In December Daniel Goleman, the grand-daddy of Emotional Intelligence theory, wrote a feature for HBR about the need for leaders to focus on the right things. The same issue featured a piece about how, at Google, mindsets about management were changed by hard data. And an article called "Be Seen as a Leader" talked about how to 'prime' individuals with powerful thoughts in order to become more influential.

I wrote a comment on the website linking those three articles and identifying the theme that tied them altogether. HBR picked up on that comment (which also provoked a good discussion on the site itself) and printed a portion of my comment. 

As you'll know from my last blog, I'm getting increasingly agitated by leadership development that focuses on the tasks a leader should undertake and not on what drives a leader's behaviour. Yes, meditation, presence, reflection and dialogue are hard to quantify. What are the "take-aways" (what a dreadful phrase!) from a day spent discussing, debating, challenging and meditating? Well, just ask the delegates on such programmes in companies that are brave enough to want leaders who can think for themselves and back up this bravery by sending them on leadership programmes that allow delegates to think!  

Anyway, here is my comment in full (the underlined bits are the parts the publication printed)

A number of articles in the December HBR reinforce the impact of mindset on professional performance. At Google mindsets about management were changed by hard data. The "Be Seen as a Leader" feature talks about 'priming' individuals with powerful thoughts. And, of course, the Goleman article focuses heavily on the importance of mindset, in particular, mental calm. Yet most leadership development programmes focus on what leaders and managers should know and do, rather than the true starting point which is helping them work out how to see the world like a leader, how to think like a leader and how manage their own mindset, assumptions and paradigms.

Many companies seem frightened by leadership development that prioritises mental state. And yet delegates, when they have the opportunity to meditate, reflect, dig inside for the answers, have their paradigms challenged etc. speak about these moments as the most powerful of the programme. When combined with some practical models and tools and when brought to life through application in the real business environment, leadership development genuinely improves leadership performance (it is not a tick box exercise) and is sustainable. Once someone has shifted their mental state they cannot unshift it.

My hope is that Goleman's work (and the work of other high profile thinkers in this area) help make such approaches more acceptable in business, enabling leaders to lead with authenticity, passion and a real sense of personal integrity...in other words, be leaders people will actually want to follow.

It's not too late to comment yourself here. And do please feel free to point other people to this blog, that Goleman article and my comment. 

Here are more resources for anyone interested in leadership mindsets and attitudes and how developing yourself to think like a leader helps grow companies -

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Why I'm glad we just got rejected

It's never the best feeling when a company you have wanted to work with calls and says they've selected a different provider. 

But then they tell you why. Sometimes that can lead to a great feeling. 

I know that feeling because it happened to us today. 

Last week we submitted our proposal for a leadership development programme. If you are a regular reader of this blog you'll know how enthusiastic delegates are who've been on our programmes. Comments like "life-changing", "best course I've ever been on" and "this has fundamentally improved our business" are common. I felt pretty confident!

So when the prospective client called today and told us they'd chosen another supplier I was surprised and disappointed. We would have loved to do the piece of work and I felt confident we could have blown their socks off! However, when he told me the reason we'd not been chosen I had to smile to myself.

Both of the other bidders were providing templates, a toolkit and checklists. That's what swung the decision against us. 

Our approach was to offer lots of food for thought (including a selection of models and cutting edge thinking on the subject from thought-leaders) and for delegates to share their own best practice, to critique each other's work, be challenged by us and each other and to look at the subject matter (organisational change) through a different lens and therefore see the impact, and their responsibilities to manage that impact, in a different way.

By the end, each delegate would have created their own toolkit of models, concepts and principles that, for them, were most relevant, that moved them beyond where they were already (this would be a group with mixed experience and expertise) and that had inspired them the most.

The fact is that this company already has lots of tools and templates that no one is using, so introducing a new one seems to add complexity rather than effectiveness.

Plus, when people leave with their own unique commitments and action steps they are far more likely to use them than if they are given a template on day 1 and then spend 2 days understanding how to use it.

I promise you this isn't sour grapes! I truly believe that people develop most quickly and most unexpectedly when they are given the chance to think for themselves. That's why I'm a coach and that's why we encourage leaders in businesses to coach not tell.

In next month's Harvard Business Review I will be quoted making this same point, a point repeated by world-class leadership experts such as Daniel Goleman.  

The expectation that the best training comes with a lot of handouts and templates must be re-thought. It might be what delegates think is going to add the real value. But what will really propel them forwards (and what they realise after the programme) is the opportunity to think, reflect, have their beliefs challenged, have their hardwiring unpicked, to share ideas and listen to others. 

Modern leadership isn't about doing the right thing. There is no right thing. So there can be no universal template. Modern leadership is about behaving authentically, in a way that is meaningful to you and enables you to connect with others. And there's no handout that tells you how to do that. 

 

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My Predictions for 2014

 

I spend most of my time in Board meetings and working with senior leaders to help them work out how to mobilise their people and drive change in their organisations. 

This gives me unrivalled access to what happens behind the closed doors of the Boardroom and what's changing in business. 

So, this year I'm staking my colours to the mast and making some predictions about what you'll start noticing as the year progresses - what concepts are going to start coming on to your radar and what leadership issues you will have to start taking seriously if you want to continue to have impact and to drive your business towards its ambitious goals. 

Mindfulness/meditation/reflection

Of course, meditation is not a new concept. Quite the reverse. But we're starting to see the concept of meditation (or mindfulness, or simply reflection depending on how controversial you want to sound) becoming more mainstream in business. It's still pretty out there - you won't find too many companies having an organisation-wide meditation session every morning. But you will start noticing that more people are willing to talk about their own meditation practice, or mindfulness apps they've been using or how important they find it to spend an hour a day in conscious reflection. 

We are trying out some meditation and mindfulness apps and techniques at That People Thing and I'll report back how we are finding it. We welcome your recommendations too. 

Pop-up teams

The term is my own but the concept is something we are already seeing in our work. The idea of permanent, functional teams is fast breaking down. Today most people work in a matrix or as part of a variety of project teams. Staff are accountable to a number of different people at any one time both inside and outside their company. Most of the work on teams and team dynamics assumes that teams are relatively stable entities. But over the next 12 months you will notice that this simply doesn't apply any more to the majority of people. How to slot these pop-up teams together, disband them and look after an ever changing set of stakeholders is a new science. 

We're re-thinking how we create team contracts for just this reason and as this year progresses we'll share what we're learning about these pop-up teams and what they need in order to deliver results together. 

A move away from sport

The analogies between sport and business have proven useful for a long time and they are no less relevant today as a metaphor. However, I'm sensing a disillusionment with the over-emphasis on applying the thinking behind professional sporting success to business success. 

Too much is different between the two.

• Sportspeople are "rehearsing" 90% of the time. The big test of all that training is only about 10% of their time. In business the opposite is true.

• Sportspeople are at their peak for a few years and, if they are lucky, most will stop competing in their early 40s. Business leaders still have another 20 years ahead of them at that point.

• Sportspeople are part of small teams even when you include the physios, psychologists and others who suppport the people on the pitch. Business leaders are usually trying to engage hundreds if not thousands of people. 

The list of differences goes on. I think you'll still get analogies between business and "something else" but increasingly it won't be sport. Look out for analogies between business and art, sciences, spirituality, the animal world, family life. You may find these far more useful. 

So, these are my key predictions are we embark on the new year. I'll explore them more with you over the coming months through this blog and, of course, if you are working with us, you'll get plenty of time to consider the impact of these concepts on your own leadership and your own organisation. 

Have fun out there!

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