Leading from the Inside Out: The Power of Deep Blue Leadership

Written by James K. Hazy, Ed.D., Founder & CEO, Leadership Science LLC


One ofrepparttar most profound and difficult aspects of leadership is instilling in individuals deeply held, and yet generally shared principles to motivate a common purpose. Leading by influencing one's sense of identity and purpose is both powerful and mysterious. Likerepparttar 119514 deep blue sea, it is also a source of energy and diversity. In this first of twelve articles exploringrepparttar 119515 spectrum of leadership influence, I addressrepparttar 119516 question: what exactly is deep blue leadership?

The Story Part 1: The Conundrum When Lynn,repparttar 119517 long time leader of a growing organization, drove intorepparttar 119518 office parking lot at 7:41am, something didn't seem right. He had arrived home laterepparttar 119519 night before after an extended overseas trip. He was still experiencing jet lag butrepparttar 119520 parking lot seemed empty to him when compared to six months earlier. He remembered feeling that things were going well then, that everyone seemed motivated, excited and happy. They came in early and stayed late. They were genuinely happy to be back each morning and cheerful when greeting co-workers. The pace of action was quick and efficient. Now, in contrast, people seemed to be dragging. They were just doing their jobs. Morale, it seems, had sagged. As he parked and walked, he made a mental note: "Our leadership activity needs a shot inrepparttar 119521 arm," he thought.

Analysis and Perspective In his leadership role, Lynn was appropriately, if informally, monitoring a leading indicator of performance when he notedrepparttar 119522 waning level of engagement byrepparttar 119523 organization's members. He appropriately hypothesized that this decline was related to a reduced "velocity" of leadership acrossrepparttar 119524 organization,repparttar 119525 amount of time spent on leadership activities. Because reduced engagement and intrinsic motivation are expected outcomes of a decline in a specific type of leadership influence, called deep blue leadership influence, he realized that he needed to initiate programs to reenergize this type of leadership inrepparttar 119526 organization.

Lynn's experience and training had taught him that three steps were required: first gather information aboutrepparttar 119527 current situation and diagnoserepparttar 119528 issues; second, initiate specific leadership activities designed to shore-uprepparttar 119529 deeply held, social identity ofrepparttar 119530 team members with respect to his organization,repparttar 119531 sense of purpose that provides intrinsic motivation; and third, institutionalize change by integrating these initiatives intorepparttar 119532 organization's culture.

Lynn realized this would not be easy. His leadership teams must find ways to influence members' deeply held sense of identity, toward an organizationally appropriate collective purpose. This sense of purpose, identity and vision would providerepparttar 119533 intrinsic motivation to increase engagement, quicken everyone's pace and fillrepparttar 119534 parking lot.

Case Study Examples Many organizations face periods where weariness or ennui sets in, where motivation drops. Up and down cycles naturally occur in individuals, even Lynn was dragging that morning, but when reduced motivation occurs broadly acrossrepparttar 119535 organization, leadership intervention is required. Otherwise,repparttar 119536 culture itself may change permanently.

When Lucent Technologies was preparing to spin-out from AT&T,repparttar 119537 employees felt discarded. Their identities were injured, their motivation low. Although CEO Henry Schacht didn't have a name for it atrepparttar 119538 time, he knew that deep blue leadership influence was needed.

He began with an intense data gathering effort and a thoughtful assessment and diagnosis ofrepparttar 119539 situation. This was followed by an organization wide identity creating effort that used as many people as practical to develop a shared vision forrepparttar 119540 IPO "road show". Over and over he and his team communicatedrepparttar 119541 essence of their collective experience usingrepparttar 119542 theme "the opportunity of a lifetime." They were careful to hone their vision statement in a cascading effort that energizedrepparttar 119543 organization.

In a matter of a few months, Lucent employees went from being crushed to being enthusiastic leaders in their own right. Their motivation soared and pushedrepparttar 119544 organization to a successful IPO and years of strong growth1.

* * * When Steve Jobs returned to Apple after many years, he found a demoralized team and a shattered identity. Apple had lostrepparttar 119545 desktop wars. Collective identity was shattered. There was no vision to motivate people.

Like Schacht, Jobs also recognizedrepparttar 119546 need for deep blue leadership. At Apple, deep blue influence was signaled through an advertising program, "think different." This was aimed as much at employees, Jobs says, as customers. The idea was to reawakenrepparttar 119547 strong identity and purpose that had made Apple a successful innovator inrepparttar 119548 past. Apple needed to recapture its identity and its vision: to buildrepparttar 119549 most innovative product possible. To do this, people had to "think different," not just building "the same old, same old".

Managing a CAD Outsourcing Project

Written by Lakshman Balaraman


We must first emphasize that here we are talking about outsourcing CAD projects, which is significantly easier than outsourcing software development or IT services (earlier articles of mine have explained why).

This article also assumes that selection ofrepparttar CAD providers has been completed with due diligence (the methods are described in an earlier article).

As I mentioned in those prior articles, one ofrepparttar 119513 most important ingredients for successful outsourcing is management ofrepparttar 119514 ongoing project by you,repparttar 119515 client. To quote from those articles (here 'outsourcer' means 'provider'):

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"This may sound obvious, but probablyrepparttar 119516 biggest stumbling block to offshore outsourcing is that after allrepparttar 119517 contracts have been signed, companies abdicate responsibility for projects torepparttar 119518 provider..."

--- Deepak Khandelwal, McKinsey, Worldwide

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TASKS IN OUTSOURCING MANAGEMENT:

(1) You have to assume moral responsibility forrepparttar 119519 project.

A very senior executive should be maderepparttar 119520 champion ofrepparttar 119521 CAD project. S/he will need technical and administrative people to help withrepparttar 119522 project, and these people should be informed of their induction explicitly. Let's call this group of people "the task force".

(2) The task force should definerepparttar 119523 objectives ofrepparttar 119524 proposed CAD outsourcing.

Subjects to address:

* Which input documents will you be givingrepparttar 119525 provider? (Consider rough, dimensioned sketches, specifications and photographs of included objects, written instructions on what you want inrepparttar 119526 output, libraries of CAD symbols, design rules for elements not inrepparttar 119527 libraries of CAD symbols, drawings or sketches showing howrepparttar 119528 objects inrepparttar 119529 target area interface withrepparttar 119530 immediate environment, sample output documents).

* Which CAD platform do you wantrepparttar 119531 work done on?

* Which output documents to you expect?

* What isrepparttar 119532 weekly project schedule?

* At what interval do you wantrepparttar 119533 provider to send yourepparttar 119534 work in progress?

* What isrepparttar 119535 procedure for acceptance ofrepparttar 119536 product?

* What is your payment schedule?

* What isrepparttar 119537 payment method? (Check, credit card, wire transfer?)

(3) The task force should putrepparttar 119538 above documents into a contract.

The contract should also contain non-disclosure clauses. The provider should sign and returnrepparttar 119539 contract.

(4) Put robust communication mechanisms in place.

* Email is fine provided mailbox capacities are large. Without a doubtrepparttar 119540 provider should have a broadband connection, and if your CAD files are large and frequent, so should you.

* Instant messenger programs are good for discussion sessions.

* For frequent large volume transfers, one of you should have an ftp server.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
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