Winning In A Crazy World – PBS Business School Alumni

Great to be back at PBS… Portugal’s economy is on a roll, and I love Porto!

In 2017 Portugal is winning. Congratulations!

Winning is powered by leadership. It’s all in my book 64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy World.

Today I’m going to offer frameworks, practices and language that lead to winning behavior and outcomes.

The starting point of leadership is KSA. Attitude is the X factor. Meet my mates.

10 ideas for winning in a crazy world:

1. BE A RADICAL OPTIMIST

…because we live in a VUCA world:

• Volatile: Kim Jong Un to Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin
• Uncertain: Will Portugal’s economic renaissance endure? How will Brexit impact Portugal?
• Complex: Oxford University researchers say, “nearly half of all jobs are vulnerable to AI machines…” Of course for wine or port, complexity is a good thing!
• Ambiguous:  Local / Global. Local / national… in the lead up to the unapproved September Catalonia independence referendum, Spain grew the fastest of the major four Continental economies! If Catalonia seceded, Spain could lose 20% of its economy!!!

TURN THE WORLD SUPERVUCA!

• Vibrant: Full of life, hope and optimism. Economic activity in Portugal is accelerating at a rate not seen since 2000.
• Unreal: Wealth, Power and Resources have given way to Ideas, Culture, and Purpose.
• Crazy: A hotel company with no rooms. A retailer with no stores. A taxi company with no cars.
• Astounding: In 2016 Portugal’s 10 airports had 44 million passengers, up almost 50% from 2011.

2. START WITH PURPOSE

Your people are your business, and people run on purpose.

MLK RAP It all starts with a dream. Dreams are about reaching for the stars, not counting them.

A shared dream creates belief, belonging, direction and the appetite for relentless pursuit – propelling the team on a winning path.

Purpose on a Page

3. LEAD DON’T MANAGE

 Management / Leadership definitions

The role of the leader:

Inspire others

Life needs to be lived in 3D:

• Discipline
• Desire
• Determination

Move From GTD to MTH

Create other leaders

Character traits of an Inspirational Leader:

• Ways: Core values (integrity, humility, self-reflexivity), caring, candid, clear, consistent.
• Plays: Command of facts, creative, courageous, confident, committed.

Leaders inspire winning behaviours:

• Independent – Interdependent
• Me, my, I – We, our, us
• Point the Finger – Shine the spotlight
• Fearlead – Cheerlead
• Waste time – Value time
• Pass the buck – Pass the ball
• Cause stress – Spread calm
• Procrastinate – Instigate
• Castigate – Collaborate
• Instruct – Inspire
• Sap energy – Zap energy
• Create uncertainty – Foster fun

• CREATE A WINNING CULTURE

Leaders build a winning culture on 4 pillars in pursuit of an Inspirational Dream:

• Responsibility: Give people responsibility before they are ready.

Hire talent with cultural fit to go faster. Personal and organisational purpose must align.

Talent retention: Great people stay in great places where they can do great work.

• Learning: A framework of learning, play in positon, and FF LF FF. SNAKE RAP

• Recognition: P&G RAP – play like a team and feel like a family, caring and demanding.
• Joy: Ditch Command & Control. Reward Collaborate, Connect & Create.

Add the “I”s and “E”s:

• Ideas. Intuition. Impact.
• Emotion. Energy. Edge.

5:   INVENT YOUR OWN LANGUAGE

Revolution starts with language.

• Chief Excitement Officer
• Chief Magic Officer

Language is how you bring everyone together, wherever they are, all the time.

Change the language, and you can change everything.

All you need to do is to change a word. FremantleMedia turned the idea of the Vatican on its head with the insertion of a single word: The Young Pope.

The language that made Apple insanely great:

• Think Different.
• Stay Hungry. Stay foolish.
• Click. Boom. Amazing!

Some language of the All Blacks

• No opposition is more intimidating than the Legacy
• Bleed for the jersey
• Sweep the sheds
• No dickheads

 Master the art of short-form storytelling. A great purpose statement is:

• Based in strong, resonant values, using a common language
• Credible, relevant, has ethos (authority and understanding of the subject)
• Visual, visceral; seizes hearts & heads, pathos (must be felt)
• Flexible, saleable, understandable – campfire to boardroom
• Useful – able to turn vision into action, transferor of meaning.

Examples:

• Saatchi & Saatchi: Nothing Is Impossible/Fill the World with Lovemarks
• BMW: “The Ultimate Driving Machine” – slogan has defined the brand and experience for 46 years
• Nike: “Just Do It” defined a generation
• Sol Kerzner Resorts: “Blow them away”

Great stories are simple.

Most importantly, make story-sharing part of your operating system.

Story-sharers are where the influence is. The entire purpose of communicating today is to have people share your stories: by their actions and behaviors in the workplace, by being ambassadors and evangelists, through their social networking.

The role of the CMO is not to “target audiences” but to create a movement.

6. BECOME AN IDEAS HOTHOUSE

If you’re not disrupting, you’re being disrupted.

Ideas are the currency of today.

ABOMINABLE NO MAN RAP

Ideas power the winning equation:

IQ + EQ + TQ + BQ^CQ

Ask 3 questions of any idea:

• Will people want to see it again?
• Will people want to share it?
• Will people want to be in it?

The cultures with the most ideas are best placed to win.

7. PLAY AT SPEED

A good game is a fast game.

Chess Grand Master Savielly Tartakower: “Tactics is what you do when there is something to do; strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do.”

ADE RAP

8. DEVELOP MENTAL TOUGHNESS

SLIDE: GEORGE KOHLRIESER, VETERAN HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: “THE NEW PARADIGM FOR LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT COLLABORATION AND CONNECTION. BUT WITHOUT CONFIDENCE, COURAGE AND HOW TO DEAL WITH CONFLICT, THEN IT MEANS NOTHING.”

Next-level leaders have a psychological edge under pressure. Like the ABs, they always find a way to win.

Fundamental prerequisites: clear goal; clear direction; unshakeable; resolute; measurable; tangible; real; shared language and attitude.

Physical training is tablestakes. Train to win. Practice under pressure, build technique and build up intensity.

Red Head – H.O.T – Heated, Overwhelmed, Tense in pressure situations. Off task, panicked, ineffective.

Blue Head – on task under pressure, maintain clarity and accuracy, optimal state, at your best. Control your attention, therefore thoughts, you can manage emotion and enhance performance.

 BE BIGGER THAN A BRAND

Emotion creates premiums – across volume, share, margin, reputation.

Reason leads to conclusions. Emotion leads to action. Business is about action!

To be bigger than a brand, stream the biggest emotion.

Brands are owned by companies, marketers and stockholders. Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them.

Brands are built on Respect. Lovemarks are created out of Respect and Love. (Build Love Respect Axis)

Brands create Loyalty. Lovemarks create Loyalty Beyond Reason.

Irreplaceable / Irresistible.

Use the three secrets: Mystery, Sensuality, Intimacy.

10. MAKE HAPPY CHOICES

 Songwriter, Johnny Mercer said it right:

You’ve got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don’t mess with Mister In-Between…

And remember none of us is as good as all of us.