Amongst current organisational terminology of lean, agile and service or human centred design, there’s a missing piece: audacious leadership.
That is, believing in and having conviction on a seemingly impossible idea, knowing that the context around the idea may change in time towards the idea being possible, trusting your gut instinct that drives you, and having the courage to take inspired action.
I’ve often seen the result of these activities: surprise, delight, shock and awe that something that seemed impossible was… indeed… possible.
Elon Musk attracts many world-wide fans. So many of his plans seem audacious.
What’s your audacious idea?
Get in touch if you want help planning how to make it a reality. It’d be great to see you fly.
Winter has chilled Melbourne in the past week with over 1m of snow falling on my beloved Mt Hotham hills.
I’m writing from Bali, visiting a dear friend temporarily living here and celebrating my (tropical) birthday next week. The lush green surrounds are relaxing and as always the food is stylishly presented and scrumptious. It brings a grin to my face seeing so much life, relaxing on the shores at sunset.
May all be well in your environs.
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I’ve been working with three organisations to have them become more focused and agile. Interesting the topic of conversation has increasingly been about roles – new roles at that.
Here are the insights ~
The Strategic Advisor +Â Performance Coach
I find working with high performing leaders fascinating and rewarding. Being in strategic conversations, using natural instinct to hone people’s aspirations into realistic business plans and actions, clearing their way when needed, seeing individuals fly and surprise themselves – it’s good fun.
Recently clients have been wondering ~
a) how growing organisations with high performers set themselves up to ‘self organise’ – the impossible dream that may be possible – where individuals can be self-led in a culture and environment that has them progress, perform, develop, enjoy life,…
b) what high performers need to succeed
c) how to differentiate an organisation to attract high performers
In high performance environments trust can be built quickly as people deliver what they say they’re going to, or maturely communicate and reset if they can’t, and agility can happen in part because individuals know what they’re fascinated by and what they’re good at, and communication can be direct with this undercurrent of respect and vision alignment.
When people are operating in these environs, new ways are required to support their progress, enjoyment and development.
Instinctively, and from experience, one of the solutions is having access to strong and respected supporters, guides, leaders and trusted peers to listen, to suggest practical solutions, and nudge (kindly, sometimes strongly).
Such people can use their intuition to sense what the person needs to gain progress (as an individual AND in their projects/activities/organisations), so they feel heard, supported, weight lifted off their shoulders, understood, appreciated, have clear direction and more.
Cue: [some aspects of] Wendy from the show “Billions” who’s known for contributing value that correlates directly to the company’s great success.
She’s a strategic advisor and performance coach who meets with individuals at set and spontaneous times and does all of the above. She’s there when needed to uplift performance and outcomes and involved in strategic decisions, planning and is constantly aligning people’s direction to the detailed vision.
In high performance environments people are motivated to improve so tailored support makes a difference. Perhaps your organisation could do with a character(s) like this?
(Hey Aussies, you can watch Billions on Stan)
The Digital Researcher role.
For close to ten years I’ve encouraged clients to engage a Digital Researcher in their organisation: a person who can track and explore trends, emerging tech, products and new entrants via relevant forums and sites such as Kickstarter, social media and their (expanding) wide network of industry and market experts. As delivery becomes faster / instantaneous, having a person delivering these insights (and inspiring others to do so) seems obvious. I’ve often worked with wise Eddie Harran to provide these services for clients.
Opening up to opportunities and being aware of the risks is good business. Get started!
Your role in this research.Â
Being connected to what fascinates you as an individual affords a natural tendency to the research just mentioned.
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An organisation of aligned individuals, all contributing insights to what’s happening, what’s coming and highlighting risks to be mitigated sounds great to me.
This may have you believing your BIG ideas are possible and lead you in to protecting your crazy thinking.
I love the idea of running fast with experience and instinct – perhaps that means checking business cases/plans at the door of the “crazy factory of your organisation” and getting on with bringing your moonshots to life.
There’ll be more of this happening in the future. “Here’s to the crazy ones”, hey Steve Jobs?
“This is a very short, roughly 10-minute, episode. It explains how to ..escape incremental thinking and think truly BIG. I loved it so much that I now listen to it on a regular basis as a reminder. Perhaps youâll end up doing the same…. Astro is currently Captain of Moonshots (CEO) of X, Alphabetâs moonshot factory for building magical, audacious ideas that, through science and technology, can be brought to reality.” Tim Ferriss
In many facets of life people are fearful of and threatened by the new. This is often obvious in tech.
âwe humans sure are insecure when it comes to technology” Matt Simon of WIRED
If you arrive at a new technology do your best to see it proactively as something to uncover, discover its usefulness, learn the risks too, use positive languaging to see its usefulness take off. When you see the media and others discounting or fearmongering a technology, dig deeper and find your own perspective and reasoning. Self-driving cars, blockchains and digital tokens/currency are a great example.
Would we already have safer driving conditions if more senior government and business leaders, the media and others proactively talked about and influenced the use of the technology? I imagine so, especially when taking into account the risks from the prevalence of phone use while driving. We’ve heard many times that the data shows self-driving cars are safer than human drivers yet the media focuses heavily on cars being hacked. The implications of being hacked are concerning though the conversation can be more constructive and uplifting.
From the new developments around you, what are the opportunities for you as an individual?
I had a sensational time recently learning how to make osaka-style okinomiyaki at a dinner party. Flipping them was good fun! I also learnt about the competitiveness around kids bento boxes at some schools in Japan. HAVE A LOOK AT THESE…. (I’m so impressed.)
Innovation.
As a new surfer I was rapt to hear about Kelly Slater’s wave pool. He and his teams have spent years innovating to create perfect, tailored waves and the results are thrilling – even if you’re not a surfer.
In September the world surfing league are holding a competition there which recognises that artificial waves offer a consistent wave for each competitor to show their prowess and personal style.
Enjoy the fun of these videos:
The intentions and when it all started working.
Drone view showing the technology. How’s the train on the side!?
The Art of Learning.
âThe Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performanceâ by master Josh Waitzkin is a peaceful, kind offering of clever learning and high performance tools, including insightful stories from Joshâs life in uncovering top human performance. Towards the end the steps in creating a calming trigger for high stress situations is fascinating. Enjoy this one. [I know you will Pete Spence!]
This quick “five second” tool for getting stuff done and helping you out of procrastination / a lack of action on important things is great:When you have an instinct to do something or have a great idea, immediately countdown 5-4-3-2-1 while taking action. Try it out![Wend – your clients may enjoy this one.]
The simplicity and power of Dan Wernah‘s website.
After my last email highlighting unroll.me to bulk-unsubscribe from newsletters a few people unsubscribed from this one. It’s fun to see people taking action. How’d your unsubscribing go?
Look out for the Falcon Heavy (and accoutrements) launch. It’s scheduled for 6th Feb.
She’s a strategic advisor and performance coach who meets with individuals at set and spontaneous times and does all of the above. She’s there when needed to uplift performance and outcomes and involved in strategic decisions, planning and is constantly aligning people’s direction to the detailed vision.
