In Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, the author takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through 13,000 years of history on all the continents. He also directly and indirectly offers some observations and recommendations about what leaders can do to influence the cultures they create and the organizations they aspire to lead.
There is nowhere to hide. Not even the executive suite is safe from the changes sweeping business today. In fact, the impact of those changes is felt most keenly at the executive levels. CEOs, COOs, CFOs and senior vice presidents — like everyone else — have to hit the ground running and keep running fast.
As an employer, my interest is in creating long term changes that hopefully lead to better moral and ethical decisions from both me and my employees. With this in mind, I’ve generally found that there are two ways to go about motivating others.
Ordinary just won’t work anymore. Organizations will increasingly depend on cutting-edge solutions to never-before-seen problems and clever ideas for those recurring headaches that have always plagued us. Research indicates that a handful of star performers create the vast majority of valuable ideas for their organizations.
In any business that is interested in growing, expanding and or just staying ahead of the competition the leadership needs employees to be engaged to help drive their business objectives. Not new news! But let’s take a deeper look at engagement and understand the underpinnings. First off, there has to be an environment of “trust” not just with the leader but