Organisations are always on the lookout for fresh ideas & we have recently come across Illustra.TV who publish short video interviews with influential management & leadership thinkers. They have published a video interview with Nick Obolensky, author of ‘Complex Adaptive Leadership’. In it Nick offers an overview of some of the principles behind his research. You can see the video here, at the bottom of the page.
A rapidly growing client had promoted a number of their more experienced professionals into ‘Managing’ roles. The plan was for this group to assume more responsibilities so freeing the principals to focus on strategic growth & further strengthening relationships with major accounts.
Reorganisations seldom move as quickly as their architects would like & this was no exception.
Key members of the international finance department in a large London-based services group needed to adopt new ways of thinking & working. The group was seen as dysfunctional & coaching was the lever selected to address this. However, from a distance it looked like a remedial act, like coaching to an imposed set menu; the agenda was entirely the organisation’s, more ‘table d’hôte’ than ‘a la carte’.
A study of the characteristics of chaos & complexity science suggests ways in which leadership could be made even more effective & potentially less stressful. It is an interesting & potentially far-reaching proposition. There is little doubt that the climate in which so many organisations operate is complex, uncertain & liable to sudden unexpected changes.
A short while ago we carried out a research project to identify the characteristics of truly effective business services professionals in the legal sector. It was initially focused on Human Resources delivering their services to internal clients but as the research continued it became clear that the lessons were equally applicable across the spectrum of business services functions – IT, secretarial, marketing, finance etc.