Further Thoughts on Leadership Strategy

by Victor Alatorre

Observations

The purpose of this blog entry is to explore my perception on what it takes to be a strategic leader in the area of information technology.  

Successful organizations will invest in people. An investment in human capital will enhance value. According to research, employees only engage 10 to 15 percent of the skills within their organization. Successful organizations allow individuals to expand the application of knowledge, skills and abilities. IMHO, the structure of the organization (like in the State) limits what individuals can do or should do within their job responsibilities. It was true 10 years ago, and it is true today. The added factor today is attrition and cost cutting measures dumping more and more responsibility on those strong enough to sustain the effort.

Organizations will be successful if they are capable of sustaining intellectual capital. We tend to connect intellectual capital with organizational knowledge which is (in itself) fueled by human capital.

In the last few years, those companies that have invested on innovative intellectual assets and human resources have had the most success (Apple, Facebook, Google, etc), however the economy has placed pressure on budgets associated with professional development and research and development.

The "Jack Welsh" strategy was the gold standard which included a philosophy of selecting the right people and allocating resources, while watching the talent rise up. 

Well, 20 years ago, Mr Welsh was regarded as the top manager of GE and one of the top leaders in corporate America. Jack was successful at learning the ways of his corporation and identifying talent and opportunities. He had a strong ability to see strategic value to mergers and acquisitions and to apply the GE way to cut the bottom “10 percenters” every year. This approach included the application of statistical theory to improve process (lean sigma), quality improvement through applied statistical analysis and the HR removal of those that lacked the motivation to improve shared value.

There is enough research covering the complexity of managing “knowledge workers”.  So we ask "What motivates technically savvy people?" Without getting too political, I believe our current employment structure and compensation plan fails to identify value and recognize talent for what is worth to the organization. It limits flexibility and opportunities for growth. I believe our current employment structure provides rigid structures that protects silos for better control and management.

The truth about managing knowledge workers goes beyond compensation and moves into the realm of opportunity, professional development and respect. The respect generated by the work knowledge workers do on daily basis. Respect takes many forms like: recognition an awareness of value provided, ability to get buy-in from administrators, the ability to spend time on new ideas or correct old ones, be allowed to learn new skills, etc.

Essential Leadership attributes were identified as:

• Technical Competence: Hopefully most people in IT have some technical skills, the article fails to identify the depth of technical skill required to be successful. I would add that ability to learn new technical issues is more important than established technical focus on area. All of us face obsolescence, so keeping up with technical skills is important.
• Conceptual skill: strategic thinking does not come easy to even upper managers. I have experienced it at many levels. They are too busy managing tangibles. I believe strategic thinking is problem solving on steroids for problems that have yet to be identified. Day dreaming, puzzle solving and skills that are not easily perceived
• Track Record: A track record is a history of performance or individual action. If the track record is good, then it can “perhaps” forecast future ability. A track record can deceive people into believing that if your track record as a technical specialist can translate into a positive track record as a manager.
• People Skills: As technical people, we tend to gravitate towards electronic, non verbal communications. I do believe that the promotion process favors extroverted technical people. Good looking extroverts is what fuels the lines of upper management promotion. It is also called presence.
• Taste: Lets call it “talent development”. The ability of a leader to provide professional development opportunities and challenges is important. Sometimes this goes against the very nature of a manager’s propensity to control and limit. I believe talent development to be the most important element of leadership development.
• Judgement: Technical people tend to be problem solvers, problem solvers tend to be analytical people, however decisions some times have to be made with limited information. This is where the gut instinct comes to mind. The ability for technical people to make sound decisions in a finite time allocation is important. Sometimes people avoid making decisions, specially obsolete technical managers.
• Character: I believe this is your value system which is a byproduct of family interaction, childhood and professional experience, and personality. Character is not easily identifiable by interviews or communication, It’s what people do that defines them, not speech. Character cannot be acquired.

I believe the most successful leadership factor has to be character. While we may agree with this statement, character is not something that can be put on a resume or easily identified during an job interview. Character is what drives individuals in an organization to do the right thing when others simply do not play by the same rules. Character is sometimes the missing element in management, so organizations suffer due to the flaws of those leaders driving them. Character is what you do for others when they have no power over you or your future.

In my interpretation, knowledge workers demand the following:

• Meaning or direction: A leader that knows and communicates where the organization is going, perhaps sometimes shares anxieties without sounding too negative.
• Trust in and from leader: Ability for managers to back off when needed and step up when an expectation of recognition is needed. Authentic interactions between management and process holders.
• Hope and optimism: Ability to provide a sense of accomplishment and optimism during a tough implementation and while providing a sense of progress. The energy to stay the course and motivate others for a common cause. 
• and Results: What is the bottom line’s value and perhaps lessons learned.

Passionate leaders are effective leaders if...

A strong point of view is perhaps one of the factors identified as an elements of a successful leader. However in my opinion POV may also be detrimental to the long term success of an organization. Steve Jobs had a strong POV regarding Apple’s product, however I wonder if many were capable to speak up against his opinion. There are various degrees of passion that without “checks and balances” can be catastrophic to an organization. So we have to ask ourselves the following question: What is the meaning of what we do, what is the value we provide and how do we measure it?

Generating Trust: candor, congruity, perhaps integrity.

We believe in humble leadership which is the ability to manage your ego when dealing with information flow and decision making. The author’s example states that “the face you use at home should be the same face you use at work”. I go further by saying that: Congruity is the correlation between what you say and what you do.

Another term we tend to use is “Candor”. Which is one of those that can cut both ways. It’s the ability to trust that the truth will not get you fired. Candor allows for truthful communication when issues arise that require the honest contribution of all parties involved. In my opinion candor can be problematic because it puts you at a disadvantage when issues arise. Candor works when all parties involved play by the same rules, but it can disadvantage those that show their end game.

Moral Compass:

It is defined as the ability of the individual to use resources and influence for the greater good of an organization. Moral compass is what is missing at many levels of our organization. It is what we need to have to be a long term successful leader. I conclude that organizations often elevate individuals with a moral compass deficits; I call them destructive achievers. In my opinion, while their reigns of “terror” are “sometimes” short lived but, they tend to have a long term delaying effect on progress.

More ideas later.....

Social Media (What is it?)

By Victor Alatorre

The purpose of this document is to serve as FYI for social media enthusiast and beginners. Social Media is a general term to describe electronic mechanisms of communications that allow interaction between people. Social Media is the evolution of communication mechanisms that provided interactions for the purpose of information dissemination, customer service exchanges, technical expertise exchanges and customer services. I will focus on how social media can be used to enhance your organizational marketing strategy. Social Media is not a replacement for directed organizational mechanisms and branding. Social Media includes a handful of new technologies, sites and services, but the most prevalent are: Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Google+, Pinterest and Foursquare, etc.

Facebook
Facebook has become the most established mechanism of communication for students, employees and people in general with a network that includes 845 million people as of February of 2012. As of today, Facebook should be one of the pillars of communication and interactions with current and future customers. You can begin this experience by establishing a page that includes basic information about your program, product and/or service. Once your page is established, it is your goal to create credibility but establishing relationships (awareness) with people in your program and encouraging other to share and “like” your page. Credibility is established by maintaining regular content updates and by getting people to visit your page regularly. Content flow requires discipline and strategy. So it is your goal to maintain updated tidbits of information about your services and events.

Facebook allows for people to interact, share personal information, pictures, updates, information, etc. Facebook for organizations is a marketing and promotional tool; a gateway for “tangible” and “measureable” interactions with business constituents. Having a Facebook page is not a strategy in itself. It requires for all business units and process keepers to come to a common platform for branding and promotion strategy. The what’s, where, when, how’s and who’s have to be established before a credible presence can be established. Content priorities and workflows (outside of Facebook) have to be determined prior to trying to convey a message or idea. A person with Public Relations ability/skills is also a requirement as conversations about your ideas/services/products may quickly spin out of control. The quick and proper handling of concerns by customers is an important element of a social media strategy. Answering questions for subpar services and products in an honest and proactive approach is essential to the management of the online presence.

Twitter (http://twitter.com)
In 2006, twitter was established as an experimental micro-blogging tool allowing users to send (broadcast) 140 character tweets (messages). As of today 300 million users have created an account on this service to share small messages to people “following” them. Twitter has been particularly popular due to its perceive “lightweightness” (agility). The concept of following and followed is important to understand to measure your clout. Clout is the impact on the broadcast of these tweets. The learning curve of tweet requires an understanding of the mechanics behind twitter. An individual tweet allows you to broadcast your message to a virtual room. In order for you to be effective, you need to identify strategies to get people to follow you. You do so in two ways:

Using “#” and “@” tags
Your tweets are information/funny/creative/controversial in nature and have appropriate hash tags. A hash tag is the symbol “#” attached as a prefix to the idea or noun you want to convey. So if you are talking about “Ferraris”, you can use the hash tag to allow the word “Ferraris” or “Italiansupercars” become a trend on the public timeline. If your idea is important to those that read it, you message will trend. The other approach is to use the “@” sign as a prefix to a user you follow or want to respond to. If person wants to respond to a technical question you have, they will add the “@” before your username triggering an identification mechanism.

Following people/organizations/accounts
Another strategy to get people to follow your twitter account is by identifying users that may have similar “interest” or “services” as yours and selecting their accounts to follow. This will create a response from some users to start following your account. Many twitter users do not post much or post too much. A happy balance has to be identified.

Things that could go wrong
Things that you could do to derail the strategy:

• Too much twittering may turn people (followers) off as their timeline (message queue) may become overwhelmed with your messages.
• Too many messages about nothing may create a sense that you have nothing to offer. People posting information about when they went to eat or sleep or party may be OK for celebrities and close friends, but it is not a useful or measurable strategy.
• Too many harsh responses to others. As people scan the public timeline for associated responses to ideas, causes, services and product; people have to be careful not to alienate others with abrasive language.
• Unless your ultimate goal is political, religious or ideologue in nature; you should limit how much controversial information is shared by you. Anything that is controversial, religious, hate-speech, blunt-coarse, etc. should be left out of your timeline. Once you post something on twitter is there for good. While you can delete messages on your timeline, if others repost your messages, they become part of the broader twitter timeline, which is searchable, and identifiable (traceable).

How do organizations use twitter?
Organizations scan the overall timeline for hash tags associated with their name, products, services and/or befriend people/accounts that are perceived as the topic experts. Technical companies identify questions shared on twitter by end users and respond directly or indirectly through the various mechanisms available. Gurus and experts sometimes respond to people following them when using appropriate hash tags for their topics of expertise. Twitter can create a sense of community by allowing people to react to information in a very decentralized way. People have used twitter to organize people to action as seen in the civil unrest in the middle east, a tool for communication and updates for catastrophic events (japan earthquake) as they take place, sharing of instant communication as events take place allowing for geography/distance to be a non issue.

News bureaus have used the twitter as a stopgap for content as issues or opinions arise. Formal news workflows have been replaced with end users news reporting. So anyone can become an instant celebrity if your contributions on twitter are deemed of value.

YouTube
(http://www.youtube.com)
Former PayPal employees created one of the most successful and controversial tools for video content deployment in 2005 as a place where people could upload video content. The company was acquired by Google in 2006 which allowed for the survival of this website. YouTube is the vehicle most people are familiar with the hosting of video. Prior to YouTube, a person/company would need a pretty substantial infrastructure investment to share video content, as it required enormous amounts of bandwidth. YouTube has had to deal with litigation related to the legality of the distribution of copyright material by non-copyright owners. As large copyright owners realized they could not contain the end user effort to share distributed video material, some content owners establish channels to distributed high quality content in an effort to curve down the distribution of unofficial material.

How can organizations use YouTube
YouTube provides any end user the ability to share, host, provide comments, and qualify video. Organizations create channels where “official” content can be distributed. The use of tags similar twitter allows for content to become popular and become relevant. If the video shared through this mechanism is perceived as noteworthy, popularity may allow for the content creator to become an instant celebrity and jump into more formal channels like TV networks.

Google+
(http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/)
Google launched Google+ in 2011 in an effort to compete with Facebook. I further believe that Google+ is Google’s effort to create a single point of entry for all content it holds on your behalf. If you are a Gmail user, Google created a single login interface for other services it provides like: Google Docs, Blogger, YouTube, Mail, Calendar, Images, etc. Its approach has been controversial because it gives Google the ability to scan your content inclusive of pictures, phone interactions, locations, phone/email directories and brings them to you in a single point of reference. Users create circles where information can be shared with specific people in those groups. It allows for a mechanism of identification based on previous email interactions. So while it doesn't determine who you provide access to your content, it does suggest based on access to your user email directories, who may be of interest to you. Content streams are information flows created by you and those that you follow. Its user experience is a more robust experience than twitter, but adoption requires “trust” and promotion. So far only certain content keepers, organizations and technical people are using Google+ on regular basis. I believe that unless, Facebook makes a user interface experience or privacy mistake, Google+ will be relegated to a second level contender. Organizations are beginning to set pages and content through this channel. Its integration with other services like blogger and YouTube may give Google+ leverage. Furthermore their Hangout (video conferencing) implementation is a very serious contender/alternative to more established video conferencing services like WebEx, etc.

Pinterest
(http://pinterest.com/)
Pinterest is a pinboard style content pining service that became “fully” operational recently with an optional interface with Facebook to provide a rich content experience where people can organize and share photo based content with friends. It allows for people to “Pin” a certain picture or creative idea and to share or choose to “like” the element shared with others. It has been incredibly popular because it allows non-technical people to share and distribute fashion, technology, humor, fitness, and food creations through very simple mechanisms.

Instagram
(http://instagr.am/)
Is a product and a service that allows users (through specialized software) to take, share and modify digital pictures while creating an interface that shares those pictures with twitter or Facebook. It allows non-professional photographers create extraordinary and sometimes nostalgic photographic material. The instagram hosting service allows for people to share, follow others, add comments and like material. In terms of organizational use, instagram is simply another tool for content manipulation and distribution.

Linked-in
(http://www.linkedin.com/)

Linked launched in 2003 is the professional version of a social network site like Facebook allowing for people to associate with each other based on professional role. Inclusive of meeting people, the site allows for the creation of professional groups or associations. It has been the instrument of choice for many marketers that identify potential customers based on perceived role within an organization. People can ask to associate with you and begin written exchanges. It is a very useful tool for people seeking employment, professional advise on specific topics, and professional introduction through third party connections. It has become the most pervasive form of business stalking used by aggressive businesses. The one thing that is different from other forms of social media is that allows for people to know when someone has been reviewing your credentials and public profile.


Blogger
(http://www.blogger.com)
Blogger is one of the oldest social media tools available today and it is owned and hosted by Google. The concept of blogging is simply the effort to maintaining public topic specific content actualized with frequency. The concept of blogging has allowed non-technical people to become content publishers and content distributors. There are an infinite amount of topics and user currently using the technology to create, distribute content with the intent to attract attention and to set credibility for search tool placement. Google bases priority of websites based on influence… Influence is determined based on credibility. Top-level sites are those that can be perceived by the search engines as worthy of attention based on content. Blogging allows ideas distribution through mechanisms that allow content to be linked creating a mesh between content keepers and distribution mechanisms. People seeking specific information about a topic will search Google for information; content in blogs will rise up based on “hits”. The more hits a certain page gets, the more valuable its content will be for Google and its owner. There are many hosting services available for blogging interfaces (Content Management System) like Wordpress, Weebly, LiveJournal, TypePad, Xanga, etc. however Blogger is the only one tightly linked to Google’s overall content presence. One single point of entry for content hosted and distributed through existing mechanisms established by Google.