Home > Resources > Published E-Zines > Published in 2007> Leadership E-Zines > February 2007

Becoming a First-Class Leader E-Zine - Issue No. 43/ February 2007

Dear Reader,

Are you familiar with 360 degree assessments? The idea behind is to get feedback not only from your superior but also from peers, subordinates and perhaps even 3rd parties such as customers, vendors or other business partners. Contrasting their views with your own view of yourself often helps to discover blindspots and correct our understanding how others see us.

We find this kind of tool particularly useful for managers but also for other people, e.g. sales people.

Scanning the market we found that most 360 degree assessment tools have an important limitation: If you want to change the contents of the questionnaire to suit your specific needs, it is either not possible or huge cost is involved. Consequently, we paired up with our alliance partner True Colours to develop a highly flexible 360 degree assessment tool.

It's perhaps rather unique that a company like Progress-U that specializes in developing people is a co-developer of an assessment tool. If you are curious about our tool and want to consider becoming a pilot user or just get more info, feel free to contact me at charlie.lang@progressu.com.hk.

Let's keep progressing!

Charlie Lang
Executive Coach and Founder of Progress-U Ltd.
Author of The Groupness Factor

Back to Top

Simple! How Successful Leaders Communicate

Download this article

by Charlie Lang

"ABC`s (company name changed) Mission Statement clearly presents the role and the responsibility of ABC`s duty and related outstanding talent of what they seek in value. 

Through ABC`s consistent education and training, it tries its best in maximizing the enterprise and clients` value by producing the best men of capability and professionals with sufficient experience.

We promise to our clients that we will prepare for a good sensible behavior in consideration of its new goal and environment in order for Country XYZ (name of country changed) to stand as a practical developed nation in every perspective including quality of life, enterprises` international competition, and efficiency of government by accurately analyzing the world economic market, as well as discipline of its variation, and by setting up an effective strategy."

Ever read a mission statement like the above? Over the years, I've seen many mission statements, and trust me, this one is not yet the worst I've seen.

What are mission and vision statements for? What about value statements?

Managers spend considerable time to develop these statements because they want to achieve something through them. I think that managers who create such statements only for 'cosmetic' reasons are a small minority. Most would like to motivate stakeholders to support the organization to make it more successful at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, you can not change things simply by developing and writing a statement. Before anything can change, people who are supposed to change positively, must

a)      become aware of any desired change;  

b)      understand what should change;  

c)      believe that the change is worth the effort;

d)      take action and do things differently.

To achieve these, a leader needs communication as a main tool.

I often ask HR directors and HR managers (I'm not even talking about lower ranking managers or staff): "What is the company's mission? What is the vision? What are its core values?"   In surprisingly many cases I hear something like, "Uhm, I don't know exactly, give me a moment, I'm going to look it up."

If I get this sort of answer, then I don't need to go any further to ask other people in the company.

Last July, I attended the HR Directors' Summit in Shanghai. One of the speakers on corporate values asked the audience composed of approximately 50 people, "Who can tell me the values of their company?" Only one person raised his hand.

Obviously, many companies have a problem when it comes to communicating their direction (vision/mission/strategy) and values.  

Think of truly great leaders in history: Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, Jack Welch, Bill Gates. Did they clearly communicate their mission, vision, and values? I truly think so.

From my research for my first book "The Groupness Factor" (http://www.progressu.com.hk/groupness-book.htm), I know that giving a clear direction and communicating core values have a tremendous impact on the success of any leader. How do you expect people to go where you want them to go if they do not even know where to go? How do you expect them to abide by certain core values if they do not know them?

I found that the key to successful communication is simplicity. The following quotations underline this fact:

Winston Churchill

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

Mother Teresa

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Dan Quayle

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

Lee Iacocca

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.

And my favorite:

Pythagoras

Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.

In today's fast-paced world, it is becoming increasingly challenging to craft meaningful statements with few and simple words. But it is an effort which is very worthwhile, particularly when you want to communicate something as important as your values or your direction.

In engineering, you learn that poor quality at the beginning has the greatest impact on any process. The same is true for mission statements. A mission statement is developed and written very early in the process. Afterwards, if it is to have a positive impact on the organization, you will need to find ways to successfully communicate it, then to get your people to understand it, then to get them to see the benefit of making any changes and finally get them to take positive action. And you have to do these not only once, but continuously and consistently. Your people have to remember it.

One of the best examples of an inspiring and yet very simple mission statement is that of Lion Nathan, a leading Australian beverage company:

"To make our world a more sociable place."

This statement is so simple and yet so meaningful. It is very easy to communicate. Lion Nathan's people will have no problem understanding it and since it is very meaningful, chances are good that it will motivate them in their work.

It may take quite a bit of time to craft such a simple yet meaningful statement. In a recent workshop I facilitated, I worked with the top management for almost two hours to cut down a three-paragraph mission statement into one easy to understand, yet powerful sentence. Subsequently, the company's senior management engaged in various strategies to communicate their direction. Today, I can ask almost anyone in the company about the mission statement and immediately get the correct answer.

So let me make my conclusion equally simple: "To communicate effectively, say more in less and simple words."

Develop Organizational Potential through Executive Coaching A public event organized by the Executive Coaching Committee of the Hong Kong International Coaching Community. March 27, 2007 - 14.00-18.00hrs For more info, click here

For more information related to Progress-U Leadership Training and Coaching, please click here.

Back to Top of this Article