Saturday, July 30, 2016

Mirror, Mirror: Who are the Brightest People in your Organization

Being bright means more about the altitude to envision further and beyond, the attitude to learn and grow, and the aptitude to solve problems.

Compared to the industrial organizations, digital organizations are more hyper-connected, informative and innovative. The “aura” of the organization is reflected through its people, how people think, act, and influence surroundings. How bright future the organization has can perhaps only be read on how bright the people are. So: “mirror, mirror, who are the brightest people in your organization?”  



The brightness of leaders is based on how clear their visions are: A great leader is a visionary. The leadership vision is like the light tower brightens the surroundings. Visionary leadership is crucial to zoom into the future as if it were closer because leadership is all about future and change.  Leadership is one's ability to paint a vivid picture, a vision of a future state and motivate others to achieve it. Vision differentiates transformational digital leaders from transactional managers. The vision of leadership is based on how forethought the leader can think and how persuasive he or she can convey the message. Thus, leadership vision is to serve as an enabler to make profound influences. Leadership vision is being great by making positive influence which makes the organization look brighter, and without affecting anyone in any negative way. Lack of vision will dim down the leadership effectiveness and mislead the organization. The “spirit of an organization comes from the top.” Being a brighter leader takes one to envision and influence, to clear the path, whether that be the elimination of obstacles or to provide coaching and guidance and make an influence so that the talent employees are limited only by their imagination.


The brightness of people managers/HR professionals are based on whether they have the “wise” eyes to identify talent and open mind to innovate people management: Businesses are functioning by people and for people, hence, HR professionals plays a crucial role in managing the most invaluable asset of the business -PEOPLE, via setting talent management principles and making influence on business culture. The brightness of HR can be reflected via the sound judgment they make and professionalism they bring, their brightness can amplify the bright effect of the organization. Unfortunately, the mediocre HR staff can become part of problems, not the solution. Not every people oriented person is a good HR staff if he or she lacks high-professionalism. When they behave unprofessionally, the whole business would also act in the dark. When the narrow-minded HRs hire people less brighter than themselves, the organization would absolutely be dimmed down, the passion would fade away, and the creativity gets shut off. Therefore, always assess the assessors first, you need an innovator to hire innovators, and you need a change agent to hire the change champions.


The brightness of IT folks are not based on their “geek image,” but on their learning agility and a strong focus on the intense work and complex problem solving: IT folks may be hidden in the corner, but they look bright due to their high skill of problem-solving -the technique brilliance plus business acumen. IT skill gaps are not fiction, but reality. But the IT professional's outlook will turn dark if they can’t solve real world problems or become a “Status quo,” with “stereotypical look,” with arrogant attitude. Top IT performers are those who keep themselves updated with the latest in technology. Top IT performers don't think of themselves as IT guy/gal only, they understand the business as well as the business people they work with and focus primarily on solving business problems and creating business capabilities. Top IT performers are more competitive, "adaptive, adaptive, adaptive, adaptive," have a knack for meeting the business requirements.


Yes, the finance folks are bright because they can crunch the number to manage the organization’s finance management, and make wise investments on the future of business development. Sale/Marketing/Customer Service folks are bright because they would directly deal with customers - and because now building a customer-centric organization is the top priority of any forward-looking organization. Regardless which function you work for, being bright means more about the altitude to see further and beyond, the attitude to learn and grow, and the aptitude to solve problems and make a difference. Get the shadow out of your mind, bring the hidden rules to the table, and amplify the bright effectiveness in building a strong business brand and a future driven organization.

0 comments:

Post a Comment