Below is a lin to a recent interview I did with SiliconRepublic.com on why a CIO’s role must be about selling the value of IT to senior management.
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/strategy/item/19626-interview-from-cio-to-sale/
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Emotional Intelligence in Sport? Part 2
In the last few weeks I have been hearing or reading about a change in top class sports coaching. A change that reflects a much greater degree of emotional intelligence in the world of male macho sports.
I previously shared the example of Pat Gilroy from the parochial world of Gaelic football (see my previous blog).
Example number 2 is from another tough physical sport and this person has the most pressurised job in that particular sport.
Here are some of his quotes from a recent interview with the Irish Times;
“You couldn’t coach the way you did in the 1990s now. They (the players) would not put up with it."
"Really I am the vision man, the strategic person."
"When I coached…..10-15 years ago I was much more authoritarian, but that is how they (the players) grew up, that’s how they were taught at school."
"Today it’s much more consensus management, with people helping each other. So if you are too dictatorial, you just wouldn’t last.”
The speaker is Graham Henry, the coach of the New Zealand (All Black’s) Rugby team.
If you think you have pressure and tough targets, Henry carries not the hopes of a nation but the expectation that New Zealand will win the next Rugby World Cup.
How many of your leaders would you describe as “the vision man”? How many drive consensus and engagement as opposed to dictating everything?
Sport, which can be such a macho, results driven environment involving all ranges of intelligence, is showing the way on leadership – as a business leader are you paying attention?
I previously shared the example of Pat Gilroy from the parochial world of Gaelic football (see my previous blog).
Example number 2 is from another tough physical sport and this person has the most pressurised job in that particular sport.
Here are some of his quotes from a recent interview with the Irish Times;
“You couldn’t coach the way you did in the 1990s now. They (the players) would not put up with it."
"Really I am the vision man, the strategic person."
"When I coached…..10-15 years ago I was much more authoritarian, but that is how they (the players) grew up, that’s how they were taught at school."
"Today it’s much more consensus management, with people helping each other. So if you are too dictatorial, you just wouldn’t last.”
The speaker is Graham Henry, the coach of the New Zealand (All Black’s) Rugby team.
If you think you have pressure and tough targets, Henry carries not the hopes of a nation but the expectation that New Zealand will win the next Rugby World Cup.
How many of your leaders would you describe as “the vision man”? How many drive consensus and engagement as opposed to dictating everything?
Sport, which can be such a macho, results driven environment involving all ranges of intelligence, is showing the way on leadership – as a business leader are you paying attention?
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Emotional Intelligence in Sport? What Business Leaders Can Learn – Part 1
Have always been weary of referencing sport too much in my work with clients as it can be a turn off for those not interested and also because sport is often to simplistic a metaphor for business (if only business had such defined parameters of time, skill, achievement and success).
However I am going to break my own rule because recently I had the experience of listening to a sports coach that have made me realized that sport could be leading the way in Emotionally Intelligent leadership.
Let us just define Emotional Intelligence briefly with one of my favorite quotes which says Emotional Intelligence is “everything you do that isn’t a result of how smart you are” (Martyn Newman).
Pat Gilroy manages the Dublin Gaelic Football team. Gaelic football is indigenous to Ireland (think soccer/rugby/barroom fighting) and is a tough male macho sport – the traditional culture has been of authoritative, telling, “do as I say” , boot and bite leadership.
As the capital, the Dublin team gets 80,000 people cheering them on at games while 3.5 million from the rest of the country are wishing them continued failure. Pat’s job is therefore very high profile, especially since Dublin has underachieved for the last 10 years.
Pat took on the role of turning Dublin around last year and here are some of the things he mentioned when talking to myself and thirty other leaders last month:
- His focus is on ENGAGEMENT (of a panel of 30 top class players) and he has gotten there with his players through VISION, DISCIPLINE and INVOLVEMENT.
- He defines leadership as “creating the CULTURE for THE TEAM to be successful”
- He has focused on doing more “TEAM ASKS” than “TEAM TALKS”
- When results have not gone well he has owned up to his OWN MISTAKES as a way to ensure everyone gets DIRECT FEEDBACK.
No macho stuff, no “I’m the expert”. Pat is leading by connecting to his team and engaging them. He is building a winning culture as opposed to fixating on a winning the cup – he see’s that the success comes after the culture.
So can you take even one of the bullet points above and start doing more of it with your team?
None of them require you to have a big IQ – they all require you though to park your own ego and to ENGAGE with your team as adults who want to be involved, who have good ideas and who can be accountable and responsibility for their own actions.
By the way, Pat’s team got to the semi-final of the championship this summer and missed out on the final by a single score.
However I am going to break my own rule because recently I had the experience of listening to a sports coach that have made me realized that sport could be leading the way in Emotionally Intelligent leadership.
Let us just define Emotional Intelligence briefly with one of my favorite quotes which says Emotional Intelligence is “everything you do that isn’t a result of how smart you are” (Martyn Newman).
Pat Gilroy manages the Dublin Gaelic Football team. Gaelic football is indigenous to Ireland (think soccer/rugby/barroom fighting) and is a tough male macho sport – the traditional culture has been of authoritative, telling, “do as I say” , boot and bite leadership.
As the capital, the Dublin team gets 80,000 people cheering them on at games while 3.5 million from the rest of the country are wishing them continued failure. Pat’s job is therefore very high profile, especially since Dublin has underachieved for the last 10 years.
Pat took on the role of turning Dublin around last year and here are some of the things he mentioned when talking to myself and thirty other leaders last month:
- His focus is on ENGAGEMENT (of a panel of 30 top class players) and he has gotten there with his players through VISION, DISCIPLINE and INVOLVEMENT.
- He defines leadership as “creating the CULTURE for THE TEAM to be successful”
- He has focused on doing more “TEAM ASKS” than “TEAM TALKS”
- When results have not gone well he has owned up to his OWN MISTAKES as a way to ensure everyone gets DIRECT FEEDBACK.
No macho stuff, no “I’m the expert”. Pat is leading by connecting to his team and engaging them. He is building a winning culture as opposed to fixating on a winning the cup – he see’s that the success comes after the culture.
So can you take even one of the bullet points above and start doing more of it with your team?
None of them require you to have a big IQ – they all require you though to park your own ego and to ENGAGE with your team as adults who want to be involved, who have good ideas and who can be accountable and responsibility for their own actions.
By the way, Pat’s team got to the semi-final of the championship this summer and missed out on the final by a single score.
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