How often do we spend time trying to take the glory for ourselves, rather than considering what we can contribute to a common shared goal/success? Working with management teams, I notice a lot more fighting for attention and recognition rather than cooperation; people looking out for themselves but not for the team. Teams require a few conditions to perform well together – I think this game definitely illustrated at least two of these.

The first is the shared purpose among team members. When people have a common goal and that is what comes first as a means to bind them, the purpose becomes higher than their own ego. It enables them to achieve more individual success than if they were just looking out for themselves. From what I’ve seen online, it’s not just Crosby’s name that’s being tossed around as a hero, but Iginla too. The second is people sticking to their role and having the flexibility to use their judgement. When my brother played football as a kid, every kid would all constantly be running together after the ball in a little pack. Management teams also have the tendency to do this – all doing the same thing, working getting duplicated several times over, and balls being dropped/scores being missed simply because people are so eager to catch the glory for themselves. The best management teams are the ones where people know their role, they stick to it, and they use their judgement on when they need to step in to support.

I’m definitely inspired by what I saw – a strong team enabling each other to win. When was the last time you set someone up for shared success?

The characteristics of Dutch leadership I’ve noticed are sometimes useful and sometimes not – though the utility depends highly on the context, though some might not be useful irrespective of the context.

Empathy: Many of the Dutch I’ve encountered are highly empathetic leaders. They are easily able to interact with extremely important ‘high-level’ people and in the same manner relate to and care about their next door neighbour. This trait is what I believe drives Dutch leaders to successfully create global business model that respond to local needs.

No go engagement zone: Some leaders sit above the rest and somewhat subtly avoid engaging with the so-called ‘common folk’. I noticed this in companies where the CEO can singularly make decisions on cutting projects with absolutely no consultation with anyone else and there is no challenging/questioning their decision.

The need for consensus: A highly consensus based society results in several types of leadership traits; team leaders really engage all the voices in their teams, leaders are most modest and humble than at least the leaders I grew up learning from in North America, and there is generally more team spirit and cooperation.

The strong man: Irrespective of the value placed on building consensus, there are still many leaders suffering from the ‘strong man’ syndrome combined with being quite narrow minded. These are the leaders who are bullying others to have their leadership/ideology as the only one. It frustrates me to no end that there are few people with the backbone to stand up to Geert Wilders.

Verblijf in jouw spoor: Stay in your track. A lot of suspicion is aroused amongst Dutchies when you seem to be in multiple disciplines/tracks. The way this plays out in leadership is an inability for leaders to optimize across a system. Optimizing just in one area is not good enough and is in fact an ancient business model.

Innovative designers: I haven’t quite figured out what exactly it is that makes the Dutch some of the best designers in the world. My hunch is it has something to do with the fact that a huge portion of this country is actually under sea level. Perhaps this also combined with the Dutch history of having spent many years fighting off invading nations. There is this stubbornness that with the right kind of design, mankind can live in harmony with nature.

This is a start to my reflections – possibly more to come. What are your thoughts?

If you’re not a Canadian and have no idea what Canada Day is all about, you can read more about it here: http://www.pch.gc.ca/special/canada/11/canada-eng.cfm Courtesy of the Canadian Government.

Some of the things I love about Canada:

• Being hardcore about winter sports: I love how we just put on tons of gear and spend days skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding and doing any other possible activity that we can in -50degrees Celsius or below. I have some great memories of wild winter sports and injuries!

• Loving Poutine: French fries, covered in cheese curds and gravy! This is the ultimate warm up before going out in the freezing cold or eat so you don’t get sick after a night out of drinking.

• Spending some weeks in summer portaging: The best way to see some of the lakes and forest areas of Canada is to just grab a canoe, paddle when there’s water and carry it on your back when a bit of land gets in your way.

• It’s ‘abOOt’ not ‘abOUt’: Ah the Canadian accent. Living abroad some people told me that they can’t recognize my accent. But give it some time and you’ll hear me say ‘abOOt’ or ‘eh?’ after every third sentence.

• Politeness: Canadians are polite sometimes to the point where you want to tell them, ‘Stop apologizing for things that aren’t your fault!’. I think it’s kind of cute.

• Cabane à sucre (Sugar Shack): You’ve never really had maple syrup until you’ve been to a Sugar Shack in Quebec – basically a place where you eat everything completely soaked in maple syrup – back bacon, pancakes, bread, eggs you name it!

I could go on, but I’ll save more for next year!

Happy Canada Day!

Several of the companies I work with do an annual employee engagement survey. This is a company wide survey that essentially asks employees questions about their manager such as, do you think your manager communicates what is expected of you, do you regularly receive recognition when you do a good job, does your manager provide you with timely and helpful feedback etc.

Not a single one of these questions asks employees what they have done to ask for feedback, to recognize their teammates, to ask questions about what is expected of them. I believe these types of surveys just reinforce the parent-child like relationship between managers and employees. As a team member, I need to take responsibility over managing my own work and ensuring I build the right kind of relationships with my teammates, clients, and boss so I can achieve what I want to achieve.

Managers sometimes end up wasting hours and hours a week managing issues of their team members that I think are essentially acting like children by asking their manager to solve their problems. I’ve spoken with some of my peers who are complaining about their managers, but they aren’t asking the question what can I do to make this better? There is always a solution and the only way you can improve a disengaged situation is by directly engaging with it!

There are two excellent articles that I found useful in terms of how I can take responsibility over my learning and interactions with my managers:

Making Partner: A Mentor’s Guide to the Psychological Journey – It’s an article by Herminia Ibarra at Harvard Business School. The article follows the journey of two young professionals both employed in the professional services industry – one an investment banker and the other a business consultant. What I found most interesting about this article was how the two people battled the tension between staying authentic to themselves while at the same time adapting and learning from their superiors. Also it was a great example of how they were taking responsibility for their own growth and learning so they could become partners in their firm and they were creating the conditions to get the feedback and mentoring they needed from their bosses.

Managing your Boss – Written by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter, this article looks at what you can do to manage the relationship with your boss most effectively and make sure that it is working to your advantage. The main advice I took from this article is that an effective relationship with your boss requires you to have compassion for them in a way that you would like them to have compassion for you and to be proactive in building your relationship with them.

Shifting the conversation towards “what I can do to learn and make my professional experience better and more meaningful” is far more empowering and engaging for employees than building the expectations that “only my manager has the ability to improve my professional experience”.

I’m continuously perplexed when I meet people who talk about growth like it’s a bad thing. I’m referring to those individuals/groups I’ve met that are always talking about boundaries and limits to growth.

To me it seems that we are asking the question, how do we stop growing? I don’t see that it is growth itself that is a problem. Nature itself is in constant evolution. Animals, plants, natural life is continuously experiencing change and growth. As humanity the question we should be asking is what are we growing towards? What is our goal as mankind? And then we should be looking at how we are achieving that goal and what indicators we are using to measure our progress towards our goal.

The fact that we talk about sustainable development is an indication that the system we have built is not the right one. Growth and development should be inherently sustainable. We can see this in nature; nature is constantly growing and developing and if it had not been sustainable then we wouldn’t have a planet to live on right now!

So instead of looking at growth and saying it’s bad; let’s instead examine the problem a bit closer to see what the real problem is.

For a number of years I attended classes for improvisational theatre. At the time, from my scientifically and mathematically inclined family I generally got the feedback that, ‘oh you’re doing that fluffy stuff’. Back then I couldn’t clearly articulate what I saw as the many benefits of taking these classes gave to my life in a way I am able to now.

I believe improv can teach skills that improve leadership and management abilities in at least three key ways:

• Coping with uncertainty: When you’re in an improv scene, you don’t know what’s coming next. There are no lines for you to follow a script; you have to be prepared for the unexpected. And you are prepared not via a plan, you’re prepared by being present, listening, and reacting to what is said. Improv techniques can help a leader to learn how to recover in an instant; the ability of recovering being one of the most challenging characteristics, I believe, for leaders to develop.
• Opening possibilities: The worst thing you can do in improv theatre is to say something that ‘closes the scene’. The goal is to look for as many opportunities as you can to build the scene and to keep it going. This skill is hugely helpful in training our minds to be more creative and to look for possibilities rather than limitations.
• Clarity in communication: I took a course at the Canadian Management Centre titled ‘Effective Executive Speaking’. I asked the trainer what he did to develop his skills; he replied ‘improv classes’. Improv also teaches you how to clearly and with confidence communicate with others for them to react naturally and in flow with what you’re saying. This is a great skill to develop because we are constantly in communication to get what we need.

If I could redesign our education system, improv classes would definitely be included in the formal curriculum. Improv is a way of learning skills that are useful for everyone in every facet of life. A question to explore further; is our current education system preparing us for the challenges we will face in life?

This evening during my spinning class I was again reminded of the amazing feeling I get whenever I’m in flow. We were in a moment where we’d already been cycling for 40 minutes and the teacher put on a hardcore electronic track and made us stand while cycling at breakneck speed. In that moment as I hit and surpassed 130rpm it felt as if I was one with the bike; it was a feeling of complete flow where I was going so fast and with perfect technique.

I think I remember almost every time that I’ve felt truly in flow. Whether it’s been almost falling flat on my face while dancing ballet, but instead turning it into a different move so no one noticed. Singing and getting lost in my song only to finish and realize the audience is in tears. Completely improvising my lines in a play where my fellow actors just pick up and we create an entirely new scene. In these moments it feels like there’s electricity running through my body; it’s a powerful creative energy and when I feel it I know I’m performing at my best.

What used to be a feeling of flow that I’d experience primarily through art, I’ve been discovering more and more is possible in my professional life. The first time I think I became powerfully conscious of this was when I was a fundraiser; I would get moments of being in the ‘zone’ where I could easily close 4 partnerships in the span of 2 weeks. I feel in the ‘zone’ nowadays in the moments of connection I get with my teammates when we have a tough problem to solve and all of a sudden the energy in the room shifts, we’re bouncing ideas and perspectives off of each other and all of a sudden we’ve got an amazing solution and we’ve started to bring it to life.

There are lots of things that can get me out of this flow; and when I do I don’t like it. My energy is in a different place and I know I’m not being the person I am. Recovering from that state to one in which I feel in flow is an ability that I’m still consciously developing. Some things that help to get me in the flow when I’m out are:

• Taking a break. I get moments where I know there’s no point beating my head against the wall; it’s better to sleep or go and do something else and then come back with a fresh perspective.
• Dialogue with trusted individuals. When I get stuck in a problem I ask for help. Contrary to some, asking for help is a sign of strength not weakness. Through dialogue with others they help me to open my eyes to things I’m not seeing.
• Practice. Performing at your best requires practice. That means that every moment of practice is a warm up act for your big performance so we should neglect it!
• Inner peace. There are a few things I do to stabilize the dialogues that are taking place inside my head so I can calmly approach situations. These include breathing techniques that can improve concentration, journaling exercises, and drinking lots of water are just some of the things that help me maintain some level of inner stability.

What I notice in my work with organizations is that there are a lot of people that are not working in flow. That’s a huge shame not just for them and their happiness, but also for organizations and the communities they serve. What would it look like if each day we were performing at our best?

I’ve been talking to a lot of people about entrepreneurship in the context of how do I define entrepreneurship and what makes me an entrepreneur. The conversations inspired me to think of how I would visually represent the characteristics of the next generation entrepreneur. (Visualizations inspired by what I learned from Ole at Bigger Picture!)

Deep listener. Entrepreneurs have always needed to have good listening skills; that’s the only way you can sense what is happening around you to identify new market niches. The ability of entrepreneurs to really listen to what’s happening in the world, not just in human society, but also in the interaction of humanity with nature is what we most need now.

Resilient. Imagine that you are a sponge that has been soaked with oil. When you’re submerged in water, some comes in, but your center stays consistent. It is this resiliency that entrepreneurs need; staying authentic to who they are and what they believe, yet open to listen, learn, understand and challenge themselves without going completely out of balance.

Imagination. It’s not enough to see what is happening and identify solutions; the world is changing so rapidly that entrepreneurs need to be asking, what can the future also bring? On the basis of the emerging future, entrepreneurs can design solutions at the edge of the world’s needs.

Interconnected innovators and investors. Next generation entrepreneurs act in an interconnected manner in several realms. They work effectively in teams and can collaborate with networks of individuals to collectively bring new products/services to market. They also have the humility to search and see if their idea (or a part of it) already exists in the world and if they find it, figure out first how to collaborate rather than compete. These entrepreneurs find great ideas and focus on getting the remaining required resources needed to bring that idea to life. They drive innovation because they can synthesize and integrate things that already exist in different ways.

The world needs entrepreneurs that don’t just have one or two of these characteristics; they need to have all of them. It is the interconnection and co-existence of these characteristics that will enable next generation entrepreneurs to drive the massive scale innovation the world needs.

I have some very interesting memories of April 24^th. I remember waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning and driving with my mom and aunt to the community centre. From there getting on a bus with 50 other people and with several other buses together driving to Ottawa (about 5 hours from Toronto) and spending the entire day walking around the city with flags and banners and yelling the whole way. Throughout the day we’d listen to speeches, song, stories, poems people sharing their stories, the stories of their parents, and grandparents about what came to pass in 1915.

Today my memories are not sad, angry, confused, or frustrated. I am hopeful that reconciliation is possible. There are two reasons for this:

1. Reading about Turkey and Armenia’s rapprochement talks currently being mediated by Swiss authorities

2. Remembering the email I received from a dear Armenian friend letting me know that even without official diplomatic ties AIESEC in Armenia and AIESEC in Turkey making it possible for a young Armenians and Turks to participate in an exchange program enabling them to experience living in each other’s countries.

Like I wrote in a previous blog posting; you can’t hate someone whose story you know. I am hopeful that continued dialogue and empathy will connect us to our humanity.

In a recent conversation I was discussing with some colleagues vulnerability and behaviours associated with being vulnerable. The characteristics they mentioned were quiet, introspective, meek, calm. My immediate reaction was, wait it’s not just these characteristics which show that a person is vulnerable. Some of the most vulnerable people I know are those that scream, refuse to engage in conversation, and put up walls all around them. Why is it though that we don’t immediately associate vulnerability with these behaviours? Why are those behaviours seen as more acceptable and are revered as they demonstrate toughness?

Any behaviour which goes to an extreme means that the person is scared and feels that they have lost control. Behaving in a vulnerable manner is a reaction to an external influence. Whereas authenticity is driven from within: in philosophical terms it’s a way of dealing with your environment in a manner faithful to internal ideas than only external ideas.

In working with teams, some colleagues refer to individuals in teams needing to get more vulnerable. And what they mean is that they need to become more aware of their external environment. I look at it as needing to get more authentic; what do you want to bring, what triggers you to be defensive when you feel that you are attacked, and how do you remain resilient and open to listen in face of that?

My boss recently shared with me his metaphor for resilience. Imagine yourself as a sponge; you can choose to be completely permeable and let everything seep into you, or you can choose to wrap yourself in saran wrap and let nothing come in. There is a middle ground, choosing to be a sponge with oil in the middle. Staying true to yourself while also learning and engaging with your environment. Vulnerability is not productive in any shape or form; but people respect and admire authenticity because authentic are like the semi-permeable sponge. True to what they believe in yet open to engage with others in a non-defensive manner.