Leadership in 2010

"In years to come your students may forget what you taught them, but they will always remember how you made them feel." This is an extract from the A.B.Combs faculty room as quoted in the book 'The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World are Inspiring Greatness, One Child At a Time' by Stephen R Covey.

Stephen Covey also wrote the best-selling book  'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People', and his book 'The Leader in Me" is the story of the extraordinary schools, parents, and business leaders around the world who are preparing the next generation to meet the great challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. I believe that it's a great book for parents and educators alike, however the main reason I have chosen to use this quote as the basis of my first editor's note of the year is that I believe the quote above is particularly pertinent for leaders of business.

If a CEO, Managing Director, Board or senior manager / management team really want to lead innovation in the year ahead, they need to take a look at how they make people feel about the creative process. I believe that one of the greatest challenges we face in attempting to draw great ideas out of organisations, is that management must first encourage people to feel good about creating. Too many people find it easier to shoot ideas down in flames, than to encourage new and different thinking around them. If you make those who work with you feel great about having new ideas, about challenging the status quo, about finding different ways of doing things, and make them feel great about being part of an organisation that challenges how the rest of the industry operates, then you are well on your way to becoming a great leader and in particular a great leader of innovation. Apple's Steve Jobs, Virgin's Richard Branson and TASC's Dan Toombs (CEO of one of Australia's most innovative not-for-profit organisations in Toowoomba, QLD) make people feel great about challenging how things are done and they give people the room and freedom to try new things. Now that's creative leadership!

Ask yourself as you start the year how you make your team and those around you feel?

I'll Have Some Rolling Stone on a Plate

Rolling Stone magazine, which is now 42 years old, has found a new and novel way to extend it's brand. Believe it or not they are opening a restaurant! This year the first Rolling Stone restaurant will open in LA, located right next door to Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It will be a two storey venue with a restaurant and bar on the top level and a late night lounge on street level.

Rolling Stone is no stranger to brand extension having already published it's own books and it released a video game in 2009, but it's certainly a massive punt for the magazine following the challenging times that themed restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood have faced financially. Rolling Stone partner Niall Donnelly is well aware of these struggles and says, that the restaurants are likely to have live DJs and will occasionally have live music for special events to keep from becoming too much of a museum. Hopefully Rolling Stone follows more successful brands such as the ESPN with the ESPN Zone which is a sports, dining and entertainment venue that has done really well across America.  We will keep you posted!

But I Facebooked You

Depending on your vintage you may remember picking up a Bic pen, Hoovering the floor or grabbing an Aspirin. Perhaps you had to Xerox it, you took a Polaroid or you rode a Jet ski. It really is the ultimate in branding when your brand name becomes the verb associated with it's use. These days, rather than looking up something on the internet, you Google it. 

The newest addition to the family is Facebook. Although it's said to have had two meanings. One - 'I Facebooked you' could mean that the person has added you as a Facebook friend or 'I Facebooked you' meaning 'I sent you a message via Facebook'. What's interesting is that Facebook is starting to displace personal email as a social communication tool. No brand has really ever become synonymous with email and so by default Facebook has fallen into this space. It's completely permission based and is spam free up to this point. Your friends are already there and they want to hear from you. How long will it be before smart brand aficionados jump onto this trend?

Somewhere between Genius and Insanity

The late Oscar Levant — American pianist, composer, actor, hypochondriac, and world-class neurotic — once remarked, "There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line." As Levant saw it, this blur gave him creative impetus. Just as Levant achieved renown by navigating the lighter and darker sides of his imagination, couldn't the same be said of great entrepreneurs?

The story of how inventor James Dyson went through 5127 prototypes and 5126 "failures" to get his massively successful vacuum cleaner "right" is the stuff of entrepreneurial legend. Dyson was fond of saying that the inventor and entrepreneur's life is one of failure. Embracing vulnerability and its rewards — whether those are lessons from failed efforts or life-changing (even world-changing) success — that's the stuff of great entrepreneurs.

This is exactly the challenge facing Dyson today as he introduces the world's first bladeless fan (which The Espresso talked about late last year). Stuck somewhere between genius and insanity, the bladeless fan has to convince people that it is efficient, although somehow not making sense. How can something with no blades that you can safely put your hand through still operate efficiently as a fan? This has to be the greatest challenge facing Dyson as he once again tries to revolutionise a common household product.

Go Dyson!