San Jose, CA (PRWEB) August 17, 2011 — Michelle Randall, president of the global management consultancy firm Enriching Leadership International, recently addressed the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, China.
Speaking to a group that included senior officers at leading companies and organizations headquartered in Beijing, her topic was How to Integrate Strategy and People for High-Stakes Growth.

Ms. Randall discussed the importance of developing a results-driven strategy centered on clearly defined goals instead of believing what she sees as the mistaken yet pervasive notion that strategy drives results. She emphasized the importance of incorporating execution and accountability into every aspect of strategy development to make implementation more effective.

Ms. Randall also spoke about how companies can profit from seeking outside help for strategy development. “Having an outsider lead the process avoids the dangers of the CEO stifling the diversity of approaches, whether it’s done intentionally or not,” she said. Other benefits discussed included an outsider’s ability to broach taboo topics normally ignored by an organization and the best practices and intellectual property they can bring to the table.
She warned that companies should not shy away from strategy development for cost reasons, stating that the biggest investment any company will make is with time. “With a results-driven strategy process, business leaders can expect a ten times return on their investment,” she said.

Ms. Randall stressed the importance of building a well-balanced team and promoting employees with both skills and spirit to management positions, noting that, “The potential of any company expands directly with the development of its people.”
One staffer who attended said, “The presentation was lively and interactive, with attendees asking questions and engaging in a dialogue with Ms. Randall about their own experiences and challenges they have come up against in their work environment.”
Questions from attendees included how to best keep a company’s vision top of mind and how to push staff to help drive the company forward instead of just going through the motions.

Enriching Leadership International works to accelerate the growth of global organizations. The firm’s clients include top leaders and their teams at Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Quest and NetApp, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and notable mid-tier businesses.
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I was walking across my university campus 20 years ago when it hit me. My bulky Walkman was piping my favorite tunes through muff-like headphones when I noticed just how many other students were also plugged into their own music. We were ensconced in our own customized micro-environments with no need to interact with any sounds we hadn’t selected for ourselves, or even with each other.
At that moment, I was filled with dread for a likely future when we would become alienated from each other by our personalized, parallel realities. Fast-forward tro today’s era of mass customization. More far-reaching than entertainment, the Internet delivers news to us that is automatically filtered for our individual preferences. As a result, we never need bump into a viewpoint that opposes our own.

I currently live in Northern California and travel regularly to the Southeast U.S. As I listened to conversations in each region during the recent debt-ceiling debacle, both the differences in opinion and similarities in attitude were jarring. Whether it was the doomed “Reid-Pelosi-Obama economy” or an unwavering devotion to Keynsian economics, everyone at the respective tables was in such vehement agreement that the other viewpoint was completely incomprehensible. The result across the board was the wholesale dismissal of the people holding the differing opinions as uninformed, stupid, or just plain nuts.

The United States has become fairly accustomed to this dismal state of affairs over the past two decades. We bemoan the viciousness and voracity of divisive politics, but we’ve lived with it because the ramifications have been mainly private. Then comes Standard & Poor’s to pop our own personal bubbles and deliver stinging payback for our political dysfunction….
Read the rest of the article at Fast Company.

Tips for a Comeback

Don’t go it alone.
When things are toughest, many business leaders isolate themselves. That’s precisely the wrong response, since it’s nearly impossible to be creative in a vacuum, says executive coach Michelle Randall. Talk with coaches, mentors and members of your team. “When things do turn around, the leaders who do this have created a more trusted team than ever before,” says Randall, the principal of Enriching Leadership International, a global management consultancy.

Turn vendors into allies.
Ask for more generous terms and programs while always positioning them as being in the vendors’ best interest—because they are.

Get focused.
“People I’ve seen stage successful comebacks were completely focused on the desired outcome. As a result,” Randall says, “they sought any course of action that would get them there.”
Be flexible. “My clients who have pulled off the most successful comebacks have been relentless in their belief that they could do it. As a result they were flexible in finding opportunities and marshaled the people around them to create extraordinary results.”

Don’t wallow in self-pity.
“People I’ve seen be less successful got mired down in why-me thinking. That victim mentality wasted time and energy and made them overly apologetic with vendors, customers and employees instead of acting like peers.”

Remember, Randall says: “Every real business has been through plenty of crises. It’s what they do when that happens that defines them.”

Read the entire section on American Comebacks

IBM is a global leader that has soared to great heights and grappled with doomed prospects. As the company celebrated the rare feat of 100 years in business, it may be the strongest it has ever been.

The following are three things that every company can learn from IBM to contribute to their own success.

• Create a Freak Show
• Cultivate Frustration
• Commit and recommit and recommit

Click here to read the entire article at Fast Company.

Do you have the vision and the people to drive your organization to the next stage of growth?

Michelle emphasized the following key points in her presentation:

• A results-driven strategy classifies goals and execution as one in the same.
• Integrate strategy and people to accelerate results and grow potential.
• Remember that strategy does not execute itself, people do.
• Investment in the process of integrating strategy will lead to extraordinary returns.

Read AmCham’s article about Michelle’s talk.

Contributing at the highest and best level possible is the basis of breakthrough effectiveness.

I define effectiveness as the ability to achieve high-quality results within an optimal timeframe. Effectiveness is commonly equated with speed, but if rushing leads to shoddy results, issues have to be addressed repeatedly, often in an increasingly painful and time-consuming way. We achieve better outcomes when our focus is on contributing enthusiastically at the best of our capacity.

Help your people make the distinction between what they do well, or even better than others, in order to help them contribute at their highest level possible. By effectively employing their unique talents, skills, interests and relationships you will help them find fulfillment, which makes all the difference. When we’re passionate about our engagement, our curiosity and creativity are taken to entirely new heights. When these are applied to an outlet for our unique abilities, the result is a potent combination that leads to amazing results.

One possibility is that you may find that your employees’ highest possible contribution can be best achieved in a different role. Instead of avoiding these realities, embrace them and pursue any potential realignments that will allow your organization to retain and develop outstanding contributors.

As a result, you will improve your leadership, grow your organization and enjoy the incredible fulfillment of helping others develop. The point is to be genuinely effective with your unique abilities in your lifetime. Being truly remarkable is the foundation of your legacy; it is the gift you give to yourself and to the world that you engage with.

“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” – John Ruskin

Do you ever feel you have so much potential that you can’t sit still? All high performers feel this potential boiling up within them. It’s what they look for in turn when making key hires. But even with the most promising new employee, something can happen and, next thing you know, they’re stuck playing catch up with their inbox or putting out fires. Enthusiasm turns into frustration and if this continues over the long-term, even the best burn out or give up.

Although the weak economy has people clinging to their jobs, recent studies show that 6 out of 10 employees are looking to change jobs. That’s a costly amount of disengagement, even if employees are currently staying where they are. The heart of the matter is that many employees are not making their highest possible contribution to their organizations. I’ve worked with scores of executives to achieve breakthrough effectiveness and the key to success is always found in their level of contribution. Once we shift the focus of their engagement to making the highest level of contribution possible, the improvement in results is remarkable. The same can be done with direct reports.

Here’s how you can put this into effect.

There are things you can do better than anyone else, and there are contributions only you can make, by virtue of your unique talents, skills, interests and relationships. This is what I mean when I talk about your highest possible contribution.

I’ll be continuing this discussion next week in the post Making the Highest Possible Contribution, part 2.

Over lunch with a business professor in Shanghai, he told me that the cost of living for his family had doubled in the past three years. His salary hadn’t.

I’m not an expert in Chinese monetary policy, and I don’t believe that the Chinese economy is overheating. Nonetheless, this certainly feels like some excess heat.

The question is, how will people deal with this kind of inflation squeezing their wallets?

Construction opportunities abound

As we arrived in Xiangtan at 8pm on Sunday evening, there was active construction everywhere. We drove past several large, contemporary apartment complexes and into our own enormous and beautiful hotel. Xiangtan is being transformed into a welcoming, modern city.

Ever heard of Xiangtan before?

I hadn’t before arriving. This minor city in China is a palpable economic engine. What’s striking is that there are hundreds of cities like this here.

As I write this I’m on another bus driving through Hunan Province. Every city is full of cranes. Between them land is cultivated and towns are being built up.

The domestic demand for construction and all related development is phenomenal and lasting.

It’s July 1st – the start of the second half of the year, and an opportunity to take stock, pat yourself on the back and make any mid-course corrections. Some food for thought…

*What in your business and life looks different on July 1st than on January 1st?

*What do you want to acknowledge yourself for in the first half of this year? How have you been showing up beautifully, and what have you created? How about your team?

*What learning have you received that you didn’t expect on January 1st?

*What’s a stretch goal that you want to give your all toward achieving by the end of the year?

*What can you create in the remaining half of the year that would have the champagne taste a bit sweeter on New Year’s Eve?

*What are you doing that you would like to stop, slow down or change? By when?

In case you’re considering jumping in on Groupons IPO, this may help make up your mind!

What do you think of Groupon in China?

Update:

The ad pictured is for a Chinese company, GroupOn.cn, which is #7 in visitors among coupon companies in China.

The American company Groupon is in the Chinese market as part of a joint venture named GaoPeng, which is #8 in visitor traffic.

The next morning, I went with my Chinese friends to a mobile phone store to have the phones unlocked and I purchased an inexpensive phone to use immediately. When we returned the next morning at the appointed time, the phones weren’t unlocked. The store owner told us he hadn’t done it because it was more complicated than initially expected and would cost more.

I agreed to the increased price and when we returned the following they still weren’t unlocked. This time the owner told us that it would take two days instead of the one he promised so he hadn’t started.

We thanked him and left with the phones. He made sheepish eye contact as I looked back over my shoulder. He was obviously embarrassed by his inability to do the work. I was disappointed by his reluctance to tell us that up front.

Much is made of the importance of ‘saving face’ in China, but this reluctance to deliver bad news shows up in every culture. I’m always surprised when business people choose to comprimise their relationships over the discomfort of simply admitting that they can’t accomplish what they had expected. The result on the deliverable is the same, but the damage to a trusting working relationship is simply unnecessary.

The students understood that the bike and the fruit represented the vendor’s financial world and engaged with immediacy and compassion.

I’ve been a student in two countries and this level of generosity and leadership from these Chinese students struck me as noteworthy.

Does this strike you as exceptional student generosity?

Do you have the vision and the people to drive your organization to the next stage of growth?

Join the AmCham-China Small Business Forum for a lunch session with management consultant, speaker, and author Michelle Randall who will discuss effective strategies to break down silos and foster high-performance teamwork across the organization. Michelle Randall will discuss methods that will help turn strategy into reality and use real-life examples of companies she has worked with.

Click here to learn more about the speaker.

Program:
12:00 – 12:45 PM: Registration and Sandwich Lunch
12:45 – 1:30 PM: Presentation
1:30 – 2:00 PM: Q&A

Venue:
AmCham-China Conference Center
The Office Park, Tower AB, 6th Floor
No. 10 Jintongxi Road
Chaoyang District
中国美国商会办公室 会议室
远洋光华国际，AB座6层
朝阳区金桐西路10号 (汉威大厦北)
Tel: 8519-0800

Registration:
Cardholding members advanced discounted online price: RMB 50
Cardholding members at the door: RMB 100
Non-cardholding employees of member companies: RMB 150
Non-members: RMB 200

*Sandwich lunch with soft drinks will be provided

Click here to register online.

AmCham-China Events:
Events have limited seating so to ensure your attendance we encourage advance online registration and payment for ALL events. We cannot guarantee entry to anyone not registered in advance. All events are off the record and are held in English unless otherwise stated. If there are any questions please email: amchamevent@amchamchina.org

Cancellation Policy:
If you cannot attend an event for which you have registered, please cancel your registration no later than one business day prior to the event. If you fail to notify AmCham-China of your cancellation in a timely fashion, you will be charged for event costs. To cancel you can either call 8519-0828 and leave a voicemail message including your name, and event title and date, or email cancel@amchamchina.org, or cancel online if you registered for the event through the website. Thank you for your cooperation and helping AmCham-China maintain the quality of its events.

Google is terribly unstable here. I’ve been told that the corporation is in a cat and mouse game with the government wherein Google changes its IP address every 5 minutes, all the time everyday, while the government chases after attempting to shut it down.

Those Chinese wanting to have access to Facebook and Youtube have been dialing into virtual private networks outside of China. The government has been cracking down and disabling access more aggressively starting last month.

The impact for some professors is an inablity to access scientific journals. Recruiters are losing Facebook as an avenue to attract candidates.

Westerners react to this with a mixture of knowing smirks to calls for their Chinese counterparts to take to the streets to protest. They act like the Internet is a right. Is it?

What is the Internet really? A conduit for communication and collaboration. A forum for opinion making and dissidence. The driver of all future commerce.

Is it possible to limit the impact of one of these without hampering the other two?

It reminds me of the first Chinese navy. While I’ve heard a couple of variations, the history is something like this: centuries before the Europeans created sailing ships, the Chinese had their own navy. They sailed away and discovered other peoples in other lands. Upon their return the sailors reported this and either the ships were destroyed in a fit of xenophobia or left to rot from disinterest and ambivalence. In any case, the Chinese weren’t consumed with dreams of exploration or conquer.

I’m not ready to make any pronouncements about what this means for the Internet and the future of China, but I think it’s worth considering. In the meantime, I’ll share a sentiment I’ve heard from many Chinese on the issue of the Internet: “I absolutely believe that the future will be better. For now this is just the way it is.”

For patrons waiting to be seated, the restaurant provided a ping pong table, a mini-play area for kids, and complementary manicures–which should tell you how long the wait and how popular the restaurant is!

Our kids were tired after the long-day’s travel, so the wait staff brought over extra chairs and lined them up into little beds. When our kids curled up and dozed off, the staff came back and covered them gently with little blankets.

The pièce de résistance of customer delight was the Kung Fu noodles. In shabu shabu, richly flavored broths are placed in the center of the table and you cook meats and vegetables in the broth. At the end of the meal, noodles are added to absorb all the amazing flavors.

Instead of just adding the noodles, as in every other shabu shabu restaurant I’ve been to around the world, this place offered what is called Kung Fu noodles. Watch the video to see how the noodle dough is stretched into long lengths in a part dance, part martial arts performance. Kung Fu Noodles video

In digesting the entire experience it made me think about more innovative customer service for my own company. It’s food for thought for all of us who endeavor to delight our customers instead of simply satisfy them.

My dad worked in China in 1985 and hasn’t been back since. I’m looking forward to his insights on the changes and his wonder at the pace of change. I’m continually entertained and amazed by the way the kids interpret the world around them. I can barely imagine what this will be like in the multitude of sensory input that is China. I’ve appreciated the questions about China that you have sent me. Keep them coming!

During the time that I’m here, I’ll be interviewing several people about the role and importance of culture agility in China. I’ll also be giving some talks about integrating strategy and people for relentless results, as well as how independent consultants can provide exceptional value to their clients.

I will be blogging my observations of Chinese business and culture through the coming month. I invite you to subscribe to the RSS feed and please check in and comment regularly!

The process of business reinvention and personal rediscovery is exciting and just plain hard work. It’s easy to get postponed and move forward with an old identity that just doesn’t represent you fully anymore. Believe me, I know!

As we venture into Summer, I hope you’ll engage in some renewal. Look at your personal brand by asking a few trusted friends and colleagues to describe what they see as your greatest strengths. Consider if you’re satisfied with how they describe you. If yes, that’s fantastic. If not, there’s plenty of opportunity to sharpen your image. If you’re curious about how just contact me.

If you sow the seeds in the Summer, you can reap a tremendous bounty in the Fall.

The following steps are just as critical in the delegation process.

4. Commitment
This is another area that most managers tend to skip in the delegation process. Managers assume an employee’s acceptance of the task. In a relay race, the most critical stage is handing the baton to the next runner. A huge amount of training is invested in learning the handoff. It’s no different in organizations. Commitment is making sure you’ve successfully handed over the baton.
Verify (or confirm) commitment on:
• the employee’s deliverable with time and budget
• the tools and resources you will provide
• the when, how and what of communications

5. Avoiding “Delegating Back”
Many of the managers who begin working with me are extremely overworked, and one of the first determinations is that their employees are better at delegating than the manager. We know this because delegated tasks return to the manger’s workload. I call this “delegating back.” There are very few, if any, cases when a manager taking back a delegated task is necessary. When an employee reaches an impasse, managers need to coach them through it, but let employees do their job. Don’t take tasks back.

6. Accountability
Communication in delegation is key. Finding out that a deliverable wasn’t completed or wasn’t done satisfactorily after the completion date is the nightmare scenario of delegating. Accountability is often a punitive term in organizations – “holding someone accountable.” Accountability is actually the act of giving a report on progress.
• Regular communication about the status of the deliverable and the timing of delivery.
If this is an important project or a group effort, it’s very effective to make the progress visible to everyone involved. Think about how effective the visual of a thermometer is for fundraising!
• Repercussions
What are the repercussions for:
• not completing the deliverable.
• running over budget
• being late

It can be difficult to overcome the myths of delegating and getting into the process of conducting all six steps when delegating tasks. By implementing this process, a manager creates a work environment that is more productive, fosters creativity and opportunities for growth and focuses on the importance of communication.