On Wednesday 6/3/98, I attended "Change & Principle-Centered Leadership
for the 21st Century" in Riyadh. The session was given by Dr. Stephen
Covey. Here is a summary of the session. Pls share it with others if you
think it is useful:
He summarized the session with the following practical points that could
be implemented immediately to benefit from the session:
1- In the next 48 hours teach what you have learned twice; once to a loved
one and another to a working associates. The best way to learn is to
teach. The fastest way to get is to give and share. When you start
thinking to always to teach what you learn, your concentration will
increase dramatically. Teaching always should occur immediately after
learning.
2- Get serious on mission statements starting with your own personal
mission statement. What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of
contribution you want to make throughout your life? How do you want others
to remember you after you have long gone? The focus of the mission
statement should be on your contributions. What value are you going to
add? Ensure that community work is central to your contribution.
At work, the mission statement should be owned by the whole workgroup. It
should include your purpose, vision, and values. For a large organization,
the mission statement should be written by about 20-30 people. Then
distributed to everyone in the organization for comments. After the
comments are incorporated, it should be sent again for review. He said
only after 2 or 3 times of distribution do some people think that their
organization is serious about this mission statement.
The main reason for failure of mission statements is lack of ownership.
They get written by a few, shared and in most cases forgotten afterwards
until the next exercise. If everyone in the organization feels it is his
mission statement and it is not handed to him by upper management, only
then will everyone make it a success. He also talked about the universal
mission statement:
"To increase the economic well-being and quality of life of all
stakeholders." He emphasized that in their study of the Deming Award
winners, they all shared satisfaction from all stakeholders, in addition
to a sustained economic performance.
3- Think of one person where the relationship between you and him has
broken, and do whatever it takes to rebuild that relationship. You could
go and say I haven't been a good listener. I want to be. Apologizing makes
others feel you are quite personal & reachable.
4- Double the time you spend in Quadrant II (Important but not urgent).
This includes preparation, prevention, values clarification, planning,
relationship building, and empowerment. Research has shown that 50-60% of
a person's time is spent in Quadrant III (Urgent but not improtant). This
includes needless interruptions, unnecessary reports, unimportant
meetings, phone calls, mail, e-mail, and other people minor issues. After
a while, double the time spent in Quadrant II again. Spend more time on
being a role model, and on teaching. From his research, he found that the
majority of people do not distinguish between Quadrant II & III. You act
upon Quadrant II while Quadrant III acts upon you. Say a burning YES to II
& no to III.
5- Take time to 'sharpen the saw' everyday. This includes the mental,
physical, social, and spiritual. He said that for Muslims the 5 times a
day prayer is one of the best for 'sharpening the spiritual saw.' He said
that waking up at 3:30 in the morning to do the Fajr prayer everyday is
unmatched in any other culture. He also admired the integration of Islam
in the Muslim's life in everything they do.
He warned of being 'too busy driving to fill up gas only to find out we
ran out of gas.' Work on the assumption you had a heart attack. On your
professional life, assume the half life is 3 years; don't think it is
permanent.
The session also included a short address by Prince Sultan bin Salman, the
Saudi Astronaut, who emphasized some interesting points:
- The oganization and its members should have wide interaction with the
community. We are approaching a future that will be quite competitive. We
should be competing for the good of the community.
- The Saudi culture in specific and the Muslim culture in general is based
on principled. He joked that, this being the case, we should have paid
half price for the lecture since we are already meeting Principled Center
Leadership half way by default.
- When Steve asked him on what each austronaut was thinking about as they
were moving away from the earth, he said initially each was looking at his
country (USA, France, and Saudi Arabia). Very soon they started looking at
their continents, and in a matter of minutes their concerns became the
whole globe including the fire that was happening in Somalia at that time.
Steve commented later that this is the way we, as leaders, should be
thinking about. Things from a global perspective & impacts on the whole
globe. The other point he made about this is that we should get out of
What's In It For Me (WIFM) thinking.
There was also a brief given by Dr. Ghazi Bin Zagar about one of his
family's companies implementation of Principle-Centered Leadership:
- Covey's ideas are in harmony with our values. Not many ideas have this
distinction for implementation in Saudi Arabia.
- We should hold dear to our teachings & put the principles into practice.
When these ideas are being applied they are not easy. You will always have
the tendency to bypass them & go back to what were doing before. You need
a constant reminder that 'you should not cram on the exam night,' as Covey
puts it. You should not take short-cuts when it comes to dealing with
people and the company's values. There are no quick fixes.
- Dr. Ghazi also a Center for Organization Studies in Saudi Arabia to be
in harmony with Islamic values, and considering the management theories
and ideas that are popular in the Western world.
Stephen Covey talked about a number of concepts during the presentation
including the following:
- Change is profound and it will only accelerate in the future.
Globalization of markets and technology are having dramatic impacts on
all. The World Trade Organization (WTO) will greatly encourge competition
& minimize protectionism. If you don't add a value, someone else will &
that oppertunity for you is lost. The question to all of us should be how
can our organizations compete in world markets if we don't change. A
paradim shift in the mindset is needed.
- It is not what you did yesterday that counts. It is what you do tomorrow
- today. Build on values rather than getting away from them. Learn to be
effective and efficient in world marktes.
- To enable the 'Fire Within' people and organizations, four needs are
expected: - To Live, which include the physical / economic/security
feeling in addition to cultivating trust. - To love:
Social/emotional/kindness/respect. - To learn: Mental, development, and
use of talent. And - To Leave a Legacy: Spiritual/Meaning/Integrity.
- The leadership 'Compass' has four points. For any long-term
relationship, you have to pay the price:
a) Personalizing moral authority. This is Influence & control of one's
self. Role models, the leader an example himself. This includes show
security, humility, and integrity.
b) Common basis. Identify with others. Achieving common purpose and
value. You can't talk yourself out of a problem you behaved yourself into.
c) Building an organization on principles; not on the strengths of the
leader. Institutionalizing moral authority. Reward a team, not individual
people. This includes how to recruit, train, reward ..etc.
d) How do you release human potential? By doing the above and a clear
vision,values and strategy and with the trust everyone has in leadership,
common directions will be achieved with unmatched enthusiasm.
- To ensure that the mission is clear, ask 10 people unexpectedly in the
organization, what is our mission? If you get the same answer as what the
mission statement really is, then you know the process is working.
- Research has shown that although people working in large organizations
feel maxed out, less than 20% of human talent is being used. Covey's
research has also revealed that 25-50% of activities in large
organizations are of political games, and departmental rivalries. The
problem is not in team building or positive thinking. It is mostly in the
alignment of personal and organizational mission. A key component also
that is missing from TQM, BPR, customer focus, systems thinking is TRUST.
Only then will a paradigm shift happen to achieve better from all.
If the total sum of mental power is not exploited in this Information age
and the global economy, competitors will have a much better advantage than
you. In this age there is a big change from functional-based to
process-based structures. This is with a sight to serve the customer.
Everyone in the chain should add value to serve the customer - The old
mindset of livetime jobs whether one adds value of not is obsolete.
- Involvement and challenge are key to change once trust is built. GE's
chairman Jack Welch achieved a lot by showing everybody by example that
law is really above all, no matter who.
- Empathic Listening is one trait that a lot of people lack. Don't pretend
that you are listening, when in fact all you're doing is preparing for a
response. LISTEN. When you listen, focus on 5 key areas: a) Purpose. b)
Main points. c) Evaluation. d) Application. e) Value.
A key concept from the 7 habits is seek to understand then to be
understood (habit 5). In this, you would restate the other person's point
to his or her satisfaction before you make your point. A new image of a
leader needs to be developed. Not that of giving instructions, but one who
says 'Could you help me be a better listener?'
- Key realities of life: a) Change. b) Change-less principles. c) Choice.
The possibility to choose from the above two.
- The 7 habits of highly effective people are: 1) Be Proactive. 2) Begin
with the End in Mind. 3) Put First Things First. 4) Think Win-Win. 5)
Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood. 6) Synergize. 7) Sharpen
the Saw.
TKS...Jamal Al-Dabal
--dabaljk@aramco.com.sa (Jamal K. Dabal )
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