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Swine Flu vaccine update: WHO raises alert level to 5

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New swine flu cases continue to emerge, and its not clear who exactly is the patient zero in this case, and when it really started. For now, we will continue to go with the proposed name of a Mexican boy.

This is a new strain of the flu virus and currently there is no tested/proven Swine Flu vaccine, though Tamiflu, which was tested for Bird Flu, could be used to strengthen the immunity. Learn more here: Swine Flu Vaccine- Tamiflu

U.S. scientists hope to have a key ingredient for a swine flu vaccine ready in early May, though commercial production can only happen by September.

Leadership

Leadership Analytics

Maintaining the leadership pool is a challenging task for an organization and its top leaders. There are a number of activities, as well as developmental exercises, that can be undertaken to grow leadership at every level within the organization. But how can organizational leaders measure leadership? And, more importantly, what analytics can be used to ensure that leadership talent is used efficiently and appropriately? Let’s look at some broad categories of leadership analytics.

First, behavioral profiling is an excellent analytical tool. There are two ways to approach behavioral analytics for leaders. First, you can identify behavioral characteristics of well-known leaders, either in the world at large or within the organization itself. These general characteristics can be used as a “yardstick” for leadership development and leadership measurement. There are many sources of popular leadership profiles, but how can you profile within the organization? Myers-Briggs type indicators are one example. A certified Myers-Briggs consultant can assess leaders, name their “types”, and help the organization build profiles, communication plans, and job-specific characteristics – and use these items as leadership analytics.

Along with behavioral profiling, the organization can make use of leadership assessment from the “other end”. What makes people within the organization successful? If this cannot be defined, those “high performers” can be profiled with their own characteristics. For example, if your organization has not used leadership analytics in the past, identify people at every level who seem to excel at their jobs, have a “following”, and who have consistently proven their worth to the organization and its vision. Take the time to interview these people to determine how they’ve accomplished a successful rise. The data you gather can be used to measure individuals and also to measure what characteristics tend to work within the organization itself.

Analysis of teams is also an excellent analytical tool. There are a couple of ways to go with teams, as well. If your organization is already in the process of formal leadership development, consider bringing the pool together in order to break them into teams and give them “real” organizational problems to solve. Observe how the teams work together, as well as how each individual contributes to the solution or the project. You’ll be able to create an analytical profile of team success at the organization from your observations. If you’re not conducting formal development, consider observing project teams specifically for the purpose of identifying leadership characteristics. What personal and team characteristics tend to propel the team forward, and what characteristics tend to mire the team down? As you record your data, you’ll also see a profile developing.

From the human resources standpoint, benchmarking individual roles for leadership characteristics is also an effective analysis tool. Examine individual jobs within the organization and first determine which incumbents have been “successful” at the job and which ones have had less than stellar performances. From that determination, you can look at individual behaviors that contribute to success within a particular job or role. Conduct this type of analysis at every level of the organization and measure incumbents and job candidates using the metrics you’ve discovered in your initial analysis. This type of role analytics can help the organization create individual leadership profiles for each job and for the organization as a whole.

Leadership training and development in itself can be used as an analytical tool. The program you develop will help you identify high potential and high performing leaders at every level. But along with this comes the ability to identify the organizational players that have the potential to develop – and those who simply do not. Using this analytic, you can begin to develop the “middle road” or “B” organizational players into top-level leaders. And you can begin to exit those non-performers or “C” level players at the same time. All of the analytics we’ve discussed can be part of your leadership development program. For example, you can conduct analysis of behaviors, leadership characteristics, team performance, and even roles within the context of the leadership development program.

Each broad area of analysis leads you to a set of measurements or analytics that can be used to measure existing leadership and to create a leadership goal within the organization. Not only this, these broad areas of analysis can also create a leadership profile by which you measure job candidates at every level, both internally and externally. Take the time to determine which analytics will work for you organization and begin to measure your leadership talent.

Copyright 2009 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Learning & Development Expert – assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for many sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his blog at: [http://www.BryantNielson.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bryant_Nielson/142446

 

Leadership

Measuring Leadership Effectiveness

It’s easy to get caught up in leadership skills and development. Plus, when things are going well, it’s even easier to ignore any measurements that tell you how effective the leadership really is in your organization. There are numerous ways to measure effectiveness, but all of these analytics occur in four broad categories. Let’s examine each category of leadership measurement.

The first category of leadership measurement is in the subjective realm. When subjective measurements are mentioned, people have the tendency to dismiss them. But can the subjective measurements of your organization tell you how effective the leadership is? Absolutely. First, and in general, you must take an honest look at the overall morale of the organization. Is it deflating or non-existent? Or is morale high, even in the face of new challenges and obstacles? Low morale is a good indicator that leadership is not effective. What about participation and attendance? For example, if you begin to offer “town hall” style meetings or “brown bag” lunch sessions, are you hard pressed to find anyone who is interested? If you have to beg people to communicate or improve, that’s another subjective measurement of leadership. Is innovation a part of every day life at your organization? What about continuous process improvement? Do people feel comfortable speaking out when they see inefficiency better ways to do things? If not, this is a definite sign that leadership needs to step up.

From the subjective, you can move into numbers-based metrics. Often, the numbers of the organization can tell you if leadership is effective. For example, what does productivity look like now as opposed to last year? Is a temporary “dip” occurring, or is the trend headed down? Other areas of measurement for leaders can be efficiency and mistakes. Are employees making fewer or more mistakes now? Are the errors being corrected in a timely manner, or are they being left to languish? How are sales? Are numbers up or steady, even when times are bad? Take a close look at your customer service, both internally and externally. Are there numerous complaints making it to your level, or are they being resolved at lower levels? You can look at the metrics that are used to determine the health of the organization and make a link back to leadership, especially on those metrics that are not linked to pay or bonuses. Remember that poor organizational performance can be related to many issues, such as market forces, poor positioning, or just bad economics. But also keep in mind that by taking a serious look at these metrics, you can adjust leadership accordingly.

Another method of measuring leadership effectiveness is the implementation of a leadership index. An index is a targeted measurement tool that associates complete regarding their managers or leaders. Essentially, it’s an evaluation of the leader using the skills, behaviors, and attitudes that are found to be appropriate for the organization. In simple terms, you may see questions such as, the person “treats me with respect” and “helps me work on continuous improvement”. The evaluator is asked to give anonymous, confidential answers about the leader. The leader gets to see his or her results and can work on a development plan from those results. There are numerous systems that can create the leadership index for the organization, or you can do it on your own. The main thing to remember is that using generic leadership behaviors, skills, and attitudes will not give you the best picture of effectiveness. The organization must determine what skills and behaviors are most appropriate to its leaders.

One of the final methods of measuring leadership effectiveness is related to the leadership index. You can also measure leadership potential. Using a similar index, the organization can measure how leaders are being groomed and encouraged at lower levels. A large number of potential leaders tells you that leadership is effective at the organization – and that it is catching on at all levels. The fact that a leadership pool is developing on its own tells you that your leaders are indeed leading effectively.

These are broad-based areas of measuring leadership effectiveness. Take the time to look at your organization, its size, and its leadership requirements in order to determine what measurements are appropriate.

Copyright 2009 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Learning & Development Expert – assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for many sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his blog at: [http://www.BryantNielson.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bryant_Nielson/142446

 

Leadership

The Concept of Vision As an Element in Successful Corporate Leadership

‘Without vision the people perish’ according to the Bible.

The concept of vision is widely considered as not only an element in corporate leadership but in successful corporate leadership. What then is corporate vision and its role in corporate leadership?

Vision is the way one sees what, how, where, and sometimes who one wants to be; or for a company, where, what or how the company is going to be in the future. It is in the subconscious mind not the eyes. Vision is created. It is a creation of visualized idea or ideas one considers when carrying about or engaged in any undertaking. These ideas, which later on are crafted into the direction the organization will be taking, form a kind of picture in the mind of the person; waiting to be nurtured into reality.

Vision is very pivotal in the plans of any organization; actually it forms the basis of any organisationâ019s mission statement and strategy from which the business plan is formed.

Corporate leadership on the hand is or could in simple terms be described as how an organization is led.

It is normally the lifeline of any organization either a start-up or an existing company but to be a successful corporate leader takes a good vision. Thus given the fact that a business plan has been formed on the basis of a good corporate vision, may suggest that a successful organization is in the offing as a result of good and effective leadership. It will also show that the leadership is organized.

Success is subjective and could be measured by any benchmark; however, in corporate terms, it is usually measured in terms of achieving the targets set according to the plans of the organization which has already been mentioned earlier on as emanating from the vision of the organization.

Corporate vision is normally the preserve of an entrepreneur (who could be the Chairman, CEO, or simply someone who sits on the Board), even though it can be reframed by the whole leadership from time to time. Writing in a business journal, someone commented that ‘for the majority of companies, defined visions and mission statements are nothing. The exercise of crafting them is a waste of time and talent if vision statements are used for nothing but published in the annual report and copied to the reception area… To be able to energize employees towards corporate objectives, visions should be more than a sign on the wall and managers should live them, believe them, and constantly communicate to employees’.[1] In other words, the leader’s vision of the future must be communicated to all and sundry in the organization to produce the required results. If that is done, then the benefits of vision which are among the following will manifest themselves in the leadership of the organization thereby making them successful:

* Sense of direction: vision basically gives the leadership a sense of direction. In a simple but important illustration, when one sets out from the house and jumps into a car; as soon as the car moves, it goes to a particular direction even if the steer is not controlled. The direction given by the vision of the leadership is usually deemed by the organization as important and gets the memberâ019s backing.

* Focus: the vision of the leadership puts the organization in shape to be able to focus on relevant strategic issues at all levels in the organization. It is believed that a clearly focused and committed organization with strong visible leadership can accomplish any task which they set themselves to undertake.

* Visionary leadership: with a vision usually comes a visionary leader. It is a role normally taken either by the leader who is not in an executive position to alienate him or herself from what I describe as ‘direct decision-making process’ but then wield greater influence on the decision makers by creating a conducive environment, inspiration and charisma for the organization’s leadership to make informed decisions, an example of such a leader is Sir Richard Branson of Virgin; or by one in an executive position, the visionary leader is always ‘ahead of the competition’ by making critical decisions based on his sense of vision; an example of such a leader is BP’s CEO, John Browne when he launched the ad campaign “Beyond Petroleum” linking emissions and global warming which granted him successful access to both Russia(as the first Western oil company to do so) and the US as the leading oil and gas producer with both ventures putting BP back on its toes.[2]

* Driving force: vision can also become the driving force of the leadership of the organization. Drive is a very important attribute in leadership qualities and key to a successful corporate leadership. It is imbued with the ‘can do’ attitude and this is not needed at anytime and anywhere more than in this modern competitive business world of today. Drive urges the leadership to try to overcome obstacles than they will otherwise have done; it also brings ambition, initiative and motivation needed to influence others might not have fully grasped the vision towards the achievement of the corporate vision.

* An effective and appropriate strategy and or leadership style: because of the sense of direction vision brings along, vision can affect the style of leadership or strategy for an organization.Many leaders adopt certain styles to lead a particular organization as a result of the vision they have for the organization. An example here is the strategy being used by the Japanese president of Toyota, Fujio Cho.Based on his vision to ‘Americanize’ Toyota(Toyota now has 70%-80% of its global profits from North America), he has decided to place more Americans and non-Japanese executives higher on the corporate ladder and closer to the centers of leadership in Toyota. In effect, Cho’s plan is to move new ideas now from America to Japan instead of the other way round as it used to be and is even considering encouraging the people to learn to speak English well in order to achieve his vision.[3]

* Self-confidence: vision gives self-confidence to the leader (or leadership).Self-confidence plays an important role in decision-making and in gaining other’s trust. The leader must be sure of what decision to make at least most of the times. It must be observed here that, the primary task of a leader is to have a vision of where the organization is going and thus set a clear objective to achieve them. However, followers are also essential if the leadership will be effective or otherwise. With self-confidence the leadership will not express high degree of doubt and then the followers are likely to trust and be committed to the vision and for that matter the organization. Self-confidence also boosts the leadership’s image and by that projection, they arouse the followers’ self-confidence in the leadership. Leaders with self-confidence are known to be assertive and decisive which is relevant for effective implementation of corporate decisions.

It is also important to note that corporate vision may contain relevant issues committed to ensuring quality and prompt responsiveness to customers, develop a great new product or service, and serving customers through the defined service portfolio. It also ensures providing an enjoyable work environment for employees as well as ensuring financial strength and sustainable growth of the company for the benefit of stakeholder.

The following is the vision statement for Fareham Borough Council in Hampshire, England (which is a corporate entity) as an illustration of the relevant issues of commitment that corporate visions may contain:

A Five Year Vision
Corporate Vision, values, Objectives and Action Plan
Vision Statement
Fareham-the prosperous, safe and attractive place to be

Driven By vision

Fareham has become a prosperous, safe and attractive place to live and work. This has not happened by accident but by careful management of development and constant attention to the environment. Our vision for Fareham is based upon the assumption that residents want to preserve all that is good about Fareham,whilst increasing prosperity and making it an even more inclusive and attractive place to live and work.

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Tech Mahindra Acquisition of Satyam and Next Steps

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Here’s an update on the Satyam corporate incident from Dec-Jan, on which we had shared our thoughts. Tech Mahindra has emerged as the winning bidder for the 51% equity stake sale in Satyam. Tech Mahindra is also an IT outsourcing services company, and this development is a relief for Satyam’s employees and customers worldwide.

Kiran Karnik, the interim chairman of the Indian government appointed board of Satyam, said that it is up to Tech Mahindra to decide the way forward for Satyam. And of course, it shouldn’t be any other way. Tech Mahindra now has a wide array of restructuring projects as it tries to merge/rationalize Satyam’s services into its overall IT services portfolio.