Since the start of the Great Resignation, millions of employees worldwide transitioned jobs and careers. The next great reckoning to pay attention to is creating opportunities for multifaceted career growth outside of management.
For many professionals with exceeding aspirations, the next step is becoming a manager. They are often promoted to managers because they are good at what they do, but being great at one role doesn't guarantee that they will also be great at making others better.

Creating opportunities for multifaceted career growth

Part of companies celebrating diversified perspectives and talents means admitting that some aren’t meant to become managers. Bad managers can be causing high levels of turnover.
Leaders should remember that employees choose where they want to work and what they want to do. Becoming a manager should be a choice not prompted by career progression. There are ways to create alternate career paths for those who don't want or are not a good fit for a managerial role but can still grow.

Finding alternative career paths

Try to explore what opportunities may be available and could motivate people.
<ul>
<li>What business needs require a more experienced employee?</li>
<li>Are there options for high performers to become their own manager and continue to do meaningful work?</li>
<li>Is there a way for struggling managers to "step off" into a meaningful position that better fits their strengths and interests?</li>
</ul>
Sometimes just being given a new opportunity to learn and grow can be very helpful.

Reflect on the needs of the business

People don't know what they don't know. Creating greater awareness of what's possible helps people find the next step.
<ul>
<li>Clearly describe and outline dual career paths within your organization - ones with and without management requirements.</li>
<li>Consider asking them what they would like to experience in terms of roles and responsibilities so you can present targeted opportunities to them.</li>
</ul>

Define career path profiles based on required skills

Encourage talent enhancement for employees to develop their existing skills or learn new ones that can help them get on a defined career path. Pair employees with "peer mentors" and give employees at all levels the opportunity to contribute their expertise to enhance someone else's. This can lead to an enhanced sense of connectivity within your team or overall culture.

Enable upskilling with mentors

How upskilling helps businesses adapt to a rapidly changing labour market

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

career

Career

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Upskilling: Preparing For The Future

Careers shouldn’t always be viewed as ladders to climb to higher positions argues Apps Associates Lydie Fox. Sometimes a new opportunity to learn and grow can make all the difference.

humanresources

Human Resources

Not everyone should be promoted to manager. Here’s how leaders can guide alternate career paths

Life is not easy.We are all evolved primates that occupy a massive planet.We possess only abstract ideas on why we ended up here.However, we are primates that constantly evolve. And it is through this evolution that we can improve our living conditions.Through constant trial and error, we have managed to reach a state where we can orient ourselves better within this ominous landscape that we inhabit.Below, you will find 10 life lessons predicated on primate wisdom – primate wisdom that can definitely help you enhance your understanding of the mechanics of life.

Life Lessons – 10 Ideas That Will Help You Understand the Mechanics of Life

Once you decide what you want to pursue, embrace the fact that knowledge never ends. Create a strict schedule that “forces” you to read blogs, books, and websites relevant to the area you want to focus on.When I decided to embark on my blogging journey, I started reading literally everything that exists out there. I made it a constant practice and it became a crucial part of my everyday life.

1. Find the perfect balance between theory and practice

At the same time, I was capitalizing on the newly acquired knowledge by testing different styles and by trying to understand what works and what doesn’t. This resulted in my finally discovering my personal blogging style that is constantly evolving and being refined. Do that with any skill you want to cultivate.

Most of us live our lives totally reliant upon forces that dictate our success or failure. This “attitude” unfortunately contradicts to the antifragility argument raised by the great Nassim Taleb.We need to be ready to face adversity and unpredicted events. In order to do that we need to possess a diversification-oriented mindset.

2. Diversity is golden – always have an exit strategy

If you are an entrepreneur or an investor, for example, I would strongly advise you to not rely only on one project. You should always have a diversified portfolio. If you are an employee, always evolve your skill repertoire and stay up to date with new trends and technologies.Chaos and complexity urge us to accept that risk should be a crucial parameter of our interactions and decisions. So, embrace it, be strategic, and check out point 9 for further elaboration on the topic of risk.

If you introduce John to Steve and then Steve manages to help John in any way then you made a great connection. Think of this event as another string in the tight network you are constantly trying to build. This network is like a bonus in your video game called life that will eventually help you stand up when you are about to fall down.It is the invisible power that creates once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and opens new doors in your pursuit of success, they might include:Finding great employeesLanding difficult interviewsMeeting potential business partnersExtending your social circle

Life Lessons – 3. Networking is the ace under your sleeve

Expanding from the above point, we all need to understand that building a network has never been an easy thing. Nobody wants to help for free. When you embrace this idea, internalize it and always have something to offer. Tangible or intangible, it doesn’t really matter. You can give away anything. Things like:IdeasAdviceHelpSmall giftsAnything that will show others that you actually care for them. When you get used to this mindset by making it a regular practice, you will start building the foundations of your network.

4. Understand that people love free goods
 

Don’t betray anyone. Don’t backstab anyone. Don’t step on anyone’s toes. Don’t gossip. All these behaviours imply a scarcity mentality and won’t help you get far. You know how they say that you are what you eat? By the same token, you attract what you are. If you want success and abundance, learn how to behave in a successful and abundant way.

5. Never say a bad word about anyone


There is enough out there for everyone. Your competition is not other people. Your competition is: Your procrastination.Your ego.The knowledge you neglect to learn.The antisocial behavior you are nurturing.The unhealthy food you constantly consume.Your lack of creativity.The wrong people you surround yourself with.

I like writing because it helps me discover myself and dive deep into complex topics. And you know what I discovered recently? That once you care too much about what other people think, you lost the game. I’ll support my point with an example. Check out this video of 2 cute babies talking to each other.Now focus on the dislikes. Way too many dislikes. Why would someone dislike 2 babies that talk to each other? For many reasons. Why would people dislike you? Also for many reasons. Reasons that shouldn’t be of your concern

6. Ignore ill-intentioned criticism

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a doctor, a lawyer, a young professional, a college student, or you are sitting at home in your sweatpants dreaming of getting that perfect job, you are a brand. Give me a second to illustrate my point.I know that, normally, when people hear the word brand they naturally think of huge corporations like Apple, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Sony, Toyota etc. These huge conglomerates are bombarding you with commercials and subliminal messages on a daily basis in order to increase their brand awareness and stay in your head as an established, well-respected existence.

7. You are your own personal brand
 

What does this have to do with you? Everything! The way the above-mentioned companies try to increase their value as a brand, in the same way, you should be doing that too. Examples of people who have managed to do this successfully among others are: Elon MuskTim FerrissRussell Brand (even his name includes the word brand!)

They are their own personal brand and they do that by focusing on 4 major principles:<ol><li>Their Expertise. What is your expertise? What is your competitive advantage? What do you know more than others?</li><li>Their Image. How do you dress? How do you speak? How do you treat others? What does your body language convey?</li><li>Their Message. What message do you want to pass to others? How do you want to influence them?</li><li>Their integrity. Are you truly saying what you believe or are you acting just to please others? Is your belief and value system aligned with your words and actions?</li></ol>

Luck? What is luck? Can you please define it for me? According to www.oxforddictionaries.com, luck is defined as follows:Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions.I always hated vague terms. Terms that are defined by intuition rather than reason. So let’s shed some light of reasoning on luck’s definition. It seems that luck is defined by using the words “apparently” and “chance.”

8. Create your own luck

Chance: “A possibility of something happening.”Apparently: “As far as one knows or can see.”Both terms have something in common. In order for them to exist, they require a person’s action to be initiated. Chances and apparent situations are created by your willingness to pursue them. They are happening when you know where they are. Same does luck. When people use the term luck in the wrong context, always have one thing in mind: They have no idea what luck really means.

Risk is an instance that involves exposure to dangerous situations. It is this fragile factor that can bring you from the bottom to the top and vice versa. It is the partner you really want in your life but you are afraid that will cause trouble anytime.

9. Make risk your partner in crime

You are being gentle with them, enjoying them, nurturing them, but, at the same time, you don’t want them to get too excited. You don’t want to let them expose you to their volatility. They know that you can have each other on very strict terms but when you see that these terms are close to jeopardy, you need to know when to let them go.Success doesn’t come without risk. Learn to embrace it.

People will respect you if you know how to succeed, but at the same time, they will respect you if you know how to fail. Be strategic when it comes to failure. Learn from your mistakes and capitalize on the lessons you learned.Furthermore, in order to make this idea a practice, you need to be honest with yourself and also with your surroundings. Say what you really believe and express yourself in a confident and elegant manner. Nobody can be an advocate for you if you don’t know how to promote yourself first.

10. Take responsibility for your failures, be honest, be patient

But most importantly be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, your new brand needs time to be sculptured. Go slow, take risks, be strategic and enjoy the ride.

I know that I was a bit straightforward and assertive in this article. I know that I have evoked mixed feelings. But I also know that these feelings were hidden deep inside you and for various reasons you were suppressing them and weren’t helping them emerge.Trust me, it is good that these feelings came out. They are the first step toward your complete awakening. Whether you will really wake up or not, that I don’t know.The choice is always yours.

CONCLUSION

Life lessons are usually learned the hard way. It doesn't always need to be like that. Read this article and life will make more sense than ever before.

habits

Habits

communication

Communication

LIFE LESSONS - 10 IDEAS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE MECHANICS OF LIFE

"In helping humans perform, psychology is the software, but biology is the hardware."

"To really make the most of the final moments before you perform, reducing anxiety isn’t enough. You also want to build positive emotions, such as confidence, self-efficacy, and power."

The rush of fear and anxiety we feel before a big presentation or interview is caused by adrenaline being dumped into our system. Originally quite helpful when confronted by a dangerous animal, in modern days we are stuck with the racing heart, sweaty palms, and frozen brain of the “fight or flight” response. How we speak to ourselves in the moment can make a difference.

Leverage biology

As a leader, you can help your teams achieve better results by introducing them to pre-performance routines.<ul><li>Research shows that getting together to perform seemingly-silly ritual actions such as handclaps, foot stomps, and huddle-style “Let’s go!” before embarking on a task can improve a team’s performance.</li><li> Is there a ritual you can invent to accompany your customers’ experience? Think of Walmart greeters or the actions a good salesperson takes when they prepare your dressing room with the clothes you’ve selected. These enhance the experience, build loyalty, and boost sales.</li></ul>

Pre-performance routines

<ul><li>Try one of these: have your team, colleagues, or worker-bees journal about their past successes before attempting today’s challenge. </li><li>Frame reminders of past work on the walls. Take and share a photo of the team flush from a past success before they climb the next (metaphoric) mountain. </li></ul>In experiment after experiment psychologists documented enhanced performance when workers were exposed to reminders of positive performance like these.

Priming

Before an important event:<ul><li>Remind them why it’s important.</li><li>Tell them why you know they can do it.</li><li>Have them pause and think about what they have accomplished together.</li><li>Exhort them to go and do it.</li><li>Just don’t tell them to “calm down.” That’s not realistic and that emotion is too different from their agitation.</li><li>And while it seems helpful to describe what might go wrong and why the world will keep spinning if it does, now is not the time to introduce negative thoughts to their consciousness.</li></ul>

Tell your team what they are being asked to do

For example, one study compared the performances of people who said, “I’m so excited” vs. those who said “I’m so nervous” and those who said nothing before going on stage. The people who said they were excited, and thus reappraised anxiety to excitement, performed the best.Why does this help more than not saying anything at all? Because transitioning from anxiety to calm is very difficult, as the two emotions are very different. Transitioning from worried to excited, however, does not take much effort at all.

Deal with performance anxiety by reappraising it 

This is another essential technique in calming performance anxiety. You can center yourself by breathing deeply and concentrating on your breath while releasing all muscle tension. Imagine all the energy in your body moving into one point, the belly button. Once it’s all there, visualize releasing it. Using this technique before an important event will help you regain focus and kick anxiety to the curb.

Centering yourself

Regardless of what you choose to do before your performance, however, there is one thing that should always happen: consistency.Studies back up the effectiveness of athletes’ routines before a game, for example. Athletes are aware of this and do what they can to prepare.

Rituals can improve your performance

When it comes to performance, competition and rivalries are a great thing. Studies show that competition dramatically enhances performance.The feeling we get when we are racing against others and someone is right on our tail drives us to do better, to prove ourselves. Cyclists do better when competing rather than beating the clock, and the same goes for other sports as well. Furthermore, fighting against a rival, or someone you know, rather than a stranger, boosts your abilities even more.The motivating effects of competition help not only in sports but in the business world as well.

Competition will improve your performance

Closing the sale. Asking for a raise. Nailing the big presentation. Of the 2,000 hours you work every year, your success or failure is determined in the couple of dozen crucial hours when you need to bring your absolute best. Will you? The last few minutes before a major challenge can be terrifying. Ever wished you knew how to make sure you ace the make-or-break test, audition, or interview? We often feel the most powerless just before we’re expected to act powerful. As you’ll learn in this life-changing book, practice might make perfect, but perfection is useless if you can’t summon it when it counts. Pulling off a great speech or the pivotal at bat also requires the right kind of mental preparation. In Psyched Up, journalist Daniel McGinn dives into the latest psychological research and interviews athletes, soldiers, entertainers, and others who, despite years of practice and enviable track records, will ultimately be judged on their ability to delivera solid performance when it’s their turn to shine. For instance, he reveals... • How Jerry Seinfeld’s jacket and Stephen Colbert’s pen help them get laughs. • What General Stanley McChrystal said to Special Forces before they entered the battlefield. • Why the New England Patriots hired the DJ from the Red Sox to help them win. Among other counterintuitive insights, McGinn reveals why trying to calm your backstage jitters can be worse for your performance than channeling it into excitement; how meaningless rituals can do more to prepare you in the final moments than last-minute rehearsal; and how a prescription from your doctor could help you unleash your best skills. Whether you’re a sportsperson or a salesperson, an actor or an entrepreneur, one bad hour can throw away months of hard work. There’s so much conflicting popular advice that we often end up doing the wrong things. McGinn separates the facts from the old wives’ tales and shares new, research driven strategies for activating your talent, optimizing your emotions, and getting psyched up to take the spotlight.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

books

Books

Closing the sale. Asking for a raise. Nailing the big presentation. Of the 2,000 hours you work every year, your success or failure is determined in the couple of dozen crucial hours when you need to bring your absolute best. Will you? The last few minutes before a major challenge can be terrifying. Ever wished you knew how to make sure you ace the make-or-break test, audition, or interview? We often feel the most powerless just before we’re expected to act powerful. As you’ll learn in this life-changing book, practice might make perfect, but perfection is useless if you can’t summon it when it counts. Pulling off a great speech or the pivotal at bat also requires the right kind of mental preparation. In Psyched Up, journalist Daniel McGinn dives into the latest psychological research and interviews athletes, soldiers, entertainers, and others who, despite years of practice and enviable track records, will ultimately be judged on their ability to delivera solid performance when it’s their turn to shine. For instance, he reveals... • How Jerry Seinfeld’s jacket and Stephen Colbert’s pen help them get laughs. • What General Stanley McChrystal said to Special Forces before they entered the battlefield. • Why the New England Patriots hired the DJ from the Red Sox to help them win. Among other counterintuitive insights, McGinn reveals why trying to calm your backstage jitters can be worse for your performance than channeling it into excitement; how meaningless rituals can do more to prepare you in the final moments than last-minute rehearsal; and how a prescription from your doctor could help you unleash your best skills. Whether you’re a sportsperson or a salesperson, an actor or an entrepreneur, one bad hour can throw away months of hard work. There’s so much conflicting popular advice that we often end up doing the wrong things. McGinn separates the facts from the old wives’ tales and shares new, research driven strategies for activating your talent, optimizing your emotions, and getting psyched up to take the spotlight.

Daniel McGinn

Psyched Up

- Search for action, getting uncomfortable	- Publish your Ideas	- Schedule Free Time	- Eliminate Negativity	- Say "Yes" more often	- Get active, engage in things	- Do things without expecting a return	- Dig deeper into interesting things	- Dont always be productive: get bored sometimes	- Be curious

Self

- Surround yourself with smarter people- Hang out with optimists- Talk to strangers- Be more social (cold messages, search digital & real communities)- Ask about what people do at their weekend and observe it- Put some money into things you got recommended thrice- Ask interesting questions

People

Join the community of Tens of thousands of The Curiosity Chronicle readers. Brought to you by Sahil Bloom - a Substack newsletter and podcast.

How to get Lucky

When you have confused and jumbled views of your dreams and ambitions, you have only two options-<ul><li>Either get a professional qualification; or</li><li>Do something so unique that they will start teaching about your work at Universities like 'Harvard'</li></ul>Modern education encourages us to pass with flying colours and avoid failures. Entrepreneurship encourages us to try new things and embrace failures.Every life in this world is in search of a purpose. And when we find it, we pursue it with determination, forgetting everything else. Once it has been fulfilled, we go back to looking for our next purpose.

Harvard

<ul><li>We collect a lot of information through our education system but it's the inspiration that ignites us.</li><li>Inspiration ignites us for action and brings momentum to our ideas.</li><li>There's a big difference between understanding & knowing.</li></ul>

Inspiration

Who says you don't find help when you need it?

Find the purpose and the means shall follow

<ul><li>Business are built on a mix of analysis and imagination. But for a startup imagination is more important than analysis. While driving a car we mostly look through the windshield ahead, and occasionally check the rear view mirror</li><li>Exploration first; operations follow- that's the journey from entrepreneur to enterprise. Alexander the Great and Vasco de Gama were explorers; the Romans and the British followed, building empires.</li></ul>

Start-up

<ul><li>Assets of true utility are mostly developed in small parts and in different places. Rubber originated from South America; major oil reserves are held in the Middle East and the combustion engine was invented in Europe. When brought together, they make a car.</li><li>Evolution always happens on the verge of extinction. Larva becomes caterpillar; caterpillar becomes butterfly.</li><li>Technology always wins. A handful of Spanish sailors captured South America with one superior tool- the Toledo steel sword </li></ul>

Entrepreneurship

Hindu mythology promulgates the concept of divine trilogy. The divine three represent Creation- Preservation- Destruction in the forms of Bramha- Vishnu- Mahesh. As an entrepreneur, Mr. Iyer found this concept extremely useful:In life nothing lasts forever. What we create today, we will continue to build for a while. Our creation will continue live and grow but once it has outlived it's usefulness, it will be destroyed. This is the law of nature.The startup journey is all about turning from a caterpillar into a butterfly. At every stage transformation happens.

Hindu Trilogy 

This story is for anyone who may have a dream and wishes to make their dream their destiny.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

entrepreneurship

Venkatesh Iyer

My Journey with Vadapav

My Journey with Vada Pav

That is your responsibility as a person, as a human being- to constantly be updating your positions on as many things as possible. And if you do not contradict yourself on regular basis, then you are not thinking.

You can't be the same, think the same, and act the same if you hope to be successful in a world that does not remain the same.

The truth is this: every advance you make as a leader will require a leadershift that changes the way you think, act, and lead.

Leaders, by definition, have followers. Followers need direction. Direction requires decision-making. Decision-making requires consideration of options. And consideration of options involves dealing with uncertainly.

Good leaders adapt. They shift. They don't remain static because they know the world around them does not remain static.

91 percent of future recruiting in the workplace will be based on people's ability to deal with change and uncertainty

Uncertainty

Adaptability-the ability to change (or to be changed) to fit new circumstances-is crucial skill for leaders.

Adaptability

Change or die

91 percent of future recruiting in the workplace will be based on people's ability to deal with change and uncertainty

Change And Uncertainty

I am reading this book so i share with you

Lead-er-shift [verb]: The act of nimbly adapting one’s leadership in the midst of rapid change. The term leadershift may be new to you, but the climate of change that demands it is not. As a leader, you already know that it takes more than staying the course to be successful. The key to not just surviving but to continual innovation, improvement, and influence is to learn how to leadershift. In the Leadershift Workbook, based on the bestselling book of the same name, author John C. Maxwell helps leaders make the changes the current fast-paced environment demands. He begins by helping leaders embrace seven principles to face every situation with flexibility and confidence: Continually learn, unlearn, and relearn Value yesterday, but live in today Rely on speed, but thrive on timing See the big picture as the picture keeps getting bigger Live in today, but think about tomorrow Move forward courageously in the midst of uncertainty Realize today’s best will not meet tomorrow’s challenges In each of the lessons in this workbook, John shares the critical shifts he has personally made over the course of his long and successful leadership career, including the Adaptive Shift from Plan A to Option A, the Production Shift from Ladder Climbing to Ladder Building, and the Influence Shift from Positional Authority to Moral Authority. These leadershifts will change the way you think, act, and ultimately lead so you can be proactive and successful in an ever-changing world. Designed for use with the Leadershift book (9780718098506).

Dive into a masterclass that reveals the shifts you should make over the course of you career to keep innovating, improving, and influencing others to the highest levels of success in today’s unprecedented business climate.Change is so rapid today that leaders must do more than stay the course to be successful. If they aren’t nimble and ready to adapt, they won’t survive. The key is to learn how to leadershift.John C. Maxwell helps leaders gain the ability and willingness to make leadership changes that will positively enhance their organizational and personal growth. He does this by sharing the eleven shifts he made over the course of his long, successful leadership career.In Leadershift, Maxwell shares some of the leadershifts including…<ul><li>Adaptive Shift from Plan A to Option A,</li><li>the Production Shift from Ladder Climbing to Ladder Building,</li><li>the Influence Shift from Positional Authority to Moral Authority and more!</li></ul>Leadershift gives specific guidance to readers about how to make these shifts in their own lives.Each one requires them to change the way they think, act, and ultimately lead so they can be successful in a world that never remains the same.To go forward, we need to move faster. And as leaders, we need to stay ahead, we need to see more than others, and we need to see before others.

John Calvin Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. Titles include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. His books have sold millions of copies, with some on the New York Times Best Seller List.

John C. Maxwell

Leadershift

Leadershift Workbook

When you go to the restaurant you always have a choice: eating something, you know is pretty good (exploit), or try something else which might be even better (explore)?The human logic mostly favour's picking up the thing you know is good or you like but this doesn’t mean you should never try new dishes.Even micro-decisions like whether to drive home the usual way during your commute, or take a new route are a version of the explore-exploit problem.

Explore Or Exploit ?

<ul><li>One option is to make the decision you know is best, given the information available (exploit), but you should add some randomness to it, so to try something new (explore).</li><li>Another option is to deliberately explore when you’ll have more time. In experiments, people are more likely to explore new options when they think they’ll have more time to act. </li><li>The third option is to gather information from outside of our personal experience to get some knowledge of how good the new opportunities are .</li></ul>

Solving The Problem...

Time plays a crucial role in explore/exploit trade-offs.If you have much more time to take advantage of new situations, you will have more likely to explore new things. But If time is limited, you will stick to the things you know the best.For instance, children are the ultimate explorers. They’ll try things they’re bad at. In contrast, as we get older, we orient our lives around known rewards.

Age V/S Exploration

Being exposed to a particularly high-value opportunity early can trick our brains. It’s easy to prematurely exploit—choosing big tips at the expense of a better long-term career.Be wary how you judge early successes or failures. Sometimes an early success can be a trap. Don't choose early successes at the cost of loosing your long term goals or passion.

Local Maxima Traps ...

Openess to new experiences seems correlated with exploration. Some people have such traits, while other's go for the safe bet.More ambitious prople will likely to explore more, since their expectations from future rewards are much higher. This helps is turning down great opportunities and gigs.

Ambition V/S Exploration

More exploration isn't always good, having a space for exploration is more important, instead of exploring everytime. Our intuition about when to explore and when to exploit is fairly enough instead of formal analysis of both the options.However, if such decisions are forced by sacrificing today's demands for trying something new, we may end up making wrong decisions.

More Exploration Isn't Always Good...

Cultivating spaciousness itself isn’t easy. If you feel trapped, no platitude will open the world up instantly for you. Instead, you can make small changes that slowly increase the space you have like, improve your finances, health and time management so that constraints which felt overwhelming loosen up a little.

Cultivating Spaciousness.

Every decision has two options, try something new (explore) or stick to the normal (exploit). So it becomes important when to explore and when to exploit. So here's the content that guide's you through this decision making and make your life more simple....

Go with the safe choice, or try something new? This decision hides behind many of your most important life choices. Here's how to decide wisely.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Explore or Exploit: The Hidden Decision that Guides Your Life

Home-office leaders need to decide how much autonomy they should give their local teams to expand into international markets. Depending on several factors, managers can determine which overseas divisions will benefit from a more centralized structure and which will be better off making decisions more independently. Holding too tight control over your overseas divisions can interfere with their ability to operate efficiently. Giving them too much autonomy can lead to quality issues, inconsistencies, or duplicated work.

Multinational organizations expanding into global markets

Executives should analyse the pace of the specific industry in which their businesses operate. Fast-paced sectors often require faster decision-making to respond to evolving opportunities and threats. As a result, teams in these sectors may benefit from greater autonomy. Sectors such as chemical engineering and traditional manufacturing grow slower and expect fewer changes, making it better to centralise decision-making to streamline operations and avoid costs.

Consider the pace your business sector is growing

A global company that relies heavily on capabilities like local procurement, production, and sales should consider decentralisation. For businesses that depend less on local assets, a higher degree of centralisation may make more sense. Some brands rely heavily on the strong, centralised brand of the parent company, making it necessary to integrate their regional teams closely with their headquarters.

Consider  the extent a business depends on local assets

Consider how much you trust your local counterparts. The more trust and the stronger your relationship, the better it is to give local teams more autonomy. There are different ways trust can develop. Time is sometimes all that is needed. In other cases, organisations can build trust into their company culture through intentional efforts.

Consider how strong your relationship is with local leadership

Figuring out how much autonomy to provide your international teams. Then create a plan to implement these different levels and types of autonomy around the world.<ul><li>Work with different departments to specify exactly where and how autonomy should be granted. Describe the categories of decisions that will likely be encountered and determine who will be responsible for making them.</li><li>Home office managers can work with their counterparts on the ground to ensure smooth implementation of the plan.</li><li>Ensure that information is clearly documented and communicated throughout the organization.</li></ul>

Effective implementation takes planning and communication

Three key factors to consider, based on more than 100 interviews with global executives.

How Much Autonomy Should You Give Your Global Teams?

In most Asian cultures, hierarchies are respected. Workers rarely confront or question their superiors. People are also group-oriented and socialized to maintain harmony in relationships rather than cause conflict.  As the leader of a global team, one has to comprehend cultural agility -- the ability to understand multiple local contexts and work within them to obtain positive business results.

Different Cultures, Same Workplace

We don't often "see" our own culture and tend to assume everyone else is just like us and speaks the same language, laughs at the same jokes, and understands the same idioms and slang terms. To build awareness, get off autopilot and think of communicating cross-culturally as driving in a foreign country. The car may feel the same, but the traffic laws and signs are different. If you don't pay close attention, you could get into an accident.

Step 1: Self-Awareness

For today's global organizations, cultural agility is the new competitive edge. Leaders who understand cultural differences and nuances are more adaptable and inclusive. They can more successfully navigate the complex dynamics of global, multicultural teams -- and clients.

Working With Different Cultures

We often think of culture in terms of the things we can hear and see, like language, clothing, music, food, and behaviours. But much of what makes up culture lies below the waterline, if we are to think of culture as an iceberg. Some of the most impactful elements are things we can't see, like perceptions of time, problem-solving style, approaches to decision-making, attitude toward risk, concepts of logic and trust, dynamics of business relationships, and other assumptions, beliefs, and values.

Step 2: Understand that Culture Is Complex

Culture also goes beyond nationality. There can be cultural differences among identity groups, geographic regions, even within departments of an organization. Cultural agility is a useful skill for anyone leading people different from themselves. As you learn about these differences, seek to understand them, not judge them. Adapting an open, curious, learning mindset can help with this step.

Step 3: Adapting To Different Cultures

After you've built self-awareness and understood the cultures of the people you work with, it's time to bridge differences by adopting new behaviours.Leaders who develop their cultural agility can effectively navigate multiple sets of cultural norms and build positive relationships. When leading across differences, remember to reflect on who you are, embrace a learning mindset, identify the gaps, and ask yourself, how can I adapt?

Key Takeaways

Cultural agility is the ability to bridge the gap across differences. Here's how to start.


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Corporate Culture

Why Cultural Agility Is a Competitive Advantage for Leaders

Sometimes, considering new options can be challenging when we have already developed some ideas while solving problems.Some ways are helpful to improve flexibility & uncover what's missing<ol><li>Point of view analysis</li><li>Assumption reversal</li><li>Constraint release</li></ol>

Shifting Perspective In Problem Solving

An effective approach to shift your current frame of mind to promote creativity.<ol><li>Form empathy</li><li>Put yourself in another person's shoes</li></ol><ul><li>Think your business from the eyes of your competitor</li><li>Think about how they might experience a particular situation</li><li>Ask how they might behave if you change your strategy</li><li>Guess what they might think to compete against you in the current market</li><li>Consider which actions they might be taking to own your current customers</li></ul>

Point of View Analysis

Another way to boost creativity in problem solving.Challenge long-held thoughts to have fresh perspective.<ol><li>List all explicit & implicit assumptions</li><li>Walk through each assumption one by one</li><li>Pressure test on them</li><li>Think what new possibilities would be if the assumption is reversed</li></ol>

Assumption Reversal

Similar to assumption reversal, fresh ideas may be uncovered by releasing thoughts constraining our solution space.Acknowledging you donot have specific restrictions up front in the process allows you to go deeper in solution development.<ol><li>Write down all constraints </li><li>Consider each as if they are not true</li><li>Think new possibilities</li></ol>

Constraint Release

creativity

Creativity

How to take the ‘outside view’

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