In PowerUP Brilliance™, Merom Klein, PhD & Louise Yochee Klein, PsyD ask what’s needed to thrive in a complex turbulent business environment – and what leaders can do to create more of those qualities.
What’s needed, according to an IBM survey of 1500 CEOs, is Brilliance. To peer through dark clouds and seize shining opportunities. To find a direct path through forests and thickets of matrix structures, networks, alliances. To create luck when the chips are down. And do it consistently, for sustainable and scaleable results.
Most CEOs say such brilliance is “in short supply” — despite all they have invested in talent management, connectivity, flat agile structures, technology. We agree. But not because their enterprises lack the capacity for brilliance. What they often lack is the ability to flip the switch and convert potential into brilliance and brilliance into mobilization, action and results.
Courage flips the switch. To PowerUP Brilliance.
We’ve all been there. When an influential board member dismisses a hot idea. When charge-forward personalities discredit experts and their risk assessments. When someone asks for input and teammates sit in stunned silence watching the political winds or waiting for the big boss to speak. When someone in an enterprise you’ve acquired interprets empowerment as a license to “go rouge” and cling to best practices that worked in the legacy organization but are not scaleable for the new enterprise. When new technology, new systems and new structures make it harder, not easier to get all the special interests aligned. When there are no easy or straightforward answers, given the complexities and turbulence your enterprise faces.
5 Courage Activators give leaders a North-South-East-Deep-West switch-plate…
…to power up brilliance when they face complexities and adversities, and run into the wall of fear and complacency. 5 Activators give them a formula to shape the culture, rather than allowing dysfunctions in culture shape them — one conversation, videoconference, product team or investor meeting at a time.
The 5 Courage Activators are:
North – Pursue a noble higher-than-reasonable PURPOSE with concrete goal South – Reach out to key players to share the RISK and forge an “in-this-together” team East – Tap energy to lift confidence and embolden your key players’ WILL Deep – Dig deep for CANDOUR with the right data – to make informed rational decisions West – Connect the dots with the RIGOUR to plan, improvise, build solutions, executeKnowing what flips the switch is one thing. Using it to PowerUP Brilliance is something else.
Each chapter of PowerUP Brilliance™ describes a dilemma that real managers faced in real enterprises – when they “got it” and saw possibilities that others didn’t yet understand, embrace or feel compelled to move forward. When those at the top were fearful or reluctant – and it was tempting to shut up and give up, rather than push forward and sell their proposals.
The mantra of the book is LEAD FROM THE MIDDLE. With practical examples, Merom and Louise Yochee show leaders outside the C-suite how to step in, reach out, own their power and use it intelligently to ennoble, uplift, inspire and bring fearful followers with them. They tell leaders how to overcome hierarchy traps, the bias against creativity, and other dynamics that make it tempting to settle for mediocrity rather than push for brilliance. They tell leaders who orchestrate innovation initiatives, account teams, product teams how much the enterprise is counting on them – even when the dynamics don’t make it easy to stand out and be as brilliant as they are.
This is a how-to guide about triumph, not adversity.
Experience is a better teacher about leadership than any book, motivational speech or game. So Merom and Louise Yochee describe the kinds of experiences leaders can seek – that will equip them to advance by PoweringUP Brilliance™ rather than with command-and-control.
